JUST a week ago General Petraeus, the US commander, declared that ‘We have two weeks to save Pakistan!’
We are now witnessing just how the US with the support of the UK is ‘saving’ Pakistan.
The Pakistani army has launched a massive attack on the people of Swat, causing over 200,000 internally displaced persons, while US pilotless drone attacks have levelled many homes in the Swat region, killing women and children.
Acting on US orders, the Pakistani army has declared war on Swat, after the Pakistani Prime Minister announced a fight ‘for the survival of the country’.
The army has killed between 180-200 militants in the last 24 hours in Swat and other areas.
However, the Taleban have been preparing for this attack for many months.
In Swat, explosive devices planted by the militants in roads and their mortar fire were causing casualties, military officials have admitted.
Following the intensity of the fighting and the cutting of phone networks, the Pakistan military lifted the curfew in Swat and residents in the main town of Mingora and the nearby towns of Kambar and Raheemabad began leaving at 0600 hours yesterday.
The ongoing operation is now being described by the US and its allies as the beginning of a major ground offensive to secure the seat of government in Swat.
The Taleban have entrenched themselves in well prepared fortified positions in and around Mingora. The Pakistani army is likely to use aircraft and artillery to ‘soften up’ these positions before sending in assault troops.
The fighting on the ground is expected to be bloody and long drawn-out.
The issue is, of course, that when it emerges that the Pakistani army is unable to take the well prepared Taleban positions, the US and UK governments will have no alternative to sending their troops in to prevent the fall of the Pakistani government.
President Obama will then have achieved what he has been working so hard to realise, a major war in central Asia, a region where hundreds of millions of people live, where the fighting will go on for as long as 20 years, unless the workers of the world stop it, and where the US and UK military will be bled white.
This prospect is rather more than just a movement out of the frying pan of Iraq into the fires of Afghanistan-Pakistan. US-UK imperialism are being forced by the depths of the world capitalist crisis to literally dig their own graves.
There are now up to 15,000 troops deployed in the Swat valley and neighbouring areas to take on thousands of fighters and tens of thousands of supporting tribespeople.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Saturday called the conflict ‘a guerrilla war’, adding ‘This is our own war. This is war for the survival of the country.’
In a few hours, up to one million people will have been displaced, and placed into internment camps where they can be watched.
Trade unions in the UK must immediately begin a ‘Hands off Pakistan’ campaign and demand that all US and UK troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan-Pakistan.
We should not wait until the US and the UK mount a supporting action, with their troops advancing over the Afghan border to attack the Pakistanis inside Pakistan.
The trade unions must mobilise now.
Stop the war on the Pakistani and Afghan people!
Withdraw all US and UK troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan!
