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<font size=3>Freedom Rider: Death to Afghanistan <br><br>
<a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=708&Itemid=1" eudora="autourl">
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=708&Itemid=1<br>
</a>Wednesday, 23 July 2008 <br><br>
<b>by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley</b> <br><br>
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." <br><br>
</font><h1><b>Freedom Rider: Death to
Afghanistan</b></h1><font size=3><b>by BAR editor and senior columnist
Margaret Kimberley</b> <br><br>
<div align="center"><i>"The endless Iraq occupation and the
escalated Afghanistan occupation will bring more harm to the region than
Bush could have dreamed."</i> <br><br>
</div>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
<div align="center"><i>"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."</i> <br><br>
</div>
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
<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25757560/page/2/">inane remarks</a>
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. <br><br>
Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai was the latest campaign propaganda
victim. Even as American bombs fall on his citizens as they
<a href="http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/afgh-j18.shtml">travel
to weddings</a>, 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. <br><br>
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.<b> </b>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. <br><br>
Many of the so-called warlords in Afghanistan who are now resisting
America's presence were once on the CIA payroll themselves.
<a href="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</a> 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. <br><br>
<div align="center"><i>"Brzezinski, like many of his discredited
foreign policy colleagues, is now advising the Obama campaign."</i>
<br><br>
</div>
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
<a href="http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9264">complimentary way</a>.
"[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.
<br><br>
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
<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL1889572420080720">
optimistic Iraqi</a> 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." <br><br>
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. <br><br>
<i>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
<a href="http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/"><u>
freedomrider.blogspot.com</a></u>. More of her work is also
available at her Black Agenda Report
<a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/archives/mk/mkhome.php"><u>
archive</a></u> page.</i> <br><br>
<br><br>
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