World Affairs
Fifteen Years of the War on Afghanistan
On October 7, 2001, the US imperialism launched a full-scale military aggression on Afghanistan. The pretext for the aggression was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the world trade centre in New York on which aftermath President Bush declared“ war on Terror”. He claimed that the Taliban government harboured Al Qaeda which was said to be responsible for 9 / 11 attacks, and refused to extradite Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Later it was clear that these claims were mere lies aimed to gather the public opinion in the US and world in favour of already planned invasion of Afghanistan. It was revealed that Taliban and Al Qaeda in Af ghanistan had no involvement in 9 / 11 attacks and they were carried out by a terrorist cell in the US operating with the assistance from Saudi Arabia. And then there are suspicions that the US intelligence agencies ignored the signals of an attack and taken no steps to prevent it.
The very origins of Al Qaeda and Taliban lies in the intrigue by the US imperialism to weaken the position of Russian social imperialism in West Asia. From 1978, the CIA, in collaboration with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, financed and armed Islamist fundamentalists to wage war against Russian backed government in Kabul. Among those who were trained was Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden and Wahabist extremists were trained in Pakistan camps.
Throughout 1980s, the Reagan government hailed these Islamist fundamentalists as“ freedom fighters” and denounced Russian invasion of Afghanistan as a crime against Afghan people.
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Over the past 15 years, Washington perpetrated violence against Afghan people on a scale far beyond what it had done in Vietnam and other invasions. It is the main creator Afghan tragedy for the last more than three decades. More than one million people died or wounded. More than six million people fled the country, making Afghanistan the largest refugee producing country.
The invasion of Afghanistan is synonymous with a series of massacres. The US military utilized the invasion to test an array of murderous weapons. It used bombs, made for destruction of bunkers. That can penetrate seven meters of concrete. It used“ Daisy cutters” which turn a radius up to 1700 meters into inferno. It carpeted many areas with cluster bombs.
The US invasion dictated Pakistan to take military action in the tribal border region of North West Pakistan. Thousands were slaughtered and millions were driven from their homes. Later the US military itself launched missile strikes with drones on b oth Afghanistan and North West Pakistan incarcerating whole villages.
In violation of tenets of Geneva Convention, thousands of Taliban prisoners were killed by the USbacked forces in cities such as Mazar-al-sharif and Kunduz. Hundreds of people, who have no connection with the Islam ist terrorism were sent to Guantanamo Bay or CIA’ s secret jails for torture endlessly.
It is clear that the invasion of Afghanistan is the crime perpetrated by the US imperialism against humanity. The ruling classes had perpetrated these crimes on the US citizens also. In the name of
‘ war on terror’, they brought out 2001 Patriotic Act, which enables the government unchecked spying, indefinite detention, military tribunals and persecution of Americans of Muslim background. The real aim of these measures has not been to deter terrorists, but to suppress the people.
The invasion of Afghanistan has been followed by the invasion of Iraq, establishment of permanent bases in the Middle East and US interventions in the Horn of Africa and bombing of Libya. Now it is all out to declare war on Syria. All these years, the US imperialism has been pronouncing that it will pull out its troops from Afghanistan only to dupe the world people. The Afghan puppet government would collapse if the US forces were withdrawn. And it is the most hated by the Afghan people.
Fifteen years of US invasion faced resistance from the people of Middle East and Afghanistan. Thousands of US and allied forces were killed. Far from being defeated, the Taliban and other anti-occupation forces continue to put up resistance. Most of the southern Afghanistan is in their control. It is the longest war waged by the US and it costed $ 800 billion. It has to prop up its puppet in the government which is most corrupt and thrives on opium trade.
Now after 15 years of invasion, the US imperialism could not fully realize its aim of dominating the West Asia and its main energy resources. It has to wage a series of wars on other countries Iraq, Libya, and now Syria and military interventions in many Gulf countries. Wherever it goes with weapons of mass destruction it is facing the ire of the people and has to land in the mire of people’ s resistance. H
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