By Kenneth J. Theisen
Today the war in Afghanistan belongs even more to President Obama. According to the Pentagon’s website, “This is the first operation to use the troops President Barack Obama ordered to the area after taking office.” The newest 4000 Marines he ordered to that war-torn nation have launched a major combat offensive in Helmand province in Southern Afghanistan. They are supported by approximately 650 Afghan puppet troops. The Pentagon describes this as the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the U.S. led invasion in 2001.
On the Pentagon’s website Marine Brigadier General Larry Nicholson stated, “The Taliban offer no future, no hope, and we will work to provide immediate security gains to the local citizens of the Helmand River Valley.” But the truth is that not only do the Taliban not offer any future to the Afghan people, neither do the forces of the U.S. Neither the Afghan nor the American people should hope for success by the U.S. in Afghanistan. Success for imperialism will only encourage U.S. forces to expand its war of terror, like it has already done, with open wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Here in the U.S., Obama opened a propaganda operation to capitalize on his military operation. He reportedly told The Associated Press (AP) that he has a "very narrow definition of success when it comes to our national security interests…And that is that al-Qaida and its affiliates cannot set up safe havens from which to attack Americans.”
But just like his predecessor, Obama uses the fear of attacks on Americans to justify imperialist aggression. This is a blatant attempt to get ordinary Americans to believe that we have interests identical to the existence and spread of imperialism. But we have no such interests. The invasions of countries like Iraq and Afghanistan do not benefit ordinary Iraqis, Afghans, or Americans. Over a million people have died since the Bush regime launched the U.S. war of terror on the world. Tens of millions more have suffered as a direct result. The attacks of 9/11 have been used to justify these murderous war crimes. Now our new commander-in-chief is continuing and expanding the imperialist wars using the same rationale that was used by the war criminals in the Bush regime. What does that make him?
As part of the justification for this latest combat operation the U.S. says it wants to clear away insurgents before Afghanistan’s August presidential election. Helmand province and Southern Afghanistan is an area with a large Pashtun population. President Karzai, who was picked and installed by the U.S. to be its puppet after the 2001 invasion, is seeking votes among the Pashtuns. If the area now being attacked is held by insurgents, Karzai would be likely to lose these votes.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that the U.S. is concerned about democracy. What it really wants is a compliant puppet government that goes along with the US game plan to control Afghanistan. So far Karzai and his government of drug and war lords is the best the U.S. could do. Even the U.S. State Department has confirmed that corruption, the drug trade, and human rights abuses are rampant within the Afghan government propped up by the U.S.
The elections will not change this, even if Karzai is defeated. The ruling class in Afghanistan is made up of the feudal reactionary classes that have oppressed the Afghan people for decades, if not centuries. Opium poppies are the number one crop of the country and the drug economy is critical to the survival of the impoverished masses at this time. The normal economy has been destroyed by years of imperialist war. Because things are so bad under the U.S., many people in Afghanistan have turned to the reactionary Taliban which also has nothing to offer them.
The U.S. is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan just in time for the elections. By the end of the year there will be 68,000 U.S. troops there. There are also thousands of NATO troops in the country. The U.S. has also trained and armed thousands of puppet troops and police that constitute the Afghan National Army and police forces. Although Obama often says there is not a “military solution” to the problem of Afghanistan, he told the AP today, “The benchmarks of success that we’ve laid out are: Are we building an Afghan national army and police structure that can secure itself without the assistance of NATO forces or U.S. forces? Is Pakistan able to maintain its borders so that al-Qaida or affiliates aren’t operating there?"
This latest military operation is being coordinated with the Pakistani army which has also launched offensive operations along the border with Afghanistan at the insistence of the U.S. The U.S. has given billions to arm and bribe the Pakistan army to help fight the U.S. war of terror. As a result of U.S. actions, there is virtual civil war now in Pakistan. The U.S. since Obama came into office has continued to launch missile strikes into Pakistan. There are covert U.S. military teams on at least one Pakistani military base.
Today the Pakistani army admitted that it had deployed troops along the Afghan border opposite Helmand to attempt to stop insurgents from escaping the latest U.S. offensive. Since coming into office in January, Obama has not only ordered a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan, but he has expanded the war of terror into Pakistan. If George W. Bush had done this, I would like to think that millions of people in the U.S. would have been in the streets protesting these actions. But Obama has done this. But why should that make a difference?
Are imperialist actions more acceptable if done by a black Democrat as president? Why are so many giving Obama and his administration a political pass? Do millions of people that opposed the wars of the Bush regime, think the nature of the wars changed on January 20th this year? If not, what are all those people going to do about it now?
If we had followed Charlie Wilson’s advice in the first place, and not neglected Afghanistan after we had helped the Mujahudeens repel Russia out of their country, and instead have helped the poor country build schools and hospitals, the Taliban would not have destroyed the country (and they, not the farmers, are being funded by these opium poppies). No one likes war, but this one is by volunteer soldiers, and is correct for the people in that country (who are terrified by the Taliban ruling them again).