- The Taliban's Tet has begun. Interpret Laura Bushs's
clarion call "to stand by Afghanistan" as you will, says Eric
Walberg
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- Two landmarks in Afghanistan last week -- British troop
deaths surpassed 100, and monthly official coalition deaths now outnumber
official coalition deaths in Iraq. Pentagon officials said that in May,
16 coalition troops were killed in Iraq, 14 of them American, while 18
coalition troops were killed in Afghanistan, 13 of them American.
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- Two more events made the news last week, noteworthy only
in their predictability. Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended a donors
conference in Paris, where he sought $50 billion. The US and friends offered
$17 billion, though more than half of the pledge total came from a previous
US commitment of $10.2 billion, i.e., Karzai's net is $6.8 billion, which
given past practice, he shouldn't hold his breath waiting for. US First
Lady Laura Bush showed slides from her trip to Kabul to visit Karzai and
support Afghan women. Leaders echoed her call "to stand by Afghanistan".
Sarkozy, as usual, confused everyone by saying, "We cannot give in
to torturers." Laura announced that Washington will spend $80 million
to support the American University in Kabul and the National Literacy Centre,
to capture the hearts and minds of the people.
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- A note of realism was heard when officials complained
that Karzai seemed to be unable to crack down on corruption and drug trafficking,
even in Kabul, where he is virtually imprisoned in his heavily barricaded
presidential palace. Karzai assured them that his government would take
strides to root out corruption. Perhaps he could start by replacing his
brother Wali Karzai, the president of Kandahar's provincial council, who
along with Hamid is widely believed to be involved in the very drug trafficking
he so passionately denounced to his donors. Afghan officials recreated
an air of surrealism by complaining that donors have been too skittish
about letting Afghanistan take control of its own destiny and controlling
how the money is spent. Yes, give tens of billions to corrupt cronies of
Karzai. That would be sure to turn things around.
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- The other meeting, even more tedious and fruitless, lacking
Laura's slides, was a two-day session of NATO defence ministers following
a now-familiar script in the debate over Afghanistan: US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates unsuccessfully harangued unwilling allies to pledge more troops
for the slaughter. Britain volunteered 230, with Des Browne, the British
defense secretary, hailing the Afghan campaign as "the noble cause
of the 21st century".
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- The big complaint these days is the dastardly Pakistanis,
providing "safe haven" for the even more dastardly Taliban. The
answer from NATO came this week with a deadly air strike on a Pakistani
Frontier Corps border checkpoint, which, according to Pakistani Prime Minister
Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, killed 11 Pakistani soldiers - Pakistan Muslim
League MP Amir Muqam said as many as 70. This act of "self defence"
is yet another in NATO's long history of "friendly fire" deaths,
surely the oxymoron of all times. NATO forces have launched several air
strikes inside Pakistan over the past year but this is the first time it
has killed Pakistani soldiers. Without so much as batting an eye, Admiral
Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, proceeded to
demand of the helpless Pakistani government not only the expulsion of all
Al-Qaeda but also an immediate halt to the flow of insurgents across the
border. Lapdog Karzai even threatened to send Afghan troops in: "They
come and kill Afghanis and coalition troops; it precisely gives us the
right to do the same."
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- But I've left out the really spectacular news, the attack
by Taliban militants on the main prison in southern Afghanistan late Friday,
exploding a car bomb at the main gate in a multi-pronged assault that freed
over 1000 prisoners, including 400 suspected Taliban. The complex attack
included a car bomb, suicide bombers who entered the prison, and rockets
fired from outside it. "All the prisoners escaped. There is no one
left," said Kandahar President Wali Karzai. Many of the prisoners
were on a hunger strike only a few weeks ago during which 47 stitched their
mouths shut. Some had been held without trial for more than two years and
others were given lengthy prison sentences after short trials. The Taliban
went on to liberate 18 nearby villages in an area that Canadian troops
supposedly hold and plan to showcase with development aid over the next
four years. Good luck, Canucks.
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- This blow to the occupation can only be compared to the
Vietcong's Tet offensive against the US occupation of South Vietnam in
1968. When will the occupation wake up and realise these brave and fearless
men are dying defending their homeland? "I ask the Canadian people
to ask their government to stop their destructive and inhumane mission
and withdraw your troops. Our war will continue as long as your occupation
forces are in our land," Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi appealed.
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- Perhaps the freed jail space in Kandahar will obviate
the need for a $60 million upgrade of the jail at the infamous Bagram base,
dubbed Afghanistan's very own Guantanamo. "There will be a great deal
of improvement in the quality of life," US Army spokeswoman Lieutenant
Colonel Rumi Nielson-Green said. "There will be a lot more floor space
and much more room for communal activities, which is part of their culture."
Plans for the new prison apparently came as a complete surprise to Afghan
officials in the Afghan Ministry of Justice.
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- In the current jail, two detainees were killed after
being repeatedly struck by their American guards. There have been numerous
allegations of abuse at the facility, with prisoners claiming to have been
sexually humiliated, beaten, stripped naked and thrown down stairs during
their interrogations. Nielson-Green, however, denies that detainees at
Bagram have been ill-treated. I shudder to think what Nielson-Green considers
to be "ill treatment".
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- Until September 2004, Bagram served largely as a way
station for prisoners on the way to the real Guantanamo. US officials deny
allegations that children as young as nine have been imprisoned at the
facility. Speaking of sexual abuse, Canadian troops have recently been
under fire for their "don't look, don't tell" policy with regards
widespread sexual abuse of civilians by Afghan government troops the Canadians
are training.
-
- But enough of this. The pre- and post-9/11 smoke and
mirrors about Afghanistan are finally dispersing and shattering. NATO is
in Afghanistan, as US President George Bush said in Bucharest in April,
as "an expeditionary alliance that is sending its forces across the
world to help secure a future of freedom and peace for millions."
In other words to invade countries the US disapproves of and murder anyone
who resists. A total withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, a negotiated
settlement between Afghan forces, and massive reparations by NATO countries
is what the world must urgently demand.
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- Putting the blame on Pakistan is the same story we hear
about Iran in Iraq and heard during the US war against Vietnam, when Nixon
began bombing Cambodia. It did not help the US defeat the Vietnamese but
did result in the Khmer Rouge taking over Cambodia. Only by killing virtually
the entire population will the US plan for Afghanistan succeed. Is this
the objective?
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- ***
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- Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly. You can reach
him at www.geocities.com/walberg2002/
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