More Michael Parenti Re: Deserving Americans

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>  > What could Americans have done to show concern for the lives of
>>  Afghan civilians in the period 1979-1989?  Since US activists, by and
>>  large, could support neither the Soviets and Afghan socialists nor
>>  CIA-backed mujahideen, was there anything they could and did do?  Any
>>  organized social force independent of both the Soviets and the
>>  CIA/mujahideen that you could and did practically support back then?
>>  --
>>  Yoshie
>
>Nice dodge, but the point remains: When the Soviets were wiping out entire
>Afghan villages and killed up to a million people (Jesus, can you imagine
>the reaction on this list if the US did this?) Parenti was in full, vocal
>support. Kill 'em all, let Allah sort them out. Now, he, like many (cough,
>cough) on this list, cry about US "atrocities" and if pushed might support a
>"police" effort to take apart al-Qaeda (though how this could be done
>without some force is never really explained). That the US intervention
>staved off a famine last winter and saved millions of lives is downplayed or
>dismissed as a by-product, if it's mentioned at all. Bomb a wedding,
>however, and it's full-throated roaring about imperialism.
>
>In other words, the lives of Afghans mean nothing to these people, save as
>props in their ideological display case.
>
>DP

Civilian casualty is one of the reasons for opposition to the US war 
on Afghanistan and beyond, but I don't think it's the main one, for 
Parenti or any other non-pacifist who has opposed it (or any other 
act of US imperialism).  We criticize the US government for using 
"anti-terrorism" as a pretext for endless imperial aggrandizement, 
beginning with Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Philippines, Iraq, etc. 
(as you recall, the Congressional resolution in support of the war on 
terrorism didn't limit it to the war on Afghanistan at all: "use all 
necessary and appropriate force against nations, organizations, or 
persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the 
terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored 
such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of 
international terrorism against the United States by such nations, 
organizations or persons").  In contrast, civilian casualty _is_ the 
main reason to criticize the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan; we 
criticize them for having killed so many civilians and destroyed the 
Afghan countryside, not for having fought the CIA-backed mujahideen 
at all (in my opinion, the Soviets should have simply given Afghan 
socialists weapons, rather than directly waging war on mujahideen). 
I'm sure you don't like this asymmetry, but those who oppose US 
imperialism are not doing so out of what you might call 
bleeding-heart sentiments.

As for the feasibility of policing Al Qaeda and other terrorists, the 
alleged AQ members that the US government _has_ arrested have been 
mainly caught in Pakistan (where the highest ranking member Abu 
Zubaydah was arrested), Buffalo, NY, etc. -- in 95 countries, as of 
May 27, 2002: "Since last fall, 1,600 suspected operatives of 
al-Qaeda have been arrested in 95 countries" (@ 
<http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/05/27/time.alqaeda/>).  Just how 
many AQ members have been caught by US or NA or other forces in 
Afghanistan?
-- 
Yoshie

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