By Dr. Tajuddin Millatmal
In 1983, while working as a physician in Pakistan, I was interviewed by CNN and NBC News. I said Americans were supporting Islamic extremists against the Russian invasion in Afghanistan despite having many other options.
America refused to even consider them.
Today we would we be better off, safe and worry free, if America had made the right choice as suggested by many Afghan intellectuals including myself.
We could have prevented these dilemmas, including 9/11 affecting the lives of millions of people in so many countries as well as our own citizens in the States and our soldiers abroad.
The horrific incident in Florida was shocking to most of us. You would expect these kinds of tragedies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine. However, it is mostly happening there because the West toppled their regimes and failed to replace them with responsible governments, creating a vacuum for the terrorists to grow and practice their killing techniques.
Innocent people are killed by these extremists every day, and the West continues to look the other way.
I wish the media would find my CNN and NBC interviews and play them to the public, where I was warning the American government of the time about the possible consequences of its so obvious mistakes, supporting those Islamic extremists we fuss about today.
The American people need to know that Islamic extremists are not affecting us as Americans as much as they are killing and shooting Muslims all around the world so indiscriminately.
It was 1998, long before 9/11, when I desperately looked for people at the policy level to listen to what I was suggesting to help the Afghan people eradicate these extremists. With my crazy approaches, I did get to some of them, and shared my concerns and the best suggestions I could.
However, I may not have had enough credibility. I told one congressman at the time: “I am offering you an opportunity, if you would please listen, understand and allow us to work with you; we could prevent the possible upcoming horrific consequences that may rain. Not only that, but we could change the entire world to a more peaceful and prosperous place, and you would be the hero for doing it.”
At that time, I did not know precisely what would be coming up, but I had a feeling that the whole world was boiling. Unfortunately, those unwanted consequences exploded on 9/11.
Of course, political predictions are not easy, as they deal with humans, and humans are the world’s most unpredictable creatures.
Once in 1987, I had four political predictions about the future of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, published in Pakistan. I was criticized as a crazy minded person to believe so. However, history revealed and proved me right in all four counts within a few years.
After 9/11, as most loyal citizens of this country, I did my job again to communicate with politicians about the right course of action to take. I wish there were a willingness to listen and learn from the repeated mistakes by our politicians time after time.
Today, I want to warn my fellow Americans that nothing will change for the better unless we dramatically change our policies at the White House toward others at the global level. Yes, we are making so much wonderful progress in technology and in our military strategies and innovations, but we’ve never even tried to reconsider our policies for developing a better world, where we would not need to spend so much on and use these military strategies anymore.
The changes many scholars including myself are suggesting are not that hard, or unfamiliar to you, the citizens of this great nation. But politicians have a hard time grasping them.
The changes we suggest are to properly encourage politicians in those Muslim countries who share the same values of democracy, education, human rights, women’s right, freedom and independence with America.
In such cases, each of those countries could establish a powerful and stable government that could eliminate extremists and terrorists, and we would end up offering them something to be proud of. We would not be worried about those countries at all and forever.
Terrorism is fighting us based on an ideology. Nothing can fight back an ideology accept another ideology. The best ideology available for us is the patriotism ideology of the people of those countries, called nationalism, who are desperately looking for minimum support, and can offer maximum reliability and accountability.
Extremists are misusing American military presence in those Islamic countries to recruit and brainwash many youths who are the descendants of those Muslim countries to fight back against America in abroad and here at home.
It may sound crazy, but if I were given a two-year budget to spend on the fight against terrorism, I would guarantee no terrorist threat in the world — if not vanishing the terrorist completely within a few years.
Another important issue that the American public, especially Mr. Donald Trump, needs to know, is that most Muslims and other immigrants from Muslim and other countries coming here are not terrorists. They are the ones who can’t tolerate and can’t live alongside extremists in their home countries; they flee their countries, which leave the field for terrorists to operate freely. I am a perfect example of it.
I was publicly humiliated and sentenced by these extremist with no reason when I was a college student in Afghanistan. I was stamped as an atheist for opposing their ridiculous views.
I barely escaped assassination in Afghanistan, just before I escaped to Pakistan, despite having been jailed by the communists and forced to join the American-created Mujahideen fighting against Russia, though I was a senior member of a patriotic political party in Afghanistan.
Their threats did not end. I was prone to be assassinated by them in Pakistan after I published an article in a newspaper condemning their anti-human and anti-Islamic behavior, and predicted their unwillingness to work for peace after Russia would leave. I was even physically attacked by these extremists on a university campus in the U.S. by those extremists, who even today enjoy living in the United States. This is an area that we may do a better job in identifying these people, if I may suggest to Mr. Trump or whoever may be our next president.
With the direct support of the American government, those extremists assassinated hundreds of Afghan intellectuals in Pakistan, including Professor Majrooh, Professor Ulfat and a close friend of mine, Dr. M.N. Ludin, who was my medical college professor and the most humble humanitarian services provider to Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
To accomplish our great goal of eliminating extremism and terrorism, we do not need to reinvent the wheel. The people and many politicians in every Islamic country are desperately looking for help to eradicate these extremist themselves.
All we need to do to open our mind and arms is find those politicians from those countries here at home and through them, others abroad, develop the right strategies with them and provide them minimal assistance and support.
They will do the job for us, and will have the most humanly and most reliable regimes and trustworthy governments that we can trust forever.
Is this too much to ask for? I am willing to play my role responsibly and establish these connections for the best future of our American children and the children of those Muslim countries, should there be an honest interest in the eradication of terrorists and the Islamic extremist globally.
Dr. Tajuddin Millatmal is a U.S. citizen. For more details on his proposals, see his “Six Pillars of Global Peace” at HIPPUSA.org.
