Statement on U.S. War in Afghanistan

From the Communist Party of Iran (MLM)

Revolutionary Worker #1126, November 11, 2001, posted at http://rwor.org

We received the following statement, which is from the Communist Party of Iran (MLM), a participating party in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM).

Sunday, 7th October 2001: Deadly bombardments by the U.S. and British imperialists are raining over the four corners of Afghanistan, from Kabul, Ghandhar and Jalalabad to Herat and Farah. Without a doubt these bombardments have caused tremendous casualties amongst the civilians and have destroyed towns and essential resources of the Afghanistani people. This is a horrific crime and we cannot stand by in silence. Silence means collaboration with these criminals. George Bush is very conscious of the scale of these crimes against the Afghanistani people. He thus has to continuously repeat the big lie that this war is not against the people of Afghanistan but against the Taliban and Bin Laden's organisation. But the reality is that this is the U.S.'s second war against the people of Afghanistan. The U.S. conducted its first war through its nurtured reactionary forces, that is, the Taliban. The U.S. is behind all the crimes of the Taliban, from its reign of terror to the religious horror, from the massacre of people in villages who refused to obey their rule to the enslavement of women, and from the destruction of the cities to the destruction of the towns and villages. It was the U.S.'s economic and political interests, their political and international support, money and weapons that brought the Taliban to power and kept them there. Now the U.S. has started its second round of the war against the people of Afghanistan, but this time the U.S. is waging the war directly, by using aerial bombardment and by sending ground forces. George Bush announced that this war will be "protracted", and he is right. Because after the ending of the aerial bombardment and its military campaign, the U.S. intends to enforce another bloodsucking, puppet regime over the people of Afghanistan in order to continue the imperialists' protracted war against these people.

In this war the imperialists' Middle Eastern servants, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, are wholeheartedly in the service of the U.S. The reactionary Khatami [the Iranian President] has informed Western diplomats that the Islamic Republic is in complete agreement with the U.S.'s military campaign and will co-operate with them in every way. The Islamic Republic of Iran has committed countless crimes against the people of Afghanistan. During the past twenty years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has continuously helped to strengthen the reactionary Islamic parties in Afghanistan. The Pasdaran [religious military force] of the Islamic Republic of Iran was always directly involved in the wars waged by the Islamic parties in Afghanistan against the people there. The Islamic Republic has exercised its fascist laws against the Afghanistani immigrants living in Iran, it has kept them in vagrancy and poverty, education was forbidden for the children, it unleashed racist propaganda campaigns against them, and every now and then directed its thugs to attack them in their neighbourhoods--yet the Islamic regime still wants to play a role in the "future" of Afghanistan.

The working class and the people of Iran must never forget the crimes of both U.S. imperialism and the Islamic Republic of Iran against the people of Afghanistan, and now, together with the masses of the rest of the world, must stand against this war waged against the Afghanistani people and fight against the interventions and crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Afghanistan. The Islamic Republic of Iran is extremely scared of any development amongst the Iranian people of feelings and actions in solidarity with the immigrants and refugees from Afghanistan. Developing such a spirit and internationalist relations are important tasks for the revolutionary and communist forces in Iran. Militant students can and must play an important role in this matter. This is one of their tasks if they want to wage a specific struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran and serve the people. Outside Iran, in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, progressive Iranians, together with comrades and friends from Afghanistan, must be active in waging the anti-war struggle and must unite with anti-war struggles and movements waged by progressive and revolutionary forces in those countries and help them to become even more militant.

The imperialist states and the reactionary regimes in the Middle East are sowing the wind, but they will reap the whirlwind. This is the verdict of history.

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