Monday, September 20, 2010

First the urge, then the surge, and end with the dirge

The Canadian government, along with Australia, has fully supported the illegal war and occupation of Afghanistan since October 2001. They have closely aligned themselves with the objectives of US foreign policy in the region, which is to secure a sound base of operations in energy-rich Central Asia to secure access to the important oil and natural gas reserves in that part of the world. The US intends to project its military power, to the detriment of Russia, China and other regional competitors.

Today I am linking to an article by the Canadian socialist and antiwar group, Socialist Voice. They have been consistently critical of the war in Afghanistan and Canada's participation in it. The trajectory of the Afghanistan war has followed a similar course to US policy in Iraq; first the urge to surge, which means an escalation of terrifying violence, torture and human rights abuses. Then the actual surge, which consists of committing massive crimes against the civilian population, imprisoning people without charge or trial, rendering them in secret prisons, committing horrifying tortures, mass bombing of villages, and hoping that the militarily-sanctioned violence will intimidate the population into submission.

When the occupiers realise that their increasing levels of violence alienates ever-greater numbers of the indigenous population, creating new recruits for a nationalist/patriotic insurgency, then comes the funeral dirge; a rethinking of the policy choices, a focus on 'winning hearts and minds', a sobering reflection on why the foreign occupiers (yes the US, Canada and Australia are the foreigners in Afghanistan) are hated so much by the overwhelming majority of the population and why the puppet regime of Hamid Karzai in Kabul is increasingly beleaguered.

The article is called Afghanistan crisis deepens: US, Canada and NATO threaten to extend war.

After eight years of war in Afghanistan, Karzai is now making overtures to the insurgents, calling for a negotiated settlement of the conflict.

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