Whereas Afghanistan is a diverse country of minorities,
including Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Turkmens, Aimaq, Baluch, and
Nuristani;
Whereas decades of civil war and more than a century of
repression and discrimination in Afghanistan has resulted in distrust, fear,
and extremism and the rise of the intolerant and chauvinistic Taliban who
opposed all other ethnic communities;
Whereas supporting highly centralized political structures
and leadership in Afghanistan has led to widespread abuse, discrimination,
corruption, and lack of local participation and support and anti-democratic
approaches;
Whereas the Taliban, aligned with al Qaeda, during its
reign of terror in Afghanistan intensified policies of ethnic retribution and
discrimination particularly against the ethnic communities of northern,
central, and western Afghanistan;
Whereas the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies viewed ethnic
diversity and political pluralism as the greatest threat to its political
domination and extremist beliefs;
Whereas the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies used highly
centralized governmental structures in Kabul to collectively punish
Afghanistan's diverse ethnic communities, enforcing policies of ethnic
discrimination, cleansing, and retribution;
Whereas the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies, after having
brutally repressed Afghanistan's diverse cultures and peoples, particularly the
non-Pashtun peoples, launched a global terrorist war aimed particularly at the
United States, leading to the attacks on September 11, 2001;
Whereas the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies were defeated
by an alliance of the northern peoples of Afghanistan, mostly Tajik, Uzbek, and
Hazaras, collectively known as the Northern Alliance, fighting for their
freedom and supported by a small number of United States Special Forces and
directed air attacks by the United States Air Force;
Whereas the defeat of the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies
in northern Afghanistan led to the collapse of the terrorist Taliban regime and
the end to Taliban and al Qaeda repression and terrorism;
Whereas in defeating the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies,
thousands of brave fighters from northern Afghanistan were killed but only one
United States citizen lost his life, demonstrating that the people of
Afghanistan were willing and able to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda when they
were fighting for their families, homes, and freedom;
Whereas the vital role of Afghanistan's diverse ethnic
communities in defeating extremism and establishing a stable Afghanistan free
of ethnic prejudice was ignored by the international community, which instead
insisted on a highly centralized form of government built around one strong
leader which has led to corruption and a repeating of past mistakes;
Whereas western support for a flawed constitutional
process which concentrated vast power in the hands of the President including
the direct appointment without confirmation or consultation of all local,
district, and provincial officials, including mayors, governors, and police
chiefs, rejecting the basic principles of representative democracy of local
communities electing their own leaders;
Whereas by supporting a highly centralized government in
Kabul, the present policy has repeated the mistakes of the past, including
during the Communist and nationalist periods, leading to massive corruption,
abuse of power, ethnic discrimination, and the disconnection and alienation of
the people of Afghanistan from the government; and
Whereas 9 years of efforts to build a national police
force and national military to protect Afghanistan have fallen victim to a
failed centralized political system and the widespread corruption and cronyism
it engenders, resulting in involvement of ever more United States and North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ground forces and financial resources, from
no more than 5,000 troops 8 years ago to 130,000 troops today: Now, therefore,
be it
That it is the sense of the House of
Representatives that—
(1)the United States Government should—
(A)engage in broadening the regional dialogue
on Afghanistan to include countries that have been supportive of the United
States effort to defeat the Taliban such as India, Russia, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, shifting it from its Pakistani focus;
(B)support and encourage a representative,
decentralized, democratic federal political system in Afghanistan that shifts
more power to regions, provinces, and districts and away from a corrupt
presidency, recognizes Afghanistan's ethnic regional and cultural diversity,
and promotes mutual respect, trust, and goodwill between the various ethnic
communities and regions of the country;
(C)support urgent
constitutional reform that will enable local, district, and provincial election
of mayors, police chiefs, and governors which would bring democracy closer to
the people of Afghanistan and encourage trust between Afghanistan's different
ethnic groups, containing the Taliban insurgency and its desire to expand
beyond the Pashtun regions of the country;
(D)support the
establishment of trained and properly regulated regional militias as well as a
national army to fight the Taliban insurgency, particularly utilizing the
natural allies of the United States who helped defeat the Taliban in 2001 in
order to enable the reduction of the number of United States troops;
(E)undermine the
extremism of the Taliban insurgency and its al Qaeda allies by drawing the
people of Afghanistan back into the fight by supporting a government that truly
represents them; and
(F)actively oppose
the inclusion of the Taliban in the Government of Afghanistan; and
(2)the United States should abandon its
support for the present failed centralized system of government that has led to
enormous corruption, the abuse of power, the growing drug trade, ethnic
domination which has enabled extremism, and a growing insurgency to take root
again.