On 15 November, Afghan president Hamid Karzai demanded that NATO stop carrying out night raids on Afghan homes as a condition for a long-term US military presence.
As the following list of headlines makes clear, Karzai is powerless to control the occupation.
“Karzai: Stop the Air Strikes”, CBS News, 28 October 2007
“Afghan official says US-led air raid kills 22 civilians”, Reuters, 4 July 2008
“Afghanistan demands end to Nato air strikes on villagers”, Guardian,…
US Special Forces in Afghanistan killed as many as 1,500 civilians in night raids by ground forces during nine months spanning 2010 and early 2011, according to an estimate produced by Gareth Porter, a US journalist for Inter Press Services (IPS).
Porter’s estimate is of especial interest as accurate information about civilians killed by NATO forces is hard to come by, not least because NATO rarely admits to killing any civilians, unless forced to do so by independent media coverage (…
Peace News was honoured to sponsor Guy Smallman ís stunning exhibition of photographs from Afghanistan for the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. "Afghanistan: Ten Years On", which was on display at the Amnesty International Human Rights Centre in London in October. It is now available for groups to host (it is appearing in Derry at the end of January).
Please note that while the exhibition is about Afghanistan, it does not feature soldiers or warfare, and it does not…
The brother of famed anti-Taliban guerrilla leader Ahmed Shah Massoud – who was assassinated days before the 9/11 attacks – told the Guardian: “This absolutely shows that peace with the Taliban is dead ... It doesn’t work. It can’t work.”
Others were less hasty to rush to judgement. For example, former EU envoy to Afghanistan Michael Semple – a world-renowned expert on the Taliban – noted that the assassination was “directly contrary” to the moderate tone recently adopted by the…
On 7 October, several British peace activists marked the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan by pouring “blood” onto the pavement outside Downing Street, and then blockading the gate. The red paint symbolised the blood of an estimated 25,000 civilians and 2,500 western soldiers who have been killed or injured in this decade of war. Six people were arrested: Chris Cole, Maya Evans, Ben Griffins, John Lynes, Martin Newell and Ciaron O’Reilly. They must report to the police station…
On 8 October, around 2000 people took part in a march in London to mark the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. The march, organised by the stop the war coalition, was addressed by Joe Glenton, who was court martialled and jailed for refusing to serve, as well as by 106-year-old Hetty Bower who recalled the lies told during the first world war to justify the conflict. Names of servicemen and women who have died in Afghanistan were read out, and 120 balloons released to signify the…
In 1986 the French photographer Didier Lefevre travelled to Afghanistan with Médecins sans Frontières to document their work there in the midst of the Soviet occupation. This stunning non-fiction blend of Didier's text and photos and cartoonist Emmanuel Guibert's Tintin-esque drawings tells the story of their arduous journey across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the doctors’ work treating the victims of the war, and Didier's near-fatal return journey, following a foolish decision on his…
Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the war against Afghanistan. This morning peace activists gathered outside Downing Street in a protest organised by the London Catholic Worker. Red paint was poured on the pavement outside the gates to symbolise the blood of the 25,000 civilians and 2,500 soldiers who have been killed or wounded in the last decade. 6 people then blockaded the entrance to Downing Street for an hour before they were arrested. The 6 are John Lynes, Ciaron O’Reilly, Maya Evans…
It is hard to grasp the horror of the US-led war in Afghanistan. It is also hard to grasp the depth and scale of the lies that the war has been based on. How do things look to the masters of war? Watch a chilling leaked night vision video recorded in October 2001 by a US AC-130U Spectre gunship. The seven-minute video (link at the end of this article) documents an attack on an Afghan village.
There is a soundtrack: calm, unhurried conversation between the men in the plane. You also…
Ten years after al-Qa’eda’s 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, the global antiwar movement is preparing to mark the tenth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Three official lies stand out.
The first lie is that the war was inevitable, that it was the only way of bringing the perpetrators of 9/11 to justice.
In October 2001, not only had the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan offered in principle to extradite Osama bin Laden to a third (Muslim)…
Indeed, according to a recent report for Inter Press Service (IPS) by journalist and historian Gareth Porter, the Taliban’s leadership is prepared to negotiate a peace settlement as soon as the US “indicates its willingness to provide a timetable for complete withdrawal.”
Ready to withdraw?
Taliban officials explained the movement’s position in late July during a meeting in Kabul with the former Afghan Prime Minister Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai.
“They said once the Americans say…
Drones may be “the perfect weapons for a war weary nation on a tight budget” as one journalist wrote recently, but reported civilian casualties from drone strikes continue to rise. For the first time the British ministry of defence (MoD) has admitted that one of its drone strikes killed Afghan civilians in March 2011. The deaths of the unnamed Afghans was revealed by an anonymous correspondent from the UK’s permanent joint headquarters (PJHQ) at RAF Northwood in reply to one of my Freedom of…
