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Afghans Hold Anti-U.S. Rally on Eve of War Anniversary
Hundreds of Afghans marched through Kabul on Thursday, the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, to condemn the United States as occupiers and demand the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops.
'Against Occupation!': An Afghan man shouts anti-US slogans at a protest in Kabul on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the US military campaign in Afghanistan. (Reuters)
About 300 men and women gathered early in the morning with placards and banners accusing the United States of "massacring" civilians while denouncing President Hamid Karzai as a puppet subservient to Washington.
"Occupation - atrocities - brutality," read one sign, held aloft by two women with scarves covering their head and face.
"No to occupation" said another placard, as a U.S. flag was set on fire. Another banner featured a caricature of Karzai as a glove puppet holding a pen and signing a document entitled "promises to the USA."
The rally, near a shrine and river in downtown Kabul, lasted around three hours, and ended peacefully.
Karzai became Afghanistan's leader in June 2002, seven months after Northern Alliance forces supported by the United States entered Kabul and drove the Taliban regime from power.
Karzai won subsequent elections in 2005 and 2009.
"Ten years since the invasion, all we have seen is suffering, instability and poverty in our country," said protest organizer Hafizullah Rasikh.
One picture that featured prominently was that of U.S. soldier Andrew Holmes posing with the corpse of an unarmed teenage Afghan villager who he had gunned down. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for the 2010 murder.
This year has seen record levels of civilian casualties and although about 80 percent were caused by insurgents, killings by foreign forces, tend to spark more vocal public anger.
The United States bears the brunt of criticism of the Western presence in Afghanistan.
"The bloodshed I see in this country is the result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. After the invaders leave, our country will be peaceful," shouted one man on a loudspeaker.
(Reporting by Akram Walizada and Mohammad Aziz; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Sugita Katyal)
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13 Comments so far
Show AllB-but...freedom! Elections...democracy! Gotta stop em over there so that we can starve over here it makes perfect sense people!!! Look, terrorism is the terror of hate and terror, we gotta terror terror the terrorists or they will terror our terror. ----------- This is what I end up hearing (or translating in my head) when ever a single person defends our wars. You know what? Elections and phony-ass democracy DON'T RAISE THE DEAD.
Now the afghani's get an idea of what a country will be like once it's run by Right Wing Neo Fasiscts...
Welcome back to slavery, AmeriKKKan style!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Perhaps the Afghans have become even more inspired after seeing the protests that are happening in the United States now and are saying that it is Afghans and not Americans who should Occupy Afghanistan.
Up with the freedom fighters! Down with the U.S. occupation!
Surprise surprise, the U$A army didn't gun down the protesters claiming they were Terrorists: Hum, bet they got some pictures and will kill kill them real soon. Let the Amerikan economy full crash and then, just maybe then the Killers will withdraw.
Kick NATO and the U.S. out!
Long live the Afghan resistance!
Solidaridad! Viva La Revolucion...amerika out of the Middle East, Africa... the rest of the World !!!!!!!!
It's a shame we don't have protest's like the one on Wall Street about Iraq and Afghanistan. I wonder why? I haven't even seen one sign or comment linking Wall Street and these war's.
This:
"It's a shame we don't have protest's like the one on Wall Street about Iraq and Afghanistan. I wonder why? "
is a good question and a point well taken, alugilac! I, myself, haven't seen any signs, let alone any speeches on the part of anybody, including our leaders, that link Wall Street and our present wars. They are and should be linked together, imho.
Oh, and I also might add this: Kudos to the Afghanis for rising up and protesting against the U. S. occupation of their country. They don't want us there...it's high time we got out..it's long overdue!
Alan, you are correct, no one will raise the dead.
So what comes after all this blood shed?
The rising; the power to stop the corporate beast,
resides in the hearts of all those marching, protesting the destruction of life,
those opposing are the quickest to distort our future on a path of fear and terror
It seems clear to me and yet the message of the elite, is
"we have no message"...they will get louder as the waves of compassion march
in every nook and cranny on this globe.
It will be up to you and me and everyone else to help each other back to the table. The hands raised should only rise to volunteer. And the volunteer will have to be rock solid, maybe then we can start to honor all the innocent who no longer have a voice.
What's the problem here? They obviously don't want us there. We overwhelmingly don't want to be there. Why aren't we folding out tents and coming home? This is not "rocket science"!
Remember, anybody who resists, resents or protests the Empire invading and pillaging their country is, by definition, a terrorist or insurgent. Once so identified, it is open season on them, their families, their villages.
Even the Nazis were finally driven out of one country after another that they had invaded and occupied.
Perhaps our time will come.
I just saw a disgusting bit of propaganda on CBS news. They had a short spot on the anti-occupation protests in Afghanistan and then went seamlessly into a bit on a 25 year old U.S. soldier in Afghanistan who enlisted because he wanted to do his part after 9-11 (quick shot of smoking WTC towers). He's proud of what he's doing. It told how the area he was in had been under Taliban control but, due to additional U.S. troops, it now wasn't. It also showed the soldier next to a huge poster with a picture of his "best friend" who had been killed by an IED (shot of an explosion followed by female reporter (wearing a hijab) next to the remains of a vehicle blown up by an IED).
God, how dare those people protest against our brave soldiers who are dying to help them?