[News] Freedom Rider: Death to Afghanistan

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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.




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