Unspeakable U.S.- prolonged Afghanistan-Pakistan tragedies

Body of burned Afghan child

Whose lives have value; who is prized, who despised, who is cherished, who discarded?

Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

Background

Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11.

Afghanistan has never threatened America. If the U.S. occupation ends, Afghanistan, still, would not threaten the United States of America.

International law is clear: No nation may attack another nation except in self-defense.

The U.S. war is lawless. Neither the UN Security Council nor the U.S. Congress authorized this invasion and occupation. The United States has not fought a legal war since World War II.

‘Al Qaeda’ is a U.S. creation.

Body of Afghan

The U.S. ‘War on terrorism’ [begun in 2001] … has not removed religious fundamentalism, which is the main cause of all miseries,” says the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.” The U.S administration reinstalled warlords in power in Afghanistan, thus replacing one fundamentalist regime with another. Together with [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai, the U.S. government relies mostly on Northern Alliance criminal leaders who are as brutal and misogynist as the Taliban.

“RAWA believes that freedom and democracy cannot be donated; it is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values.  Under the U.S.-supported [Karzai] government,” RAWA says, “the sworn enemies of human rights, democracy and secularism have gripped their claws over our country and have attempted to restore their religious fascism on our people.

“Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved.”

ONGOING AGGRESSION

U.S.-Afghanistan
to take
U.S.- Iraq model

Perpetual Occupation (agreed under force) and grant of impunity

U.S./Afghanistan presidents’ secret in the dark

‘Status of forces’ or SOFA agreements set a framework under which United States forces operate abroad. These agreements, bilateral or multilateral, define the status of visiting military forces.  Wide-ranging particulars regarding the status of visiting forces may be set out “in a separate agreement” or the SOFA may be “part of a more comprehensive agreement.”

U.S. Defense (Pentagon) officials — negotiating with an ‘independent host nation’ — draft the provisions of a Status of Forces Agreement. “Occupied countries” have little say in the matter.

Stephen Lendman describes these agreements as “a modern-day version of 19th century China’s ‘extraterritoriality’ agreements, granting foreigners [visitors, occupiers] charged with crimes the ‘right’ to be tried by [the foreigners’] government and under that government’s domestic law.”

Host countries’ local courts are precluded “from exercising legal jurisdiction over American personnel.”

Impunity

With its enormous occupation of hundreds of known, shared, and secret bases in more than 150 countries, the U.S. presence “assures trouble,” Lendman says, that “includes murder, rape, theft, drunken driving, and other crimes.” This mass occupation also subjects local people to “unacceptable noise, pollution, environmental destruction, appropriated public land; and flagrant disregard for local laws, customs, and rights of ordinary people.”

Permanent U.S. occupations

Under “Status of Forces” agreements (mostly secret, some infractions “too embarrassing to reveal,” total number unknown), even U.S. foreigners who commit murder and rape are exempt from local judicial process — unless U.S. officials yield to local authorities. “Offenders,” Lendman says, are usually whisked out of countries.”

Endless lawlessness, endless aggression

Local people “have no say and virtually no chance of redress.” The most harmed in permanent occupations, the peoples of host countries, “lose control of their lives.”

Permanency is not built to be abandoned. Bases as in Iraq are “city size,” having “extensive infrastructure, command-and-control centers, foreign family accommodations in combat-free areas together with hospitals, schools, recreational facilities — virtually everything available in their native country.

The U.S. came to stay in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

UNSPEAKABLE SUFFERING

NATO under fire - Pakistan

 Death

Though it seems not to matter, the Afghan people want the United States out of their country and Americans, for different reasons, say they want the same; but, as Lendman puts it, Americans are mostly complacent and indifferent.

Together with impunity, atrocities seem unchecked and unending.

The annual report released today by the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said, “Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war in ever-increasing numbers.”

A total of “3,021” civilians died last year, an 8 percent rise from 2010.

A total of “11,864 civilians” have died in the conflict in Afghanistan since 2007.

The report said most deaths attributed to NATO forces resulted from “attacks from the air” and the UN mission urged the 130,000 NATO force to review its tactics — particularly regarding aerial attacks — aimed at preventing civilian loss of life in all military operations.”

Afghanistan protest

Pakistan-based analyst Ali Sukhanver reflected on a truth too simple to avoid yet it is senselessly avoided.

“What if I hand over a loaded gun to a hungry teenager; naturally he would turn that gun on me and run away with all that I have in my pockets.

“This is what is happening in Afghanistan and in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“While commenting on the ever-increasing flames of violence — mistakenly called terrorism — we find it very easy to shift the whole blame on to the ‘hungry boy.’ No one blames the hands that hand the gun to him instead of taking care of his hunger.

“The situation in Afghanistan regarding the blazing fire of terrorism is never going to change unless the hands are cuffed which mock at the helplessness of Afghan people.

ANSWER Coalition

“Whatever is happening in Afghanistan is not terrorism but is instead a reaction and response to U.S. atrocities against the people of Afghanistan: paying back in the same coin… The hungry need bread not guns.” Kindness returns in kindness.

Hunger

In this foreign war of aggression, the people of Afghanistan also suffer hunger, conditions particularly threatening to people living in the mountains, people who are poor, and people who are very young. Afghanistan is one of the highest ranked countries in the world when it comes to problems with food security, says a report released today by the World Bank and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Economy.

iCasualties
War in Afghanistan5-5-2012 update

Children below the age of five are hit the hardest. “At least 54 percent of Afghan children face serious challenges in getting adequate food and nutrition. At least 29 percent of the country’s population received insufficient calories and 20 percent have a poor diet.

U.S. IN AFGHANISTAN

Foreign raids, local resistance

It is unacceptable,” said an Afghan villager, “that they are coming and conducting night raids on the homes of innocent civilians.” Known by one name, Quasimullah said, “We want the president to put a stop to night raids as soon as possible.”

Today in a night raid in a residential area of Afghanistan’s northeastern Kunar Province, U.S. forces arrested five other people and killed a school teacher.

Over the past few months hundreds of civilians have died in U.S.-led operations in various parts of Afghanistan and Afghans have become increasingly outraged at what seems to be an endless number of the deadly assaults by the foreigners.

While the U.S. and Afghanistan presidents on Tuesday signed an agreement paving the way for retaining the U.S. presence through 2024, rallies across Afghanistan continued to press their condemnation of the endless killings and their demand for complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Tuesday morning in Afghanistan hundreds of Afghans demonstrated over the deaths of four children killed on Monday in the crossfire of Taliban, NATO and Afghan security forces in the southern Zabul province. They accused NATO troops of killing civilians.

Carrying the bodies of the four children (ages 8 to 12), protesters stopped traffic on the Kabul-Kandahar highway and chanted “death to America, death to Karzai.”

U.S. drone

U.S. IN PAKISTAN

Foreign strikes, local resistance

Earlier Saturday in Pakistan, an unmanned U.S. aircraft targeted a residential area less than 50 miles west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The attack killed 20 people and injured many others.

The people of Pakistan as Afghanistan have continued to press their condemnation of U.S. assassination drone strikes.

In their recent defense of the use of killer drones, U.S. officials failed to give evidence of how killing people “saves lives” and continued killing with impunity.

Pakistani protests

Pakistani human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar told Press TV that more than “2,800 of the 3,000 people killed over the past seven years in non-UN-sanctioned U.S. assassination drone strikes in Pakistan were civilians.”

Only 170 of the people killed in the aerial attacks on the northwestern tribal belt of Pakistan “have been identified as ‘militants,’” said the director of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights. What this means is that “over 2,800 people were civilians” killed on suspicion of being militant.

At the recent International Drone Summit sponsored in Washington by non government representatives, Senior Staff Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Maria LaHood, is reported saying, “As the Obama government expands its use of killer drones around the world, so must we increase our demands for transparency and accountability.”

Whatever else happens among Americans — how they feel and what they do — concerning the U.S. foreign relations model in violence, there is substantial evidence in news reports that the countries under aggression and occupation will not sit idly by.  


The longer U.S.-led fighting persists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen and in other theaters of war, the stronger grows the resistance.

Sources and notes

RAWA

http://www.rawa.org/rawa.html

RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan

Before the Moscow-directed coup d’état of April 1978 in Afghanistan, RAWA’s activities were confined to agitation for women’s rights and democracy, but after the coup and particularly after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in December 1979, RAWA became directly involved in the war of resistance.

Since the overthrow of the Soviet-installed puppet regime in 1992, the focus of RAWA’s political struggle has been against the fundamentalists’ and the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban’s criminal policies and atrocities against the people of Afghanistan in general and their incredibly ultra-male-chauvinistic and anti-woman orientation in particular.

The U.S. ‘War on terrorism’ [begun in 2001] … has not removed religious fundamentalism, the main cause of all miseries. The U.S administration’s reinstalling the warlords in power in Afghanistan is replacing one fundamentalist regime with another.  The U.S. government and [Afghan President Hamid] Karzai mostly rely on Northern Alliance criminal leaders who are as brutal and misogynist as the Taliban.

“RAWA believes that freedom and democracy cannot be donated; it is the duty of the people of a country to fight and achieve these values. Under the U.S.-supported government — the sworn enemies of human rights, democracy and secularism have gripped their claws over our country and attempt to restore their religious fascism on our people.

“Whenever fundamentalists exist as a military and political force in our injured land, the problem of Afghanistan will not be solved.

“Today RAWA’s mission for women’s rights is far from over and we have to work hard for the establishment of an independent, free, democratic and secular Afghanistan. We need the solidarity and support of all people around the world.”

http://www.rawa.org/rawa.html

Bay Area Indymedia, May 3, 2012

Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai (b. Dec. 24, 1957, Kandahār, Afghanistan) is an Afghan politician and (2004 -) first “elected” president of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was the son of the chief of the Popalzai Pashtuns. Both his father and grandfather served in the government of Mohammad Zahir Shah.

Amid discontent among Afghans, the Afghanistan Supreme Court in March 2009 ruled that Karzai could legally retain his position until the August election. Several opposition candidates emerged which the pro-Western Karzai “neutralized.”  The presidential election was held on August 20, 2009, and was followed by weeks of political turmoil. In September a preliminary count awarded Karzai almost 55 percent of the vote. [Britannica note]

Stephen Lendman in Chicago (U.S.) is author of How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War

“Afghanistan: Permanent Occupation Planned — besides elsewhere, America came to Iraq and Afghanistan to stay. Permanency is planned on city-sized super bases” (Stephen Lendman), May 3, 2012, http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/05/03/afghanistan-permanent-occupation-planned.html

“UN mission in Afghanistan says 2011 was fifth straight year that number of dead has risen, with 3,021 civilians killed, February 4, 2012, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/02/201224101046976807.html

“U.S. atrocities in Afghanistan —  While commenting on the ever-increasing flames of violence, mistakenly called terrorism, we find it very easy to shift the whole blame on to the ‘hungry boy’: no one blames the hands that hand over the gun to him instead of taking care of his hunger” (Professor Ali Sukhanver) April 22, 2012,

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/04/22/us-atrocities-in-afghanistan.html

“Concerns Over Lack of Food Safety in Afghanistan,” May 5, 2012, TOLOnews.com, 

http://tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/6121-concerns-over-lack-of-food-safety-in-afghanistan

TOLOnews, its terrestrial broadcast launched in August of 2010, is Afghan owned and operated and the country’s first 24-hour station dedicated to domestic and international news and current affairs. TOLOnews is an extension of Afghanistan’s TOLO TV, both part of the regional media organization MOBY Group. http://tolonews.com/en/about-us/4081-about-us

“U.S-led night raid kills teacher in Afghanistan,” May 5, 2012,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/239749.html

War in Afghanistan by the numbers (AP and var. news sources)

“The Afghan war by the numbers —President Barack Obama arrived in Kabul on Tuesday to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The deal outlines the next phase of the U.S. role in Afghanistan after combat missions wind down at the end of 2014”  (The Associated Press), Tuesday, May 1, 2012 

Start of the war: October 7, 2001.
 Number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan: 88,000.
 Number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan at the war's peak: About 101,000 in 2010. Allies provided about 40,000.
 Withdrawal plans: 23,000 U.S. troops expected to come home by the end of the summer, leaving about 68,000 in Afghanistan. Most U.S. troops expected to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, though the U.S. is expected to maintain a sizeable force of military trainers and a civilian diplomatic corps.
 Number of U.S. casualties: At least 1,828 members of the U.S. military killed as of Tuesday, according to an Associated Press count. According to the Defense Department, 15,786 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action.
 Afghan civilian casualties: According to the United Nations, 11,864 civilians were killed in the conflict between 2007, when the U.N. began reporting statistics, and the end of 2011.
 Cost of the war: $443 billion from fiscal year 2001 through fiscal year 2011, according to the Congressional Research Service.
 Number of times Obama has visited Afghanistan: 3 as president, including Tuesday, and 1 as a presidential candidate.

“Hundreds Demonstrate over Civilian Casualties, Blame NATO” (TOLOnews.com) May 1, 2012, http://tolonews.com/afghanistan/6073-hundreds-demonstrate-over-civilian-casualties-blame-nato-?lang=en

May 1, 2012, http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/may/01/us-us-afghanistan-by-the-numbers/

“Deadly Afghan-NATO raid sparks protests — one of her sons came out and the American forces shot him and killed him. Then her other son came out, and they killed him,”

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/05/01/deadly-afghan-nato-raid-sparks-protests.html

ICasualties notes

IED Fatalities

Period	IED	Total	Pct
2001	0	4	0.00
2002	4	25	16.00
2003	3	26	11.54
2004	12	27	44.44
2005	20	73	27.40
2006	41	130	31.54
2007	78	184	42.39
2008	152	263	57.79
2009	275	451	60.98
2010	368	630	58.41
2011	252	492	51.22
2012	45	91	49.45

U.S. Fatalities in and around Afghanistan

Country of Death	Fatalities
Afghanistan	1792
Bahrain	1
Germany (from wounds in theatre)	27
Indonesia	1
Kuwait	1
Pakistan	15
Qatar	1
Southwest Asia	1
USA (from wounds in theatre)	30
Uzbekistan	1
Total	1870

Coalition Military Fatalities By Year

Year	US	UK	Other	Total
2001	12	0	0	12
2002	49	3	18	70
2003	48	0	10	58
2004	52	1	7	60
2005	99	1	31	131
2006	98	39	54	191
2007	117	42	73	232
2008	155	51	89	295
2009	317	108	96	521
2010	499	103	109	711
2011	418	46	102	566
2012	95	18	30	143
Total	1959	412	619	2990

http://icasualties.org/oef/

Pakistan

Pakistan-based Ali Sukhanver is a bilingual analyst on national and international strategic and defense affairs.

“Ten suspected insurgents were killed in a U.S. drone strike in a house close to the Afghan border on Saturday, Pakistani officials told media,” May 5, 2012, TOLOnews.com

“Pakistan condemns U.S. drone attack in North Waziristan, May 5, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/239761.html

Waziristan

Wazīristān tract was under British political administration beginning in 1892 and it was the scene of several large-scale British military operations against the tribes from the late 1800s until Pakistani independence in 1947.

Bounded on the west by Afghanistan, Waziristan is a geographic region of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. This is a barren, mountainous country occupied by part of the Sulaimān Range and bounded north by the Kurram River and the south by the Gumal River.

The Pashtun inhabitants of Wazīristān are divided into two principal groups, the Darwish (or Wazīr), the main tribe in the north; and the Maḥsūd, the dominant tribe in the south.

“U.S. defends drone attacks despite civilian deaths — The United States has defended its assassination drone strikes in several countries despite the deaths of a large number of civilians,” April 30, 2012,  http://www.presstv.ir/detail/238859.html

“Drone summit in Washington highlights the aircraft expanding use to discuss the growing use of the unmanned aircraft by the U.S. in surveillance as well as targeted killing operations carried out in foreign countries,” (Press TV reports), http://www.presstv.ir/detail/238651.html

“U.S. Drone Kills 10 in Pakistan,” May 5, 2012,

http://tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/6118-us-drone-kills-10-in-pakistan

Images

Afghan image caption-RAWA

Disbelief: Two grief-stricken Afghan men look into the van where the body of a badly burned child lays, wrapped in a blue blanket. 17 innocent civilians were massacred by US soldiers on March 11, 2012 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Photo: EPA)

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/04/22/us-atrocities-in-afghanistan.html#ixzz1u1RAALvk

Status of forces agreement Iraq, http://www.blackcommentator.com/284/issue_284.html

http://www.setyoufreenews.com/2011/06/25/permanent-us-iraq-and-afghanistan-occupations-planned/

___________________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

___________________________________