Holbrooke´s Remark on Pashto
By: Dr. Rahmat Rabi Zirakyar, Independent Scholar, USA I am of Pashtun-Afghan heritage with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin In the context of all-out globalization, ´´cybernetic colonialism´´, ´´pseudo-individualism´´, ´´liberal hedonism´´, social engineering, tele-surveillance,… and war of perception are increasingly becoming integral parts of virtual realities, which could pave the way to a totalitarian control under the disguise of a moral postulate to get rid of ´´oppressive´´ regimes abroad and replace them with ´´democracy´´ run by metropolitan corporate elites. Since the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Washington has been engaged in Pashtun-bashing. Three days ago, America lost another important battle of perception. Richard Holbrooke is the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. On Fareed Zakaria´s weekly international/foreign policy television program ´´Global Public Square´´ aired on CNN (Sunday: March 14, 2010; 10-11 AM California time), Holbrooke downgraded Pashto to ´´local language´´ while it is actually the national and legally an official language of Afghanistan. He told Fareed Zakaria that Hamed Karzai, the so-called president of Afghanistan, had spoken with the people of Marja area (Kandahar province) in ´´local language´´, namely Pashto, the language of majority Pashtuns (I, Zirakyar, heard Karzai was talking in Pashto). The U.S. Special Representative´s silly and embarrassing remark might have resulted from misinformation or disinformation. I would not be surprised if his adviser or translator could be a non-Pashtun Afghan connected to the Northern Alliance warlords. I am also surprised that political scientist , a major U.S. media figure and Indian-American Dr. Fareed Zakaria failed to correct the U.S. Special Representative Holbrooke´s unwise remark. End: March 16, 2010 - 
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