Vol. 73/No. 44      November 16, 2009

The U.S. government delivered weapons and other military assistance to aid the Pakistani army in its assaults against a Taliban group in the country’s Swat Valley last spring. It is currently providing aid to the government offensive in the South Waziristan area in west central Pakistan. U.S. aerial drone attacks along the Afghan-Pakistan border have killed hundreds of civilians over the past year. These drones are also providing the Pakistani military with surveillance footage to aid their current assault. Meanwhile, according to one U.S. official cited in the New York Times, the number of U.S. special forces operating on Pakistani soil has reportedly doubled over the past eight months, to 150.

Since September 2001 the Pentagon has sent the Pakistan government nearly $1 billion a year to finance paramilitaries operating along the Afghanistan border. Congress earlier this year approved another special fund to speed delivery of military equipment to the Pakistani army, with $200 million worth of such equipment on its way in the next two to three months.

The Pentagon is planning to nearly double direct military aid to Islamabad to $700 million next year, U.S. officials say.

Those hardest hit by the Pakistani army assaults are working people residing in the areas that have become battlegrounds. The attacks in the Swat area earlier this year displaced more than 2 million people and led to the spread of disease and starvation. In South Waziristan today, more than 200,000 residents have fled. The government has given some displaced families a paltry $60 per month stipend to live on while providing no camps or shelter. Countless others haven’t been able to get out of the line of fire.

The real target of the U.S.-backed Pakistani military offensive is the same as Washington’s antiterror war—working people. What the toilers need, from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Iraq, is time and political space to develop a leadership that can chart a way forward against their local capitalist rulers and foreign domination. That course would be greatly aided by getting all imperialist troops out of the region.

End all U.S. military aid and operations in Pakistan now! Withdraw U.S. special forces from Pakistan! U.S. and NATO troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq now!
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. gov’t expands role in Pakistan war
Speeds weapons for military offensive
Tokyo balks at keeping U.S. base on Okinawa
Iraqi Kurds seek new election laws for Kirkuk  
 
 
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