Step up anti-war campaign
Bush and Blair are finding their murderous war against Afghanistan much harder going than they hoped. The illusion that they tried to create when they started to bomb the poorest country on the planet was that their mighty war machine would swiftly and clinically exact revenge for the tragic deaths on September 11.
Of course, as increasing numbers both in Britain and across the world are coming to recognise the real agenda was to strengthen the hand of reaction both at home and abroad.
And the brutal reality is increasingly becoming obvious.
There is no such thing as a surgically clean war. Cluster bombs and other weapons of mass destruction have already cost thousands of civilian lives in Afghanistan, as well as destroying hospitals and two Red Cross facilities, one of which contained significant supplies intended for people already dying of starvation. Now with the move to carpet bombing, the death toll is set to increase significantly.
Nor have the imperialist plans to foment a revolt against the Taliban come to anything. When Abdul Haq was captured by Taliban troops, while trying to win support among his fellow Pashtuns in the south of the country for the overthrow of the existing government, his American friends were unable to rescue him before he was executed.
Nor has Hamid Karzai, supporter and distant relative of the deposed king, who apparently entered Afghanistan shortly after the bombing began, had much more success.
While to date he himself has not be captured by the Taliban, a number of his supporters have, but more to the point even the most slavish of Bush’s media supporters are unable to claim there are any signs of forces rushing to oppose the Taliban.
On the contrary, stories have leaked out that a number of figures and forces who previously opposed the Taliban have now pledged their support in the context of the Bush- Blair war against the country.
With the Northern Alliance things are even more difficult. Pakistan’s military dictator, General Pervez Musharaf, under enormous pressure at home, has vetoed any suggestion that they should be allowed to take Kabul without allies from amongst the Pashtuns.
So then the next plan was that they would take Mazar-i-Sharif and thus open a corridor through to Central Asia. But so far they have made little ground.
Ideally American strategists hoped taking Mazar-i-Sharif would allow them to make bring in some humanitarian supplies before the bitter winter leads to countless more deaths. Six million people are estimated to be at risk inside Afghanistan, not counting those in desperate refugee camps beyond the country’s borders.
No wonder the majority of aid agencies working in the region have been so vociferous in calling for at least a pause in the bombing to prevent a calamity of unfathomable proportions.
These difficulties for imperialism on the ground have led to a situation where now the Bush administration has made clear their will be no let up in the war during Ramadan – though there also seems little prospect that there could be a ground invasion during the winter.
This is even less likely given the rapid retreat of the US Ranger troops sent in to take what they thought was an undefended target – only to be drive back by stiff Taliban resistance. The assumption of immediate military superiority on the ground has been thrown into serious doubt, and as a result the carpet bombing – designed to slaughter the maximum number of defenceless Taliban troops – has been stepped up.
In the meantime, here in Britain at least things have become increasingly rocky for President Blair. Headlines like that of the Daily Mirror of October 29, screaming out "This war is a fraud" across its front page and carrying a powerful article from John Pilger inside were echoed in many other parts of the press.
An opinion poll in The Guardian published as Blair made his speech to the Welsh assembly not only showed a majority of people wanted a pause in the bombing so that aid could get through but that support for the war itself had dropped by 12 per cent in two weeks.
Later polls indicate that Blair may have retrieved some of that ground at least temporarily, but all campaigners against the war know that there is almost no enthusiasm for this war amongst ordinary people.
Huge meetings and demonstrations across the country are increasingly showing the size and breadth of the anti-war movement.
There is therefore the real potential to get out and mobilise for the biggest anti-war protest this country has seen for many decades on November 18.
This has to be the key task for every socialist over the weeks and days ahead.
(note - this editorial was written before the recent dramatic collapse of the Taliban and a new phase in the war. The importance of mobilising for the November 18 demonstration remains, however )