Allen L Roland

Afghanistan is rapidly becoming Obama's waterloo as he accelerates our presence in an unwinnable war that is really an illegal occupation. If I were an Afghan, as I am an American, while a foreign force was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms ! ~ Never! Never! Never! :

This is exactly the same column I wrote almost three years ago, on September 30, 2006 except the title was IRAQI TERRORISTS OR FREEDOM FIGHTERS ? ~ but now it's an illegal occupation of Afghanistan which could well be Barack Obama's waterloo versus Bush's Iraq quagmire.

Reuters reported today that Four U.S. servicemen were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Tuesday, making 2009 the deadliest year for the growing contingent of foreign troops since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 and leading me to the conclusion that we are still paying the deadly consequences of all illegally occupying powers.

As Eric Margolis recently wrote in ICH ~ " An election held under the guns of a foreign occupation army cannot be called legitimate or democratic..This week's stage-managed vote in Afghanistan for candidates chosen by western powers is unlikely to bring either peace or tranquility to this wretched nation that has suffered 30 years of war..The Taliban and its nationalist allies rejected the vote as a fraud designed to validate continued foreign occupation and open the way for western oil and gas pipelines." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23352.htm

Once again, let's stop calling this a war in Afghanistan, and call it what it really is ~ an illegal occupation. As such, the insurgents are, in reality freedom fighters, not terrorists, engaged on the Obama administrations leading edge of the fictitious ' War on Terror '.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it ~ It should , it's exactly the same words that Bush used to justify his illegal war and occupation of Iraq.

This is how Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook describes the War on Terror ~
'"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US ..."

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, seems to recognize the futility of the Afghanistan operation when he recently said ~ " I think it is serious and it is deteriorating, and I've said that over the past couple of years ~ that the Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated,"

The Afghan Resistance fighters ( insurgency ) are freedom fighters to their fellow occupied Afghan's and their numbers are growing every day. This is a country that has defeated every occupying power in its long history, the last being the Soviet Union, and it relishes the opportunity to add the United States to that scrap pile of broken imperialistic dreams.

As Mark Jensen correctly writes ~ " Obama is being led deeper into Afghanistan, on the one hand by the Pentagon, which wants more ground troops for its land-locked war on the other side of the world in a country of little strategic importance to the American Republic of but great strategic significance to Big Oil and the American Empire, and on the other hand by fear of an ever more virulent reactionary right "

Three former high-ranking CIA agents explain why there is no "victory" to be won in Afghanistan and they don't mince their words when they say ~ "The notion that we are in Afghanistan to make our country safer is just complete Bull Shit :"
Video ( 10 minutes ) ~ The war in Afghanistan is increasing the likelihood that American civilians will be killed in a future terrorist attack. Part 6 of Rethink Afghanistan, Security, brings you three former high-ranking CIA agents to explain why. There is no "victory" to be won in Afghanistan. It is the most important video about U.S. Security today. " http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23309.htm

You want an analogy to what we are now doing in our illegal occupation of Afghanistan? An analogy that draws from our own history ? An analogy that would be true with any occupied country ?

How about this letter from William Pitt to the House of
Lords on November 18th, 1777.

It's entitled An English Plea For Peace With The American
Colonies ;

" My Lords, this ruinous and ignominious situation, where
we cannot act with success, nor suffer with honour, calls upon us to remonstrate in the strongest and loudest language of truth, to rescue the ear of Majesty from the delusions
which surround it. You cannot, I venture to say, you
CANNOT conquer America.

" You ask, what is your present situation there? We do not know the worst; but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. You may swell every expense, and strain every effort, still more extravagantly; accumulate every assistance you can beg or borrow; traffic and barter with every pitiful German Prince, that sells and sends his
subjects to the shambles of a foreign country: your efforts
are forever vain and impotent-doubly so from this mercenary
aid on which you rely; for it irritates to an incurable resentment the minds of your enemies, to overrun them with the sordid sons of rapine and of plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms! -
Never! Never! Never! "

And the Afghan's will not lay down their arms for that very
same reason ~ regardless of the wishful thinking and spin of the Obama administration.

Afghanistan is Barack Obama's waterloo and he is already dragging all of us down with him into this black hole of deceit, hubris, humiliation and heartache.

Allen L Roland
http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2009/08/25.html

Freelance Online columnist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews and speaking engagements ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

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Allen Roland’s weblog: http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/
Website: www.allenroland.com
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