Köhler was telling the truth or at least pointing to it:
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.”
– Köhler under fire for ‘economic war’ remarks:
German President Horst Köhler sparked a political storm on Thursday by suggesting Germany’s military involvement in Afghanistan was partly motivated by its economic interests rather than solely to guarantee its security.
In an interview he gave during his recent visit to the strife-torn country, Köhler appeared to say that the public debate about the war in Afghanistan was gradually facing up to the fact that protecting foreign trade was a legitimate reason for military action.
The remarks from Saturday to broadcaster Deutschlandradio, which have just now been seized on by opposition politicians, have prompted a furious debate about Germany’s military deployment – and whether Köhler has damaged the image of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
President Köhler resigns
German President Horst Köhler announced his surprise resignation on Monday after appearing to suggest the country’s unpopular Afghanistan mission was partly motivated by commercial interests.
“I announce my resignation from the office of the federal presidency with immediate affect,” Köhler said in Berlin.
He said the decision came after withering criticism of comments he made connecting Germany’s military deployment in Afghanistan with the country’s economy.
“This criticism had absolutely no justification,” said the 67-year-old former head of the International Monetary Fund.
Looking emotional, Köhler asked for his supporters to understand his surprising resignation. The conservative Christian Democrats was nominated to be the country’s largely ceremonial head of state in 2004 and re-elected in 2009.
“It was an honour for me to serve Germany,” he said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said she regretted his departure.
“I tried to get the president to change his mind but unfortunately I was unsuccessful,” Merkel told reporters.
“I always worked very well together with Horst Köhler. He was an important adviser, particularly in the financial and economic crisis, with his large international experience. I will miss this advice.”
But his remarks just over a week ago prompted a furious debate about Germany’s military engagement – and whether Köhler had damaged the image of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
Köhler began by saying that Germany was in the country, alongside its allies, to ensure its security and that it was good and proper for these issues to be openly and robustly discussed.
He then added: “But my estimation is that, on the whole, we are on the way to understanding, even broadly in society, that a country of our size, with this orientation toward foreign trade and therefore also dependence on foreign trade, has to be aware that when in doubt in case of an emergency, military deployment is also necessary to protect our interests.
For example, free trade routes, for example to prevent instability in a whole region, which certainly have an negative impact on our opportunities via trade, jobs and income. All of that ought to be discussed and I believe that we are not doing too badly.”
The remarks appeared to be a major departure from the political orthodoxy on the Afghanistan mission, which says the Bundeswehr is there to protect Germany from terrorist groups who would use the country as a base were it to descend into lawlessness or Islamist theocracy.
Köhler said his comments were “misunderstood” and that he was not referring to the mission in Afghanistan, where Germany has 4,500 troops in a NATO-led force fighting a Taliban-led insurgency.
But Wichard Woyke from the University of Münster told television station N-TV that he deserved the hefty criticism because he had spoken out of turn.
“It is not the president’s job to get mixed up in political affairs but he did. He should not be surprised that the criticism was so severe,” said Woyke.
According to the German constitution, the president of the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, will temporarily take over Köhler’s duties. Currently that post is held by Bremen Mayor Jens Böhrnsen from the centre-left Social Democrats.
The German president is elected by the Federal Convention comprising members of both houses of parliament. His replacement must now be elected within the next 30 days.
AFP/DDP/The Local ([email protected])
Published: 31 May 10 14:12 CET
Updated: 31 May 10 18:25 CET
Source: The Local
More on the war on terror:
– Afghans Are Convinced That The US Is Funding The Taliban
– Taliban get £1,600 bounty for each Nato soldier killed
– Taliban attack biggest NATO base in Afghanistan
– President Obama Wins The Right to Detain People With No Habeas Review
– Law Prof. David Glazier: CIA Drone Pilots Could Be Tried for ‘War Crimes’
– German troops in Afghanistan call on Angela Merkel to explain why they are at war
– Rioters vent fury at US after Nato troops kill Afghan civilians on bus
– WikiLeaks Plans to Post Video Showing US Massacre of Afghani Civilians
– Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld ‘Knew Guantánamo Prisoners Were Innocent’
– Obama Administration Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric
– John Pilger: Have a Nice World War III, Folks
– US shipping hundreds of powerful bunker buster bombs for coming attack on Iran
– Secret Pentagon Spy Network Hired To ‘Track And Kill’
– Rep. Ron Paul: Five Minute Speech in Support of Rep. Kucinich’s Afghanistan Resolution
– US Drone Strikes in Pakistan: 1 in 3 Killed Are Civilians
– Blackwater Guards Stole Hundreds Of Weapons In Kabul And Went On Deadly Rampage
– Judge Napolitano and Angela Keaton on Freedom Watch: Obama’s Bush Foreign Policy
– The New Vision of the Obama Administration: War Without End
– International Fund to Buy Off Taliban Leaders in Afghanistan Will Cost Hundreds of Millions
– Ron Paul: US Foreign Policy is Bankrupting America
– Pentagon backtracks after Defense Secretary Robert Gates ‘admits’ Blackwater operating in Pakistan
– US Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes (ABC News Investigation)
– US Marine Commander: Afghan surge troops won’t target drug crops
– Afghan CIA suicide bomber ‘was courted as potential informant’
– 857 US Soldiers Died in Afghanistan Region Since 2001
– Obama’s surge comes at a cost: At least $57,077.60 per minute
– Nato appeals to Russia for more help with the war in Afghanistan
– 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’
