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WSWS : News & Analysis : The US War in Afghanistan
America’s "killing hour": a revealing comment in the Wall Street
Journal
By Joseph Kay
21 November 2001
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An opinion piece in the November 13 Wall Street Journal (“As
Taliban Falter, We Must Show No Restraint”) reveals the thinking of
the most militaristic and fascistic-minded sections of the US ruling
elite, whose views are routinely expressed in the Journal’s editorial
pages.
The article, written by Ralph Peters, a frequent contributor to the
Journal, argues that the American military should pursue the
physical annihilation of all opposition in Afghanistan. One line
captures the substance of the piece: “This is a killing hour, and we
must rise to it.”
Peters argues against any hesitation or restraint in the US drive for
domination of Central Asia. The article is brutal and bloodthirsty. It
reflects in naked form the character of the political forces carrying
out the war in Afghanistan and the attack on democratic rights
within the United States.
Peters is a retired US army lieutenant colonel, author and military
analyst. He is frequently cited as a specialist in military affairs by
the “liberal” media establishment, and has been prominently
featured on programs such as National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm
Show.
His November 13 comment was written as Northern Alliance troops
were advancing southward toward Kabul, after having gained a
series of victories in the north. The Northern Alliance, an
assortment of warlords and tribal chieftains, has received the
support of the United States in its struggle against the ruling
Taliban. It is a mixture of primarily Uzbek and Tajik ethnic
minorities, while the Taliban is based on the Pashtun tribes of
Afghanistan’s southern region.
As the Alliance moved to the south, there was concern that,
because of ethnic tensions, it would not be able to rule effectively
in Kabul and other areas. An unalloyed Northern Alliance victory
and consolidation of power are also looked on with concern in
some US foreign policy circles, especially within the State
Department, because of the Alliance’s hostile relations with
Pakistan, whose regime has already been destabilized by the war
against its former Taliban ally in neighboring Afghanistan. It is
feared that a Northern Alliance regime in Kabul will inflame the
simmering conflict over Kashmir between Pakistan and India, both
of which possess nuclear weapons.
The forces of the Alliance have a history of brutal actions against
Pashtuns. Like the Taliban, it is a semi-feudal outfit that does not
refrain from the most barbarous actions, including the execution of
its enemies by placing them in locked crates to roast in the sun.
Given that American war propaganda evokes the struggle for
“democracy” and “human rights” against “terrorism,” there is also
concern that the Alliance might embarrass the US if it gets
exclusive control of the country. Hence Bush’s urgings only a week
ago that the Alliance refrain from taking Kabul until some sort of
anti-Taliban federation, including Pashtun tribal leaders, could be
cobbled together.
The immediate purpose of Peters’ article is to dismiss such
political and diplomatic “niceties” and align himself solidly with the
Alliance, arguing that if the US can use the Alliance warlords to
exterminate its opponents, so much the better. He writes: “War is
no time to listen to the voices of moderation, as exemplified by the
worried tones of diplomats. It we give in to the nonsensical caution
that the Northern Alliance should not be allowed into Kabul, we
may squander the best opportunity to bring about the Taliban’s
broad collapse before the winter.”
When Peters speaks of “the worried tones of diplomats,” he is
referring primarily to Secretary of State Colin Powell and his faction
within the Bush administration. This section of the government has
been attacked on a number of fronts by the right wing of the
Republican Party, whose mouthpiece is the Wall Street Journal.
Powell has come under attack for deferring too much to Arab and
European states, in, for example, his reluctance to quickly launch
a new war against Iraq.
Peters criticizes the unwillingness of this section to fully support
the Northern Alliance. “If we are fortunate,” he continues, “the
Northern Alliance will break their tentative promise not to enter
Kabul and seize the city at the first opportunity. [This is in fact
what happened.] Their instincts are better than ours, and they
know that when your enemy is down it is time to hit him harder
than ever.”
As far as Peters and the social forces he represents are
concerned, the “instincts” of the Northern Alliance are something to
be admired, something on which the American military should
model itself. When Peters speaks of “hitting your enemy when he
is down,” he is perhaps referring the incident, captured on film, of
Northern Alliance troops summarily executing an injured Taliban
soldier after stripping him and having him beg for his life on his
knees. “At present,” Peters continues, “we are fortunate that
Afghans are killing Afghans and foreign religious mercenaries for
us. Instead of urging restraint upon them, we should be cheering
them on at the top of our lungs.”
The significance of Peters’ column extends beyond the immediate
question of the Northern Alliance and America’s war in
Afghanistan. He is seeking to legitimize the most barbaric actions
against any and all opponents of American imperialism, at home
and abroad. Massacres carried out by American troops—such as
those that took place during the Vietnam War—are to be justified
as healthy examples of “hitting the enemy when he is down.”
“Far more armies,” he writes, “have been destroyed during a retreat
than during a battle....When an army feels hopelessly beaten and
the soldier’s fear breaks the bonds of discipline to become panic,
forces that appeared formidable days or only hours beforehand can
dissolve into little more than desperate running targets for the
victor’s pursuit....Wars are to be won. They are not playing fields
for theorists. Enemies are to be destroyed, not merely
admonished. And the best chance to destroy a military enemy is
to pursue him relentlessly and ferociously when his organization
begins to come apart.”
According to Peters, the main lesson that the American military
should have learned from its engagements over the past decade,
particularly the Persian Gulf War, is that constraint is no better
than defeat: “partial victory is no more than a defeat with candy-
coating.” He continues: “In Desert Storm, we had the power and
momentum to go all the way to Baghdad, but we listened to the
diplomats.... Precisely the same self-hobbling thinking has
persuaded our government that the Northern Alliance must be
restrained in its progress.”
The moral: the US must assert its military hegemony without moral
scruples or diplomatic constraints.
In drawing these conclusions, Peters is speaking for a prominent
section of the American ruling class that feels the US must take
advantage of the collapse of the USSR to unilaterally organize the
world in its own interests. In his book Fighting for the Future: Will
America Triumph? Peters proclaimed the necessity and right of the
US to “dominate the earth for the good of humankind.”
In the minds of Peters and his ilk, the United States needs to
make an example of the Taliban and make the war in Afghanistan a
precedent for future wars: this is what comes to those who get in
the way of American interests. Peters and the Wall Street Journal,
in proclaiming the creed of “America über Alles,” articulate more
accurately the neocolonial and fascistic inclinations that underlie
the present war than the professional liars whose hypocritical
phrases about fighting terrorism and “defending civilization” form the
staple of official propaganda.
Peters’ column deserves to be noted as a warning to the world’s
population of the strategies and aims that animate the American
political and media establishment. It should be preserved and
catalogued for future generations, who will look back at the present
period with a combination of shame and outrage, and speak with
loathing of the warmongers on the Journal editorial board.
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World Socialist Web Site
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