Colonialism, Afghanistan and human rights....

I have opposed Western involvement in Afghanistan from the beginning because like almost every Western military escapade, the motivation here is about money and power. In this case it is specifically about the control of oil resources in western Asia. Of course Western powers put an entirely expected spin on this military adventure, suggesting at first that it was because we needed to put an end to terrorist training camps. This appears to have been a simple straight-forward lie – there were only a handful of insurgents in Afghanistan and these were Kashmir separatists. Then the standard line was that we were saving the people (particularly the women) from the Taliban. Anyone who has been paying attention to this situation knows that this has never been true. Western governments said shamefully little about the condition of women in Afghanistan before the invasion. Furthermore, for the past six years or so we have been propping up a hopelessly corrupt government in Afghanistan which has shown time and again that it has no genuine interest in human rights. Homosexuality has been a criminal offence in Afghanistan punishable by death while we have been touting our defense of the poor Afghans. Now the situation has been made clear by the recent institution of sharia law for some citizens of Afghanistan. This legislation would essentially legalize marital rape and control women’s lives in horrible ways. The Harper and Obama governments have made a bunch of noise about this but really they are just hoping that it will fade away and they can continue with their neo-colonial agenda unfettered. The truth is that once again US and Canadian soldiers are dying for Wall St. and oil companies and their families appear on television and radio calling their fallen relatives “Heroes” because if they faced up to the reality it would just be too horrible to contemplate. The West continues on with the same agenda it has been pursuing for years: kill, control, and colonize and wrap it all up in a flag of altruism.