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AfghAnistAn offensive
Pentagon spends billions
to terrorize civilians
by deirdre Griswold
Feb. 16 — It is now four days since U.S. Marines Meeting Mobilizes to free MuMiA Abu-JAMAl 7 .
stormed into the town of Marjah in Afghanistan, backed
up by helicopter gunships, fighter jets and drones. Some
9,000 U.S. troops are taking part in Operation Moshta-
rak, which means “together” in the Dari dialect — a
bright idea from some psyops genius meant to beguile
the local population.
These U.S. troops, part of the Obama administration’s
“surge” of 30,000 additional forces sent to Afghanistan,
are supplemented by 4,000 British soldiers and a few
thousand Afghans. So altogether you have some 15,000
troops, equipped with the most modern weapons, pitted
against what the Pentagon estimated to be about 400
Taliban fighters with only handheld guns and mortars
and dug-in improvised explosive devices to slow the ad-
vancing forces.
The types who thrilled to Hitler’s tank battalions roll-
ing across the farmlands of Eastern Europe and the So-
Chilean leader Victor Toro and Pam Africa of International Concerned
viet Union would undoubtedly find this display of raw Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke at the Feb. 13 teach-in.
imperialist military power in Afghanistan equally stimu-
PhotoS_of_SPEAkErS:_PVN_____ww_Photo:_LAL_roohk__
lating. For ordinary working people around the world
who are not turned on by the latest death machines, it
is appalling. as states slash budgets and services
No cuts! Make banks, bosses pay
In what has become a monotonous Pentagon mantra,
the media repeat that everything is being done to pre-
vent civilian casualties. In this well-publicized-in-ad-
vance campaign, the U.S. generals told the people to stay
home and not risk being hurt. So why did their fighter by fred Goldstein In addition to the state cutbacks, the Obama admin-
jets bomb a building in Marjah with people inside, kill- istration is preparing to issue an executive order for the
ing 12, half of them children? After six months of so-called “recovery,” massive un- creation of a so-called “independent budget commis-
The NATO commanders in charge also admit to an- employment remains and foreclosures reach new highs. sion” to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The
other eight civilian deaths so far in the offensive in Now another fundamental aspect of the capitalist eco- target time for the establishment of the commission is
Helmand province, but shrug it off as an acceptable cost nomic crisis — the budget crisis — is escalating as mil- after the 2010 elections.
of war. lions of people face the loss of vital services, threatening As reported by Workers World on Jan. 21, the eco-
How afghans view the ‘surge’ their futures and their very survival. nomic crisis has slashed state revenues and 43 states
What kind of war is it where one side has all the tac- Hundreds of billions of dollars are going to bankers plus the District of Columbia have carried out severe
tical advantages? Where only the determination of the and corporations in interest, bailouts and low-interest budget cuts, with more on the way. According to a re-
loans provided by the government. Hundreds of billions port by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 28
Continued on page 10 more are going for war and occupation. Yet states all states are cutting health care services; 24 are cutting
across the country are taking the axe to budgeted social services to the elderly and disabled; 36 are cutting aid
services and laying off public service workers. Continued on page 5
COMMEMORATE
BLACK HISTORY fight for childcare,
MalcolM X 6
education 3
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workers.org_ feb. 25, 2010 Page 3
rhode island.
Protests defend public education,
support March 4 national action
bill bateman Hope High School’s turnaround and
providence, r.i. progress since being put into receivership High school
in 2005 — through hiring more teachers student tells
200 support-
Attacks on public education in Rhode and advisors, and going to 90-minute ers he wants
Island are coming one after another. Gov. class blocks — are now in jeopardy of be- his school
Donald Carcieri proposed $125 million in ing reversed. kept open.
cuts to education and services this year The closure plan is seen as a way to keep ww_Photo:_BiLL_BAtEmAN
and proposes to cut $162 million next year. students packed into oversized classes. The school superintendent of the city safe, secure buildings, up-to-date books,
Providence, with the state’s largest school Teachers from various schools explained of Central Falls presented an ultimatum quality resources and equipment, smaller
system, has lost $5.8 million in state fund- that more students per school will also list of six demands to the teachers union. class sizes, and appropriate and specific
ing for its 24,000 students in the last two deprive students of the spaces needed for The teachers said they were willing to spaces for art, music, science, etc.
years and will lose $7.1 million next year. physical education and the special areas sit down and talk but they would not be On March 4 — the National Day of Ac-
The Providence School Department un- needed for quality music and art classes. forced into anything by bullying tactics. tion to Defend Education — the S.O.S.
veiled a proposal to close seven schools. The Rhode Island Unemployed Coun- The superintendent then said all teachers Coalition together with the Rhode Island
In a series of six public forums in Jan- cil pointed out that Providence has an of- and staff would receive layoff notices and Unemployed Council will march for jobs
uary and February, 500 parents, students, ficial unemployment rate of 14 percent, only 50 percent would have a chance of and education. A rally will take place from
teachers and concerned community and that some of the 11,000 unemployed being rehired next year. 3 to 4 p.m. at the Providence School De-
members turned out. One hundred peo- should be put to work fixing the schools. In response to these attacks, the partment headquarters at 797 Westmin-
ple took the microphone and spoke to op- It said that federal stimulus money is ex- S.O.S. — Save Our Schools — Coalition ster Ave. A march downtown will start at
pose the school closings. Not one person plicitly targeted for repairing schools and was formed. Its goal is to defend public 4 p.m. and end with a rally at 5 p.m. at
supported the idea. hiring more teachers. education in Rhode Island and fight for Providence City Hall.
WORKERS WORLD
AfghAnistAn offensive
editorial Pentagon spends billions
Cuba and Haiti to terrorize civilians
M
Continued from page 1 nium there and British transport planes
any people think it is human that meets the needs of all the Haitian
population to resist the invaders keeps the land and take off from this area several
nature to be greedy, to put people.”
outsiders from completely taking over the times every day.’”
the interests of the individual This is no quick fix, but a long-term
country? What this shows is that, while the im-
before the common good — in a word, to program to help develop and train a
No matter what cozy labels U.S. and perialist militaries may enjoy enormous
live in a dog-eat-dog society. At the same public health system run by the Haitians
British military planners attach to their technological advantages, the resistance
time, they may be moved by suffering themselves.
hideous offensives in order to “win the in Afghanistan is neither insular nor ig-
and want to help others but usually find What is the price tag on all this? Noth-
hearts and minds” of the Afghan people, norant of what is going on in the world.
themselves stymied. Hey, that’s capital- ing. Cuba leads the way in international
it isn’t working. While U.S. politicians have used semi-
ism, what can you do about it? solidarity.
A well-informed article in the British religious terms, like “evil-doers,” to pro-
Such an outlook leads to a pretty bleak ELAM was started in 2005. Since then,
newspaper Guardian on Feb. 16, called vide some rationale for the war, this Tal-
view of the future of humanity. it has graduated 7,290 physicians from
“How Afghans see Operation Moshtarak,” iban commander is pointing out material
The media, especially the tabloids and the Americas, Africa, the Mideast, Asia
says international coverage of this military reasons why the imperialists are trying to
shock jocks that pitch their message to a and Oceania. Immediately following
push “is in sharp contrast to the way it is control the region.
mass audience, love to dish up examples the earthquake, its graduates began e-
regarded on the ground in Afghanistan.” Workers in the U.S. and Britain — and
of the most selfish and destructive behav- mailing former classmates and recruited
The writer, Nushin Arbabzadah, is an Afghanistan too — are being forced to
ior. At the same time, they avoid like the hundreds willing to serve in Haiti.
Afghan woman who grew up in Kabul. cough up the money for this war. Unlike
plague reporting on societies where social- According to a report from Medical
She reports that the opposition news- the resistance fighters, who seem invisible
ist revolutions have made it possible for Education Cooperation with Cuba, which
papers, which regard the government because they dress and look like the peo-
there to be serious planning and develop- helps students from the U.S. attend
of Hamid Karzai as illegitimate after an ple, the troops “surging” around Marjah
ment that bring out the best in people. ELAM, the graduates now volunteer-
election riddled with fraud, have “belit- look like they are landing on the moon,
Take Cuba, for example, and what it is ing to work in Haiti have come from
tled the operation, casting doubt over the so swaddled are they in protective armor
doing to help the people of Haiti recover South America, the Caribbean and North
strategic importance of Marjah and Nade and encumbered with all the things that
from the horrible wounds caused by America and as far away as Mali in
Ali, and highlighting the issue of civilian soldiers from an alien country need to
the recent earthquake. If you live in the Africa. Dr. Bechri Ahmed Ali hails from
casualties there.” survive — from water and food to night vi-
United States, you won’t read or hear the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic:
Her article also summarizes the main sion equipment, not to speak of weapons
about it in the media. But Cuba is doing “But Haiti is where I belong right now.”
points in an interview with Mullah Abdul and ammunition.
more to provide its neighbor Haiti with “This isn’t an adventure. This is a
Rezaq Akhund, identified as the Taliban And it all costs — big time. At a time
medical help than any other country in commitment,” said Dr. Wilberth Barral,
commander in Marjah. It was conducted when bridges are falling down in the U.S.,
the world. a Bolivian ELAM graduate preparing
in Pashto and posted on the Cheragh Dai- the Pentagon is buying portable ones
Many Cuban medical personnel had to depart for Haiti. “My classmates are
ly website. strong enough to hold armored vehicles
been working there before the earth- Haitian. Some lost their whole families,
Mullah Akhund put forward four rea- as they cross the canals that crisscross
quake in facilities set up to treat the fathers, siblings, their homes. They need
sons why the NATO forces considered Helmand province. It’s another piece of
poorest people, often in the countryside, our help.”
Helmand province of geostrategic im- equipment the grunts have to carry with
but were home on vacation. On news of Is it possible to foresee a world in
portance and therefore had chosen it for them as they “surge.”
the disaster, they rushed back, bringing which the people of the United States
their well-publicized offensive. Reporter How many school buses can be bought
emergency equipment with them. could help repair the damage done by
Arbabzadah characterizes these as “con- for the price of a light armored vehicle?
By early February, Cuba’s Interna- centuries of colonialism and imperial-
spiracy theories,” but adds that “Mullah The Army has signed a contract for 2,131
tional Henry Reeve Medical Contingent ism, could gladly pay reparations to those
Akhund’s views reflect those of a majority LAVs, adding up to $4 billion. That’s al-
was the largest medical relief operation nations whose people were kidnapped
in Afghanistan.” most $2 million apiece, or the equivalent
in Haiti, with 1,147 trained medical per- for the infamous slave trade, whose
According to the Guardian reporter, of nearly 30 school buses every time one
sonnel there — including 411 non-Cuban infrastructures have been destroyed in
“The Taliban commander alleged that the of these wheeled tanks gets blown up in
graduates of Havana’s Latin American Pentagon wars, whose labor has been
U.S. and the U.K. intend to set up surveil- Afghanistan.
Medical School (ELAM), which provides stolen, and whose lands, water and even
lance centers along the border to collect Congress added $160 billion to the fiscal
a free medical education to students who air have been polluted by profit-hungry
Iranian military and intelligence data. Ak- year 2010 Pentagon budget for Overseas
agree to use their skills to help the poor U.S. corporations?
hund further alleged that since Helmand Contingency Operations — about half of
in their home countries. Of those, seven There can be such a world. Even now,
is also close to Gwadar, a Pakistani port it for the war in Afghanistan. The drain of
were from the United States, two from when the grip of capitalist rule and
which is of economic significance to Chi- imperialist wars on the economy is bleed-
Nicaragua and 402 from Haiti. Another ideology is so strong, more than half the
na, controlling Helmand allows Washing- ing all social programs in the U.S. — which
200 Havana-trained doctors will have people in the U.S. contributed to relief
ton to curb the influence of its main eco- is especially painful in this period of high
joined this large team by late February, efforts for Haiti in its hour of need. The
nomic rival in the region. unemployment and low wages, when tens
coming from 24 different countries. great crime is that the Pentagon domi-
“He then went on to allege that the U.S. of millions of workers and their families
Cuba’s Minister of Public Health, Dr. nates the U.S. presence in Haiti, occupy-
and the U.K. were also interested in tak- need every bit of help they can get.
José Ramón Balaguer, presides over a ing the country and even obstructing
ing control of the drug production labora- Several opportunities are coming up
system that provides everyone in Cuba medicines from getting past the U.S.-
tories located in Helmand in a bid to profit for the anti-war, pro-people movement in
with free, quality medical care. At a cere- controlled airport in Port au Prince.
from the international heroin business. the U.S. to carry out its own “surge”: the
mony in Havana for the departure of the Cuba before its 1959 revolution was
The fourth reason, as alleged by Akhund, March 4 demonstrations of students and
ELAM teams, Balaguer emphasized the a playground for the rich and a bloody
is Helmand’s uranium resources. In the youth against cutbacks and tuition hikes;
long-term responsibility of the young dictatorship for the poor. That socialist
Taliban commander’s own words: ‘Ac- the March 20 anti-war protests; and the
physicians and their Cuban partners revolution liberated the people from cyni-
cording to eyewitnesses, British forces are April 10 March for Jobs in Washington.
to “help build a public health system cism and despair. It can happen here.
bringing a large amount of equipment to Be there! Stop the wars and occupations!
the area and have started extracting ura- E-mail: dgriswold@workers.org
editoriAl.