US Defence Secretary Gates, and the new US military commander in Afghanistan, General Petraeus have recently been canvassing in London for a doubling of the British army troop strength in Helmand province.
This followed a demand by the British commander in Helmand that another additional 4,000-strong brigade of British troops be sent to the province where the British army is facing a life or death struggle with the Taleban every day.
The last US commander publicly stated that the US and its allies were not winning the war. The current US-UK military and political chiefs are constantly stating that the war in Afghanistan is one that the US-UK must win, if the war against terror is to be won, and of course if the imperialist powers are to have access to the oil and gas resources of central Asia.
It must therefore be very jarring for imperialist leaders to find that the puppet President of Afghanistan, Karzai has been in contact with the leader of the Taleban, Mullah Omar, who is viewed by the Taleban as an inspirational leader.
Karzai told the world that he is looking for a peace deal with the Taleban. This is at the same time as the US is busily trying to extend its war into Pakistan with cross border air and ground assaults into Wazirstan inside Pakistan.
Karzai said that he has made efforts over the last two years to engage Saudi Arabia, a country that recognised the Taleban government to bring about peace talks with the Taleban.
He said that Afghan officials had travelled to Saudi Arabia and also to Pakistan, where the Taleban has contact with armed forces leaders to start the peace process.
Karzai let the cat out of the bag during his traditional message to the Afghan people celebrating the Eid holiday.
He said: ‘The preparation for negotiations is going on, on a daily basis. Our envoys travelled many times to Saudi Arabia and to Pakistan, but the discussions have not started yet. We hope that it happens soon.’
Karzai has the support of many western and Afghan officials who believe that the insurgency cannot be defeated militarily and that a political compromise must be reached with the Taleban.
President Karzai told the Afghan people: ‘A few days ago I called upon their leader, Mullah Omar, and said “My brother, my dear, come back to your homeland, come and work for the peace and good of your people and stop killing your brothers”,’ he said.
Mullah Omar has replied to Karzai’s masters.
He said: ‘I say to the invaders: if you leave our country, we will provide you the safe context to do so.
‘If you insist on your invasion, you will be defeated like the Russians before you.’
The Mullah offered his support to all those fighting the imperialists in Afghanistan.
He said: ‘The Americans, with their advanced technology, could not have predicted their defeat but now, with God’s help, every day they welcome their soldiers’ dead bodies and are facing severe losses of lives and finance.
‘Several years ago, no one thought that Americans and their friends would face such hard resistance, that today the Afghan President and his ministers would beg for money, weapons and soldiers while no one gives a positive answer.
‘They came to our country seven years ago and they have not succeeded in their targets and they will never succeed, even in a hundred years.’
Meanwhile the US and UK imperialists are planning and plotting to get more and more involved in a conflict with a nation whose entire history since the founding of the British Empire in India was taken up with defeating British and other attempts to colonise them.
It was Winston Churchill who advised his contemporaries and those who came after him never to invade Afghanistan, since such invasions only secured the unity of the Afghan people who would not rest until the invaders were defeated.
However, his second-rate would-be imitators are incapable of grasping the truth: that their armies will be defeated in Afghanistan, and it will set the scene for their defeat by the working class of their own countries.
The News Line remains adamant that the defeat of the US-UK forces in Afghanistan will constitute a victory for the working class of the UK and the US.
For the British workers the enemy is at home.
