The imperialists are resorting to ever more brutal tactics to suppress resistance, in particular the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets. On 18 June seven children were killed in an attack on a religious compound in Paktika. Four days later US warplanes massacred 25 civilians in Kunjakak, including three children. At least 107 people were killed on 29 June in Hyderabad in Helmand province. Mayor Dur Ali Shah said 45 of them were civilians. Earlier a joint patrol convoy of US and Afghan puppet forces had come under fire and the resistance fighters then retreated to Hyderabad. That evening, without warning, US aircraft attacked the whole village, destroying homes, businesses and livestock. Such collective punishment is proscribed by the Geneva Convention. Its purpose was to terrorise and intimidate the Afghan people.
In the first five months of 2007 the imperialists launched over 1,000 air strikes, four times the number carried out in Iraq. A report by the International Committee of the Red Cross highlighted the ‘growing number of civilian casualties’. The number of civilians killed by the occupying forces far outnumbered those killed in operations by resistance fighters. Even puppet President Hamid Karzai said he was ‘disappointed and angry’ at the level of civilian casualties and a NATO spokesman conceded he was right to be.
The imperialists frequently claim successes in Afghanistan. Former Soviet General Victor Yermakov said he was ‘very impressed by the Americans. Gaining control of Tora Bora is a great accomplishment. I should know. I did it three times. Unfortunately, the second I turned my back on the place, I needed to conquer it again. It is the same now. It will never change.’ A Rand Corporation study suggested that the occupying forces would require 20 troops for every 1,000 inhabitants in order to retain control of captured areas. That would mean a total force of 500,000, ten times the number presently in the country. The latest UN security accessibility maps published in May show a big increase in areas considered extreme risk/hostile environment, in other words areas where the resistance is active. They include the whole of Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces, together with large sections of the eastern border with Pakistan and areas encroaching on Kabul province.
Imperialist unity under pressure
The imperialists intend to establish a permanent military presence in Afghanistan as part of the US string of bases in the region and to control a proposed oil pipeline from the Caspian oil fields through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean. British diplomat Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles said it could take decades to establish effective government in Afghanistan and that the campaign was ‘a marathon rather than a sprint’.
However, there are signs of differences and divisions within the occupying coalition. General Dan McNeil, US commander of ISAF, said in May, ‘In some respects there is no complete agreement among the 26 NATO countries as to what exists here.’ Most NATO countries have refused US and British demands to increase numbers of their combat troops. In Germany, the opposition SPD has called for German troops to be withdrawn from the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany would pay ‘a high price’ if it did so, suggesting there would be US retaliation. This demonstrates the delicate political balance that other imperialist countries must achieve with regard to the US: on the one hand pursuing their own interests as imperialist rivals and on the other recognising the US as, for the foreseeable future, the hegemonic economic and military power.
101 members of the occupying forces were killed in the first half of this year. British troops are under such strain that only one regiment has managed the recommended 24 months’ break between six month tours of duty. In July the head of the British army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, wrote to other British military chiefs saying, ‘We now have almost no capability to deal with the unexpected.’ Military budgets will rise to pay for the succession of wars and the death toll will mount until imperialism is defeated.
FRFI 198 August / September 2007
