While
the ruling elite and the mainstream media continue to portray the expanding
"war on terrorism" in the most infantile and implausible terms ("axis of
evil," etc.), sober and informed observers know better.
It is a war "of" terrorism. It is a war of, and for, control of the last untapped supplies of oil and
natural gas on earth. And the players on the Grand Chessboard will stop at nothing to win.
With
9/11 came the opportunity the US Oilocracy was waiting for, their long-held
desire for a pipeline through Afghanistan undoubtedly adding impetus to an
invasion mounted to clear the country of former US allies like the Taliban
and Osama Bin Laden. Four years on and Afghanistan's onerous distinction
as the largest producer of heroin in the world is all that has been achieved,
with the remit of the beleagured and US-installed Kharzai government running
no further than Kabul.
Ultimately,
the swamp of hatred, obscurantism and religious fanaticism out of which Osama
Bin laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban emerged in Afghanistan was a US creation.
The US armed, funded and trained large numbers of men as a proxy army during
the Cold War. The barbarity and savagery inflicted on the people of Afghanistan
as a result was a price worth paying, just as the savagery and barbarity
being inflicted on Iraq is a price worth paying.
The tragedy for Afghanistan, for its people, is that the future could have been oh so different.
CAMP
BASTION, Afghanistan (AFP) - - Three British NATO troops were killed in an
apparent "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan when US jets dropped a bomb
on them during fighting with the Taliban, officials said Friday.
The incident, near Kajaki in southern Helmand province, happened late Thursday
(Photo — The Ranks:
Wearing the shirts that got them evicted from a president’s speech in 2004. / Photo via ACLU)
More
than an hour earlier, the advance officials, working with local police, had
confronted and ejected a young couple who had come to the speech wearing
T-shirts that fit any reasonable definition of free expression. The front
of both shirts bore the name "Bush" surrounded by a circle with a slash through
it; the back of Jeffery Rank's shirt carried the slogan "Regime Change Begins
at Home" and Nicole Rank's shirt read, "Love America, Hate Bush."
The
Ranks refused demands to take the shirts off, turn them inside out or leave.
Though they were on public property and not being disruptive, they were handcuffed,
arrested and charged with trespass. The charges were later dropped, and with
the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Ranks sued the White House advance personnel for violating their First Amendment rights.
On
August 19, I flew to Ottawa, Canada to speak at alternative events during
the third Security and Prosperity Partnership conference among George Bush,
Stephen Harper and Felipe Calderon, heads of state of the US, Canada and
Mexico. Instead of meeting with 17 US war resisters, who now live in Canada,
and later participating in the press conference and panel on the adverse
consequences of the "Partnership" between governments and corporations on
security (no-fly lists, fingerprinting, sharing of security data, environmental,
bulk water sales, energy, workers rights and regulatory issues, among many
other), I spent almost four hours detained by Canadian immigration in the
Ottawa international airport - thanks to the long reach of the FBI.
We
who live in the post-World War II period possess an immensely valuable symbol,
even if we don't understand it or use it effectively: the example of Nazi
Germany. "The German experiment, except to those who are its victims, is
particularly interesting, and, like the offer of a strong man to let himself
be vivisected, ..read more:
The
immediate triggers are being described quite well: the collapse of the U.S.
subprime mortgage market; the vulnerability of the rest of the economy to
the subprime undertow, due to the “efficiency” of the markets in spreading
risk; the worldwide overextension of cheap credit; the failure of large institutional
investors and...read :
After
basically being up on and off 24/7 for two weeks – I am amazed at the speed
of the onset of the credit crisis. I also had a feeling last night, thinking
about all this chaos, that it is rather bizarre. Weird and eerie is another
view. There is no...read more: