http://www.counterpunch.org/everest10172008.htmlOctober 17 / 20, 2008
A War for Empire
Afghanistan: Not a Good War Gone Bad
By LARRY EVEREST
<snip>
One thing that’s not been up for debate in the Presidential campaign is Afghanistan: both candidates (not to mention George W. Bush) agree on the urgent need to escalate – and win – that war. This stance has overwhelmingly gone unchallenged – even by most who opposed the invasion of Iraq. But the war in Afghanistan is not the proverbial "good war," now gone bad. It was an unjust, imperialist war of conquest and empire from the start. And it continues to be an unjust, imperialist war of empire today.
The war in Afghanistan was never simply a response to 9/11. It was conceived of by the Bush administration as the opening salvo in an unbounded war for greater empire under the rubric of a "war on terror." This war’s goal was to defeat Islamic fundamentalism, overthrow states not fully under U.S. control, restructure the Middle East and Central Asian regions, and seize deeper control of key sources and shipment routes of strategic energy supplies. All this grew out of over a decade of imperialist planning, strategizing and intervention. And from the beginning all of it was part of an overall plan to expand and fortify U.S. power—to create an unchallenged and unchallengeable global imperialist empire.
All this is shown by what the U.S. rulers were doing—and planning—in these regions and globally during the decade of the 1990s, including in Afghanistan itself. It can be shown by the plans the U.S. had for destabilizing, perhaps overthrowing, the Taliban government of Afghanistan even before 9/11. It can be demonstrated by the actual discussions and decisions taken by the Bush regime in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and by the U.S.’s war objectives in Afghanistan and the Middle East as a whole, which it is still pursuing. And it can be shown by the U.S.’s conduct of the war and the impact it has had on the people of Afghanistan.
1990s: A Decade of Planning and Strategizing for Greater Empire
The "war on terror" and the invasion of Afghanistan emerged from a decade of planning, strategizing, and struggle among the U.S. rulers over how to expand and strengthen their grip on the planet.
The 1991 collapse of the social-imperialist Soviet Union was a geopolitical earthquake. Suddenly the U.S. rulers found themselves no longer facing a rival nuclear-armed, imperialist empire. They called it a unique "unipolar moment," where the U.S. faced no major rivals to its global pre-eminence. But in the wake of the Soviet collapse, they faced new and daunting challenges—the possible rise of new rivals (Russia, China, the European Union or some combination thereof), massive economic shifts brought about by the Soviet bloc’s collapse and the acceleration of capitalist globalization, destabilizing problems in the oil-rich Middle East, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and a growing number of impoverished, war-torn, or fragmented states (so-called "failed states") whose collapse could unravel the U.S.-dominated global order.
..more..
***********************
Afghans to Obama: End the Occupation
Transcript: Radio interview with Eman, Member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).
http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=4351 http://www.rawa.org/index.php Accused of killing 65 Afghans in yet another wedding party massacre last week, US military officials are now claiming that they have evidence of the Taliban holding the party hostage to lure US forces into killing the civilians and stoking more anti-American sentiment. The accusation came from an anonymous US official who declined to share the evidence for the claim. According to Afghan officials, a joint investigation with the US found 37 civilians and 26 so-called insurgents were killed in the Kandahar village. Inexplicably the U.S. figure from the same investigation was 20 dead civilians. Afghan president Hamid Karzai has repeatedly denounced the civilian deaths and urged the US to stop relying so much on air strikes. The same week as the wedding party killings, US airstrikes killed 7 civilians in the Northwest province of Baghdis. Among them were two sons and a grandson of a provincial council member, Mohammad Tawakil Khan. Mourning his loss, Khan remarked bitterly, "The! Americans are hitting civilian houses all the time. They don't care, they just say it was a mistake… Afghan officials are only offering their condolences. After some 100 times that they have killed civilians, we have to take revenge and afterward say our condolences to them." The civilian death toll has stoked anger across Afghanistan and raised increasing calls for an end to the occupation. However, President elect Barack Obama's foreign policy centerpiece was an increase in US troops to Afghanistan.
Sonali Kolhatkar: Many on the American left are celebrating the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the US. But while he has pledged to end the Iraq war, he has also promised to increase troops in Afghanistan.
What is your opinion of Barack Obama and his stated policy on Afghanistan?
Eman: We can easily judge Obama from what he said in one of his recent interviews that he does not feel the need to apologize to the Afghan people. We do not consider this a lack of information. But didn’t he feel the need to apologize for the wrong policies of the US government for the past three decades in our country? Didn’t he feel the need to apologize for the fundamentalist-fostering policies of the US government in creating, arming, and supporting these brutal, misogynist groups like the Northern Alliance and other fascist groups during the past three decades? Didn’t he feel the need to apologize for the occupation of our country under the banner of democracy, the so-called “war on terror,” and women’s rights, but then compromise with terrorists like the Northern Alliance, who cannot be distinguished from the Taliban in the history of their criminal acts? In fact these murderers were the first to destroy our nation. And even after seven years o! f a very long and very costly “war on terror,” terrorism has not been uprooted in Afghanistan but has become stronger and the Taliban are becoming more powerful. Plus recently talking about negotiating with the most wanted terrorist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and with the Taliban, which is in contradiction with what they claimed and what their main objective was in occupying Afghanistan.
..more..
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
