------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 23, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
THIS IS LIBERATION? By G. Dunkel What has U.S. war and occupation meant to Afghanistan? Relief workers estimate that half a million Afghanis are homeless, living in bombed-out buildings or tents with mud piled along the sides to keep out drafts. Some 75,000 residents of Kabul are reported to suffer from tuberculosis, a disease largely controlled elsewhere in the world. Kabul has lost 78,000 houses in wars over the last 30 years. None were repaired in 2002. Its sewers are overflowing, its narrow streets grid- locked and choked with smog. Three years of drought have devastated much of the country, particularly in the south. Rivers and reservoirs have run dry. Three-quarters of the country's livestock have died. War has completed the devastation: irrigation systems have been blown up and roads destroyed. The 7 million land mines left in the country are still deadly. NGOs say it would take several thousand workers at least a decade and cost $500 million to dispose of most of them. International donors say $1.8 billion has poured into Afghanistan in the past year, but only $80 million has reached the government. The U.S. is spending about $1 billion a month in Afghanistan for its military occupation, but only $25 million for aid. (New York Times magazine, Jan. 5) That's 2.5 cents on the dollar--not even a fig leaf. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
