The
execution of Bin Laden will probably have zero impact on the war in
Afghanistan or even the campaign against al-Qaeda.
On
March 13, 2002, just six months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush
said: “I am truly not that concerned about [Bin Laden].” In April
2002, Gen. Richard Myer, then chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, reiterated the same theme: “The goal has never been to get
Bin Laden.”
In
2010, Leon Panetta, director of the CIA and soon-to-be Secretary of
Defense, said: “I think at most, we’re looking at maybe 50 to
100 [al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan], maybe less.”
Thus,
the commando raid and execution of Bin Laden should be assessed for
its political rather than military impact.
The
country has largely turned against the Afghanistan war. It is a
losing cause for the occupiers at the cost of over $128 billion per
year. Afghanistan is a quagmire. The raid on the compound and the
execution of Bin Laden provides a temporary celebratory boost for the
officials in the Department of the Defense and the CIA.
While
the killing of Bin Laden has little military value on the ground, it
is being used by the Obama administration not to bring an end to the
U.S. “war on terror” but rather to accelerate the tendency of the
United States to send kill teams around the world; to engage in
targeted assassinations; and to intensify the drone attacks on
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere. It serves as both a
distraction and justification for the aerial attacks on Libya, which
just two days before Bin Laden’s killing had taken the lives of
Muammar Gadaffi’s youngest son and three grandchildren under the
age of 12.
Two
years since President Obama promised to close the Guantanamo prison
center, it remains open and military commission trials are taking
place. Hillary Clinton was quick to provide a link between the
killing of Bin Laden and information derived from the interrogation
of prisoners in Guantanamo. This provides the basis for the Obama
administration to back away from closing the torture center.
Osama
Bin Laden came out of a super-wealthy Saudi family and functioned as
a recipient of CIA funds in a reactionary, covert war to bring down
the Afghan government that took power in a revolution in 1978. That
Afghan government described itself as “socialist” and attempted
to carry out far-reaching social and economic reforms, including land
distribution, literacy programs, and the promotion of education and
civil rights for women and girls. The CIA covert operation to topple
the government began prior to the Soviet military intervention of
December1979.
In the
1990s, and following the creation of U.S. military bases in Saudi
Arabia and the occupation of Saudi Arabia by U.S. military forces,
Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda turned against the United States, their
former partners. His privileged position within the Saudi
establishment was ended.
The
attack carried out on Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center was a
terrible crime. Thousands of innocent working people were killed.
According to government reports, 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11
were Saudi nationals; none were Iraqi or Afghani.
Since
the time that 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, there have been
17,000 Afghans killed, over 1 million Iraqis killed and over 6,000
U.S. service members killed with tens of thousands more suffering
from life-changing physical and emotional wounds.
In one
of the most shocking massacres of the nearly decade-long war in
Afghanistan, nine children were killed March 2 in a NATO airstrike.
The children were collecting wood to heat their homes, when, as an
11-year-old survivor recounted, “The helicopters … hovered over
us and started shooting. They fired a rocket which landed on a tree.
The tree branches fell over me and shrapnel hit my right hand and my
side. [The helicopters] shot the boys one after another.” What is
this if not “terrorism?”
The
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were never about “national security,”
and are all about installing U.S. military bases and client regimes
in geo-strategic regions of the world. The people of those countries
never threatened or waged war on the United States; they fight only
to rid their countries of foreign occupation.
It is
clear that the U.S. government is using the trophy killing of Bin
Laden to convince the public to agree to endless war. But the
temporary boost in approval ratings and patriotism cannot hide for
long the wars’ fundamental contradictions.
The
people of Afghanistan will never accept the occupation of their
country. U.S. soldiers and their families continue to needlessly
suffer. While the government claims there is no money for vital
social services and jobs, they find limitless funding for multiple
wars and occupations. These wars continue to only serve the interests
of a tiny few.
End the
occupations! Bring all the troops home now!
