[NYTr] Hard truths about Canada in Afghanistan

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by mart -  10 Nov. 2007

People's Voice - Nov. 1-15, 2007
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca
http://tinyurl.com/39emx9

Editorial

Hard truths about Afghanistan

The recent so-called "opinion  survey" conducted by Environics in
Afghanistan is a futile P.R. gimmick,  no doubt cooked up by the
Harper  Tories and the military brass. Given  the repeated attempts to
manipulate  public opinion in Canada regarding  the war, the
reliability of this exercise  is dubious, at best.

It's time for a reality check. As a  security analyst who has worked
in and out of Afghanistan for decades  told The Australian newspaper,
"This  place is going down fast, which is  something the international
community  simply will  not understand."

The Taliban insurgency is gaining  strength, fuelled by resentment at
NATO bombing of civilians,  government corruption, billions of  dollars
of wasted aid, a lack of jobs  and record crops of opium, the raw
material for heroin. The fighting is  spreading to places once
relatively  safe, including Kabul and the  western and northern
regions. In  Kabul, where suicide bombs have  killed dozens in recent
weeks,  foreigners are increasingly ordered  into "lockdown" mode in
their heavily  protected compounds.

The Associated Press reports that  insurgency-related deaths this year
have passed the 5,000 mark,  including 650 civilians, many killed  in
air strikes called in to support  NATO ground troops. Officially,
unemployment is near 40 per cent.  Millions live with no running
water,  sewers or electricity. Kabul is  crammed with tens of
thousands  of squatters camped in mud brick  huts (no doubt passing the
hours  chatting with pollsters from  Environics), and middle-class
residents are lucky to have power  a few hours a day.

Canada has now wasted $5 billion  on the disastrous military mission
in Afghanistan. It's time to shut it  down and direct that money
towards genuine aid and  development projects controlled  by grassroots
organization.

                             ***

2) People's Voice - Nov. 1-15, 2007
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/
http://tinyurl.com/2b8zms


Afghanistan: mission of  peace, or barbarism?

Message from the Left Radicals  of Afghanistan (LRA)

US imperialism and its NATO  allies have been justifying their
criminal mission and war in  Afghanistan as a "peace mission".  They
expect our people to thank  them for their merciful invasion and  for
making Afghanistan a colonial  country with a puppet regime which  has
no real power or independence.

On several occasions, Karzai has  asked U.S. and NATO to coordinate
their military operations with the  Afghan army in order to prevent
civilian casualties, but no one paid  any attention to his requests,
even  while he cried and wept before his  foreign masters!

The killing of civilians during military  operations has become a hobby
for  our blood-thirsty occupiers. They  offer idiotic excuses for
committing  such crimes, claiming that they are  an "inevitable part"
of aerial  bombardments. But how can they  justify opening fire on
civilians  following an explosion or a suicide  attack?

There is no "impartial" media to  report the heinous crimes of  US/NATO
and their local regime  in the combat zones. In most  cases, they hide
the real numbers  of casualties and the extent of  destruction. They
shamefully  claim that all those killed by their  bombardments were
Taliban,  while though local authorities give  contradictory reports,
including  the number of innocent women  and children killed in such
attacks.  According to both the US/NATO  command structures and the
Karzai regime, an average of 86  Afghans are killed each day in  such
operations. It is easy, then,  to understand why resistance to  the
occupation is becoming ever  more widespread among our  people.

The real situation is that the  anti-occupation resistance now is  not
limited to the Taliban. Because  of their inhuman policies, barbaric
tactics and uncivilized behaviour,  our occupiers are digging their
own  graves. The people of Afghanistan  are realizing that all the
sweet  promises of the imperialist invaders  were nothing but a bitter,
empty joke  and what the Afghan people received  instead was more
killing, destruction,  humiliation, unemployment, instability,
corruption, displacement and poverty.

The supporters of the bloody war  in Afghanistan attempt to convince
the world's people that only the  Taliban oppose the occupation and
the Karzai regime. They are trying  to hide the growth of
anti-occupation  resistance in Afghanistan, in which  left forces have
been playing a  significant role. For instance, in  Jalalabad (May
2005) and Kabul  (29 May 2006), large anti-US  demonstrations took
place. Several  of our comrade activists were  detained in these
actions, and some  of them are still under detention,  courtesy of Mr.
Karzai's "democratic  regime". It is a common feature of  all
imperialist and fascist regimes that in order to legitimize their
illegal  hold on power, attempt to stamp out  their opponents by
labelling them as  "rebels" and "terrorists" to be  persecuted and
killed.

But despite these efforts, the truth  about  the U.S./NATO "peace
mission" in Afghanistan is getting  out to world public opinion. We
salute the efforts of all peace and  progressive forces around the
world  to help reveal the truth about this  so-called "peace mission",
and to  bring a speedy end to this chaotic  and bloody tragedy in
Afghanistan.

                             ***

3) People's Voice - Nov. 1-15, 2007
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/
http://tinyurl.com/39wtqm

Canadian troops out  of Afghanistan now!

(Statement for the Oct. 27 day  of anti-war actions, from the
Communist Party of Canada)

Hearing only the wish of his master in  the White House, P.M. Stephen
Harper  wants Canadian troops to stay in  Afghanistan for another four
years. He  is deaf to the majority of Canadians  who want the troops
out of Afghanistan  now!

Harper is turning Canada into a thug  for U.S. imperialism. Harper is
not  acting for the people or for Canada's  sovereignty. His only
loyalty is to  the giant U.S. oil, arms and finance  corporations,
loyalty bought by  generous donations to the  Conservative Party.

Afghanistan is a burning issue, a  reason for the peoples' movements  -
peace, labour, women, youth and  students - to unite and protest for
the  immediate return of our troops. The  Oct. 27 day of action shows
that  Canadians want no part of the unjust  and illegal occupation.

Defeating Harper in Parliament on  Afghanistan would help greatly to
block the election of a Harper  majority government, if the opposition
parties would cooperate on the issue.  What is most important and
urgent is  building the anti-occupation movement  outside of
Parliament, in coalitions  and on the streets.

A Harper majority government would  be a great calamity for
Afghanistan,  Canada, world peace and the  environment.

Why is Canada in  Afghanistan?

For six years Canadian troops have  helped the U.S. occupy
Afghanistan.  We are not making life better for  Afghans. We are not
bringing  democracy and light. No great work  can pay for the sorrow
and death we  have placed on the Afghan people.

Canada is helping to impose the  West's iron heel on the sovereignty
of Afghanistan. We are mercenaries  for U.S., Canadian and other
corporations whose aim is to loot  the country's rich resources.

The Afghan government was "elected"  by people with NATO machine guns
pointed at their backs. We are treading  on the dignity of the
country's people,  by propping up a government of feudal  mullahs, drug
lords and war criminals.  Everything we do there as uninvited  guests
will inflame the resistance.

Canadians should never believe that  Harper wants the same reforms as
those actually carried out starting in  1978 by the revolutionary
government  of the People's Democratic Party of  Afghanistan, reforms
that were  drowned in blood by U.S. imperialism  in 1992 when its
henchmen overthrew  the PDPA government. Afghanistan  today is a tragic
example of what  happens when U.S. imperialism prevails.

Who benefits from the "War  on Terror"?

George Bush's "war on terror" is  a sham. Terrorism will never be
defeated by military means. The U.S.  is carrying out this racist "war
on  terror" to achieve global hegemony.  It is a declaration of war
against any  resistance to the domination of U.S.  transnational
corporations. In its own  words, the official military doctrine  of the
U.S. declares this aim.

Bush arrogantly accuses other nations  of threatening peace, but the
U.S. has  the worst record of aggressions and  occupations of any
country today. It has  the most dangerous military doctrines  and
preparations, such as weaponizing  space, and asserting its "rights" to
be  the first to use nuclear weapons in a  conflict and to carry out
"preventive"  wars. U.S. military spending is more  than ten times that
of China, the next  largest military spender in the world.

The U.S. is trampling on international  laws that prevent war and
protect the  sovereignty of nations. Enshrined in  the Charter of the
United Nations,  these laws are the greatest democratic  legacy of the
Second World War, the  tragic war against fascist imperialism  that
cost fifty million lives.

That is why Bush's charge that Iran  is "risking World War III" is
utterly  dishonest. With no evidence, Bush  is accusing Iran of
threatening peace  for allegedly developing nuclear  weapons. It is
Bush who is striving  to attack Iran.

U.S. imperialism is the most  terrible threat to world peace  since the
Second World War.

Against the rising global resistance  to U.S. hegemony, Bush is
replying  with dangerous military preparations  and aggressions. Bush
is defying  world opinion and the views of the  U.S. people, including
the demand  to end the occupation of Iraq.

The large U.S. capitalists who own  the transnational corporations are
reaping super-profits from the war,  especially military and oil
companies.  The war is impoverishing the majority  of U.S. people, who
do not have  enough to meet their own needs.

The fascist danger of  permanent war

The stakes could not be higher if the  U.S. continues to spread the
bonfire  of war. Millions of lives would be  lost, but democracy and
civil rights  will go also. Already they are quickly  eroding. Torture
and disappearances  are approved at the highest levels,  including in
Canada. If the war  escalates further, as the U.S. seems  to intend,
fascist rule cannot be  ruled out.

A U.S. war on Iran would plunge  the U.S. into a terrible nightmare,  a
conflict that would consume the  U.S. and its allies like Canada.

For an independent Canadian  policy of peace, defeat Harper

Harper has an expensive plan to  defend Canada's Arctic by military
might, which is the only way he can  conceive a strong Canada. But
Canada's strength is the people who  are demanding peace, better
social  programs and action on the  environment. Harper will never
truly defend Canada.

Instead of listening to Canadians,  Harper is doubling the size of the
military budget to help the U.S.  war machine. He is allowing the
takeover of Canada's resources by  U.S. corporations in every deal he
promotes.

The Tory government is defying  public opinion on a number of
important issues, like Afghanistan,  the racist treatment of
Aboriginal  peoples, and the need to act against  global warming, for
child care and  for better wages.

It is time to defeat Harper and elect  a government that will adopt a
foreign  policy of peace and disarmament.  Humanity cannot progress
without  such a policy.

(The three above articles are  from the November 1-15, 2007  issue of
People's Voice,  (www.peoplesvoice.ca ) Canada's  leading communist
newspaper.  Articles can be reprinted free if  the source is credited.
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