The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

overthrow of Daoud’s regime. He put all of the reports from his operatives about the positiveresponse of Afghan society to the coup d’etat into a plastic bag with the intention to burn it athome. Testimonies that they had received from informal sources were not considered to beclassified and could be destroyed as regular trash. A stove for just this purpose was located on thesecond floor of the embassy, by the staircase.Having finished reading the reports, Vladimir looked at a pile of notes, the contents ofwhich were not included in his cable. He put them aside. He knew that the people who had writtenthose notes would prepare a special analysis, “making a cutlet out of shit” in the operative’s slang.One of those operatives wrote: “I met with an official contact, Sufi Sheikh Mobaleg, whoowns a store in Maiwand, in the presence of his students. I discussed yesterday’s coup with him.Mobaleg said, ‘I know that Taraki and his allies carried out this coup for the sake of justice.However, the intellectuals—writers, teachers—do not understand the depth of the notion of“justice.” They think like Westerners, unfortunately, as you also may think. The notion of justice inthe West has long been lost. Stupidity rules there. They put a person on trial not for the crime oftheft, but for the amount that was stolen. What could be more stupid? This is why in the West, aswell as for you, there is no justice. For you, righteous justice and righteous judgment do not exist.Those people who came to power yesterday cannot provide justice. They are not Muslims. Theyare far removed from God. This is why they will never be recognized by the people as true leadersof Afghanistan. They may go to mosques. They may grimace in clownish prayers. They arehypocrites—and hypocrisy is one of the main sins in Islam.‘You, a Russian, a Soviet, who says directly, “I am a Communist. I do not know God,” isbetter for our Muslims than them. You are not hiding your face. We may not like your face—Godcreates different faces—however, as long as you do not interfere in our affairs or challenge our99