Afghanistan Follow

US BOMBS, missiles and cannon fire slaughtered at least 207 Afghan people in the village of Niazi Qalaye in Afghanistan last Sunday. Villager Janat Gul was distraught after the US bombs killed 24 members of his family. "People are very upset," he said. "There are no Al Qaida or Taliban people here."

THE NEW year has opened with two different sides of the world on show. The first is the horror and the barbarism seen in the US's continuing bombing of Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban. US president George Bush declared there is more slaughter in store. "2002 will be a war year as well," Bush said last week.

WAR Shock report: more civilians killed in Afghanistan than in the World Trade Centre

This year has seen the ugly reality of global capitalism. It has ended with the third war in ten years involving the US and Britain. The US bombing has already killed over 3,767 Afghan civilians, according to thorough research by a US professor (see page 7).

George W Bush and Tony Blair have murdered more innocent civilians in Afghanistan than were killed in the 11 September attack on the World Trade Centre. That fact is the stark conclusion of an authoritative investigation by US professor Marc Herold.

Debate The Socialist Alliance hosted a lively debate about the war last week in London. David Aaronovitch, a prominent pro-war journalist, argued that the action had brought about the end of the Taliban. He also hoped that the new US-sponsored Afghan government would bring real change.

Chaos in Afghanistan 1 in 3 children in Britain live in poverty

"Top of the world, Ma!" shouts James Cagney at the end of the movie White Heat, just before he blows himself to smithereens. George Bush could cry the same now, having seen the Taliban crumble beneath US air power.

The Taliban surrender of the last city they controlled last week was, according to Tony Blair, a "total vindication" of the two-month US-led war in Afghanistan. But it is not any justification for George Bush and Tony Blair's claims to be leading the world to greater liberty and prosperity.

George W Bush dropped 10,000 bombs on Afghanistan

Tony Blair and his government have backed US president George Bush's war in Afghanistan to the hilt. But even some sections of New Labour are worried about his plans to spread his war to Iraq, Somalia or any other country the US decides is a "rogue state".

They're feeling pretty bullish in the White House and the Pentagon. A few weeks ago Tony Blair was riding high as George W Bush's favourite adviser. But last Sunday's Observer, reporting American plans to extend the war to Iraq, quoted a "European military source" just back from US Central Command HQ in Florida: