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Afghanistan massacre on eve of Obama’s surge
With the first elements of 30,000 additional US troops set to arrive in Afghanistan next week, the massacre of as many as 15 civilians in a US raid has heightened fears that the Obama administration’s so-called surge will spell a dramatic rise in bloodletting.
The killings took place in eastern Laghman province in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Gulzar Sangarwal, the acting head of the provincial council, reported that 13 civilians were killed in the raid on the village of Armul, including one woman. Local villagers reported 15 killed, including children. Reuters news agency said its correspondent had seen the bodies of a woman and 12 men, several of them teenagers.
Local authorities have blamed the killings on US Special Forces troops.
The deaths triggered an angry protest that ended in still more killings. According to Reuters, some 5,000 villagers marched on the provincial capital of Mehtar Lam chanting slogans denouncing the US occupation, the puppet government of President Hamid Karzai and the provincial authorities. The crowd shouted “Death to America, Death to Obama and Death to Karzai” as they marched through the town.
The villagers carried the bodies of the civilians slain in the US raid, laying them in front of the provincial governor’s house.
Soldiers from the Afghan National Army opened fire with live ammunition in an attempt to disperse the crowd, reportedly killing two demonstrators outright and mortally wounding two others, who died in the local hospital.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/afgh-d10.shtml
Local authorities have blamed the killings on US Special Forces troops.
The deaths triggered an angry protest that ended in still more killings. According to Reuters, some 5,000 villagers marched on the provincial capital of Mehtar Lam chanting slogans denouncing the US occupation, the puppet government of President Hamid Karzai and the provincial authorities. The crowd shouted “Death to America, Death to Obama and Death to Karzai” as they marched through the town.
The villagers carried the bodies of the civilians slain in the US raid, laying them in front of the provincial governor’s house.
Soldiers from the Afghan National Army opened fire with live ammunition in an attempt to disperse the crowd, reportedly killing two demonstrators outright and mortally wounding two others, who died in the local hospital.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/afgh-d10.shtml
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Following months of deliberation -- and 29 hours of meetings -- on 1 December, President Barack Obama unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan.
Couched in terms of "defeating Al-Qaeda" and rolling back a Taliban insurgency, it actually set the terms for an American withdrawal: recognition that the Afghan war, like America's wars in Vietnam and Iraq, was too costly and unpopular to be sustained given opinion at home or among allies abroad. "America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan," Obama told 4,000 cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Yet, to square domestic sentiment with the consensus of his generals, the commander-in-chief could only end the war by escalating it.
Over the next six months 30,000 extra US troops will go to Afghanistan, swelling a total strength to almost 100,000. After supposedly "reversing" the momentum of recent Taliban gains the fight will be turned over to the Afghan government and armed forces "so that they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan's future".
More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/976/in1.htm
Couched in terms of "defeating Al-Qaeda" and rolling back a Taliban insurgency, it actually set the terms for an American withdrawal: recognition that the Afghan war, like America's wars in Vietnam and Iraq, was too costly and unpopular to be sustained given opinion at home or among allies abroad. "America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan," Obama told 4,000 cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Yet, to square domestic sentiment with the consensus of his generals, the commander-in-chief could only end the war by escalating it.
Over the next six months 30,000 extra US troops will go to Afghanistan, swelling a total strength to almost 100,000. After supposedly "reversing" the momentum of recent Taliban gains the fight will be turned over to the Afghan government and armed forces "so that they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan's future".
More
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/976/in1.htm
In reading his "Audacity of Hope," readers should have learned even as late as 2008 that "Punahou Barry" was no Peacenik. He voted for every war funding bill for the illegal invasions/occupations of Iraq & Afghanistan that came across his Senate desk.
Moreover, even though he was born and raised in the "50th State" of Hawaii, he was unwittingly ignorant of the pivotal role of the USA empire's military designs and actions that directly led to the armed overthrow of the legitimate & then independent Hawaiian Kingdom back in 1893! For misguided liberals to trust a man of that Imperial mentality is the height of self-delusion.
Moreover, even though he was born and raised in the "50th State" of Hawaii, he was unwittingly ignorant of the pivotal role of the USA empire's military designs and actions that directly led to the armed overthrow of the legitimate & then independent Hawaiian Kingdom back in 1893! For misguided liberals to trust a man of that Imperial mentality is the height of self-delusion.
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