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Two U.S. soldiers were shot dead this morning in Afghanistan by an Afghan border policeman. They were providing security for American trainers in the northern Faryab province. The shooting came on the heels of three days of anti-American protests that have claimed 24 lives. The protests were sparked by news of American fundamentalist Christian pastor Terry Jones, burning a Koran on March 20th. Pastor Jones had last September threatened to burn copies of the Koran to commemorate the September 11th attacks but was dissuaded by high-level officials and public resistance. However, he finally went ahead a few weeks ago in a move that got almost no media coverage. His actions had consequences in Afghanistan however. The violence began in Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday April 1st when a mob attacked a United Nations compound killing at least 12 people. As U.S. and NATO troops become increasingly less popular, American forces are prepared to hand over authority to Afghan government forces starting this June. In response, former U.S. ally and war criminal Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has called for a national uprising against the U.S. backed government of Hamid Karzai. Hekmatyar and what he represents about U.S. policy in Afghanistan is featured heavily in a new book called Crossing Zero: the AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire by Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald. Gould and Fitzgerald have a long history of covering Afghanistan. Following from their 2009 book Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story, in this new book, they explore the war’s expansion into Pakistan, its various contradictions, and consequences for the region.
GUESTS: Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, authors of Crossing Zero: the AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire (City Lights)
- invisiblehistory.com
- More about the book: City Lights (87286100739330)
