New Zealanders say stop Afghan war

This video from New Zealand says about itself:

1 September 2009

Global Peace and Justice Auckland held a peaceful demonstration outside the Papakura army barracks of the NZ SAS between 12:00 and 2:00pm today. Chanting protesters called for the National-Act government to pull the SAS and all NZ military personel out of Afghanistan, and devote the army deployment funding to civilian rebuilding programmes.

Army staff videod demonstrators, and police maintained a patrol line along the barracks boundary, and patrol cars at each end of Grove Rd, which the barracks are on. 52 protesters received vocal support from locals, with most passing cars cheering or tooting and waving, in stark contrast to the obscenities from a woman leaving the army base.

Speakers compared the unjust slaughter in Afghanistan to the illegal wars of occupation in Vietnam and Iraq, and noted the impact these deployments had on Afghans, and the soldiers later in life.

From Peace Action Wellington in New Zealand:

NZ Troops out NOW

4 August 2010 – 11:23am

‘New Zealand’s first combat death in Afghanistan should be a wake up call for all of the parliamentarians – New Zealand troops need to get out of Afghanistan now’ said Peace Action Wellington member Valerie Morse.

‘This war has been going on for nearly 9 years. It has caused immeasurable horror and damage for the people of Afghanistan. Estimates are of 30,000 Afghanis dead. The country is in far worse shape now than it was when the bombing began on 8 October 2001. This war is a thinly veiled campaign of imperial conquest being waged by the US and its ISAF allies.’

‘We don’t buy the State propaganda about the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamiyan. These people are armed soldiers first and foremost. They have never and were never invited by the people of Afghanistan to occupy their country.’

‘When the PRTs were first deployed, their stated mission was to extend the rule of the central government in Kabul – run by the corrupt US puppet Hamid Karzai. The NZDF is not conducting a mission of mercy for the people of Afghanistan but simply lending legitimacy and material support to an occupying army. It is the US government and its co-conspirators who are the real terrorists there.’

‘By and large New Zealanders don’t support the war in Afghanistan. The people in this country are not hoodwinked by US lies about bringing democracy and freedom. We demand that all New Zealand troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan immediately.’

From Global Peace And Justice Auckland, also in New Zealand:

Bring New Zealand troops home

Wednesday, 4 August 2010, 9:20 am

The death of a New Zealand soldier killed in Afghanistan today should be the catalyst for a withdrawal of all our troops from the country where they are part of a hated foreign occupation.

The government must bear responsibility for this death because our soldiers should not be there and never should have joined the invasion in the first place.

When our troops first went in we were told by Helen Clark we were making the world safer after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. This was untrue – Osama bin Laden had long gone by the time the foreigners invaded and there have been no Afghans involved [in] terror attacks anywhere in the world. (In fact the Taleban leadership in Afghanistan had offered to arrest bin Laden for trial in a neutral country but this was ignored in the bloodlust which followed the 9/11 attacks)

Then we were told the New Zealanders were helping liberate women from the Taleban. However the US approved regime of Hamed Karzai which replaced the Taleban passed laws which meant a woman could be starved to death by her husband for refusing sex and a man could avoid prosecution for rape by marrying his victim or paying compensation.

Next we were told our troops were helping to bring democracy to Afghanistan but this is a joke. In reality we are propping up a medieval regime of warlords and drug runners. Hamed Karzai won the last election through fraud and has as much legitimacy as the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe.

John Key has sent New Zealanders to risk their lives defending this corrupt, woman-hating regime. Key’s decision has ended in tragedy for one soldier and escalating danger to others.

We are part of the problem in Afghanistan. We are foreign occupiers and we are on the losing side both morally and militarily.

Our troops should never have gone. They should be brought home before any more body bags are needed.

From the very Establishment Voice of America:

Opinion polls indicate support in Britain for the war in Afghanistan is falling as the public grows skeptical of the government’s justification for the conflict. A total of 15 British servicemen were killed in July.

All sections of the US political establishment—Democrats and Republicans, the “liberal” and right-wing media—have joined in an effort to criminalize WikiLeaks and suppress its revelations of US atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan: here.

Afghan women used to obscure the realities of an endless war: here.

Afghanistan: 39 women and children died in disputed NATO attack: here.

US may keep control of foreign prisoners in Afghanistan: here.

USA: Join rally on Aug 8 for WikiLeaks whistleblower Manning at base where he’s held outside DC! Here.