The Bush administration,
along with its NATO allies, is planning and preparing a major military
offensive in Afghanistan
this spring. This offensive, if it is
actually carried through, would represent a significant deepening, widening,
and escalation of the war the U.S.,
with the Bush Regime at its head, has been waging in Afghanistan for over six years. In conjunction with the “surge” Bush & Co.
are pushing through in Iraq, the mounting threats they are making against Iran
(including the threat of nuclear weapons), it is part of a dangerous escalation
and expansion of war waged by the Bush Regime in the entire Central Asian
region.
What the Bush Regime has
already done to the people of Afghanistan
is a monstrous crime against humanity (just watch the video “Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death”). In the last month, repeated stories about the mass killings of civilians on
roadsides and in their homes have made it into the western media. 2006 had what the New York Times called “the bloodiest
fighting in the country since the beginning of the war in 2001”.
Now Bush is promising more.
Over the last several months Bush and Tony Blair, his every faithful partner in
crime, have been saying that the Taliban have been preparing an offensive of
their own. The initial U.S.
lead invasion of Afghanistan
was under the pretext of eradicating the Taliban, which has actually gained in
strength in the years of U.S.
occupation. A governor of one of Pakistan’s
border provinces with Afghanistan
recently said that NATO forces in Afgahnistan now face a wider conflict from
people that have become “alienated because of indiscriminate bombings, economic
deprivation and a lack of representation. The people have started joining the
Taliban. It is snowballing into a nationalist movement if it has not already
become one. It is becoming a sort of war of resistance,” he said.[1]
Bush recently ordered more
3,500 troops to Afghanistan,
a move that received little attention and less scrutiny from the political
elite and the media.[2] This move will bring the total U.S.
military presence in Afghanistan
to its largest size since the 2001 invasion. He also said the stay of many U.S. soldiers currently
there will be extended.
NATO Military forces have
had a presence in Afghanistan
since August of 2003, when they took control of “security” for the capital of Kabul, but since October 2006 NATO became responsible for
“security” in all of Afghanistan.
On February 3, 2007, command of all NATO troops in Afghanistan went to U.S. Army
general Dan McNeil. His appointment has been widely seen as a signal that an
escalation of the war is about to begin, and in fact an hour before McNeill was
sworn in NATO planes pointedly bombed a village to kill an alleged Taliban
leader. The village elders and NATO had reached an agreement months ago that
said NATO and Taliban forces were not to come within 3 miles of the village,
and villagers had assumed they were safe from bombing or other NATO attacks.
The air strike has been viewed as a signal of what is to come, in much greater
doses, under McNeill’s direction.
Bush and Blair have also
been pushing hard for a removal of “restrictions” on NATO troops.[3]
They want NATO forces from countries such as Sweden,
Germany, France, Italy and elsewhere to be more
directly involved in offensive military actions. This has the dual purpose of
mounting an offensive with a sufficient amount of forces in Afghanistan, and enabling the U.S., and to an extent the British, to focus
more on the Bush “surge” in Iraq.
An ominous juncture has been
reached. The people of Afghanistan
have suffered incalculably under U.S./NATO invasion and occupation. The initial
pretexts Bush gave for bombing and invading Afghanistan were accepted by many
people in this country. But from the beginning this brutal and unjust war has
been essentially a war to expand and control an empire that is a position of
unchallengeable dominance. The naked conquest that is the essence of this war
stands out all the more after six bloody years of criminal occupation, and
countless deaths and suffering.
The Bush Regime and its
military commanders are actively preparing an offensive in Afghanistan.
The European powers support this offensive, and many of them are active
participants in the criminal assault on the verge of being implemented. Leading
Democrats have support an offensive. Senator Russell Feingold, who is regarded
by some as an advocate of “peace” recently said “We should not be reducing our
forces in Afghanistan.
Instead, we should be strengthening our efforts to defeat a resurgent Taliban””
The only thing that can
prevent this murderous escalation and bring an end to the entire murderous war
is a massive and sustained outpouring against it, as a key part of opposing all
the criminal, unjust, and illegal wars waged by the Bush regime. That is
urgently needed.
[1] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP263729.htm
[2] http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=69729
[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2028506,00.html