[R-G] Islamism is NOT anti-imperialist - it is imperialism's "enemy within"

[Borba100 at aol.com]

The Taliban is NOT an anti-imperialist force and the US is not trying to 
destroy them. It is trying to remake them.  It needs a KLA-type formation in 
Afghanistan and the Islamists there have been squabbling for ten years which, 
from the US point of view, is ridiculous. Bin Laden tried to unite the 
factions a year ago, but failed.  The US wants this done, quick quick quick, 
as it always does, and ten years is much too long.  With the KLA, it was easy 
to get them in line; the US sent in the Verification Mission in fall of '98 
and they took control.  But the KLA are weak fish. The Islamists in 
Afghanistan and the "Arab Afghans" are not like the limp-wristed KLA.  They 
are ferocious.  So the US is taking them into receivership.  OF COURSE this 
is an outrageous imperialist attack, a brutal assault on the people of 
Afghanistan - who were first assaulted by the US-financed destruction of the 
progressive government that the Soviets backed, then assaulted by the 
US--Saudi-and Pakistani-paid for and Pakistani-led installation of the 
Taliban. But the goal of the US attack is not to destroy the Islamists, it is 
to bring them to heal - The US wants to establish a base of operations so 
that the remade Taliban under firm US control, with the Pakistanis continuing 
to do much of the work (as they did with the old Taliban) - can do a 
Macedonian number on the Central Asian Republics, to which the US wants to 
give military aid while sending the Islamists against them.  

We need to a) totally oppose the attack on the Afghan people and the monsters 
in Washington who have done it and at the same time b) totally oppose the 
Taliban and the Islamists in general who are a totally  reactionary force, 
responsible for (for example) the slaughter of over a hundred thousand 
MUSLIMS in Algeria while c) opposing the lie that 9-11 was the work of 
oppressed people striking back at Imperialism BECAUSE THERE IS NO WAY THIS 
WAS DONE WITHOUT WASHINGTON'S INVOLVEMENT.  Just plain impossible.  Why 
should oppressed people take the rap? When leftists organize on the basis of 
JUSTIFYING what the oppressed did ("payback time") they are in fact doing the 
work of the enemy: justifying the US "revenge" attack in the eyes of ordinary 
people and making the "eft" look like a bunch of maniacs.

Jared