Global Research

Global Research Editor’s Note

Since October 2001, extensive war crimes have been committed in Afghanistan by US-NATO troops. These war crimes have not been acknowledged by the mainstream media.

The crimes committed by the US-NATO occupation are invariably obfuscated or presented as “colateral damage”. Civilian deaths are “accidental”.

The following Video report, which details the massacre of Afghan civilians, was broadcast by the BBC.

It reveals the true nature of the US led “war on terrorism”. It is by no means an isolated event, as conveyed in the press reports.  

The two videos, obtained by The Associated Press, “give weight to Afghan and U.N. findings that scores of civilians, including 60 children and 15 women, died in the Aug. 22 U.S.-led raid in the village of Azizabad. U.S. special forces and Afghan commandos carried out the operation.”(Huffington Post, September 8, 2008)

Meanwhile, public opinion is led to believe that the coalition forces are in Afghanistan as part of a peace-keeping operation. And that the US- NATO forces are involved in the reconstruction of Afghanstan. We are led to believe that the occupation forces have the support of Afghan people, whose lives are endangered by Al Qaeda and the Taliban.  

We are told that the “peacekeepers” are being attacked by “terrorists”. The recent deaths of Canadian and French forces in Afghanistan are highlighted. The deaths of Afghan civilians are rarely acknowledged.

The occupation forces are presented as the victims rather than the perpetrators of war crimes.

The media never mentions the “resistance” to foreign occupation.

French public opinion should understand what is meant by “La Resistance”. Ironically, the US and its NATO partners, including the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, are using the same justification for their occupation of Afghanstan as that used by Nazi Germany in relation to the German occupation of France during World War II.

A country of 34 million people is invaded and occupied and we are led to believe that somehow the Afghan people have endorsed and accepted this occupation and that those who are against the invaders, a small minority, are “terrorists”. 

Let us not forget that the US-NATO led October 2001 invasion of Afganistan was announced on the 12th of September 2001. 

Afghanistan was tagged, without  a shred of evidence and prior to the conduct of an investigation, as the “state sponsor” of the 9/11 attacks. The invasion was presented as part of a counter-terrorism operation directed against the perpetrators of 9/11 and their state sponsors. 

Trade unions, NGOs and many “progressive” intellectuals endorsed the US-NATO led invasion.

The war on Afghanistan was prepared prior to 9/11. War preparations were already in an advanced stage. 

The press reports failed to reveal a fact which is known and acknowledged by military analysts: a major theater war cannot, under any circumnstances, be planned and carried out in a matter of 4-5 weeks. 

9/11 was used as a justification to carry out a “humanitarian war”. 

Known to military analysts, the war on Afghanistan had been planned well in advance of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, September 9, 2008