Long live international solidarity with people’s just struggle in Afghanistan!
On August 15, 2021, with the entry of the Taliban forces to the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the collapse of the US puppet regime, the 20-year military occupation of the country by US imperialism and its NATO allies came to an abrupt and shambolic end. The utter collapse of the puppet government and the Afghan military, trained and armed to the teeth by the US and Britain, allowed the Taliban to rapidly take over the country and deny an orderly withdrawal of the US troops and personnel. The Taliban have seized billions of dollars of weapons, ammunition, and machinery that the Afghan troops and the US military have left behind.
The failure of US imperialism in Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation and war is, in fact, the collapse of the “project for the new American century” and has far broader implications. This was a plan to prevent the decline of US global supremacy through military means. It became known as the “Bush doctrine” that allows the US under the guise of “preventive” military actions to invade and occupy imperialist dominated countries and advance the concept of the “endless war”. The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan that occurred only three weeks after the September 2011 terror attack, was initiated as the “war on terror” aiming to “end terrorism”, “bring democracy to Afghanistan” and “free women”. This strategy that began with the invasion of Afghanistan continued with Iraq in 2003 and was extended to other countries in North African and Syria.
The untold crimes and atrocities of the US, Britain and other imperialist powers and reactionaries in the region have brought nothing but death and destruction to Afghanistan, Iraq and the rest of the Middle East and North Africa. It has inflamed and spread Islamic fundamentalist terror, civil war, and instability. It has caused the flow of millions of refugees from these war-torn countries. Specifically, in Afghanistan, narcotics production and trafficking has tripled during this period. It has failed to bring “democracy” in any shape or form to these countries and instead has strengthened and brought to power the most reactionary and backwards-looking regimes in the region’s history. Besides the extension of oppression against workers, other toiling masses and national minorities in the region, women are the target of the worst oppression and ill-treatment today.
The return of the notorious Taliban and the declaration of willingness to support and cooperate with a Taliban government by other imperialist powers and regional reactionary regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan rushing to fill the vacuum created by the US withdrawal is a clear sign of things to come for the people of Afghanistan.
The fascist Turkish state led by the AKP and President Erdogan as its head, has a long history of anti-people crimes and atrocities at home and in the region. It has long established links to reactionary Islamic fundamentalist forces including the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS. It has trained and armed theses reactionaries, deploying them against the revolutionary and just struggles of the people in Turkey, Syria and other countries in the region. However, at every reactionary attempt and military adventure, the Turkish regime has faced stiff resistance from the people’s revolutionary forces.
Clearly, all talk about peace and stability in the region is just an illusion. There can never be peace or stability as long as imperialism and the reactionaries continue to exist and dominate the region.
The path to freedom, democracy and social liberation for the workers and other oppressed people of Afghanistan, as with the rest of the Middle East, is through the revolutionary overthrow of all reactionary and dependent regimes in power and the complete rupture from the whole imperialist system. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Afghanistan in our common struggle against imperialism and all reactionaries.
Long live International Solidarity!
Down with the Taliban and reactionaries in Afghanistan!
Down with the fascist state in Turkey!
Down with imperialism and all reactionaries!
Victory to the democratic anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples of the Middle East!
Communist Party of Turkey – Marxist Leninist (TKP-ML)
International Bureau
August 2021