More Thoughts About The War Between The USA And Pakistan

Since I wrote my recent post about the war between the USA and Pakistan, some questions have come up which have put me in mind of a piece I posted about 18 months ago, featuring some very sharp commentary from a young female Pakistani journalist.

In a column published November 4, 2007, the day after emergency rule was declared in Pakistan, and in the midst of a strict political clampdown, Fatima Bhutto honored the restriction against ridiculing the President, General Pervez Musharraf, by not mentioning him at all.

you can read the whole post here and/or comment below

Comments

Corruption

Corruption: the gift that keeps on killing. Sometimes the enormity of it all; the "Russian Doll" like existence of corruption with its ever larger scales is overpowering yet so simple at the same time.
Why do these morons think their turn will never come? That they can position themselves in the food chain for an easy meal and never think to look carefully up the chain.

By saving those below you, you save yourself. We in the comfortable West need to think carefully about this . . . . . while we still can. Thanks Winter.

McJ's picture

Thanks for the great posts

Thanks for the great posts Winter.

I added one of Pepe Escobar's latest articles to the forum here. He does a great job of addressing the underlying reasons for the Af-Pak war.
Essentially Pakistan and Afghanistan are what he calls "transit corridors" in a battle between China (Russia/Iran) and the US (Israel/Europe) for control of oil and natural gas with the sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan being the prize.

What's new...just more blood for oil. The people living in these areas are simply in the way and expendable in the "New Great Game In Eurasia".

Snip:
Meanwhile, in "transit corridor" Pakistan, where Predator drones soaring over Pashtun tribal villages monopolize the headlines, the shady New Great Game slouches in under-the-radar mode toward the immense, under-populated southern Pakistani province of Balochistan. The future of the epic IPI vs. TAPI battle may hinge on a single, magic word: Gwadar.

Essentially a fishing village, Gwadar is an Arabian Sea port in that province. The port was built by China. In Washington's dream scenario, Gwadar becomes the new Dubai of South Asia. This implies the success of TAPI. For its part, China badly needs Gwadar as a node for yet another long pipeline to be built to western China. And where would the gas flowing in that line come from? Iran, of course.

Whoever "wins," if Gwadar really becomes part of the Liquid War, Pakistan will finally become a key transit corridor for either Iranian gas from the monster South Pars field heading for China, or a great deal of the Caspian gas from Turkmenistan heading Europe-wards. To make the scenario even more locally mouth-watering, Pakistan would then be a pivotal place for both NATO and the SCO (in which it is already an official "observer").

Now that's as classic as the New Great Game in Eurasia can get. There's NATO vs. the SCO. With either IPI or TAPI, Turkmenistan wins. With either IPI or TAPI, Russia loses. With either IPI or TAPI, Pakistan wins. With TAPI, Iran loses. With IPI, Afghanistan loses. In the end, however, as in any game of high stakes Pipelineistan poker, it all comes down to the top two global players. Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets: will the winner be Washington or Beijing?

He also points out the potential resource and mineral wealth of Afghanistan.
"it's worth remembering that [Afghanistan]... is believed to be rich in unexplored deposits of natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chrome, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, and iron ore, as well as precious and semiprecious stones."

Map of Afghanistan Known Resources at link:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/afghanistan_known_re...

"The most unpleasant truth in the long run is a far safer traveling companion than the most agreeable falsehood." Emerson

When the Means is the End

Thanks for the links to some illuminating articles, Winter.
I can't help thinking that civilians are being deliberately targeted in all these theatres of war; that they are in fact the principal target not the so-called terrorists. For instance the Afghan villagers that were bombed for two or more hours a couple of days ago. I keep thinking of the Irgun and Palestine 1948.
The another thing that keeps occuring to me is the "Balkanisation" strategy employed. It, too, has a history of effectiveness in control for short term business and long term political advantage.
And the final thing that keeps going around in my head is Michael Ledeen crowing about "creative destruction" together with the satanic sounding (to me at least) Masonic saying, "Out of Chaos, Order". Chaos is the common result of everything they do. Perhaps that's the whole point.
Perhaps the whole "pipelinistan" thing is designed to bring chaos by enlisting everybody's greed and fears to bring about the larger goal, globalwide chaos.

McJ's picture

Preparing for war on Pakistan


From Rehmat’s World:
Preparing for war on Pakistan
May 26, 2009
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/preparing-for-war-on-pakistan/

Sara Daniel is a well-known foreign correspondent for French weekly news magazine ‘le Nouvel Observateur’ and a so-called ‘expert’ in fundamentalist (only Islamic – not Jewish or Christianty!) guerrilla warfare (read resistance). Her father, Jean Daniel Bensaid (b. 1920) is an Algerian-born French Jewish journalist and author. He is founder and executive editor of ‘le Nouvel Observateur’ magazine. He was also a member of French Jewish think tank ‘Saint-Simon Foundation’ till it was dissolved in 1999. He is author of the book titled The Jewish Prison in which he says: “By considering themselves God’s ‘chosen people’, the Jews have imprisoned themselves.”

Sara Daniel in her latest article, titled The Bomb Within Range of the Taliban has put together all propaganda lies about Dr. Qadeer Khan, the Al-Qaeda myth, Taliban fighting against Pakistan Army in Swat, Islamic extremist groups, etc. – all the crap Zionists in Washington and Tel Aviv would love the world to believe in. Her entire rant revolve around Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, which according to her CIA source – poses greater nuclear threat than N. Korea and Islamic Iran – though the later is still few years far away developing a nuclear bomb, according to CIA and Mossad. In her self-denial – she ignore to mention the real threat posed by the 240-plus Jewish nuclear bombs, according to European Union Poll 2003.

Obama administration under pressure from powerful Jewish Lobby is spending million of dollars on war-lords from Afghanistan through Indian RAW, Israeli Mossad and its puppet Zardari government to destablized the country to such extent that Pakistan Army has no alternative but to take-over the power. Admiral Mike Mullen, US Joint Chief of Staff spilled the beans during his interview with Time magazine by choosing Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistan Army Chief, to be among the top 20 most influential people in the world. Zionist Obama put his stamp of approval by saying: “I am more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile.”

Pakistani journalist and former talk-show host, Ahmed Qureshi, has claimed that India is spent close to US$650 on Swat terrorists to destablize Pakistan.

One may ask what made Washington turn against its closest Muslim ally on its ‘war against Islam’? The answer is given by author Pepe Escobar in his article titled Balochistan is the ultimate prize as below:

Balochistan is totally under the radar of Western corporate media. But not the Pentagon’s. An immense desert comprising almost 48% of Pakistan’s area, rich in uranium and copper, potentially very rich in oil, and producing more than one-third of Pakistan’s natural gas.

Strategically, Balochistan is mouth-watering: east of Iran, south of Afghanistan, and boasting three Arabian sea ports, including Gwadar, practically at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz.

Gwadar – a port built by China – is the absolute key. It is the essential node in the crucial, ongoing, and still virtual Pipelineistan war between IPI and TAPI. IPI is the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, also known as the “peace pipeline”, which is planned to cross from Iranian to Pakistani Balochistan – an anathema to Washington. TAPI is the perennially troubled, US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which is planned to cross western Afghanistan via Herat and branch out to Kandahar and Gwadar.

Now imagine thousands of mobile US troops – backed by supreme air power and hardcore artillery – pouring into this desert across the immense, 800-kilometer-long, empty southern Afghanistan-Balochistan border. These are Obama’s surge troops who will be in theory destroying opium crops in Helmand province in Afghanistan. They will also try to establish a meaningful presence in the ultra-remote, southwest Afghanistan, Baloch-majority province of Nimruz. It would take nothing for them to hit Pakistani Balochistan in hot pursuit of Taliban bands. And this would certainly be a prelude for a de facto US invasion of Balochistan.

There’s ample controversy on whether the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) is being hijacked by foreign intelligence agencies – everyone from the CIA and the British MI6 to the Israeli Mossad. In a 2006 visit to Iran, I was prevented from going to Sistan-Balochistan in southeast Iran because, according to Tehran’s version, infiltrated CIA from Pakistani Balochistan were involved in covert, cross-border attacks. And it’s no secret to anyone in the region that since 9/11 the US virtually controls the Baloch air bases in Dalbandin and Panjgur…..

During the Asif Ali Zardari administration in Islamabad the BLA, though still a fringe group with a political wing and a military wing, has been regrouping and rearming, while the current chief minister of Balochistan, Nawab Raisani, is suspected of being a CIA asset (there’s no conclusive proof). There’s fear in Islamabad that the government has taken its eye off the Balochistan ball – and that the BLA may be effectively used by the US for balkanization purposes.

So what’s gonna be the future of Balochistan? IPI or TAPI? The die is cast. Under the radar of the Obama/Karzai/Zardari photo-op in Washington, all’s still to play in this crucial front in the New Great Game in Eurasia.

"The most unpleasant truth in the long run is a far safer traveling companion than the most agreeable falsehood." Emerson

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
By submitting this form, you accept the Mollom privacy policy.