[haw-info] HAW and Afghanistan

[Jim O'Brien]

*After much discussion, and helpful input from HAW members who responded to
the initial tentative draft, the Steering Committee of Historians Against
the War has adopted the following resolution regarding the US/NATO war in
Afghanistan.  We encourage members to consider including the Afghanistan war
in any teach-ins or forums that are involved in.  We will also post
Afghanistan materials on our web site (suggestions are welcome at
afghanistan at historiansagainstwar.org).
*

1.  Whatever views we hold on the initial US military intervention in
Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the US, it is now
clear that the US/NATO presence in this country has become an occupation,
increasingly resented and opposed by large sections of the population.

2.  Despite the relief that met removal of the totalitarian Taliban
government by US and NATO forces, the new government, chosen under the
direction of the Bush administration, has distanced itself from the people,
is rent with corruption, and barely governs anything.  Outside of Kabul,
warlords and criminal elements operate with impunity, the opium trade grows,
violence -- including violence by the occupation forces -- proliferates, and
the Taliban is resurgent.

3.  The support for fundamentalist warlords and the corrupt Karzai regime
demonstrate that the purpose of US policy in Afghanistan is not to support
the self-determination of the Afghan people, but to extend the bankrupt
global war against terror deeper into Central Asia, and to strengthen US
geopolitical power in this region.  The US/NATO war on Afghanistan is not a
"good war" in contrast to the "bad war" on Iraq.

4.  The current consensus in higher political circles, including both major
party candidates for president, that the war in Afghanistan must be
escalated will only deepen the regional crisis and suffering of the Afghan
people.  The historical experience of other outside powers trying to control
Afghanistan (most spectacularly, the Soviet Union from 1979 to 1989,
invading from next door over a wide common border) suggests that even a
greatly escalated US/NATO war effort will only multiply the deaths and the
suffering.

5.  The US and NATO should immediately begin withdrawing their military and
political assets from Afghanistan so that the Afghan people can have room to
decide their own future.  Continued US/NATO action in the country is a large
part of the problem and cannot be the solution.

6.  We call for regional agreement among Afghanistan's neighbors to
guarantee Afghan stability, to preserve the ethnic and religious diversity
of the country, to assure the full participation of women in social life,
and to provide space for all of the people of Afghanistan to fully exercise
their right to self-determination.
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