Will Karzai's Words translate into Deeds

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, and UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon all spoke by phone with Karzai, telling him that the runoff was essential to the “legitimacy” of the election and his regime itself.

Now, barely two weeks later, Washington and its allies are all insisting that the cancellation of the runoff is of no consequence and the selection of Karzai as the winner by his own handpicked election panel is perfectly legitimate.

The personification of the corruption that pervades the regime is the president’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of the provincial government in Kandahar, who has been charged with playing a central role in the country’s booming drug trade. As the New York Times revealed last week, he is also a key asset of the US Central Intelligence Agency, which has placed him on its payroll. His services to the agency include organizing a local “strike force” used to assassinate suspected insurgents and providing CIA operatives with facilities in the province.

The US occupation has been the most corrupting force in Afghanistan. It has rested on such figures as Karzai from the outset, strengthening the power of corrupt warlords implicated in the slaughter that took place in the country in the 1990s.

Narcotics trafficking has increased dramatically since the US invaded the country in 2001. Afghanistan’s minister for combating narcotics, General Khodaidad Khodaidad, pointed out recently that the bulk of the drugs are passing through two provinces that are under the control of US and other NATO troops.

Tens of thousands of additional troops are going to be sent to Afghanistan not to prop up the puppet government in Kabul, nor to hunt down Al Qaeda. The aim of the occupation is to pursue the strategic interests of US imperialism.

In other words, the war in Afghanistan and its escalation are not aimed at eradicating Al Qaeda. Rather, they are part of a projection of US military power into the strategic and energy-rich region of Central Asia, directed at countering the influence of Iran, Russia and China.

Obama, he wrote must warn that “any form of victory in Afghanistan and Pakistan will be part of a much wider and longer struggle” that will “endure indefinitely into the future.”

What is the meaning of this advice from the military adviser and strategist? One year after Obama’s election as the candidate of “change,” swept into office thanks in large part due to the anti-war sentiments of broad layers of the American population, what is being prepared is a dramatic escalation in the killing and dying in Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of an unending and ever-widening war.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/afgh-n03.shtml.....

I believe China and Russia will join forces when the war spills into their prospective regions.

The Rev.