Robert Fisk: America is performing its familiar role of propping up a dictator
As in Vietnam, Karzai is going to rule over an equally tiny island of corruption
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Independent Minds
Could there be a more accurate description of the Obama-Brown message of congratulations to the fraudulently elected Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan? First the Palestinians held fair elections in 2006, voted for Hamas and were brutally punished for it – they still are – and then the Iranians held fraudulent elections in June which put back the weird Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whom everyone outside Iran (and a lot inside) regard as a dictator. But now we have the venal, corrupt, sectarian Karzai in power after a poll far more ambitiously rigged than the Iranian version, and – yup, we love him dearly and accept his totally fraudulent election.
And now we are still trying to persuade his opponent to join a national unity government, an administration led by the man whose vote-stuffing was the very reason that same leader of the opposition – the good pseudo-Pashtun Abdullah Abdullah – refused to run in a second round of elections. And Karzai got his fawning congrats from the Obama-Brown twins. So that's OK then. Wagons Ho. For Westmoreland, read McChrystal. Send in the brave 40,000 to join the rest of the US cavalry as it fights its way west – or rather south-west – to the Khe Sanh of Afghanistan in Year Eight of the War on Terror.
The March of Folly was Barbara Tuchman's title for her book on governments – from Troy to Vietnam-era America – that followed policies contrary to their own interests. And well may we remember the Vietnam bit. As Patrick Bury, a veteran British soldier of our current Afghan adventure, pointed out yesterday, Vietnam is all too relevant.
In 1967, Washington needed the elections to give legitimacy to this revolting dictator – and thus provide credibility to its own military occupation of Vietnam in the war against Communism. As in Vietnam – where Saigon was a lonely kingdom of brutal power totally isolated from the rest of the country – Karzai is going to rule over an equally tiny island of corruption, protected by US mercenaries while the Americans perform their familiar role of propping up a dictator.
As ex-Lieutenant Bury sagely points out, the Afghan war is "campaigning on a par with the 19th-century British colonial army trying to manage the unwinnable... What was or is the strategy behind these long, bloody conflicts?" Well, in 1967, it was the possible communisation of Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Now it is Pashtunistan, Baluchistan, Waziristan. For us, the vast ignorant "plebes", it's supposed to stop the Taliban/al-Qa'ida beasts from attacking our looming towers all over again, albeit that the 2001 murderers in question largely hailed from that friendly, moderate, brutal, oligarchical monarchical dictatorship called Saudi Arabia where – thank the good gods – they don't hold elections.
But it's part of a dreary pattern. US forces were participating in a civil war in Vietnam while claiming they were supporting democracy and the sovereignty of the country. In Lebanon in 1982, they claimed to be supporting the "democratically" elected President Amin Gemayel and took the Christian Maronite side in the civil war. And now, after Disneyworld elections, they are on the Karzai-government side against the Pashtun villagers of southern Afghanistan among whom the Taliban live. Where is the next My Lai? Journalists should avoid predictions. In this case I will not. Our Western mission in Afghanistan is going to end in utter disaster.
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Comments
For a few weeks now, you worry me because you are getting overheated. I truly admire you, Mr. Fisk. I also understand the enormous anger which unjust US policy evokes, especially in regard to israel. But maybe it's time for you to take a brief vacation so you can continue to do your best.
The big difference between Afghanistan and Vietnam is the absence this time around of Great Power politics. I doubt whether the material support of rich Saudi dilettantes to the Taliban is equivalent to the PRC and USSR's support of the VC in their day. I predict the strategy going forward is to try and carve a political wing off the Taliban that can be integrated into the Afghan body politic, and then to progressively marginalize the military wing. In other words, the model is Northern Ireland, not South Vietnam.
As to an inimical "Great Power", just look to the Pakistan side. They may currently bombing their own populace at the say-so of the US (future developments of that strategy may prove to be ... interesting), but they are not "our allies".
Anyway, this discussion is moot. "We" don't even have the money to finance this mission to nowhere. The US is broke. Obama has only one decision to make: Grow a pair, sack the unsubordinate McChrystal as well as the Teflon General before they roger him any more, then get out. All other things are a total waste of money, life and political clout.
But while speculation regarding Obama’s decision about expanding the Afghanistan War, Obama has a multiplicity of other foreign policy decisions, and an array of domestic economic goals he wants to pursue in the U.S.
Has any president, has any leader, ever had so many critical decisions to make at one time?
Has any leader ever had such a problem in dealing with critical domestic issues that mean so much to him, and yet had such risks to his plans and hopes caused by a foreign war he would rather not have to speak about?
Like Obama, Rev. Martin Luther King was confronted with a similar monumental decision about whether to speak-out against the imperialist war ‘abroad’, that was grinding up the working-class sons of both black and white Americans, or to continue focusing on his most heart-felt problem ‘at home’ of inequality and racism.
For more than a year, Rev. King kept his focus on the racial battle at home, and would not be detoured by addressing the combination of multiple issues that would inevitably spring from taking-on the crimes of imperialist foreign war, domestic racism, and the ‘class-warfare’ that linked these crimes of Empire.
Finally, on April 4th, 1967, and at the Riverside Church, Dr. King decided that it was “A Time to Break Silence” not only about Vietnam, but Beyond Vietnam, and to speak truth about the nature of Empire and the class-war that Empire always uses to maintain its unfair, unjust, and un-democratic control of power both ‘abroad’ and ‘at home’.
Hopefully, Obama will reach the same monumental decision as Dr. King – and even more hopefully, average Americans of all colors will respond to a seminal 'outing' of Empire by recognizing their common humanity and their common ‘public interest’ in democracy (against the ‘private interest’ of Empire), and by treating this 21st century messenger and leader against Empire differently than Dr. King was treated.
I hope that Obama is benefiting, in his time of decision, from taking the time to re-read King’s Riverside speech:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeche
King noted, “The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit”
And today, hopefully, Obama will take note that, “The war in [fill in the blank____________] is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit”
King continued:
“It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. ... When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Finally, King concludes with, “If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
I hope that Obama recognizes that those “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism”, plus the arrogance of super-power (as Francis Fukuyama now recognizes) are really the shadow of EMPIRE --- even if it is presented under the veil of sweet sounding speeches and through the facade of 'Vichy' democracy.
I can only hope that Obama recognizes that what makes peaceful revolution impossible is EMPIRE --- and that he soon shares this terrible truth with the American people, that the Empire is posing as us, the U.S.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
I do think though that one hurdle to be overcome is that daily indoctrination in school where the current and past generations of children are literally indoctrinated into thinking they are vastly superior to everyone else and specially chosen by some wisp in the sky, this has led to of course seeing people in other nations as savages and sub-human, if you repeatedly tell children they are better than everyone else and everyone outside of their country is inferior, this of course leads to that belief being entrenched in adult years and even in policy where nations are expected to fete to the US's "superiority" and major shock when this does not happen.
The war on terrorism has long departed and morphed into a marketing exercise in support of the mirage of democracy. Oh, and while they're at it trying to keep an eye on the Pakistani situation, just in case they're needed in there too.
Both Vietnam and Afghanistan were started in the same manner, on a lie.
Both Vietnam and Afghanistan have been fitted with US installed puppets.
Both Vietnam and Afghanistan have opium production as a key issue.
Both Vietnam and Afghanistan have seen the US indiscrimately massacring civilians, committing war crimes and behaving atrociously towards anyone not on their side.
As for basis of disaster, after eight years surely you would see some sort of encroachment to victory, the US is pushed into citadels of power just as were the Russians, making sorties out to wave the flag but quickly losing the initiative and returning back achieving nothing.
And even with a conscription drive, even if Obama realised that you cannot win a ground war from the air, they still cannot win because no one knows really who the enemy is and so like in Vietnam, the US will ramp up its terror for terror tactics, will alienate more, will cause more to join up and defy the US and like Vietnam we will see the US evacuating in short order.
Like the VC, these shadowy Al Qaeda and Taleban fighters look just like their fellow countrymen, there is no uniform to identify them, modern and highly technical militaries are very vulnerable to guerilla fighters on their own turf and so in frustration and anger, the US as in Vietnam, is now doing in Afghanistan is bombing the crap out of anything moving and this is having a majorly negative effect on any efforts in that country, in short America is slaughtering its way to defeat.
America has absolutely NO idea on how to fight or win wars, it was on the winning side in WWII but it was Hitler that threw the victory to the allies by enraging the Russians, other than that Grenada is the only other victory America can claim in how many wars? How many years? It thought by having the British and the French on board, past masters at empire and stealing countries would help but forgetting that the British had been tossed out a hell of a lot quicker more than once.
And just how much more can the American taxpayer afford? US gross expenditure is 165% of total revenue, for every dollar coming in, the US Govt has spent 165, how long will America's creditors tolerate this? How long will the people tolerate this? America could recover back in the 70's because it had a huge industrial base to help heal the wounds, this is all but gone and a fraction of the size today, the Petrodollar is dwindling... in short America cannot afford to pay its debts.
Bush broke America's back over Iraq and Afghanistan will be the final straw for the US, even if the US were to win right now, how on earth are they ever going to even reclaim a fraction of what they have spent chasing the phantoms in that country?
And it is this, that keeps Putin and the Chinese keen to see the Americans stay in Afghanistan, to open up a new front in Pakistan and parts of Africa, to them its a gift from the gods, Putin knows full well that every day, every week, every month the US is stuck in Afghanistan is that much closer to American economical collapse and ruin, all the Russians and the Chinese have to do is sit back and enjoy the view as they watch their adversary destroy itself and Afghanistan claims another victory against empire.
You might put naysayers and rabid militarists off their breakfast.
2006 the West were offered a voting system which could not be frauded. It was designed for Zimbabwean/Nigerian conditions and was (and is) ideal for conflict zones. In other words, a Guarantee of Democracy and of People's Power.
Surprise - the system was blackballed. The reason? None given. But the word 'dangerous' cropped up several times, 'politically unacceptable', and 'undesirable implications'. What was meant by 'undesirable implications?' - no answer.
Because of this political refusal to accept something which realises the West's oft-repeated mantra, we have farcical elections in Afghanistan, Gabon and many other countries, and simmering dictatorship in Zimbabwe. Innocent civilians and innocent soldiers on both sides must die in order to feed the obduracy and resistance to change which is embedded in Barack Obama and Gordon Brown.
Mr Alex Weir, Baghdad and Harare
Think about how many lives you will eventually save. Think about the money savings as wll.
Learn from the bitter mistakes of your predecessor President Lyndon Johnson with the lies about Vietnam. Ignore those with a self interest in perpetuating wars - the CIA, the Pentagon, the Military-Industrial Complex and, the Oil Industry because they cloak their evil deeds and ambitions under the cloak of false patriotism. They care nothing about casualties - the cost of "doing business"
"Hell, it's the only war we got - let's make the most of it!"
Compare this to the situation we face as Europeans we are shortly to have a President whom noone has elected , who will not have even presented his name to go forward to any measure of electoral approval and who will have been chosen behind closed doors . No doubt congratulations will pour in to the newly appointed dictator from all over the world on this splendid example of Western democracy at work
Just how fair were these supposed elections? As fair as Hitler's when he got into power? That was followed by the night of the Long Knives. Hamas had a similar version when they eliminated Fatah opposition including throwing members of that organisation off the top of a building!
I think he would have something to say, however, about the fairness of such elections if political parties behaved like Hamas in a Western state.
But let's not dwell on that. It is Israeli brutality that Fisk wants to talk about.
We can talk about Israeli brutality if you want. But it doesn't really help anyone defending Israel's position, does it?
We pull out of Afghanistan and leave it to its fate. For those of you with short memories as to what life was like under the Taleban - it was brutally repressive (something that ought to trouble Fisk as he makes a stand against brutality. It would involve the ruthless subjugation of women, the maiming and killing of transgressors of the law of sharia (perhaps the reintroduction of the only permitted form of entertainment - the machine gunning of 'criminals' Kabul football stadiwm) continuing huge illiteracy, extremely high levels of mortality and and so on.
Is this really preferable?
We kept hearing that it was for the August election that we were trying to clear the way for. The election turned into a farce, it was found to be rigged, the opposition contender has pulled out and the fraudulent 'winner' is declared the President. Meanwhile soldiers are being killed for a corrupt Government and global terrorism is on the rise, not least next door in Pakistan which had been relatively stable.
It is a pity to see our country (the USA) ruined by dishonest fools. Amvet
2. disarm warlords
3. blow up the Wahabi madrasas, allow Sufism to resume its rightful place as the preferred form of Islam in that part of the world.
To help bring British troops home from Afghanistan, sign the following petition:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/STWCAf
But Mr Fisk's apparent assumption here that all these US interventions are initiated and effected with narrow-eyed and cynical calculation and a wealth of inside knowledge strikes me as a bit absurd. Americans have this daft crusading (in the non-technical sense of that word!) zeal which leads them to think that they have all the answers, and they try to put their solutions into effect because, with their overwhelming economic and miltary wealth and power and to borrow Obama's phrase ... "because we can". In Afghanistan, as in Viet Nam, Somalia, Latin America, the middle east generally, they blunder rather than intervene incisively.
Realistically, the fury, outrage and fear which followed the Twin Towers outrage would have impelled any US administration to take spectacular action. A wiser and cautious administration might have acted with a bit more circumspection, but as Americans had elected themselves a simplistic buffoon for a president who was backed by a bunch of blinkered ignorant ideologues, circumspection was a non-starter. But, with or without circumspection, I suspect the outcome wouldn't have been that different; the home political imperative would have forced a spectacular, face-saving, superficially security-encouraging military intervention. Al Qaeda was sheltering in Afghanistan, and Afghanistan therefore had to be invaded. Given the nature of the Bush administration, we can be grateful that they didn't just "nuke" the whole place.
Now, having got there, they don't really know what to do. They only know "American solutions" that are within their own comfort zone; Afghanistan and its people - the way things work there, the traditions, the way people think, do their politics, live out their faith, construct their family and social relationships - are as alien to them as those of little green men on the moon, had they happened to discover any when the astronauts landed there. They can't pull out, because that would be an admission of failure, and things haven't yet got so bad that a Viet Nam style retreat is inevitable. So they blunder on.
But things, inevitably, get worse because of the lack of a knowledge-based stategy. If you don't understand what you're dealing with, how can you possibly help forge anything worthwhile, and then constructively extricate yourself?! Mutual incomprehension rules - and easily morphs into mutual hatred.
Where Fisk, I think, is right, is that it will inevitably get worse. It isn't, yet, a Viet Nam, but it looks as if it will be.
But, I suppose, the USA will be seen at home to have done something, there'll be a withdrawal with a face-saving formula, and honour will be satisfied. The irony is that the whole thing will have done nothing to address the actual causes of the Twin Towers atrocity, and makes some sort of repetition more rather than less likely. And, of course, that thousands of people die while the game is played out.
industry, The gun lobby even looks upon the right to bear arms as if a human right, ever ready to quote the American Constitution. Not that other major countries also disdain that kind of huge profitmaking - non olet. But maintaining a war industry is also important it seems in keeping with the image of a world power...in America's case, THE world power. In other words, a world power with a war industry has to constantly create wars, it's raison d'etre. Or create wars by proxy by selling their deadly
commodities to countries, big and small, embroiled in local conflicts.
So we have the vicious cycle...armament industry for wars....ad infinitum.
1-disarming
2-dismembering.
money ,media,ignorance,finishing religion,ethics,moral,manners,family ties and educate what Zionist want you to know about economy and believes so they will stay under control.
Israel" succeed for sometime to do the above" to prove that Israel is the best to be the police of the world.
I am not sure if 9/11 is done by Muslim Ben laden? or that was used by israel to make the causality over 3000?
more Qs than As in the courts.
Taliban asked USA courts to give evidence before they allow Bin laden to be handed to USA or any court.