US is devil in Afghanistan– writer

It can be said that the US plays a devil’s role in Afghanistan, said journalist and author Ann Jones.

”I think you could say that in a way, because we are supporting an administration that is not only corrupt but, of course, as fundamentalist in many ways as the Taliban, not just the executive branch and the cabinet, but parliament as well,” she said. “They are all controlled by former Mujahideen, Islamic extremists that the Bush administration put in power.”

”So, we are on the one hand talking about spreading democracy and equal rights for women and all of those nice things and on the other hand, in many ways there is not a dime’s worth of difference between the government we are supporting and the Taliban we are fighting against,” Jones added.

“Now, of course, we keep talking about having negotiations. Karzai wanted to negotiate for years and the US opposed it, but now it seems to be supporting it as a way out, but you can be sure that if these negotiations go forward with the Taliban and the Karzai government, it is Afghan women and minorities who are going to suffer in the long run,” Jones maintains.

Ann Jones observed that it is mainly war contractors who benefit from this war.

”A lot of money is being made of the war – the armament suppliers, the contractors who are supposedly providing security for the people who supposedly are developing the country,” she said. “There are many reports of the US paying the Taliban so the Taliban would shoot at their convoys so that they can supply their troops, so they [the US] can go out and battle against the Taliban.”