Afghanistan Follow

The US and British bombing of Afghanistan has unleashed a bitter scramble for power between rival military commanders, mostly based on different ethnic groups. Each of them has support from the competing states which border Afghanistan. This will create turmoil. Some people see the United Nations (UN) as being an independent force that can help bring peace to Afghanistan. But any UN intervention will be Western destruction in another guise.

"Coming just a day after the advances in Afghanistan, it signals the determination of the world's community to fight terror with trade, as well as arms." These are the worlds of Patricia Hewitt, New Labour's trade and industry secretary, celebrating the outcome of the World Trade Organisation meeting last week in Doha, Qatar.

Supporters of the Socialist Alliance have been out campaigning on the streets of Ipswich in the run-up to the parliamentary by-election which was to take place on Thursday of this week. It is the first by-election of Labour's second term. Local campaigner and former builder Peter Leech is standing for the Socialist Alliance. Peter's campaign has centred round opposing the war in Afghanistan.

In three weeks time tens of thousands of people are planning to join major protests in the Belgian capital, Brussels. The protests will focus anger at the job losses mounting right across Europe as global recession bites. And they will also voice fury at European leaders' backing for the US-led war on Afghanistan.

Their bloody record 1960-75 Vietnam: two million dead

"Our Friends." That's how US president George W Bush describes the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Britain's defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, says the Northern Alliance "are not nearly as bad as people have been suggesting".

War upon war, horror upon horror. That is what faces not only the long-suffering people of Afghanistan, but millions of others across the globe if the most powerful capitalist state in the world, the US, has its way.

Socialist Worker, Britain's biggest selling left wing newspaper, has launched an appeal for £200,000. In just nine weeks our supporters have donated £131,516. Recent events have shown how important Socialist Worker is. There are the war in Afghanistan, the growing economic crisis, and New Labour's continuing attacks on ordinary people across Britain.

Global media owner Rupert Murdoch is cheering on the war in Afghanistan and at the same time attacking his own workers in Britain. Murdoch owns top Hollywood film company 20th Century Fox. Last week he was one of the movie executives invited to a meeting initiated by George W Bush to discuss how companies could help the war on Afghanistan with their films.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his Liberal-National (Tory) coalition won the general election last Saturday, giving him his third term in government. Even in August few people were predicting Howard could win. His government was deeply unpopular. It had driven through massive attacks on workers, privatisation in the benefits system and education cuts. His supporters claim his popularity increased because he opposes refugees and is a vocal supporter of the US war on Afghanistan.

Remember the military briefings and media headlines at the start of the war. All the talk was of "smart weapons"-supposedly infallible Cruise missiles and precision "bunker-buster" bombs.

Do you think ordinary people are being told the truth about the war in Afghanistan? Far from it. This is clear from material that emerged in the US recently. A lot of the military operations have been exaggerated, lied about and totally faked as a public relations exercise.