En Passant

You call me a terrorist but I’ve never killed anyone in my life. You send troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to kill innocent people.

This is what Wissam Mahmoud Fatall yelled in a Melbourne court recently about ‘terrorism’ charges bought against him. He’s right.

One million Iraqis have died as a consequence of the US led invasion.  The figures for Afghanistan are unknown but rank in the tens in not hundreds of thousands. 

The Russian invasion and ten year long occupation (with up to 100,000 troops at a time) killed over one million Afghans and forced 5 million out of the country into Pakistan and Iran. Another 2 million were internally displaced. 

NATO troops in Afghanistan at the moment total less than half the Russian number (although the US is increasing the number) but have been there for over eight years.

Taking into account the fact the resistance doesn’t have the same firepower as the US backed mujahideen in the days of the Russian occupation, it seems reasonable to conclude that the number of civilians we have killed is approaching 100,000.  Some conservative estimates put it at 30,000.

Certainly the Australian Defence Force has admitted Australian soldier have killed innocent civilians. 

But of course as long as we are following the ‘rules of engagement’ that is OK. 

And now we pay blood money to cover up our crimes and salve our consciences.  How much is an afghan kids’ life worth, Mr Rudd?

The left must be clear on this. A victory for the resistance in Afghanistan would be a step forward for humanity because it would be a defeat for US imperialism.

Our task must be to build a mass movement in Australia against this imperialist war and to force our Governments to withdraw our troops.

The defeat of Russian imperialism in Afghanistan was one of the important steps that led to the liberation of Russia and Eastern Europe from stalinism.

The defeat of US imperialism in Vietnam meant that the beast licked its wounds for ten years before invading a defenceless island called Grenada in a dry run for bigger battles.

The victory of the resistance in Afghanistan will force the US killing machine to retreat for a while from its global war of terror.

This is a good thing. Less people around the world will die or have their lives ruined as a consequence. More people will feel confident to resist US rule.

Those arrested in Melbourne supposedly have Somali connections. 

Somalia is a basket case because of US imperialism.

In 2006 the US used Ethiopia as its attack dog to overthrow the Islamic Government in Somalia, a government establishing peace across the country after 15 years of anarchy.

Now the US supports a puppet regime around one of the men it overthrew. He has become imperialism’s  puppet against the Islamist forces, forces which have major support in many areas of the country.

As the destruction of Somalia and the resistance it has provoked show, imperialism is the real machine of terror around the world.

With Somali men on trial in Melbourne, the media has run and will run wild stories and analysis about terrorists. These servants of capital ignore the real story.

When Barack Obama and Kevin Rudd and their predecessors George Bush and John Howard sit in the dock in The Hague charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity then we can say there is justice in the world.

Until that day there is no justice.

The real terrorists sit in Canberra and Washington.