America's
Other Quagmire
By
Peter Symonds
World
Socialist Web
30 August 2003
In
reply to a sharply rising level of guerrilla attacks, US and Afghan
forces launched large-scale operations on Monday against armed opposition
militia in the south east of Afghanistan. The attacks and the repressive
response underscore the growing hostility and resistance to the US-led
military occupation of the country and its client regime in Kabul.
US Special Forces
soldiers and hundreds of Afghan troops, backed by massive US air support,
have been sweeping mountainous areas of Zabul province where between
600 and 1,000 Taliban fighters were said to be entrenched. The operation
began on Monday with the bombardment of an alleged Taliban camp using
A-10 gunships, F-16s and AV-8B Harrier attack jets, which killed at
least 14 people according to a US military spokesman.
Codenamed Operation
Warrior Sweep, the offensive has continued throughout the week.
Air attacks have been followed by ground operations involving house-to-house
searches of villages in the Dai Chupan district. Local police chief
Juman Khan announced on Monday that 40 people had been detained, but
cautioned that he had no idea how many of those were innocent civilians.
Provincial intelligence
chief Khalil Hotak announced on Wednesday that US and Afghan forces
had retaken control of the key Moray Pass after heavy fighting. He claimed
that at least a dozen Taliban had been killed, bringing the total to
70. At least three Afghan soldiers have lost their lives. More fierce
fighting took place yesterday, with an Afghan colonel claiming that
a further 40 Taliban had been killed.
In another operation
in neighbouring Paktika province, about 600 US and Afghan troops, backed
by helicopter gunships, were engaged in extensive house-to-house searches
in the Urgun district. According to Afghan officials, by Monday at least
80 people had been detained in the raids.
There is no independent
confirmation of claims by the US and Afghan military of who exactly
is being killed and detained. But if the Taliban, allied militia or
other opposition groups have managed to gather in their hundreds, entrench
themselves in mountain strongholds and build training camps, it is a
sign of mounting opposition, particularly among the countrys majority
Pashtuns in the south and east of Afghanistan.
While media attention
has been focused on Iraq, Afghanistan is also becoming a quagmire for
the US military. After nearly two years of sustained operations, a US-led
force of some 12,500 largely American troops, working with Afghan soldiers
and allied militia, has failed to pacify the country. Far from destroying
Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants, the US military operations,
each of which have reaped a toll of civilian deaths and arbitrary detentions,
have only engendered greater resistance.
Small-scale attacks
on Afghan troops, US-bases and other government targets have regularly
taken place. But in recent weeks, these have escalated in both scope
and intensity. The US-led operations in Paktika and Zabul are in reprisal
for a series of ambushes and attacks in these provinces over the past
fortnight, including:
* Two large attacks
on police stations in Paktika province took place on August 17. In the
first, more than 200 militia fighters overran a police post in Barmal
district, killing eight police officers including the district police
chief. Later in the day, another large force numbering several hundred
set fire to a police station in the border village of Tarway and kidnapped
four officers.
* The following
day, anti-government fighters attacked and killed Abdul Khaliq, the
police chief of Logar province and several other senior police officers.
The group was returning from a family funeral when their vehicles came
under rocket attack.
* Last Friday, a
three-hour battle between government soldiers and rebels erupted in
neighbouring Uruzgan province. Four soldiers and two opposition militiamen
died in the bitter fighting. Afghan officials claimed the militia group
was based in the Dai Chupan district of Zabul province. The next day,
at least five government soldiers died in an ambush in the Dai Chupan
area.
US and Afghan officials
regularly blame Pakistan for the attacks, claiming that it has not done
enough to prevent militia groups crossing into Afghanistan. But the
real source of the resistance lies in the discontent and opposition
that has been bred inside Afghanistan by the activities of the US military
and its allies.
Since the ousting
of the Taliban in late 2001, the vast majority of Afghans have seen
no improvement either in their living standards or respect for their
basic democratic rights. Outside the capital, the country has been carved
up between local warlords and militia leaders, who operate with the
sanction of Kabul and the US military. These petty despots are often
engaged in smuggling, drug running and extortion and do not hesitate
to use the most brutal methods to maintain their rule.
In a bid to bolster
its position in Afghanistan, the Bush administration is poised to announce
a doubling of reconstruction aidfrom the present $900 million
to around $1.8 billion. While the package is yet to be announced, Washingtons
aid coordinator for Afghanistan, William Taylor told to the media: What
were trying to do is to focus attention, people, resources on
Afghanistan, and were looking for ways to do that.
Even if the aid
is increased, it will be a pittance compared to what is required to
provide basic services. Many Afghans still lack access to electricity,
water, transport, health care, education and, in some cases, adequate
food supplies. A recent Rand Corporation report comparing so-called
peacekeeping operations found that per capita financial assistance to
Afghanistan had been just $54 in the first two years as compared to
$1,390 in Bosnia and $814 in Kosovo over a comparable period.
Washingtons
priorities have nothing to do with ending the widespread poverty in
Afghanistan. About half of the new US aid is to go towards training
more police officers and doubling the size of the national army from
5,000 to 10,000 soldiers. Much of the rest is to go toward high-profile
projects such as roads and power plants, which are aimed at establishing
the infrastructure for foreign investment.
The Bush administration
plans to bolster the US presence by assigning an additional 70 staff
to its embassy staff in Kabul and sending four more military reconstruction
teams to key provincial towns. The American and British military already
have four teams in place, setting up local administration, police and
court systems and carrying out small-scale construction projects in
a bid to win local support.
A number of the
new US officials in Kabul are to be assigned to government departments.
But there are already concerns that these advisers and hearts
and minds teams will simply provoke further opposition, recalling
similar ultimately futile efforts by Soviet authorities during their
military occupation in the 1980s. A New York Times report cautiously
noted that American officials were pledging that the new advisers would
not resemble the shadow ministers that Moscow installed
in Kabul.
The small increase
in financial assistance is a crude attempt to shore up, at least temporarily,
Washingtons puppet in KabulPresident Hamid Karzai. Currently
Karzais writ does not extend beyond the capital where he is defended
by US bodyguards and the 5,000-strong International Security Assistance
Force, which was recently transferred from UN to NATO command. Any undermining
of Karzai, who is due to face national elections next year, would be
a political blow to Washington.
The efforts to shore
up the US position in Afghanistan are also being undertaken with another
election in mind. The last thing that Bushs political advisers
want is for a worsening situation in Afghanistan, alongside that in
Iraq, to become a major issue in the lead-up to next years presidential
poll.