Wednesday, February 25, 2009

counterpunch

Today's
Stories


February 25, 2009


Chris Sands

Afghanistan: Chaos Central


M. Shahid Alam

Israel in 1948: Poised for Expansion


Chris Floyd

Obama's Non-Withdrawal Withdrawal Plan


Dave Lindorff

Wall Street and Bernanke: the Blind Leading the Blind


Norman Solomon

The Slow Pullout Method


Rachel Godfrey Wood

Neoliberals Do The Amazon


Niranjan Ramakrishnan

Teacher and Student: the New Class Struggle


Ron Jacobs

It Ain't Over Till It's Over


Nadia Hijab

The First Waltz


Dennis Loo

The Water Line


Website of the Day

Hitchens Gets Stomped by Syrian Nerd


February 24, 2009


Paul Craig Roberts

How the Economy was Lost


Uri Avnery

Coalition Theory


Peter Morici

Is Nationalization Inevitable?


Jonathan Cook

Arab Parties Face Most Hostile Knesset in History


Paul Fitzgerald /

Elizabeth Gould

The Man Who Shouldn't be King (of Afghanistan)


Andy Worthington

Who is Binyam Mohamed?


Brian Horejsi

Crisis Creates Hope for Reality


Julia Stein

I was a Writer for the Government


Norm Kent

How Judges Disgrace the Bench


Rachel Smolker /

Brian Tokar


Biofuels, Promise or Threat?


Dennis Loo

The Water Line: Doing What Must be Done


James McEnteer

The Oscar for Denial


Website of the Day

How to Destroy a Fox News Anchor


February 23, 2009


Michael Hudson

The Language of Looting


Mike Roselle

On Cherry Pond: Going Up Against Big Coal in W. Virginia


Patrick Cockburn

The New War in Iraq


Franklin Spinney

Obama Steps on the Pentagon Escalator


Einar Már Guðmundsson

A War Cry From the North


Ralph Nader

How Credit Unions Survived the Crash


Jordan Flaherty

A New Orleans Intifada?


Helen Redmond

Ted's Table: Kennedy and the Corporate Lobbyists Craft a Health Plan


Dennis Loo

The Water Line


Harvey Wasserman

Jet Crashes and Nuclear Reactors: Feds Ignore a Serious Risk


Terry Lodge

The Intelligence is Wrong


Website of the Day

BadCreditReport.Com


February 20 / 22, 2009


Alexander Cockburn

The Lawyer's Tale


Michael Neumann /

Osha Neumann


Remove Our Grandmother's Name from the Wall at Yad Vashem


Ismael Hossein-zadeh

Herbert Hoover Copycats


Paul Craig Roberts

Bill of Rights Under Fire


Linn Washington Jr.

The NY Post's Chimpanzee Cartoon


Saul Landau

On the Road Again


Marjorie Cohn

War Criminals Must be Prosecuted (And Their Lawyers Too)


Binoy Kampmark

Cricket and Cartels: the Fall of Sir Allen Stanford


Dave Lindorff

Using the Recession to Hammer Workers


David Yearsley

Edward Said's Greatest Musical Writings


David Macaray

A Closer Look at the Employee Free Choice Act


James McEnteer

Last Mambo in Minnehaha


Rick Salutin

A Canadian Looks at Obama


Wayne Clark

South Carolina Nears the Abyss


Richard Rhames

Got Farms?


Stephen Martin

Silver Mist Descending


Mitu Sengupta

Slumdog Millionaire's Dehumanizing View of India's Poor


Charles R. Larson

Slumdog Reality?


Richard Morse

Carnival Ramble in Haiti


Lorenzo Wolff

Desperation in an Unavoidable Groove


Poets' Basement

Three Poems of Tu Fu (Trans. K. Rexroth)


Website of the Weekend

Ron Paul: What If the People Wake Up?


February 19, 2009


Norman Finkelstein

The Cleanser: Lobbyists Whistle Up Cordesman to "Prove" Israel Waged a Clean War in Gaza


Harry Browne

How Ireland Went Bust


Robert Bryce

Why the Promise of Biofuels is a Lie


Brian M. Downing

The Winding Road:
From Western Europe to Kyrgyzstan


Fred Gardner

The DEA Chief's $123,000 Flight


Andy Worthington

Obama's Uighur Problem


Wajahat Ali

Aftermath of a Beheading


Laura Carlsen

A New Attitude at the White House Toward Bolivia and Venezuela?


Deb Reich

Gaza: Choose Life!


Christopher Ketcham

Crisis? What Crisis?


Website of the Day

Taking Back NYU


February 18, 2009


Paul Craig Roberts

President of Special Interests


Mike Whitney

Trouble at Treasury


M. Shahid Alam

Afghan Pitfalls


Patrick Cockburn

A Real Surge at Last


Conn Hallinan

Death's Laboratory


Dave Lindorff

Whatever Happened to Antitrust?


Rannie Amiri

The Perils of Blogging in Egypt


Gareth Porter

Pushing Back Against Petraeus on Pullout Risks


Eric Hobsbawm

Remembering V. G. Kiernan


Christopher Brauchli

The Pope's Predicament


Martha Rosenberg

It's the Cymbalta Stupid


Website of the Day

Red Gold


February 17, 2009


Michael Hudson

The Oligarchs' Escape Plan


Mike Whitney

The Global Ditch


Ralph Nader

The One-Dimensional Congress


Joanne Mariner

Benchmarking Obama: How to Evaluate the New Administration's Counter-Terrorism Policies


John Ross

Commodifying the Revolution: Zapatista Villages Become Hot

Tourist Destinations


Belén Fernández

The Venezuelan Referendum From the Back of a Pickup Truck


Mats Svensson

Who is a Terrorist?


David Macaray

Why America Needs Labor Unions


Gregory Vickrey

$400 in Change


M. Junaid Levesque-Alam

Another Hamastan?


Michael Dickinson

Unrest in Istanbul


Website of the Day

Take a Stand for Open Access


February 16, 2009


Patrick Cockburn

Iraq Reconstruction: the Greatest Fraud in US History?


Oscar Guardiola-Rivera

The Truth About Colombia's New Emperor


Paul Craig Roberts

Who Remembers Guns and Butter?


Uri Avnery

Livni's Bitter Options


P. Sainath

The Meltdown: Whose Crisis Is It?


Dedrick Muhammad / Michael Brown

White Recession, Black Depression


Carla Blank

A New New Deal for the Arts


Patrick Irelan

Venezuela Ends Term Limits


Dan Bacher

Is Delta Pumping Driving Salmon and Orca Decline?


Fidel Castro

Chavez's Clarion Call


Harvey Wasserman

Hail to the Spleef: Did George Washington Smoke Pot?


Website of the Day

Mining Black Mesa


February 13 - 15, 2009


Alexander Cockburn

On the Rocks


Joshua Frank

The Myth of Clean Coal


Mike Whitney

Geithner's Coming Out Party


George Ciccariello-Maher

Venezuela's Term Limits: More Hypocrisy From the NYT


Nikolas Kozloff

Venezuela Beyond the Referendum


Brian M. Downing

Pakistan on the Brink


Paul Craig Roberts

Deficit Nonchalance


Christopher Ketcham

Israel's Ball Boys


Ron Jacobs

At a Campus Sit-In Against Israeli Occupation


Dave Lindorff

Why Can Judd Gregg See What Obama Can't?


Alan Maass

Lincoln at 200


Chuck Spinney

Grassley Sounds Off on Obama's Man at the Pentagon


Phil Gasper

Mr. Darwin's Reluctant Revolution


Stephen Lendman

A Short History of Business Handouts


Charles Thomson

Tate Cruises: Caveat Emptor on the High Seas


Kathy Sanborn

The Suicide Rush


Saul Landau

Bowled Over


Len Wengraf

The Nightmare in Somalia


Harvey Wasserman

Striking a Blow Against Nuclear Power


David Macaray

An Easy Call for Obama on Joining a Union


Tom Stephens

Four Freedoms, Four Changes


Seth Sandronsky

Lincoln and the Collective Mind


David Yearsley

On the Road Again


Lorenzo Wolff

Freaking Out With Danny Barnes


Kim Nicolini

The Body of the Worker: What "The Wrestler" Says About the State of America


Poets' Basement

Anderson, Buknatski and French


Website of the Weekend

The Iranian Revoution and the US Dual Containment Policy: a Presentation


February 12, 2009


P. Sainath

Neo-Liberal Terrorism in India: The Largest Wave of Suicides in History


Jean Bricmont

French Echoes of the Israeli-Palestine Conflict


Michael Hudson

Trying to Revive the Bubble Economy: Obama's Awful Financial Recovery Plan


Peter Lee

Pakistan, Not Afghanistan, is the Main Event


Dave Lindorff

Judges Nabbed, Jailing Kids for Kickbacks


 


February 11, 2009


Neve Gordon

Few Peacemakers in the New Israeli Knesset


Peter Morici

Anatomy of a Hemorrhage


Andy Worthington

Who's Running Guantánamo?


Marjorie Cohn

A Call to End All Renditions


Fred Gardner

Change We Can Smoke?


Niranjan Ramakrishnan

The G & O (Geithner and Obama) Bank


Zoe Blunt

Vancouver Island Hippies: Top Security Threat for 2010?


Belén Fernández

Politics on the Panamericana


Martha Rosenberg

Don't Breathe the Meat


Website of the Day

George Dyson on Project Orion


Blues of the Day

David Vest on the CBC


 


February 10, 2009


Kathy Kelly

How Do People Keep Going?


Nikolas Kozloff

The Stimulus Imbroglio


Uri Avnery

Dirty Socks


Michael J. Berg

Will South Carolina be the Center of the Nuclear Revival?


Russell Mokhiber

Et Tu, Atul?


Joe Bageant

A Commodity Called Misery


Gareth Porter

Petraeus' Subterfuge


Dave Lindorff

Seek Truth, But Prosecute Liars


Rannie Amiri

The Implications of Recognizing Israel's "Right to Exist"


Harvey Wasserman

Nukes and the Stimulus


Niranjan Ramakrishnan

What We Didn't Learn at Obama's Press Conference


Website of the Day

RIAA Takes Over DoJ Under Obama


February 9, 2009


Vicente Navarro

Why Sanjay Gupta is the Wrong Man for Top US Health Job


Paul Craig Roberts

Driving Over the Cliff


Julio Sanchez /

Feliz de Bedout

The Threat of Peace in Colombia: an Interview with Hollman Morris


National Lawyers Guild

Strong Indications of Israeli War Crimes


Jonathan Cook

Israeli University Welcomes "War Crimes" Colonel


Alana Smith

The Nightmarish Case of Fahad Hashmi


Binoy Kampmark

Taking the Bong


Sam Bahour

End the Occupation First


Nicole Colson

Can You Afford College?


Ron Jacobs

Remembering the Second Intifada


Website of the Day

The Legacy of Ed Grothus and the Black Hole


February 6-8, 2009


Alexander Cockburn

Obama's First Bad Week


Ishmael Reed

Saint Thelma's Book


James Abourezk

Obama, Mitchell and the Palestinians


William Blum

Obama and the Empire


Patrick Cockburn

Maliki's Triumph


Henry A. Giroux

Educating Obama


Manuel Garcia, Jr.

Darwin's Living Legacy


Mouin Rabbani

A New Low on Gaza?


David Yearsley

Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Springsteen!


Saul Landau

The Wrestler: an American Tragedy


Jules Rabin

Israel's Disproportionate Responses


Raymond J. Lawrence

A Country Awash in Money But Going Broke


Janette Habel

Castro's Socialism in Crisis


Dave Lindorff

Economy on a Thread


Missy Beattie

Blackout at the Gaza Zoo Massacre


Dale Gieringer

The Opium Exclusion Act of 1909: Marking 100 Years of Failed Drug Prohibition


John Ross

Davos vs. Belem; Swine vs. Pearls


Richard Rhames

Jobs is a Four Letter Word


Bob Wing

Obama, Race and the Future of U.S. Politics


Robert Bryce

Corn Dog Update: Another Study Exposes Bio-Fuel Scam


David Macaray

AFL-CIO and Change to Win in "Re-Wed" Talks


James L. Secor

Inaugural Questions Nobody Asks: Notes from Kuala Lumpur


Jason Flom /

Anthony Papa

The Scourging of Michael Phelps


Norm Kent

Ten Reasons to Get High About Pot in 2009


Kim Nicolini

When Utopia Crumbles: Why Revolutionary Road was Shut Out of the Oscars


Lorenzo Wolff

Ridiculous Flow:
How Cee Lo Green Sells Soul


Poets' Basement

Emily Dickinson (with Commentary by Daniel Wolff)


Website of the Weekend

S.J. Gould: Darwin's Untimely Burial


February 5, 2009


Michael Mandel

Self-Defense Against Peace


Saul Landau /

Philip Brenner


Killing the Monroe Doctrine


Ralph Nader

Tax the Speculators!


Robert Bryce

The Unraveling of the Ethanol Scam


Russell Mokhiber

Occupied Territory


Sameh Habeeb /

Janet Zimmerman


Innocents Lost


Dave Lindorff

Small Change


Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero

Beyond Green Capitalism


George Ochenski

A Blow to Big Coal in Montana


Website of the Day

Putting CEO Pay in Context


February 4, 2009


Arno J. Mayer

On Corruption


Paul Craig Roberts

The War on Terror is a Hoax


Patrick Cockburn

The Iraqi Elections


Jonathan Cook

An IDF Jihad?


Fred Gardner

Obama's Mixed Messages on Marijuana


Stan Cox

Slumwrecking Millionaires:
India's Fragile New Temples


Margaret Kimberley

The Deepening Economic Crisis


Lawrence Velvel

Agony & Desperation:
Madoff's Victims


Dave Lindorff

A Generals' Revolt?


Doug Giebel

A Helping of Bitter Beltway Baloney


Serge Quadruppani

Student Protests Sweep Italy


Website of the Day

The San Francisco 8


February 3, 2009


David Price

Counterinsurgency & Anthropology: Roberto Gonzalez on Human Terrain Systems


Bill Moyers

Obama's Wars: an Interview with Pierre Sprey and Marilyn Young


Kirkpatrick Sale

Obama's Lincoln Thing


Conn Hallinan

When Mind Wounds Don't Count


Peter Morici

The Slippery Slope of Stimulus


George Ciccariello-Maher

From Oakland to Santa Rita: "Fired Up, Can't Take It No More"


Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

The BBC's Nadir


Allan Nairn

What Does It Take to Get a Meal Here, an Earthquake?


Norman Solomon

Why are We Still at War?


David Macaray

The Late, Great UAW


Website of the Day

The Bloody Cove



February 2, 2009


Uri Avnery

Under the Black Flag: Israeli War Crimes


Ralph Nader

What to Do About Wall Street


Gareth Porter

Generals Move to Obstruct Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Orders


Paul Craig Roberts

The Death of American Leadership


Harvey Wasserman

The Nuclear Industry's Latest Money Grab


Rannie Amiri

Gaza and the Crimes of Mubarak


Cal Winslow

Stern's Gang Seizes UHW Union Hall


Steve Early

Checking Out of Stern's Hotel California


Alan Farago

Superbowl as Panopticon


Diane Farsetta

Banning Domestic Propaganda


January 30 / February 1, 2009


Alexander Cockburn

Obama and the Oddsmakers


Michael Hudson

Obama's New Bank Giveaway


Ismael Hossein-Zadeh

"Too Big to Fail:"
a Bailout Hoax


Dave Lindorff

The Ugly Truth: the American Economy is Not Coming Back


Saul Landau

Freedom Fighters, Terrorists or Schlemiels?


Andy Worthington

Blame the Chef: How Cooking for the Taliban Can Get You Life in Gitmo


Subcomandante Marcos

Gaza Will Survive


Robert Jensen

Future Farming: an Interview with Wes Jackson


Ron Jacobs

Return of the Democrats


Gareth Porter

Is Gates Undermining Another Opening to Iran?


Allan Nairn

Hope for the Dump Cities?


Laura Carlsen

NAFTA's Dangerous Security Agenda


Rev. William E. Alberts

The Feelings of a Stranger


Christopher Brauchli

From Gitmo to Supermax?


Jules Rabin

Israel and the Bomb


Col. Dan Smith

Thoughts From an Inauguration Refugee


Missy Beattie

The US Garden of Evil


Tom Barry

Obama's Immigration Challenge


J. Michael Cole

The Downfall of an Academic


Manuel Garcia, Jr.

Burning the First Amendment


Dan Bacher

How Dam Removal Can Save the Klamath River


David Rosen

Last Gasp of the Culture Wars?


Don Monkerud

Religion in the American Bedroom


Binoy Kampmark

Updike: Apostle of the Middlebrows


Lorenzo Wolff

Playing Down a Bad Reputation: the Lovin' Spooful's Near Perfect Record


David Yearsley

When Orfeo and Euridice Lived Happily Ever After in Upstate New York


Poets' Basement

Valentine and Rihn


January 29, 2009


Peter Linebaugh

Tom Paine's Birthday


Paul Craig Roberts

Is It Time to Bail Out of America?


Riz Khan

The Future of Gaza:
an Interview with Jimmy Carter


M. Reza Pirbhai

Pakistan: a New Cambodia?


Wajahat Ali

Obama's Al-Arabiya Interview


Gregory Vickrey

What About the Environment?
Cap and Trade and Selling Out


Dina Jadallah-Taschler

Whither the Two State Solution?


Alison Weir

Killing Palestinians Doesn't Count: Fact-Checking Ceasefire Breaches


Alan Farago

Economy Without Escape Routes


Walter Brasch

Taxing a House of Cards


Website of the Day

Madoff Inc.


 


January 28, 2009


Norman Finkelstein

Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza


Noam Chomsky

Obama's Emerging Policies on Israel, Iraq and the Economic Crisis


Patrick Cockburn

Is Mitchell's Mission Already Doomed?


Rob Larson

The Clinton Foundation Donors


George Wuerthner

Who Will Speak for the Forests?


Allan Nairn

South-East Asian Groups Threaten Retaliation Over Gaza Invasion


M. Junaid

Levesque-Alam

A Muslim's Memo to Obama


Stefan Simanowitz

The Silent Trade


Charles R. Larson

The Autumn of the Patriot


Website of the Day

Veggie Love: PETA's Banned Superbowl Ad


January 27, 2009


Winslow T. Wheeler

Save the Economy by Cutting the Defense Budget


Yigal Bronner /

Neve Gordon


Fueling the Cycle of Hate


Joshua Frank

Obama's Neocon: the Curious Case of Richard Holbrooke


Jordan Flaherty

Torture at a Louisiana Prison


Ralph Nader

Access to Economic Justice


Rev. José M. Tirado

How Iceland Fell: a Hundred Days of (Muted) Rage


Benjamin Dangl

Bolivia Looking Forward


Russell Mokhiber

What If Israel Were in Your Neighborhood?


Martha Rosenberg

Who Says Technology Transfer Doesn't Pay?


C. G. Estabrook

The Inaugural Address: the Digested Read


Website of the Day

Who Profits From the Occupation?


January 26, 2009


Paul Craig Roberts

Speaking the Truth is a Career-Ending Event


Deepak Tripathi

The BBC's Day of Shame


Vijay Prashad

The India Lobby:
Drunk with the Sight of Power


Peter Lee

Geithner's Pop Gun Volley at China


Allan Nairn

The Torture Ban That Doesn't Ban Torture


Uri Avnery

On the Wrong Side of History


John Sayen

The Next Shoe to Drop


Dave Lindorff

Afghanistan is No Threat to America


Lawrence R. Velvel

Investing with Madoff


David Macaray

Obama vs. Labor


Roger Burbach

Winds of Change in Cuba


Norman Solomon

The Ghost of LBJ


Website of the Day

Landscapes of Occupation


January 23 / 25, 2009


Alexander Cockburn

The Ghosts at Obama's Side


P. Sainath

The Freefalling Economy


Patrick Cockburn

In Israel, Detachment From Reality is the Norm


Saul Landau

Reasons for War?


Sasan Fayazmanesh


Our Current Economic Crisis: the Monks' Cure


Alan Farago

The Problem with the Stimulus


Christopher Brauchli

When Due Diligence is a One-Way Street


Andy Worthington

Return to Law?


Ron Jacobs

Obama's Pentagon:
Bowing to the Masters of War?


Lawrence Velvel

Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Four)


Henry A. Giroux

The Audacity of Educated Hope


David Yearsley

The Music That Wasn't There: Chamber Music for Obama's Masses


Raymond F. Gustavson

Here We Go Again:
General Shinseki and Veterans


Dave Lindorff

The Way Forward


Roberto Rodriguez

Fighting for Migrant Justice in the Desert


Dina Jadallah-Taschler

The Struggle of an Un-People


Fidel Castro

Meeting Cristina


J. Michael Cole

Can Obama's Shift on Terror Succeed?


Bob Fitrakis /

Harvey Wasserman


It's Time to Free Leonard Peltier


Ramzy Baroud

Breaking Gaza's Will


Mohammad Ali Shabani

The Aftermath of the War on Gaza


Richard Rhames

Panning for Pyrite on a Cold Day at the Mall


Stephen Martin

Voices in the Mirror


Lorenzo Wolff

Jurassic Radio


Kim Nicolini

Katrina's Endless Loop


Poets' Basement

Fleming, Henson, First, Jaramillo and Glendinning


Website of the Weekend

Cartoon Love


January 22, 2009


Paul Craig Roberts

Another Real Estate Crisis is About to Hit


Kathy Kelly

Worse Than an Earthquake


Allan Nairn

US Intel Nominee Lied About Church Murders


Lawrence Velvel

Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Three)


Andy Worthington

Halting the Gitmo Trials


Peter Morici

How to Fix the Banks


Joseph G. Davis

The First MBA Presidency and the Business Academy: a Damage Assessment


Adriana Kojeve

The Democrats on Israel: a Brief Oral History


Benjamin Dangl

Bolivia Poised for Historic Vote


Website of the Day

Support the Gaza Community Mental Health Program


January 21, 2009


Gabriel Kolko

Understanding Gaza


Harry Browne

Obama's Work Ethic


Michael Colby

Ready. Aim. Organize.


Lawrence R. Velvel

Investing with Madoff: My Experience


Audrey Stewart

Starting Over in Gaza


Wajahat Ali

Obama and the Muslims


Binoy Kampmark

The Marketing of Hope


David Kεr Thomson

Abolition


John Ross

In My Own Bones


Allan Nairn

Killer in Chief: Will This President Murder Civilians?


Sheldon Richman

The Peaceful Transfer of Violent Power


Website of the Day

Globistan


January 20, 2009


Chuck Spinney

Hosing Obama Israeli Style


Kathy Kelly

The Strongest Weapon of All


Raymond Deane

The EU, Gaza and the Lisbon Treaty


Ralph Nader

State Terrorism Against Gaza


Audrey Stewart

Why I am in Gaza


Jonathan Cook

Israel's Doctrine of Destruction


Harvey Wasserman

A Ten-Point Solar Agenda for Obama


Christopher Ketcham

Inauguration Ad Nauseam


Robert Jensen

A Citizen's Oath of Office


Dave Lindorff

Commie Chorus on the Mall: This Land Really is Made for You and Me


David Macaray

SAG Watches It All Slip Away




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February 25, 2009


"For This I Blame America"


Afghanistan: Chaos Central


By CHRIS SANDS


As the summer of 2005 began its slow fade into autumn, a piece of newspaper wrapped around a kebab said Osama bin Laden had moved to Iraq. It seemed everyone had forgotten there was a war on here. American soldiers used those remaining days of sunshine to buy carpets in Kabul’s Chicken Street bazaar, not caring when they were charged over the odds. Elsewhere, mercenaries downed cheap Russian vodka in phoney restaurants before wandering up a few stairs to sleep with Chinese prostitutes whose pimps bribed local government officials. The brothels were often in the same neighborhoods as the mansions that militia commanders were building themselves with CIA funds and drug money.


Back then, this beautiful city was the ideal place for a bit of post-conflict profiteering. Hastily-created NGOs continued to flood in, eager for a slice of the action. So did journalists determined to write about democracy, the suave English-speaking president and the local golf course. It was the calm before the storm. Victory had been declared and, while Afghans were starting to feel the weight of its baggage, the rest of the world was still having fun at their expense.


But the decadence and ignorance were never going to be allowed to last for long, and the Taliban knew their time was coming again. The warning signs were around for anyone who cared to look.


I’d been in Afghanistan less than a week when aid groups revealed that deteriorating security had put their projects under threat. They feared they had become targets for the insurgency. A little while afterwards, the governor of Maidan Wardak, a province bordering Kabul, told me all was okay there. Then the PR finished and he cut loose. A new generation of militants had shown its face, he said. They were young men disillusioned with the occupation and some were trained in Pakistan. Trouble was also evident near the eastern city of Jalalabad, where a villager complained that his cousin had vanished since being arrested by the Americans roughly three years earlier. We talked in a dirt yard full of kids and I think they were the only ones who expected his return.


The south, though, was where the pieces of the jigsaw began to fit together. Kandahar is the spiritual heartland of the Taliban and in late 2005 the movement was again drawing strength from its birthplace. There, for the first time, I caught sight of a reality our politicians had made us believe did not exist.


A man working at the football stadium reminisced fondly about the old days when executions happened on the pitch. If capital punishment was still common, he said, the new government wouldn’t be so crooked. This was something I would hear repeatedly, until eventually it was said by Afghans across the country. The police were the worst offenders, looking for bribes at every opportunity to supplement their low wages. Another Kandahari had joined the Taliban as a teenager in the 1990s. “At that time we were very happy,” he said. “It was like we were very poor and had suddenly found a lot of money.” Talibs are good people and they can never be beaten, he continued. Now they have no choice but to fight because otherwise the Americans will send them to Guantanamo Bay. Most importantly for the future, he revealed that a number of local religious clerics had just declared a jihad.


Insurgent attacks and violent crime were already a problem in Kandahar by then. It was like “living under a knife” said a 53-year-old in the city. Yet even as civilians died, the Taliban were rarely the subject of people’s fury. Directly or indirectly, they blamed the government and its allies.


Taliban on the Rise


In the spring of 2006 Kabul’s imams decided to speak out against all this and more. Officials were lining their own pockets and alcohol was easily available, they said. They were also angry at the house raids conducted by foreign soldiers in rural areas and accused them of molesting women during the searches. Most said the time for jihad was approaching and one announced that armed resistance was now the answer.


So when rioters tore through the capital on  May 29, it was no big surprise. The spark for that particular day of unrest was a fatal traffic accident involving US troops, but the explosion had been primed long before. Protesters shouted “Death to America” and by the end of the anarchy at least 17 people had lost their lives. The situation was now ripe for the Taliban to harness national discontent and kick-start a major revolt, and this is exactly what they did.


When British troops had first arrived in Helmand that February, they had come ostensibly to allow reconstruction. The then defense minister John Reid said he would be “perfectly happy” if they did not have to fire a single shot. Instead, they soon found themselves bogged down in some of their worst fighting since the Second World War, at times being drawn into hand-to-hand combat. Over 100 have died in the ensuing years.


The Taliban’s remit also grew stronger in areas close to Kabul and two hours from the capital people were warning that the government might collapse. I couldn’t find anyone in Ghazni who admitted to taking the insurgents’ side: they usually said poverty and a lack of reconstruction were causing people to rebel. Looking at the broken roads and crumbling homes, it wasn’t hard to understand what they meant.


Not long before, police in one of the province’s districts had tried to stop the Taliban’s favorite mode of transport by banning the use of motorbikes. The militants responded by imposing travel restrictions on the whole of that area’s population. At night they would go to mosques and tell worshippers not to drive to the provincial capital. “They say ‘if you don’t cooperate with us we will kill you’,” was how one man described their tactics. “What would be the natural human response to that? Of course you will cooperate.”


An emerging pattern


A pattern was emerging. The more the Taliban turned to violence, the more they came to be regarded as an omnipresent force that could not be stopped. The bloodshed made people long for the stability of the old regime, if not its repressive laws. Villagers across the south and east had gained almost nothing from the US-led invasion and, in fact, many had lost the little they previously had: good security. Among people in Logar, another of those sad provinces bordering Kabul, the anger was palpable. “Our biggest problem is with the foreigners – we just hate them. Our families, our children, our women – everyone hates them,” said an elder. “Let’s pretend I’m a young man,” said someone else. “I have graduated from school but I can’t go to university and there is no factory to work in. So how can I feed myself? I can just join the insurgents – it’s easy.”


The Taliban first rose up in 1994 when Afghanistan was controlled by warlords still high from the CIA support they had been receiving a few years earlier. A similar thing was happening again and the movement’s original members were quick to see that.


Mullah Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil lost his father during the Soviet occupation and joined the Taliban, he said, “to give the country freedom”. He went on to become Mullah Omar’s spokesman and later his foreign minister. We talked on a freezing January morning in 2007 when Mutawakil was being kept under watch in Kabul. He knew his government had made mistakes, particularly in letting jihadis from across the world train and fight here. But he was adamant that the international community’s decision to isolate the regime had only made it more extreme. “The interesting thing from that time, and lots of people are remembering this now, is the tight security,” he said.


Kandahar was frightening that spring of 2007. The police were accused of carrying out kidnappings and robberies, and the scars of suicide bombings pockmarked the streets. There was a lot of anger, despair and black humor around. Residents expressed a grudging admiration for the old ways of the Taliban simply because the alternatives had come to appear so dire. To them, democracy meant virtual anarchy and, in the villages, a brutal occupation. “If I sit at a table with an American and he says he has brought us freedom, I will tell him he has fucked us,” said a father-of-two. He had fled Kandahar during the Taliban government because he was against its restrictions on education. “But I was never worried about my family,” he added. “Every single minute of the last three years I have been very worried.”

Comments like this came thick and fast, mixed in with jokes. Some of the men insulted the president, Hamid Karzai, and his wife, laughing and swearing as they did so. A woman I met was sure the city had been better under the Taliban. “If we did not have a full stomach we could at least get some food and go to sleep,” she said.


Slipping into Chaos


On and on it went, a litany of complaints and stories that portrayed a nation slipping deep into chaos. A religious leader from the district of Panjwayi described how 18 of his relatives had been killed in an air strike. Then three Talibs from Helmand defended the insurgency as being a natural reaction to events. Basically, they felt they had nothing to lose.


Reports of civilians getting bombed from above came regular as clockwork that spring and summer. First some villagers or local officials would say innocent people were dead and the Nato or US-led coalition would deny it. Then all parties would agree civilian blood had been spilt, but argue over casualty figures. Hamid Karzai kept demanding that the carnage stop, but it never did.


In Kabul, a senator from Helmand said it was killing the entire country. He was among members of parliament’s upper chamber who had called for a ceasefire and negotiations with insurgent groups. They had also said a date should be set for the withdrawal of foreign forces. By then the parliament, supposedly the shining light of a new democracy, was actually a symbol of the Taliban’s resurgence. Police in riot gear stood watch and the building was falling to pieces, with paint flaking away and the walls starting to crack. Not only was there sympathy for the militants inside, there were also men whose viciousness had caused the movement to form in the first place. Most Afghans wanted the warlords brought to justice, but instead the international community had let them stand for election, and here they were showing off their power yet again.


Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef knew the impact that was having. He used to serve as the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan and, after initially being sent to Guantanamo, he was another of the old guard now living under constant surveillance in Kabul. He refused to talk about his stint in US custody, but he was quick to highlight that men with blood on their hands were now the West’s great hope. “At the time of the Taliban if someone killed another person it was possible to capture him, send him to court, punish him and execute him. Today, if someone goes to a village and kills 100 people, tomorrow he is given more privileges by the government,” he told me. “The Americans and the world community brought the warlords to power. They are supporting them for their benefit against the Taliban, but they know these people are not liked.”


By summer 2007 the horror could not be ignored, even in Kabul. Suicide bombings were the main weapon of choice and they struck fear into Afghans like nothing else, having been unheard of during the Soviet occupation.


For all their rhetoric about fighting for freedom, justice and the Almighty, it was also obvious that some in the Taliban were willing to murder anyone to achieve their aim.


This was clear in the pieces of charred flesh and hair that lay scattered in the dust after a bus was blown up near a police headquarters in the city on  June 17. And it was evident amidst the smell of shit that filled Pul-e-Charkhi jail, where a prisoner was quick to declare his intentions. “I tell you, when I get out of here the first thing I will do is kill journalists and infidels,” he said. “I will kill journalists because they are all spies.”


‘For this I blame America’


As 2007 drew to an end, men who hated the Taliban were starting to resemble them. A former Northern Alliance commander from the province of Badakhshan summed it up nicely: “Now when any foreigner is killed every Afghan says ‘praise be to God’,” he told me. We were chatting at his home in an area of Kabul where the poor had been forced out so warlords and foreign contractors could move in. He owned a small house and, in front of that, a half-built mansion that he could not afford to finish off. Possibly, the only optimists left were the American ambassador and the locals who had the money to take long holidays in Dubai.


Afghanistan’s Sikh and Hindu community had been about 50,000 strong before 1992. Now it was down to 5,000. The exodus had been instigated by the Mujahideen, not the Taliban. With the same old faces back in power again, no one was happy. “The Taliban told us we had to do all our religious ceremonies in private, but they did not stop us from doing them. It was a government that was not recognised by the world, but it was better than now,” said a Sikh.


Even the section of society that should have benefited most from the US-led invasion was full of sorrow. Female MPs told me they felt ashamed for not being able to help their constituents. One said she was sure the time was approaching when she would be a prisoner in her own home again. “For all this I blame America. When the Russians were here the people picked up guns to fight them. Now people are picking up guns to fight the Americans,” she said. “Soon my daughter will finish school and then she wants to start private education,” said another. “But I cannot let her because I cannot give her a bodyguard.”


‘Everything is screwed up’


In January 2008 the streets were a bleak monochrome and the graveyards that dominate Kabul’s landscape gave me a glimpse of the future. I interviewed a judge at the Supreme Court who admitted what everyone already knew: certain people here are above the law. He was too scared to name names, but he described the control warlords have over his colleagues as “totally ordinary”. Barely had he spoken and the Taliban attacked a luxury hotel in the city. Foreigners were shocked. Afghans just shrugged.


Kandahar was so bad I felt sick before returning there in early spring. Luckily, a friend of mine reassured me that, as a Pashtun, he would offer unconditional protection. “Mullah Omar destroyed Afghanistan because of Osama bin Laden, but he didn’t give him up,” he said. A day later a Taliban commander from Helmand described how the resistance had struggled to find support in the early years. But after innocent people had been detained or killed the jihad had burst into life. Now even the Afghan army secretly gave them bullets and treated their wounded.


The story of the insurgency, though, no longer needed a great deal of travelling. In April I took the short drive from Kabul city to Paghman and all I found where the offices of Zafar Radio used to be was a pile of burnt trash. Masked men had torched the premises for being “un-Islamic”.


In the summer, it got worse. I met an Afghan American who said that “everything is screwed up”. Then on  July 7, a car bomber attacked the Indian embassy. The huge explosion left corpses scattered around and the wounded dazed and bloodied. By the next morning people were venting their anger at the government, saying it was unable to provide security. When Barack Obama arrived during his presidential campaign, optimism was hard to find. In an area of the capital where Hamid Karzai had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the spring, a qualified doctor sold samosas from a roadside stall because it was the only job he could get. “The politics will not change,” he said.

2008 was the grimmest year since the invasion. On the seventh anniversary of 9/11, the annual death toll for US troops here had reached new heights: the 113 killed up to September were two more than for the whole of 2007.


Civilians are paying a heavier price. Caught between a rapidly developing insurgency and an occupation force over-reliant on air strikes, they are dropping like flies: according to the UN, 1,445 were killed from January to August 2008 alone.


The Taliban’s strength is growing on Kabul’s doorstep, in the provinces of Maidan Wardak and Logar. The main highway south is a turkey shoot that no one sensible travels along. In the east of the country, the rebels have taken new ground as they move freely across the border. In the north, warlords are reasserting their dominance – raping and beheading at will. The violence affects us all. Kabul is a claustrophobic, paranoid place. Rockets occasionally land in the streets, ugly concrete barriers have appeared and Afghans kidnap each other for ransom. Last autumn, on a bright October morning, a British aid worker was murdered in a part of the city regarded as safe.


More foreign troops are due to be sent. But they risk the kind of backlash experienced by the Soviets, and the long-term aim is unclear. After all these years, there are no firm ideas about the way forward. For now the bitter cold has brought the usual lull. But how much more violence will come this spring?


Chris Sands is a British freelance journalist, and frequent contributor to CounterPunch, who has been working independently in Afghanistan since August 2005. This article appears in the February edition of this excellent monthly, whose English language edition can be found at mondediplo.com. This full text appears by agreement with Le Monde Diplomatique. CounterPunch features two or three articles from LMD every month.

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