Have we forgotten Afghanistan? {why?}

national | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Saturday September 27, 2003 12:26 by redjade

{ by redjade }
http://redjade.alturl.com

27 Sept Poster on Dublin Streets

Have we forgotten Afghanistan?

The US/UK and others invaded it shortly after September 11 2001, made promises of rebuilding (building?) it with a massive 'Martial Plan', democracy and human rights for all (especially women) and so on.

The Afghan 'government' installed now barely has legitimacy, is barely funded, the rights of women (as well as others) are barely protected and much of the country-side has been ceded over to the same warlords that controlled the country before the war. And, lest we forget, Osama is still not captured and has been reported to be living in the south.

The occupying powers have not just failed in their mission, but have purposely neglected it.

There are more US Troops in Afghanistan than at the height of the invasion, it has become a tragic Soviet-styled endless war, turned on civilians. But it no longer makes the headlines that Iraq does today.

The IAWM/PANA/NGOPA Demonstration today, as you will notice from the street poster, does not mention Afghanistan. Why is this?

Have those of us on the streets protesting America's World War III forgotten Afghanistan as much as Bush and Blair?

As Afghanistan has disappeared from TV screens and newspaper headlines, is this a simple case of 'out of sight - out of mind'? Or something else?

your thoughts, please.


-- -- -- links and quotes below -- -- --

What good friends left behind
John Pilger
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1044925,00.html

At the Labour party conference following the September 11 attacks, Tony Blair said memorably: "To the Afghan people, we make this commitment. We will not walk away... If the Taliban regime changes, we will work with you to make sure its successor is one that is broadbased, that unites all ethnic groups and offers some way out of the poverty that is your miserable existence." He was echoing George Bush, who had said a few days earlier: "The oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and its allies. As we strike military targets, we will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan. The US is a friend of the Afghan people."

We met clandestinely and she wore a veil to disguise her identity. Marina is not her real name.

"Two girls who went to school without their burkas were killed and their dead bodies were put in front of their houses," she said. "Last month, 35 women jumped into a river along with their children and died, just to save themselves from commanders on a rampage of rape. That is Afghanistan today; the Taliban and the warlords of the Northern Alliance are two faces of the same coin. For America, it's a Frankenstein story - you make a monster and the monster goes against you. If America had not built up these warlords, Osama bin Laden and all the fundamentalist forces in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion, they would not have attacked the master on September 11 2001."

Afghanistan's tragedy exemplifies the maxim of western power - that third world countries are regarded and dealt with strictly in terms of their usefulness to "us". The ruthlessness and hypocrisy this requires is imprinted on Afghanistan's modern history.

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Remember Afghanistan?
Tamim Ansary
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8979

Afghanistan rarely makes front-page headlines anymore. American combat there officially ended on January 10, 2002, when the Taliban fled Kabul. Yet, since that day, American troops have sustained six times as many casualties as during the war. Today, 12,500 'coalition' troops are stationed in Afghanistan, and they include 10,000 Americans. Major battles have erupted in the country every month since June.

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Talk is cheap, a Marshall Plan isn't
http://www.dodgeglobe.com/stories/080603/opi_0806030008.shtml

''In Afghanistan, between 2001 and today, the United States has committed about $2 billion in assistance to the Afghan people.''

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Bush Will Seek $87 Billion for Iraq
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20030907/ts_nm/iraq_dc

President Bush will announce on Sunday night that he plans to ask Congress for $87 billion to fund the U.S. military deployment in Iraq and pay for reconstruction, a Republican source said.

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What Could $87 Billion Pay For...
Matthew Rothschild
''Or if you look at the crying social needs of the country, $87 billion is worth two years of unemployment benefits to all who are out of work.

It's enough to pay 3.3 million people who have lost jobs a year's salary of $26,000. On drug coverage, $87 billion would cover not just one year but three years of the President's proposal.

On education, $87 billion is 87 times greater than the amount the federal government spends on after school programs, and nine times what it spends on special education. $87 billion is more than 17 times what the federal government spends for state children's health insurance programs, and about 10 times what it would cost to fully fund Headstart.''

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Is Fraud Involved?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0918-10.htm

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Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
http://www.rawa.org/

Amidst the nightmare, troops and police loyal to Afghan political and military figures have taken over most of the country's major cities and villages. They invade private homes, usually at night, to rob and assault civilians, hold residents hostage, terrorise them with weapons, steal their valuables and sometimes rape women and girls.

Outside their homes, under the threat of beatings, arrest, torture and ransom, Afghans face extortion on the roads and at proliferating official and unofficial checkpoints, as do shopkeepers in the market place. The rape of women, girls and boys is common but seldom reported.

The liberty for Afghans promised by Washington at the 2003 constitutional loya jirga [which constructed the current Kabul regime] — and supposed to be extended following the June 2004 national election — appears doomed as high-level officials in Kabul and warlord commanders in the south-east intimidate journalists and women's rights activists into silence. Those attempting to create political parties or non-government organisations are confronted with death threats and/or arrest.

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Photos
http://homepage.mac.com/benhammersley/PhotoAlbum3.html

RAWA Photos
http://www.rawa.org/gallery.html

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In Dublin, now - go see the exhibition....

Paul Seawright: hidden
18 September – 30 November 2003
http://www.modernart.ie/News/CurrentExhibitions.asp

This exhibition comprises 10 large format photographs, created by Paul Seawright in response to his recent travels in Afghanistan. In June 2002, Seawright was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum, London, to travel to Afghanistan to investigate landscapes that had been contaminated with exploded mines and to create works in response to his experience. Seawright avoids the exotic vision of Afghanistan as the spectacle of ruins portrayed by the media. His photographs are sparse and understated, silent and depopulated, more concerned with the underlying causes of war than with the visible scars left behind.

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