By Debra Sweet

Tuesday's highly secretive, midnight meeting between US President Obama and Afghan President Karzai was spun by the administration as somehow being about the end of US occupation of Afghanistan. The furtive, hurried, vague agreement signed by a deeply unpopular puppet government isolated inside multi-billion dollar US protection makes both sides look only more desperate for legitimacy.

We've recounted since 2009 the story of the NATO/US "surge" of troops and cash which Obama threw at the people of Afghanistan, leading to a surge in civilian deaths, further assaults on women's rights, more night raids and anger among the people at the occupiers. This agreement extends all that until 2024!

Tuesday night's ridiculous propaganda at Bagram Airbase (where thousands of unnamed prisoners with no rights are being tortured in the US prison there) does not remotely reflect the reality reported by the US government itself in recent years, namely that al Queda hasn't been a factor in Afghanistan in years, that almost everyone there wants the US gone immediately, and that the U.S. military situation is, if anything, worse than it was in 2001.

David Swanson responded to the announcement quickly:

Obama is full of praise for U.S. troops, as if they've benefitted Afghanistan.  And he's full of concern for the suffering of U.S. troops and U.S. citizens.  When he mentions Afghans, at best he equates their suffering under U.S. bombs, drones, night raids, and prison cells, to the suffering of Americans scared by their television sets and forced to over-eat to relieve their stress.  "Neither Americans nor the Afghan people asked for this war," Obama said, forgetting that one of those two countries had invaded the other one and occupied it for over a decade.  "The reason America is safe is because of you," Obama told U.S. troops, forgetting that the war has made our nation more hated around the world.

This agreement is inexcusable.  It's also vague and preliminary.  A more detailed treaty will be worked out on May 20th when NATO meets in Chicago.  We need to be there en masse in protest.

Yes! Help make the biggest, most visible showing against the Afghanistan war at the NATO meeting -- where the US and Karzai will try to further sell the agreement.