December 16th MAWO Forum on Afghanistan

On Wednesday, December 16, Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) organized a forum in Vancouver to discuss the recent troop escalation announcement by US President Barack Obama in Afghanistan. The forum came on the heels of the explosive and scandalous story exposing the government of Canada’s cover-up of torture involvement in Afghanistan.

MAWO co-chair Janine Solanki MC’d the forum. She opened the forum with a 40 minute video segment on news clips about the recent developments in Afghanistan. The final video captured the very negative sentiment of the Afghan people to Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize in addition to sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

After the videos Janine introduced the forum speaker Nita Palmer, the Secretary of MAWO and the author of the newly released book “War and Occupation in Afghanistan: Which Way Forward?” Nita went into detail about what the 8 year long occupation has brought to the people of Afghanistan, and how the stated “goals” of the invaders could not be further from reality today. “Afghanistan has a long and proud history of resistance,” Nita noted. “The Persians invaded, the Greeks invaded, the Mongols invaded, the British and the Russians tried to conquer Afghanistan, but none succeeded to hold the occupation and ultimately were defeated. This US-led occupation is not going to defeat the Afghan people, and this latest surge is going to meet the same failure that all previous invaders of this land had.”

Discussion was lively and although started at 6:30 pm extended one more hour to past 9:30 pm, past the scheduled amount of time given for it. The forum attracted many new people, and a lot of questions were asked where the social justice and peace voice on the issue of Afghanistan should go from here. Nita emphasised that consistent action is a must for those demanding an end to the war and occupation of Afghanistan. She also noted the danger of where this war is going, and that the imperialist powers have their sights on Iran next.

The forum wrapped up with people picking up the copy of Nita’s new book, and new people asking about what’s next and how to get more involved. MAWO will continue to hold educational forums like these throughout 2010 and beyond until this war and occupation of Afghanistan comes to an end.