[url=http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/afghanistan-a-war-of-... to author Erik Margolis[/url], prior to the September 11,2001 attacks, US intelligence was giving aid and support both to the Taliban and to Al Qaeda. Margolis claims that "The CIA was planning to use Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda to stir up Muslim Uighurs against Chinese rule, and Taliban against Russia's Central Asian allies."
The US clearly found other means of stirring up Muslim Uighurs against Beijing last July via its support for the World Uighur Congress. But the Al Qaeda "threat" remains the lynchpin of Obama US justification for his Afghan war buildup.
Now, however, the National Security Adviser to President Obama, former Marine Gen. James Jones has made a statement, conveniently buried by the friendly US media, about the estimated size of the present Al Qaeda danger in Afghanistan. Jones told Congress, "The al-Qaeda presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."
That means that Al-Qaeda, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan. Oops...
Even in neighboring Pakistan, the remnants of Al-Qaeda are scarcely to be found. The Wall Street Journal reports, "Hunted by US drones, beset by money problems and finding it tougher to lure young Arabs to the bleak mountains of Pakistan, al Qaeda is seeing its role shrink there and in Afghanistan, according to intelligence reports and Pakistan and U.S. officials. For Arab youths who are al Qaeda's primary recruits, 'it's not romantic to be cold and hungry and hiding,' said a senior U.S. official in South Asia."
If we follow the statement to its logical consequence we must conclude then that the reason German soldiers are dying along with other NATO youth in the mountains of Afghanistan has nothing to do with "winning a war against terrorism." Conveniently most media chooses to forget the fact that Al Qaeda to the extent it ever existed, was a creation in the 1980's of the CIA, who recruited and trained radical muslims from across the Islamic world to wage war against Russian troops in Afghanistan as part of a strategy developed by Reagan's CIA head Bill Casey and others to create a "new Vietnam" for the Soviet Union which would lead to a humiliating defeat for the Red Army and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union.
Now US NSC head Jones admits there is essentially no Al Qaeda anymore in Afghanistan. Perhaps it is time for a more honest debate from our political leaders about the true purpose of sending more young to die protecting the opium harvests of Afghanistan.
Because this war is about the Pakhtuns on both sides of the Durand Line, who have never really recognized it.
TTP's (Taliban's) treasure leads to India's RAW (Research and Analysis Wing):
RAW is The Research and Analysis Wing, India's foreign intelligence agency. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure and operations of the Research & Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.
The Pakistani Air Force is now in the business of operating pilotless drones:
http://www.daily.pk/paf-starts-drone-production-9267
Afghanistan: Continuity Uber Alles
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1822-...
"Of course Obama's continuity in using the Bush-serving professional manipulaters only continues Bush's continuity with the Clinton Administration which also used the Rendon Group. Rendon's Job #1 is to make the destructive and expensive imperial wars appear palatable to the yokels back home, so the rubes will keep sending their sons and daughters off to die--and to kill, in vast numbers--for the profit and privilege of the small, bipartisan American elite.."
War to Escalate after Afghan Election
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/afgh-a24.shtml
"the election itself has been a debacle for US imperialism and its NATO allies. The majority of people in the ethnic Pashtun southern and eastern provinces followed the direction of the Taliban and boycotted the ballot altogether. While fear may have been a factor, it cannot be denied that the insurgency has broad popular support. The Pashtun population hates both the foreign forces and the puppet regime in Kabul which has inflicted 8 years of repression, corrupt officials and police and ongoing economic deprivation.."
[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/y...'m sorry, but I was wrong to support the war in Afghanistan[/url]
RAW is The Research and Analysis Wing, India's foreign intelligence agency. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure and operations of the Research & Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.
Exactly, Wilf. And today's imperialists are trying to carve up the region, once again. There needs to be a regional solution arrived at by UN mediated negotiations with those Gulf countries, and Pakistan, Russia, Iran etc. They must stop using Afghanistan as a battleground for proxy wars. We can hold our breaths demanding that foreign troops be withdrawn while more Afghans are sacrificed to cluster bombs, IEDs, air raids etc, But colder warriors seem to be oblivious to the fact that not only are the peace activists turning blue in the cheeks and becoming irrelevant in the larger scheme of things, Afghans are still dying and war and chaos reign merrily. The left needs to push everyone involved toward peace talks and exit strategy for NATO. NATO doesnt want an exit strategy, and that's the problem.