The West in Afghanistan: Six Years of “Operation Enduring Freedom”
By Hamayon Rastgar
On October 7, 2001, the US imperialists and its allies launched a military onslaught to invade and occupy Afghanistan. Arguing that this war constituted the best example of a just war, the imperialists and its ideologues widely publicized the plight of suffering Afghan women under the yoke of misogyny, and the theocratic and brutal rule of Taliban. The politicians in Washington promised liberation. In the words of Arundhathi Roy, it seemed as if the US marines were on a feminist mission. Many liberal and colonial feminists were deluded by this liberation of women rhetoric and lent their support to Bush’s war, invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.
In the attempt to construct ideological justification for the war, the contemporary history of Afghanistan was distorted; numerous lies and half-lies were constructed. The relationship between the US imperialists and Islamic fundamentalists and their rise to power in Afghanistan was systematically covered up.
A short glimpse at Afghanistan’s contemporary history, though, suggests that Afghanistan turned into a heaven for Islamic extremists in accordance with the wishes of the US imperialists and as a result of US support for political Islamists, including the Taliban. The modern day Taliban, Osama Bin-Laden, and Al-Qaida are the making of the US imperialists’ policies regarding the Muslim-majority-countries. However, the US imperialists this time around uses the “war against Islamic terrorism” to further their imperialist agenda and enhance the US supremacy in a vital geopolitical region in Asia.
Nonetheless, and partly because of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the ruling classes of the Western countries and of most of the world forced or willingly rallied behind this imperialist war. Le Monde, the prominent French newspaper captured the mood of the time by saying “we are all Americans.”
Nevertheless, when the US and its allies declared “Operation Enduring Freedom”, the code name for the first phase of their permanent war on terrorism, they also promised that democracy, women’s rights, human rights, and the reconstruction of a war ravaged Afghanistan would accompany the invasion and occupation of the country.
The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was completed in October and November of 2001. The reconstruction that the US and its allies undertook in Afghanistan was that of creating a modern colonial state to serve the geopolitical interests of the US imperialists and to use Afghanistan as a launching pad for dominating the region. Particularly, the US had an eye on the oil rich region of Caspian Sea. To reach such resources, Afghanistan is being used as a doorway. Thus the political and economic ‘reconstruction’ in Afghanistan was used solely for the purpose of reaching that imperialist objective which lies beyond the borders of Afghanistan. In other words, to use Afghanistan as a doorway to the oil of the Caspian Sea and also as military base to enhance the US supremacy in the region over that of potential rivals.
Upon occupying Afghanistan, the first action of the imperialists was to create a puppet government to serve their interests. Beginning with Bonn conference in Germany, they brought together a group of reactionary political forces—forces representing the parasitic ruling classes of Afghanistan—in order to form a puppet government dependent on the occupying powers for its security, financing and survival. Hamid Karzai, an ex-Taliban-associate, was selected by the US officials to serve as the chief of that puppet government. Furthermore, they manufactured a sham election to buy legitimacy for the puppet government, and declared their project of democracy complete. Now the occupying powers can claim that they are in Afghanistan at the request of the “democratically elected” Afghan government.
To call this government democratic is a cruel joke in terms of the concept of democracy and the people of Afghanistan. A country lacking sovereignty, and a nation without the right to self-determination—a nation under the boots of occupying forces—can never have democracy. Afghanistan is a country under imperialist occupation; the sovereignty in Afghanistan does not lie with the people of Afghanistan but is the sovereignty of the occupying powers, especially the US imperialists’ military and non-military officials in Kabul. The Karzai-led puppet government is representing the US imperialists’ interests and not the interests of the people of Afghanistan.
Since the imperialist powers do not have direct and immediate economic incentives in Afghanistan yet, they do not bother with any kind of economic reconstruction. They are looking to Afghanistan as a route to other places. The limited reconstruction is mainly focused on military facilities and the facilitation of the occupation. The occupiers, for example, have built the Kabul-Kandahar highway, which they need for moving their troops around the country. They have also attempted to increase the capacity of airports in Afghanistan for military purposes.
The aid money coming into the country has turned into a huge source of wealth for foreign and domestic carpetbaggers. Usually the aid donor countries are spending their aid through their own Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). There are a sizeable number of foreign NGO workers in Afghanistan who are making huge sums of money, some of them thousands of dollars a day; a big chunk of the aid money is being spent on the salaries, security, and lavish lifestyle of these aid workers. A small fraction of money that actually makes it to the ground evaporates through corruption, patronage, and dubious contracts. Thus, the aid does not change the lives of the masses of people, and does not buy their “hearts and minds”, but results in wrath and resentment. An article in a small handwritten paper, Handwritten News Paper in the Age of Internet (the literal translation of the name from Dari) published in the Daikundi Province of Afghanistan, captures this reality and the perception of the aid workers in the eyes of the populace. This article asks, “What is UNO [United Nations Organization]?” and the answer: “UNO is an international organization, whose members drive big white cars and comes in the summer to Daikundi to drink cold water from the mountains and return back to Kabul before it is winter.”
Six years after the occupation the living conditions of ordinary people throughout Afghanistan have further deteriorated. The most important problem confronting the people is widespread poverty and unemployment. Inflation, extremely low wages, unemployment, hunger, and a complete lack of infrastructure and basic necessities are haunting the wretched masses of Afghanistan. The imperialist powers and the puppet regime cannot only decrease people’s miseries, but they are the number one factor behind people’s miseries and poverty. The presence of a large number of foreign NGO workers, carpetbaggers, and others has caused inflation and jacked-up the prices of everything. The average rent of a three-room mud house, for example, is $300 per month, and the wage of a teacher is less then a $100 per month. The corruption and parasitic nature of the puppet regime is also a prime factor for the increasing misery of the people. Powerful politicians and bureaucrats in the regime not only have their hands in the pocket of the poor for extortions and bribery but are also, in a very systematic manner, taking away land, houses, and property from the population. Poor people’s homes, slums and shops are being bulldozed to make place for villas, complexes and shopping malls for the rich.
The lives of the peasantry are even more miserable. Either they have been directly effected by the war, and their livelihoods are being destroyed under the bombing and war efforts of the occupying troops, or they are victims of wide spread poverty, lack of food and resources; moreover, they are exploited by the super-exploitation and extortions at the hands of the ruling classes tied to the puppet regime.
The handicrafts businesses are under attack from the cheap imports of consumer goods from wealthier countries. Previous men and women who work in these handicrafts businesses are swelling the ranks of the unemployed. This is why those workers who can afford to leave are fleeing the country in search of jobs in neighboring countries. Iran is a popular destination for many, and yet the Iranian government has a hostile policy towards Afghan migrant workers. This year alone the Iranian government has expelled fifty thousand workers. And now the Iranians have put a $600 price on their visa, a huge sum of money for that part of the world. This fact alone speaks volumes about the situation in Afghanistan.
Furthermore, the women of Afghanistan, contrary to the war’s promises, have not been liberated. The current puppet regime is as misogynistic and patriarchal as the previous Taliban government. The constitution of this puppet regime is also based on sharia law, which definitely does not consider men and women as equal. Violence, lack or resources, poverty, and sexual harassment at the hands of government mercenaries with guns, along with centuries of feudal-patriarchal practices, are making the lives of women in Afghanistan hellish. The puppet government is the upholder and enforcer of all these patriarchal and misogynistic practices. And the occupying powers are propping-up such a government.
Due to the falling standard of living and broken promises resentment towards the puppet government and the occupying forces is growing. Resistance in different forms and shape is increasing across the country and the Taliban is exploiting this situation in its favour. Due to this resentment and resistance, the Taliban has succeeded in eliminating the control of the puppet government and the occupying troops in vast areas of several provinces. Now it controls huge swaths of land in Paktika, Zabul, Qandahar, Oruzgan, Helmand, Farah, Ghazni, and Kapisa, and is increasingly able to launch military operations even inside Kabul.
Therefore, the occupying forces have clearly lost the war of “hearts and minds.” The puppet regime has no credibility and legitimacy in terms of the concrete reality in Afghanistan. The political developments over the past six years indicate that they are unable to resolve the crisis in their favour. The brutality and the viciousness of the war will amplify the longer the occupation continues, and this will definitely increase people’s resentment and generate new recruits for the resistance.
For the good of the Afghan people this occupation should end sooner rather than later. What, then, is the alternative? This question is on the mind of many people in regard to Afghanistan and is a question of global importance. What is the alternative to the bullying of imperialists, wars of conquests and the looming dangers to the whole of humanity? Political Islamists of different varieties are posing as anti-imperialists and claim to offer alternatives. But it should be clear that this alternative not only is unable to break the chains of imperialism but leads to a theocratic servitude. The main factor behind the crisis of current conjunctures is the weakness of the revolutionary left forces, which allows the Islamists to pose as standing up to imperialists.
If the occupying forces in Afghanistan were to be defeated by the reactionary Islamists forces, there will not be genuine liberation. The Taliban at best would change the direct colonial occupation with indirect semi-colonial domination. The Taliban, like the current puppet regime, does not have any long-term structural plans or the capacity for solving the underlying problems that are facing the people of Afghanistan.
However, there are revolutionary and political organizations in Afghanistan that could offer a progressive alternative, and the political landscape has the potential of turning in their favour. The peoples’ resentment towards the puppet government and the occupation grows daily. The Taliban has serious limitations at mobilizing all the people in Afghanistan and can never gain a foothold amongst the non-Pashtun nationalities—nationalities who form well over sixty percent of the population in the country. Neither can the Taliban mobilize the women in Afghanistan. Thus, the only possible social base of the Taliban is male Pashtuns, despite the fact that many of male Pashtuns are not happy with the misogynist, national chauvinist, and the theocratic nature of Taliban. Therefore, only democratic, internationalist, secular, pro-women’s rights and progressive politics can mobilize all the peoples of Afghanistan against the occupying imperialist powers and their puppet regime. The revolutionary left is the only candidate that can offer such an alternative. If such a change occurs in the equation of the current war, the occupying forces will be placed in an even more difficult situation. It would be significantly difficult for them to fight a war against a political force with a progressive social and political agenda; which would further delegitimize the ideology of the occupation being “progressive”. At the same time, such a development would seriously weaken Taliban who are now claiming a monopoly over the war of resistance.
The left in Afghanistan have been waging a political struggle against the occupation over the past six years. They have talked of preparing for a “national revolutionary peoples war of resistance.” It remains to be seen if they actually succeed in offering a progressive political alternative. There is no doubt, since this struggle is an international struggle against imperialism, that progressive anti-imperialist movements and individuals worldwide should extend their support and solidarity to the left in Afghanistan.
Hamayon Rastgar is an Afghan-Canadian and a member of Afghanistan-Canada Research Group (ACRG). He traveled to Afghanistan, along with Mike Skinner also a member of ACRG, in the summer of 2007 and spent three months in the country doing research. hamayon@yorku.ca
