The National Education Union general secretary speaks to Ben Chacko on growing calls to protect children from a toxic online culture
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Afghanistan’s socialist years: killed off by imperialism
The idea that the US and other Western occupiers have tried to save the nation from its natural state of chaos is wrong — back in 2001 MARILYN BECHTEL explained how the nation's rapid progress had been thwarted and throttled by those now posing as its failed saviours
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In the mid-1970s and early 1980s, People’s World correspondent Marilyn Bechtel was editor of the bimonthly magazine, New World Review. With the Biden administration now withdrawing all troops from the country, we present this article from 2001 as a reminder that the US’s longest war had roots that went beyond the terrorist attacks of September 11, stretching back to cold war anti-communism.
SINCE the horrific events of September 11 2001, much has been said about the desperate situation of the Afghan people now crushed under the heel of the theocratic, dictatorial Taliban and about the role of the Northern Alliance and other Taliban opponents who now figure in Washington’s plans for the region.
There has been talk, most of it distorted, about the role of the Soviet Union in the years from 1978 to 1989. There has been talk, most of it understated, about the role of the US in building up the mojahedin forces, including the Taliban.
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