U.S. airstrikes terrorize Afghani population

On Feb. 19, the Kyrgyzstan parliament voted 78-to-1 to demand that the United States vacate a military base used in the war on Afghanistan. The base at Manas played a significant role in the military occupation. Approximately 15,000 personnel and 500 tons of cargo passed through the base every month. It is also used for refueling the fighter planes that attack Afghanistan.

Predatror drones, like the one above, are are used to terrorize the Afghani people.

One of the reasons cited by the Kyrgyz government was the high civilian death toll from NATO air strikes. A recent study by the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Central Command reported a 46 percent increase in civilian casualties from 2007 to 2008. A recent U.N. report, which found a 40 percent increase in civilian deaths, noted that 552 of the 2,100 civilian deaths in Afghanistan were due to air strikes.

The Obama administration—like the previous administration—has claimed the right to unleash air strikes in clear violation of Afghan sovereignty. Those air strikes are often carried out by remote-controlled Predator drones. The drone air strikes have killed as many as 40 civilians in one attack.

The calculated use of air strikes, including the use of remote-controlled Predator drones, reflects the racist strategic thinking of U.S. military and political leaders. Ruling-class politicians are well aware that increased U.S. casualties will have political consequences at home. They are inflicting aremote-controlled reign of terror on innocent civilians in occupied countries in order to minimize U.S. casualties.

In an attack in late February, the U.S. military claimed it had killed 15 insurgents in an air attack in the province of Herat. Videotape and photographs obtained by the Reuters news agency exposed the truth, showing the body of a young boy, mounds of flesh, and a bombed encampment of nomads’ tents. Investigators determined that 13 of the 16 people killed were civilians. Brigadier General Michael Ryan’s rote response offering “deepest condolences to the survivors” must have rung hollow to those grieving in the aftermath.

The new Democratic administration has taken ownership of the Bush-era wars. The air war on the local population, based on an assumption that the lives of Afghani civilians are less important than those of the invading soldiers, reflects a racist mentality that the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and all progressives, must condemn. The lives of all poor and working-class people are more important than the geostrategic concerns of the U.S. ruling class.