WHAT OBAMA’S AFGHANISTAN "PROGRESS" LOOKS LIKE

Stop the War’s day conference on Afghanistan on Saturday 11 June
could not be more timely. Since President Obama told the British
Parliament on 25 May that the US/Nato forces were "preparing to
turn a corner" and the Taliban’s momentum had been "broken",
facts on the ground have exposed the reality.

The day after Obama’s speech, eight US troops were killed, the
highest daily figure for four years. The next day, two British
soldiers were killed. The father of one of the them, asked
whether the death of his son had been a price worth paying. To
which a serving soldier on leave from Afghanistan wrote
emphatically, no. (SEE http://bit.ly/kL3f9b)

On 28 May, a suicide attack in a supposedly "secure" province
left at least six dead, including the commander of the northern
Afghanistan police force and two German soldiers, and seriously
wounded Nato Gen Markus Knaeip, commander of foreign troops in
northern Afghanistan.

Not to be outdone when it comes to killing, on the same day, Nato
airstrikes on two villages killed 32 civilians, including 17
children and five women. Such was the outrage at yet more
"collateral damage" that even the US puppet President Karzai felt
compelled to issue a "final warning" to Nato that these attacks
had to stop. (SEE http://bit.ly/lbb7Xw )

By every measurement this war is catastrophic, for the Afghan
people and the occupying forces alike. The war has now lasted
longer than World War 1 and World War II combined and is the
longest war in US history. 2011 will be the most violent year
since the invasion ten years ago.

It is clearly far from over, with the British commander in
Afghanistan, Lt Gen James Bucknall, being the latest of a stream
of military figures in the US and British military calling for an
extension of the 2015 deadline for withdrawing all foreign
forces, as promised by Obama and David Cameron. (SEE
http://bit.ly/mUGzqO )

The reason is obvious, the planned "exit strategy" of training
the Afghan police and army to administer a proxy occupation for
the US and its allies currently looks hopeless. This is
confirmed by the latest report showing the security forces have
been deeply infiltrated by the Taliban and other resistance
forces, with a dramatic increase in the number of Afghan soldiers
or policemen turning their weapons on western troops or
facilitating attacks by insurgents. (SEE http://bit.ly/jOF9sm )

This is the real context in which Stop the War’s conference on 11
June takes place, and not the eyewash we got from Obama last
week.

The conference is titled, Afghanistan and the War on Terror Ten
Years On, and speakers include: TARIQ ALI, author PANKAJ MISHRA,
US anti war Campaigner DAVID SWANSON (see below), LINDSEY GERMAN,
TONY BENN, GEORGE GALLOWAY, GREG MUTTIT, author of Fuel on the
Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq, artists PETER KENNARD,
CAT PHILLIPS and DAVID GENTLEMAN, journalist MEHDI HASAN,
Faithless guitarist DAVE RANDALL, poet SANASINO, Iraqi
commentator SAMI RAMADANI. former soldier JOE GLENTON, who was
jailed for refusing to fight in Afghanistan, and JOAN HUMPHRIES
from Military Families against the War.

SATURDAY 11 JUNE: DAY CONFERENCE
AFGHANISTAN AND THE WAR ON TERROR 10 YEARS ON
CONWAY HALL, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON WC1R 4RL
TICKETS £5. TO BOOK CALL 020 7801 2768
For updates, go to: http://bit.ly/gjt1qE