In Afghanistan the US have found the right place to publicly display the lethal arsenal of weapons that so far they have been using undercover in Colombia where the presence of the AC-l30 Spectre Gunship, "Ghost Plane"as is it is known by Colombians, has proved decisive in encouraging the military and paramilitaries to escalate the war with the support of the US air force.
The start of the US and British war against Afghanistan has sidelined the so-called "Plan Colombia", but at the same time is stressing the similarities that this two conflicts have in their history and what may happen in their future.
Colombia and Afghanistan have suffered from several decades of war created to an important extent by the role of the international powers. Right now there are US Delta and Rangers forces and British SAS forces operating inside Afghanistan. In Colombia there are US special advisers training the Colombian army with close links with paramilitaries groups, and there are also British SAS units operating undercover as part of the US – UK alliance to fuel the war in Colombia.
Afghanistan and Colombia are the world’s largest producers of heroin and cocaine respectively. And although their profits are only l% of the street value compared with the huge profits that are laundered by the international cartels in the capitalist financial markets, the two countries are among the few that carry the burden of the US sanctions and war on drugs. Apart from other consequences this make them the targets for chemical and biological attacks with germs like the fungus fussarium oxisporum that have been developed by US and British scientists. It is nearly one year since the US started the chemical strikes against the peasants in the south of Colombia. Although the fumigations have been declared illegal under Colombian law, a health hazard by national and international regulators and even though the Colombian authorities have proved that the US crews (Vietnam and Gulf War veterans) have been consuming drugs during their operations, sending cocaine and heroine to the US hidden in the spares parts of their crop duster planes, and even involved in military operations, the spreading fumigations are more and more intense, and as relentless as the attack against Afghanistan.
The human catastrophe of both conflicts is largely ignored by the international media and agencies . Nobody seems to care about the thousands of deaths, injured, widows, detainees, disappeared and the more than two million displaced people fghanistan and Colombia had before the recent start of the US and British attacks.
The origin and role of warlords in Afghanistan and the paramilitaries in Colombia is not relevant [?] despite the fact that in the case of Afghanistan they were created by the US and in Colombia the idea originated from the US policies in Central America taken by the Colombian state to organise a counter-insurgent movement that currently is committing a daily massacre against civilians.
AFGHANISTAN IS IN THE LINE OF FIRE, COLOMBIA ON DEATH ROW
The so-called "anti-terrorist campaign" of the US and British governments is not the only one against Afghanistan. There is also a dirty campaign lead by the British media to portray the afghan regime as a world pariah because his involvement in the production and traffic of heroin. In contrast the situation with Colombia is the opposite. Currently the US and British governments justify their military involvement as a fight against drugs and now both governments and the media are creating the space for the expansion of their anti-terrorist campaign by telling the public that the Colombian guerrillas participated in training in Bin Laden camps in Afghanistan (Metro, 12th October) and that Colombia harbours three of the most important terrorist organizations in the western hemisphere (The Independent l7th October). The list includes the paramilitary AUC, from which the USA in an act of public relations is trying to make its distance, despite their close links in the recent past.
It is clear that there are big differences between Afghanistan and Colombia, but these two countries also share many similarities in their modern history. They are both under attack from within and without, they don’t know much about their future, but they recognise that the anti- terrorist campaign and the war on drugs are only the excuses of the US and British for their intervention in the whole world. These two powers tell every one that those who not love them are their enemies because they control every thing. In a recent rally against the war in Afghanistan a Colombian waved a placard in Bogota that said:
"1 MINUTE OF SILENCE FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AND 59 MINUTES OF SILENCE FOR THE VICTIMS OF US POLICIES".
Alberto García
