Copyright: Eric S. Margolis, 2002
Apr. 21, 2002
`A stupid and useless war,' is how Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's once and future king, recently described American military intervention in his beleaguered nation to an Italian newspaper. This is certainly the most intelligent and accurate statement made by former king since he was deposed in 1973.
Last Thursday, the man who would again be king returned to Afghanistan after a 29-year exile in Italy.
The king's acid description of President George Bush's muddled war in Afghanistan was a painful counterpoint to the tragic death of four Canadian troops serving as auxiliaries to US forces in the conflict. Continuing the free-fire policy of attacking anything suspicious that moves in Afghanistan, which has caused heavy civilian casualties, a US F-16 bombed the Canadians who were on a night firing exercise.
Meanwhile, recriminations were flying in Washington after the `Washington Post' claimed Osama bin Laden had escaped last fall from the besieged Tora Bora mountain complex because the Administration had refused to commit American troops to the battle, relying, instead, on `anti-Taliban' Afghan fighters.
This claim is likely correct. So-called Pushtun `anti-Taliban' fighters, a Pentagon euphemism faithfully adopted by the cheerleading US media, were, in reality, mercenaries paid by the US, through Pakistan's ISI intelligence service, to hunt al-Qaida. These mercenaries, some former Taliban, simply took money from the naïve Americans and then took more baksheesh from al-Qaida and bin Laden, who are widely admired by Pusthuns, to allow the hunted militants to escape.
The White House was desperately trying to avoid US casualties in order to proclaim a bloodless victory. The story of Bin Laden's escape conjured up uneasy memories of Bush's senior's refusal in the 1991 Gulf War to order US troops march on Baghdad to overthrow Saddam Hussein, thereby avoiding heavy US casualties. Bush Sr's wise decision is today being condemned by Washington's draft-dodging neo-conservatives, who salver for American troops to destroy Iraq for the benefit of Israel.
Zahir Shah was escorted back from Rome by old CIA `asset' Hamid Karzai, the American-appointed, British-protected `interim leader' of Afghanistan. The glib Karzai, who has no authority in Afghanistan and commands little respect - he's called the `mayor of Kabul' - sought to acquire a measure of legitimacy by playing obsequious son and retainer to the 87-year old monarch.
The king's return had been engineered by the US government in an urgent effort to try to cobble together a pro-American regime capable of running fragmented Afghanistan, which has dissolved into semi-chaos as communists, warlords, drug-dealers, and bandits battle for control of turf. The pipelines that America's petro-geopoliticians have long sought to build through Afghanistan to export Central Asia's oil and gas riches cannot be laid until there is relative security there. Right now, none exists.
Washington's plan is for King Zahir to convene a `loya jirga,' that will confirm him as figurehead ruler and Karzai as de facto leader. A NATO `peacekeeping force,' backed by a US-trained national army, will then ensure the protection of America's interests in Kabul. The White House was clearly unconcerned that the world's champion of democracy had chosen a king to lead Afghanistan - any more than it was by encouraging military rule in Pakistan.
Zahir Shah, who comes from the powerful Pushtun Durrani tribe, the fount of Afghan kings, was widely disparaged in Afghanistan for having opened the door during the 1970's to penetration of the nation's Tajik-dominated educated classes by the Afghan communist party, and to the subsequent Soviet invasion in 1979. There was little sympathy for Zahir when he was deposed by his scheming cousin, Prince Daud - who was subsequently overthrown by a communist coup.
Perhaps Zahir Shah will manage to bring stability to Afghanistan without turning his demolished nation into an American imperial protectorate, but that seems unlikely. This week, President Bush proclaimed a second Marshall Plan to rebuild ravaged Afghanistan, in spite of his previous vows not to engage in `nation-building' in that nation. Construction of permanent US military bases in Afghanistan and neighboring nations - which we might now call `Chevronistans' and Exxonistans' - and plans to begin pipeline construction as soon as possible, show clearly the US is marching ever deeper into South/Central Asia for reasons of oil and the lust for yet more global power. Hunting al-Qaida is a convenient excuse.
Anyhow, after continuing to call Afghanistan a nest of murderous Islamic vipers, the US could not withdraw its forces even if it wanted to, lest these same miscreants, who are hiding in the mountains, surfaced and made rude gestures at the departing Americans. US commanders are now requesting more American troops because their Afghan mercenaries are proving unreliable and unwilling to be killed in a foreigner's war. These very same argument were made by US advisors in the early stages of the Vietnam War -` we can't trust those ARVN troops, so send us the 101st Airborne.'
Having just suffered a hugely embarrassing fiasco in the Mideast, and a second one by backing last week's failed military coup against Venezuela's elected government, the stumbling Bush Administration badly need a showy victory in Afghanistan. But the more American ground forces are committed to Afghanistan, the more body bags will come home - just what elusive Osama bin Laden has been hoping for.
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