GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!

This Thursday Afghanistan will have its second “democratic” election under Western occupation. In recent years we Americans have lost track of what it means to occupy someone else’s country. Some Americans have even come to believe that occupiers are the same as liberators. Seventy years ago, many Germans labored under similar delusions.

Right now, there are forces from 9 foreign countries stationed in Afghanistan. They are occupiers. They include the nations of NATO in Europe – the same major powers involved in World War II (Britain, Germany and Italy). Strange as it may be, even Singapore has people in Afghanistan. Of course, the largest fighting force there comes from the United States.

No country under foreign occupation has ever conducted an election that had any historical international credibility. How could they? Just as the German army was in charge of French elections in Nazi occupied France, so too the US military conducted the Iraqi elections and is now in charge of “security” for the elections in Afghanistan. In Iraq, even the ballots themselves were printed in the United States.

In the first occupied Afghan election, in 2004, 15 of the 16 candidates for President actually withdrew claiming widespread election fraud – before the votes were cast! Guess who stayed and then guess who won. Now guess who is running for “re-election.” Guess who’s going to win again.

Russia’s Stalin said it was not “who voted” that mattered so much. In any election, Stalin said, the important people are those “…who count the votes.” According to reports broadcast on the BBC today, the votes in Afghanistan have already been counted – 2 days before the election takes place. Look it up. The BBC is online, on the Internet. Anyone can access it. Don’t waste your time looking for this BBC investigation in the US press or on US television. Although, to their great credit, there was a small mention of it on the CBS website.

Did we invade and occupy Afghanistan so we could hold corrupt elections? Is that really why we went there and why we’re still there? Have Americans died for this?

Do you know how long we’ve been there? Can you remember when this Afghan “war” began? The date was October 7, 2001. That’s almost 8 years ago. This war in Afghanistan is now the longest foreign war ever fought by the United States. Has it been worth it? Is it still worth it? Do you remember why we went there in the first place?

To catch and kill Osama bin Laden.

Have we done that, yet? Yeah, sure. In fact, we don’t talk about it anymore. Osama bin Laden? Who’s he? He was just the one who attacked the United States on 9/11. No, it wasn’t anyone from Iraq or from Iran who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It was a bunch of terrorists (most of whom were from Saudi Arabia!) who were headquartered in Afghanistan. We had every right to go after them – there and then… in Afghanistan, in October 2001.

Bush never caught them. He said he would. He said he’d get Osama “Dead or Alive!” He said he would “dig him out of his hole!” Have you forgotten that? That’s why we went there.

So, what the hell are we doing there today? What is the point?

On this one, Obama sounds just like Bush. New boss – just like the old boss. Only yesterday our new, Democratic President said we had an obligation to give the people of Afghanistan the chance to decide for themselves what kind of government they were going to have.

Excuse me? We do? Why?

Obama didn’t say a word yesterday about catching or killing Osama bin Laden. Even George Bush never said we were invading Afghanistan to give anybody who lived there a chance to decide for themselves what kind of government they wanted.

Barack Obama campaigned saying he would get us out of Iraq. He hasn’t done that yet. He also said we had lost focus on the real objective and that, as President, he would “win” in Afghanistan. He said he would go after Osama bin Laden, even if that meant chasing him into Pakistan. He hasn’t done that either.

During his campaign, Barack Obama often said that he wanted to be “the President of the United States of America.” And then he would say why. He told us what he wanted to accomplish in that office. I was impressed. I voted for him. However, I do not recall Obama ever saying that he wanted that job so he could obligate American lives and American treasure to the task of bringing Afghans whatever sort of government they wanted.

If he had said that – or anything remotely like that – I wouldn’t have voted for him.