Following we publish an english Translation of an Article from the Austrian Newspaper "Antifascist Newspaper" on the actual Situation in Afghanistan.
A great outcry is going through the international bourgeois media after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in a relatively short time after the withdrawal of NATO troops. Images reminiscent of Vietnam demonstrate the defeat of U.S. imperialism and its allied NATO forces in Afghanistan, one of the greatest military defeats in recent U.S. history.
For nearly 20 years, the U.S. and its NATO-led forces waged a bloody war against the Afghan people to dominate the country. According to official numbers (which are certainly far lower than the real ones), 164,436 Afghans were killed during the war and about 7,500 members of the occupying forces. In the bourgeois media, it is not the right of independence and self-determination that plays a role, but rather a state of "mourning" that has brought death to hundreds of thousands of Afghans and turned the country into a so-called "failed state." By the U.S. military, the likelihood of a Taliban takeover of Kabul was assumed about a week and a half ago to be likely in 30-60 days. Now that has happened in less than one week, the U.S. puppet government has run away, and the "president" has allowed himself to be deported abroad along with large sums of cash. Clearly, this does not speak to the fact that this puppet government had popular support. "Moreover, it is true that many Afghans see the Taliban as a better alternative to the U.S.-installed, corrupt and widely hated government in Kabul." (Wiener Zeitung)
The European media in particular are now focusing their coverage on the "terrible situation of women." To believe even a word of such hypocritical crocodile tears is actually directed against the Afghan population and thus the women. It is pretended that the imperialist war, hundreds of thousands of dead, many more injured and foreign occupation is in the interest of Afghan women. Likewise, mainly pictures are shown of people desperately waiting at the airport to be "rescued" abroad by the former occupiers. It is shown, as we know it from other countries, that the imperialists quickly drop their "foot soldiers" of allies when they get into trouble.
Clearly, the U.S. and its NATO allies have not been able to advance their interests in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said, "And if you stay in one place for 20 years as an occupying force, things are not going to end well because you end up being seen by a lot of people as an occupier." And that's exactly what it is: After two decades of imperialist war and destruction, it is perfectly obvious that neither so-called "democracy" nor "human rights" were objectives of the war, but to dominate the country in the interests of the imperialists. The U.S. military-strategic goal is to secure Afghanistan as a deployment area for encircling Russia and China. The Doha Agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban in the spring of 2020 agreed on the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers and their NATO allies in return for a commitment by the Taliban that Afghanistan would no longer pose a threat to the security of the U.S. and its allies. The withdrawal is therefore not unplanned and shows that the Taliban will continue to protect U.S. interests. At the same time, the current situation also suggests that the military withdrawal of the U.S. and NATO will also increase the influence of Russia and China in Afghanistan. This is also because the Taliban's main supporter, Pakistan, is increasingly serving Chinese interests. The U.S. has not succeeded in dominating the entire country with its defeat, but it has also been able to prevent it from being completely controlled by an imperialist competitor.
"The costs of the USA are estimated at up to 2.8 trillion euros - a trillion consists of a 1 with twelve zeros -, those for Germany's contribution at around 12 billion euros (...)" (Wiener Zeitung) Even this "1 with twelve zeros" has not been able to sustain the occupation of Afghanistan, but on the contrary has further fueled the anger and rage of the population against foreign rule. The Taliban is not an anti-imperialist or progressive force, but was itself significantly financed and built up by the U.S. in the struggle against the former social-imperialist Soviet Union. However, the defeat of U.S. imperialism and its NATO allies and the end of the occupation of Afghanistan shows that the people's urge for independence and self-determination continues to grow and develop. All democratic and anti-imperialist forces are called upon to defend the independence and self-determination of the oppressed peoples and nations and to oppose further imperialist interference in Afghanistan.
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