It appears that events in Afghanistan follow, in many ways the same
pattern that lead to the collapse of the Milosevic regime and the latter
eventual apprehension.

It would appear that the fingerprints of the CIA are all over the recent
sequence of events in Afghanistan. The collapse of the Taliban regime
has all the hallmarks of a CIA orchestrated coup. The apparent wholesale
organised defections of substantial parts of Taliban forces to the
Opposition explains the apparently bloodless takeover of Kabul and
elsewhere. This process  has snowballed to such a degree that even in
the Pashtun regions of Afghanistan former supporters have defected too.
This explains the apparent dramatic and rapid transfer of power from
Taliban to the opposition. It would almost seem, information is so
tightly restricted, that the Taliban  in Islamabad  has merely changed
uniform --as tribal chiefs. It now appears that this process of
collaboration with the CIA has penetrated right into the heart of the
Taliban's natural support in the Kandahar region.

Doubtlessly the relentless and intensive air strikes were a decisive
factor in the disintegration of the Taliban regime. However had the
organised movement of defection, in effect a coup, not occurred it is
probable that the Taliban forces would have held out longer in Northern
and Central Afghanistan. These defections were based, it would appear,
on CIA dollars and promises. An added factor was 'rats leaving the
sinking ship' phenomenon. However the fact that, it would appear, many
of these Taliban defectors proceeded to take up offensive positions
against their former Taliban comrades is what particularly lends truth
to my coup detat thesis. The apparent welcome that the  defecting
Taliban forces received after defection may further confirm the thesis.
As with the coup against the Milosevic regime there was much theatre
involved. In many ways the ground war had all the appearances of a
phoney war in the purest sense. Opposition soldiers playing volley ball,
sitting around and grinning at cameras etc. Letting off a round of
artillery fire with a fag hanging from the artillery man's mouth while
grinning at the cameras --theatricals for the western journalists badly
in need of a story and an image or two to keep themselves in a job and
keep the ratings from falling. The soldiers of the Opposition were
playing toy soldiers while  Western journalists played toy
journalism --the spectacle.

The coup also involved the defection of Pakistan and Saudia Arabia from
the Taliban. The key factor in the collapse of the Taliban regime was
the mass internal and external defection from the Taliban --not the
bombings . In the case of the defection of Pakistan bribery by
Washington was a significant factor.

The Afghanistan war that still has not been begun to be told. Badly
needed is investigative journalism that seeks to get to the real story.
Indeed the amount of misinformation, disinformation, rumour and lies has
been unprecedented. Clearly the British and US counter-intelligence was
busy at work putting planting the pages and screens of the media.

The war in Afghanistan has been in many ways one of the best kept
secrets. Yet it was presented as a war that was being well covered by
the media. But this war as experienced by the Western masses is one that
is pure illusion produced by the bourgeois media with the help of the
CIA. This war is a war that never took place. Fact and fiction become
jumbled up until they become indistinguishable. Politics and war is
turned into entertainment that competes with film and sport for
customers.

The media was conspicuous by its failure to provide facts and
information. The more this war unfold on our TV screens the more
unintelligible it became. This culminates in the Northern Alliance
becoming the Taliban and the Taliban the Northern Alliance. No longer
were the warring parties identifiable. It becomes questionable as to
were warring parties and as to what the war, if there was a war, was all
about. The enemy of the Northern Alliance is no longer the Taliban but
Pakistanis, Arabs and Chechens. So the Northern.

This is war about which we lack the facts. It is like trying to do a
jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing. The result is mere
subjectivist speculation that renders it much more difficult that
renders a correct communist approach to the war very difficult. There
has been the real, but secret, war and the systematic fabrication as
presented by the broadcasting and print media network. We are now being
informed that only half of the 6000 fatalities really occurred in New
York and Washington. The casus belli was based on a fiction. Perhaps
then Bin Laden did not destroy the WTC. Perhaps the CIA knew of the
attack but let it happen because of the chain reaction that it would
trigger off. The role and character of the media in contributing to
apparent success of US imperialism can be partly attributed to role of
the bourgeois media.

For instance we still have not got much of a clue as what the scale of
casualties have been among the Taliban forces.

Karl Carlile
Be free to visit the web site of the Communist Global Group at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/