'Mission accomplished' in Afghanistan

[ViolentPanda]

Aye, but think of all the McHappy meals they'll get to eat!

That alone is a damned good reason for leaving the peoples of Afghanistan the fuck alone.

 

[ViolentPanda]

As long as the Saud can spread their poison under the Westerrn umbrella you will get failed states like this.
But to think one second that Western countries have any interest and are there one second with as aim the greater good of the citizens is beyond being gullible.

salaam.

Oh, I've never deluded myself that "the western countries" have any interest at all that doesn't consist of squeezing profit from their (mis)adventures into neo-colonialism.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I'd say it would be a country where the Taliban weren't in control. As for Pak, what a mess.....hard to know how to tackle that one.

The Taliban aren't in control of Afghanistan, they're in control of parts of it, and unfortunately for western interests, they're in control of parts whose control by the "Afghan govt" in Kabul would assist those interests greatly.
Pakistan, meanwhile, needs one thing more than anything else: For the USA to stop interfering in the politics and para-politics of Pakistan Then, maybe, they'd have a chance to dig themselves out of the mess of "Islamicisation" that US interference helped to construct through it's destabilisation and suborning of successive Pakistani regimes.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I don't think the US & NATO are in Afghan for oil or nat gas. If so, they went to the wrong place.

They're in Afghanistan because the country has some perfect geography and geology for gas and oil pipelines to take resources from the Central Asian republics south-east into and across Pakistan to the Arabian sea.

 

[Squatticus]

They're in Afghanistan because the country has some perfect geography and geology for gas and oil pipelines to take resources from the Central Asian republics south-east into and across Pakistan to the Arabian sea.

exactly, OR to China, which is also pertinent.

 

[TomUS]

They're in Afghanistan because the country has some perfect geography and geology for gas and oil pipelines to take resources from the Central Asian republics south-east into and across Pakistan to the Arabian sea.

It's possible I suppose, but I doubt it. The invasion happened about 7 years ago in response to 9/11 I think & the Bush admin has shown very little interest in the country. It bounced over to Iraq pretty quickly.

if peace and stability were to return to Afghanistan, and a new pipeline to Central Asia was to be built, the principal beneficiaries would undoubtedly be the Afghans, as well as Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and the other Central Asians.

In brief, then, considerations of economic and political influence will undoubtedly play a part in western strategies in Afghanistan.

It would be strange if they did not. But the argument that these are the main motivations behind US actions, not the desire to stamp out international terrorism, will probably find support mainly among those who already have a fondness for conspiracy theories.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1626889.stm

 

[newharper]

It's possible I suppose, but I doubt it. The invasion happened about 7 years ago in response to 9/11 I think & the Bush admin has shown very little interest in the country. It bounced over to Iraq pretty quickly.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1626889.stm

In 1997,

Robert Oakley [ex-US ambassador to Pakistan, now Unocal's ad hoc advisory board] advised Miller to reach the Taliban by working through Pakistan's government [then led by Benazir Bhutto]. He also suggested that Unocal hire Thomas Gouttiere, an Afghan specialist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, to develop a job training program in Kandahar that would teach Pashtuns the technical skills needed to build a pipeline. ... Unocal agreed to pay $900,000 via the University of Nebraska to set up a Unocal training facility on a fifty-six acre site in Kandahar, not far from bin Laden's compounds. ... Gouttiere traveled in and out of Afghanistan and met with Taliban leaders. ... In December 1997 Gouttiere worked with Miller to arrange for another Taliban delegation to visit the United States. ...[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, written by Steve Coll, published in 2004 by Penguin Press,[1] won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.[2]

The book describes the CIA's efforts in Afghanistan to include the covert paramilitary programs against the Soviet Union and the Taliban. It also includes detailed descriptions of operations that attempted to kill and/or capture Osama Bin Ladin before September 11, 2001 by commandos from the CIA's elite Special Activities Division. [3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unocal

Apologies for Wiki, but AFAIK this is not called into question.

I would also, tom, like to know why

This means something has to be done about Pakistan

What 'needs to be done' and why do you think that against the evidence of history you think the US has either the right or the tools to do it.

 

[ViolentPanda]

It's possible I suppose, but I doubt it. The invasion happened about 7 years ago in response to 9/11 I think & the Bush admin has shown very little interest in the country. It bounced over to Iraq pretty quickly.

On top of what newharper has posted, the issue goes back as far as Bush 1 and 1991-'92. Try reading Ahmed Rashid's "Taliban: Islam, Oil and the Great Game in Central Asia" to give yourself a clue just how far back before "9/11" all of this goes.
Basically, what you doubt is meaningless when measured against the facts, and the facts (if you care to look for them) speak for themselves.

 

[Aldebaran]

Yes, I recommend Ahmed Rashid's excellent work to anyone.

salaam.

 

[kyser_soze]

The thing is, once you accept that the US is in Afghanistan for the pipeline, you remove one of the objections to the USG connections to 9/11 - that there isn't any oil interest.

Now this is me saying this, so y'know, don't yell 'lizard'...

 

[gosub]

The thing is, once you accept that the US is in Afghanistan for the pipeline, you remove one of the objections to the USG connections to 9/11 - that there isn't any oil interest.

Now this is me saying this, so y'know, don't yell 'lizard'...

Fucking David Ivke, Douglas Adam lizard politics is stop on but you can't reference it now

 

[gosub]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-kept-britain-in-dark-over-deal-that-led-taliban-back-to-power-h5lwd2g89