Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Liberation Statement on Afghanistan: a tragedy for a long-suffering people
The anti-imperialist campaign group LIBERATION on the causes of the Afghan disaster and how we can extend our solidarity to the country's people
Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint near the US embassy that was previously manned by US troops

THE fall of Kabul, on Sunday August 15 2021, has all but completed the sweeping back to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan two decades on from their ousting in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. This is a tragedy for the long-suffering people of Afghanistan. It also lays bare the rotten nature of Western foreign policy there over the past 40 years, and the meaninglessness of the project undertaken in that country over the last 20 years.  

The arming and supporting of Islamist mojahedin insurgents by the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan from the late 1970s onwards, undermined the Saur (April) Revolution of 1978 and then the government of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), and laid the roots from which grew a plethora of reactionary jihadist groups in the country and the wider region.  

These jihadist groups were violently opposed to the progressive policies of the PDPA government that sought to build a modern society oriented towards the eradication of poverty and the pillars of the feudalist past in the country. These Western-backed reactionary elements have been hostile to any notion of human and democratic rights as enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights or their application to the people of Afghanistan, in particular towards women and children.  

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, April 6, 2026, in Washington
Eyes Wright / 9 April 2026
9 April 2026

Washington’s response to a downed jet shows a superpower still reaching for overwhelming force even as its wars repeatedly fail, says NICK WRIGHT

Shops are closed during protests in Tehran's centuries-old main bazaar, Iran, January 6, 2026
Features / 19 January 2026
19 January 2026

Trump threatens war and punitive tariffs to recapture Iranian resources – just as in 1953, when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh and US corporations immediately seized 40% of the oil, says SEVIM DAGDELEN

A general view of the exterior of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, March 12, 2025
International Criminal Court / 8 July 2025
8 July 2025