KARACHI, April 22 While the events of 9/11 changed the world, those most gravely affected were the states in the Middle East. The war on terrorism that began under the pretext of making the world more secure ended up terrorising the people of those states in which it was waged, said Dr Victoria Fontan, associate professor at the University of Peace, Costa Rica, while sharing her views on the issue at Karachi University on Thursday.

Dr Fontan — who in an attempt to look for ways to access these war zones in order to complete her thesis joined the Independent, London, as a war correspondent and later the US Mission in Iraq as a researcher, where she reported on the 2005 electoral process — was delivering a lecture at the International Relations Department of Karachi University.

“I will talk of the people's perspective on the issue,” she said, adding that no matter who we are and where we come from, if we are subjected to a certain amount of violence, we are bound to react the same way.

Dr Fontan, in her lecture, portrayed the lives of a few common people in Iraq and how the counter-insurgency operations there had affected them. This, she said, held valuable lessons for Afghanistan where troop expansion continued. She was of the opinion that one thing that the United States and its allies needed to keep in mind while pursuing operations of this kind was that winning the hearts and minds of the people would be more effective than raining down drones on them.

She stressed the need for allied forces to reassess the use of violence in counter-insurgency operations and stated the example of a man who as a result of the violence he experienced in detention joined the insurgents. “Omar B, an average man just like you and me, was randomly arrested in an insurgency clampdown in Iraq, and was subjected to immense torture,” she said. “Disillusioned by this he joined the insurgency.”

Always challenge the myth of generous offers was another lesson that could be learnt from Iraq's example and that would help in Afghanistan, according to Dr Fontan. “This is most important when violence is blinding authorities into basically being bought,” she said.

She pointed out that a lot of money was given to Iraq but it did not go into the hands of the government or the people. “It stayed in the hands of foreign companies operating in Iraq,” she said.

She stated that looking at internal dynamics of a country was important, for democracy could not be imported. “The people of Iraq were against the elections in 2005,” she recalled. However, she said, US taxpayers wanted to see results in the form of democracy, which led to hurried elections and formulation of a constitution in four months. The whole process had a blow-back effect and Iraq was in more chaos after the elections than it was before it, according to her.

Dr Fontan lamented that there was no realisation of the fact that violence does more damage than good in counter-insurgency operations. “Every single soldier in Iraq believes that they are here to 'save the world',” she added.

While concluding the talk, Dr Moonis Ahmar said that although foreign influence had damaged Iraq and Afghanistan greatly, the leadership and the people of these countries were its worst culprits. “Why did the leadership in Iraq and Afghanistan give outside elements space in the country?” he asked.