Afghan war heats up

Far from winding down after more than six years, the war in Afghanistan is becoming more deadly. The U.S. media paid special attention now that more U.S. soldiers and their NATO allies are being killed in Afghanistan than in the war in Iraq. However, in both countries high levels of civilian death tolls from terrorist violence and, especially in Afghanistan, indiscriminate U.S. bombings have continued unabated. In the first three months of 2008, nearly 700 civilians were killed in Afghanistan alone. The government initially had the support of most Afghanis who celebrated the overthrow of the Taliban's ruthless totalitarian rule, but now Afghanistan has seen a Taliban resurgence.

The plight of Afghanis was never a priority in the U.S.'s imperial strategy. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks President Bush found in the Afghan war an opportunistic prelude to his war on Iraq and further ambition to dominate the whole Middle-East oil region, extending to the Russian border in the Caucasus. Afghanistan was left with a weak central government and reactionary warlords of the Northern Alliance in charge of much of the country. Under U.S. and NATO occupation, where billions have been spent bolstering the corrupt Karzai regime and its military, the conditions of life for ordinary Afghanis have been on a steep downward slide.

PAKISTAN AND THE ISLAMISTS

Rather than seriously go after Al Qaeda, the U.S. closely partnered with the hated military strongman Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan, who likewise made deals with reactionary Islamists. The Islamists in northern Pakistan continue to protect Al Qaeda and the Taliban as they cross the Afghanistan border, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who directs a war of terror against any who disagree with his reactionary ideology, including members of his own Pashtun tribe. Musharraf's corruption is so pervasive and well documented that it united divergent factions in the effort to impeach him. Musharraf resigned and, as he was on the way out, the CIA exposed the collaboration of Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agents with Taliban terrorists who recently bombed the Indian consulate in Kabul. Taliban defectors report on continuous close ties between ISI and the Taliban, ties that go back to the war against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The U.S.'s continued reliance on bombing creates new sympathizers for the Taliban as when a bomb killed 47 in a wedding party July 6 in the Weygel Valley. In the same area on July 13 the Taliban directly attacked a small U.S. outpost, killing nine U.S. soldiers. This was a startling development because the Taliban had mostly been relying on suicide bombers, introduced into Afghanistan after the occupation, and other terror tactics. On Aug. 19, 10 French NATO soldiers were killed in an ambush near Kabul. In June, the Taliban freed 1,200 prisoners in Kandahar after blowing a hole in the prison wall and killing the guards.

The Karzai government, with little influence outside of Kabul, has become hugely unpopular because securing a government position became a license to shake down ordinary citizens. Most of the country is run by warlords and drug lords who manage the opium trade and run roughshod over the population. Opium had been outlawed under Taliban rule but now has become a source of income for them and the foundation for much of the ailing economy.

WOMEN'S OPPRESSION PERSISTS

Much of the violence is directed against children and young girls who are raped with impunity. A private TV channel aired the cries of a family and their 12 year-old daughter who was gang raped and pleaded for help from President Karzai. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) produced the tape at great risk to themselves because in Afghanistan even raising the plight of women and children is taboo. The family had to be taken into protective custody, but, as a RAWA member put it, "This is just an example among thousands of other cases. The rest go unnoticed by the media."

Some roads and fancy buildings have gone up in big cities but little has impacted the vast majority who make up one of the poorest countries on earth. In April, when the price of wheat shot up 100% and rice 38%, there were riots and looting in several cities. Hunger and starvation stalks five to six million people. The UN World Food Program already supports 3.5 million people and projects much greater needs than can be filled because neighboring Pakistan, which usually supplies Afghan food markets, now has its own food crisis and has banned food exports. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force says the food crisis may become more of a threat to stability than the insurgency.

Whether because of its military tactics that rely on bombing or its global food shortage, capitalist imperialism has been incapable in six long years to even provide a viable alternative to the reactionary and misogynist Taliban. More than ever the struggle for self-determination in opposition to war has to include a vision of the new society beyond capitalism and its inherent state of permanent war. Nothing being said by the candidates in this election, who are now supporting more troops for Afghanistan, indicates anything but more of the same.

Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search l RSS

Subscribe to News & Letters

Published by News and Letters Committees