92219 pieces of my broken Afghan heart
Dear friend ( including those who would remotely consider me an ‘enemy’ ),
The 92, 210 Wikileak Afghan War Logs were recorded between my 9th and 14th year of life among fellow Afghans.
I have disappointed myself and have been disappointed by Mankind more intensely than numbers can define. But I’m trying not to lose hold of the unseen virtues that can give some remnant meaning to my existence.
We have a global family that is disconnected, unequal and disappearing and even though we recognize that bullets and bombs cannot heal our souls, we are still cheering our own suicides. Even after being presented with 92,210 instances of a failed solution, we would still un-scientifically and un-sustainably support it.
Look how militant we have all become, how angry and how dis-empowered!
In Afghanistan, we spend more money and energies with the intention of killing people than helping them.
Globally, we never listen to others, not even to our friends. We submit only to elitist noise.
We hardly really know anyone else or their needs. We revolve only around ourselves and our needs. We hover emptily around praise, wealth and power.
I know this sounds cynical for a 15-year-old boy, but we are all continuing our fantasy of the ‘good’ war in Afghanistan. The elite will ‘demonize’ Assange and the likes of ordinary Man and fuel an in-humane fear with the ‘magic mask’ of ‘national security’ while endangering our world with fancy weapons.
Nothing worthwhile is working in Afghanistan.
To me, we have been losing our hope ever since forever, and that’s hell.
You want to know who killed my father and the ‘sorry’ state of my grieving mother, so I would hate his killer and you could feel justified about the daily Afghan fight against ‘insurgents’. But I will not perpetuate Man’s vengeful history even if the President orders me to.
More than losing our war on life, we are losing humanity. Brothers are hurting brothers, Man is killing Man, and we are not doing enough to stop this blood spill.
I humbly say to all the leaders of the 43 plus-country coalition, the leaders of our neighbouring countries, and the leaders of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, that your systems and strategies are fatally flawed. We all wish, like human beings ‘religiously’ do, that there was some salvation in our present predicament, but there is no comfort to be found in our present violent approach.
Like sensible people, we, the ordinary people of the world, should all sit down to listen to one another and endeavour to be friends and if ‘ridiculously’ necessary, to let the children of the world bring us together. That’s how desperately engaging we should be about building tangible peaceful relations.
To our factional, god-pretending leaders: start serving like real Men and Women, by envisioning a kinder, non-violent, demilitarized world.
To every soldier ; this carnage under orders is not making you a gentler person nor bringing your families a safer life, so leave this cold system today before it consumes you tomorrow.
To every concerned citizen of the world, request to have your war tax money back, because even though that wouldn’t bring back the murdered international soldier or Afghan back to life, you would be demanding the return of your conscience.
What is breaking my Afghan heart is our pride, our greed and our selfishness. We are deceiving ourselves to our own lonely destruction.
The media and self-aggrandizing adults ask silly questions like ‘What do these leaked Afghan War Logs show?’. I almost want to boycott ALL media.
We’re drowning in the shallow shadow cast by an opaque corruption, which renders us incapable of insight, but worse, which robs us of love and makes war our star.
You may unwittingly forget that Afghans like myself wish to love and be loved. You may believe the normalized propaganda which imply that Afghans are ‘savages’ and the coalition elite ‘saints’. You may sincerely think that Afghans had asked for and are taking delight in this war.
If this is how you think, I wish to lay claim to our common, more creative selves by countering with a plea ‘Why not love?’ ( We will begin our ‘Why not love? Vigil at Bamiyan Peace Park this Saturday the 31st of July, during which you could call us at +93-799371354 ). That’s what we should counter, not ‘insurgencies’ that rightly seek freedom, but powers which erroneously seek more power.
I would persist in asking ‘Why not love?’ even if there was nothing my oppressed silence could say nor anything the 92,210 pieces of humanity’s hurting heart could shatter to persuade you that war stinks of death.
We need to deliberately change.
And love is how.
Your small friends,
Hakim in Afghanistan
Though the vision of Abdulai ( and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers )
Grade 7 Student, farmer, shop-keeper
Bamiyan, Afghanistan
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