Reuters, Oct. 6, 2011
KABUL | Thu Oct 6, 2011 3:07pm IST
(Reuters) – Hundreds of Afghans marched through Kabul on Thursday, the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, to condemn the United States as occupiers and demand the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops.
About 300 men and women gathered early in the morning with placards and banners accusing the United States of “massacring” civilians while denouncing President Hamid Karzai as a puppet subservient to Washington.
“Occupation – atrocities – brutality,” read one sign, held aloft by two women with scarves covering their head and face.
“No to occupation” said another placard, as a U.S. flag was set on fire. Another banner featured a caricature of Karzai as a glove puppet holding a pen and signing a document entitled “promises to the USA”.
Peace and Justice Post 
October 7, 2011 at 8:16 am |
Ten years of this savage war, and what exactly has been achieved?
In the 1980s, after about four or five years of the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan, Gorbachev had the courage to ask serious questions about the viability of the Soviet engagement in that country. The Soviets never invested the same huge number of troops and materiel in Afghanistan like the United States has done, but still the continued ability of the Afghan counterrevolutionary so-called ‘mujahideen’ to fight back gave the Soviet leadership pause for thought. Gorbachev worked out a scheduled withdrawal, and advised his Afghan counterparts to seek a negotiated solution. Whether that was right or wrong can be debated, but at least Gorbachev demonstrated his willingness to negotiate a serious, political solution with a disciplined withdrawal.
Here we are, ten years into the American invasion of Afghanistan, and the result has been escalating brutality, secret prisons, computerised warfare by way of unmanned drone strikes, fake negotiations with the enemy whose only purpose is to buy time and increase the levels of violence, massive civilian casualties, anti-US demonstrations and the increasing fragility of the Karzai government. In fact, India has been making inroads making an agreement with Karzai, which considerably reduces Pakistani influence. Are there any American politicians (Kucinich perhaps?) asking the serious questions about a negotiated solution, a disciplined withdrawal of troops and self-searching questions about the tragedy of American involvement in Afghanistan? Where is the assistance to the US veterans of that war, traumatised and damaged by the brutalities of that conflict? Where is the help for the thousands of Afghan civilians, maimed and psychologically damaged from this US war? The only thing the US authorities are doing is funding pro-American militias (that means organised thugs) to intimidate the population into submission. These militias are guilty of rape, extortion and murder.
All foreign troops (meaning the NATO occupation force) must withdraw from Afghanistan immediately.
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