EDITORIAL
No good war
Published May 23, 2010 11:03 PM
With 30 million under- and unemployed, cops shooting Black children in Detroit,
Arizona persecuting immigrants, all states and cities cutting education,
pensions and health care, and an oil slick destroying one of the most beautiful
and fecund bodies of water on earth, it’s understandable if people lose
track of U.S. imperialism’s foreign adventures. But it’s necessary
to constantly bring the struggle against war and occupation back to the front
burners.
With the Pentagon still occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, still threatening Iran
and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — and still probing
every other part of the world — there is always the possibility that ugly
imperialist war will replace the economic or domestic political headlines. This
week in mid-May, the almost nine-year-old occupation of Afghanistan is back in
the front pages.
Last December, the Obama administration escalated the U.S. military presence in
that Central Asian country, sending 30,000 more official troops and an unknown
number of mercenaries. It even dragged some of Washington’s reluctant
NATO allies into the war, along with some now rightist-ruled Eastern European
states.
The administration said a strong show of NATO force and military success would
split the Afghan resistance, which it always refers to as “the
Taliban,” thus leading to a pro-imperialist settlement and eventual
withdrawal of U.S.-NATO troops.
The highly publicized invasion of Marja province followed. A public relations
“success,” it was a military nothing and a political disaster.
An even bigger offensive is now promised for Kandahar, another public relations
“turning point” for the war.
Responding to the U.S.-NATO offensive, Afghan resistance fighters struck two
sensitive spots: the capital, Kabul, and the U.S. Air Field at Bagram, infamous
as a torture place for prisoners of the Pentagon war machine. Five U.S. troops
and a Canadian colonel died in the Kabul explosion, along with many others, and
at least five U.S. troops were wounded in a firefight at the well-guarded base.
The deaths brought U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan to 1,000, half of them in
the last two years of the nine-year occupation.
The message for everyone is that the U.S.-NATO war and occupation have aroused
a resistance movement based in a large sector of the Afghan masses and that
this resistance is not only justified, it can inflict casualties on the
occupation troops.
The message to the U.S. progressive and anti-war movement is that ending the
Afghan war better stay on our front burners even as we intervene in and develop
the struggle for jobs and against racism at home.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE