A 1980s CIA Afghanistan playbook redux

 

SHOCKING REPORTING has revealed that in 2018 a CIA-trained and funded paramilitary unit in Afghanistan led a multi-year campaign of massacres, forced disappearances, executions, mutilation, and other attacks against civilians — including children.[1]

The CIA chose the targets, helicoptered in paramilitaries to remote villages, and provided air support while the units conducted their raids.

With momentum building for a long-overdue withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, there is a HUGE risk that the ‘end’ of one endless war will morph into yet another years-long secret CIA-led proxy-war disaster.

We’re better positioned than ever to push decision-makers in the new administration and on the Hill who are eager for change. We are getting ready to use every relationship, every media contact, and every ounce of grassroots pressure we can to fully expose and end the CIA’s secret war in Afghanistan for good. But it won’t be easy.

For us to beat the establishment hawks, we need to show that everyday people in the United States remain united in their desire to end this catastrophic endless war — that’s why we need your help.

The Executive Branch holds unbelievably unconstrained power to run covert paramilitary operations, and we’ve seen administration after administration wield it despite the human consequences.

The long track record of the CIA training, arming, and funding militia networks across the globe is littered with disaster. Time and again, the CIA has used its covert nature to undermine – and sometimes overthrow – popularly-led movements around the world. From Iran, Greece, and Cuba, to Vietnam, Laos, and Venezuela, the CIA has helped undermine grassroots movements for their perceived threat to U.S. military power.

Sadly, we’ve seen this disastrous approach play out in Afghanistan too. In the 1980s, the CIA smuggled billions of dollars in weapons into the hands of the Afghan resistance to the Soviet Union’s occupation — including fighters who would later join the Taliban and al-Qaeda — before walking away.

The good and bad news is that the Executive Branch is THE key decision-maker that can end this cycle before it becomes unstoppable. Biden’s commitment to end U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is far from enough to ensure that secret shadow wars don’t endure — we already know he’s in favor of keeping a small “counterterrorism” force in Afghanistan, which feels like bad 1980s deja vu.

It’d be no surprise if, at the last minute, foreign policy hawks try to wriggle out of this commitment by cloaking everything under cover of clandestine operations — but not on our watch. 

We’ve led the charge to end endless war since before we coined the term six years ago. All along, we’ve known that taking on the violence-first status quo mentality that has driven U.S. foreign policy is a HUGE ask.

We’re grateful you’ve been with us thus far and hope we can count on the support of activists like you as we continue to build power around a more constructive and peaceful U.S. foreign policy that eschews war and seeks peace.

Thank you for working for peace,

Stephen, Faith, Michael, and the Win Without War team

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[1] The Intercept, "The CIA’s Afghan Death Squads"

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