AFGHANISTAN/IRAQ

Greenleft.co.au: JOHN PILGER: Bush's `war on terror' is a cruel hoax

At the British Labour Party conference following the September 11, 2001, attacks, Prime Minister Tony Blair said memorably: “To the Afghan people, we make this commitment. We will not walk away... If the Taliban regime changes, we will work with you to make sure its successor is one that is broad based, that unites all ethnic groups and offers some way out of the poverty that is your miserable existence.”

He was echoing US President George Bush, who had said a few days earlier: “The oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and its allies. As we strike military targets, we will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men, women and children of Afghanistan. The US is a friend of the Afghan people.”

Almost every word they spoke was false. Their declarations of concern were cruel illusions that prepared the way for the conquest of both Afghanistan and Iraq. As the illegal Anglo-American occupation of Iraq now unravels, the forgotten disaster in Afghanistan, the first “victory” in the “war on terror”, is perhaps an even more shocking testament to power.

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