We really shouldn’t let the furor over President Obama’s firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal cause us to lose focus on three important points regarding Afghanistan: The U.S. government should never have invaded and occupied the country in the first place, it should have exited the country years ago, and continuing the occupation for any period of time whatsoever is the height of immorality and folly.
Let’s keep in mind that the invader and occupier has had 9 years to accomplish whatever it wanted to accomplish. There have been no restraints whatsoever on the number of people who could be killed, maimed, jailed, tortured, or incarcerated to achieve such goals. And, in fact, countless Afghani people have been killed, jailed, tortured, and incarcerated for the past 9 years.
And for what?
U.S. officials tell us that it’s all for freedom and democracy for the Afghani people. That is not reality but instead sheer nonsense.
For one thing, the president of Afghanistan is nothing more than a U.S.-installed puppet dictator. He has not been elected president, as U.S. officials claim. An election that is fraudulent — that is, one in which the ballot boxes have been stuffed with fake ballots — is equivalent to no election at all. A fraudulent election is a nullity. It doesn’t count as an election.
Moreover, as everyone knows the Karzai regime is nothing more than a gang of crooked, corrupt gangsters and henchmen who are just lining their pockets and bank accounts with cash provided by U.S. taxpayers. That’s what U.S. troops are killing and dying for — to protect a crooked and corrupt regime remain in power simply because it is willing to do the bidding of the U.S. Empire.
Moreover, as the media has been reporting, U.S. officials are in the process of pouring vast amounts of cash into the hands of a Mafia-like protection racket, one in which Afghan warlords promise not to attack convoys carrying U.S. supplies if they are paid protection money. That’s the type of society that the U.S. invasion and 9 years of occupation have brought into existence. That’s what passes for a free and democratic society in the minds of U.S. officials.
Human Rights Watch recently issued a report detailing the problem of female genital mutilation in Afghanistan. It’s just part and parcel of the new, free, and democratic Afghanistan that 9 years of occupation have brought into existence.
Let’s also not forget the torture and indefinite incarcerations, which are have become permanent fixtures in Afghan society.
Interventionists keep hoping and praying for a miracle that will enable them to claim “victory” in Afghanistan. But they never tell us what “victory” is supposed to look like. In their minds, it undoubtedly means enough additional death and destruction that the Afghani people finally accept the inevitable — that they have been conquered by the U.S. Empire and must finally submit to the commands and orders of the U.S. military.
How likely is it that that is ever going to happen? Sure, there are the Quislings like Karzai and his crooked and corrupt cronies who go along with the occupier, just as there are Americans who would do the same if the United States were ever invaded and occupied. But there are enough ordinary Afghanis who are fully aware of their history — of how their ancestors are known for ousting foreign aggressors and occupiers from their land. My hunch is that there will always be more than enough Afghanis who believe it important, as a matter of national pride, to maintain the anti-empire tradition of their ancestors and who will continue to do whatever is necessary to oust their country of the latest empire to occupy it.
Interventionists love to tell us that the troops in Afghanistan (and Iraq) are protecting the rights and freedoms of the American people and are keeping us safe here at home. Actually, it’s the exact opposite. The death and destruction the troops are wreaking over there is what is producing the constant threat of terrorist retaliation against Americans, which in turn is providing the excuse for U.S. officials to infringe the fundamental rights and freedoms of the American people.
There is also the issue of financial bankruptcy that the U.S. government is facing. How can an empire that is broke afford to continue more years of very expensive occupation? Isn’t that the way the Soviet Empire came crashing down?
There is only one solution to all this inanity and folly. They’ve had 9 years to do whatever they hoped to do in Afghanistan. Their time is up. Enough is enough. We’ve seen enough death, destruction, torture, terrorist retaliation, and infringements on rights and freedoms to last a lifetime. It’s time to dismantle the U.S. military empire, bring all the troops home and discharge them, and restore a free society and a limited-government republic to our land. It’s time for American to experience peace, prosperity, and harmony for the rest of our lives.
