Let’s take a look at history first:
Most American high school history books describe how the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, “without provocation and with overwhelming force”. America then “came to the rescue” of the Afghan “resistance”. This happened under president Jimmy Carter.
Yet Carter’s National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski confirms that it was the US and not the Soviet Union which started the war:
“According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention….” (Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Le Nouvel Observateur, 15-21 November 1998)
In other words, the Soviet-Afghan war was triggered on the orders of President Carter, the latest recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize!
Jimmy Carter was not only instrumental in unleashing the war (which has been ongoing for the last 23 years), he was also the architect of the CIA’s covert support to Islamic terrorism. In fact, it turns out that prime 9/11 suspect, Saudi born Osama bin Laden, was recruited during that period “ironically under the auspices of the CIA, to fight the Soviet invaders”. (See Michel Chossudovsky, War and Globalisation, The Truth behind September 11 , Global Outlook, Shanty Bay, 2002, Chapter 2)
Carter’s July 3, 1979 Directive
Following President Carter’s July 3, 1979 directive, US support to various rebel groups evolved into the largest covert operation in CIA history. In the words of Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski:
“…That secret operation [in support of Islamic fundamentalism] was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
The Nouvel Observateur journalist concludes the interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski with following question:
“And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
To which Brzezinski retorts:
“What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war? “
The 2002 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former President Jimmy Carter for:
“his decades of untiring efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights and to promote economic and social development.” (Norwegian Nobel Institute, http://www.nobel.no/eng_ins_new.html , 11 October 2002)
Source: Global Research
So what will Russia do? Help?
Maybe Russia will just sit back, do nothing and watch NATO and the US fail!
The head of Nato appealed to Russia for greater help with the war in Afghanistan yesterday as he sought to repair relations between the military alliance and Moscow.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen asked President Medvedev to supply helicopters and prepare pilots for the Afghan air force, and expand training for Afghan police in Russia. It was the first visit by a Nato leader since Russia’s war with Georgia last year caused the most serious rift in relations since the Cold War.
“I do believe that it’s also essential for Russia that we succeed in Afghanistan,” Mr Rasmussen said during the Kremlin talks. “Because if Afghanistan once again becomes a safe haven for terrorists, then Russia would be among the victims, as terrorists could easily spread from Afghanistan through Central Asia to Russia.”
Mr Medvedev said that Russia and Nato had “many reasons for interaction”. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was at the meeting, said that the President had ordered officials to study the requests and prepare a response.
“We also expect our ideas to be considered by the alliance,” Mr Lavrov added, a reference to Mr Medvedev’s recent proposal for a new pan-European security treaty that Nato has largely ignored.
The Kremlin is anxious to prevent any return to power by the Taleban in Afghanistan. But it is also fearful of being drawn into the conflict after the Soviet Union’s painful experience of fighting a decade-long war in the country before withdrawing in defeat in 1989.
It has provided logistical support to Nato operations and sent $220 million of military aid to the Afghan government, including an air-defence system for Kabul airport. Russia also sold four Mi-17 helicopters to Afghanistan last month, the country’s first new aircraft for 20 years.
Mr Rasmussen, a former Prime Minister of Denmark, declared that better relations with Russia were a priority after he became Nato’s Secretary-General in August. Mr Medvedev said yesterday that he hoped ties would grow “stronger and more productive”.
Kommersant newspaper reported yesterday that the Nato chief would ask Moscow to allow the alliance to transport weaponry across its territory. A deal agreed in July allows the United States to fly troops and equipment across Russia to Afghanistan, but other states are restricted to sending non-lethal supplies by rail.
Mr Rasmussen met later with Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, who said that he hoped for greater cooperation between Russia and Nato. The Kremlin said before the visit, which continues today (thurs), that the two sides would also discuss Iran’s nuclear programme.
Russia, which is building Iran’s first nuclear power station at Bushehr, is under pressure to join international sanctions in response to fears that Tehran is secretly developing an atomic bomb.
December 17, 2009
Tony Halpin in Moscow
Source: The Times
The endless war on terror:
– US Forces Chief Admiral Mike Mullen Warns of More Fighting And Casualties in Afghanistan
– Rep. Dennis Kucinich: ‘These Wars Are Corrupting The Heart Of Our Nation!’
– Rep. Dennis Kucinich: The Truth About Afghanistan
– Obama administration tells Pakistan: Tackle Taliban or we will
– Dennis Kucinich: Afghans ‘don’t want to be saved by us, they want to be saved from us.’
– MSNBC Rachel Maddow: War President Obama
– Ron Paul: ‘Obama is Actually Preparing Us For Perpetual War’
– Afghanistan Surge to Cost At Least $40 Billion, That Is $1.333.333 For One US Soldier Per Year
– President Obama ‘to deploy 30,000 troops to Afghanistan’
– CIA Secret ‘Torture’ Prison Found at Fancy Horseback Riding Academy Outside Vilnius, Lithuania
– British military forces told to ‘bribe’ the Taliban with ‘bags of gold’
– Afghanistan: New 67-Million-Dollar US Prison At Bagram
– The ‘Obama Market’ in Kabul: US Military Rations, Sleeping Bags, Tactical Goggles on Sale
– Paul Craig Roberts: Republic of Fools & The Evil Empire
Murray asserts that the primary motivation for US and British military involvement in central Asia has to do with large natural gas deposits in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As evidence, he points to the plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan that would allow Western oil companies to avoid Russia and Iran when transporting natural gas out of the region.
Murray alleged that in the late 1990s the Uzbek ambassador to the US met with then-Texas Governor George W. Bush to discuss a pipeline for the region, and out of that meeting came agreements that would see Texas-based Enron gain the rights to Uzbekistan’s natural gas deposits, while oil company Unocal worked on developing the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline.
“The consultant who was organizing this for Unocal was a certain Mr. Karzai, who is now president of Afghanistan,” Murray noted.
“There are designs of this pipeline, and if you look at the deployment of US forces in Afghanistan, as against other NATO country forces in Afghanistan, you’ll see that undoubtedly the US forces are positioned to guard the pipeline route. It’s what it’s about. It’s about money, it’s about oil, it’s not about democracy.”
“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department’s head of personnel. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.”
– Three US helicopters crash in Afghanistan, 14 Americans killed
– Morale dips for American marines in Afghanistan:
“I’m not much for this war. I’m not sure it’s worth all those lives lost,” said Sergeant Christian Richardson as we walked across corn fields that will soon be ploughed up to plant a spring crop of opium poppy.
– Afghanistan opium production reaches 6,900 tons:
Opium production rate has soared to 6,900 tons in Afghanistan in the past 10 years ‘despite‘ the presence of 100,000 foreign troops in the country for nearly eight years.
A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said on Wednesday that Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world’s opium that has devastating global consequences.
The UN report also noted that Afghanistan’s illegal opium production is worth 65 billion dollars.
The heroin and opium market feeds 15 million addicts, with Europe, Russia and Iran consuming half the supply, UNODC reported.
– Ron Paul: ‘The more troops we send the worse things get!’
– Ron Paul On The US Afghanistan War Policy
– Italians bribed the Taleban all over Afghanistan, say two senior Afghan officials
– Pentagon spends $400 per gallon of gas in Afghanistan
– I was ordered to cover up President Karzai election fraud, sacked UN envoy says
– President Obama quietly deploying 13,000 more US troops to Afghanistan
– Congressman Alan Grayson on Afghanistan
– Ten more US soldiers killed in Afghanistan
– ‘We’re pinned down:’ 4 US Marines die in Afghan ambush
– Top US commander in Afghanistan: The Taliban have gained the upper hand:
The Taliban have gained the upper hand in Afghanistan, the top American commander there said, forcing the U.S. to change its strategy in the eight-year-old conflict by increasing the number of troops in heavily populated areas like the volatile southern city of Kandahar, the insurgency’s spiritual home. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that means U.S. casualties, already running at record levels, will remain high for months to come.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal)
– General Sir David Richards: Afghanistan will take 30 to 40 years
– Former SAS Comander: Afghan operation is ‘worthless’
