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.
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.
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.
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."
The big complaint these days is the dastardly Pakistanis,
providing �safe haven� for the even more dastardly Taliban. The answer from
NATO came last 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.�
But I�ve left out the really spectacular news, the attack by
Taliban militants on the main prison in southern
Afghanistan late last Friday, exploding a car bomb at the main gate in a
multi-pronged assault that freed over 1,000 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.
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.
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.
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."
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 to 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.
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?
Eric
Walberg is a Canadian journalist who worked in Uzbekistan
and is now writing for Al-Ahram
Weekly in Cairo. You can reach
him at his site geocities.com/walberg2002.