Peace and Socialism

Somalia Afghanistan: A Tale of Two Failed States

    


Somalia

Afghanistan

1884--1954

independence struggle and Ogaden split with Ethiopia

1838--1893

Indedependence struggle and Durrand Line border

1969

Coup and socialist military regime under Barre

1973

Daoud coup

1977

Ogaden war

1978

Socialist coup

1980

Switch to US backing

1980

Soviet invasion, US backs rebels

1991

US overthrows socialist leader

1989

Soviet withdrawal

1990s

Warlord chaos -> Shabab

1990s

Warlord chaos -> Taliban

2001

US bombing Shabab

2001

US invasion, bombing Taliban

2006

US rejects ICU truce

2006

Taliban resurgence

2007+

US drones and bombs

2007+

US troop surge, drones, bombs

Somalia achieved independence only in 1960, and major general Said Barre took power in a coup in 1969. By the 1970s, Somalia was prospering, free of British/ Italian 'protection', socialist, a model third world state from the Soviet point of view, not yet targeted by the US. Ethiopia had a Nasser-like military coup in 1974 promising socialism next door. Sudan was at peace and pursuing a Nasserist policy under Colonel Gaafar Nimeiri. Nkruma’s dream of a united socialist Africa looked like it might actually be coming true.


At the top of the world, Afghanistan was following a similar trajectory, though somewhat delayed. It had been left in peace since the 1920s, recognizing and living peacefully with the socialist monolith to the north, slowly modernizing. But, just as in Somalia, its intelligentsia was attracted to socialism.

US-Canada and Venezuela’s Bay of Pigs


The Canadian government under Justin Trudeau is undermining not just Canada’s (ok, undeserved) reputation as an honest, fair mediator, but he has chosen 2019 to make Canada the enabler of the worst of US imperial policies.



Yes, the Huawei debacle is an embarrassment that will be remembered more as a joke, though possibly as the Suez Crisis of the US empire.* Whatever. Canada to the rescue! And of course, Canada reviles Islamic Iran, while shedding crocodile tears for the 50 Muslims murdered last week in New Zealand.


But far more despicable, downright ‘war-crime’ territory is Canada’s role in undermining the Venezuelan socialist government. The US war on Venezuela has been ongoing ever since Hugo Chavez miraculously survived a US-backed coup in 2002. Canada has been a minor irritant to the socialists, but not the villain. Until now.

Afghanistan as the Great Game victim



Submission to the Conference: The peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban

Swiss UMEF University Château d’Aïre, Geneva, Switzerland

February 22, 2019.

Afghanistan as the Great Game victim

Eric Walberg


Afghanistan has shaped my career as teacher, writer, journalist, peace activist. It is the central issue of both the collapse of communism or ‘real existing socialism’ as the Soviets modestly called it, and of the final stage of US empire. Watching the maneuvering of the great powers (the US is really the only ‘great’ power, but we can suppose China is becoming one, though its role in Afghanistan is still minimal, only as investor) and the regional powers (Russia, Pakistan, India, Iran) is like a reality game show. The great game analogy sees it in three parts, three distinct phases during the past two centuries.


I have been asked to address the role of the great powers and regional actors in post-occupation Afghanistan. Indulge me for a few moments to address the question in light of the current campaign by the only ‘great power’ against a country that looks surprisingly like Afghanistan, at least from a geopolitical and economic perspective -- Venezuela.


At the moment, the chess board activity is in Venezuela. It is enduring what we may call the latest ‘colour revolution’.

Working class heroes: Review of Kovalik’s ‘The Plot to Control the World’

Dan Kovalik, The Plot to Control the World: How the US spent billions to change the outcome of elections around the world, Hot Books, 2019.


‘Imperialism abroad - despotism at home’ was once the credo of the Democratic Party, part of its 1900 platform. One of the tidbits Kovalik passed on at his Toronto book launch.


Yes, the US is the big interferer in others’ elections, as Kovalik documents. But as counsel of the Union of Steelworkers and lawyer for beleaguered workers in Colombia, Kovalik gave his listeners insight into the little known role the US trade union movement plays -- its betrayal of trade unionists abroad. Dozens of Colombia worker-heroes owe their lives to his lawyer smarts and dedication to the working class. As an American, he takes the evil of  imperialism seriously and risks his own life to fight It. A real ‘working class hero’.

What is in store for Afghanistan?

It’s time to think about the likely future of poor Afghanistan. It isn’t terribly bright, but we have to, so the sooner, the better.

There are probably still a few neocons dreaming of a happy puppet state emerging from the shambles. The “grand strategy” was laid out by PNAC (Project for a New American Century) in 2000, calling for the US to maintain its unrivaled superpower status. This required a “new Pearl Harbor” to justify launching preemptive wars against suspect nations (after Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Iran and Yemen).


This Pearl Harbor II just happened to come along a year later, prompting Bush II to coin “the Axis of evil” to include Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and “Beyond the Axis of Evil” to include Cuba, Libya, and Syria. The plan was to bring all these countries under US hegemony by installing western-friendly regimes under a patina of electoral democracy.


US military ‘successes’

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  4. 'Willie Pete' - chemical weapon du jour

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Canadian Eric Walberg is known worldwide as a journalist specializing in the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. A graduate of University of Toronto and Cambridge in economics, he has been writing on East-West relations since the 1980s.

He has lived in both the Soviet Union and Russia, and then Uzbekistan, as a UN adviser, writer, translator and lecturer. Presently a writer for the foremost Cairo newspaper, Al Ahram, he is also a regular contributor to Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Global Research, Al-Jazeerah and Turkish Weekly, and is a commentator on Voice of the Cape radio.

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Eric's latest book The Canada Israel Nexus is available here http://www.claritypress.com/WalbergIV.html