AFGHANISTAN / THE BIG PICTURE
Afghanistan Opium Poppy farmer carrying assault weapon / Corbis
The big picture in Afghanistan is that we have no intention of leaving this illegally occupied country for two reasons; First, to restore and control the world's largest supply of Opium and Second, to build a permanent US military strike force with a series of permanent US airbases across Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda, in reality, does not exist as a threat in Afghanistan: Allen L Roland
While our song and dance man, President Obama, engages in his eight day photo Op visit in the Asian / Pacific region ~ he also continues his highly publicized dance steps regarding troop strength in Afghanistan ~ however, the decision has already been made and was made some time ago as to the importance of Afghanistan in terms of what the Pentagon calls 'America's Full Spectrum Dominance or the American Global Imperium'.
Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton let the cat out of the bag yesterday in her ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos ~ " Our primary focus is on the security of the United States of America. How do we protect and defend against future attacks. We do not want to see Afghanistan return to being a safe haven and a staging platform for terrorism as it was before. That is what is driving the President to make the best decision he can make."
In other words, We're not here to build a democracy, George ~ it's all about our long term security ~ we're staying and we will use the War on Terror as our excuse ~ we're got too much capital at stake here and we can't afford to be seen as weak with a mid-term election coming up next year.
By the way, The cost of sending 40,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan is estimated to be between $40 billion to $54 billion annually, a new report says. The New York Times cited top administration officials on Saturday that budget projections for the Afghan war will cost US taxpayers at least $1 million per soldier, per year.
It should be obvious that our illegal and morally corrupt occupation of Afghanistan can no longer be justified as the leading front of The War on Terror for the biggest corruption itself is not just the US installed Karsai puppet government ~ it's the occupation itself ! Growing evidence also strongly suggests that Mr. Karzai, and his brother, have enriched themselves greatly by helping the illegal trade in poppy and opium to flourish .
Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy, expounds on this very same point in his article Our Corrupt Occupation of Afghanistan ~ " But the biggest corruption of all is the occupation itself, because it is all based on a big lie: the claim that our continued occupation of Afghanistan is justified by the threat of an Al Qaeda "haven" in Afghanistan. This is a lie because: 1) as former counter-terrorism official Paul Pillar has pointed out, "the case has not been made" that "such a haven would significantly increase the terrorist danger to the United States" and 2) Mullah Mohammed Omar's "Quetta Shura" Taliban have been signaling for months that they are done with Al Qaeda and there has been no U.S. response. McChrystal wants reinforcements to go to Kandahar. That's Mullah Omar's home turf. If McChrystal is given troops to go to Kandahar, then it's not about Al Qaeda."
So if it's not about Al Qaeda ~ what's it all about ? What's the big picture in Afghanistan ?
The truth is that it's still all about Global Imperialism and we have no intention of ever leaving Afghanistan !
On October 21, 2009 F. William Engdahl wrote a brilliant and insightful article ( Rense ) on The Geopolitics Behind The Phony US War In Afghanistan and explained the two principal reasons we will maintain our occupation of Afghanistan ~ " One of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama Presidential agenda is how little anyone has questioned in the media or elsewhere why at all the United States Pentagon is committed to a military occupation of Afghanistan. There are two basic reasons, neither one of which can be admitted openly to the public at large.... Behind all the deceptive official debate over how many troops are needed to "win" the war in Afghanistan, whether another 30,000 is sufficient, or whether at least 200,000 are needed, the real purpose of US military presence in that pivotal Central Asian country is obscured.... Even during the 2008 Presidential campaign candidate Obama argued that Afghanistan not Iraq was where the US must wage war. His reason? Because he claimed, that was where the Al Qaeda organization was holed up and that was the "real" threat to US national security.... However, the real reasons behind US involvement in Afghanistan is quite different .... The US military is in Afghanistan for two reasons. First to restore and control the world's largest supply of opium for the world heroin markets and to use the drugs as a geopolitical weapon against opponents, especially Russia. That control of the Afghan drug market is essential for the liquidity of the bankrupt and corrupt Wall Street financial mafia.... The second reason the US military remains in Afghanistan long after the world has forgotten even who the mysterious Osama bin Laden and his alleged Al Qaeda terrorist organization is or even if they exist, is as a pretext to build a permanent US military strike force with a series of permanent US airbases across Afghanistan... The aim of the US bases in Afghanistan is to target and be able to strike at the two nations which today represent the only combined threat in the world today to an American global imperium or to America's Full Spectrum Dominance ~ as the Pentagon terms it." http://www.rense.com/general88/geo.htm
And what are those two nations ~ China and Russia.
Remember Henry Kissinger's famous quote ? "It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true."
Remember that quote after President Obama finishes his series of highly publicized Afghanistan song and dance meetings and announces his 'deeply thought out' decision to increase our military presence in Afghanistan ~ of course, with the token promise of eventual withdrawal and a work in progress exit strategy.
It's all a game, folks ! And we are, unfortunately, still letting them play it with our money and the lives of our youth.
Allen L Roland
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
