The next Afghan strategy?

The US and UK governments seem to be determined to stay in Afghanistan.
What can we expect in 2010?
An escalation in troop numbers and heavy fighting in the spring. If it can declare ’success’, however limited, then NATO will probably move into heavily fortified bases, away from population centres. This means casualties decline (and the media downplay the war) and NATO still remains deep in the heart of Asia.
The remaining countryside is ‘controlled’ with fairly indiscriminate drone attacks, killing civilians (though reported as assasinating Taliban commanders, if mentioned at all).
Meanwhile, Pakistan slides further into civil war and NATO can then say that ‘while it could have done things better, now is not the time to cut and run…etc.etc. ‘.
Add rising tensions with Iran and we have a very unhappy new year in the region.
A variant to this is the New Labour Kim Howell spin – reduce presence in Afghanistan, save money and use it to do more spying on Muslims in the UK.
Senator McCarthy must be in rapture as the propaganda and bile is set to intensify here.
To what end?
To what cost?
To what aim?

Farid Bakht

Afghan War at Whitechapel Art Gallery

AFGHANISTAN: A HUMAN TRAGEDY

Roger Lloyd Pack, National Theatre actor and well-known for playing Trigger
in
Only Fools and Horses, joins musician Brian Eno, actor Janie Dee, George
Galloway MP and other prominent figures, who will be appearing at an event
marking the eighth anniversary of the Afghanistan invasion, taking place
beneath the tapestry of Picasso’s painting Guernica, at the Whitechapel Art
Gallery on Wednesday 7 October from 11am to 12.30pm. All welcome.

AFGHANISTAN: A HUMAN TRAGEDY
EIGHT YEARS ON, TIME TO GO
CULTURAL, MILITARY AND POLITICAL VOICES SPEAK OUT

Raus aus Afghanistan

The Green Party of England & Wales calls for immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan. Its German sister party has a different position, about 180 degrees away.

Indeed, on this issue, we are closer to the Left Party of Germany. Let’s see what happens in their General Election on September 27.
The former German Green leader, Joshcka Fischer, is now a consultant for the US led Gas pipeline, NABUCCO, which could take up gas from Northern Iraq.
There are many shades of Green, it seems.

I think it would be wrong to be tribal and excuse fundamental ideological differences. If we did, what would be so different about us?
Afghanistan has become very controversial in Germany since a Bundeswehr colonel ordered a bombing mission, leading to a 100 casualties.

Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times of London had this to say about the Left and Greens over the differing positions over Afghanistan.

“… Die Linke.. the Left have certainly won the poster battle on the streets of Berlin. There are red “Linke” posters everywhere – the most striking of which demands “Raus aus Afghanistan” – a call for immediate German withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In theory, this should be a vote winner. The polls suggest that some 60% of Germans agree with the left’s call to get out of Afghanistan. The main parties are beginning to respond to this mood. Walter Steinmeier, the foreign secretary and the leader of the SPD, has talked of “laying the foundations for a withdrawal” – but has stopped short of setting a date certain.

Interestingly….. the polls also suggest that Green voters are the only party where a majority are in favour of the Afghan mission.
What a reversal, that is – for a party that has its roots in the anti-capitalist, anti-American left…………… the stance may not do the party much good in the elections. The latest polls suggest that they are down in fifth – below the anti-war, anti-capitalist Left.”

September 18, 2009 9:09am in Germany

Guernica, the Basques and the East End of London

Went to a talk at the Whitechapel Art Gallery this weekend. They had an all-dayer about Picasso’s painting Guernica which had been exhibited there in 1939.
I had visited the town just one month ago.
Gernika (the Basque spelling) is famous for one thing: as a testing zone for aerial bombing. A shock to the world about the brutality of incendiary bombs. And the utter evil of pilots mowing down retreating civilians.
The cousin of the Red Baron, Von Richtofen (what’s the correct spelling?) was in charge of Hitler’s bombers in Iberia, for action in the Spanish Civil War.
They chose the ancient Basque town to deliver a message – that they could destroy any Republican town with impunity.
Indeed, air power was decisive in letting the Fascists win the war of 1936-39.

It was a poignant moment for me, personally, as my grandfather had been killed in the same war (February 1938), in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa.

The highlight of the seminar was the appearance of a 90 year old lady. She was interviewed by Micheal Rosen (the author of childrens’ books- he was raised in the area). Lucid and determined, she recounted the day when Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts were driven back in Cable Street.
With the appearance of the mob at Harrow mosque last Friday & the Euro elections in June, her experiences suddenly seem very relevant.

We have almost come full circle.
When Coleen Powell, the US Secretary of State, was due to deliver a speech at the UN about the ‘need’ to bomb Iraq in 2003, he had Picasso’s painting covered up!
In shame or guilt, perhaps?
The continued bombing of Afghanistan shows that NATO has learnt from Hitler about the techniques of bombing innocent civilians.
In a way, we are in bed with the Fascists, this time with far more firepower at our disposal, and having also studied Goebbels.
We wear the cloak of ‘freeing countries so they can reap the benefits of democracy’ as we send drones into Pakistan and Afghanistan.
What is it some US generals in Iraq and Vietnam say: we had to destroy the city, in order to save it.

Farid Bakht
International Coordinator

Polls show 60% want pullout or reduction in Afghanistan

“(A) survey of opinion in 13 countries conducted annually by the German Marshall Fund of the United States found that 41% of Britons wanted troops pulled out of Afghanistan while a further 19% wanted a reduction in troop numbers.
All 13 countries polled, including the US, have troops in Afghanistan.
The British hostility to the presence there was almost matched by Germany and exceeded in the EU only by Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, according to the Transatlantic Trends survey.”

source: www.guardian.co.uk

Afghan end game or just a pause?

Simon Jenkins (ex-Times editor?) always goes for the realist, hard-hitting approach.

In today’s Guardian, he is basically saying these types of wars invariably end up in dialogue – with the enemy

I disagree with one point – that it’s merely an American vendetta.

There are many long running causes to this unhappy war (from before 2001):

– preventing China/Russia/Iran supremacy in Eurasia (Zbigniew Brezhinski has Obama’s ear on this); if you go back to 1970s, you could reverse US with USSR…….

- Chevron (Unocal) continuing ambitions for natural gas pipelines to sell to India

- Pakistan & India fighting out their silly post colonial conflict over Kashmir & using Afghanistan (Pakistan’s strategic depth idea) as a playground

- Pakistan’s ISI & Saudi Arabia financing & training hideous religious forces (before and including the Taliban) – all with US approval since the early eighties – you could call this a form of outsourcing terror….

- pressure on Iran to change course (remember US forces are to the west in Iraq and north/east in Afghanistan) – Iran has huge gas fields and is also trying to sell to India; the US will not allow this until regime change….

The stated goals of democracy promotion etc etc are figleafs and we should not indulge in in these simple black and white SkyTV bulletpoints.

Same with womens’ rights – the drug-dealing warlords of the Northern Alliance compete with the Taliban in trampling on women.

There are signs that the Green Party position on disengagement is popular with a war-weary public.

It is sensible to think about poor farmers, irrespective of whether it’s opium or not – if our societies didn’t demand the stuff, they wouldn’t grow it.

Finally, calling for wider involvement, such as UN and regional players (rather than a military alliance five thousand miles away from its homeland – NATO) will inevitably be the way forward.

The latest ’surge’ is connected to August Presidential elections. These will be rubber stamped as sort of fair.

The good Taliban – bad Taliban discourse is not new.

Clinton/Unocal were doing this in 1996.

The US looked like ditching Karzai a few months ago and replace him with another warlord, but the ex-Unocal consultant didn’t want to go.

By the way, Karzai was a facilitator/event manager for those Taliban discussions in the nineties………………

I do not believe this war is about to end.

After a rise in casualties, some European governments are merely trying to show their worried voters that ‘the end is in sight’.

This is set to run and run.

Domestically, it will be in our face in the next general election…………..

Farid Bakht

It’s either war or no war

Lots of comment, articles, speeches, sound bites and interviews about Afghanistan.
Particularly the question of helicopters.
Well, it’s the wrong question.
The correct question is: what are we doing in another war in Asia?
Yes, European troops, including British, are fighting deep inside Asia.
On the one hand we hear how the ‘Great Recession’ will speed up the transfer of power to Asia.

On the other, we have the strategic imperatives of 19th century imperialism guiding 20th century politicians, not yet adjusted to the realities of the 21st century.

This is not our war.

For the people like Sunny Hundal (in yesterday’s Jim Jepps interview) and all the other so-called progressive people who are so concerned about democracy and women’s rights, and ‘finishing the job’, why do they ignore the War in the Congo? Or the role of India in Kashmir?
Or the use of Afghanistan by India and Pakistan in their pathetic rivalry, when India has more people living in poverty, than Sub-Saharan Africa.
How quiet have we been over Saudi Arabia and their trampling of women’s rights? We are still selling weapons to them, aren’t we?

Five million Africans dead. In a war over minerals and resources in Congo.
Check the volume of comments on each of the above.

The supposed connection to terrorism on the streets of London is bogus, by the way.
The terrorists of 7/7 came from Northern England and were British citizens, using our invasions as a pretext.
Moreover, Pakistan’s ISI (Intelligence Services) is the worst terrorist organisation of all, having spawned the Taliban (with ours and Saudi’s help)…..

If you want to get rid of terrorism, then:
1) stop sending money that ends up with the ISI,
2) withdraw support from that barbaric regime in Riyadh and
3) stop invading countries.

We cannot follow the Mail/Sky agenda.
We have to stick to our principles.

This war is unjust.
Obama is wrong.
We should not be there.

The underlying logic has been the feeding of gas to India via pipelines from Central Asia and also the prevention of China, Russia and Iran cementing links.
Now, if you want to say that the latter is a valid reason, then say it.
Stop hiding behind fictitious ideas of spreading democracy.
It may sound plausible in the Guardian. It sounds absurd in Asia.
We note the relative inaction over a coup in Honduras….. and the overt support for the murderous regime in Columbia.
Check out our friends in Africa.
Wonder why a British Ambassador supported a military putsch in Bangladesh two years ago…….

Let’s agree that it should not be War.
Let’s not talk about killing more Afghans (the other side of the coin of sending helicopters to protect our troops and more drones).
Let’s look for solutions for peace after withdrawal.

Farid Bakht