If there was any shred of doubt left as to the Democrats’ complicity in carrying out the brutal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama’s December announcement of deploying 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan erased that doubt for good, making their role startlingly obvious for all to see.

Just a year after being elected with massive hopes that he would end the wars launched during the Bush era, President Obama announced he is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, on top of the 21,000 additional soldiers he ordered there earlier this year.

The small antiwar protests that erupted across the country on December 1, as Obama announced the huge surge of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, had a significance far beyond their numbers.

The Cedar Rapids branch of Socialist Alternative, with Women for Peace-Iowa and local supporters, held a march against the war in Afghanistan in downtown Cedar Rapids on December 18th. The event featured a speech by leading left-wing analyst of the Obama administration Paul Street.

On December 10, Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize, just days after announcing a huge troop surge to the criminal and imperialist war being waged upon the people of Afghanistan. In protest, the Olympian branch of Socialist Alternative joined branches all over the country by staging a rally and march.

Hours before Obama would announce his plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, approximately 160 students, veterans, and community members hit the streets of Bellingham to protest the troop surge.

Eight years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the occupation continues to drag on with no end in sight. U.S. casualties are on the rise, with recent months being the deadliest since the war began.

Barack Obama has decided to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, on top of the 21,000 additional soldiers he ordered there earlier this year. Millions in the U.S. and around the globe are undoubtedly asking why Obama, who was elected with what many viewed as an anti-war mandate, has decided to escalate what is an increasingly unpopular and seemingly unwinnable war.

Debate has opened up over the war in Afghanistan. Big business politicians and military brass have defined their objective as “stability,” and they are failing their own tests. U.S. soldier and civilian casualties are at an all-time high, the Taliban is growing stronger, and al-Qaeda has not been destroyed. Corruption during the recent elections was astounding, and conditions for women have gone unchanged while drug trading continues.

Eight years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the occupation continues to drag on with no end in sight. U.S. casualties are on the rise, with July and August the two deadliest months since the beginning of the war.

US and British military chiefs have been quick to label their July offensive against the Taliban in south east Afghanistan a "success". In reality the main achievement of the British "Operation Panther’s Claw" and the US "Operation Thrust of the Sword" has been to refocus the attention of an increasingly sceptical public at home on the military quagmire and political impasse that is present day Afghanistan.

The Committee for a Workers’ International condemns the recent Iraqi government attack on the Ashraf refugee camp, run by the Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahideen (PMOI), in Diyala province. This attack, on July 28 and 29, killed at least 9 and injured over 400 people from the camp, while 38 are still be detained by the Iraqi authorities. Since then a large number of Iranians at Ashraf have been on hunger strike.

A couple of years ago, Coffee Strong was only an idea. Fueled by their anger against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, recently discharged veterans Alex Bacon and Seth Manzel of Iraq Veterans Against the War felt a need for a coffee shop at Fort Lewis, Washington, where active duty soldiers could learn the full story behind the war, get counseling for military abuses, PTSD, and deployment issues.

In twelve days, fifteen British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. Eight were killed in just 24 hours, three of them just 18 years old. This senseless waste of young lives has aroused a new anger and questioning about the war in Afghanistan.

While public hospitals, education, and other public services are being cut, the U.S. government continues to pour money into the sinkhole that is the continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.