Irish Anti War Movement - PRESS RELEASE - 10 May 2009 US Bombing of Afghani and Pakistani Civilians

international | anti-war / imperialism | press release

Monday May 11, 2009 16:04

by IAWM - The Irish Anti War Movement

info at irishantiwar dot org

The Irish Anti War Movement will hold a protest picket at Dáil Eireann this Wednesday 13 May at 12.30pm.

The Irish Anti-War Movement condemns the recent US bombing in Afghanistan that killed many civilians.

The Irish Anti-War Movement condemns the recent US bombing in Afghanistan that may have killed as many as 147 Afghans, including many women and children. If the reports of over 100 dead are true it will make it the most deadly incident involving civilians since foreign troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001. This one act of terror equivocates to over five Omagh bombings, which puts Hilary Clinton’s casual apology into stark perspective.
The Irish Anti-War Movement also condemns the US bombings of innocent civilians in Pakistan over the last few months, almost all killed by predator drone planes. A recent investigation found that in the last three years, US predator drone strikes have killed 701 people in Pakistan, among which 687 were innocent civilians. The Pakistan Military, under clear duress from the US Government, has now broken the peace agreement with the Taliban leadership in the tribal regions and has instigated a full-scale offensive in the Swat Valley which will lead to huge suffering for the civilian population there. UNHCR is estimating that there may be as many as one million refugees.
This escalation of the phony US led ‘war on terror’ into Pakistan will do nothing to bring peace to this turbulent region or the wider world. Barack Obama’s disappointing approach is to send 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a move opposed by a clear majority of Afghans. He is also enlarging the theatre of war into Pakistan in a misguided effort to control Afghanistan. This will be disastrous for the region. The continuation of this war, and particularly terrorist acts against civilians, will only lead to huge suffering for civilians and the further radicalisation of the local population.
The IAWM does not support the Taliban’s ideology, military strategy or its strict laws on social behavior. However, we recognise that it is US foreign policy that has led to the invasion of Afghanistan and the killing and displacement of thousands of civilians. The continued occupation and the escalation of the war is the real barrier to a just and lasting peace for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. After all there is a direct line between the Mujahedin who fought the invading Soviet Army in 1979 and the current Taliban insurgents. During the 1980s, through the American Government’s funding of the Mujahedin, together with their use of the Pakistani secret service, these insurgents became the forces of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Ireland is directly implicated in this unjustified occupation and escalation of the war in Afghanistan, since it has deployed seven troops there, under NATO command. The Irish Anti-War Movement calls on the Irish government to use its influence on the United States Government to:

- Stop the killings of innocent civilians
- To withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, and
- To change its foreign policy to prioritise peace and justice in the region instead of war and terror.

END

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Comments (5 of 5)

The good war

by ronan gallagher

Tue May 12, 2009 19:33

I agree mostly with what Mel says above , but despite the despicable behaviour of the politicians , we shouldn't concede Irish neutrality . Ireland isn't allied to the US , it's still a neutral country, just about .

It is disgraceful that the IAWM had a piece on the front page of its website last November expressing delight at Obama’s election victory ,and that the statement is actually still up on the site.
see : http://irishantiwar.org/node/292

Obama had said many times during the course of the US election campaign that he intended to escalate the war on Afghanistan which he characterised as "the good war" and to extend US military operations to Pakistan if neccessary . Now he is doing just that .
After Bush’s disaster of Iraq , a Republican Party president would not have got away so easily with escalating the war on Afghanistan . That was why important sections of the American military and ruling circles threw their weight behind Obama during the US election . The fact that the IAWM chose to pander to the illusion that Obama was anti-war rather than challenge that illusion makes the IAWM , or at least its supine leadership ,complicit in the terrible events now taking place in Afghanistan .The IAWM leadership was challenged on this issue at the time on this site ,but refused to take the article praising Obama’s victory from its site. See
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89890

Diverting the issue

by Mel

Tue May 12, 2009 15:10

"Why shouldn't the Taliban

- Stop the killings of innocent civilians
- To withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, and
- To change its foreign policy to prioritise peace and justice in the region instead of war and terror."

a) This is a statement from the IRISH anti-war movement, not the Afghan anti-war movement - it is our responsibility, as citizens of a state that is allied to the US, to challenge them. Any appeal from the IAWM to the Taliban would be meaningless - we have no means of bringing any political pressure to bear against them.

b) The Taliban can't very well "withdraw its troops from Afghanistan" since those troops are Afghani themselves.

c) The very same argument could have been made by the USSR twenty years ago - 'why should the Red Army leave Afghanistan before the fundamentalist terrorists lay down their arms?" Would you have agreed with them then? BTW, at that time the proto-Taliban was being funded by the USA.

Re: Fred

by Yel

Tue May 12, 2009 14:23

The commander of US forces, General David McKiernan was replaced at the request of Robert Gates, a top former CIA official during the Clinton Adminstration who was appointed Secretary of Defence by former President George W Bush. McKiernan's replacement is Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, a special forces veteran commander who served on the Joint Special Operations Command which played a key role in the campaign of assassionations which killed Al-Zarqawi and other Al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq. McChrystal's deputy is General David Rodriquez who was an assistant to Gates and another top special forces commander. McKiernan who had previously served as an armoured commander during the 2003 invasion of Iraq was considered too conventionally minded for the counter insurgency warfare in Afghanistan. McChrystal has come under criticism for his role in the military's delay in acknowledging the "friendly fire" death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, a former NFL player, in Afghanistan in 2004, an incident likely to come up during confirmation hearings.

The US and Phosphorus

by Fred Johnston

Tue May 12, 2009 12:22

I see that Obama, somewhat embarrassed, no doubt, by the civilian deaths, has recalled (sacked) his commander out in Afghanistan. Any more news on medical allegations that phosphorus has been used there? And how can we be sure that troop carriers bound for Afghanistan are not stopping in Shannon, the new US military air base in Europe? Is Brian Cowen, heading into elections, satisfied that Ireland is now complicit in yet more US military slaughter?

Why must the US and its allies make the first move?

by Jim

Tue May 12, 2009 11:59

Why shouldn't the Taliban

- Stop the killings of innocent civilians
- To withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, and
- To change its foreign policy to prioritise peace and justice in the region instead of war and terror.

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Irish Anti War Movement - PRESS RELEASE - 10 May 2009 US Bombing of Afghani and Pakistani Civilians

Comments (5 of 5)