Taliban still gonna win

In a move aimed to pacify US government moaning concerning Pakistan military support for the Taliban, the top Taliban commander to date has been arrested by the Pakistan army, inside Pakistan. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in Karachi, South Pakistan, and is apparently 'talking to his interrogators'. The sense of relief in the Imperialist press is palpable, finally 'good news' to report coming as it does after 2009s litany of disasters for the Imperialists, with the Taliban taking control of 80% of Afghanistan, including parts of the capital, Kabul. The capture is also vital to the morale of the troops sent to kill the workers and farmers in Afghanistan on behalf of British and US Imperialism: must be hard to keep fighting when there are only casualties and defeats on your side.

2009 was the deadliest year so far for the occupiers, with over 500 troops dead and thousands more injured. The capture of such a prima facie commander ,second only to Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar in rank, will no doubt be trotted out time and again as evidence that the back of the resistance has been broken. Reality will of course intrude in the form of yet more stunning victories for the anti-Imperialist resistance, already able to boast of recapturing areas of Helmand Province formally held by British troops. Soldiers sardonically refer to their operations as ‘mowing the lawn’ because the anti-occupation forces simply retreat and return. According to the New York Times, Obama will be sending a further 34,000 troops to Afghanistan. 34,000 US troops would mean Obama has more or less come down on the side of General McChrystal, US commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal, an expert in undercover assassination operations, wants an extra 40,000 troops to wage a counter-insurgency campaign to ‘clear, hold and build’ small strategic areas that could then spread and join to create larger areas under their control. Bribery is integral to the spread. It is this system which simply will not work. The local satraps employed by Obama and Co. become hated; the local Taliban (the Taliban has little national structure, being more a loose alliance of resistance groups) begin to look like the only anti occupation game in town; the Imperialists and their flunkey's are forced out of areas they previously shed much blood, most of it Afghan civilian, in capturing.

The capture of one leader of what is a multifarious and grass roots resistance means zip in the grand scheme of the war, almost a decade old now. The Taliban have reconquered the land they lost up to 2007. They are now seen, rightly, as the only force which has consistently fought the occupation. The expulsion of the US from Afghanistan will give a tremendous fillip to the poor peoples of the world, much like the defeat in Vietnam emboldened the anti-colonial movements of Africa and Latin America. The chant of all consistent anti Imperialists and Marxists should be: VICTORY TO THE TALIBAN!