Afghanistan

[flames of the flag]

People everywhere are talking about the war in afghanistan like it's over, BUt very little has been acomplished.
Sure the taliban are no longer in power and the people are relatively free. but the taliban is still around however very weak.
Other than that what have the us forces done?
killed thousands of civillians, bombed red cross depots, needlessly destroyed hundreds of buildings, and put in power a terrible governement. The interim gov. are focusing on defence, is that what we want aid money to spent on? An army to defend the starving people and barren terrain of afghanistan?
if something more productive isn't done people will continue die of hunger, that an army, no matter how big, couldn't save them from. Shouldn't the money go to something useful like, say, irrigation?

[Dreadnaht1]

FBF:"and the people are relatively free... and put in power a terrible governement..."

Yeah, that's an oxymoron. The people, as we will eventually see, are less free. Afghanistan is in shambles and is now far far worse off then it was before. I think this will go on for awhile, especially with the 'new Taliban' installed.

Comrade Dread

[flames of the flag]

I ment that the governement is terrible because of what they want to do with the aid money instead of something more useful, not that the new gov. would be oppresive.

[Moskitto]

In reality the most humane government the country has had in recent years hs been the communist government.

Under the Taliban women were whipped for making a sound if they walked. Driven into prostitution, Arrested and shot.

Under the Northern Alliance you've got some people who don't even have the majority of the people supporting them.

[flames of the flag]

can't blame ppl for not supporting the northern alliance.
in the nation's current legitamation crisis the alliance are acting as police and are brutally beating citizens. perhaps that's the oppresion preserve by the new governement. What's worse is u.s marines stand back and watch this, i dont think they care what becomes of the country now.

[I Will Deny You]

Of course, there won't be another humanitarian crisis over there until Bush's approval rating drops below 90%.

[vox]

In the meantime, it's good to know that the West is still killing those pesky civilians:

Published on Monday, December 31, 2001 by Reuters

More Than 100 Civilians Reported Dead in U.S. Afghan Air Raid

by Mohammad Bashir

QALAYE NIAZI, Afghanistan - U.S. warplanes killed over 100 people in a raid on a village in eastern Afghanistan, residents said Monday, as British troops arrived in the capital to take up peacekeeping duties.
At least one fighter jet, a B-52 bomber and two helicopters Sunday morning swooped on the village of Qalaye Niazi, about 2.5 miles north of the city of Gardez, capital of eastern Paktia province, villager Janat Gul told Reuters.

Paktia province is where U.S. forces have been carrying out operations against remnants of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and Taliban fighters still on the run.

``There are no al Qaeda or Taliban people here,'' said Gul, referring to the group blamed for the September 11 attacks in the United States, and the former government which sheltered it.

The raid seemed sure to stir up tensions between factions in Afghanistan's interim administration which want the U.S. bombing campaign, under way since October 7, to halt, and those who believe it should continue.

The Defense Ministry, headed by General Mohammad Fahim, says the bombing should end as soon as possible while Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Sunday that ``the campaign will continue for as long as it takes to finish the terrorists.''

There are also tensions within the administration, headed by Hamid Karzai, over the role of foreign forces on Afghan soil.

But an advance column of about 50 British troops drove into Kabul Monday to take up peacekeeping duties, the vanguard of an international security force that was agreed with the new government.

The new administration and Britain have initialed an agreement on deployment of the force, authorized by the U.N. Security Council to fill the security vacuum in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban, a British official said on Monday.

The force is eventually expected to number 3,000.

SOLE SURVIVOR

Janat Gul said 24 members of his family were killed in the pre-dawn U.S. bombing raid on Qalaye Niazi, and described himself as the sole survivor.

``People are very upset about what is going on here,'' he said.

Paktia province borders Pakistan and is southwest of the jagged canyons of Tora Bora -- one of the last stands of al Qaeda fighters. It was heavily bombed in early December when bin Laden was believed to be hiding there.

At least 12 houses in Qalaye Niazi were razed. Amid the destruction, a Reuters Television cameraman saw scraps of flesh, pools of blood and clumps of what appeared to be human hair. Huge craters had been blasted out by the strike.

A member of the local tribal shura, or council, said they had invited U.S. forces to the village to see the damage and to find out what had happened.

In the U.S., Major Pete Mitchell -- a spokesman for U.S. Central Command -- said: ``We are aware of the incident and we are currently investigating.''

Reuters passed several four-wheel drive vehicles containing U.S. forces, accompanied by soldiers of the Northern Alliance which took Kabul in November, at the Tira Pass, apparently en route to the village. They refused to allow photographs or to speak to reporters.

The Pentagon believes remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban may be still in Paktia. Several raids have been carried out there in the last few days.

One of the most deadly took place just two days before the inauguration of the new government, when U.S. jets hit a convoy carrying tribal elders and guests to the ceremony in Kabul.

Some 65 people were killed in that attack, and interim leader Hamid Karzai has told tribal elders that he would ask the Americans to cut back their raids in the region.

With bin Laden, the main target of the U.S. war on terrorism, still at large and possibly hiding in Afghanistan, U.S. troops were on their guard throughout the country.

In the south, Marines prepared to hand over to arriving U.S. paratroopers a Kandahar airport facility, including a detention camp where detained Taliban members and al Qaeda fighters are being interrogated as to his whereabouts.

The Pentagon said the deployment of paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division in southern Afghanistan would free Marines operating there for unspecified duties, possibly to join the hunt for bin Laden.

[peaccenicked]

http://www.commondreams.org/news2001/1212-01.htm
American empire on rampage, more news

[Kez]

If the globalising tnc's enter afghanistan, to exploit the workers, are we going to be happy? because they will bring capitalism to feudalism, and therefore closer on the road to socialism.
So the question is, should afgnastan be allowed to go through this process?
Or is this imperialism, which we shouldnt stand for, and we should fight, do we support the afghan capitalists, instead of the american imperialists? i thinks so.

what do you finx?
comrade kamo

[Mclaren]

Nothing

[peaccenicked]

I think it is important to remember that the current
situation in afghanistan is a product of counter revolution against socialism. Even though it was Islamic they tried to create a welfare state and bring the movement towards secularism forward. The soviet invasion to 'protect' the revolution was unsuccessful.
The CIA were at liberty to use as much resourses as it seemed fit to back the fundamentalists. This war created
thousands apon thousands of refugees who moved to
Afganstan. The taleban who became the dominant fundamentalist found their recruits in the refugee camps.
Afghanistan has hardly an economic system now. It is a ruined war torn country ruled by rival gangsters. The new regime is less fundamentalist but still very brutal.
The remnants of the revolution are with the commnists and some of the usual divisions of our movement, the most progressive and anti imperialist voice is RAWA. The revolutionary association of afghanistani women, who have male supporters. The aid agencies and the international trade union movement are trying to provide a provisional welfare but most of it is still not getting through sufficently. Revolution in the east needs a strong anti imperialist movement in the west. Imperialism is destroying the hopes and dreams of the world's poor.


(Edited by peaccenicked at 5:35 pm on Jan. 12, 2002)

[peaccenicked]

Tariq Ali on developments in Afganistan and Pakistan
http://www.zmag.org/aliwaitwar.htm
Wait for war?

[Hayduke]

You know what kinda suprised me everybody talked about the wtc and you could see it on every t.v yet you hardly saw the pentagon I mean that building is highly important but you get to see it 1 or 2 times....is the us gonverment thayt mighty that they can cover that ? ANyway if you FBI guys are tracking this message say fall death to bush for me.....

[MJM]

The reason the WTC was covered so monomaniaclly is that the propaganda generated by large number of civilian deaths far outweighs the comparitively small amount at the pentagon.