By Georgina Farah

Fresh graves are being dug inside Afghanistan everyday. After three consecutive years of drought, over 20 years of war and the closing of borders, Afghans are facing one of the worst famines in history. The current US war on Afghanistan has had little impact on either warring faction (Taliban or Northern Alliance) but has transformed civilian lives into a nightmare of inconceivable proportions. As cluster bombs continue to shatter villages and food warehouses, winter is closing in and aid agencies will soon be unable to reach a large portion of the population.

The Afghan people are about two weeks away from a massive famine where over 7.5 million people will be at risk of starvation and at least one million will surely die in the coming months.

The short window of opportunity to deliver food and medicine before the winter sets in has all but been eliminated by the US's bombing operations. Mary Robinson, a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for an immediate cessation to US bombing and asked, "Are we going to preside over deaths from starvation of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of people this winter because we didn't use the window of opportunity before winter closes?"

The impact of the US military strikes will not be on the Taliban who have the resources and finances to survive the winter; the impact will be felt by those who are most displaced and desperate. Women and children face the gravest risks of all, as they have more barriers to overcome in securing any type of food, shelter or medical help.

NGO's report that they are unable to deliver food along their delivery routes. Getting food to remote locations takes days of driving and truck driver's are now unwilling to venture into Afghanistan because of Ôerrant' bombs that have been tearing apart villages and aid locations. Furthermore, the US food drops have endangered more people's lives by releasing the food in land mine areas (Doctors Without Borders estimates that there are currently tens of millions of land mines in Afghanistan).

An official with Oxfam America was quoted as saying, "It is now evident that we cannot, in reasonable safety, get food to hungry Afghan people. We've reached the point where it is simply unrealistic for us to do our job in Afghanistan. We've run out of food, the borders are closed, we can't reach our staff and time is running out."

The biggest result of the US bombing campaign will be a massive, widespread famine in Afghanistan. The UN calls it the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe but for Afghans, the famine is genocide.

In an effort to minimize this impending tragedy, the media has focused its energy on the Anthrax threats, while reporting that Afghans have not been fleeing to the borders in large numbers. They refrain from mentioning that Afghans no longer have the means to migrate nor is there anywhere to go.

Neighbouring countries have sealed their borders in anticipation of a large flood of refugees. While many Afghans are too sick, injured or poor to make the treacherous journey to a country's borders, the few that have been allowed to cross have had to pay the border guards exorbitant amounts of money. Recently, Pakistani border guards opened fire on a desperate crowd of people trying to cross, killing three and injuring many more. To make matters worse, health authorities are reporting that a deadly disease similar to Ebola has broken out among displaced people living along the Pakistani and Iranian borders.

For the few who have been lucky enough to be allowed into the often dangerous and unsanitary refugee camps, Canadian immigration has advised that they will not process any refugee applications until next year sometime. This leaves the vast majority of Afghans without any ability to access food, shelter and safety.

One Afghan woman in Canada was told by Canadian Immigration and Citizenship that the rules for sponsoring her husband "no longer applied to her". Other Afghan families in Canada have reported that CSIS has been interrogating and searching their homes to determine whether they are Ôterrorists'.

To compound the problem, Bill C-11, Canada's new immigration policy is proposing huge amounts of money to prevent refugees from ever reaching Canada. Furthermore, if any Afghan were even able to get to Canada right now, our country would throw them in jail for entering without proper documentation. So we can see that while we are complicit in creating this situation in Afghanistan through military operations, we are doubly complicit in ensuring that Afghans never reach safety. Afghanistan essentially has been sealed off as a death trap for millions.

The US military campaign's only impact on the Taliban will be a massive genocide suffered by the people who fear both of these fundamentalists the most. How many deaths will be enough to satisfy the American war machine? Six hundred? Six thousand? Six million?