Withdraw All U.S. Troops from Afghanistan

Aug 17, 2009

For almost eight years, the U.S. has made war on the people of Afghanistan. Wanting to demonstrate resolve after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the U.S. moved to make Afghanistan an example to the world–not because Afghanistan had done something to the U.S., but because it was a convenient scapegoat.

The Taliban regime, based on religious students organized in militias, was an infamous regime, with its backward fundamentalist practices, its dictatorship over the entire society, and overt mistreatment of women.

When the U.S. invaded to overthrow the Taliban power, it promised democracy and modernization for Afghanistan. Eight years later, there is no democracy and no modernization–only a permanent state of war. The regime the U.S. calls democratic is based on local war lords, a thoroughly corrupt regime in the capital, and a president who is a puppet of the Western powers. Modernization is limited to high rise offices in Kabul for foreign embassies and businessmen, leading to a surge in real estate speculation. Nothing has changed in the rest of the country, neither in its feudal social structure nor in the oppression of women.

Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shiite men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey whatever their husbands demand of them sexually. The legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work or even to go out of the house.

The Afghan population paid a heavy price for the war led by Western troops, which cost many tens of thousands of people their lives.

For a long time Afghanistan has been one of the poorest countries in Asia. It paid for the wars led on its soil by Great Britain, which tried to colonize it several times; then, more recently, by the USSR; and now by the U.S. and its henchmen.

People never like it when their country is occupied by foreigners, and this is even more true with the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, which instead of bettering people’s conditions even a little, has made it worse. Misery and hatred for the occupation combine to permit the Taliban, which was driven from power eight years ago, to find support in the population and to reinforce itself. Today, it controls over half the country and leads military operations up to the outskirts of the capital.

The Western armies aren’t establishing the basis for peace. They are pushing the population into the arms of the Taliban.

Since they can’t get rid of it, the Western leaders more and more openly envision coming to an agreement with the Taliban. Meanwhile, the U.S. and its henchmen are sowing still more death and destruction in the country.

We’re told that U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan fight for peace and democracy. In reality, they kill and are killed to defend the economic interests and diplomatic rights of big capital throughout the whole Middle East.