|
|
Dear Friend -- The lightening fast collapse of the Afghan government and the panicked evacuation currently being carried out by U.S. forces in Kabul caps two decades of brutal and arrogant occupation of the country. In the end, the political situation in Afghanistan today is the same as it was before the invasion -- with the Taliban in control. It is important to note that prior to the 9/11 attacks the U.S. government had no problem dealing with the Taliban despite their repression of basic rights, including banning girls from receiving an education. The ANSWER Coalition was among the first organizations in the United States to mobilize in opposition to the war at its onset in 2001, and has consistently protested this senseless occupation that has inflicted death and suffering on millions. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have died over the course of the war, and millions have been forced to flee their homes. For 20 years, hundreds of thousands of foreign troops cycled through the country while a ferocious air war waged by U.S. bombers and drones took a grave toll on Afghan civilians. Those responsible for these war crimes and the entire criminal enterprise of the war should be held to account. The frenzied evacuation of Kabul has dealt a blow to the image of U.S. imperial might around the world. Members of the military, political and media elite are engaged in a blame game over who is responsible, with many essentially adopting the position that the withdrawal was a blunder and the U.S. occupation should have gone on literally forever. But all those who initiated, managed and profited off of the war -- and those who sold the war to the public -- share blame for the immense suffering it has caused. The following statement originally published by Liberation News provides addition details and analysis. U.S.-backed Afghan government surrenders to the TalibanThe unopposed entrance of Taliban forces into Kabul marks the bitter conclusion of a 20-year long military adventure by U.S. imperialism that senselessly inflicted death and suffering on an enormous scale. The fact that the U.S.-backed Afghan government surrendered without a fight is the clearest indication that it was nothing more than an extension of U.S. imperialist power. The stark reality showed itself: either the U.S. imperialist occupation that began 20 years ago would be sustained literally forever, or this government would collapse upon the exit of U.S. military forces. The Taliban coming to power in the mid-1990s was the consequence of the CIA war against the socialist government of Afghanistan that had come to power in 1978 during the Saur Revolution. The U.S. was perfectly willing to do business with the Taliban prior to September 11 in spite of their odious policies including their prohibition on the education of girls. The hope and promise of the earlier socialist period was crushed by U.S. intervention and the later collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, the people of Afghanistan have lived under one reactionary government after another. The complete and almost instantaneous military and political collapse of the Afghan government has led to a situation where the Taliban is presiding over the panicked evacuation of its opponents from inside the capital city. Since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, hundreds of thousands of Afghans died, millions were forced to flee their homes, tens of thousands of working class enlisted soldiers from the United States were killed or injured — and in the end the political situation in the country is returning to a situation where the Taliban dominates the country. The U.S./NATO invasion of Afghanistan began October 7, 2001 in retaliation for the September 11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Bush administration refused the Taliban government’s offer to hand over Osama bin Laden for trial in a Muslim country if the United States would present evidence showing that al-Qaeda was responsible for the attack. Instead, Bush declared “no negotiations with terrorists” and launched the invasion. The Bush administration used the September 11 attack as a pretext to launch a sweeping assault against Iraq and other Middle Eastern governments. The invasion of Afghanistan was simply conceived of as a box-checking endeavor by the neo-conservative government to wage a new round of aggression under the banner of the “war on terror”. This imperialist wave of aggression toppled the government in Iraq and Libya and hoped to topple the governments in Syria and Iran as well. It has been a disaster for the people of the Middle East and South Asia. The pace of the Taliban’s advance was stunning. In just nine days, the group took over every major city in the country and then marched into Kabul without firing a shot. This was possible because the Afghan government’s forces in most cases put up virtually no resistance. Where fighting did occur, it frequently was carried out by elite special forces or local militias. When the moment of truth arrived and it became clear that the U.S. military really was leaving the country, the Afghan National Army did not fight. After the 2001 invasion, the United States spent hundreds of billions of dollars creating and supporting the Afghan government’s military. But this military served a government that had no political legitimacy. Its source of authority was the U.S.-led foreign occupation of the country, corruption was rampant and it failed to develop an appreciable base of support among the country’s people. It was clear that the government would not be able to hold out for long against the Taliban, so rather than fight and die to prolong the inevitable the security forces mostly chose to step aside.
|
|