NZ troops in Afghanistan are supporting an imperialist takeover of the country

There are 64,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan - a strategic military occupation of another country by the US and its allies.

Around 200 New Zealand troops are part of the occupying force in Afghanistan. Labour government minister Phil Goff says there's a "strong likelihood" that the troops will stay until at least 2010.

The government's justification is that they're "helping to rebuild the country". The article below on the involvement of Canada's armed forces makes it clear that this is no "peace mission", but a naked imperialist enterprise to control a strategic area of the world - in the eyes the US and its allies. And at the same time support the corporate plunder of Afghanistan's mineral resources. While billions of dollars stand to be made by overseas companies the Afghanistan people continue to live in desperate poverty.

Labour's support for America's global war must end. Bring NZ troops back from Afghanistan.

Canadian workers demand immediate end to war in Afghanistan

by Michael Skinner
from LINKS - International Journal of Socialist Renewal

On 29 May 2009, the delegates at the national convention of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), representing more than 3 million workers from every region of Canada and Quebec, voted overwhelmingly to demand that the government of Canada immediately end its participation in the illegal war in Afghanistan.

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