[Marxism] Afghanistan (was: Betancourt's halo [SIC] under spotlightm

[Fred Feldman]

Kai wrote:
The mujahadeen were
fighting against Soviet imperialism

Jscotlive replied:
Soviet imperialism - really? And here was me thinking that the Soviet Union 
intervened, after the then leftist Afghan government requested help against
a 
US funded and trained insurgency, to prevent the country being plunged back 
into the abyss of feudalism.

Fred comments:
Let's get our facts right. The President of Afghanistan, Hafizullah Amin,
asked for Soviet troops to come to Afghanistan to defend the country against
the reactionary, US-supported rebellion which had some serious popular
support especially in the countryside.

The Soviet troops arrived, overthrew Amin, executed him without a trial, and
imposed Karmal, who had been basically in exile as Afghan ambassador to
Czechoslovakia, as President.

Afghanistan did not fall back into the abyss of feudalism. They had never
emerged from it. NO country which has escaped feudalism has ever gone back
to it. 

I don't want to go into all the ways the Afghan revolutionary process was
screwed up by the leadership of the PDPA, including such things as imposing
coeducation of boys and girls by force (and I do mean military force which
was required in much of the country) rather than expanding the education of
girls and boys, and men and women.

Frankly, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan make the FARC, with
all their weaknesses, look like geniuses in the art of revolution.  

I suspect that when real bourgeois national revolution comes to Afghanistan,
it will take aRn Islamist form, as happened in Iran, where -- despite many
reactionary limitations and restrictions and oppressions -- women are way
ahead of where they were in 1979, not without fighting for this. 

This thread, which began with Adam Richmond's totally indefensible
endorsement of the three US mercenaries' treacherous and sexist attack on
Ingrid Betancourt, has wandered a fur piece. Maybe it needs a new name.
Maybe the underlying theme is the revolutionary character of getting your
facts right. SLANDERING bourgeois individuals is worth less than nothing to
the cause.
Fred Feldman

Fred Feldman