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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 11/14/09

The Chimerical Enemy of NATO in Afghanistan

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Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, has called for postponing a decision to send more American troops to Afghanistan until the Karzai government proves its worth by eliminating corruption at the highest echelons of the government. U.S. generals, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are all advocating the deployment of at least 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan. The narrative of the Afghani campaign against the Taliban could have been written by Samuel Beckett or Harold Pinter.

It's clear that the main actors in this absurd fiasco either are unaware of the real history of recent events in Afghanistan or are consciously pursuing the transparently de facto objective of stabilizing the country under American control for the purpose of constructing and safeguarding a pipeline from the Caspian Basin to the ocean.

In 1996, the Clinton administration extended the red carpet for the Taliban when they took power because they were under the mistaken impression that they could cajole the Taliban into negotiating an agreement to construct a pipeline. After wining and dining the Taliban and UNOCAL executives, Clinton officials discovered that the Taliban had already signed an agreement with an Argentinean company and refused to revoke it. (1)

Another issue that the Clinton administration were determined to resolve with the Taliban was their support for terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, which camps were responsible for a number of terrorist attacks (such as the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which left seven dead and 10 missing). (2)

President Clinton negotiated an agreement with the Taliban in which the Taliban would abandon support for the training camps in exchange for foreign aid. Unfortunately, George W. Bush was sworn in as President before the deal was signed. (3) The Bush administration had secret plans to invade Afghanistan to build and protect a pipeline. The planning for the invasion began in March 2001, six months before 9/11. Recognizing the dangers ahead, the Taliban offered three times to hand over bin Laden to the Americans and were rebuffed each time. (4) Finally after the invasion in 2001, the Taliban, in an attempt to save their regime, extended the offer to hand over bin Laden to include closing down all terrorist camps. (5)

They were rebuffed again because the real motive was not capture bin Laden but to build the pipeline. America and NATOÂ are now engaged in a bloody foundering war with the Taliban and angry Afghanis who have lost relatives or friends to America's indiscriminate bombing. Thousands of innocent peasants have been killed by collaterally challenged NATO bombers. (6)

There is no real economic development in Afghanistan and the only opportunity tp ameliorate conditions there is to withdraw all foreign troops. They have no right to be there in the first place and have been committing war crimes since they first stepped on Afghani soil.

(1) Pirbhai, M. R. (2009, October 14). Fighting the Taliban. Counterpunch: Petrolia (CA).

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I have been a professor of political science at Seneca College in Toronto. I have published five books the last of which "Selling Out: Consuming Ourselves to Death" was released in May/08. As well, I have been featured in CounterPunch, Z (more...)
 
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