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Vol. 75/No. 25      July 11, 2011

 
U.S., NATO out of Afghanistan!
(editorial)
 

Working people have big stakes in demanding that Washington immediately withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan. The U.S. rulers’ brutal, decade-long war has nothing to do with bringing freedom, democracy, or a better life to the people of that country. It is a bloody assault—one in which the sons and daughters of workers and farmers do the fighting and dying—to increase U.S. imperialist domination of the region.

As the U.S. capitalists pursue this course, they are also stepping up a war on working people at home, laying us off, foreclosing on farms and houses, cutting wages, speeding up work, disregarding safety, slashing health and pension benefits, and further restricting workers rights in the name of “fighting terrorism.”

“The tide of war is receding,” President Barack Obama pledged June 22 as he announced a timetable to “draw down” troops in Afghanistan. He said 33,000 would be withdrawn “by next summer.” When and if that happens, the 68,000 U.S. troops left there will still be twice as high as when he took office. Obama also said drone strikes will be stepped up in Pakistan.

As of June 27, 1,527 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. Add to that 4,408 soldiers killed in Iraq, where some 47,000 U.S. troops remain, along with an almost equal number of U.S. forces deployed in Kuwait and nearby.

Who are these soldiers? In their big majority they are from working-class and farming communities bearing the brunt of today’s capitalist crisis. The states with the highest concentration of residents in uniform are in the South and Great Plains. Maine now has the highest casualty rate, with Wyoming second.

Contrary to Obama’s claim that “we are all a part of one American family,” there are two Americas: one for the propertied families who profit off our labor, the other for the working class, which pays for capitalism’s declining system with sweat and blood, both on the battlefield and in mines, mills, and factories.

U.S. casualties pale, however, when compared to the toll for the Afghani people. From 2007 to 2010 the number of civilian deaths there almost doubled. May marked the highest month—368 deaths—since records began being kept in 2007.

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U.S. and NATO troops out of Afghanistan! Hands off Pakistan, Iraq, and Libya!
 
 
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