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Cross-party Afghanistan Withdrawal Group of MPs

Mike Phipps
13th July 2011 at 13:37
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I’ve attended two or three of these meetings now, co-chaired by Paul Flynn MP and Caroline Lucas MP. Two weeks ago John Hilary spoke about the growth of private military security companies and the growing use of targeted assassinations using predator drones. Foreign Secretary William Hague, when asked about these said it was a matter for the governments of the US and Pakistan, despite the fact that the Brits are now using these. In fact, a report last week reported an incident in March in which 4 Afghan civilians were killed by an RAF drone. (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201009116025039)

The meeting on July 12th was addressed by Tariq Ali and very well attended. On Afghanistan, Tariq argued Britain has effectively got a coalition including Labour. He said that the war in Afghanistan was destabilising Pakistan, because the Taliban had come to power with the help of the Pakistan military and they were now being asked to unravel this victory. When you read that half a dozen Taliban guerrillas captured 25 Pakistani soldiers, it’s because the latter refused to fight, he said. Additionally the border between the two countries is very difficult to police, because the same tribes live on either side.

If the US-backed occupation had come in, built schools, established an infrastructure, stopped the heroin trade, etc, it might have been different, but instead they imposed a top-down administration, rigged elections and promoted Karzai, now one of the richest men in the country. The new elite is grabbing state land for themselves, backed by NATO, while the poor watch.

NATO says it’s training Afghan forces, but who is being trained? Karzai’s brother was shot on the day of this talk by one of his bodyguards. This is how guerrilla wars are fought.

The role of the Pakistan army has been horrific - random killings, body counts exaggerated and the bill sent to the Pentagon. Their activities have created a huge number of refugees. Meanwhile, Karachi is in a state of civil war, dominated by three gangs linked to political parties. There have been more deaths in Karachi in the last two years than in the whole of Waziristan.

On top of having its most corrupt president ever, Pakistan faces the open and pubic violation of its sovereignty, with the US executing bin Laden, who was in fact a guest of the military.

The position of Pakistan’s 2,000 ordinary people is never discussed. 60% of children born are moderately or severely stunted due to malnutrition. There’s no real education or health care. During the last flood, some of the landlords in Sind diverted rivers to save their own property even if it drowned poor villages. He said it staggered him that more of the people are not turning to religious extremism, but the maximum the religious extremist parties get is 6% to 10% of the vote. But western policy is pushing more people down this path.

Asked about the cutoff of $800 million of US aid to the Pakistan military, he described the relationship as a long term marriage. The head of the army said, ”Let them give it to the civilian government instead” - very cynical, because if they did, everyone knows it would soon end up in foreign bank accounts.

To a question suggesting that British interests in Pakistan were not the same as those of the US, Tariq responded that the UK was a vassal state, its defence establishment totally integrated with that of the US.

I’ll try to keep comrades posted about future activities.

Mike Phipps