Just about a month ago in
Coventry (writes Darrall Cozens) we were treated to a public meeting on the Road to Peace in
Afghanistan with my MP Bob Ainsworth, MoD, versus Bruce Kent of CND. For Bob
the issue was simple. We are there to help the Afghan people, to stop the
country becoming a failed state, to protect British interests, to fight
terrorism and to stop Pakistan collapsing as withdrawal of UK forces would mean
precisely that. Members of the audience asked a number of questions, all of
which failed to get an adequate answer.
Allegedly we are there to
help the Afghan people. In the country there are roughly 32 million people. The
GDP per head is $800. It is one of the poorest countries on earth. Two thirds
of the population live on less than $2 per day. Average life expectancy is 44
years. The literacy rate is 35%, 51% for men and 21% for women. Only 22% of the
land is arable. Yet for every £1 spent on aid to rebuild life for ordinary
people, £10 is spent on bombs and bullets.
Allegedly we are there to
fight terrorism, especially the Taliban. They were set up and organised,
trained and funded by the CIA, the UK secret services and the ISI in Pakistan
to drive out the Russians. Now, 70% of Taliban income comes from drugs. 90% of
UK heroin is from Afghanistan. 20% of world opium is from Helmand province. 50%
of all poppies grown in the country are in Helmand. Drug profits in 2008 were
up $1bn. Since UK troops have been in Helmand, production has gone up
dramatically. Troops at first destroyed poppy crops but that alienated farmers
with no alternative crops to grow so they could not feed their families. Now
crops are left untouched.
The other 30% of Taliban
income comes from bribes paid to them by coalition forces to try and ensure
safe passage for coalition lorry convoys. UK soldiers are fighting and dying in
the struggle against the Taliban yet at senior levels there are negotiations
with a force that would deprive women of all rights, make them virtual slaves
in their homes with no access to jobs or education. The Taliban would also
outlaw and persecute trade unionists, socialists and communists as being
ungodly and therefore against Allah. Labour Party people like me would be
killed.
Allegedly we are there to
protect British interests. Could this have anything to do with the immense
wealth that lies beneath the ground? In
mineral wealth alone there is copper, iron, lead, zinc, mercury, tin, chromium,
lithium, tungsten, gold and uranium. The Hajigak iron ore deposits near Kabul
contain at least 1.8bn tons of ore with a 62% iron content. A US geographical
survey said deposits in Afghanistan could reach 5 to 6bn tons. There is also
oil with a minimum of100 m barrels in reserves: enough for Europe for years,
yet all of the daily needs of oil at 5,000 barrels per day are imported. In
addition we have natural gas: 5 trillion cubic feet in reserves. All indigenous
natural gas production is used for domestic purposes at 20 million cubic metres
per year. In addition, precious stones of emeralds, rubies, lapis lazuli and others
are worth £bns. So while the majority of the population lives in misery, the
West eyes this wealth with envy.
Allegedly we are there to
stop the country becoming a failed state.
In education I have worked with Afghani refugees for years. For many of
them Hamid Karzai is a joke, not a president of the country but the mayor of
Kabul. Outside of the heavily fortified enclave where he resides he has no
writ. The country is dominated by corrupt warlords who profit from money
received from Kabul for ghost civil servants and ghost soldiers and from the
drugs trade. Any state needs an army it can rely on. The plans to rebuild the
Afghan army will mean that for every 36 civilians there will be a soldier. The
cost per year is three times greater than the annual GDP of the country. For
this reason Karzai has recently said that he will need financial help from the
West for his army for at least 15 years. This cost will be borne by taxpayers
in the West, but at some time Afghanistan will have to pay for its own army. It
will not be able to afford it so soldiers will be made redundant and end up
embittered that in a country with few job opportunities they will have no means
of feeding their families. So we have a future of struggles bordering on civil
wars as each heavily armed group seeks to appropriate meagre resources for
itself. That means even more instability in the region affecting Pakistan and
the states to the north, the ex-Soviet States.
From the first Afghan Wars of 1839-42 to the
present the cry has been the same – defend British interests. Young British
soldiers, mainly working class, are still dying to defend interests that they
have nothing in common with, the interests of the owners of wealth, the
capitalists here in the UK. And what is the difference between 1839 and now?
Then the bodies were buried out there. Now they are brought home for all to
see. And just as the body bags from Vietnam had a huge impact on the growth of
the anti-war movement in the USA, the sight of the coffins of brave young men and
women passing through Wootton Bassett will increasingly support the demand for
the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan.
