‘Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.’ Thus, in the first significant statement of his inaugural address, President Obama reiterated US imperialism’s justification for its military rampage in pursuit of global domination. In February he announced that 17,000 extra US troops will be sent to Afghanistan this spring. More will follow later in the year. Obama has requested $75 billion this year and $130 billion next year for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in addition to a 4% increase in the Pentagon budget, bringing it to $534 billion: over $23,000 a second. JIM CRAVEN reports.
The US is preparing more intense aggression over a wider area. Rules of engagement suggested by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to try and prevent civilian casualties were dismissed as ‘unworkable’ by US/ NATO commanders. NATO’s senior military commander General John Craddock called for the indiscriminate shooting of alleged drug traffickers. US army chief General George Casey spoke of ‘no quick fixes’, expecting the military to be in Afghanistan in ten years’ time. The arena of war is now referred to as ‘AFPAK’ – Afghanistan and Pakistan combined. Within days of his inauguration, Obama sanctioned missile attacks on Pakistani villages that killed 22 people, including children; attacks that have continued with bloody regularity since. Rustam Shah Mohmand, former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, said, ‘If anything, the policy [of missile attacks] is going to be more focused, more aggressive under Obama.’
Taliban advances
The escalation of violence by the imperialists is a response to mounting victories by the Afghan Taliban-aligned forces. These forces have a permanent presence in 72% of the country, up from 54% a year ago. There is a growing sense of siege in the capital. Taliban forces attacked Kabul in February, paralysing the city for four hours. US/NATO casualties were more than twice as high in January and February this year as they were in 2008. When asked if the new imperialist assault would result in even greater US casualties, Vice-President Joe Biden, in the chilling jargon of the war machine, confirmed, ‘There will be an uptick’. Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq, a man complicit in much of the slaughter in the war on Yugoslavia, said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like the mess we’ve inherited…It’s going to be much tougher than Vietnam.’
Imperialist rivals challenge US hegemony
With the US in such desperate circumstances in Afghanistan, imperialist rivals and other major powers are taking the opportunity to further their interests. The route from Peshawar through the Khyber Pass, along which 75% of US/NATO supplies travel, is under constant threat of being cut by the Taliban. The US had planned to open a new route through Central Asia, but in February Kyrgyzstan announced it was closing the US Manas airbase, a key transit point on the new route. Russia offered Kyrgyzstan a $150 million grant, equivalent to US payments for the Manas base, together with a $2 billion loan. Russia has offered the US a route for non-military supplies through its territory but will demand concessions in exchange. Russia opposes US attempts to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO and to encircle it with US bases. It has announced plans to establish a 10,000-strong rapid reaction force, which, according to President Medvedev, ‘must be no weaker than similar forces in NATO’. Russia also proposes establishing an air defence system in Belarus and providing a $354 million package for Cuba.
At the Munich security conference in February, Biden said the US government would never recognise a ‘Russian sphere of influence’. He argued the ‘absolute necessity’ for a closer alliance between the US and Europe. But most NATO members continue to refuse US requests to increase combat commitments in Afghanistan, seeing nothing to be gained from helping the US out of its difficulties. France has rejoined the NATO command structure to strengthen its own influence. Germany refused US demands for the NATO rapid reaction force to be used in Afghanistan. Britain, dependent on US military power to defend its own global interests, will be sending around 3,000 more combat troops this summer.
Future dictatorships?
In Pakistan large areas of the Afghan border region are in the hands of Taliban supporters. In an attempt to undermine local Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, the Pakistani government has agreed to a tentative truce in Bajaur and to establish Sharia law in the Swat Valley, much to the anger of the US military. But there is massive opposition among the Pakistani people to the imperialists’ extension of the war into their country, not least because of the indiscriminate US air strikes. Now it has been discovered that Predator drones have been launched secretly from bases within Pakistan itself. Waziri fighters ended their alliance with the Pakistani army and allied with the Taliban after being hit by air strikes. The Taliban have pledged to take the fight against the pro-US Zardari government into the capital Islamabad. Recently, the Supreme Court banned the main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from holding elected office for life and tried to put them under house arrest. Violent demonstrations and a massive march on Islamabad followed. The situation was only temporarily defused when Zardari gave way to opposition demands to restore the chief justice minister to office. With the US state intent on taking its war further into Pakistan, there is a growing danger that the US will engineer another military dictatorship.
In Afghanistan, the US is preparing to dump puppet President Hamid Karzai. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Afghanistan as a ‘narco state’ with a government ‘plagued by limited capacity and widespread corruption’. In response, Karzai’s supporters accused the US of behaving like ‘colonial masters’ and of adding to the lawlessness. Karzai has been pursuing talks with Taliban leaders through third parties. He fears US escalation will upset the talks. The US does not oppose talks as long as they are on its terms, aimed at submission not reconciliation. Afghanistan’s presidential election has been postponed until August, ostensibly for practical and security reasons. However, according to the constitution, Karzai would have to relinquish power in May leaving a vacuum period. Karzai tried to insist that the elections go ahead as originally scheduled in April or to call a loya jurga, a tribal council, to overrule the constitution. The imperialists are in no position to allow internal political wrangling to stand in their way. British Ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles said at the beginning of the year that ‘an acceptable dictator’ may be the best solution.
FRFI 208 April / May 2009
