PRESIDENT Obama yesterday gave the go-ahead for a massive attack on the Afghan people in which tens of thousands of men, women and children will die.
This decision to mass murder was packaged as part of the war on terror and vital for the defence of ordinary US citizens.
Obama told the officer cadets at West Point military academy: ‘We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people. . . . As we know, these men belonged to al-Qaeda.’
In fact none of them belonged to the Taleban. The US intervened with the UK to overthrow the Taleban government of Afghanistan, and after a few months gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden in favour of launching a murderous attack on Iraq, in March 2003, killing very large numbers of its people, none of whom were members of Al-Qaeda, and occupying Iraq to this day.
Obama then told an untruth. ‘Over the last several years, the Taleban has maintained common cause with al-Qaeda, as they both seek an overthrow of the Afghan government.’
This is not true. Al-Qaeda has not been fighting alongside the Taleban in Afghanistan.
Obama continued to excuse the Karzai government, completely corrupted and criminal, by stating it was however ‘a government that is consistent with Afghanistan’s laws and customs’.
He continued that ‘as Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.’
He has had to stipulate that it will be an 18 month war because: ‘We have been at war now for eight years, at enormous cost in lives and resources. Years of debate over Iraq and terrorism have left our unity on national security issues in tatters, and created a highly polarised and partisan backdrop for this effort. And having just experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the American people are understandably focused on rebuilding our economy and putting people to work here at home.’
It is to be 18 months because the US workers will not stand for a day longer!
Obama added: ‘Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future.’
This is to be done by killing tens of thousands of Afghans until a section of the Taleban decide to settle with the US and make a deal with the Karzai government.
This is to be accomplished in 18 months. . . or bust!
‘The 30,000 additional troops that I’m announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 – the fastest possible pace – so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centres . . . these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011.’
What we have here is an extended US raid, not a strategy to yield a decisive victory.
Making clear the limits of US power, Obama said ‘Indeed, some call for a more dramatic and open-ended escalation of our war effort – one that would commit us to a nation-building project of up to a decade. I reject this course because it sets goals that are beyond what can be achieved at a reasonable cost.’
He added for good measure: ‘Too many Americans are worried about the future facing our children. Meanwhile, competition within the global economy has grown more fierce. So we can’t simply afford to ignore the price of these wars.’
American imperialism has begun to recognise its feet of clay. The workers of the world will rejoice and organise all the more to smash capitalism and imperialism to go forward to socialism.
