Afghanistan

[Michaelangelica]

Not quite so forgotten now?

Rudd in surprise Afghanistan visit

From correspondents in Kabul

December 23, 2007 01:26am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

* Australia in Afghanistan 'for the long haul'
* Rudd meets Diggers based in Uruzgan province
* Rudd meets President Hamid Karzai in Kabul

AUSTRALIA is in Afghanistan for the "long haul", Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on a surprise visit to the country, which is battling an intensifying insurgency led by Taliban extremists.

Rudd held talks with President Hamid Karzai hours after French President Nicolas Sarkozy also made an unannounced visit to meet his soldiers with a NATO-led force of nearly 40 nations helping to fight extremism.

"One of the messages I delivered to His Excellency the president today is that Australia is here in Afghanistan for a long haul," Mr Rudd said.
. . .
Rudd's new government had warned NATO and its allies that they would lose the war against hardline Taliban forces unless they urgently changed tactics.

Rudd in surprise Afghanistan visit | NEWS.com.au

[Michaelangelica]

This is worth listening to.
It puts everything into a historical context.

You wonder how different the world would be if the British and USAans wre less interventionist and more neutral.

Afghanistan: a history of invasion

Over the past 2 centuries, Afghanistan has been invaded five times and each time the Afghans have forced the invading troops to retreat. With the Taliban now regaining its hold in Afghanistan, does the same fate await the US and its allies?
This program was first broadcast 19/11/2006 Read Transcript

RN Rear Vision - 23 December 2007 - Afghanistan: a history of invasion
It would be best to listen to, but I can't find that link. It is on now; 1.37 pm Sunday 23/12/07

[Michaelangelica]

Troops needed in Afghanistan 'for at least 10yrs'

Posted 11 hours 57 minutes ago





* Audio: Afghanistan needs Aussie soldiers for 10 years: expert (AM)
* Related Story: PM commits to 'long haul' in Afghanistan

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has arrived back in Australia after a surprise visit to Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Rudd pledged an extra $110 million to help rebuild Afghanistan and says Australian soldiers will remain in the country for what he calls "the long haul".

Troops needed in Afghanistan 'for at least 10yrs' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Michaelangelica]

Are we in Afghanistan so USA multinationals can put an oil/gas pipeline though it?

Is this why we (USA Aust.) continue to give millions in aid to the dictatorial, murderous, undemocratic regime of Pakistan. A rogue country with WMDs?

Monday, 13 May, 2002, 10:20 GMT 11:20 UK
Afghanistan plans gas pipeline

BBC News | BUSINESS | Afghanistan plans gas pipeline

Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline
The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAP or TAPI) is a proposed natural gas pipeline being developed by the Asian Development Bank. The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India.

Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[DougF]

Thanks Michaelangelica,
I've been reading Afghanistan news and links on this new gas line,
and as I remember it (or as the US news told us) we were there
(Afghanistan) to help the people and stop the killing.
But it's starting to look like someone has there hand in the cookie jar,
need to read more but thank you for bringing this to light.


PS I'll buy some string.

Afghan News Channel (A.N.C.)
Afghan News Network {Latest News about Afghanistan} First in Afghan News Worldwide!
myAfghan News

[REASON]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

Are we in Afghanistan so USA multinationals can put an oil/gas pipeline though it?

YES!

Watch Fahrenheit 9/11 (again if you've already seen it).

Plans were developed long ago to capitalize on the vast natural gas resources in the Caspian Sea. To do this, a pipeline would have to pass through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in order to bypass Iran, and be pumped into India.

In 1997, a senior delegation of the Taliban was invited to Houston, TX to meet with Unocal officials in an effort to convince them that it would be in their interests to allow the pipeline project to go through their territory. (edit: According to Wiki, the Taliban signed an agreement in January 1998 in favor of CentGas, but by December, the deal broke up and Unocal withdrew from the consortium)

After our invasion in 2001, Hamid Karzai, allegedly a former consultant with Unocal, was named interim leader of Afghanistan once the Taliban were routed, and his first order of business was to sign the agreement that allowed the pipline project to commence.

.....and we were off to Iraq.

AlterNet: War on Iraq: From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with Oil

Currently in Iraq, we are awaiting their passage of the new "Hydrocarbon Law" which contains language relating to PSAs (Production Sharing Agreements) that would give the major US and UK oil corporations control of approximately 75% of Iraqs oil development, production and distribution over the next 30 years. The law is stalling in the Iraqi congress over concerns that they are giving too much control over to the Westerners. Once this agreement is in place, I would expect our role in Iraq to begin to change. But I don't think we're going anywhere any time soon. Our primary interest is to protect those resources.

Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq’s Oil Wealth - UN Security Council - Global Policy Forum

Those of you who still think our involvement in the Middle East has anything to do with fighting terrorism are easy fodder for the wolves in sheep's clothing. If anything, we are confirming the fears of the radical Islamists and providing a cause for recruitment of more terrorists. As long as we have our hands on the oil and gas, we don't really care.

[LaurieAG]

Originally Posted by REASON

As long as we have our hands on the oil and gas, we don't really care.

Hi Reason,

But how long can that continue to happen?

[REASON]

Originally Posted by LaurieAG

Hi Reason,

Hey Laurie.

Originally Posted by LaurieAG

But how long can that continue to happen?

What? Having our hands on other countries' resources? Occupying Iraq and Afghanistan or whatever other country we deem necessary for whatever reason? Not caring?

As long as we, as a democratic society, allow it.

But you can't expect people to rise up and make a change when they they don't really know what's going on, or they prefer to remain in a state of denial, or, in their utter state of hubris, like it this way.

[DougF]

Thanks REASON,
I found this read quite interesting,


AlterNet: War on Iraq: From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with Oil

*Note: I Bold-ed the text in Quote from said article*

The preparations had all been done secretly, wholly within the executive branch. The Congress was not informed until the endgame, when President Bush, making his dishonest case for the "war on terror" asked for and was granted the discretion to use military force. The American people were equally uninformed and misled. Probably never before in our history was such a drastic and momentous action undertaken with so little public knowledge or Congressional oversight:

an article in the trade journal "Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections"
<-->
The article continued, "...some recent reports ... indicated ... the United States was willing to police the pipeline infrastructure through permanent stationing of its troops in the region." The article appeared on February 23, 2003.

The objective of the first premeditated war was now achieved. The Bush Administration stood ready with financing to build the pipeline across Afghanistan, and with a permanent military presence to protect it.

Within two months President Bush sent the armed might of America sweeping into Iraq.

Then came the smokescreen of carefully crafted deceptions. The staging of the Jessica Lynch rescue. The toppling of the statue in Baghdad. Mission accomplished. The orchestrated capture, kangaroo court trial, and hurried execution of Saddam Hussein. Nascent "democracy" in Iraq. All were scripted to burnish the image of George Bush's fraudulent war.

The smokescreen includes the cover-up of 9/11.

The objectives of the oil wars may be non-negotiable, but that doesn't guarantee their successful achievement.

The evidence suggests the contrary.

As recently as January of 2005, the Associated Press expected construction of the Trans Afghan Pipeline to begin in 2006. So did News Central Asia. But by October of 2006, NCA was talking about construction "... as soon as there is stability in Afghanistan."

As the Taliban, the warlords, and the poppy growers reclaim control of the country, clearly there is no stability in Afghanistan, and none can be expected soon.

Unocal has been bought up by the Chevron Corporation. The Bridas Corporation is now part of BP/Amoco. Searching the companies' websites for "Afghanistan pipeline" yields, in both cases, zero results. Nothing is to be found on the sites of the prospective funding agencies. The pipeline project appears to be dead.

The Production Sharing Agreements for Iraq's oil fields cannot be signed until the country's oil policies are codified in statute. That was supposed to be done by December of 2006, but Iraq is in a state of chaotic violence. The "hydrocarbon law" is struggling along -- one report suggests it may be in place by March -- so the signing of the PSA's will be delayed at least that long.

The U.S. and British companies that stand to gain so much -- Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, Concoco/Phillips, BP/Amoco and Royal Dutch Shell -- will stand a while longer. They may well have to stand down.

On October 31, 2006 the newspaper China Daily reported on the visit to China by Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani. Mr. Shahristani, the story said, "welcomed Chinese oil companies to participate in the reconstruction of the Iraqi oil industry." That was alarming, but understated.

Stratfor, the American investment research service, was more directly to the point, in a report dated September 27, 2006 (a month before Minister Shahristani's visit, so it used the future tense). The Minister "... will talk to the Chinese about honoring contracts from the Saddam Hussein era. ... This announcement could change the face of energy development in the country and leave U.S. firms completely out in the cold."

The oil wars are abject failures. The Project for a New American Century wanted, in a fantasy of retrograde imperialism, to remove Saddam Hussein from power. President George Bush launched an overt act of military aggression to do so, at a cost of more than 3,000 American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, and half a trillion dollars. In the process he has exacerbated the threats from international terrorism, ravaged the Iraqi culture, ruined their economy and their public services, sent thousands of Iraqis fleeing their country as refugees, created a maelstrom of sectarian violence, dangerously destabilized the Middle East, demolished the global prestige of the United States, and defamed the American people.

Originally Posted by LaurieAG
But how long can that continue to happen?

it sounds like we are going to stay a very long time, if not for ever.

[Michaelangelica]

Lots of reading and links ro catch up on thaks Guys
Still looking for how to send string and or kites to Afganistan troops
I found this the official Oz army site on what is happening in Afganistan
Australian Government, Department of Defence



Spying looks like it would be an easy job in Oz they seem to tell you everything.

Learning to fly
The crew of HMAS Bunbury did some kite flying recently to help keep their minds fresh while out on patrol.
Photo: LCDR Andy Schroder

where the Taliban ran that country. They used the soccer stadium to behead people. You couldn’t fly a kite, you couldn’t whistle, a woman couldn’t go out on the street without a male member of her family, and if she didn’t have one she couldn’t go out. And she couldn’t go to a doctor because they didn’t have women doctors.

And where are they today? They’ve got the first popularly elected president in five thousand years. They have an assembly, a congress, a constituent assembly. They have Afghan security forces that are being developed and contributing to the security in that country and they are making solid progress.

AND YOU CAN FLY A KITE !
Transcript
Flying kites seems to me to be a powerful message . A message of freedom from oppression and joy. It seems to me it would be a good way for NATO troops to make contact with the people of Afghanistan
Can girls fly kites?
I sent this letter to the PM