Afghanistan's much ballyhooed recent election staged by its foreign occupiers turned out to be a fraud wrapped up in a farce -- as this column predicted a month ago. It was as phony and meaningless as U.S.-run elections in Vietnam in the 1970s.

Canada played a shameful role in facilitating this obviously rigged vote.

Meanwhile, American and NATO generals running the Afghan war amazingly warn they risk being beaten by Taliban tribesmen in spite of their 107,000 soldiers, B-1 heavy bombers, F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, Apache and AC-130 gunships, heavy artillery, tanks, radars, killer drones, cluster bombs, white phosphorus, rockets, and space surveillance.

Washington has spent some $250 billion in Afghanistan since 2001. Canada won't even reveal how many billions it has spent. Each time the U.S. sent more troops and bombed more villages, Afghan resistance sharply intensified and Taliban expanded its control, today over 55% of the country.

Now, U.S. commanders are begging for at least 40,000 more U.S. troops -- after President Barack Obama just tripled the number of American soldiers there. Shades of Vietnam-style "mission creep." Ghost of Gen. William Westmoreland, rattle your chains.

The director of U.S. national intelligence just revealed Washington spent $75 billion US last year on intelligence, employing 200,000 people. Embarrassingly, the U.S. still can't find Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar after hunting them for eight years. Washington now fears Taliban will launch a Vietnam-style Tet offensive against major cities.

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/eric_margolis/2009/09/20/11005751-sun.html

and from across the ditch, from the land not afraid to call the Americans for what they are ....

I've been watching an immoral and farcical tragedy unfold in Afghanistan in the past fortnight, with a sense of despair. The world is pretending that, despite a few hiccups, the Afghan people have had the pleasure of electing a democratic government to govern them.

The presence of foreign soldiers, including Kiwis, makes it all possible. What delusional nonsense. We are part of a criminal con job and the sooner we admit it, the better.

After the suicidal attacks on America eight years ago, that dunce George W. Bush launched a revenge invasion on Afghanistan. He then hand-picked a political neophyte to head his vassal regime and it's been downhill ever since.

None of the 9/11 attackers were Afghan in the first place, but Bush's belligerence scared the rest of the world into giving him a free hand to invade that country.

To my shock, the Labour-Alliance Government in 2001 was swept up by the hysteria and joined in. Those of us who knew an imperialist crusade when we saw it were denounced as traitors and accused of supporting mass murder.

The Alliance leader, Jim Anderton, and I, as its president, were on opposing sides of this bitter argument. The split over the decision to send troops into Afghanistan ultimately led to the Alliance imploding and the Prime Minister calling an early election.

In left-wing politics, principles are everything and consequently many long-term friendships ended, including mine with Anderton. We haven't spoken since.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10598362