[News] Freedom Rider: Death to Afghanistan
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Jul 23 14:44:40 EDT 2008
Freedom Rider: Death to Afghanistan
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=708&Itemid=1
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
After eight years of U.S. occupation, the Afghan people live in
terror, "not only caused by bombs and bullets, but by no bid
contracts, private mercenaries, theft of resources and destruction of
infrastructure." Barack Obama promises more of the same, as he preens
and struts his imperial stuff to demonstrate his fitness for the
American presidency. With his calls for big increases in U.S. troop
strength in Afghanistan, Obama delivers the kiss of death for
additional thousands in the region, and proves for the umpteenth time
that he is no peace candidate. "The endless Iraq occupation and the
escalated Afghanistan occupation will bring more harm to the region
than Bush could have dreamed."
Freedom Rider: Death to Afghanistan
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
"The endless Iraq occupation and the escalated Afghanistan occupation
will bring more harm to the region than Bush could have dreamed."
America is going to do for the people of Afghanistan what it has
already done for the people of Iraq. The United States, claiming to
save them from evildoers, will kill many thousands more Afghans than
it already has. Iraq is a political loser for Republican candidate
John McCain, but the system demands constant feeding of the
insatiable military industrial complex. Afghanistan fits the bill perfectly.
No one, not even president Bush, is still arguing against a troop
withdrawal time line for Iraq. Bush uses a new term, "time horizon,"
to describe the Iraq exit, but the inference is clear. There is no
strong desire to stay the course in Iraq among any constituency aside
from the most committed and dreadful Bushites, and why lose an
election when you can use a new focus group tested term. The argument
among the political elite has changed from trying to defend a
discredited occupation to scaling it down and moving it to a
neighboring country.
While the invasion of Iraq was unpopular in many quarters, very few
Americans actively opposed the military presence in Afghanistan. One
week after the September 11th attacks, only one member of Congress,
Congressional Black Caucus member Barbara Lee, was willing to vote
against the Authorization to Use Military Force Against Terrorists.
Wishy washy liberals who were queasy about invading Iraq are not shy
about crying out for revenge against the Taliban. There is little
outrage when the United States and other NATO nations bomb and shoot
hapless Afghan farmers and their families.
The kiss of death for Afghanistan was personally delivered by Barack
Obama himself. He knows that war against the Taliban is a political
winner. His call to escalate the Afghanistan occupation can kill
several birds with one stone. His loophole-filled plan to draw down
troops in Iraq will please whiny liberals who have no strength for a
real fight and he will also serve the corporate ruling class by
insuring continued military spending.
"The argument among the political elite has changed from trying to
defend a discredited occupation to scaling it down and moving it to a
neighboring country."
Obama is shrewdly campaigning for president by simply acting as if he
has the job already and he is using his pro war credentials in
Afghanistan and Iraq to do it. He is spanning the globe, planning
visits with world leaders and giving anxious white voters less reason
for alarm by keeping them accustomed to seeing him in presidential
photo opportunities in Germany, or Afghanistan or Iraq. It also never
hurts to join soldiers for ham and eggs in the mess tent and make
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25757560/page/2/>inane remarks such as,
"To see young people like this who are doing such excellent work,
with so much dedication ... it makes you feel good about the
country." Obama looks more presidential by the minute.
Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai was the latest campaign
propaganda victim. Even as American bombs fall on his citizens as
they <http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/afgh-j18.shtml>travel
to weddings, he was forced to pose with Obama and grin for the
cameras, all the while knowing that the United States brings nothing
but more death to his country.
America has been in the process of destroying Afghanistan for nearly
thirty years. Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to Jimmy
Carter, had the brilliant idea of flooding Afghanistan and
neighboring Pakistan with guns and money, all in order to counter the
Soviet presence. Brzezinski, like many of his discredited foreign
policy colleagues, is now advising the Obama campaign. As always,
Ph.D.s who create deadly blowback, such as on September 11th, are
always employable, no matter how often they guess wrong or how much
destruction they create around the world. Serving the interests of
the corporate class means always having a gig.
Many of the so-called warlords in Afghanistan who are now resisting
America's presence were once on the CIA payroll themselves.
<http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/world/2008/07/11/afghan-warlords-formerly-backed-by-the-cia-now-turn-their-guns-on-us-troops.html?PageNr=2>Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar was a Carter and Reagan era favorite, receiving arms and
money and even visiting the United States in 1985 but he is now
calling for attacks on American troops.
"Brzezinski, like many of his discredited foreign policy colleagues,
is now advising the Obama campaign."
The embarrassing existence of Hekmatyar and friends will do nothing
to stop the war of terror inflicted on innocent human beings.
Everything old is new again in foreign policy. No one is willing to
point out that discredited strategies have risen from the dead. One
of Obama's advisors, Susan Rice, invokes the name of Ronald Reagan in
a <http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9264>complimentary way.
"[S]upport for the Afghan resistance to Soviet aggression was the
right decision in the 1980s." Her boss has said on more than one
occasion that he will have a foreign policy like Reagan's, so his
promise to repeat the corruption of the past should not come as a surprise.
The troop draw down in Iraq will not end the terror of occupation.
That terror is not only caused by bombs and bullets, but by no bid
contracts, private mercenaries, theft of resources and destruction of
infrastructure. The endless Iraq occupation and the escalated
Afghanistan occupation will bring more harm to the region than Bush
could have dreamed. One uninformed but
<http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL1889572420080720>optimistic
Iraqi had this to say about Obama. "He is much better than others
because he is black and black people were tyrannized in America. I
think he will feel our suffering."
No he will not. Anyone who feels suffering doesn't want to be
president of the United States. Spreading the suffering is the first
item on the job description.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms.
Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley maintains
an edifying and frequently updated blog at
<http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/>freedomrider.blogspot.com. More
of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report
<http://www.blackagendareport.com/archives/mk/mkhome.php>archive page.
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20080723/67a040d6/attachment.htm>
More information about the News
mailing list