Amazing but true. The US invasion of Afghanistan is even longer than the Soviet one which lasted nine years and 50 days. Yesterday, the US beat this sad figure and the end of the US occupation is nowhere in sight.
Saker Message:
Yes indeed and it’s the profit principle at work (just like in U.S. healthcare).
“Yesterday, the US beat this sad figure and the end of the US occupation is nowhere in sight.”
Not true the Wikileaks revelations are a means to facilitate US/NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan by reasserting the Islamic drug basin in Afghanistan which western intelligence are still training Muslims in the Waziristan region who are flying into Pakistan from Russia, China and Central Asia which I predicted long before especially with the announcement by Obama of the Afghan surge and focus on Afghanistan and before the upsurge in violence.
The foiled German terrorist plot was orchestrated by the Islamic Jihad Union who seeks to overthrow the government of Uzbekistan and was involved in the incident in Adijan in 2005 as report in Stars and Stripes which the article was taken down and later reinstated the reference of 2005 removed.
Read the Grand Chessboard the pdf is online at this site or are you foolish enough to believe that Muslims are a bulwark and not an ally of the NWO.
http://www.takeoverworld.info/grandchessboard.html
I’m surprised you haven’t posted the item of news on your blog.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article167581.html
Do you suppose that one of the main reasons for the US being in Afghanistan is to control a potential energy corridor between Iran and China?
China’s Achilles heel is it depends on oil imports which mostly come by sea. The US Navy could block China’s oil supply by closing the Straits or Hormuz or Malacca if it had to. Apparently Hillary Clinton threatened China by saying if they didn’t support sanctions on Iran Israel might see fit to attack Iran thereby cutting off China’s oil.
If there was a pipeline between Iran and China via Afpak maybe Chian would be in a stronger position. Then again they could always bomb it or arrange for the pipeline to be sabotaged by “terrorists” while denying all knowledge.
@Robert:Do you suppose that one of the main reasons for the US being in Afghanistan is to control a potential energy corridor between Iran and China?
US foreign policy is the result of a sum of political “vectors” each of which has its own primary goal. In the case of Afghanistan, there are plenty of reasons to want to control it, empires have fought over it for centuries, and there are lobbies in the USA which would push the same kind of plans as they had before 9/11 (remember the Taliban at the White House?).
But I suspect that there is something I would call “imperial inertia” at work here. Once you begin arrogantly throw around your weight like the US did in Afghanistan, you cannot simply declare “oh, ok, we got our butts kicked. we are leaving”. Imperial hubris makes such an otherwise perfectly sound decision totally unthinkable. So now, the USA is suck in a way which the USSR was not.
@ Robert,
I heard that theory before. It sounds plausible, but couldn’t the US cut off a pipeline just as easily by using cruise missiles? I would imagine it would be impossible to protect an entire pipeline.
Perhaps the difference is that you can interdict shipping without taking the politically risky step of actually firing a shot. But a blockade would be an act of war same as shooting.
I don’t see how the US can defeat the Taliban; on the other hand I can’t see the Taliban defeating the US on the tactical battlefield. This tragic war could drag on for years if not decades. The only consolation is that as long as the US is bogged down in Afghanistan it will be harder for them to invade anybody else.
@Robert: I can’t see the Taliban defeating the US on the tactical battlefield.
I agree. The proto-Taliban – Regan’s “Mudjahedeen Freedom Fighters” – never defeated the Soviet either, not even close. It is a myth that these guys are some kind of formidable fighters. I bet you that they will never defeat anything bigger than US Army or Marines platoon, and even that is probably something that they cannot do. Heck, after the Soviets left, the Afghans could not even defeat the DRA Army; it took them THREE YEARS to finally take power.
But for them, to just be there to harass and annoy the US/NATO forces is plenty enough of a “victory”. An ant cannot kill a human, but a human sitting on an ant hill is having a very bad time – that is what the equation is in Afghanistan.
@Lysander & VINEYARDSAKER
We are in Afghanistan for one main reason to re-install a quasi or partially quasi Taliban regime so we can use that again as a base today they are flying in still Islamist from Russia, Central Asia and China.
All the Taliban is splintered factions fighting US forces and what US/NATO forces want is to secure vital drug trafficking routes they don’t particularly care about controlling the whole country
The Taliban is a creation of US/British/NATO/Saudi and Pakistani intelligence interests with BCCI banking linked Saudi oil interests since 94 financing there rise to power and sustain their rule over Afghanistan.
Afghanistan just now could be compared to rival drug gangs competing for supremacy in Mexico and we now that the CIA runs the drug industry South America.
@VINEYARDSAKER
Will you be doing a post on the recent Wiki-leaks revelations?
Gordon Duff of veterans today thinks it is an Israeli intelligence front operation and for once I think I agree with him.
Also interesting articles about Zakayeav that I didn’t know is that he ran the Central Bank in Chechnya and banking for Chechen militants abroad for war against Russia.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/84302/thread/1290981902/last-1290981902/ZAKAEV-+THE+WHOLE+STORY
http://www.network54.com/Forum/84302/thread/1290982964/last-1290982964/Saakashvili+indeed+may+be+joining+Berezovskii%92s+and+Zakaev%92s+dangerous+game
GOD! Is this government in Russia terrible they go out of the way to tell us nothing an offence so bad that on that single issue is worthy of Putin’s removal and Medvedev (Gorbachev 2.0) is even worse literally following in Gorbachev’s footsteps with a planned IRD style de-Stalinisation program.
@jack: Will you be doing a post on the recent Wiki-leaks revelations?
Ha! You got me in a bind here :-(
The problem is that I don’t really know what to make of these leaks. First, I don’t see anything earth-shattering in them. I can’t think of a single real ‘revelation’ make public through all this. Second, I know that quite a few people have their doubts about this, including Sibel Edmonds. I do see that, amazingly, NOTHING, in these leaks says anything about US-Israeli ties. Look what Ha’aretz wrote today:
The “Israeli portion” of the U.S. government dispatches that were revealed yesterday by the WikiLeaks website revealed almost no new details regarding the exchange of messages between Jerusalem and Washington (…) There are no revelations that proved embarrassing, such as American acquiescence to settlement expansion (…) WikiLeaks did not succeed in penetrating the most sensitive channels of U.S.-Israel relations.
That is, to say the least, rather weird. But then, that does not prove much either since am quite confident that the real ties between Israel and the USA are on the level of their respective “deep states”. I don’t like seeing a “Mossad agent under every bush” the way Gordon Duff of Veterans Today does; he is quite capable of blaming the Icelandic volcano eruption on a nefarious Mossad plot to create a world government. I don’t. But then, there ARE so all too real Mossad plots out there too :-)
Anyway, I did not post anything on these leaks because I have no particular expertise or opinion about them. Should something sizzling hot come out of them, I might look at the specific news item, but as such, the entire Wikileaks phenomenon is one about which I rather keep my silence and watch to see what, if anything, comes of it.
@EVERYBODY:
If you guys have any thoughts you want to share about the Wikileaks thing, please feel free. Remember the “golden rule” of this blog:
AIN’T SUCH THING AS OFF-TOPIC!
Post whatever you want to discuss here.
Cheers!
Wikileaks reveals that the Saudis and other Arab governments were urging the US to do their dirty work for them and attack Iran. This is not a great revelation but it is an embarassment showing up the Saudis for what they are.
@VINEYARDSAKER
I haven’t looked at them and probably won’t but looking at head lines posted on the antiwar.com front page.
: WikiLeaks: Israel Primed to Attack a Nuclear Iran
: WikiLeaks: US Treasury Pledges Obama Will Pressure Iran
: WikiLeaks: US Claims Red Crescent Smuggled Weapons for Iran
: WikiLeaks: Secret Cables Reveal That US Believes Iran Has Advanced Missiles
: WikiLeaks: US Officials Called Ahmadinejad ‘Hitler’
: WikiLeaks: Secret EU Plot to Boycott Ahmadinejad Inauguration
: WikiLeaks: Israel Tried to Coordinate Gaza War With Abbas
Yes they don’t actually say anything really that is not already being reported in the news and cements long standing myths like Pakistan is supporting the Taliban against the US, that there is a real international Islamic terror threat and that they are advisories not allies with the US, Iran is securing secret weapons and missile capabilities and diplomatic dispatches that berate foreign leaders.
I think in part it is a counter to Sibel Edmonds not only does it not disclose anything about US-Israel relations but it makes no mention as revealed by Edmonds of Israel-Turkish connection to illegal black market nuclear material ring.
Now if it revealed some real info about like US and British Embassies dealing in Russia and Russian friendly countries, the connection between the Oligarchs and foreign intelligence and dissident KGB officials in Europe, support for Islamic terrorism, decades long international drug smuggling operation, etc basically anything of real substance that we know about or strong suspicions not covered at all by the international press then I would be impressed.
KGB Jewish/British/Russian Oligarch and Gorbachev crony is working with Wiki-leaks for a massive assault on Putin and Russia which they are no doubt leveraging a Medvedev alternative faction ahead of 2012.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/84302/thread/1290557161/last-1290907981/Gorbachov+Crony+Threatens+Wiki-Attack+on+Russian+Leaders
@jack:Now if it revealed some real info about like US and British Embassies dealing in Russia and Russian friendly countries, the connection between the Oligarchs and foreign intelligence and dissident KGB officials in Europe, support for Islamic terrorism, decades long international drug smuggling operation, etc basically anything of real substance that we know about or strong suspicions not covered at all by the international press then I would be impressed.
Exactly the same feeling here.
British covert operations and propaganda efforts in support of Chechen terrorism would be one of my favorite ones.
That, and the collaboration of Syrian officials in murdering of Imad Mughniyah.
OT http://www.countercurrents.org/hart291110.
Growing Jewish criticism of Israel is driving Zionists nuts.
@VINEYARDSAKER:
“Exactly the same feeling here.
British covert operations and propaganda efforts in support of Chechen terrorism would be one of my favorite ones”
Yes I would love it if ANYBODY would address the issue directly with time and research.
All there is, is pro-Chechen books and papers.
It is the biggest open secret yet no one talks about it at all.
That and what we are doing in the Balkans which is talked about a lot in regards to terrorism but is not given a wide audience. It is all inter-connected anyway and part of the same network which I am baffled that no one can make the obvious connection.
Apparently some Italian media has discussed the connections between Berezovsky, organised crime dissident KGB people and “former” intelligence people involved in activities in Italy according top Wayne Masden. They even had a private security firm that had an office in the WTC according to Masden.
”That, and the collaboration of Syrian officials in murdering of Imad Mughniyah.”
Never actually though that there would be Syrian officials involved but I guess it makes sense.
I wouldn’t expect Wiki-leaks to have access to that type of information anyway that would be a highly top secret Mossad operation which would be impossible to get any info.
I would expect some good info on the Hariri assassination and the situation in Lebannon give it’s connection to groups connected to “AL Qaeda” who are tied to at least Israeli and British intelligence.
Come to think of it the Wikileaks make no mention of US support for terrorist groups inside Iran although it was admitted by several news agencies
Apparently one of the wikileaks revelations is that Dick Cheney gave the order to Saakashvilli to attack South Ossetia.
http://www.rian.ru/politics/20101129/302300847.html
The article is in Russian so I don’t know what it actually says.