Beyond the 'mainstream' framing and distortion, key readings on Afghanistan

Down centuries echo
New false cries
Of honour won
Last duty done
From land of conquest

Hasty exit

Empire’s legions crash and run

Hubris hushed

Trumpets silenced

Liberal hats still urging on

High-tech helmets chased by turbans

Righteous mission over-spun

Weight of our so moral burden

Imperial bondage theirs to learn

Great Game upended

Deathly merchants

Spent armoury of lies and guns

The rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has been widely treated by the Western political class and ‘mainstream’ media as a disastrous turn of events.

In truth, beyond the tragic human carnage and sordid abandonment, the humiliating retreat of US, UK and other NATO forces represents a positive historic outcome in setting back the tyranny of imperialist invasion, occupation and plundering of states around the globe.

And, whatever troubling governance to come for Afghanistan, it reaffirms the ultimate right of determination for indigenous peoples over rapacious external forces.

Glenn Greenwald makes the elementary point:

“Afghanistan belongs to the people of Afghanistan, not the U.S. and NATO.“

In their chaotic retreat, we now glimpse the true extent of the interventionist deceit and madness of this warmongering mission.

Or maybe not so mad for some. For when it comes to the motivations and manoeuvres of power, there’s always mercenary method in that madness.

That interfering madness will continue in Afghanistan, as elsewhere, in whatever devious form.

Yet, as with Vietnam and the fall of Saigon, the liberation of Afghanistan and easy capture of Kabul illustrates the latest historic failure of imperial invasion and regime change as a model of control.

As those who ran and worked for the occupation clamber onto the last exiting planes, we see the true fragility of that entity and its spurious claims: the false narratives of ‘state building’ and ‘democratisation’; the so-called ‘quest for peace and stability’, while relentlessly bombing the country and murdering its people; the proclaimed ‘concern’ for educating, protecting and advancing women and girls.

If only our media had been telling people the truth about the ‘winning war’. If only the public had been properly informed about the systemic corruption and capricious nature of the West’s puppet regime. If only, as with real journalists like Julian Assange and Wikileaks, they had been exposing the mass war crimes of the US and its political allies.

As the l ast UK troops and UK Ambassador left Afghanistan, British state media could only echo the platitudes of ‘honourable service’ trotted out by Boris Johnson and military officials, failing even to mention the deaths, displacement and suffering of the Afghan people.

Thankfully, beyond the amplifier BBC and other power-serving media, we have a wealth of informed, probing and truthful journalism to rely on.

Please read and share:

Jonathan Cook
How the Taliban surge exposed Pentagon’s lies

Lowkey
On Afghanistan

Yvonne Ridley
What can the Taliban offer the women of Afghanistan?

John Pilger
The Great Game of Smashing Nations

Joe Glenton
Former British Soldier DESTROYS Official Afghanistan Narrative

Claudia Webbe, MP
Afghanistan was a war without a just cause, and simply a continuation of Western imperialism

Vijay Prashad

How the Taliban Chased the West Out of Afghanistan

Phil Miller and Mark Curtis

Four failed wars must finally force the UK to adopt an ethical foreign policy