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15 years later, the US and its NATO allies still have troops in Afghanistan with no plans on leaving. We were told this was about 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden, but these were lies. So why are the troops still there? What was the war in Afghanistan really about? Michel Chossudovsky of the Centre for Research on Globalization joins us to explain.
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SHOW NOTES:
Afghanistan archives at GlobalResearch.ca
Afghanistan: Thirty-two Years of War. Ten Years of Illegal Occupation
“The War is Worth Waging”: Afghanistan’s Vast Reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas
Afghanistan, Garden of Empire: America’s Multibillion Dollar Opium Harvest
He crapped himself when he mentioned lithium. Industrial-grade lithium is available on the market for less than a dollar a pound. No one would open a mine to sell into that kind of a glutted market. Only the highly-refined metal that is used in batteries has a high market price. Saying that the U.S. is in Afghanistan for lithium mines is about like saying they invaded Grenada for beach sand because pure silicone is used in semiconductor manufacture.
Ditto for his comment about oil. Wells are being shut down all over the world right now because there is a glut. And those wells are in safe places where the infrastructure to transport it to refineries is already installed. Only a fool would believe that the U.S. is at war to secure that resource.
No, the U.S. is occupying the country for only two reasons. First, as he said, to secure the heroin supply. And, secondly, a point which he didn’t even mention, is to block China from putting in roads and oil pipelines to Iran and thus getting for herself a source of oil which is secure from interdiction by the US Navy.
Neither reason says anything good about U.S. motives.
Great point Sam about blocking China from putting in roads and oil pipelines to Iran, out of reach of the US Navy. — Makes sense to me!
Bad point about the oil Sam, since the low price and closing of wells began about two seconds ago, but the invasion some 15 years.
Reverse wise its wrong to stress blocking China from an inland oil supply today, seeing the increasing Chinese access to all Russian resources these days — but a good point when the invasion was originally launched and for a long time after.
Still we can all agree its almost all about the opium, and not just in a commercial sense, and untraceable funds for terrorism sense. There could be a spiritual historical element here too in that the modern Anglo-US oligarchy has its roots in New England pirate families (Perkins, Delano Forbes and so forth) given shares and concessions in British East India Shipping with its pseudo-US striped flag. All that murder, mayhem, drug dealing imperialism into China out of British India and Hong Kong, with Sasoons and Rothschilds in charge for the first time, might well be a quasi New Testament for these atrox gangster scum running the west today. Could control of Afghanistan today be a form of drug dealers’ Zionism, bigger and better than a base in Hong Kong ?
Well just a thought.
The question wasn’t why we went into the place 15 years ago, but why we are there now.
Bringing in a grass-roots oil field in a war zone is virtually impossible. Even if no one was shooting at you, the cost of logistics in a remote place like Afghanistan are brutal.
And that’s assuming the geological data are correct. In Afghanistan 15 years ago, no one had any idea if it was.
The author is right about oil being one of the reasons we took the place, but not because it’s in the ground in the country. The objective was to prevent China from going through the place via a pipeline to Iranian oil and Iran to gain access via surface trans port to Chinese military technology.
As for China not needing a path to Iran now because of their friendship with Russia, they don’t see it that way. Russia has dumped on them before, and could do so again, so they want as many independent oil sources as possible. And, for the same reason, we want them to have as few as possible.
Consider the map:
https://www.google.ca/search?q=map+of+middle+east+oil+fields&espv=2&biw=1536&bih=725&tbm=isch&imgil=hz-Zs2Sbq2HQdM%253A%253Balka-Nh7piAP-M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.wou.edu%25252Flas%25252Fphysci%25252FEnergy%25252Foil.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=hz-Zs2Sbq2HQdM%253A%252Calka-Nh7piAP-M%252C_&usg=__RlRPdCGBJ8Wbc7dmtOhGdV0zEYk%3D&ved=0ahUKEwi65MWB8rHPAhVW-mMKHdHZANkQyjcIKQ&ei=ZaDrV_qdEdb0jwPRs4PIDQ#imgrc=XB_kCxilQ6biFM%3A
Interesting map. I have no idea who made it, when and why, although there are some clues in the bottom left. Doesn’t matter.
My points:
– The “Chinese” can very easily run pipe AROUND Afghanistan.
– The “Americans” options are more challenging. They need to run pipe South through either 1) Iran, 2) China or 3) Afghanistan. Obviously, they aren’t going through China. The Afghanistan border runs like a wall between Iran and China. What to Do?
(Perhaps if Syria and Turkey could somehow be persuaded to cooperate they could drain the oil to the West…plan B)
– If there wasn’t a $hitload of Oil East of the Caspian Sea, there would be little interest in Afghanistan.
– I can’t think of a more geographically intriguing place to have located the State of Israel after WW-II.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/imagenes_sociopol/waronterror38_03.jpg
Ukraine is an interesting piece of real estate. Can’t imagine why the “West” would be interested in assisting Ukraine to break away from the evil Putin. Anybody have any ideas?
Running pipelines, railroads, and all-weather roads through Asian mountain ranges is tough except in a few places with passes. China (not sure why you used quotes around the name) is running them north to Russia through some of the former republics, but that doesn’t get them to Iran, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, or the Indian ocean, all of major strategic and trade importance for their new Silk Road. The Wakhan valley and Wakhjir Pass (16K feet) are about the only way to do that.
Not sure what other pipeline you are talking about, or how Syria and Turkey enter into the subject.
As for your comment “If there wasn’t a $hitload of Oil East of the Caspian Sea, there would be little interest in Afghanistan”, that is a bit of a circular argument. The whole point of this discussion is to show that the US is in Afghanistan for reasons other than oil.
None of the maps your link point to show any oil fields in Afghanistan. As far as I know, their existence is claimed only by sources who want to occupy the place for other reasons. They are unverified by any independent survey, much less test wells.
I put quotes around “Nationality-X” to distinguish the people who run the country from the people who live in the country. They are not the same people.
The oil around the Caspian Sea is land locked. There are 3 routes to the West:
– Persian Gulf via Afghanistan
– West through Turkey / Syria
– West through Ukraine
Where are the most unstable places at the moment? (hint: see list above)
I agree that there is a significant cash flow tied to poppy fields and you are right to draw attention to it. There is significantly more money in oil, however, and the political map of the future is much more directly dependent upon the control of energy than opium.
Which Caspian Sea are you talking about? Because the one I see on the map is only 460 miles from the Persian Gulf by way of Iran, a country which is friendly to Russia. If you wanted to run a pipeline from that body of water to the gulf via the nearest border to Afghanistan, you would have to go over 600 miles out of your way. And that’s without even entering the country.
As for the export of oil from Afghanistan being more valuable than that of heroin, sorry, but there is and can be no oil export from Afghanistan. As in ZERO. Oil in that country is just a dream fostered by those who want us to stay in the country.
You guys make some good points.
What we do know for certain…
Afghanistan still an important game-board piece for agendas; whether global domination or confusion in the Muslim world or whatever.
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— Recent Anecdote about a 16 yr old Syrian refugee girl in the U.S. —
My wife has been a school teacher for 40 years. She runs her own Home School / Extension School so teenagers can get their High School diploma, and most go on to college. She has students from all backgrounds, from Rodeo kids to traveling soccer teams to a few movie celebrities to freedom-lovers to folks in the local area. She has a good number of Muslim students. Some of the Muslim girls often work at the school. While keeping out of the room any men, my wife has them remove their burka because she can’t tell who is who.
Recently, a very beautiful 16 year old Syrian refugee girl came in to see my wife about enrolling as a student in order to complete her High School education.
My wife started asking questions in the interview. At one point, the Syrian girl started shaking, looking side-ways to the other working Muslim girls. The other Muslim girls assured the Syrian girl “it was okay”.
Shaking and in tears, the 16 year old describes how men came in and pointed a rifle at her head. They made her remove her hijab. Then they made her denounce Shia and say that she was Sunni or they would shoot her. There is no telling what else happened. The girl was extremely distraught at denouncing what she believed.
Of course, my wife and the other Muslim girls assured the Syrian that she did the right thing.
My wife told the 16 year old that by staying alive through such an ordeal she earned free tuition for the rest of her High School years.
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Ha!! Some of these school anecdotes are interesting. The teacher has strict rules. Recently, one of my wife’s students in southern Louisiana during the flooding called my wife in a panic over her homework: “Mrs ______ , I am sorry I am late with mailing my homework. I know it is due. I promise I have it. Our house is surrounded by water, helicopters are flying overhead, and I can’t get to the Post Office….” Later, the family lost their house but they and their pets made it okay.
1) In much the same way Pyramids were built for Pharos in Egypt and roads were built for Roman Emperors, present working class slaves are busily creating the Great Green Infrastructure. I suspect a great many of us will be made to “go away” after the work has been completed.
2) What sort of tricks were played to enable the rise of a global monopoly on energy?
– Fake companies pretending to be competitors
– Collusion between energy and transportation interests
– A) Flood the markets to drop the price, B) purchase competitors for pennies on the dollar, C) jack the price and more than make up for lost profits. (sound familiar?)
Is oil going away?
Yes and no.
It will be taken away from the working class slaves; it won’t be long before they can no longer afford it. They can have a small fraction of the electricity from the Great Green Infrastructure. Burning the Emperor’s Oil can no longer be tolerated.
Last time I looked, war vehicles were neither wind nor solar powered.
The Emperor who is left controlling the last of the planet’s hydrocarbon inheritance will be in the position to draw the political map to his liking.
Hey, Sam,
I’m talking about getting oil located from the Caspian Sea region to the West….to Uncle Sam….not Putin.
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=12911
For the sake of argument, let’s pretend there isn’t a drop of oil to be found in Afghanistan. Ok. There are approximately 37 billion bbls of the stuff in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-largest-oil-reserves-by-country.html
That’s about 2 trillion dollars worth of hydrocarbon at today’s price. (which, by the way, is a bargain at under $50/bbl. This bargain won’t last much longer.)
I can’t imagine the usual suspects NOT being motivated by 37 + billion barrels of the good stuff.
In keeping with James’ topical theme of skepticism, please help me out. What am I missing?