Some Loud Thoughts on the Event of 11th September
We are all familiar with the events of 11th September. The crashing of two aircrafts into the twin towers of the 110 floor high World Trade Centre Building, the collapse of the towers due to the collision, the burning down of one side of the Pentagon after an aircraft crashed into it, the race among the police and the fire fighters to save life - all these and much more are so well known that any repetition is absolutely unnecessary. The initial excitement generated by the events of 11th Sept. has already cooled down, but another one has taken its place-the excitement of war.
But to be precise, this is not exactly a war - but a unilateral aggression of the mighty military power of American imperialism on already devastated Afghanistan. After keeping the world on tenterhooks for round about a month the American imperialism, with the active participation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's army, started to carry on indiscriminate bombing on Afghan which did not spare even a hospital. In the meantime, the whole of Afghanistan is further reduced to rubbles, the slaughter of its poor, ravished people is continuing, more and more homes of the Afghan people are being razed to the ground, the faceless number of Afghan refugees with hopeless faces is growing alarmingly The Northern Alliance, once sponsored by the old Soviet regime and subsequent Russian governments, co-sponsored in a smaller way by the governments of India, Iran and small Muslim-dominated countries guarding the borders of Afghanistan with previous Asian Russia, has now gained the 'sponsorship' of the American imperialism and the Northern Alliance along with other anti-Taliban Afghan forces, helped by the protection of American bombers, has overrun almost whole of Afghanistan. Talibans have now taken refuge in the caves of the eastern Afghan mountains of Tora-Bora, as per the newspaper reports. And as a tragicomic relief, a 'national' government has been formed in a cool, safe, glittering palace in faraway Rome, far away from the war ravaged Afghanistan, faraway from its desperately poor, hungry, homeless people. It has been publicised that the so-called 'national' government had been formed of the representatives of all the ethnic groups of Afghanistan. But who had chosen these so-called representatives? Why some of the more known names among the anti-Taliban forces had been left behind? Most importantly, why the people of Afghanistan had been left behind in the process of formation of the so-called 'democratic' government? The only authority that can answer all the questions is President Bush and his administration. And we have the front page of the bourgeois newspapers splashing the photographs of smiling, cheerful, liberated Afghan people, liberated by the 'magnanimous' batons of American imperialism!
But in spite of all these Osama Bin Laden, the number one enemy of American administration and the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar have still remained elusive. We are daily supplied with conflicting reports about their whereabouts. President Bush is furious. He is repeatedly asserting that America is not going to stop the war (euphemism for naked American aggression) until his vow of capturing Osama Bin Laden dead or alive is fulfilled!
At the same time, President Bush and his administration has not yet been able to furnish definite proof about Osama bin Laden's involvement in the incidents of 11th September. He still remains the 'prime suspect' according to the vocabulary of American administration. Nobody can be put in trial on the basis of suspicion only. In order to put some one in trial prima facie case has to be established against that person. But on the basis of suspicion, USA has passed judgement on him and has convicted him. If this is not a blatant terrorist activity, then what is terrorism?
The international and Afghan situation have already been analysed from various angles. The world has witnessed various rallies and protest marches organised against war, against the naked aggression of American imperialism on Afghanistan, not only in the Muslim-dominated countries, but also in the advanced capitalist countries including USA itself. So at this point of time we can leave out some points from the sphere of discussion that had deserved special attention just after the incident of 11th September. But some of the fundamental questions are still relevant and deserve to be discussed.
Causes of War - True And False
All wars, except the wars of the oppressed against the tyrants, of the oppressed against the rulers and wars of independence, keep almost everything hidden like an iceberg. Accounts like whether war should be waged, why it's to be waged, what should be done for it, what arrangements are to be made, how to begin the war, are kept confined within a few at the top, and such accounts smell so much of shameless self-interest that knowledge about it would steer away people against the war. So all kinds of attempts are taken to keep them hidden from people's knowledge. On the other hand arrangements are made to involve people in the war preparations. It is necessary not only to get people's support, but even create war hysteria among the people to make them sacrifice their lives and other amenities, carry the load of price-rise etc. To do this, people are showered with false assurances and commitments. They are flooded with make-belief phrases, such as independence, democracy, national interest, justice and morality, saving civilization and so on, so that they forget all reasons and dance to the music of the ruler.
In this context let us refresh our memories about the war on Iraq. We were told that Iraq had occupied Kuwait and its peninsula and thereby disturbed the peace of Arabia along with the entire Middle East. The main culprit was Iraq's greedy ruler Saddam Hussain. To fulfil his greed, a Fascist-type dictator Saddam Hussain had put a noose around the Iraqis and occupied Kuwait. So the war to free Kuwait from Iraq's claws was a war to establish peace in the Middle East, to give back Kuwait its independence, to free the Iraqis from the clutch of Saddam Hussain and establish democracy there. Peace, independence, freedom, democracy - such fanciful phrases were used to hide the actual facts which came to light gradually at the end of the war through different sources and media. These facts laid bare the lies behind all the prior propaganda of American imperialism and the hired propagandists of the so-called free world. As for example, it came to be known that till the First World War (1914-18) Kuwait was a part of Iraq, a mere province of it. So Iraq's occupation of Kuwait was not an immoral act, since it was similar to India's occupation of Portuguese-ruled Goa or occupation of the independent kingdom of Hyderabad in 1948. It also came to light that USA during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran War provided support to Iraq to harass Iran; on the other hand it began to plan the destruction of Iraq immediately after the war. The policy of not allowing any power in the Middle East to develop and grow strong so that the American oil interest in that region is kept secured and the security of Israel, the guard of American imperialism in the Middle East is not jeopardised, is being followed by American imperialism since the Second World War. It was a fact, that during several summit-meetings the USA, by feigning indifference and disinterest towards Iraq-Kuwait hostility and possible conflict encouraged Iraq to attack Kuwait. At the same time, with American imperialist support and possible promise of help, to weak and small Kuwait instigated big and powerful Iraq to get involved in the conflict and attack Kuwait. Then a few days before the attack on Iraq on 15th January 1991, it came to be known from a reliable source that Iraq was ready to move out of Kuwait and sought 2/3 extra days for that. Though many more references can be overlooked two of those deserve mention. In this first place, something was needed to be done to boost up Bush's diminishing popularity during the mid 90s. And it has been noticed that war in foreign land increases the President's popularity. Secondly, prior to the Desert War the Congress and the Senate demanded that the conclusion of Cold War should lead to a great decrease in defence budget. Bush, Pentagon and others disagreed and they wanted something to happen in the post Cold-War world - i.e. after the break of the USSR and changeover in Russia - to justify war and heavy defence budget. It hardly needed mention that both the purposes were fully served by the war against Iraq waged mainly by America.
But all the false propaganda ware covered under the flow of high-sounding words like peace, independence, democracy etc. and American imperialism in the name of United Nations started a unilateral attack and destruction in Iraq. The date was 16th January 1991. For forty days and nights USA carried on unhindered bombing and destruction in Iraq. 17.7 crores pounds of bombs ware hurled on Iraq in one of the most merciless sky-slaughter in world history. Prior to the war Iraq was one of the most progressive, enlightened country in the predominantly backward Middle East. It had a city-centric civilization and was enriched by machine-civilization. Post war investigation by United Nations investigating team revealed that the results of the bombings could only be comparable to the visions of apocalypse and Iraq was reduced to a country of pre-industrial age. Destruction and embargo imposed by the United Nations resulted in the death of lakhs [1lakh = 100000 or a tenth of a million] of people among whom there were 5,00,000 children, whereas the episode of 11th September killed a few more than 7,000 people. Those who are shedding tears for them, will they kindly do the same for the Iraqis who numbered 100 times more than 7,000 (more than 7 lakhs) who died due to destruction caused by the war and embargo imposed by United Nations? Will they raise their voice against American imperialism's heartless and massive massacre?
The Iraq-episode has been mentioned to expose the policy of lies, deceits and of naked aggression of American imperialism. It goes without saying that the same policy is being pursued in the present situation. We have already lots of exposures on this subject from various quarters. Even the bourgeois papers of India had exposed the role of American imperialism in the creation of Osama Bin Laden and the Talibans. It is useless to waste energy and space in repeating the same exposures. So we refrain from doing it here.
But at the same time we want to re-emphasize the fact that American imperialism has nakedly trampled the fundamental, basic democratic right of the Afghan people of choosing their own government. American administration has created a 'national' government for the people of Afghanistan in the safe, cool haven of Rome and has fostered this government on the heads of the Afghan People. This is a blatant act of terrorism and this is being done in the name of 'liberating the Afghan people' from the clutches of the dark Taliban rule! This is arrogance and hypocrisy of the vilest order.
Are Islamic Fundamentalism and Terrorism the Two Sides of the Same Coin?
Can terrorism be characterised by Islamic Fundamentalism or any other name? No, it cannot be done. Was it Islamic fundamentalist terrorism or old American pirate-type terrorism, which with the aid of comparatively modern weapons completely drove out the Red Indians from their homeland and who were synonymous with terror, oppression and murder? American terrorism of the Ku-Klux-Clan type which was anti-black white-chauvinism and which had continued since the Civil war of 1860s was a reality and not a fanciful thinking. Is not the discrimination, harassment, oppression which the blacks in some Southern states are still facing a somewhat softer version of the same terrorism? Think of the American youth who was accused of terrorism and gave up his life in the electric chair. Actually, he was a representative of the terrorism of the protesting America against the reactionary terrorism of the present American rulers. This trend of terrorist protests is still very weak in America, but nonetheless undeniably present. Every student of history knows that in different countries of Europe throughout the 19th century, blind anger, resistance and revolt of the people against the fierce oppression of the rulers, found expression in terrorist paths. The presence of terrorist movements against Tsar's barbaric and oppressive laws in Russia is not unknown to many. Again post-revolutionary Russia witnessed counter-revolutionary and reactionary terrorism on the part of vested interests. It is known to many that though modern Israel equates terrorism with Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, the real terrorist is the Jewish ruling class. There was no existence of the modern Palestine State in the vast areas of Middle east including modern Jerusalem which was under British protectorate since the First World War. Not only that, there was no homeland of the Jews. When Jews from different parts of the world came to settle down and went on extending the area of their homeland with the British support, their weapon was terrorism. Later with the establishment of the Israel state this terrorism has straight away taken the form of state terrorism and terrorism recognised and supported by the state. There is no need for vivid details; a few facts will suffice. Firstly, the establishment of the Israel state and its later actions resulted in the influx of lakhs of Arab refugees to the adjacent states. Secondly, the Arab Muslims still residing in Israel and Jew-dominated areas, have been denied almost all rights and are living as servile and submissive citizens. Beside this, the agitation and protests of unarmed Arab youths are being continuously brutally suppressed with bullets and unarmed Arab youths are being murdered in cold blood in the name of suppression of terrorism. Thirdly, Israel has extended its old boundary and on the basis of sheer muscle power has kept under its occupation a lion's share of West Bank and Gaza Strip where they have built up new Jews homeland and is paying no heed to the United Nations suggestions and world opinion other than the USA. The Indian ruling class and, its representatives of the yester years and even now has made quite a noise about Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. Due to such noise and the tactics followed by the hired media of the imperialist and the Indian ruling class, much confusion has been created among the common people. As a result, many have fallen prey to the theory that terrorism is linked up with Islamic fundamentalism. Skilfully the people are taught to forget the past, when most of the members of the terrorist movements against British rule in India were Hindus and Sikhs. Many among the Hindu terrorists drew inspiration from Goddess Kali, Bhagawat Geeta etc. But that does not mean that it can be branded as Hindu Terrorism. Terrorism has appeared time and again among the Nagas, Mizos, Khasis, Bodos, Assamese, Sikhs, Kashmiris, Gorkhas etc., among different religious communities (among the virulent Hindus before and during the destruction of Babri Mosque, during Hindu-Muslim riots, mainly among the violent Hindus and secondarily among the violent Muslims), again among the oppressed people and classes or among those who claim to be their representatives or guardians (like once it was seen in West Bengal and in some other states and in recent past and currently in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and other states). So, it is seen that those who connect Islamic fundamentalism with terrorism are either ignorant or they don't know history or have forgotten history, or distorting history knowingly and consciously.
In reality, there is no special connection between terrorism and religion or religious fundamentalism or with theism or atheism. Terrorism exists both among believers and non-believers.
Terrorist Activities of the Imperialist USA
It is true that many countries can be accused for carrying out some amount of terrorist activities in their neighbouring states. But in this regard the terrorist activity the imperialist USA government along with its foreign ministry, home ministry, FBI, CIA etc. easily far surpasses the sum total of all the terrorist activities of not only the states, but also of all the terrorist organisations taken together. There is not a single nefarious activity, which does not find its place in the list of crimes committed by it. Kidnapping, assassination, indiscriminate lying, false propaganda, masterminding air crashes, killing of undesirable leaders, forcing "confessions" from the prisoners by subjecting them to brutal torture, mass killings, destruction of civilisations-all these have been part and parcel of the state policy of the USA. Its terrorist activities are extended over all the five continents - Asia, Europe, Africa, America and Australia. In some cases the terrorist activities of the USA had taken the form of direct war - as was the cases of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Yugoslavia etc. In some other instances the intelligent agencies of the USA government, the CIA, had purchased a section of the people of the oppressed nationality or country and had carried out its plan through them. There is hardly any country in the world, which can not be included in this list. Its net of nefarious activities is spread over all the countries of the world. If we want to single out the countries where the intervention of American imperialism is singularly evident, then also the list will be quite long. Such a list includes Central America's Guatemala, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador; Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Granada which are situated in the eastern and east-southern side of USA; South America's British Guyana, Surinam, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Equador; China, Korea of East Asia; Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea of South-East Asia; Asia's Middle Eastern countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Middle East in general; East Europe in general; erstwhile Soviet Union, Oceania, Austria; Africa's Libya, Morocco, Congo, Ghana, Angola, Zaire, Seychelles. It should be bore in mind that the nefarious activities of the USA in these countries are not confined within the limits of mere spying activities; but the USA has completely ignored the international laws and laws of these countries, paid no heed to ethics or morality and solely on the strength of its muscle and money (dollar) power has carried on terrorist activities in these countries, has blatantly intervened in the internal affairs of these countries, either directly or through its agents. It has forced the countries to follow its policy, has overthrown democratically elected national governments which are not to its complete liking and has installed its lackeys in the governments in many of the above- mentioned countries by declaring direct war or by instigating military coup or by any other means. And wherever it has not been fully successful in carrying out its plan, it has, as far as possible, destroyed the land, security and civilisation of the countries.
At this point of time, it is neither necessary nor possible to give some sort of a detailed history of the instances of the nefarious, brutal activities of American imperialism through out the world. Right from the instance of dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the recent instances of Bosnia and Afghanistan-the whole historical path covering the instances of Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, Vietnam, Kampuchea etc. strongly smells of gunpowder, is thoroughly bloodstained and littered with countless dead bodies. The events are so glaring and so violently speak out that it is impossible to completely erase these events from our memories. Moreover, the recent 'declaration of war against terrorism' by President Bush and his administration has created an occasion for rewinding the past and lots have already been written on this part of the history of the past. So we do not think that there is any necessity to repeat all these histories again. Still it is worthwhile to remember some of the lesser known and discussed instances and to make a general survey about the brutal terrorist character of American imperialism.
In May, 1954, when the war of independence of the people of Vietnam against 'French imperialism' had advanced almost to the point of complete victory, the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a memorandum to the then Defence Secretary of USA (equivalent to the status of Foreign Ministers in other countries) on "Studies With Respect To Possible US Actions Regarding Indo-China" which stated that "the employment of atomic weapons is contemplated in the event that such course appears militarily advantageous." By this time, two American aircraft carries equipped with atomic weapons had been ordered into the Gulf of Tonkin, in the North of Vietnam, and Dulles was, in fact, reported to have offered his French counterpart, Georges Bridault, atomic bombs to save Dien Bien Phu. Bridault was obliged to point to Dulles that the use of atomic bombs in a war of such close-armed conflict would destroy the French troops as well as the Vietnamese freedom fighters. Such is the real face of American imperialism, which does not hesitate to use atomic weapons to 'destroy communism'.
Another glaring example of the terrorism of American Imperialism is the Eisenhower Doctrine. On 9th March 1957, the United States Congress approved a presidential resolution, which came to be known as the Eisenhower Doctrine. This was a piece of paper whereby the US government conferred upon the US government the remarkable and enviable right to intervene militarily in other countries.
The resolution stated, "the United States regards as vital to the national interest and world peace the preservation of the independence and integrity of the nations of the Middle East". The business part of the resolution was contained in the succinct declaration that the United States "is prepared to use armed aggression from any country controlled by international communism". Nothing was set forth about non-communist aggression which might endanger world peace. From the times of the Second World War in keeping steps with the external terrorist activities of the USA, Military Industrial Intelligence complex or M-I-I-C has developed inside USA. The worldwide terrorist activities of US imperialism are taking place through M-I-I-C. How can the great amount of war weapons, their accessories produced under the war-economy be used and spent if wars are not declared at any excuse, if they cannot be used in the name of military aid to other countries, if other countries are not pressurised to buy these weapons and bear extra cost and if these wars are not instigated among different countries? Again, in this manner terrorist activities of US imperialism is intensified and extended.
An estimate of 1980's shows that during the star wars the amount of military budget was 30 billion dollars - which is incomprehensible in our imagination. In explanation we can say that if 17 thousand US dollars are spent per hour for the past 2000 years after Jesus Christ's birth, then the total amount will be 30 billion dollars and this astronomical amount has been spent in a single year in the military budget of the US government.
After the fall of Soviet Russia in 1991 the terrorist activities of imperialist America increased instead of decreasing. In the directives of the Pentagon for the economic years of the period 1994-1999 it mentioned: "Our first aim is to destroy the possibility of resurrection of any fearful rival like the USSR of the past. ...To discourage the industrially developed nationalities to challenge our leadership or bring change in the established eco-political system, we must look after their interest. ...In fact, if any possible rival shows eagerness to take the role of great regional or international power then we must continue to keep the arrangement to threaten away the possible contender from the path." To fulfil this aim, US imperialism is carrying on their worldwide terrorist activities.
Such terrorist activities of US imperialism throughout the last 50/55 years has burnt down lakhs of villages, destroyed thousands of cities and towns, devastated some crore [1 crore = 10 million] of hectares (1 hectare = 2.5 acres = 7.5 bighas) of farmlands; the amount of bullets and bombs used by the US imperialists in this period was several times greater than the amount used during the whole of the Second World War, several lakhs of people had died and several lakhs more had been handicapped.
Birth of 'Terrorism of Protests' against the Imperialist Terrorism
These worldwide barbaric, cruel, inhuman terrorist activities of the USA have engendered protests and resistance among different countries, nations and people. As long as the anti-imperialist proletarian-socialist or communist movement was strong in different countries, the aforesaid protests and resistance had been manifested, had found the channel of expression through these movements. But since the mid-70s decade of the previous century when the ebbs of the proletarian-socialist movement was becoming increasingly evident, the anti-imperialist, particularly anti-American imperialist protests and resistance started to flow through different channel and to manifest themselves in an isolated, scattered way through a different type of terrorist path. This process had become particularly strong since the fall of the so-called socialism in the USSR and East Europe during 1989-91. It cannot be denied that terrorist activities of protests of different types and characters are currently occupying important position in the struggle against international imperialism, particularly against US imperialism and its terrorist activities.
It is also an undesirable fact that among different trends of terrorism of protest working currently the trend nurtured by pan-Islamic ideals or Islamic fundamentalist ideals is drawing most of the attention and is the most powerful one. Nearly 1500 years ago when the worldwide productive forces were much more undeveloped than in the modern times and the production was individual, it was impossible for the modern socialist to grow. The ideal of removing inequalities to the extent possible through distribution and establish a relative equality was quite progressive in that historical time. Viewed in the perspective of that particular historical time Islam was an exponent of various progressive ideals, such as to unite on the basis of religion the isolated, scattered people of the land of Arab, to establish equality to the extent possible through distribution etc. But when as a result of the tremendous development of the productive forces engendered by the historical development of the later 1500 years the production has become mainly socialised, when the contradiction between the socialised production and individual ownership has become acute and when due to this the necessity of establishing social ownership over the means of production and scientific socialism is being expressed in various forms, at such a time the pan-Islamic or Islamic fundamentalist ideals can no longer carry the world forward and are destined to pull the world backwards through a period of 1500 years. In fact these are reactionary ideals in the modern era. Hence the working class, the forces of socialism must oppose these reactionary ideals, oppose these in the plane of ideology and with the aid of socialist progressive ideology.
This should be opposed from another side also. The tendency to present the terrorist path of protest, which is engaged in attack and struggle against US imperialism as the general path of struggle against American imperialism, should be opposed. The origin of modern American imperialist terrorism has a history. Capitalism has developed into imperialism, has generated imperialist world war, proletarian socialist revolution has originated, various experiments have been conducted in the forward march towards socialism, the world has to go through the horrible experience of Second World War, US imperialism has emerged as the foremost power of the world and started its terrorist activities one after another. Hence in order to uproot American imperialist terrorism it is necessary to uproot capitalism-imperialism, to establish proletarian dictatorship and march towards socialism, to take lessons from the past experience and carry on further heroic experiments in the future. But for that, the first requirement is to organise and educate the vast majority of the exploited and oppressed along with the working class. In order to achieve this goal the foremost task is to rouse these sections of the population, bring them on the path of politics and struggle and make them active from all sides. But terrorism does not follow this path; rather it keeps the workers and peasants, along with the entire working mass completely inactive and follows the path of conducting heroic attacks on behalf of the working mass. Hence it is impossible to march forward for throwing out American imperialist terrorism without opposing their path.
If this terrorism of protest is to be opposed for being nurtured by reactionary ideals, for being inexpedient, then does it mean that it is to be opposed from the moral standpoint also? No, it never means that. We should keep in mind that origin and activities of this brand of terrorism are based on the desire to oppose American imperialism. And for the last 50/55 years the American imperialism has been the foremost enemy of freedom, national liberation, democracy and socialism throughout the world and directing repressive and terrorist activities against these. In this process the American imperialism has demolished thousands of villages, destructed hosts of towns and cities, destroyed countries, murdered lakhs and lakhs of people, has crippled crores of people and has forced them to lead a life of living-deads or pushed them towards premature deaths. Hence no representative of the working-class, no socialist activist, no Marxist-Leninist can oppose, on moral grounds, the terrorism of protests which strikes against the number one enemy of the people of the world and its sky-high arrogance, inspite of that terrorism is being nurtured by reactionary ideals, in spite of it being a follower and champion of an inexpedient path. In the early '90s of the last century nearly 5 lakhs Iraqi children died as a result of the terrorist attack and the latter fully tight economic embargo imposed on Iraq by US imperialism. On hearing about this incident the then Foreign Secretary of USA Madelaine Albright had commented - "They have paid the due price." If one of the representatives of a highly developed, cultured and enlightened nation could make such a comment on being informed about the untimely death of 5 lakhs of innocent Iraqi children, then why not the death of few thousand of innocent people in USA on 11th September 2001, prompt millions and millions of people to shout in chorus - "They have paid the due price" for the terrorism of for the terrorism of US imperialism?
Last Few Words
Four months has elapsed since the 11th September 2001. And as the clich? goes, in the mean time much water has flown through all the principal rivers of the world. Life moves on - but very often not in the direction we would have liked. Talibans in Afghanistan have been completely routed. It seems that the whole of Afghanistan have been liberated from the hands of Talibans. A new government has been installed in Kabul. Is it working all right? Nobody seems to know the clear answer. Because within the government there are still muffled reigns of tensions and friction - tensions between different ethnic groups headed by warlords who are extremely anxious to keep their fiefdom intact, and friction between the 'own ideas' of the different warlords about getting the 'legitimate share' of the cake of victory. The common people of Afghanistan had a previous experience of such a 'coalition government' before the Talibans and it was, by all accounts, bitter experience for them. After the Soviet 'liberators', the Afghanis now have the Yankee 'liberators' for them. What a miserable dog's life for the common people of Afghanistan!
But at the present moment the mighty military machine of American imperialism has been able to subdue the tensions, friction in Afghanistan, the cries of pains of the Afghan people. Everything in Afghanistan seems to be smiling, seems to be cheerful, as per the bourgeois newspapers. All the bloodstains have been erased by the snowy white snow of Afghan winter and have been covered by the colourful umbrella of the propaganda of the imperialist world. All the population of Afghanistan now seem to be playing football, going to the newly re-opened theatres, queuing up before the cinema halls, window-shopping around, picnicking in the parks, the males shaving their beard and females throwing off the veils from the faces. The whole of Afghanistan appears to be engaged in merry-making at this moment. But what about their homes that have been razed to the ground by the bomb of US imperialism? Have they been able to find any means of livelihood? How they are arranging for their food and shelter? Cinemas, theatres, TVs do not provide food, shelter and clothing. Then how the desperately poor, hungry, homeless, jobless common people of Afghanistan are arranging these essential necessities of life? Who cares? As long as the Talibans are out of power, the whole world is happy. Afghanistan is only a pawn in the world chessboard. Isolated, a pawn has no strength. But the queen requires pawns for defence and attack. With a few pawns in her side the queen is quite happy.
But in spite of all these, the world has changed after the incidents of 11th September of the previous century. The post-11th September world is different from the pre-11th September world. The incidents of 11th September and the events following these incidents have awakened the people of the world out of their slumber. All the countries of the world, including USA, have seen series of protests and demonstrations against the intervention of US imperialism on Afghanistan and in some cases such demonstrations have been able to attract around one lakh of people. The communist influence on these protests and demonstrations is still very negligible. But the anti-imperialist stirring which has started among the workers-peasants-students-urban lower middle class is undoubtedly congenial for the spread of communist politics.
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