American Bases in Afghanistan…Enduring Colonialism

Of late, we learn that U.S. President Barack Obama has reneged on a promise to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan by 2014. With dwindling support for the war among the American citizenry, the timetable for withdrawal has been inexplicably advanced to 2024.

Though there is some support amongst minority Afghan factions, an overwhelming majority of the Afghan people see this move as amounting to permanent or enduring occupation.

The down sides to advancing the withdrawal date are multifaceted: The announcement has predictably derailed any possibility of a negotiated peace with the Afghan Resistance. A continued American presence in theatre will inarguably presage a continuation of deadly drone strikes, night-raids, indiscriminate bombing of rural villages, increased radiation poisoning, environmental pollution, increased drug proliferation, executive/presidential- directed political assassination, and the loss of self-rule or sovereignty. Advertised by the U.S. to be respectful of civilian casualties, America’s quest for empire has amounted to increasing numbers of civilian casualties… those caught up in America’s deadly technology.

Much has been written about America’s motivation or strategy to remain in Afghanistan: syndicated journalist and noted author Eric S. Margolis got it exactly right in his most recent book: The American Raj, Liberation or Domination, resolving the Conflict between the Muslim world and the West, drawing on comparisons in strategy and policy between designs and quest of empire in the U.S. to the far-flung British Raj of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, a state bent on world domination. But what is cogent and clear, is the desire or strategy to encircle Iran, long a resident on America’s target list of nations, maintain a close presence or vigilance to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, encircle economic rival China, and the ever-present commercial opportunities enhanced by proximity to the Caspian Basin and Central Asian energy and resource rich mineral fields.

 Strategically, launching strikes against Iran would be greatly enhanced by a proximate U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. For the Afghan people, the use of its territory for military-staging purposes would be catastrophic. Iran would certainly retaliate against its neighbor…increasing the possibility of additional decades of debilitating war on its soil. It can be argued that an American omnipresence might preclude any hostile moves by Afghanistan troublesome and belligerent neighbors. But given America’s current embrace of militarism, many feel their continued presence increases not lessens that possibility. Furthermore, quarreling or troublesome neighbors can be dealt with in other les-intrusive or devastating ways…short of invasion and permanent occupation.

The promise of freedom and of a representative government has been usurped by the promotion of ethnic rivalry as an American strategy to control the Pashtun majority…a device used by nineteenth century British overlords in their attempt to acquire Afghanistan as part of their far-flung empire. Drawing on that experience, the Soviet Union relied on identical “divide-and-conquer” strategies, recruiting minorities with promise of riches, power and security and thereby learning absolutely nothing from the annals of history.

As history dictates, it has been the Pashtun majority (62.76%) that had risen against foreign invaders and thereby earning for Afghanistan, the reputation as the “Graveyard of Empires.”

The Afghan people will not be denied their rightful destiny. As history avers, they will not acquiesce to foreign induced minority rule, nor will they accept permanent occupation from without.

Afghanistan, a nation that has not ever posed a threat to its neighbors, is resource-rich and therefore has much to offer the world. But it must be approached and treated as a full partner, not as a colonial subject. It is deserving of a truly representative government, not one composed of political lackeys imposed by Washington, Moscow, Delhi, Tehran, Islamabad, Beijing, London and or Paris.

The plan to occupy Afghanistan under the guise of a maintaining a user-friendly, foreign installed government, regional security concerns, and or the moral bankruptcy of the imperialist’s “war on terror”… demands a no vote, precluding  any agreement that extends the presence of a foreign military.

In the realms of a militaristic-oriented American foreign policy establishment of this day, society should resist and heed the cautious, profound wisdom of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy who said: War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

Bruce G. Richardson

Notes:

See: Anti-War.com,’ America’s Empire of Bases’ by David Vine, 7/24/12, American Raj, Liberation or Domination, Resolving the Conflict between the West and the Muslim World, by Eric S. Margolis, 2008, Afghanistan, Political Frailty and External Interference, by Dr. Nabi  Misdaq,2006. In June, 2012,

Uzbekistan has recently taken the decision to not allow the U.S. to retain military bases in their country. In addition, Uzbekistan suspended its membership in the Moscow-led collective ‘Security Treaty Organization,’  better known by its Russian acronym ODKB which is a collective of ex-Soviet states organized as a counterbalance to NATO.

According to Senator Rand Paul,’ the U.S. is deployed in 900 overseas bases in more than 130 countries’. Source: Tampa Bay Times.

Source of the 62-73% population figure shown for the ethnic majority Pashtuns was derived from a six-year survey and research project conducted over a six-year period (1991-1996) by the WAK Foundation for Afghanistan (WFA).