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Useless War: Afghanistan Needs Peace to Develop
Useless War: Afghanistan Needs Peace to Develop
By John Bachtell | People's World | Submitted by Michael Munk | www.MichaelMunk.com
The Taliban have their roots in the U.S. drive to destabilize the Soviet Union during the Carter administration. Known then as "freedom fighters" (Mujahideen) they were religious extremists assembled by the CIA to overthrow the government and kill Communists, democrats and Soviet "infidels." They were recruited from predominantly Muslim countries when they couldn't be found in Afghanistan. Because they were trained in Pakistan, they were renamed Taliban, which means "religious students." ...
After the attacks, said Gulzad, they were suddenly renamed "terrorists." Instead of going into Saudi Arabia where most were from, or Pakistan where they were trained, the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan. Gulzad says the reason is the strategic geopolitical importance of Afghanistan, its proximity to energy resources and Iran, Russian, China and the Persian Gulf.
n a potentially important development, exiled members of the former People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan are returning to the country to re-found the organization. They plan to hold a Congress in Kabul later this year and rename the organization the Democratic Party of Afghanistan.
The PDPA was the ruling party that led the country on a path of socialism before being ousted from power in 1992 by the U.S. government-backed Taliban. Thousands of PDPA members were slaughtered or driven into exile where they have functioned over the years as scattered groups.
Exiled members met recently in Germany to unite their ranks and agree on an approach to reestablishing a legal political party on Afghanistan soil.
"The main goal is to return to Afghanistan and bring a situation of peace and stability in the region," said Dr. Zalmay Gulzad, professor of Social Sciences at Harold Washington Community College in Chicago. Gulzad was born in Afghanistan and came to the U.S. as a student in 1971 and stayed. "Once peace is achieved the movement will evolve into different stages." Read more.
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Black hoodies: Order one. Order them by the dozen and donate them to occupations!
After all, it's hardly ever mentioned anymore, but the GENOCIDE and imperialism, ... by the U.S. continues.
A copy of the following article might've been posted at ADS over the past several days and I just didn't know about it because of being tied up with other things, which means little time spent reading articles online. But I'll provide the link in case a copy of the piece has not yet been posted at ADS.
"The New ‘Forgotten’ War: Iraq Occupation Falls Into Media Shadows"
by Dahr Jamail, Extra!, Fair.org, Mar 16, 2010, originally March 15th
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18150
Iraq should NOT be forgotten. Haiti should not be forgotten. Congo should not be forgotten. ... But we have a culture of forgetfulness and of oddly giving higher priority to matters of lesser priority than other matters. Etcetera.
F.e., "ACLU Sues Gov't Over Drones", the title for another article at ADS today tells me that an appropriate question is, "Why not sue the Gov't over wars of aggression?". The use of the drones and this killing many innocent people is a very critical issue, but it's incidental to the war of aggression for which there never has been any real justification and which has always been illegal, that is, criminal. And stopping the use of the drones in "service" to the war of aggression won't stop this war, but stopping the war and withdrawing U.S. and NATO forces would end the use of the drones for this war.
And Iraq wouldn't be in the continuing state of genocide if it hadn't been for the war and the continuation of it. Some people say it was never a war. Some say it was at first and then became an occupation. In reality, it has always been a war on Iraq and continues to be this until the day that the foreign occupiers and Corporate America WITHDRAW and provide reparations. If we wish to be narrow-minded, then we can say it's not a continuing war, but no law says we all have to be narrow-minded, or to think with inflexible minds.
So why not sue against the anti-Constitutional, etcetera, launching and continuation of criminal wars?
Mike Corbeil