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

The U.S. In Afghanistan:
Money for War, Not for Food

Jan 17, 2022

On top of the destruction caused by twenty years of war, the U.S. has strangled Afghanistan’s economy by harsh sanctions and frozen the Afghan government’s funds ever since the Taliban took over. The country’s resulting economic crisis has reached the point that, on January 11, the U.N.’s emergency aid coordinator said that eight million people in Afghanistan face a “march to starvation” without 5 billion dollars in immediate humanitarian aid.

But despite U.S. responsibility for the food crisis, the Biden Administration has promised just 308 million dollars—or about 6% of what the U.N. says is needed to avert this “full-blown humanitarian catastrophe.” By contrast, according to a study by Brown University, the U.S. spent over 2 trillion dollars on the war in Afghanistan—or 400 times what the U.N. now asks for.

Trillions for destruction, pennies on the dollar for food. They show the real priorities of U.S. imperialist policy in Afghanistan.