How can “we” best dominate Afghanistan?
That seems to be the question that most of the talking heads seek to answer in this PBS Frontline film.
Several of the speakers allude to pulling out and letting the Afghans fix their own country, but that idea is not seriously considered, not without a massive NATO/American domination campaign first.
Some moments of this PBS documentary are unintntionally hilarious, seeing a marine try and order the local people to return home and feel safe — even though he can’t get accurate intelligence about a sniper from his own translator.
Other segments are predictably maddening. The blanket remember 9/11 because that justifies everything ruse. As well as the pathetic “we” must win the hearts and minds of the poor ignorant savages we bomb to smithereens.
The main propaganda point of this film is that “we” need to do all of the above, do everything on all fronts even though none of it has worked in 8 years of mayhem and destruction.
Always blame “mistakes” on the past blunderers, and agree to forge ahead with new ideas. That takes care of the naysayers, and the mass-murdering business can continue as usual.
At least the film admits something that should have been front and center and the heart of the “international terrorism” matter 8 years ago:
46 minutes in:
Steve Coll: Author, The Bin Ladens
“This could not be a more complicated war. If you think about it, the United States is essentially waging a war against its own ally. The Taliban are a proxy of the government of Pakistan. We’re an ally of the government of Pakistan. We’re fighting the Taliban.”
You better read that one again, and do so without the blinkers on.
This is essentially common knowlege among the knowledgeable. Even General McChrystal admits to the press that the Pakistani government supports “the enemy.”
Obama just signed into law another 7.5 billion dollars in “aid” for the Pakistani government.
“We” are paying Pakistan to put enemy soldiers in the field. “We” have been for 8 years.
This war is phony baloney. The meat grinder of Afghanistan goes on because the US government funds both sides.
Also, the Pakistani intelligence was linked directly to the 9/11 attacks, although this was covered up. The U.S. funds not only the Taliban, but al Qaeda and other “Islamic terror networks” throughout the region.
To this day the US government shovels billions of dollars of US tax money to the Pakistani government including its intelligence arm (which acts as a shadow government and is very powerful there).
So, what the hell’s really going on in Afghanistan?
Why is the U.S. really there?
Is it to dominate central Asia with a credible threat of “power projection?”
Is it to ensure that the fake “terror war” continues into the indefinite future, with attached spending increases fueling the military industrial complex?
Is it about the pipleine routes from the Caspian sea basin?
Is it all of the above?
Steve Coll speculates:
“In the end the Taliban will be defeated strategically when the government of Pakistan makes a strategic decision that its future does not lie in partnership with Islamic extremists.”
Apparently this partnership pays handsomely in terms of US tax monies as well as opium profits.
The US gets an open-ended low intensity conflict to justify whatever it needs to justify.
Everyone’s happy. Right?
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