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Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die
Dahr Jamail
On September 7 the Swedish aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistan reported that the previous week US soldiers raided one of its hospitals. According to the director of the aid agency, Anders Fange, troops stormed through both the men’s and women’s wards, where they frantically searched for wounded Taliban fighters.
Soldiers demanded that hospital administrators inform the military of any incoming patients who might be insurgents, after which the military would then decide if said patients would be admitted or not. Fange called the incident “not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict, but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement” between nongovernmental organizations and international forces.
Fange said that US troops broke down doors and tied up visitors and hospital staff.
Impeding operations at medical facilities in Afghanistan directly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the obstruction of medical operations during wartime.
Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a public affairs officer for the US Navy, confirmed the raid, and told The Associated Press, “Complaints like this are rare.”
Despite Sidenstricker’s claim that “complaints like this” are rare in Afghanistan, they are, in fact, common. Just as they are in Iraq, the other occupation. A desperate conventional military, when losing a guerilla war, tends to toss international law out the window. Yet even more so when the entire occupation itself is a violation of international law.
Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and also a Truthout contributor, is very clear about the overall illegality of the invasion and ongoing occupation of Afghanistan by the United States.
“The UN Charter is a treaty ratified by the United States and thus part of US law,” Cohn, who is also a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and recently co-authored the book “Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent” said, “Under the charter, a country can use armed force against another country only in self-defense or when the Security Council approves. Neither of those conditions was met before the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban did not attack us on 9/11. Nineteen men – 15 from Saudi Arabia – did, and there was no imminent threat that Afghanistan would attack the US or another UN member country. The council did not authorize the United States or any other country to use military force against Afghanistan. The US war in Afghanistan is illegal.”
Thus, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, along with the ongoing slaughter of Afghan civilians and raiding hospitals, are in violation of international law as well as the US Constitution.
And of course the same applies for Iraq.
Let us recall November 8, 2004, when the US military launched its siege of Fallujah. The first thing done by the US military was to invade and occupy Fallujah General Hospital. Then, too, like this recent incident in Afghanistan, doctors, patients and visitors alike had their hands tied and they were laid on the ground, oftentimes face down, and held at gunpoint.
During my first four trips to Iraq, I commonly encountered hospital staff who reported US military raids on their facilities. US soldiers regularly entered hospitals to search for wounded resistance fighters.
Doctors from Fallujah General Hospital, as well as others who worked in clinics throughout the city during both US sieges of Fallujah in 2004, reported that US Marines obstructed their services and that US snipers intentionally targeted their clinics and ambulances.
“The Marines have said they didn’t close the hospital, but essentially they did,” Dr. Abdulla, an orthopedic surgeon at Fallujah General Hospital who spoke on condition of using a different name, told Truthout in May 2004 of his experiences in the hospital. “They closed the bridge which connects us to the city [and] closed our road … the area in front of our hospital was full of their soldiers and vehicles.”
He added that this prevented countless patients who desperately needed medical care from receiving medical care. “Who knows how many of them died that we could have saved,” said Dr. Abdulla. He also blamed the military for shooting at civilian ambulances, as well as shooting near the clinic at which he worked. “Some days we couldn’t leave, or even go near the door because of the snipers,” he said, “They were shooting at the front door of the clinic!”
Dr. Abdulla also said that US snipers shot and killed one of the ambulance drivers of the clinic where he worked during the fighting.
Dr. Ahmed, who also asked that only his first name be used because he feared US military reprisals, said, “The Americans shot out the lights in the front of our hospital. They prevented doctors from reaching the emergency unit at the hospital, and we quickly began to run out of supplies and much-needed medications.” He also stated that several times Marines kept the physicians in the residence building, thereby intentionally prohibiting them from entering the hospital to treat patients.
“All the time they came in, searched rooms and wandered around,” said Dr. Ahmed, while explaining how US troops often entered the hospital in order to search for resistance fighters. Both he and Dr. Abdulla said the US troops never offered any medicine or supplies to assist the hospital when they carried out their incursions. Describing a situation that has occurred in other hospitals, he added, “Most of our patients left the hospital because they were afraid.”
Dr. Abdulla said that one of their ambulance drivers was shot and killed by US snipers while he was attempting to collect the wounded near another clinic inside the city.
“The major problem we found were the American snipers,” said Dr. Rashid, who worked at another clinic in the Jumaria Quarter of Falluja. “We saw them on top of the buildings near the mayor’s office.”
Dr. Rashid told of another incident in which a US sniper shot an ambulance driver in the leg. The ambulance driver survived, but a man who came to his rescue was shot by a US sniper and died on the operating table after Dr. Rashid and others had worked to save him. “He was a volunteer working on the ambulance to help collect the wounded,” Dr. Rashid said sadly.
During Truthout’s visit to the hospital in May 2004, two ambulances in the parking lot sat with bullet holes in their windshields, while others had bullet holes in their back doors and sides.
“I remember once we sent an ambulance to evacuate a family that was bombed by an aircraft,” said Dr. Abdulla while continuing to speak about the US snipers, “The ambulance was sniped – one of the family died, and three were injured by the firing.”
Neither Dr. Abdulla nor Dr. Rashid said they knew of any medical aid being provided to their hospital or clinics by the US military. On this topic, Dr. Rashid said flatly, “They send only bombs, not medicine.”
Chuwader General Hospital in Sadr City also reported similar findings to Truthout, as did other hospitals throughout Baghdad.
Dr. Abdul Ali, the ex-chief surgeon at Al-Noman Hospital, admitted that US soldiers had come to the hospital asking for information about resistance fighters. To this he said, “My policy is not to give my patients to the Americans. I deny information for the sake of the patient.”
During an interview in April 2004, he admitted this intrusion occurred fairly regularly and interfered with patients receiving medical treatment. He noted, “Ten days ago this happened – this occurred after people began to come in from Fallujah, even though most of them were children, women and elderly.”
A doctor at Al-Kerkh Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared a similar experience of the problem that appears to be rampant throughout much of the country: “We hear of Americans removing wounded Iraqis from hospitals. They are always coming here and asking us if we have injured fighters.”
Speaking about the US military raid of the hospital in Afghanistan, UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said he was not aware of the details of the particular incident, but that international law requires the military to avoid operations in medical facilities.
“The rules are that medical facilities are not combat areas. It’s unacceptable for a medical facility to become an area of active combat operations,” he said. “The only exception to that under the Geneva Conventions is if a risk is being posed to people.”
“There is the Hippocratic oath,” Fange added, “If anyone is wounded, sick or in need of treatment … if they are a human being, then they are received and treated as they should be by international law.”
These are all indications of a US Empire in decline. Another recent sign of US desperation in Afghanistan was the bombing of two fuel tanker trucks that the Taliban had captured from NATO. US warplanes bombed the vehicles, from which impoverished local villagers were taking free gas, incinerating as many as 150 civilians, according to reports from villagers.
The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets all met the end of their ambitions in Afghanistan.
And today, the US Empire is on the fast track of its demise. A recent article by Tom Englehardt provides us more key indicators of this:
Genghis Khan could not hold onto Afghanistan.
Neither will the United States, particularly when in its desperation to continue its illegal occupation, it tosses aside international law, along with its own Constitution.
Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die
Afghanistan To Become Obama’s Vietnam
After listening to Obama from his Zion Throne the other day – the first thing came to my mind was: “You can fool some people sometime, but not all the times”. Obama’s speech seems to be written by some Bush’s Zionist writer and was full of contradictions, such as ”the West must fight a war it can’t win”.
I sincerely wish Obama should have studied Afghanistan’s past history and American past experience in Korea and Vietnam. World’s great colonial power, such as, Alexander the Greeks, the Mongols, the British, and the Russians all licked the dust in Afghanistan. America & Co’s performance during the last eight years has not been able to subdue the proud Afghan people either. Now, the ‘Tom’ think he can succeed where other great armies failed.
Obama made me laugh when he said: “This is not just America’s war. Since 9/11, Al-Qaeda’s safe-heavens have been the source of attacks against London and Amman and Bali (which all been proven to be Israeli False-flags). The people and governments of both Afghanistan and Pakistan (none of which asked Washington for help) are endangered (Gee, American know but Pakistanis and Afghans don’t). And …..Al-Qaeda and other extremists seek nuclear weapons (but sir, the Zionist extremists already have 240 of them). This facts (read myths) compel us to act.”
Obama has decided to follow the failed strtegy of presidents Lyndon Johnson and Nixon in Vietnam. He is almost trippling American forces (100,000 US plus 50,000 collaborators) - hoping to slow-down Taliban gains, which could pave the way for the western invaders to withdraw under the Nixon’s old slogan of “peace with honor”.
Obama also repeated his baseless accusation against Pakistan by saying that his main concern is not Taliban but Al-Qaeda (which doesn’t exist except in the minds of Islamophobes). He believe that his new surge will flush the Al-Qaeda leaders, supposedly, hiding in Waziristan (Pakistan). Now, one wonder how he expect to achieve this miracle, even with the help of Pakistani puppet Asif Zardari’s government when the great majority of Pakistan population never liked American governments for their one-sided policy towards Zionist entity. Obama should learn from Nixon’s humiliation in 1969 for expanding Vietnam war into neighboring Cambodia to deny safe heaven to the Vietnamese resistance fighters. Cambodia still don’t have nukes – but Pakistan do have a few dozens of those.
Christopher Bollyn in his December 2 article, titled Why Afghanistan? has exposed many of US corporate lies. However, he missed two of the main reasons for which Israel lobbying groups pushed Washington to replace Taliban regime – was the sharp drop in the supply of heroin to Jewish-controlled drug-mafia and containment of Iranian influence in the neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Christopher Bollyn wrote that Obama in his speech presented a “false reading of history about 9/11. He repeated the fundamental lies about who is really responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11″.
“Some forty nations are involved in the US-led occupation of Afghanistan and in each of them the public has been deceived about the real reasons for the war. One can almost gauge the degree in which a nation is Zionist-controlled by the number of troops it has sent to Afghanistan. The United States and Britain has sent the largest contingents, followed by Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and Romania.”
“The administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama II are Zionist-dominated and controlled governments. Rahm Emanuel, for example, the Chief-of-Staff of the Obama White House, is actually an Israeli citizen and the son of a Zionist terrorist from the Irgun, the most radical terror gang in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s. The Zionist influence in these administrations can easily be seen by the placement of pro-Israel agents in different positions at every level. “
“Israeli influence within the U.S. military and intelligence spheres is as extensive and deep as it is within the Oval Office. Israeli military intelligence has a great deal of influence in every sphere of the U.S. government which is involved in making the decisions that go into taking the United States to war. That the U.S. government would accept Israeli intelligence on the Middle East from a state that has been at war with nearly every other nation in the region since 1948 is clearly an absurd and biased situation but that is how it is. This is how the United States was taken to war in Afghanistan in October 2001 – and why we are still there.”
“The Israeli politicians Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak were the very first people to blame Osama Bin Laden for 9-11 and call for military action against the Taliban-led regime in Afghanistan. They used the terror attacks and the controlled media to begin the Zionist fraud known as the “War on Terror,” an Israeli military strategy long promoted by “Bibi” Netanyahu…..”
The US and NATO sinking in Afghanistan
by Saybhan Samat
It is now very clear that the US and NATO have achieved nothing of substance in their adventure into Afghanistan and are sinking in the quagmire deeper every day.
The US now desperately needs an exit strategy that looks like a win for two reasons: First its reputation as a mighty military power that can’t be beaten, and especially by tribal clansmen. Second if it withdraws empty-handed, how does it explain the rising number of troop deaths and the billions that are still being poured into a narco-state that is corrupt, in the middle of an economic down-turn at home.
The insurgency in Afghanistan is spreading rapidly as the latest survey conducted by the International Council of Security and Development (ICOS) shows. Its latest research indicates that 80% of the country has a permanent Taliban presence, up from 72% in 2008, and that 97% of the country has “substantial Taliban activity.”
The organization has tracked Taliban movement throughout Afghanistan since 2007. Even with such alarming figures the organization’s president, MS Norine Mc Donald QC, told the internet web-site Huffington Post that she believed the figure was “conservative.”
“Its bad numbers and bad news” she said. “They (the Taliban) have the momentum, their strategies and tactics are working and our’s are not….. its not a question of where they are operating its more a question of where they are not.”
Increased resistance activity has led to more occupation soldiers dying and an alarming escalation in airstrikes that have caused massive civilian causalities. On September 4th, an air strike on two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban who were dispensing fuel to locals in Kunduz resulted in more than 90 civilians deaths. Villagers were able to retrieve only fragments of their loved one’s body parts after the Americans deployed one of their favourite strategies of winning hearts and minds by dropping 1,000 pound bombs from the air.
Combined with instability arising from the recent presidential election in which allegations of widespread electoral fraud were made and the country even more divided between the majority Pashtuns and the minority Tajiks, this is a sure recipe for disaster. Hitherto, northern Afghanistan was relatively calm and there was little resistance activity there but as the Kunduz episode shows, this has now spread much further.
What have the US and the NATO achieved in Afghanistan? They failed to get Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omer. They failed to secure the country. They failed to introduce Western democracy. They failed to better the lot of women and girls. They failed to halt the poppy trade, they failed in their reconstruction efforts and they failed to win the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan. All in all both the US and NATO have failed miserably. The only way out is to adopt an exit strategy to look like a win.
This experience should teach the powerful nations not to in future invade countries and force their ideologies and culture on the indigenous people and exploit their natural resources. Afghanistan has historically been the graveyard of empires. In modern times both Britain and Russia were compelled to withdraw, burying thousands of their soldiers in Afghanistan.
If Obama is smart, he will take a page from the approach adopted by Alexander the Great more than 2,000 years ago. His generals told him the Afghans were such ferocious fighters that they would maul his forces. It was best to leave them alone.
Alexander bypassed Afghanistan to take on the much easier prey in the Indus plains. Whether Obama suffers the fate of the Russians or achieves Alexander’s greatness will depend on what he decides to do next. Current thinking in Washington does not allow for much optimism. The US and NATO must continue to bleed before they realize [they must] withdraw from Afghanistan with a nasty and bloodied nose. Its only a matter of time before this occurs.
The US and NATO sinking in Afghanistan
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