16

Mar

11:13pm
Jose Luis da Silva Neto Brazil
IMPERIAL THEFT

IMPERIAL THEFT

Jose Luis da Silva Neto Brazil//11:13pm, Mar 16th '22

The subjugation of one nation by another, colonialism, takes on various bodies and forms. Throughout history, the goals of colonialist nations may vary according to the socio-spatial environment, but in all cases, there is an objective central and common to all these countries: the search for the riches of the nations colonized. Since the colonialism in the 14th and 17th century, with the Europeans invading the "new world", to the neo-colonialists of the 19th and 20th centuries, dividing the continents of Africa and Asia with the ethnocentric legitimation of the Berlin Conference (1884 –1885), the dominating nations violently imposed their cultures and they stole the wealth of the dominated nations. However, this did not end with the end of the "cold war", the decolonization of the 20th century or the beginning of a new world order, in fact, these characteristics have expanded and reformulated. Neoliberal colonialism, which emerged in the post-bipartition world and led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and, mainly, by the United States (USA), is renovating its colonies and expropriating its wealth, the greatest example is Afghanistan.

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The taking of Kabul

On August 15, 2021, Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, was taken over by the Taliban and the event symbolically showed the world that they were controlling the country once again. After the Islamic nationalists arrived in the city, the population was in a state of panic and desperately tried to leave the country, the photos at airports and the chaos in the city expresses this feeling. The Islamist group had not arrived in Kabul since 2001, where they were defeated by the USA in its “War on Terror”, and when they returned to the city, they put into practice the old, distorted and authoritarian version of Islam. These historical developments were only made possible by the fact that, in April 2021, Joe Biden, US president, withdrew troops from the country, planned since the government of Donald Trump (2017 - 2021); the occupation of the country had no internal and external support, with countless nations to condemn, so the Biden administration went ahead with the withdrawal. The exit took place as planned, but the lack of preparation and execution generated risks both to Americans and to the country's own population. But if we compare with the exit of Vietnam, the country was extremely harmed in the geopolitical scenario, perhaps the main defeat, and in its zones of influence, different from the departure from Saigon that Americans had a consolation prize for rapprochement with China in the Nixon administration (1969 - 1974). Furthermore, the occupation left countless contradictions in the air and criticism of the two decades of Americans in country, two of which stand out: first, due to socioeconomic reasons, the country was left and worse than twenty years ago, while the military-industrial complex reveled in billions of dollars in war; second, on an ideological level, the false role US peacemaker, because in a matter of days the Taliban took over the country and showed that was stronger and more popular than it had been two decades ago - it looked like they didn't fight a war with the west. Thus, we ask: what was the objective of the occupation? Not even the Americans themselves know, let alone the Afghans, but we know that it was never a priority to bring democracy, freedom and peace -in fact, it only exists in American sensationalist narratives. The occupation of the country and the attitudes of the empire reinforce the thesis of the critics of its foreign policy: that the country does not care about the population of the dominated nations, but rather with the gains of the pro-war corporations and their oligarchies.

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Robbery and hunger: common practices in the politics of empires

Even after having left the country in the moths and worse than twenty years ago, Joe Biden unilaterally decided to freeze 7 billion dollars from the Afghan people. The US government said it will distribute this money to victims of 9/11, this form of distribution will return to the state itself US at the end of the business cycle, and will indirectly benefit Afghans without getting past the Taliban . In addition to this attitude of coercively distributing the money, the American government imposes brutal sanctions on the country and prevents it from develop their productive forces, further amplifying the chaotic situation. These attitudes generated revolt at the international level and made countless countries denounce the US government, asking them to return the money and not hinder the country's development. The consequences, we can say are genocidal, of these attitudes were the expansion of the shortage of supplies in the country and the worsening even more the quality of life of the Afghan people. Deborah Lyons, representative of UN in Afghanistan, said such attitudes could cause a structural problem that will span generations - in a country that already has half its population acutely hungry. Russia, China, Pakistan, other nations and many of the congressmen themselves Americans denounce this attitude of the Biden administration, but, as history shows us, famine in other nations does not move the US and the West. There are famines and genocides being carried out in Yemen, committed by the disgusting alliance between Saudi Arabia, Westerners and allies in the region, and in several African countries for decades, committed by countries that are part of western influence. These do not cause concern to Washington and it stills turns a "blind eye" to the agents of chaos involved.

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Therefore, “Uncle Sam”, as well as the modern mercantile and imperialist states of the XIV and XVII century, also follow the main objective of the booklet for the domination of a country: the theft of its riches. “Civilize”, in the eugenicist interpretation of the term, or “take western values”, are just political speeches and serve to please the ego of American exceptionalism; what, in fact, the power American seeks is to please the corporations that govern its broken republic. Afghanistan was invaded because of a group of individuals, mostly from Saudi Arabia, who committed crimes in other countries. The country was occupied for two decades, left in the dust. It now occupies prominent position in the ranking of poverty and hunger, being considered the poorest country in the world by the UN. The world changes, but the empires do not.

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