Afghanistan today, tomorrow the world

What the West dreams of doing to Afghanistan represents the further 
spread of its doctrines. They are so busy crying success over the melting 
away of the Taliban, the triumph in the north, the comradeliness of the 
United Front, the net closing in on Osama bin Laden, that they do not see 
the millions of displaced people, the hunger and drought, the ruin of 
subsistence agriculture and, above all, the bitterness and resentment of a 
new generation. The parched fields of a pulverised agricultural production 
may go to waste, but the fertile terrain of hatred and, alas, possibly of 
future terrorism, is being ploughed, and fertilised by the instruments of 
heavenly vengeance", wrote Jeremy Seabrook in the British Guardian 
Weekly, December 6-12, 2001.

While the US bombers are still dropping their deadly cargo on Afghanistan, 
the US President has finally spelt out publicly what kind of place the 
world should be turned into.

The so-called Bush doctrine states that the US Government holds governments 
of sovereign states that might shelter terrorists as equally culpable with 
the terrorists themselves, and as such are fair game for another USA 
attack.

"We've put the terrorists and the nations in the world on notice: We will 
not rest until we stop all terrorists of global reach. And for every nation 
that harbours or supports terrorists, there will be a day of reckoning", Mr 
Bush declared last Friday. 

The United Nations-sponsored talks in Bonn on the composition of a future 
Afghan government finally worked out an agreement with Hamid Karzai as 
Prime Minister, and a new 30-member cabinet.

The inauguration of the new government will take place on December 22 in 
Kabul. The government is to rule for six months until a loya jirga 
(grand assembly) convenes to establish a transitional government for two or 
three years. Then a constitution will be drafted and elections held.

The Bonn plan also calls for an international peace-keeping force to 
"assist" the Afghans in establishing security — first in Kabul and then 
elsewhere in the country. The peace-keeping forces are also to be used to 
keep the Afghan armed factions apart and to protect roads from bandits.

There is strong opposition within Afghanistan to foreign troops being 
deployed there. At the moment the opponents of the plan are not in a 
position to object too much as they have been openly told that if they do 
not accept the plans made for them they will not receive any money to 
rebuild the Country.

Free market vultures are hovering over Afghanistan. The World Bank hosted a 
conference in Pakistan to discuss the reconstruction of Afghanistan. There 
was a meeting in Washington where Japan and the USA discussed how 
Afghanistan could become a "market economy".

It is estimated that there are six million refugees who can not return to 
their homes because it is not safe to do so; and it is said that US$20 
billion dollars will be needed to rebuild the country.

What is being proposed for Afghanistan will not solve the problems of 
survival for the Afghan people. The USA is not there to help them; it is 
there in pursuit of its own agenda which is to secure oil interests and 
establish a base.

It is Afghanistan today, and tomorrow the world.