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http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul122643_christmas-in-afghanistan.html Polish Radio December 25, 2009 Christmas in Afghanistan Hosted by Magdalena Jensen and Alicja Baczynska -Those cluster bombs that Bogdan Klich believes are good and necessary for Afghanistan and which the PO [Platforma Obywatelska] government refused to sign a treat banning their use. The reasons are curious. There is the business angle. Krasnik makes cluster bombs in Kielce and the PO is a pro-business party and Radek Sikorski makes jokes about having survived cluster bomb atttacks. -If it's Afghanistan, then it doesn't matter because the victims are only peasant children whose scorched flesh and corpses will not be seen in Krakow's Bonarka City Centre this Christmas. Instead the main media news item was the theft of the Arbeit Mach Frei banner at the gates of Auschwitz, a crass theft but that did not actually kill anybody unlike Saakashvili's blowing up of the Soviet War Memorial in Kutaisi, killing a woman and child of 8. -With NATO forces present at Camp Babylon the site wintnessed the desecration and destruction of some of the world's most treasured artifacts. But Poland was displeased. The US did not dish out the construction contracts it wanted. At least in Afghanistan the contruction of the TAPI pipeline will open up the gas energy market, drive down prices and reduce dependence on Russia. -The troops are dying for a war fought on shifting pretexts and according to contradictory goals. First to get Al Qaida, who are no longer in Afghanistan in force, then to save the women, then to defeat the opium trade....[I]n 2008 the TAPI pipeline scheme is agreed upon and reinforcements needed in the areas around Kanfahar where most troops are being killed because that's where the pipeline with go. This week’s Diplomatic Bag is a holiday tribute to Poland’s soldiers in Afghanistan, occupying the Ghazni province of the country under the NATO ISAF mission and to soldiers fare from their families fighting in conflicts around the globe this holiday season. Comments Karl Naylor I suppose unlike Christmas in the First World War its more difficult to enjoy the Festive season as the Taliban unlike the Kaiser's Army won't be up for a game of football. That's the problem with Muslims. They are more difficuly to win over with WHAM strategies. Not least as large flying objects in the sky are not likely to be Santa and his sleigh but B52 bombers. Still its Christmas and with the families far from the troops it's time to remember how safe they are, that their children won't have arms and legs blown off by cluster munitions. In a HRW report Fatally Flawed it was revealed how children were blown up thinking unexploded bomblets or duds were toys to play with. http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/us-afghanistan/Afghan1202-06.htm#P492_102247 "Afghans rely on wood for fuel, and they forage for it in the hills and rural areas outside their villages. In early December, 9-year-old Amin went to collect brush at the edge of the Jebrael field where Arbrabrahim had died. A cluster bomblet exploded and killed him. 160 children sent to gather wood also frequent military bases, which in Afghanistan generally have undefined and porous borders. The suburbs of Herat lost several children to bomblets dropped on these targets. Three children from Nawabad, for example, died while collecting wood at Firqa #17 in Herat. "Children are especially vulnerable to cluster bomblets because of their curiosity. Arif, 14, and Sharif, 13, brothers from the Herat suburb of Bag Nazer Gah, were injured while playing during an excursion to the Firqa. Arif lost his leg to a bomblet." Those cluster bombs that Bogdan Klich believes are good and necessary for Afghanistan and which the PO government refused to sign a treat banning their use. The reasons are curious. There is the business angle. Krasnik makes cluster bombs in Kielce and the PO is a pro-business party and Radek Sikorski makes jokes about having survived cluster bomb atttacks. Absurdly though Klich has tried to 'reason' in an interview with Gazeta that cluster bombs were essential for defending Poland or land controlled or occcupied by Polish troops. 'This isn't just a whim. We need those weapons to defend our territory. In fact, a debate has been going on about this type of munitions'. 'Our territory' could be interpreted in different ways. Dropping clusters on Poland against an hypothetical Russian invasion would not go down well with Belarusians or those living in Eastern Poland. If it's Afghanistan, then it doesn't matter because the victims are only peasant children whose scorched flesh and corpses will not be seen in Krakow's Bonarka City Centre this Christmas. Instead the main media news item was the theft of the Arbeit Mach Frei banner at the gates of Auschwitz, a crass theft but that did not actually kill anybody unlike Saakashvili's blowing up of the Soviet War Memorial in Kutaisi, killing a woman and child of 8. There were few festive sentiments of goodwill from Georgia, a state run by an authoritarian warmongering nationalist that Kaczynski insists that Poland should stand 'shoulder to shoulder' with. That iconoclasm just before Christmas was another media non-event in Poland and Britain, though it was an act that the Taliban would endorse as a means of erasing history. As was clear after the invasion and occupation of Iraq when the military zone around the ancient city of Babylon and Karbala was under Polish military command (consisting of 7,000 troops) With NATO forces present at Camp Babylon the site wintnessed the desecration and destruction of some of the world's most treasured artifacts. But Poland was displeased. The US did not dish out the construction contracts it wanted. At least in Afghanistan the contruction of the TAPI pipeline will open up the gas energy market, drive down prices and reduce dependence on Russia. Or that's the plan. Unfortunately, with Polish consumer heroin demand mirroring the the rise of bored and satiated consumers in the West, the profits from narcotics can prop up both Taliban insurgency and the corrupt politicians in Afghans' new model democracy. The old Polish heroin or kompote has been replaced by newer supplies of heroin which come from Afghanistan which now account for over 90% of global production. The problem is getting worse. The profits from opium are so high because of the "war on drugs" that few in Afghanistan have any interest in not cultivating the most lucrative cash crop. It's this that condemns the war in Afghanistan to futility. The troops are dying for a war fought on shifting pretexts and according to contradictory goals. First to get Al Qaida, who are no longer in Afghanistan in force, then to save the women, then to defeat the opium trade. Then in 2008 the TAPI pipeline scheme is agreed upon and reinforcements needed in the areas around Kanfahar where most troops are being killed because that's where the pipeline with go. The troops volunteer their service. That's their business. But the Polish public has the right to know what this war is about, what the real stakes are and for what end both Poles and Afghans are dying. =========================== ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
