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American Everyman
Crooks And Liars
Thoughts On The War Between The USA And Pakistan
Signs and omens, suddenly everywhere, tell us war between the USA and Pakistan is imminent. ... The signs are misleading. War between the US and Pakistan is not imminent. It’s ongoing. ... What’s imminent is a grave escalation.
You can read the rest here, and/or comment below.
Comments
So glad to see you back
So glad to see you back blogging WP! Great analysis as usual.
I added a couple of comments under another thread about the TAPI pipeline and the military buildup in Khandahar at links:
http://www.winterpatriot.com/node/340#comment-3318
http://www.winterpatriot.com/node/340#comment-3318
"China is the target..."
The insanity of the thinking and actions of the PTB's is just mind boggling. What is amazing to me is to watch them sell this war using the same template as they did for Iraq. When do we learn???
Tell Me "Little Lies"...
.
That song has been playing in my head for weeks now. I almost posted it as an open thread
"The most unpleasant truth in the long run is a far safer traveling companion than the most agreeable falsehood." Emerson
Ron Paul Questions Holbrooke on the Af-Pak War
Holbrooke completely ignores Ron Paul's excellent questions and launches into 'sell the war' talking points.
"The most unpleasant truth in the long run is a far safer traveling companion than the most agreeable falsehood." Emerson
McJ Hate Hollbrooke - Luv Winter
Hollbrooke - The only thing I can say about this asshole is that I'd like to smash his face in, assuming that is physically possible.
This might have to suffice. A visualisation while chopping wood assuming thats physically possible also. And WP don't try this or anything similar. Just keep your typing fingers in a safe place.
Its so good to see you writing again "Welcome Back Winter"
Its is a very well written piece of the vicious realities created by Morons.
Good Advice Sally :)
"WP don't try this or anything similar. Just keep your typing fingers in a safe place"
That's funny Sally and good advice as well!
"The most unpleasant truth in the long run is a far safer traveling companion than the most agreeable falsehood." Emerson
Holbrooke is Milgram in action.
Richard Holbrooke says nothing with an authoritative, sleepy voice. All is OK. All is OK. The president himself, has said so. Go back to sleep. Nighty, night. Ron is just having a bad dream. I understand, I've had them too. They seem so real, so detailed but shh... Daddy's not a bogey man, is he? Sleepy-byes. Everybody nighty-nights. Sleepy bye.
Nice to have Winter back... just in time for spring!
Great piece, Winter
The almost overwhelming temptation is to keep thinking, "No, they couldn't do that" when we know that they have done exactly that in the past and will continue to. It's real "tear your hair out" stuff.
Standouts
I guess the standouts for me in your article, Winter, are-
"And as for Afghanistan, the experiment with social democracy there could not be allowed to stand, much less succeed, for the same reason that similar experiments cannot be allowed to stand anywhere else in the world that American military power can reach: to preserve the myth that capitalism -- unbridled dog-eat-dog militarized capitalism -- is the only path that can possibly lead to prosperity."
Which says the US et. al. are committed to, and indeed need to, destroy all they don't control.
And
"In terms of the "grand chessboard", one might be tempted to say that turnabout is fair play for Pakistan. Those who do the bully's dirty-work always end up as victims themselves."
Which says they end up destroying all they do control, too. And the reason for the destruction looks like this-
"But the "grand game" is simply an abstraction, one that "justifies" mass murder on a horrific scale in defense of dimly perceived "national interests". In reality, we're talking about hundreds of millions of people whose lives are about to be destroyed, or in the process of being destroyed, as the "players" continue to see strategic advantage in the destruction and destabilization of foreign countries"
thanks very much
These are kind words indeed and I appreciate them very much. It feels good to make a bit of a contribution around here again, and I hope to do so again sometime!
I hope so, too! But look
I hope so, too! But look after yourself
Balochistan - Part II of Pepe Escobar's REBRANDING THE LONG WAR
Part II of Pepe Escobar's REBRANDING THE LONG WAR
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE09Df03.html
Snip:
"Strategically, Balochistan is mouth-watering: east of Iran, south of Afghanistan, and boasting three Arabian sea ports, including Gwadar, practically at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz.
Gwadar - a port built by China - is the absolute key. It is the essential node in the crucial, ongoing, and still virtual Pipelineistan war between IPI and TAPI. IPI is the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, also known as the "peace pipeline", which is planned to cross from Iranian to Pakistani Balochistan - an anathema to Washington. TAPI is the perennially troubled, US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which is planned to cross western Afghanistan via Herat and branch out to Kandahar and Gwadar.
Washington's dream scenario is Gwadar as the new Dubai - while China would need Gwadar as a port and also as a base for pumping gas via a long pipeline to China. One way or another, it will all depend on local grievances being taken very seriously. Islamabad pays a pittance in royalties for the Balochis, and development aid is negligible; Balochistan is treated as a backwater. Gwadar as the new Dubai would not necessarily mean local Balochis benefiting from the boom; in many cases they could even be stripped of their local land.
To top it all, there's the New Great Game in Eurasia fact that Pakistan is a key pivot to both NATO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), of which Pakistan is an observer. So whoever "wins" Balochistan incorporates Pakistan as a key transit corridor to either Iranian gas from the monster South Pars field or a great deal of the Caspian wealth of "gas republic" Turkmenistan."
...
"How crucial Balochistan is to Washington can be assessed by the study "Baloch Nationalism and the Politics of Energy Resources: the Changing Context of Separatism in Pakistan" by Robert Wirsing of the US Army think-tank Strategic Studies Institute. Predictably, it all revolves around Pipelineistan.
China - which built Gwadar and needs gas from Iran - must be sidelined by all means necessary. The added paranoid Pentagon component is that China could turn Gwadar into a naval base and thus "threaten" the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The only acceptable scenario for the Pentagon would be for the US to take over Gwadar. Once again, that would be a prime confluence of Pipelineistan and the US empire of bases.
Not only in terms of blocking the IPI pipeline and using Gwadar for TAPI, control of Gwadar would open the mouth-watering opportunity of a long land route across Balochistan into Helmand, Nimruz, Kandahar or, better yet, all of these three provinces in southwest Afghanistan. From a Pentagon/NATO perspective, after the "loss" of the Khyber Pass, that would be the ideal supply route for Western troops in the perennial, now rebranded, GWOT ("global war on terror")."
Click here for larger map.
Proposed TAPI and IPI pipelines here
"The most unpleasant truth in the long run is a far safer traveling companion than the most agreeable falsehood." Emerson
Another musical interlude, in keeping
with the subject matter---I hope.
P.S.
I just sent that to whitehouse.gov.
Whoop-dee-doo.
I know but,
things bear repeating sometimes, dont' they?
welcome back
Wonderful to have your insight again, WP. A great article. It truly is hair pulling stuff, tho.
After US Strikes-Tractor Trailers Full of Pieces of Human Bodies
Local Afghanis loaded up two tractor trailers full of body parts and drove them to government officials so they could prove that these civilians were killed by US bombing raids on their homes.
First of all what kind of horror is that! and secondly what kind of courage would it take to do that!
The army spin doctors are trying to blame it on the Taliban.
Read the article below if you have the stomach. This is sick, sick, sick!!!
After US Strikes, Afghans Describe "Tractor Trailers Full of Pieces of Human Bodies"
"As rage spreads in Afghanistan after US bombing that killed up to 130 people, unnamed Pentagon officials are spinning another cover-up. Defiant Obama moves ahead with troop increase.
As President Barack Obama prepares to send some 21,000 more US troops into Afghanistan, anger is rising in the western province of Farah, the scene of a US bombing massacre that may have killed as many as 130 Afghans, including 13 members of one family. At least six houses were bombed and among the dead and wounded are women and children. As of this writing reports indicate some people remain buried in rubble. The US airstrikes happened on Monday and Tuesday. Just hours after Obama met with US-backed president Hamid Karzai Wednesday, hundreds of Afghans--perhaps as many as 2,000-- poured into the streets of the provincial capital, chanting "Death to America." The protesters demanded a US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In Washington, Karzai said he and the US occupation forces should operate from a "higher platform of morality," saying, "We must be conducting this war as better human beings," and recognize that "force won't buy you obedience." And yet, his security forces opened fire on the demonstrators, reportedly wounding five people.?
According to The New York Times:
In a phone call played on a loudspeaker on Wednesday to outraged members of the Afghan Parliament, the governor of Farah Province, Rohul Amin, said that as many as 130 civilians had been killed, according to a legislator, Mohammad Naim Farahi. Afghan lawmakers immediately called for an agreement regulating foreign military operations in the country.
"The governor said that the villagers have brought two tractor trailers full of pieces of human bodies to his office to prove the casualties that had occurred," Mr. Farahi said. "Everyone at the governor's office was crying, watching that shocking scene."
Mr. Farahi said he had talked to someone he knew personally who had counted 113 bodies being buried, including those of many women and children. Later, more bodies were pulled from the rubble and some victims who had been taken to the hospital died, he said.
Read the rest at link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-scahill/after-us-strikes-afghans_b_...
"The most unpleasant truth in the long run is a far safer traveling companion than the most agreeable falsehood." Emerson
Karzai said he and the US
Karzai said he and the US occupation forces should operate from a "higher platform of morality," saying, "We must be conducting this war as better human beings,"
This man is insane. They're all certifiably insane; these madmen that rule us.
To invade someone else's country and be killing people (armed or unarmed) is the height of barbarity. To justify it in any terms, never mind invoking concepts such as morality, is to speak from the very depths of evil or madness or both.
karzai
Karzai is an interesting character. To me, it's been clear for months if not years that he has to be eliminated as far as his puppeteers are concerned. He's no longer so eager to fully cooperate (read: he doesn't repeat the most outrageous lies uttered by the US mainstream sources like good straw men do). He would be more useful to the GWOT dead than alive. It could be the perfect way to recycle this president, from a reluctant supporter to a dead martyr, on national television, with something/someone to blame, and an "escalation" to justify. I'm quite surprised he hasn't been whacked yet.
Pakistan war
Nice analysis but I disagree with the phrase "capitalism -- unbridled dog-eat-dog militarized capitalism" . The economic system of the US is and has been for decades Fascism. As Mussolini is quoted as saying
Fascism " is the merger of state and corporate power." and that's exactly what we have.
The Obscenity
Hey Winter, great to have you back, so to speak, apparently at full force (or mebbe we ain't seen nothin' yet) - great item! I'm so glad I don't have to pay taxes to those despicable war criminals, but the people I do pay taxes to are just wannabee war criminals, lacking only in the wherewithall for financing state-sponsoreed terrorism, otherwise known as "war." Anyhow, I feel ashamed, and not for the first time, to have been a member of the US Army from 1965 to 1969. I thought I was doing "the right thing" - One born every minute, I guess. I knew perfectly well it was the wrong thing, but a sense of fraternity led me to join my friends, even though some were coming home in boxes. I still don't understand why I didn't just show up for my physical tripping on peyote - you know, ingesting the buttons a half an hour before the appointment, etc...... In any case, all Americans should be feeling deep shame right now, and O'Bummah should be nominating his pastor, the righteous Mr Wright (dunno if I'm right on the name, but the man is truly right-on righteous), for Justice Souter's seat. You may say I'm a dreamer...
I read this today
and my heart skipped a beat when I read the title. I read the whole thing and could only agree and say 'yes'.
I could only feel shame and sorrow.
Torture.
He knew who he was and what he was here for. Logical? Reasonable?
No.
But this is who I trust and who I follow.
Except, of course,
that I am not a martyr. I am a highly pissed-off woman, here and NOW.
The prospects of anything decent emerging after US withdrawal?
Sorry, if I am asking what has already been asked.
Even though it is clear that the pretext for the NATO/US invasion of Afghanistan was a lie, I would not welcome the prospect of a Taliban victory in Afghanistan should the US withdraw.
Home page
blog
candobetter.org/911truth
The crucial consideration
The crucial consideration should be what would the Afghanis welcome.
For sure the reason given for the invasion was a lie. But once you know the real reason, you know that the US aren't about to withdraw any time soon. Also it is not beyond the range of possibilities for the US/NATO to remain in occupation AND for the Taliban to regain government.
Pepe Escobar explains this and more in his latest, Pipelinestan Goes Af-Pak
I fear Chinese military, as well as, US expansion
Thanks. This looks like a good start to sorting out in my head how this awful situation can be sorted out. It certainly does not appear to be one of clear right versus clear wrong as could be said of the Vietnam War, for example.
I think we need to acknowledged that the forces fighting the US may impose a regime no less objectionable than the one which existed prior to 2001 should they win.
Is there any reason to hope that any of those who are now fighting the US would be any better than those who ruled in 2001? (Or let me know if the article referred to provides the answer.)
Another concern, which may seem to sit at odds with my views opposed to US foreign policy, is that Australia, itself, appears to be effectively becoming a colony of China.
See my article "Stop the sell-off of Australia's mineral wealth!". Contrary to far-left orthodoxy that I once espoused, Australia, seems to have become a Third World economy as a consequence of neo-liberalism and globalisation.
The Whitlam Labor Government Energy Minister, Rex Connor, briefly tried to buy back our country's mineral wealth in 1974. however, he didn't dot all his i's and cross all his t's when he tried to secretly raise the necessary loans and was viciously attacked by the Murdoch media as a consequence. This, combined with other factors, including CIA meddling, led to the downfall of the Whitlam government in 1975.
Today, as a result, foreign investment companies, including, ironically, even Chinese state-owned companies are largely free to buy up our mineral wealth and even real estate.
Whilst much of the world rightly fears, US military expansion, I also fear Chinese economic and military expansion.
Home page
blog
"(Or let me know if the
"(Or let me know if the article referred to provides the answer.)" We can point things out to you but I'm afraid you will have to do your own reading.
"Australia, itself, appears to be effectively becoming a colony of China."
Australia has always been a colony. And if we (white Australians) hadn't passed the colonial system and its attendant abuse and control onto the indigenous Australians, we would know how to alleviate our own position now.
"Australia, seems to have become a Third World economy as a consequence of neo-liberalism and globalisation"
It has always been thus. You need to understand how the banking system is structured and works before you can do any good for others if you want to represent them. There are many good articles here in the forum section and Steve Lendman is doing an excellent review of Ellen Brown book, "Web of Debt" here:-
Part 1
Part 11
Part 111
Part 1V
"The Whitlam Labor Government Energy Minister, Rex Connor, briefly tried to buy back our country's mineral wealth in 1974. however, he didn't dot all his i's and cross all his t's when he tried to secretly raise the necessary loans and was viciously attacked by the Murdoch media as a consequence. This, combined with other factors, including CIA meddling, led to the downfall of the Whitlam government in 1975."
The Whitlam Government could have borrowed all the money it needed at no interest from its own bank, The Reserve Bank of Australia, if they had only known. Aust Left hero and government advisor at the time, "Nuggett" Combes, could have told them, but didn't.
The Whitlam Government pissed off J.P. Morgan & Co whom generations of Australians had been diligently working for unknowingly.
Australia has never had effective sovereignty except for a brief period in the early twentieth century courtesy of the Fisher Labor Government. Two heroes of that period are Sir Dennison Miller and "King" O'Malley (an American, btw). You need to research these people to understand Australia's economic history and the way out of its present predicament.
If Australians want to be left alone or supported instead of exploited, it has to learn to leave others alone or support them instead of exploiting them, starting today. And that means, amongst other things, getting the hell out of Afghanistan.
Australia acted as sovereign nation at least prior to 1945
Thanks for the links to the reviews. I have since ordered a copy of "The Web of Debt".
In fact I had already republished one of Ellen Brown's articles on our web site, "Revive Lincoln's monetary policy - an open letter to President Obama" and would have published a few more if I had had the time.
James wrote:
The Whitlam Government could have borrowed all the money it needed at no interest from its own bank, The Reserve Bank of Australia, if they had only known. Aust Left hero and government advisor at the time, "Nuggett" Combes, could have told them, but didn't.
Well, I had been told for some time that "Nugget" Coombes (not 'Combes' BTW) was one of the good guys in Australian history, but if I change my opinion of him, it won't be the first time.
James wrote:
Australia has never had effective sovereignty except for a brief period in the early twentieth century courtesy of the Fisher Labor Government.
In fact, it seems to me that Australia behaved as an independent nation between the First and Second World Wars when it developed its industries and became one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. It's a fact not widely understood that the Japanese Army knowing how militarily capable Australia was in March 1942 vetoed the Japanese Navy's plans to invade Australia in March 1942, that is two months before the Battle of the Coral Sea, which most historians tell us saved us from invasion. Andrew Ross's "Armed and Ready - the Industrial Development and Defence of Australia 1900-1945" published in 1995 shows conclusively that the Japanese Army's assessment of Australia's military capability was right. I have referred to this in an article (slightly flawed because I had not, at the time, woken up to what had happened on 11 September 2001) "The myth of the Howard Government's Defence Competence" of 21 Nov 2001.
If it was possible to depict Australia as overly subservient to Britain during the wars, it was because it was necessary in order to maintain trade relations favourable to Australian primary producers whilst it clandestinely built up its industrial base to the detriment of British manufacturers as Ross has shown.
Since the end of the second World War Australian governments have allowed this country to lose its technological edge and today the economy is largely based on land speculation and exporting mineral wealth.
Home page
blog
Sovereignty and Money
“We have before us the greatest question that has yet been submitted for our consideration. It involves Australia’s national supremacy (sovereignty -
in finance, and the peace, good government and prosperity of generations yet unborn….”
— King O’Malley M.H.R. speaking on the need for the Commonwealth Bank as a ‘peoples’ bank’, House of Representatives, September 1909."
This article by Jeremy Lee should explain what I meant when I said,
"Australia has never had effective sovereignty except for a brief period in the early twentieth century courtesy of the Fisher Labor Government."
Jeremy Lee keeps some strange company (Australian League of Rights) but I can't fault what he writes in this article.
Here are some quotable quotes and some brief but excellent explanations
And it seems we were both wrong in spelling ole Nugget's name.
Chinese economic and military expansion
"I also fear Chinese economic and military expansion."
well said, and quite rightly, too, in my view.
The unmentioned problem here is that the US, by meddling in foreign countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, weakens them and makes them much more vulnerable than they otherwise would have been ... quite possibly leaving them "easy pickings" for expansionist powers in the region.
I know there's no equivalence, but when I think of Afghanistan and Pakistan at the moment I can't help also thinking of Vietnam and Cambodia. Chasing guerrilla fighters who were simply trying to defend their homeland, the US bombed the smithereens out of a peaceful country, destabilized and ultimately destroyed what had been a friendly government, and opened the doors for Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge and all the atrocities that followed. I would hate to see anything similar happen to Pakistan but I can't say I have much hope.
it's not just the lie ...
it's not just the pretext ... and it's just that the US is not leaving. Obama has made no secret of the fact that the defense of Israel and the destruction of Afghanistan are his top priorities. He wants to "finish the war against al Qaeda", but he's not about to admit what al Qaeda really is or what finishing the war really means.
Furthermore, the Taliban came to power with US support, and may do so again. They may have done so already, for all we know. We're too busy running bombing missions against innocent civilians and blaming it on the Taliban.
And that's the point, one of the hidden points underlying the piece. The United States has deliberately, deceitfully, destabilized both Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have no reason to believe that the US intends to (or even could) reverse that process -- especially with some of the same people in power who started this whole mess in the first place!
Ethnic cleansing
Winter, do you think the operation in the Swat valley is about ethnic cleansing (how Orwellian) for military and economic (stealing land) reasons as well as a way of stressing the rest of Pakistan society?
Do you expect the same strategy in Balochistan? i.e Iraq all over again, or even Palestine all over again?
good questions and very timely
Hi, James. I'm working on a post that will answer some of your questions, and I will try to get back to the remainder as soon as I can.
my opinions...
I don't see ethnic cleansing is as the most powerful driving force. It's certainly in the mix and it's definitely used as a "multiplier" for propaganda purposes. But the war doesn't really understand or care much about who it kills. It mostly cares about where they live and how much easier it would be to exploit certain natural resources and strenghthen certain business relationships if they didn't live there anymore.
Also there's a substantial financial gain to be made for anyone selling weapons to be used against anyone anywhere anytime, and that certainly plays into it too.
Swat and Balochistan are two different questions of course and I will try to get back to you on Swat ... but in the meantime:
The Pakistani army has been hammering Balochistan for years and years now, under the radar of the "free-world" press. Why? Balochistan has everything: oil wealth, pipeline routes, and ports; plus it's ideally situated from a tactical point of view (i.e. bases in Balochistan would be very beneficial to anyone trying to assert control in the region).
As far as I understand it, Balochistan is "lawless" and "tribal", meaning there's no defense budget and no espionage establishment and no propaganda machine and all in all Balochistan is extremely vulnerable to modern "full-spectrum" warfare. A very difficult situation, no? Of course similar situations exist in many parts of the world.
For more on Balochistan and what's been happening there, I recommend this piece from Pakistan's The Post: "We fear extinction"
The WABAC machine
But the war doesn't really understand or care much about who it kills. It mostly cares about where they live and how much easier it would be to exploit certain natural resources and strengthen certain business relationships if they didn't live there anymore.
I always go back with Mr. Peabody to Native America, in my Wayback Machine. The genocide of the Indian fits perfectly with Winter's words, and my own words, that this was never an honorable or great country. In fact, it's still under occupation.
Help, Mr. Peabody. Time marches on.
P.S. (sorry)
I'm of the mind that, in order to make anything right, we must go back to the beginning and make right the wrongs that were done IN THE BEGINNING.
Still no one pays any attention to the Native American---except to gamble at their casinos.
Anyway, that's what I think.
Assimilation---let me explain.
The 'indian' has been assimilated, I think it's been said---hence, the casinos. Can we say 'corrupted'?
There is a word I use---washi'chu: The first people who lived on the northern plains of what today is the United States called themselves "Lakota," meaning "the people," a word which provides the semantic basis for Dakota. The first European people to meet the Lakota called them "Sioux," a contraction of Nadowessioux, a now-archaic French-Canadian word meaning "snake" or enemy.
The Lakota also used the metaphor to describe the newcomers. It was Wasi'chu, which means "takes the fat," or "greedy person." Within the modern Indian movement, Wasi'chu has come to mean those corporations and individuals, with their governmental accomplices, which continue to covet Indian lives, land, and resources for private profit.
Wasi'chu is also a human condition based on inhumanity, racism, and exploitation. It is a sickness, a seemingly incurable and contagious disease which begot the ever advancing society of the West.
If we do not control it, this disease will surely be the basis for what may be the last of the continuing wars against the Native American people.
Oops, too late.
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