In an address yesterday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Phoenix, Arizona, President Obama said that the United States “didn’t choose to fight in Afghanistan, but was forced to invade that country to stop future Sept. 11-type attacks at home”.
Really?
The fact of the matter is, as this article in The Debate published on August 18 reveals, that “America has wanted a new government in Afghanistan since at least 1998, three years before the attacks on 11 September 2001. The official report from a meeting of the U.S. Government’s foreign policy committee on 12 February 1998, available on the U.S. Government website, confirms that the need for a West-friendly government was recognised long before the War on Terror that followed September 11th”:
The U.S. Government’s position is that we support multiple pipelines… The Unocal pipeline is among those pipelines that would receive our support under that policy. I would caution that while we do support the project, the U.S. Government has not at this point recognized any governing regime of the transit country, one of the transit countries, Afghanistan, through which that pipeline would be routed. But we do support the project.” [ U.S. House of Reps., "U.S. Interests in the Central Asian Republics", 12 Feb 1998 ]
The only other possible route [for the desired oil pipeline] is across, Afghanistan which has of course its own unique challenges.” [ "U.S. Interests in the Central Asian Republics", 12 Feb 1998 ]
CentGas can not begin construction until an internationally recognized Afghanistan Government is in place.” [ "U.S. Interests in the Central Asian Republics", 12 Feb 1998 ]
The Afghanistan oil pipeline project was finally able to proceed in May 2002. This could not have happened if America had not taken military action to replace the government in Afghanistan.
Secondly, as the TIMELINE in the same article shows, US military action in Afghanistan began long before the World Trade Center fell.
So, when Obama says that the US “didn’t choose to fight in Afghanistan, but was forced to invade that country to stop future Sept. 11-type attacks at home”, he is simply CHATTING SHIT.
The real reason why we are in Afghanistan is oil. As Jon Flanders writes in jonGas, Oil and Afghanistan:
Most of us know that the Middle East is a center of activity for world oil production. Some of us have heard about the Caspian Sea, and the touted possibilities for great oil resources there. But few would think that rocky, war torn Afghanistan might be part of this energy production picture.Yet it most certainly is. And the information about Afghanistan’s role is readily available on the World Wide Web to anyone who wants to investigate. Indeed, much of the information comes from US government sources like the Voice of America.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc., on May 28, 2001, Michael Klare, author of the book Resource Wars, and Director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies based at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, says:
I think in this case this is a national security consideration that’s driving all of this. The United States has to get that oil from that region [Central Asia] and will make a deal with whatever governments are there in place that are willing to work with us [that is, the US], like the government[s] in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan that are far from ideal with respect to human rights and democratic procedure. And I think that’s a reflection of the view that I write about in my book — we [the US] view oil as a security consideration and we have to protect it by any means necessary, regardless of other considerations, other values.
Either President Obama has known this all along, and for reasons best known to himself (and his chums on the CFR) is keeping mum about it, or he is a singularly uninformed guy who knows nothing of the work of people like Michael Klare, which is difficult to believe.
President Obama: If Caspian oil is essential for our national security please say so openly and honestly and lets have an open and honest debate about whether this oil is worth the cost in lives, largesse and our international reputation or whether we should look into other sources of energy, such as hemp and alcohol, but please don’t insult our intelligence with this bullshit about 9/11.
Continue reading ‘Obama, Afghanistan and Oil’
