[R-G] Afghanistan: Why the occupation needs to end

[Anthony Fenton]

AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan: Why the occupation needs to end
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/753/38902
Marlene Obeid
30 May 2008


The anti-war movement must step up its campaign for the immediate  
withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan.

Although Australian public sentiment is to see an end to any  
involvement in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Rudd Labor  
government’s budget demonstrates its commitment to sustained increases  
in military funding to sustain Australian involvement in both the  
occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The excuse in relation to Afghanistan is that Australian troops are  
aiding in “reconstruction” efforts.

The Afghan occupation is in its seventh year and resistance has not  
abated. A May 21 Centre for American Progress statement reported that,  
according to the US national intelligence director Michael McConnell,  
the US puppet regime of President Hamid Karzai controls no more than  
30% of the country.

Further, senior US army commanders in Afghanistan have requested at  
least 10,000 more troops to deal with increasing violence and attacks.

Civilian casualties

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) relies  
heavily on air power because of a “shortages of ground-troops”.  
Bombings are causing heavy civilian casualties, as well as resentment  
among the population.

Afghanistan is no better off since the occupation began. The 2007  
Afghanistan Human Development Report reveals catastrophic indicators:  
access to water is at 31% of households; life expectancy is 43.1  
years; adult literacy is 23.5%; 50% of Afghan children under five are  
malnourished; and 6.6 million Afghans do not meet their minimum daily  
food requirements.

Infant and maternal mortality rates have worsened since 2001. Infant  
mortality is 135 per 1000 live births, while the maternal mortality  
rate is estimated at 1600 per 100,000 live births. In the remote rural  
area of Badakshtan, the MMR is 6500 per 100,000 live births. 100,000  
children are disabled and otherwise severely affected physically due  
to prolonged conflict in the country.

Unemployment rates, citing CIA World Fact figures, remains high at  
40%. Unsurprisingly, 4 million Afghans have taken refuge in  
neighbouring countries since October 2001, when the US-led invasion  
occurred.

While under the regime of the Taliban, opium cultivation was almost  
eradicated. Since the invasion overthrew the Taliban regime,  
Afghanistan has become the “opium capital of the world”. A March 13  
Christian Science Monitor article reported that Afghanistan “is  
responsible for 92 percent of global [opium] output. Each year, the  
country produces about [US]$4 billion [in opium, amounting to] 53  
percent of gross domestic product, making drug production easily  
Afghanistan’s most lucrative industry.

“There are twice as many heroin users on the streets of Kabul than  
just four years ago and about one million of Afghanistan’s 34 million  
people are drug users …” There
are 60,000 children addicted to drugs.

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has called for a review  
of international aid to Afghanistan, stating that “international aid  
has not fully yielded fruit”, according to a May 24 China View  
article. Much of the aid money is being used for military purposes  
rather than reducing poverty.

Oppression of women

The situation for women has not improved since the US-led invasion —  
quite the contrary. The Revolutionary Association of Women in  
Afghanistan, the lead Afghan women’s rights group (which fought both  
the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the Taliban regime) has  
argued that the US-backed Karzai regime is no improvement for Afghan  
women.

A 2008 RAWA report on the situation of women argued: “After the 9/11  
tragedy, when the US began bombing Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, the  
oppression of Afghan women was used as a justification for  
overthrowing the Taliban regime. Five weeks later America’s first  
lady, Laura Bush, stated triumphantly: ‘Because of our recent military  
gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their  
homes’.

“But unfortunately the reality shows a different picture. The people  
of the world should know that though the disgusting, ludicrous and  
oppressive rule of Taliban was over in our ill-fated Afghanistan, this  
never meant the end of the horrible miseries of our tortured women.

“Because contrary to the aspirations of our people and expectations of  
the world community, the Northern Alliance, these brethren-in-creed of  
the Taliban and al Qaeda, are again in power and generously supported  
by the US government.”

At present, through Operation Slipper, Australia has 1080 army  
personnel in Afghanistan — which will be increased by another 550  
sometime this year when combat troops are deployed to this area from  
Iraq.

The Australian government has allocated A$429 million to this  
operation, plus $72.4 million for equipment on electronic counter  
measures in Iraq and Afghanistan, a further $122 million on Official  
Development Assistance and $47 million for a deployment of Australian  
Federal Police.

Four hundred Australian soldiers are carrying out “reconstruction”  
work in the village of Tarin Kowt in the Uruzgan province. The rest of  
the Australian soldiers are carrying out mainly support operations at  
airfields to the ISAF — as well as providing surveillance, security,  
and aiding other occupying forces in Kabul, Urguztan and Helmand  
provinces.

This a clear indication that the “reconstruction” efforts are just a  
facade. It is obvious that Australia is aiding and abetting in a  
disastrous occupation — contrary to the 1945 UN charter, the 1960  
declaration of decolonisation and the 1966 international bill of  
rights (IBR).

Foreign troops have not brought democracy to Afghanistan, but even  
more chaos and misery. It is time that all Australian troops are  
withdrawn from Afghanistan, and that the Australian government  
recognises the right of the Afghan people to self-determination, as  
noted in the first article of the IBR.

[Marlene Obeid is an activist from the Sydney Stop the War Coalition  
and the Canterbury Bankstown Peace Group.]