The World Peace Council expresses its deep concern about the recent developments in Afghanistan. Twenty years after the US and NATO imperialist aggression and invasion of Afghanistan, the suffering of its people has no ending.
When the US launched their supposed “War on Terror” in 2001, the anti-imperialist peace-loving forces were well aware of the hypocrisy and real goals of the aggression in Afghanistan. The Mujahedin, Taliban and other extremist religious forces, who were created, funded and directed for more than a decade by the US and its European allies for the purpose of overthrowing the first popular government in the late 1980s, took control of the country for more than 10 years. The internationalist support of the USSR which had brought huge progress in all social fields was twisted and falsified for ideological reasons. In 2001, after having served the imperialist plans, the Taliban then became the “target” of their previous masters.
The adjustment of the foreign policy of the United States and NATO in central Asia had in mind confrontation with Russia and China. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, millions were displaced and became refugees. More than two trillion US dollars were spent all these years by the imperialists for military operations of and establishment and funding of willing puppet regimes in Kabul. The lucrative opium business mushroomed and multiplied for the last twenty years.
These days the Biden administration started the withdrawal of US forces from the country after long negotiations (which started by the Trump administration) with the Taliban forces. The country is being handed over to the “previous enemy” with imminent danger for institutional obscurantism and fundamentalism. The USA is not leaving Afghanistan for the sake of cutting expenses. Their priorities in the Pacific Ocean require such readjustment and redeployment of their military.
Amongst many other issues, the new situation will add new social problems for the people of Afghanistan, particularly for the women of the country. The danger exists for the stronger emergence of religious fundamentalism in the region, heavily armed with the military equipment the US is leaving behind, while concerns for a new wave of refugees are growing.
The WPC expresses its solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, who, for the last 30 years, has never had the freedom to decide upon its future and fortunes. The US/NATO military occupation and the rule of the Taliban are the two sides of the same coin.
World Peace Council Secretariat
Athens, 16th August 2021
