If there's "progress" in Afghanistan and the "Taliban's momentum" has been broken, why are there more Afghan civilians and Nato soliders being killed than in any previous year of the war?
Stop the War Coalition
30 May 2011
Afghan villagers with children killed by Nato airstrike on 28.05.11
In his speech to the British Parliament on 25 May 2011, President Obama was upbeat about the "progress" being made in the Afghanistan war by the US and its allies. Speaking of discussions with prime minister David Cameron, he said:
We reviewed our progress in Afghanistan, where our brave servicemen and women have fought side by side to break the Taliban’s momentum and where we are preparing to turn a corner.
Obama didn't give any details of what "to turn a corner" would look like, but the days following his speech did tell us a lot about the reality of the war.
The day after the speech, on the 26 May, eight US troops were killed, the highest number in a single day for four years.
On 27 May, two British soldiers were killed, making it three UK fatalities within five days and bringing the total to 368, not far short of double the number of UK troops killed in Iraq.
Three days after Obama's "turning the corner" speech, on 28 May, the Taliban, whose "momentum" according to Obama has been broken, launched a suicide attack in an area which is supposedly one of the most secure for Nato forces, killing the Afghan police commander for northern Afghanistan, Gen Mohammad Daud Daud -- very much a US favourite in its counter-insurgency strategy. At least five others died with him, including two German soldiers. Seriously wounded was Nato Gen Markus Knaeip, commander of foreign troops in northern Afghanistan.
Not to be outdone in the killing stakes, on the same day, Nato airstrikes killed 32 civilians -- including at least 17 children and four women -- in attacks in on villages in Helmand and Nuristan provinces. Twenty Afghan policemen were also killed in Nuristan -- by "friendly fire".
"Do they look like Taliban fighters?" asked the angy and distraught villagers in Helmand, gathered round the bodies of their dead children.
Predictably, the UK mainstream media didn't name the Afghan victims. Unlike the two UK soldiers killed a day earlier, who we learn were Sam Alexander, 28, from Hammersmith, London, and 23-year-old Lieutenant Ollie Augustin, from Kent, who are remembered with details of their lives, wasted in an unjustified war.
Even Afghan president Kharzi, who is effectively a US puppet, felt impelled to make his strongest public condemnation of yet more US "collateral damage", issuing what he said was a "final warning".
By every measurement this war is catastrophic for the Afghan people and the occupying forces alike. It's hardly surprising that morale within the US army is at an all time low, with approaching 1600 killed since 2001 at least 12,000 wounded in combat. Eighty per cent of US troops have seen a member of their unit killed or wounded. The plunging morale is matched by the highest rates of mental health problems in the US armed forces for five years.
For two countries deep in economic crisis, with their leaders Obama and Cameron both insisting that draconian cuts must be made to public services to reduce the national debt, it is beyond belief that vast sums can be found for a war that is doomed to failure.
The US spends $2 billion every week on the war in Afghanistan. By May 2011, it had spent over $1 trillion on the wars in Afghansitan and Iraq. What is $1 trillion worth? If you made a million dollars a year, it would take you a million years to earn $1 trillion.
Britain is spending £5 billion a year on the Afghan war, Between now and 2015, when David Cameron says British troops will be withdrawn, Britain will have spent at least $20 billion waging war on the second poorest country in the world.
Add to this the £10 billion a year which will be spent in the next four years on maintaining a Trident nuclear missile system which serves no military purpose, brings a total of $30 billion, which is one third of the cuts to public and welfare services the government plans by 2015.
And now we have the cost of yet another war against a Muslim country, Libya, which poses no threat to UK security whatever. This latest imperialist adventure is expected to cost Britain £1 billion by Autumn 2011.
The war in Afghanistan has now lasted longer than World War 1 and World War II combined. It is the longest war in US history. Over that ten years, we have been told repeatedly that a "corner has been turned", by Barack Obama and David Cameron now, and before them, by George W Bush, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
American, British and Natop troops are killing and dying with only one purpose: to find an "exit strategy" which can be dressed up as a "victory" and save the face of the politicians and generals responsible for the mass slaughter and devastation. This is why Afghan children and women, and US and Nato troops, are being killed at a higher rate than in any year since the invasion in 2011.
There is only one corner to be turned in a war which is unjustified and unwinnable: the complete removal now of all foreign troops occupying Afghanistan.
Conference: Afghanistan and the War on Terror 10 Years On
Conway Hall • Red Lion Square • London WC1R 4RL. Tickets £5. To book call 020 7801 2768
SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Tony Benn • George Galloway • Tariq Ali • Lindsey German • David Swanson • Pankaj Mishra • Mehdi Hasan • Joan Humphries • David Gentleman More details...
