Denne emneliste dækker både situationen i Afghanistan efter den russiske invasion i 1979 og den vestlige invasion i 2001. / This link collection covers both the situation after the Russian invasion in 1979 and the Western invasion 2001-2021.
Indhold
Den russiske invasion og følgerne
Den vestlige invasion 2001-2021
In English
The Russian Invasion and thereafter
The Western Invasion 2001-2021
Forord
I 1979 besatte sovjettiske tropper Afghanistan, mens USA m.fl. aktivt støttede den islamistiske modstandsbevægelse (fx. var Lars Løkke Rasmussen i 1988 i Afghanistan for at aflevere 600.000 kr. til de islamistiske mujahedin-krigere*). I 1989 trak Sovjet sine tropper ud af landet, og efter års borgerkrig fik Taliban med støtte fra Pakistan magten. Efter 11. september 2001 angreb USA så Afghanistan.
De danske soldater har forladt Irak, men sætter sig til gengæld fastere i Afghanistan.
I den anledning har vi lavet en emneliste med dansk- og engelsksproget materiale med baggrund, dokumentation, historie og debat.
Taliban indtager Kabul 15. august 2021.
Bjarne A. Frandsen
Påbegyndt april 2007. Revideret september 2021.
*Se: Støttede Venstres Ungdom og Lars Løkke Rasmussen Taliban i 1988? (TjekDet, 11. september 2024) + foto.
Foreword
In 1979 the Soviet troops occupied Afghanistan, while USA and others actively supported the islamic resistance. In 1989 the Soviet withdrew its troops from the country, and after years of civil war the Taliban gained power supported by Pakistan. After September 11th 2001 the US attacked Afghanistan.
The Danish troops are currently on their way out of Iraq, but are now in return strengthening their position in Afghanistan.
Therefore we have collected this webliography on Afghanistan with background, documentation, history and debate.
Taliban takes control of Kabul 15 August 2021.
Bjarne A. Frandsen
April 2007. Revised September 2021.
Se også på Socialistisk Bibliotek:
- Osama bin Laden & al-Qaeda
- 9/11: Imperialisme og terror efter 11. september
- Konspiration og 11. september
- Politisk Islam – et reaktionært oprør
- Marxism & Terrorism
- Imod besættelsen af Irak
Den russiske invasion og følgerne
- Afghanistan (Leksikon for det 21. århundrede). Leksikal artikel med historie og statistik.
- Taleban. Udarbejdet af Charlotte Aagaard (Faktalink, 29. januar 2009). Opdateret af Malene Fenger-Grøndahl (august 2013).
- Den afghansk-sovjetiske krig (Wikipedia.dk)
- Afghanistan (Wikipedia.dk)
- Taliban (Wikipedia.dk)
Autonom Infoservice
Osama Bin Laden – fra forbundsfælle til statsfjende nr. 1 (11. maj 2011).
“Den saudiarabiske mangemillionær Osama Bin Laden er ikke altid blevet betragtet som fjende af Vestens politiske magthavere. Igennem mange år støttede CIA ham som en ‘vigtig forbundsfælle’. Her er Osama Bin Ladens historie…”
Inge Hansen og Alfred Lang: Historien om Taleban (30. oktober 2001).
“Afghanistan befandt sig i slutningen af 1994 i en opløsningsproces. Krigsfyrster, militsledere og tidligere mudjahidinere havde opdelt landet i indflydelsesområder, hvor de nu agerede som bandeledere.”
Fjärde Internationalen
Salah Jaber [i.e. Gilbert Achcar]: Sovjets uttåg ur Afghanistan (nr.3, 1988; online på Marxistarkiv.se).
” … vi är för de sovjetiska truppernas tillbakadragande, även om det leder till att Kabul-regimen faller samman. Om den trots teknisk och finansiell hjälp från Sovjetunionen inte kan klara sig mot den afghanska reaktionens brokiga gäng, då har de senaste åtta åren klart visat att de sovjetiska truppernas försök att stödja regimen bara har dragit in denna armé i ett krig utan slut.”
Kommentar
Fred Halliday: Afghanistan – Revolution och kontrarevolution (pdf) (nr.2, 1980, 15 s.; online på Marxistarkiv.se). Ãversatt från New Left Review (nr. 119, januar-februar 1980).
“Bakgrunden till upproret mot den prosovjetiska regeringen i Kabul (började 1978). Detta krig fick långtgående konsekvenser. Det var t ex här som al-Qaida föddes.”
Politisk Revy
Sovjet ud af Afghanistan (nr.369, 26. januar 1980).
“Vi bringer her to artikler til styrkelse af omtanken. Asger Christensen belyser i sin artikel baggrunden for og indholdet i de islamiske oprør i Afghanistan, mens Ole Jensen i sin artikel tager de historiske og politiske forudsætninger op til behandling.”
Asger Christensen: Oprør og invasion (s.5-7).
Ole Jensen: Revolution fra neden (s.7-9).
Se også Asger Christensens tidligere artikel: Afghanistan: Revolution og kontrarevolution (nr.360, 7. sept. 1979, s.15-17).
Revolution
Den afghanske Saur-revolution i 1978. Af Adnan Khan (20. august 2021).
“For 40 år siden rystede en revolution næsten landet ud af dets tilbageståenhed, men det blev hurtigt kastet tilbage igen af den imperialistiskfinansierede fundamentalistiske kontrarevolution.”
Lal Khan: Er Afghanistan dømt til elendighed? (4. november 2010).
“Minderne om fremskridtene for de fattige bønder, arbejdere og unge efter revolutionen i 1978 er blevet overleveret til den nye generation. De første måneder af Saur-revolutionen viste et glimt af, hvad der kan opnås gennem omstyrtelse af det rådne kapitalistiske system og oprettelse af en planøkonomi, selv i en karikeret form.”
Frankensteins monster – hvordan USA skabte Taleban-styret (21. april 2003).
“Den terrorisme og islamiske fundamentalisme, USA efter 11. september har erklæret krig imod, er dem langt fra ukendt. Den er tværtimod fremelsket og bragt til magten i form af Taleban-styret af milliarder af amerikanske dollars og et stort engagement fra CIAs side.”
Socialistisk Information
John Pilger: Stormagtsspillet om at smadre lande (29. august 2021).
“Medens vestlige politikere drukner i en tsunami af krokodilletårer, bliver den sande historie fortrængt. For mere end en generation siden vandt Afghanistan den frihed, som USA, Storbritannien og deres ‘allierede’ senere ødelagde.”
Bertel Nygaard: Sovjetunionens Vietnamsyndrom: Afghanistan og den sovjetiske invasion (nr.159, november 2001, s.23-28).
“I december 1979 foldede den sovjetiske militærmaskine sine stålvinger ud over det svage, omtumlede naboland Afghanistan. Dermed sank Sovjetunionen ned i en langvarig og drænende konflikt, hvis konsekvenser stadig ses.”
Bjarke Friborg: Kronologi over Afghanistans venstrefløj (nr.159, november 2001, s.29-31).
Norm Dixon: Da CIA var Bin Ladens arbejdsgiver (nr.158, oktober 2001, s.3-5).
“USA har ikke altid frygtet og bekæmpet fundamentalistiske terrorister. Da det gjaldt den kolde krig mod Sovjetunionen var USA tværtimod dybt involveret i at finansiere, udruste og træne en fundamentalistisk hær i Afghanistan.”
Solidaritet
Taleban – en religiøs marionet (nr.1, januar 1996, s.25; online på Internet Archive).
“Hvem er Taleban? Hvorfor og hvordan opstod den? Hvad er grunden til dens hurtige sejre? Og hvilken effekt vil dens første nederlag og tilbagetrækning overhovedet få?”
VS/Intern Debat
Materiale fra VS’ debat ifm. den russiske invasion i december 1979. Forretningsudvalget tog afstand fra invasionen, mens Internationalt Udvalg støttede den. Hovedbestyrelsen bakkede efterfølgende FU op.
VS FU: Udtalelse om Afghanistan (nr.147, 1. februar 1980, s.4-5).
Særnummer.: Afghanistan (indstik i nr.148, 8. februar 1980, 18 s.).
Jason Meyler m.fl.: ‘Kig på deres hænder – ikke deres mund’ (nr.150, 22. februar 1980, s.5-10) + 2. del (nr.155, 28. marts 1980, s. 4-6).
Den vestlige invasion 2001-2021
- Krigen i Afghanistan (2001-nutid) (Wikipedia.dk)
- Krigen i Afghanistan. Udarbejdet af Charlotte Aagaard (1. april 2008). Opdateret af Malene Fenger-Grøndahl (april 2015).
- Taleban. Udarbejdet af Charlotte Aagaard (29. januar 2009). Opdateret af Malene Fenger-Grøndahl (august 2013).
- Tidslinje: Seks krige på tre årtier forandrede Danmark (DR, september 2024)
Altinget
Ida Elmdal Tagesen: I næsten tyve år fulgte Puk Damsgård Danmarks længste krig. Nu vil hun have os til at se indad: “Vi lod os forblænde af vores egne værdier” (14. november 2023).
“Der har været skrevet meget om krigen i Afghanistan, men dækningen har været fyldt med blinde vinkler, mener Puk Damsgård. I sin nye bog ‘Drageland’ [Politikens Forlag, 2023, 224 s.] kritiserer hun, at indsatsen ikke er blevet evalueret tilstrækkeligt og forsøger at give et samlet billede af, hvad der egentlig foregik.”
Laura Bejder Jensen og Mads Vikkelsø: Efter 20 års krig i Afghanistan: Det har den kostet i liv, kræfter og kroner (20. marts 2021).
“20 år efter Danmark sendte de første danske soldater ned for at bekæmpe Taliban, er de sidste soldater sendt hjem, og Taliban sidder tilbage på magten. Læs her, hvordan krigen udviklede sig, og hvad den har kostet.”
Arbejderen
Jan Øberg: Afghanistan og mainstreammediernes manipulerende metoder (29. november 2021; Magasinet Arbejderen nr. 4, oktober 2021). “Hvordan kan det lade sig gøre at bruge 2.261 trillioner dollars, forårsage millioner af døde i Mellemøsten såvel som 37-50 millioner menneskers opbrud, plus 7000 døde soldater og 30.000 veteraners selvmord … uden at opnå noget som helst godt og stadig blive set som verdens leder? Det kan det ikke.”
Malalai Joya forbander krigen i Afghanistan (29. marts 2016).
“USA og NATO skal stoppe deres støtte til Afghanistans krigsherrer og korrupte politikere og trække sig ud, mener Malalai Joya. Hun tror det er vejen til fred og udvikling.” Se også Malalai Joyas bog: Min lykkes fjender: Afghanistans modigste kvinde (Verve, 2010, 336 s.).
Tariq Ali: Spørgsmålet om NATO’s tilbagetrækning (17. marts 2007).
“Taleban vokser og skaber nye alliancer. Ikke fordi dens sekteriske og religiøse praksis er populær, men fordi det er den nationale befrielseskamps eneste paraply-organisation.”
Danmarks Radio
Tidslinje: Seks krige på tre årtier forandrede Danmark (september 2024)
I krig for Danmark (september 2024)
“Med DR’s tema ‘I krig for Danmark’ går vi tæt på de seneste 30 års dansk krigsdeltagelse – og ser også frem ad. Hvad har vi lært undervejs? Og hvad kræver det som samfund og som individ at være i krig for Danmark? Her på temaet kan du læse, lytte og se meget mere om dansk krigsdeltagelse og det at være soldat i Danmark.”
Armadillo (DR, 2010, 101 min.). Udløber 31. maj 2022.
“En kontroversiel og omdiskuteret dokumentarfilm med Christoffer Guldbrandsen som tilstedeværende fortæller og opsøgende journalist, der berører den danske selvforståelse og sætter fokus på, hvordan den danske regering og det danske forsvar har håndteret rollen som krigsførende nation.”
Se også:
Velkommen til Armadillo. Af Carsten Jensen (Ekko, nr. 49, maj-august 2010). “Har dansk presse dækket krigen i Afghanistan på Forsvarets betingelser? Har den fjerde statsmagt valgt at gøre, som Staten siger? I så fald er Janus Metz’ dokumentarfilm Armadillo en undtagelse. Her kan vi ved selvsyn konstatere, at de danske soldater ikke er der for at hjælpe skolepiger over gaden. De er der for at slå ihjel.”
Den Hemmelige Krig (DR, 2006, 58 min.). Udløber 9. august 2024.
“En kontroversiel og omdiskuteret dokumentarfilm med Christoffer Guldbrandsen som tilstedeværende fortæller og opsøgende journalist, der berører den danske selvforståelse og sætter fokus på, hvordan den danske regering og det danske forsvar har håndteret rollen som krigsførende nation.”
Se også:
Den hemmelige krig. En dokumentarfilm af Christoffer Guldbrandsen (pdf) (2006, 32 s.).
“Journalisternes fagblad Journalisten og Center for Journalistik på Syddansk Universitet iværksatte i fællesskab en uvildig undersøgelse af DR-dokumentaren ‘Den Hemmelige Krig’ og det efterfølgende forløb.”
Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier
Hvorfor genvandt Taleban magten i Afghanistan?: Fem faktorer var afgørende for, at Taleban kunne genvinde magten trods 20 års krig. Af Mona Kanwal Sheikh, Jan Werner Mathiasen, Lars Erslev Andersen, Dino Krause & Ole Wæver (13. november 2024, 250 sider).
“Et bredt flertal i Folketinget gav i november 2021 DIIS opgaven med at lave en uvildig, historisk udredningen, der skulle belyse krigen i Afghanistan. Den første del af udredningen fokuserer på, hvorfor Taleban kunne komme til magten igen – trods 20 års massiv, international, militær og humanitær indsats.”
“I dag offentliggør Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier tre rapporter om erfaringerne fra den samtænkte danske indsats i Afghanistan i årene 2001-2014 (9. juni 2016).”:
Delrapport 1: Internationale erfaringer med samtænkning i Afghanistan (pdf). Af Louise Riis Andersen (DIIS, Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier, 2016, 92 s.).
Delrapport 2: Udviklingssamarbejde i Afghanistan (pdf). Af Nicole Ball, Sue Emmott, Maja Greenwood, Najib Murshed og Pablo Uribe (Konsulenthuset Landell Mills, 2016, 72 s.)
Delrapport 3: Danske erfaringer med stabiliseringsprojekter og CIMIC (pdf). Af Steen Bornholdt Andersen, Niels Klingenberg Vistisen og Anna Sofie Schøning (Forsvarsakademiet, 2016, 84 s.).
Se også Charlotte Aagaard og Philip Róin: Politikerne ønsker ingen dom efter Afghanistan (Information.dk, 8. juni 2016).
Eftertryk
Uffe Kaels Auring: Afghanistan, for evigt (6. september 2021).
“Nyhedsmedierne har nu afsluttet 20 års arbejde med at holde Afghanistan-krigen i gang for i stedet at afklare det store spørgsmål om, hvorfor krigen så længe blev holdt i gang. En forklaring, der ligger snublende nær – at krigen varede ved på grund af mediepropagandaen – er udelukket af propagandaen.”
Enhedslisten
Lance Vagnø Jensen: Problemerne i Afghanistan: militært, politisk og økonomisk (3. juli 2006; online på Internet Archive).
“Det afgørende problem for Vesten og den hidtil førte politik i Afghanistan er nemlig at de penge og andre ressourcer som skal til for at genopbygge landet, give befolkningen arbejde, og ændre bøndernes dyrkning fra opium til andre afgrøder, simpelthen er udeblevet.”
Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste
Situations- og trusselsvurderinger (Afghanistan, 2020).
Hent Soldaterne Hjem!
“‘Hent soldatene hjem’ (HSH) er en ad-hoc-organisation af arbejdet for at få de danske soldater hjem fra Afghanistan.”
Information
Emne: Afghanistan
Lasse Jensen: Sune Engel Rasmussens ‘Nyt blod’ er dansk journalistik om Afghanistan i verdensklasse (16. april 2019).
Anmeldelse af bogen Nyt blod (Gyldendal, 2019, 300 s.): “Sune Engel Rasmussens bog giver et dybere og langt mere sammenhængende billede af tragedien i Afghanistan, end 18 års reportager i danske medier har kunnet give.”
Jonathan Steel: 10 myter om Afghanistan (7. oktober 2011).
“Trods et militært engagement i Afghanistan, der nu går ind i sit ellevte år, er vores opfattelse af det krigshærgede land stadig domineret af en række populære myter. En mangeårig Afghanistan-kender forsøger at udrede trådene.”
Poul Villaume: Er selvbedraget om Afghanistan under afvikling? (7. august 2010).
“NATO/ISAF-styrkerne i Afghanistan er en del af problemet, ikke en del af løsningen. Det står klart, ikke mindst efter donorkonferencen i Kabul.”
Preben Wilhjelm: Det afghanske mareridt (19. januar 2010).
“Exit-strategien for de militære styrker i Afghanistan er lige så luftig, som den var i Irak, og exit-tidspunktet 2012 er i bedste fald en luftig prognose. Der er væsentlige dele af historien, de danske politikere øjensynlig har fortrængt, når de retfærdiggør sig med, at ‘vi gør en forskel’.”
Poul Villaume: Der er alternativer til militarisme i Afghanistan (7. juli 2009).
“Skal dansk forsvar også i de næste 10-15 år deltage i kontinuerlige krige og højintensiv ‘oprørsbekæmpelse’ rundt om i verden?”
‘Vestens frigørelse af afghanske kvinder var løgn’ (17. maj 2008).
“Kvinders vilkår er blevet værre efter den USA-ledede NATO-invasion af Afghanistan – og det amerikanske løfte om at bringe frihed til afghanerne var løgn fra starten, mener politikeren og feministen Malalai Joya, der kæmper for et sekulært og demokratisk Afghanistan.” Se også Malalai Joyas site.
Modkraft.dk
Nagieb Khaja: Tallene lyver (27. november 2011).
“FN’s opgørelser over tab i Afghanistan stemmer ikke overens med den afghanske befolknings erfaringer. Uddrag af Nagieb Khajas bog Historien der ikke bliver fortalt – om krigen i Afghanistan (Gyldendal, 2011).”
Se også: Læserne spørger: Nagieb Khaja (Information.dk, 9. december 2011).
Anders Lundkvist: Hvorfor er vi i Afghanistan? (4. oktober 2010; online på Internet Archive).
“Er NATO i Afghanistan for at fremme demokrati og menneskerettigheder, eller for at varetage strategiske interesser overfor Rusland, Kina og Mellemøsten?”
Det Ny Clarté
Historien, der skal fortælles: journalistik i en krigstid – interview med Nagieb Khaja (pdf) (nr.21, januar 2013, s.4-6).
Nagieb Khaja er forfatter til bogen: Historien, der ikke bliver fortalt: om krigen i Afghanistan (Gyldendal, 2011, 355 s.), og har instrueret dokumentarfilmen Mit Afghanistan (2012).
Politiken
Carsten Jensen: Verdenskrigen i Tølløse (Kroniken, 1. januar 2012).
“2012 var året, hvor Natos strategi i Afghanistan endegyldigt brød sammen.”
Nagieb Khaja: Den afghanske tragedie (Kronik, 9. januar 2012).
“Udviklingen i Afghanistan tegner ikke så godt, som nogen hævder. Den danske militære indsats i landet er en del af problemet og ikke en del af løsningen.” Under betalingsmur.
Carsten Jensen: ‘Krigen i Afghanistan er Mission Meningsløs’ (13. november 2010).
“Vi tog aldrig deres håb alvorligt. Vi gav dem ikke den genopbygning, de bad om.” Under betalingsmur.
Carsten Jensen: ‘Vi nægter at forstå, hvad kaos betyder’ (20. november 2010).
“Politikerne ved ikke, hvad kaos er. De er også ravende ligeglade, skriver Carsten Jensen i sit andet indlæg om Afghanistan.” Under betalingsmur.
Carsten Jensen: ‘Det er os, der står i vejen i Afghanistan’ (27. november 2010).
“Vores tid er forbi, skriver Carsten Jensen i sit tredje og sidste indlæg om Afghanistan.” Under betalingsmur.
Carsten Jensen: Hvorfor er vi tavse om krigen i Afghanistan? (Essay, 22. maj 2010)
“Er Afghanistan en ubekvem krig, og er det derfor, vi ikke vil tage stilling til den, i anden form end meningsmålingernes anonyme, uforpligtende håndsoprækning?, spørger Carsten Jensen og opstiller ni dogmer, der styrer vores opfattelse af krigen.” Under betalingsmur.
Poul Villaume: Forhandlinger med Taleban? (Kronik, 23. oktober 2008).
“De nye signaler i den danske debat om Afghanistan er affødt af udlandets pessimistiske udsagn.” Under betalingsmur
Poul Villaume: Virkelighedstjek i Afghanistan (Kronik, 1. juni 2007).
“Den officielle retorik om indsatsen i Afghanistan rimer dårligt med uafhængige internationale ekspertanalyser. Skal militariseringen af dansk sikkerheds- politik fortsættes?”
Revolution
Hamid Alizadeh: Afghanistan: Amerikansk imperialismes kyniske forræderi (23. august 2021).
“Den længste krig i amerikansk historie er endt i et komplet ydmygende nederlag for verdens stærkeste imperialistiske magt. Deres brutale og korrupte marionetregering i Kabul faldt fra hinanden og desintegrerede i takt med Talibans fremmarch.”
NATO fører krig mod det afghanske folk (18. december 2006).
“Den militære situation for USA og deres allierede i Afghanistan ser sort ud, og landets sociale, politiske og økonomiske situation er kendetegnet ved barbari, sult og elendighed. I provinserne er det krigsherrerne der styrer, og præsident Karzais marionetregering i Kabul har ikke meget at skulle have sagt uden for hovedstadens grænser.”
Socialistisk Arbejderavis
Jonathan Neale: Ustabiliteten i Afghanistan vokser mens USA bomber Pakistan (nr.283, 31. oktober 2008).
“Modstanden mod besættelsen af Afghanistan vokser, spreder sig og vinder indpas. Som respons rykker et skræmt amerikansk militær tættere på krig med Pakistan.”
Jørn Andersen: Noget der ikke stemmer (nr.274, 29. november 2007).
“Hvordan kan Taleban være til stede i 54 pct. af Afghanistan, være tæt på at nå Kabul og vinde større og større legitimitet i befolkningen – hvis de samtidig har mistet flere tusinde af højst 10.000 partisaner?”
Karzai – en marionet-dukke (nr.270, juni 2007).
“Den afghanske befolkning burde få muligheden for at regere sig selv – mener den politiske forsker Matin Baraki, der netop har besøgt landet, i et interview til det tyske magasin Marx21.”
Jesper Høi Kanne: Danmarks og NATOs hemmelige krig (nr.266, 14. marts 2007).
“Med Anders Foghs og Tony Blairs beslutning om at reducere antallet af danske og britiske soldater i Irak, kommer krigen i Afghanistan op til overfladen igen. I skrivende stund ser det ud til, at yderligere nogle hundrede danske – og 1.400 britiske – soldater sendes til Afghanistan. Danmark har i øjeblikket 435 soldater i landet.”
Socialistisk Information
Helena Zeweri og Wazhmah Osman: Afghanske kvinders lange kamp imod imperialismen (19. januar 2022).
“I de seneste måneder er der efter USA’s militære tilbagetrækning blevet pustet nyt liv i fortællingen om at ’redde afghanske kvinder’. Som det fremgår af en lang række forskningsresultater lige siden den militære besættelse i 2001, så tjener denne fortælling to formål.”
Phil Gasper: USA-imperialismen i Afghanistan og hvad der kommer efter (26. september 2021).
“Efter næsten tyve års krig og besættelse af Afghanistan trak de amerikanske styrker sig ud sidst i august og efterlod landet til Taliban, den organisation man havde fjernet, da USA invaderede landet i 2001. Få uger forinden udtalte præsident Biden, at der ingen væsentlig lighed var til USA’s tilbagetrækning fra Vietnam i 1975, samt ‘det er usandsynligt, at Taliban vil overtage alting, og lægge beslag på hele landet’.”
Leif Mikkelsen:På jagt efter de danske værdier i Afghanistan (10. september 2021)
“Det er disse værdier, vi vil kigge nærmere på, holdt op imod Danmarks virkelige indsats i Afghanistan … Vi kan naturligvis ikke tage oplevelsen fra den enkelte udsendte, men kontrasten er stor mellem ministerens syn på vores indsats og det billede, jeg vil opridse.”
Farooq Sulehria: Forladt og forrådt (2. september 2021).
“Endnu en gang er Kabul kommet i kløerne på et puritansk barbari. Endnu en gang har et endnu større barbari, USA’s imperialisme, banet vejen for deres juniorpartner, Taliban. Men i stedet for at fordybe os i Kabuls nedværdigende fald, så lad os begynde med et eksempel på et totalt frygtløst mod over for Talibans besættelse af byen.”
Tariq Ali: Sammenbruddet i Afghanistan – et forudsigeligt og forudsagt nederlag for USA, NATO og andre (23. august 2021).
“Kabuls fald til Taliban den 15. august 2021 er et betydeligt politisk og ideologisk nederlag for det amerikanske imperium. De overfyldte helikoptere, der bragte personalet fra den amerikanske ambassade til lufthavnen i Kabul, mindede slående om sceneriet i Saigon – nu Ho Chi Minh City – i april 1975.”
Afghanistan: Taberkrig mod terror (2. november 2008).
“Situationen i Afghanistan skaber grobund for et forståeligt had til de udenlandske besættelsesmagter. Dybt reaktionære kræfter, som Taliban og al-Qaeda, opnår løbende øget støtte og tilslutning ved at stå i spidsen for den væbnede kamp mod disse.”
Tariq Ali: Den gode krigs blændværk (20. september 2008).
“Sjældent har der været en så entusiatisk opvisning af international enhed, som den der hyldede invasionen af Afghanistan i 2001. Støtte til krigen var universel i Vestens risikovillighed, selv før krigens mål og succeskriterier var blevet lagt frem.”
Lance Vagnø Jensen: USA og NATO taber i Afghanistan (pdf) (nr.212, november 2006, s.22-25). Scroll ned.
“Manglende økonomiske og sociale prioriteringer, koblet sammen med en ulyst til at rage uklar med lokale krigsherrer, er hovedårsagen til, at talibanerne har kunnet vende tilbage til Afghanistan.”
John Pilger: Befrielsens af Afghanistan (nr.2-3, maj 2010; indstik 28 s.).
Kapitel 5 i John Pilgers bog Frihed næste gang (Det Poetiske Bureaus Forlag, 2010). P.t. ikke online.
Solidaritet
Poya Pakzad: Afghanistan: Den ‘gode krig’, der aldrig var (25. august 2021).
“Talibans magtovertagelse i Afghanistan viser os ikke kun konsekvenserne af en hensynsløs amerikansk exit. Den viser os først og fremmest konsekvenserne af offentlige ideer om, at man kan bombe og besætte sig til demokratisk udvikling.”
Hanif Sufizada: Taleban er styrtende rig. Hvor kommer pengene fra? (17. august 2021). “Trods 20 år i krig mod verdens største militærmagt, har Taleban stadig kunnet finansiere modstand. Hvordan har den sekteriske milits finansieret generobringen af Afghanistan?”
TjekDet
Daniel Greneaa Hansen og Andreas Søndergaard Petersen: Søren Espersen har ret i, at flertallet af afghanere støtter sharia. Men det betyder ikke, at de støtter Taliban (26. august 2021).
“I kølvandet på Talibans magtovertagelse i Afghanistan havde DR 18. august inviteret til debat om, hvordan det kunne gå så galt i Afghanistan efter 20 års vestlig, militær tilstedeværelse.”
Daniel Greneaa Hansen mfl.: Har Taliban overtaget magten på rekordtid, fordi de fleste afghanere støtter bevægelsen? (24. august 2021).
“Den islamistiske bevægelse Taliban har på nærmest rekordtid og uden den store militære modstand genvundet magten i Afghanistan. I den forbindelse bliver det diskuteret, om magtovertagelsen kunne ske så nemt, fordi de fleste afghanerne i virkeligheden støtter Talibans antidemokratiske ideologi.”
The Russian invasion and thereafter
- Soviet war in Afghanistan (Wikipedia.org)
- Afghan Civil War (Wikipedia.org)
- Afghan Civil War (1989-1992) (Wikipedia.org)
- Afghan Civil War (1992-1996) (Wikipedia.org)
- Afghan Civil War (1996-2001) (Wikipedia.org)
- Taliban (Wikipedia.org)
Capital & Class
Jonathan Neale: Afghanistan: The horse changes riders (No.35, Summer 1988; online at Reds – Die Roten).
“Whichever faction of the resistance finally consolidates power in Kabul, they will lead a brutally repressive right-wing government. How did this happen? Why? What is likely to happen next? These are the questions this article will tackle.”
Challenge
Special supplement: Yacov Ben Efrat: Afghan boomerang (Issue 70, November-December 2001; online at Kersplebedeb.com).
“America’s nurture of militant Islam and the miscalculations of Osama Bin Laden.”
In Defence of Marxism
Topics: Afghanistan
Doctor Zayar: Afghanistan – an historical overview (15 October 2001).
“To understand the present war that is taking place in Afghanistan, one must take into consideration the factors that have shaped the history of this tragic land. Doctor Zayar gives an overview of the history of Afghanistan from the middle ages to the present day.”
Ted Grant: Afghanistan: why the Russian bureaucracy invaded (15 January 1980).
“In this article we find a scientific Marxist analysis of the class content of the 1978 Afghan revolution and its historical origins. In addition, we have an explanation for the principled position that we took with regard to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that occurred the following year.”
International Socialism
Jonathan Neale: Afghanistan: the case against the ‘good war’ (Issue 120, Autumn 2008, p.31-60).
“Jonathan Neale sets out the history of Afghanistan’s 30 years of bloodshed and explain why its people have turned against the latest occupation.”
Jonathan Neale: The long torment of Afghanistan (Issue 93, December 2001, p.31-57).
“Over the last 30 years the great and small powers of this world have made a hell of Afghanistan.”
Jonathan Neale: The Afghan tragedy (Issue 12, Spring 1981, p.1-32).
“… a Marxist analysis of the roots and forms of the Afghan tragedy … the class roots of the Afghan left, the causes of their coup and the consequences of the Russian invasion.”
International Socialist Review
Phil Gasper: Afghanistan, the CIA, bin Laden and the Taliban (Issue 20, November-December 2001; online at Internet Archive).
“Whatever the U.S. government’s current rhetoric about the repressive nature of the Taliban regime, its long history of intervention in the region has been motivated not by concern for democracy or human rights, but by the narrow economic and political interests of the U.S. ruling class …”
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed: Afghanistan, the Taliban and the United States (Web exclusive, 2001; online at Internet Archive).
“My thesis is that not only has the United States together with the former Soviet Union perpetuated the current catastrophe by having previously supported the armed factions in Afghanistan, but that covert US support of the most prominent faction in the country – the Taliban – continued throughout the 1990s, and may be continuing to this day.”
Jacobin
Alfred W. McCoy: The US’s failure in Afghanistan shows the hubris of American Empire (10 May 2021).
“Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan signals the US has lost the longest war in its history. And even if the warmongers don’t want to admit it, that failure shows the US can’t just bend the world to its will.”
Jonathan Neale: Remembering the Saur Revolution (15 May 2018).
“Forty years ago, communists took over Afghanistan hoping to bring modernization and social progress to the country. Were their sweeping reforms doomed to fail?”
LibCom
Afghanistan War
“Content about the US and allied war in Afghanistan from the 2000s-2020s.”
London Review of Books
Tariq Ali: Andropov was right (Vol.33, No.12, 16 June 2011).
Review of Rodric Braithwaite, Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89 (Profile, 2011) + Artemy Kalinovsky, A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Harvard, 2011)
Marxists Internet Archive
History Archive: History of Afghanistan (1851-1989).
“This archive contains resources on U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, the CIA’s successful overthrow of the Afghani government, and the Soviet response.”
With Time line of Afghanistan (1919-1996) and Frederick Engels’ article from 1857: Afghanistan.
Media Lens
Nikolai Lanine: Invasion – a comparison of Soviet and Western media performence (November 20, 2007).
“Nikolai Lanine served with the Soviet Army during its 1979-1989 occupation of Afghanistan, but now lives and works as a peace activist in Canada. Lanine has spent several years trawling through Soviet-era newspaper archives comparing the propaganda of that time with modern Western media performance.”
New Left Review
Tariq Ali: Debacle in Afghanistan (16 August 2021).
“The fall of Kabul to the Taliban on 15 August 2021 is a major political and ideological defeat for the American Empire.”
The arrival of Taliban (No.2, March-April 2000).
“Tariq Ali on John Cooley, Unholy Wars, and Ahmed Rashid, Taliban. How the US fought its proxy war in Afghanistan, and what kind of Islamist regime has resulted.”
Fred Halliday: The war and revolution in Afghanistan (pdf) (No.119, January-February 1980, p.20-41; online at Platypus1917.org).
“Fred Halliday discusses the circumstances of the Soviet decision to intervene with massive military forces in December 1979.”
Fred Halliday: Revolution in Afghanistan (pdf) (No.112, November-December 1978, p.3-44; online at Platypus1917.org).
“Fred Halliday provides the first full-lenght study in any language of the historical background, political origins and experience to date of the Afghan revolution.”
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
RAWA responds to the Taliban takeover (21 August 2021).
“It is a joke to say values like ‘women’s rights’, ‘democracy’, ‘nation-building’ etc. were part of the US/NATO aims in Afghanistan!”
Socialist Forum
John O’Mahony [i.e. Sean Matgamna]: Afghanistan: USSR troops out, the socialist case (No.3, July 1985).
“What attitude should socialists take to the war? It is a colonial war of conquest. But it is being fought by the USSR, which most of the left in Britain consider either socialist, or at any rate a workers’ state of some sort. So should our attitude be different from the attitude we took to the Vietnam war?”
Socialist Review
Chris Harman: Only a pawn in their game: Afghanistan and the Russian invasion of 1979-80 (February 1980).
“The motives behind the Russian invasion have nothing to do with a desire to advance ‘progress’ in Afghanistan. Like the Americans in Vietnam in the mid-sixties, the Russians are out to prove that they can police their own sphere of influence.”
Socialist Worker
Dave Crouch: How Afghanistan became the graveyard of the Russian empire (Issue 2168, 12 September 2009).
“When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 they thought they were in for an easy victory. But they underestimated the power of the resistance.”
Simon Basketter: Afghanistan’s history of invasion and resistance + Afghanistan was a pawn in the Cold War between US and Russia (Issue 2109, 12 July 2008).
“Imperialist invasions have scarred Afghanistan’s history over the last three centuries, writes Simon Basketter, but the great powers’ plans have been thwarted by resistance.”
Weekly Worker
Reasons for Afghan debacles (Issue 1360, 12 August 2021).
“Daniel Lazare reviews three seminal books on the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan”: Rodric Braithwaite, Afgantsy: the Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89 (Oxford University Press, 2011, 448 p.), Artemy M Kalinovsky, A long goodbye: the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan (Harvard University Press, 2011, 290 p.), Bruce Riedel, What we won: America’s secret war in Afghanistan, 1979-89 (Brookings, 2014, 189 p.).
Jack Conrad: Looking back over the ruins (Issue 1356, 15 July 2021).
This is an edited version of an article first published in June 2003: “The final withdrawal of American troops must be put in the context of the April 1978 revolution and the subsequent reaction.”
Workers Liberty
Sean Matgamna: Stalinism and Afghanistan: socialists and the 1979-89 war (pdf) (Vol.3, No.55, October 2016, 20 p.).
“Afghanistan’s ‘Great Saur Revolution’, in April 1978, and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan that flowed from it 20 months later, at Christmas 1979, were two of the most important events of the second half of the 20th century.”
Sean Matgamna: Afghanistan and the shape of the 20th century (Vol.2, No.2, March 2002, p.18-87).
“All the horrors that engulfed the peoples of Afghanistan in the last quarter of the twentieth century were called down on them by the Stalinist ‘Great Saur Revolution’ of 27 April 1978. It triggered the bloody 23 year cycle that ended with the fall of the Taliban regime in December 2001.”
The Western Invasion 2001–2021
- Fall of Kabul (2021)
- 2021 Taliban offensive
- War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
- Civilian casualties of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
- Taliban
- Afghan War documents leak
Sites / Collections of articles
Archivistan
Marc Herold’s Afghan Canon.
Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, warlords, and the propaganda of silence
By Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls (Seven Stories Press, 2006).
Interviews, reviews and excerpts from the book (online at Internet Archive).
Review:
The ‘good occupation’. By Nicole Colson (International Socialist Review, Issue 52, March–April 2007).
Costs of War
“… there has been no comprehensive accounting of the costs of the United States’ wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. The goal of the Costs of War project has been to outline a broad understanding of the domestic and international costs and consequences of those wars.” See U.S. costs to date for the War in Afghanistan, 2001-2022.
In Defence of Marxism
Topics: Afghanistan
Project on Defence Alternatives
War Report
“Iraq and Afghanistan war news, analysis, commentary from around the web.”
Archives: Afghan War
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) (RAWA)
“RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women’s rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977.”
Socialist Worker (US)
Topics: Afghanistan
Views and Voices: Debate on Afghanistan (Issue 603, September 29, 2006)
Third World Traveler
U.S. Foreign Policy: Afghanistan page
Workers Liberty
Topics: Afghanistan
World Socialist Web Site
Topics: Central Asia
Articles
Against the Current
Valentine M. Moghadam: Afghanistan’s tragedy (Issue 213, July-August 2021).
“This is Afghanistan, 20 years after the Bush regime launched a military attack in the aftermath of 9/11 to punish the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden, and years after the Obama administration ordered troop enhancements and drone attacks.”
Annebonnypirate.org
Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale: Afghanistan: The end of the occupation (August 17, 2021). Longer article.
“A lot of nonsense about Afghanistan is being written in Britain and the United States. Most of this nonsense hides a number of important truths.” Also online at Solidarity (19 August) + RS21 (20 August).
Archivistan
Marc W. Herold: A dossier on civilian victims of United States’ aerial bombing of Afghanistan: a comprehensive accounting (March, 2002).
“What causes the documented high level of civilian casualties – 3,000 – 3,400 (October 7, 2001 thru March 2002) civilian deaths – in the U.S. air war upon Afghanistan? The explanation is the apparent willingness of U.S. military strategists to fire missiles into and drop bombs upon, heavily populated areas of Afghanistan.”
Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)
Seema Patel: Breaking point: measuring progress in Afghanistan (pdf) (February 23, 2007, 118 p.).
“Three of the report’s main findings are:
Afghans are losing trust in their government because of an escalation in violence – Public expectations are neither being met nor managed – Conditions in Afghanistan have deteriorated in all key areas targeted for development, except for the economy and women’s rights.”
CorpWatch
Fariba Nawa: Afghanistan, Inc.: a CorpWatch Investigative Report (October 6th, 2006, 35 p.).
“A new report details the bungled reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.”
Counterfire
Terina Hine: The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold (December 9, 2021). Review of Tariq Ali’s book (Verso, 2021, 272 p.).
“Informative and at times amusing, the book charts the tragic history of Western intervention in the beleaguered country through a collection of Tariq’s writings drawn from 1983 to the present day. Article by article, the book provides a critical analysis of events and an uncannily accurate prediction of the outcome.”
The tragedy after the tragedy: 9/11 and the war on Afghanistan (September 11, 2021).
“On the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Chris Nineham assesses the war on Afghanistan and 20 years of military interventions it was used to justify.”
Chris Nineham: Afghanistan’s unending war: seventeen years since the Western invasion (October 7, 2018).
“The Taliban is advancing again, met by escalation from Trump and NATO. Amidst the devastation, our leaders still can’t recognise defeat.”
CounterPunch
Gareth Porter: Shattering the myth of Taliban / Al Qaeda ties (February 8, 2011).
“In a paper published Monday by the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn recount the decision by the Taliban leadership in 2002 to offer political reconciliation with the U.S.-backed Afghan administration.” See also the CIC Study: Separating the Taliban from al-Qaeda (pdf) (2011, 12 p.).
Gareth Porter: Taliban rising (September 23, 2009).
“Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s assessment says key Afghan groups back Taliban.”
Eliza Szabo: Fatal neglect (July 20, 2007).
“According to what little information is available, U.S. and NATO-led forces appear to be responsible for a growing number of civilian deaths.”
In Defence of Marxism
Hamid Alizadeh: Afghanistan: the cynical betrayal of US imperialism (16 August 2021). “Twenty years after the invasion of Afghanistan, the most powerful military force the world has ever known has been dealt total defeat at the hands of a band of primitive religious zealots.”
Alan Woods: Obama, Afghanistan and general McChrystal (23 June 2010).
“The public clash between Obama and his top general in Afghanistan highlight the difficulties US imperialism is facing in what is clearly an unwinnable war. What the general has done is to express in public what is normally reserved for private conversation, but it does bring out clearly the impasse the US is facing in Afghanistan.” Dansk udgave: Obama, Afghanistan og general McChrystal (Socialistisk Standpunkt, 28. juni 2010)
Alan Woods: Afghanistan – the unwinnable war (7 October 2008).
“A British Army brigadier recently admitted what we said long ago on the pages of this website: a military victory over the Taliban was ‘neither feasible nor supportable’. Neither side is winning and this is pushing the more realistic and serious minded strategists of capital to look at other solutions, a deal of some kind. Meanwhile the ordinary people continue to suffer.”
Alan Woods: Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul: Is the war over? (15 November 2001).
“In less than a week, Taliban forces have been swept from most of northern Afghanistan … The question is: How did a force that only two months ago controlled most of Afghanistan get swept from the battlefield so quickly, and is the battle over?”
Informed Comment
Juan Cole: Top ten myths about Afghanistan, 2010 (27 December 2010).
International Socialism
Joseph Choonara: Afghanistan and empire (Issue 172, Autumn 2021, p.3-14).
“Recent events in Afghanistan are part of the closing of a chapter in the history of imperialism that began with 9/11.”
Jonathan Neale: Afghanistan: the case against the ‘good war’ (Issue 120, Autumn 2008, p.31-60).
“Jonathan Neale sets out the history of Afghanistan’s 30 years of bloodshed and explain why its people have turned against the latest occupation.”
International Socialism Project
Imran Kamyana: When Afghanistan was red! (May 14, 2024).
“The Saur (Spring) Revolution of 1978 is one such event, which played a key role in shaping the current situation not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan but also in the entire South Asian region in general.”
Sharon Smith: The empire has no clothes (September 5, 2021).
“The U.S. exit from Afghanistan has exposed the truth about its occupation, for those who care to see it. The U.S. never intended to bring democracy to Afghanistan.Like all imperialists, the U.S.’ geopolitical strategy has never been based on the needs of people—and certainly not those who live in the countries it invades and occupies.”
International Socialist Review
Helen Redmond: The war on drugs in Afghanistan: From poppy to fentanyl lollipops (Issue 80, November-December 2011).
“Two wars are being fought in Afghanistan: the so-called war on terror, which as this publication has argued, is an imperialist war; and a war on drugs, an assault on poor Afghan farmers and their families struggling to survive in a shattered economy.”
David Whitehouse: Afghanistan: sinking deeper (Issue 69, January–February 2010).
“An examination of Obama’s new war plans for Afghanistan … At best, what the U.S. can hope for is to settle not for victory, but something less than a total defeat, by splitting the Taliban and forming some sort of coalition with them as part of it.”
David Whitehouse: The case for getting out of Afghanistan (Issue 63, January-February 2009).
“This record shows whether U.S. actions really match the professed humanitarian objectives, including the defense of women’s rights. The record also shows how much, and how little, the intervention has to do with al-Qaeda. And it shows what’s been constant in the calculations of top politicians – a concern for pipeline politics and the pursuit of strategic imperial position.”
Katherine Dwyer: Afghanistan’s endless war (Issue 37, September–October 2004).
“Ordinary Afghans face a war without end. Despite Bush’s claims about the U.S. bringing peace, democracy, and an end to terror to Afghanistan, the truth is that Afghanistan today exists in a state of total chaos.”
Nicole Colson: The truth about Afghanistan (Issue 28, March–April 2003; online at Third World Traveler).
“Ultimately, this is not a war for liberation, it is a war for domination and imperialism-and the dismal condition of Afghanistan shows the catastrophic potential awaiting the population of Iraq, and any other country that the Bush administration decides to target down the road.”
Sharon Smith: Using women’s rights to sell Washington’s war (Issue 21, January-February 2002).
“The mass media has mentioned, but chosen not dwell on, the embarrassing contrast between the Bush administration’s stated outrage over the Taliban’s treatment of women and its silence over gender apartheid as practiced by U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.”
International Viewpoint
Gilbert Achar: Who is buried in the graveyard of empires? (19 August 2021).
“U.S. President Joe Biden invoked Afghanistan’s historical nickname as ‘graveyard of empires’ … He was thus asserting that attempts at securing control over Afghanistan are doomed to fail, while laying the blame on the Afghan government that had been established by the U.S. occupation itself.”
Irish Marxist Review
Kieran Allen: The tragedy of Afghanistan (Vol.10, No.31, 2021).
“On 18 September 2001, the US House ofRepresentatives voted by 420–1 and the US Senate by98–0 to authorise the United States to go to war inAfghanistan. It was a declaration of permanent war, to be launchedat the will of the US whenever it deemed that anenemy could be labelled a terrorist. This hubris reflected overwhelming military power and the need tore-assert it after the 9/11 attacks.”
Jacobin
Tariq Ali: The best thing the US can do for Afghanistan is stay out of it (October 20, 2021).
Daniel Denvir interviews Tariq Ali: “Despite four decades of imperial interventions, the United States was defeated in Afghanistan. Tariq Ali explains the long history of meddling in Afghanistan — and why the US’s defeat will set back the broader project of American military supremacy.”
Gilbert Achcar: Washington is shedding crocodile tears for Afghan women (September 14, 2021).
“War hawks constantly cite women’s liberation in support of the US occupation of Afghanistan. That’s transparent hypocrisy: during the Cold War, the US supported patriarchal fundamentalists against a party dedicated to advancing the cause of Afghan women.”
Greg Shupak: Afghanistan was never a good war (September 11, 2021).
“The United States invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 because its leaders wanted revenge. The US occupation brought misery and destruction for the Afghan people, and its failure was guaranteed from the start.”
Branko Marcetic: For many Afghans, the US occupation was just as bad as the Taliban (August 19, 2021).
“Pointing to Taliban human rights violations, war hawks wish US troops were back in Afghanistan. Somehow they’ve already forgotten that the recklessness and sadism of those troops is why the Taliban came roaring back in the first place.”
Tabitha Spence and Ammar Ali Jan: The US is to blame for the destruction of Afghanistan (August 17, 2021).
“Despite its claims to be building democracy in Afghanistan, the US’s War on Terror pushed the country deeper into chaos. The United States should be held fully responsible for this failure by the rest of the world.”
Alfred W. McCoy: The US’s failure in Afghanistan shows the hubris of American Empire (10 May 2021).
“Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan signals the US has lost the longest war in its history. And even if the warmongers don’t want to admit it, that failure shows the US can’t just bend the world to its will.”
Middle East Report
Benjamin D Hopkins: Afghanistan’s present failure lies in its past design (January 18, 2022). “This article combats hackneyed explanations about Afghanistan being too tribal or mired in the past and focuses on the Afghan state’s design as the source of its problems.”
Lisa Hajjar: Bagram, Obama’s Gitmo (Issue 260, Fall 2011).
“Many of the problems that had earned Guantánamo its excoriating nickname ‘the legal black hole’ and made it an international symbol of injustice, like denial of habeas corpus, indefinite detention and abusive interrogation techniques, are features of Bagram air base in Afghanistan. Critics seeking to draw attention to these problems nicknamed the Afghanistan facility ‘Obama’s Gitmo’.”
The Nation
Peter Bergen: Waltzing with Warlords (January 1, 2007).
“Five years after the United States ousted the Taliban, optimism about Afghanistan’s future is evaporating. Three new books shed light on what went wrong.”
New Internationalist
Theme: Through Afghan eye (Issue 417, November 2008).
“As the war in Afghanistan intensifies we ask Afghan writers and journalists how they see events unfolding and what they think their country needs to end decades of violent conflict.” See also Afghanistan – the facts
New Left Review
Tariq Ali: Debacle in Afghanistan (Sidecar, 16 August 2021).
“The fall of Kabul to the Taliban on 15 August 2021 is a major political and ideological defeat for the American Empire.”
Tariq Ali: Afghanistan: mirage of the good war (Issue 50, March-April 2008).
“Reasons for the West’s stalemate in Afghanistan sought neither in lack of troops and imperial treasure, nor in Pakistani obstruction, but in the very nature of the occupation regime. Tariq Ali on the actual results of ‘state-building’ in the Hindu Kush, as a broken country is subjected to the combined predations of NGOs and NATO.”
New Politics
Frieda Afary: Afghanistan and its challenge to Feminism (Issue 72, Winter 2022).
“How should anti-imperialists relate to the coming to power of the misogynist Taliban regime in Afghanistan?”
Kobra Sultani: Feminism versus fundamentalism in Afghanistan (Issue 72, Winter 2022). “Sultani discusses women’s struggle in Afghanistan, historically and against the Taliban regime today.”
Frieda Afary: Help Afghan Women: do not recognize the Taliban government (December 12, 2021).
An interview with a representative of Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) inside Afghanistan.
Kevin B. Anderson: Afghanistan – don’t look away: a crisis for the whole of humanity (September 21, 2021).
“The defeat of the U.S. and the seizure of power by the Taliban mark a real turning point. This reveals both imperialism and fundamentalism as obstacles to human emancipation at a time when Afghan women are leading the resistance.”
The PBH Network
Perspective on 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq & Afghanistan (September 11, 2010).
Casualties of 9/11, the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq.
Project on Defense Alternatives
Carl Conetta: Disappearing the dead: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the idea of a ‘New Warfare’ (pdf) (PDA Research Monograph, 9, 18 February 2004, 111 p.) + Executive Summary (pdf) (19 p.).
“Examines the Pentagon’s treatment of the civilian casualty issue in the Iraq and Afghan wars, reviews the ‘spin’ and ‘news frames’ used by defense officials to shape the public debate over casualties, and critiques the concept of a ‘precision warfare’ as misleading.”
Psysicians for Social Responsibility
Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 years of the “War on Terror” (pdf) (March 2015, 97 p.).
“The purpose of this investigation is to provide as realistic an estimate as possible of the total body count in the three main war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan during 12 years of ‘war on terrorism’.”
Rethink Afghanistan (Internet Archive)
Robert Greenwald’s latest film: “With the fast-paced editing that has become Greenwald’s trademark – no shot seems to last more than 15 seconds – Rethink Afghanistan tackles aspects of the war in 10-minute segments. Greenwald split the film into YouTube-sized chunks so people could get to see it online as soon as each segment was finished.”
See also:
Rethink Afghanistan (Wikipedia.org)
What cost conquest? Review by Robert Ward (Green Leeft Weekly, Issue 808, 22 August 2009).
Robert Greenwald: Afghanistan’s sharpest shooter (Green Left Weekly, Issue 810, 13 September 2009). Mat Ward spoke to director Robert Greenwald.
Rolling Stone
Michael Hastings: The runaway general (Issue 1108-1109, July 8-22, 2010).
“Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House.”
See also:
Alan Woods: Obama, Afghanistan and general McChrystal (In Defence of Marxism, 23 June 2010).
Patrick Martin: The ‘Hitler’ option in Afghanistan (World Socialist Web Site, 29 June 2010)
Socialist Project
Greg Albo and Herman Rosenfeld: Unionists, Canada and the Afghan War : questions that workers ask about Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan (The Bullet, No. 32, October 27, 2006).
Socialist Review
Jonathan Neale: Round-up on Afghanistan (Issue 334, March 2009).
“To understand why Afghanistan is now a fire of revolt, you have to understand the experience of occupation. Four recent books help do this.”
Jonathan Neale: Afghanistan: the other lost war (Issue 319, November 2007).
“Against the backdrop of failure in Iraq, Afghanistan is often promoted as the enduringly justifiable, and winnable, war. Jonathan Neale explains why this is not the case, while former US infantryman Johnny Rico speaks out about his experiences on the Afghan frontline.”
Socialist Worker (UK)
Feminism, bombs and liberation (Issue 2770, 28 August 2021). “Lies are being spun that most Afghan women’s lives improved under the US occupation. Judy Cox explores the reality for Afghan women after 20 years of war.”
Isabel Ringrose: War crimes—the West’s hidden horrors in Afghanistan (Issue 2734, 6 December 2020).
“Murders, torture and massacres—that’s the reality of the war in Afghanistan exposed by a report into Australian war crimes. And for all its denial, Britain is just as guilty.”
Judith Orr: Afghanistan: the war the West can’t win (Issue 2272, 8 October 2011).
“The so-called ‘just war’ has brought a nightmare, not liberation, for Afghan people.”
Socialist Worker (US)
The unraveling occupation (April 10, 2012).
“Nicole Colson reports on the quagmire of the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan – and why 10 years after the war began, the U.S. must get out.”
Doubling down in Afghanistan (April 6, 2009).
“David Whitehouse looks at the Obama administration’s new plan for Afghanistan and explains what it means for the future of the ‘other occupation’.”
Afghanistan’s response to escalating war (March 20, 2009)
“Anand Gopal, the Kabul correspondent for the Monitor, talked to David Whitehouse about the escalation of the war and the different ways Afghans are responding.”
Who are the Taliban? (December 9, 2008).
“Journalist Anand Gopal writes from Afghanistan on conditions driving resistance to the U.S. war and occupation.”
State of Nature
Elaheh Rostami Povey: The reality of life in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban (Vol.3, Spring 2006; online at Internet Archive).
“Afghan people are resentful of the fact that after four years they do not have access to electricity, gas and clean water, while foreigners in their country enjoy these facilities.”
See also review of her book Afghan Women (Socialist Review, Issue 317, September 2007).
Tempest
Twenty years since 9/11: U.S. imperialism in Afghanistan and beyond (September 11, 2021). “On the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Phil Gasper explains the historical relationship between U.S. imperialism and the jihadist groups in the Middle East.”
Truthdig
Afghan Autopsy. A Dig led by Christian Parenti (November 28, 2006).
“America began its so-called war on terror with the intention of driving the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. Five years later, the Taliban is back, Osama bin Laden is still alive, and insurgent fighters cite the U.S. presence in the country as their main wellspring of rage. How did it come to this?”
The Washington Post
At war with the truth: The Afghanistan Papers: A secret history of the war. By Craig Whitlock (The Washington Post, December 9, 2019; online at Internet Archive).
“U.S. officials constantly said they were making progress. They were not, and they knew it, an exclusive Post investigation found.” See also Afghanistan Papers (Wikipedia.org).
The Washington Quarterly
Lorenzo Zambernardi: Counterinsurgency’s impossible trilemma (pdf) (Vol.33, No.3, July 2010, p.21-34).
“The impossible trilemma in counterinsurgency is that, in this type of conflict, it is impossible to simultaneously achieve: 1) force protection, 2) distinction between enemy combatants and noncombatants, and 3) the physical elimination of insurgents.”
Workers’ Liberty
A feminist speaks from inside Afghanistan (Issue 607, 22 September 2021).
“Mariam, an activist with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, living in Afghanistan, spoke to Sacha Ismail from Solidarity.”
Colin Foster: Disaster in Afghanistan: why the Taliban won (Solidarity, Issue 604, 1 September 2021) + Afghanistan timeline (Ibid.).
“US arrogance – Guantanamo, mini-Guantanamos inside Afghanistan at Bagram and elsewhere, ‘renditions’, and large Afghan civilian casualties from the US ‘surge’ after 2009 – made the US military presence unpopular and sapped the political base of Afghan leaders allied to the USA.”
Martin Thomas: Disaster in Afghanistan (15 August 2021).
“Summary analysis of recent events and Afghanistan since the war of 2001.”
World Socialist Web Site
Peter Symonds: A decade of neo-colonial war in Afghanistan (8 Oktoberr 2011).
“The war has been a disaster for the Afghan people and a tragic waste of the lives of American and allied soldiers. It has profoundly destabilised regional and world politics.”
Harvey Thompson: Afghanistan under occupation: an assessment, Part 1-3 (14 + 15 + 16 February 2007).
“A three-part series examining the situation in Afghanistan five years after the US-led invasion.”
![A demonstration of workers from the Putilov plant in Petrograd (modern day St. Peterburg), Russia, during the February Revolution. The left banner reads (misspelt) "Feed [plural imperative] the children of the defenders of the motherland"; the right banner, "Increase payments to the soldiers' families - defenders of freedom and world peace". Both refer to the economic toll the First World War was having on civilian life, February 1917 (probably around March 7 [O.S. February 22]) Photo: Unknown. Public Domain.](https://socbib.dk/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/1917-februarrevolution2.1500x0-200x140.jpg.webp)
