Afghanistan:
Another Fake Election, as War and Destruction Continue

Sep 27, 2010

Whatever the outcome, everyone knows that the Afghan parliamentary election of September 18 can’t be taken seriously.

Even before voting began, the Afghan government admitted it would cancel 1,000 of the polling stations–one in seven–because the areas they were in were controlled by insurgents. At least another 450 didn’t open on election day, for the same reason. Many of the polling stations that opened were attacked with bombs and rockets.

Not surprisingly, voter turnout was very low. And fraud was so common that election results in one third of the provinces will not be credible, according to the New York Times. The Times had reported already before the election that local warlords were busy buying votes. On election day, some candidates’ spies secretly captured on cell-phone videos the buying of votes, intimidation of voters, ballot-stuffing, and detention of election workers by warlords.

One such warlord, Ahmed Wali Karzai, President Hamid Karzai’s brother who controls the southern city of Kandahar, had reportedly drawn up his list of winners already before the election began. And he is certainly not the only one.

It’s these warlords–each running his own fiefdom–who are in power in Afghanistan today. President Karzai, who apparently stole his own election last year, controls little more than his own compound in Kabul, the capital. So the U.S. military relies on other warlords to control the country–warlords who attack and rob the population.

Yes, Afghan elections are one big lie. But the biggest lie is the U.S. government pretending it’s “bringing democracy” to Afghanistan.

Most Americans know that the Afghanistan war is based on lies. Not from the media–which shamelessly continues to justify the lies–rather people know it from soldiers, who have been to Afghanistan for three, four, five tours already.

There is no end in sight to these lies, to this bloody war. Just a few days ago, an official of the Obama administration declared that the commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General Petraeus, had promised the president “signs of progress in Afghanistan” by December. Others who were in the room during President Obama’s video conference with Petraeus, however, said that the general just listed “objectives,” not “promises.” In any event, Petraeus advocates maintaining a large military presence in Afghanistan beyond the foreseeable future. And that view is obviously shared by Obama, who has been sending more and more troops to Afghanistan.

No, this war has nothing to do with “bringing democracy” to Afghanistan, or, for that matter, “fighting terrorism.” This is a war that the U.S. ruling class started nine years ago in order to control that part of the world. The war still continues today, after bringing nine years of death, suffering and destruction to the Afghan people–and to American soldiers as well.

End the lies. End the destruction. End the suffering. U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, NOW!