AgainstAgainst WarWar andand issue 2 TerrorismTerrorism • Enduring war and popular mobilisation • Aftermath for Afghanistan • Empire in Central Asia • Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in the USA • Israel / Palestine is a war zone • The modern schizophrenia of Islamic integralism •Why the Reversion to Islamic Archaism? Anarchist writings on the war from struggle.ws Introduction Aftermath for Afghanistan This booklet is a follow on from Against Since the 1970’s Afghanistan has been shredded by bloody conflict between War and Terrorism Issue 1 which was rival gangs of rulers and the regional and global imperialisms which subsi- published as a PDF booklet in October dise them. The infrastructure of the society ruined, lives and bodies maimed, 2001. In this second issue (March 2002) millions forced over the border into miserable refugee camps and hundreds we go into greater depth over a range of of thousands of people cut down by hunger or high explosive. issues. We consider a better understand- The most surprising thing about the fall of help ease tensions between it’s government ing of these issues to be essential in build- the Taliban was the extent to which many and that of the U.S., but given that his in- ing a global anarchist movement. people found it surprising. There was a close tended destination is Afghanistan perhaps link between Taliban military successes and the world could do without his help. If you haven’t already done so it would the considerable support they received from While the Hazari militias of the Hizb-i probably be a good idea to read issue one the ruling elite of Pakistan. Starved of that, Wahdat have had a long relationship with as it provides a lot of the background to even without American bombing they would Iran, this must be somewhat strained at the the articles contained in this issue. Many have crumbled albeit somewhat later. of the articles here assume this level of moment as allegations are surfacing that background knowledge on areas such as As it was no tin pot rag bag force could with- Khan is supply Iranian arms to General Islam, anarchism and anti-imperialism stand the mailed fist of a superpower. Dostum, their rival for control of Mazar-e- There’s nothing novel about that either, the Sharif. which Issue 1 provided. machine guns and artillery of the late 19th. Recently allegations have surfaced that centaury empires rarely met defeat from the Khan’s forces have been the victims of As with the previous issue these articles spears of the natives and this is just the American cruise missile strikes and a lot of represent the views of the individual au- modern day equivalent. (1) thors alone who are currently living in the American military effort in the country Europe, the USA and the ‘Middle East’. One eyewitness relates “Vast craters dotted at the moment would seem to have more of their defensive lines, while the village of a purpose if it’s intent was reminding the Below are the articles to be found in Issue Karabah which housed their headquarters various other factions what happens to peo- ple who displease the global cop. Further- 1 which can be read or downloaded from looked like it had been blow-torched from more there have been low level guerrilla http://struggle.ws/issues/war/pamOCT01.html above. Mud buildings are flattened and trees reduced to eerie twisted stumps, the result attacks on American and British forces. Who of repeated B-52 strikes on one day, when I is responsible for them? (this included at- The tragedy of Afghanistan saw bombers come in every five minutes to tacks in Kabul – not a Taliban stronghold). Introduction to the recent history of Af- blast the same area with their sticks of Whatever the case is there is certainly the ghanistan and social conditions there. bombs.” (2) Capitalist Terror and Madness potential for further conflict, not just be- Terror has a long history in the service of Imperialist Rivalry cause of imperialist rivalries but because: counter-revolution, and always works to- Over the years the Afghan wars have been “these sold-out warlords will have no scru- wards undermining the very foundations fuelled by the USSR on the one hand and ples in once again putting themselves up for sale at a cheap price to old and new proxy- of a new, free, postcapitalist, society. the U.S.A. on the other and then with Iran, seeking powers, and consequently will once “Why do they hate us”? India and Russia backing up the Northern Alliance while Pakistan did the same for again invite the interference of their foreign A New York anarchist looks at the mo- the Taliban. The conflicting interests of ri- masters if their sordid parochial and per- tives for the S11 attacks as they related val imperialisms are still at play in Afghani- sonal ambitions and interests are funda- to US foreign policy. stan. mentally compromised” (3) History of anarchist anti- imperialism With marines on the ground and B52’s in Under the Northern Alliance The anarchist movement has a long tra- the sky the American influence is apparent At the moment ‘Northern Alliance’ rule is dition of fighting imperialism. This and in a development without precedent the taking a form along similar lines to the situ- ation between ‘92 and ‘96 – prior to the reaches back into the 1860s, and contin- U.S. now has bases in what was formerly Taliban, when the country was last in the ues to the present day. territory of the ‘Soviet’ Union, to the north of Afghanistan. hands of the factions which now make up Diversity in Islam for Absolute the Alliance. A pattern of endemic banditry, Beginners The new Afghan government consists of two persecutions, and barons shaping up for turf Roughly 1 in 5 of the world’s population halves, one the Northern Alliance, and the wars. A change from one despotism to a is muslim. Yet what most westerners other the Rome group, which is to say for- hundred despotisms. But thus far with from christian backgrounds know about merly exiled monarchist figures close to nothing like the extent of the bloody car- Islam can be written on the back of a Zahir Shah, the deposed King. The monar- nage inflicted in the four years of in fight- small postage stamp chist faction is dependant on U.S. support, ing before the rise of the monolithic and Commissars of the Free Press as unlike any of the splinters forming the uncompromising Taliban forced the rival Why don’t we have a media which at- Northern Alliance, it doesn’t have an Army mini kingdoms to unite. tempts to be unbiased and objective? and didn’t play any real role in the over- throw of the Taliban. The King, despite, or In other words with out the Taliban to unite Building an antiwar movement perhaps because, he hasn’t been involved them and the war to occupy them they seem The key ingredients of success in build- in the country for thirty years, is a genu- to be returning to their old ways. They are ing a successful anti-war movement are inely popular figure. particularly singling out as victims, confidence in ordinary people’s potential, Pashtuns, the ethnic group from which the solidarity with each other and a long- Of late the U.S. military have been openly Taliban come. term view supporting various sides in warlord dis- The anarchist putes. Herat in the east is the fiefdom of Barely one month after the establishment of the power sharing executive in an article alternative Ismael Khan, a Mujaheddin warlord de- headed “We felt safer under the Taliban” the A successful anarchist posed by the Taliban and recently rein- stalled with a considerable Iranian subsidy. Hindustan Times read “Murders, robberies revolution would result in Gulbuddin Hikmetyar another Mujaheddin and hijackings in the capital, factional society being organised by warlord, who has been promising jihad on clashes in the north and south of the coun- the free association and the infidels since the September is being try, instability in Kandahar and banditry federation of workers. kept on a leash in Iran itself. He has re- on roads linking main centres are beginning cently offered to leave Iran if that would to erode the optimism that greeted the inau- guration of the interim administration on Rabbani, Sayyaf, Masoud, Khalili, ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ in revenge December 22.” (5) Hekmatyar and their like are brothers in for their rulers slaughtering other people arms. They are all of the same hue, because: in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ or it Something of an arms race is under way All of them have a Klashnikov in one hand is not. with rival forces drawing new recruits from and the Quran in the other to kill, intimi- desperate refugees. The principal infight- Rather than being a ‘failed state’ the situa- date, detain and mutilate our people arbi- ing has been around Mazar-e-Sharif. A three tion in Afghanistan is the product of two trarily.” (6) way struggle with General Dostum, a decades of successful competition between former military commander of the pre-’92 The Victims states, a competition which continues in “Soviet” backed regime in one corner, the As no one is counting on the ground, even if the region today. Rather than being a solu- Hizb-i Wahdat militia, formerly close to Iran such a thing were possible, estimates of ci- tion to any of these problems the Imperial- in another and then supporters of the vilian deaths vary widely.