The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Afghanistan:
A “Tragic Mistake” ... After Thousands of Others

Sep 27, 2021

Translated from Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle), the newspaper of the revolutionary workers’ group active in France.

On September 17 the U.S. finally admitted to having killed 10 civilians including seven children by mistake, a few days before withdrawing from Afghanistan.

During the U.S. evacuation on August 25, while thousands of civilians gathered at Kabul’s airport hoping to be able to leave the country, a bomb attack claimed by ISIS killed 80 civilians and 13 American soldiers. In retaliation, the U.S. military bombed a car which it said was loaded with explosives. In reality, it was most likely filled with nothing other than cans of water. The man in the car worked for an American NGO.

After a New York Times investigation, the U.S. military admitted its “tragic mistake.” But this “mistake” is not exceptional. Over 71,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians were killed during 20 years of war. Contrary to what U.S. leaders claim, the war in Afghanistan was never about helping the people there. It was intended to make a show of force after the attacks of September 11, 2001, even if that meant crushing the population with bombs. No wonder not many Afghans defended the corrupt U.S. military-backed regime as the Taliban was taking power.