Creating a Failed State

By the end of 2001, the United States and its local allies had chased the hated Taliban government out of Afghanistan. A process had begun to create a new constitution and elect a democratic government, and the United Nations was leading a broad coalition starting reconstruction and development. Canada made major commitments to this project, but the Taliban are back. The war restarted and looks to have no end in sight. As John Warnock so deftly explains, this situation is only understandable within a broad geopolitical framework. Under the guise of intending to capture Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, Afghanistan became a target for U.S. imperialism and its desire to dominate the world and its oil and gas resources. Shamefully, but not surprisingly, successive Canadian governments have participated in this imperialist adventure in Central Asia.

John W. Warnock has recently retired from teaching political economy and sociology at the University of Regina. He is author of a number of books, including The Politics of Hunger: The Global Food System, Free Trade and the New Right Agenda, and The Other Mexico: The North American Triangle Completed. He has a long history of political activism in environmental and social justice organizations.