President Obama should understand that the majority of Afghans want an end to war and live in a free, independent country in peace.

I am an Afghan and a Muslim man and I want to start my letter to President Obama in the name of God who is most merciful and gracious.

Dear President Obama,

My name is also Afghan and I don’t know why my father chose the name Afghan for me.

The reason for my name might be that Afghanistan has always been under fire and danger of wars and attacks from enemies and I feel threatened from the danger and bad situation.

President Obama, when I was born, there was no hospital even near our village and my mother passed away from labor by not having any doctors, medications and hospitals.

At that age I was deprived from the love of my own mother. From that time and age my bad days started. After a few years, I grew up and started to understand the differences between good and bad.

At the same when I was growing up, one our relatives who lived in Europe came to our home along with his two sons who were 5 and 8 years old. Both boys laugh at me and said, “look at this stupid child. He is uneducated and unaware of this world.”

I didn’t know what they were saying. I was laughing with them because they were joking about me in a different language and I didn’t understand other languages beside my native Afghan.

There was only one school in the whole village that was damaged during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. There was no other school or place to study. Our village didn’t have any schools, hospitals, roads, and clean water or electricity. We only had weapons and tools left from the Russians. And those weapons were guns, pistols, and bombs.

We were already familiar with such weapons because Afghanistan has a history of conflict with outsiders and foreign powers. Before the US-led invasion in 2001 and the Soviet invasion in 1979, Afghanistan was invaded by the British Empire, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great.

Every country gained by these wars, but in return, they destroyed and damaged Afghanistan and killed innocent civilians. Millions of Afghan children became orphans and millions of mothers became widows. The destruction and tragedy was often perpetrated by those claiming to uphold the principles of women’s rights, peace and democracy.

Mr. President, I am that Afghan child who was deprived from the love of a mother in my childhood, deprived from education, hospital, clean water and all basic needs which a common human being needs. One thing I had was my father but last year he was killed by the NATO bombing.

I only have one option to survive: To beg in the bazaar or market and to collect metals from garbage and then sell them to find a little food so I can eat.

Mr. Obama, I have a lot of thing to write but in short, I must ask you one simple question.

Imagine for a second about children living in such conditions that they are deprived from a mother’s love, from school, and access to medical facilities and drinking water. And these children can only survive by begging for scraps of food.

What would be your reaction to that?

Mr. President, this story is not only my story but this is a story of each and every Afghan child, every Afghan mother in every village of Afghanistan. So please stop this game in Afghanistan and bring forces to our neighboring countries because they never want peace in Afghanistan. Yet every Afghan wants peace and an end of “special interest” war in Afghanistan. Afghans simply want to live in a free, independent country in peace.

For more on the situation in Afghanistan, read here. Please share this article on Facebook, Twitter and Google+

Inayat Ur Rehman is a Political Science and International Relations student. He can be reached at afgyomo@gmail.com. Read other articles by Inayat.