CIA Info War Succeeds: Afghanistan Occupation Forced To Continue
“The Resistance” peddling Russophobia to enable Neocon wars, whilst ignoring real crimes in Afghanistan
Ben Barbour
The neocon dogma pushed onto liberals by never-Trump Republicans did its job. Partisan liberals are parroting the line of the CIA. The attempt to sabotage talks with the Taliban and prevent troop withdrawals from Afghanistan worked. “The Resistance” just helped push the continued occupation of Afghanistan to score cheap political points. The CIA thanks them for their “patriotism.”
On July 1st the House Armed Services Committee voted to hinder Donald Trump’s ability to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. House Democrats on the committee teamed up with Republicans, including Liz Cheney (daughter of war-architect Dick Cheney), to pass an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act “that prohibits Congress from spending money to pull US troops out of Afghanistan without first meeting a series of vague conditions that critics said appeared to prevent withdrawal.” Without any public debate, the US will now continue its occupation after the CIA claimed that Russia payed Taliban-linked groups to kill American soldiers.
What’s the evidence? General John Nicholson speculated that Russia was arming the Taliban in 2017. In April 2019, three marines were killed in an attack that the Taliban claimed responsibility for. Unnamed intelligence officials believed that the Russians may have payed militants to attack US troops.
In March 2020, the CIA concluded that the Russians were paying the bounties. They cited testimony from captured militants and pointed to a Seal Team Six raid of a Taliban outpost that resulted in the recovery of a half a million in cash.
That’s it. That’s all the information that the American public is allowed to know.
It’s hardly even mentioned that the NSA disagreed with the CIA’s assessment, stating:
the information wasn’t verified and that intelligence officials didn’t agree on it.”
Furthermore, the Department of Defense (DOD) claimed that “to date, DOD has no corroborating evidence to validate the recent allegations found in open-source reports.” Americans are taking the CIA’s word as gospel.
How exactly did the CIA conclude that the half a million in cash came from Russia and not from Taliban opium-trafficking operations? The US military claimed that 60% of the Taliban’s funding comes from the opium trade.
Is $500,000 in cash unheard of in opium sales? Who are these captured militants that claimed that Russia payed bounties for dead American soldiers? Were these militants tortured by the CIA? The CIA has the largest torture program in the world. Is the information reliable or was the information obtained under dubious circumstances? How do we even know these militants actually made these claims?
The foundation of the assertions is also questionable. Americans are supposed to believe that the Taliban had to be prompted to attack American soldiers. The US has been occupying Afghanistan for nearly 20 years. The war in Afghanistan has resulted in over 2,400 dead American soldiers and over 38,500 dead civilians. US soldiers have been targeted by the Taliban and an assortment of other militant groups over the past 19 years. That’s the cost of occupation.
If over 38,500 civilians have been killed, then there are a lot of angry Afghans that lost family members. Russia does not need to pay the Taliban or any militant group to attack US soldiers. This should not need explanation. The rush to accuse Trump of treason has made Americans lose their critical thinking skills.
More partisan liberals are upset about Trump’s inaction over unproven allegations of Russian bounties then they are by Trump’s record-setting bombing campaign in Afghanistan:
In 2019, according to figures released by Air Force Central Command, the United States ‘dropped more munitions on Afghanistan than in any other year over the past decade.’ More bombs were dropped in most months of 2019 than in any previous months since records were first made publicly available in 2009.”
These bombings led to a massive surge in civilian casualties. In one case, at least 30 pine nut farmers were killed in a drone strike that resulted in zero militants being killed. Where is the outrage over this? How many more Afghans are going to die if Trump is pressed to be even more unhinged to prove he is not a traitor? The end game is more death and more occupation.
This new scandal being pushed by the CIA also conveniently deflects from Trump’s real scandals in Afghanistan. In June, Trump signed an executive order “imposing sanctions on several individuals associated with the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
The ICC is investigating war crimes in Afghanistan. Their investigations include potential American war crimes.
They may even involve Secretary of State Mike Pompeo:
Pompeo may be personally at risk for wrongdoing that the Court could uncover of CIA activities when he was the director of the agency.”
The Trump administration is claiming that because the US has not ratified the Rome Statute, that the ICC has no legal basis to prosecute American war crimes. This is incorrect. The Rome Statute allows the ICC to prosecute non-party countries if war crimes are committed by that party in a country that has ratified the Rome Statute. Afghanistan has ratified the Rome Statue. That puts the US on the hook for potential war crimes committed in that region.
Needless to say, never-Trump neocons have been silent about Trump’s targeting of the ICC. Likewise, partisan liberals have not gone after Trump on this front either. The reasons are obvious. The Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations are culpable in war crimes in Afghanistan as well. The nearly two-decades long war is a bipartisan project. Furthermore, self-professed left-wingers and liberals are taking their cues from Bush-era neocons like David Frum, Bill Kristol, and an assortment of pro-war goons from the Lincoln Project Political Action Committee.
Russiagate broke partisan liberals’ brains. They are now calling for Trump to ramp up escalation in Afghanistan. They actually believe the absurd over-the-top ads put out by the Lincoln Project. Donald Trump ramped up the war in Afghanistan in 2017 when he did a 3,500-troop surge from 10,500 to 14,000 troops. Trump then increased bombing campaigns throughout his term and set records for bombings in 2019. Civilians casualties spiked. In June 2020, he targeted the ICC for having the audacity to look into US war crimes.
None of this barbarism earned Trump the ire of prominent neoconservatives and liberals. Trump is being vilified for having talks with the Taliban and taking steps towards scaling down US troop presence. After four years of Russiagate hysteria, the only explanation for Trump’s actions is capitulation to Russia. Afghan civilians be damned, Trump needs to ramp up again in Afghanistan to stop Putin or he’s a traitor!
The neocon dogma pushed onto liberals by never-Trump Republicans did its job. Partisan liberals are parroting the line of the CIA. The attempt to sabotage talks with the Taliban and prevent troop withdrawals from Afghanistan worked.
“The Resistance” just helped push the continued occupation of Afghanistan to score cheap political points. The CIA thanks them for their “patriotism.”
Originally published by One World Press
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LAVROV statement: ‘NATO Aircraft Are Used To Traffic Afghan Drugs’
“We keep on receiving reports, including via mass media, that contraband opiates have been organized from Afghanistan to other countries, including to Europe, with the use of military aircraft of the NATO coalition,” he stated during the Primakov Readings international online forum, TASS reported.
https://fort-russ.com/2020/07/lavrov-nato-aircraft-are-used-to-traffic-afghan-drugs/
In Afghanistan the U$ army of occupation stands “boots on the neck” to protect the drug fields of Anglo Zio Capitalistan. Meanwhile, Pepe Escobar reports on massive development in Afghanistan’s free and progressive socialist neighbour, Iran: “Iran-China strategic partnership revolves around a $400 billion Chinese investment in Iran’s energy and infrastructure for the next 25 years. [Mutual interest: China gets] a steady supply of oil and gas with 18% discount, and [Iran gets] paid in yuan or in a basket of currencies bypassing the US dollar. Beijing will also invest roughly $228 billion in Iranian infrastructure over 25 years, from building factories to badly needed energy industry renovation, all the way to the already in progress construction of the 900 km-long electric rail from Tehran to Mashhad. Also Tehran, Qom and Isfahan will be linked by high-speed rail with an extension to Tabriz, an important oil, gas and… Read more »
Alexander The Great marched through Afghanistan around 330 BC in order to invade India. He qualified for the title of military genius probably more than anyone who has ever lived. He trounced everyone he ever fought against. He did everything he possibly could to appease and win over the locals, including marrying a local Afghan woman. But he had so much trouble in Afghanistan that he avoided the place like the plague on the route home from India. He took a very long circuitous way around it to avoid having to deal with the Afghans again. Somehow I think if even Alexander couldn’t hack it, I wouldn’t give much for the chances of no hoper half wits like [Trump], Pompeo, or [Obama]. If your enemy is in a deep hole, give him another shovel and tell him to keep on digging. Let him dig his own grave and… Read more »
Paul, don’t forget Soldiers of the Queen. Rudyard Kipling Quotes:
“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.”
Afghanistan used to be such a nice place! During its all-too-brief interlude between the Soldiers of Queen Vic and The Man from Uncle, that lovely country was known for its Communist government, college girls in mini-skirts, coffee bars and backpackers.
…and there’s yer problem. “Communist” government? Can’t have that. Can’t even have ‘mildly socialist’.
Its interesting to note that the one thing those middle eastern hell holes like Syria and Iraq had in common back in the day — that’s before we started taking serious interest in their democracy and freedom — was they were pluralistic & somewhat western oriented societies. Sure, you couldn’t challenge the government, you’d get into trouble for subversion and stuff, but then one of our little Western secrets is that if you start doing that sort of thing in our free societies then you’ll rapidly find out that there are hard limits to our freedoms.
Martin, right: the one thing middle eastern countries like Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and Libya had in common circa 1950-1960 was their interest in Secular Socialism, and their adoption of Secular Socialist governments such as the Ba’ath Party. Even Israel had a socialist government which was mildly secular. Even in West, those of us who were young in the forties and fifties (“Bliss was it in that Dawn to be alive”) can recall a Socialist Britain, Socialist France, Social Democratic Germany, the US New Deal. But the MacCarthy era’s cultural genocide of Communists in the U$A put an end to socialism in The Land of the Free, and British Petroleum company put an end to socialism in the Middle East. It took a quarter of a century — from 1945 to the fall of the Wilson govt — for the Anglo Zio Capitalist Empire to strike back. But now… Read more »
Who was expecting anything else?!
Stacks of cash planted by the CIA, or carried in by the SEAL Team. Or never existed at all.
Very valid points.
Also, the person whose house was raided, Mr Azizi, was a known drug smuggler. $500,000 in cash would not be unheard of in drug smuggling operations. The “militants” that were interrogated were relatives and business associates of Mr. Azizi. They were interrogated by the NDS (Afghan intel), who are notorious for using torture.
The CIA often uses conduits to carry out torture. The fact the “militants” were only questioned by the NDS, and not the US military, (who does not use torture), is very suspicious. The NDS may have forced false confessions via torture.
I should have been more clear about this in the article.
WE CAN’T CRY BOO HOO I can emphatically say the US will never leave Afghanistan. The only way the US will exit a significant geostrategic location with an estimated $3 trillion in untapped minerals including six lapis mines and the world’s largest opium crop is if the US was forced to depart during a hot war with Eurasia. If that happens, it will lead to nuclear annihilation. The gangsters-in-chiefs on every continent are greedy, but have no desire to perish in a ball of flames, and if their craziness ever escalates to that level there would be nothing to worry about because we’ll all be dead. The planet would become a radiation shithole poisoning all life. Interesting enough, liberal loquacious Obama initiated the trillion dollar nuclear trainwreck project now continued under Trump. It demonstrates the rapaciousness of the war profiteers who continually look for ways to fatten the already obese military budget. Something really costly like nuclear… Read more »
wow… copied and archived!
Pass it on to the psuedo left Biden/Bernie Dems.
Yip the article cia propaganda would succeed. Hello facts Russia invaded Afghanistan for ten years before the other arm of Washington the US and it collaborating nations (inc UK invaded Afgnstn from 2001 to 2014!!.)
I think I sicked up a bit in my mouth reading this Trump obsessed with msms anti American divisive BS.
Any propaganda pieces that are divisive( warmongering= us v them narratives) concepts are Bigeye intel propaganda.
They want war and don’t care if US = Trump= as ” bad guy”.
They still get their wars if you buy into ignorance, fear , hate and believe the lies collectively manifesting what they want.
I’m sure Covid was scripted by the same guys who wrote the likes of Ozark. The US has been using Hollywood in its Psychological operations for decades, since Kubrick staged the moon landings. It is no coincidence that the twists and turns in the Covid story are just like a Netflix series.
How will the CIA supply the US with Heroin if the military leave? The CIA is self-funding, that is how they avoid democratic control, by avoiding state funding, that is why they can’t leave Afganistan. How long will a politician survive if he insists on cutting off the CIA’s, ‘off balance sheet’ funding?
All that smack and coke money certainly helps pay for all the CIA’s little extras that even the none too fastidious folks in Congress would baulk at, some of the more smelly little illegal wars and assassinations and terrorist fundings.
But hey, don’t worry, all that dope money and CIA counterfeiting of its own currency keeps the wolf from the door. And they can always blame it on Nicolas Maduro, or Iran, or Hezbollah, or China, or North Korea, with the help of a few tame hacks at the NYT or WAPO.
Does rather tend to undermine the efforts of the Boys In Blue of the NYPD and elsewhere, though, kicking in the doors of the black folks at 6 am in the mythical “War On Drugs.” But never mind, it’s all good fun.
To understand what is happening in the US deep state, just reverse engineer Alex jones. He is telling you all their moves, by lying and misrepresenting everything that is going on. Just remember he is the voice of the CIA and it all becomes clear.
It’s been a very very long time since I considered America a democracy in any real sense, or thought that there was a viable political opposition that opposed the far-right, white supremacist CIA and the aims of the American military killing machine.
How the pantomime is played out for the American public, which you seem to be reflecting on, is becoming more and more confused, inconsistent and irrelevant as the US moves towards a full dictatorship and the era of the Caesars begins.
All you right wing libertarians should look at Vietnam. 95 million people, 300 odd infections and 0 deaths.
They don’t care. We need to stop thinking they do. They laugh at us for thinking that they have a soul, they think we are naive.
I sometimes imagine myself being fooled into having a private – off-the-record conversation over a drink with one of these soulless specimens (who shall remain nameless for the time being). It goes something like this: Do you really think it’s okay to wipe out over 95% of the world population, so that the survivors, including yourself, of course, would be better off?Yes.But that’s basically unheard-of mass-murder.Yes. So?But it’s wrong. Every civilized society since civilization became a thing has agreed on that.Civilization was a mistake. Who needs it?We need it.Why?So that we can get along harmoniously together and fulfill our individual potential.Then why don’t you support me in getting rid of all those people overcrowding our planet and preventing us from fulfilling our individual potential?Because that’s acting like God.I wouldn’t need to if God would just do the job Himself.But what gives you the right to assume such dominion over… Read more »
It is very interesting how they justify their actions. ‘Common good’ and ‘national interest’ are also in the mix.
Vietnam was where the USS Theodore Roosevelt picked up the virus.
“Never get off the boat”, line from “Apocalypse Now”.
Servicemen from the ship reported that everyone on shore seemed to be wearing face masks but nobody told them why. Given the situation at the time there shouldn’t have been shore leave but the need to ‘show the flag’ probably trumped common sense.
The Vietnamese were certainly up to speed on the whole Covid thing judging by that informational video that their Health Ministry put out about it (that’s the video showcased by John Oliver in the US and widely viewed on youTube).
And on it goes the Great American Political Circus. Really, any American with half a brain cell should be able to see through this charade where vile moneyed psychopaths control their government . They should also be thoroughly ashamed of their behaviour towards other countries who do not support their “exceptionalism” and where millions of innocent lives have been lost.
The trouble is, most Americans’ half a brain cell, showing them the charade, is countered by the other half, which whispers sweet nothings in their ear: “Pssst: maybe you too could end up with a piece of the action if you just lay low and keep quiet.”
Use of “liberals” and “left wing” etc in this article is really tiresome. Why accept the pejoration of once honorable terms into what now describes centrist-right entities, such as Nancy Pelosi. Call them what they are–fascist leaning manipulators aligning themselves with neoliberal values.
Comment messed up by the editing system.. which duplicated then deleted the wrong part. Can’t be bothered to rewrite so I deleted it.
At least give me the gist of the comment.
A lot of the left wing follow them. Rachel Maddow is literally foaming at the mouth for war with Russia.
From what one reads about Rachel Maddow, she appears to be a corporate fascist toadie hack propagandist; the idiot spawn of some low grade ex “US Luftwaffe” officer.
Would MSNBC have her on if she did not tow the war racketeer line? Whoever buys that drivel, has mush for a brain.
If even a general doesn’t understand that he is an agent of Empire, what hope the rest of America.
Smedley Darlington Butler was a spook. Limited hangout and misdirection. His exploits are fictional.
Same as Dwight D Eisenhower, a lifelong member of the MIC, delivering his warning about the MIC, only as he was leaving office. His Army career prior to WW2 was without highlights. The only posting of merit in his entire career was to Supreme Allied Commander in WW2. Huh?
Dwight’s brother, Milton, was the first Director of War Relocation Board, that forcibly removed American citizens of Japanese descent from their homes in Southern California. Their homes and properties were sold to connected buyers at below market prices. Milton, in 1975, over 30 years later, commented that it was a dark hour for the Nation.
Delayed consciences.
No argument about Eisenhower and Macarthur. They burned down the encampment of the “Bonus Army.” They were scum.
Smedley Butler, on the other hand, was not. He stood in solidarity with the Bonus Army. “Later is better than never.”
There is nothing left-wing about Rachel Meddow, How can you claim that…….that’s weird.
This is NOT “left wing.” Evidently Trump is the definition of “right” and “alt-right” so anything that differs to him is “left” or “left wing.” Horseshit. Maddow is to the right of Trump, aligning with Establishment Programs and Neoliberal Globalism. This is not “left”; this is to the right of Trump.Would this then make Trump “left”? We need to take more time defining terms instead of spewing the bullshit.
Aldous you not on (the alt-right’s) message, which frames all these stories, the left is evil, Hitler told them so. How can you have a coup if you don’t have an evil enemy, Hitler taught them that, like he taught them so many other things.
This comment needs more clarity. Framing “all these stories.” What are we talking about here?
Hey I wrote this article, and that’s not a bad point. I chose to use that language to try to convey how pathetic the state of “self-professed” liberalism is in America.
That being said I completely understand your point. You are not wrong.
We’re talking about a country that tries to convince level headed normal people that two of the largest constructions in the world fell into their own footprint because a couple of small planes hit them near the top.A tragedy so devastating that a nearby 47- storey building fainted and did the same.A country that witnessed it’s own president get half of his head blown into history from three different angles and said a bullet from behind went on a cartoon journey and made the injuries from the front as well.A country that laughed to the world’s press about a ‘mislaid’ 3 trillion dollars as the homeless line was extending by the hour.What’s the shock ? The CIA have been running the US since 1963.They have always known that war is big business. It’s also a good excuse to keep what’s left of the working class taxed to the hilt.… Read more »
Cute, but the US is low on physical gold stocks and virtual gold prices are artificially kept lower.
G could stand for unlimited and endless Greed.
O for Oil, sure.
The D should stand for Dollar, the present world’s trade and Central banking fiat currency. Loved by both users and dealers.
The end of the dollar’s world reserve status is not the end of fiat currencies……. it is the end of the dollar as the worlds reserve currency, it can easily be replced by the more stable euro or the yuan.
…a nearby 47-storey building fainted and did the same.
Very amusingly put. :o)
Well if the corporate fascist war racketeers did not illegally attack [and occupy] Afghanistan in the first place they would not have that problem, would they? THEY SHOULD LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qM-EdNE9pHY/VTUARJNyhBI/AAAAAAAAjPw/bjR0FIxyGOQ/s1600/12642268975_a29c1c8b90_o.jpg
It underground location is perfectly positioned which is in the deeper books or story books like Aladdin talks about Persia they do dropped hints in how they talk etymology Phonetics linguistics allegories we are talking Persia.and cave systems. I notice many always overlooked the normal meds as happy non addictive opiates which are made from poppy’s and then synthesized. which actually has a higher street value the smak street term is chasing the dragon and in the last 15 years has been a savage problem for communities world wide.(see a pattern) opioid epidemic afgain invasion big harma non addictive meds are more addictive than smak/poppy and there is 100’s /1000s of different names for their wonder drugs which have OPIUM in it. so the medical lot dont have vested interest there? ay its the same crew doing what they do best Alcohol which is called ‘spirit’ and people get ‘under the influence’… Read more »
“a Seal Team Six raid of a Taliban outpost that resulted in the recovery of a half a million in cash”.
Hope they’re careful about what helicopters they use from now on:
Don’t be surprised if they accidentally frop it into the ocean at some point
The CIA taking out rival drug lords?
“Unnamed intelligence officials believed that the Russians may have payed militants to attack US troops.”
The sheer hypocrisy and lying of this vile American regime shows through. Note the words “believed” and “may”.
NYT did the lying, the other liars were taking a break.
I believe that I may win the lottery next week.
Yes indeed –
The farcical – but deadly Up-Pompeo knows he is on borrowed time before he too falls as the DS cfr dogma and its various operatives finally get wiped out by their own personal Vesuvius!
The pathetic Magnestky actions against a handful of Russians ;
The equally trite actions against a few Chinese over the contrived Uighar issue; and the continued persecution of Hauwei …
The constant poking of the bear and panda wanting them to strike back so that he can call in the big game weapons.
The farce is strong with Up-Pompeo with his trusted gauntlet. Him and his cohorts (and families) better get used to never leaving America again.
But they still continue their games – bipartisanship in action – over Venezuela!
Trying to get boots on the ground there – even their isis head chopping Uighar mercenaries won’t go.
The problem with this lying is that the liars are never required to state on oath, in public, what the sanctions for them personally will be for lying.
‘If you knew that you would be dismissed with dishonour, have your entire pension asset pot removed and all property assets razed to the ground for telling anything other than the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, would you wish to change your statement?’
is what every single army commander, CIA mouthpiece etc etc should be asked by a public representative on Capitol Hill each and every time they try and lie their way to blocking human decency.
Why do the public representatives not hold their armed forces and intelligence services to such standards of public probity?
I checked the first link that says the CIA claims that Russia paid Taliban-linked militants to hunt down and kill US soldiers and that link took me to The New York Times article that only refers to “American intelligence officials” and not the CIA in particular. In fact the NYT article itself says: “… Spokespeople at the National Security Council, the Pentagon, the State Department and the C.I.A. declined to comment …” So it looks as if, contrary to what Ben Barbour suggests, the CIA as well as those other supposedly august institutions walked away from what the NYT article claims. And as is usual with the garbage peddled by The NYT and its kind (like The Washington Post and The Guardian), the sources of these claims always turn out to be officials who speak on conditions of anonymity. In other words, The NYT is acting… Read more »
Hey I wrote this article and I should have explained it in greater detail. The CIA injected raw, unverified intelligence from the NDS (Afghanistan intel) into a late February Presidential Daily Brief (PDB). They then concluded in March that Russia was paying the bounties. The only reason you inject raw intelligence into a PDB like that is to leak it later. Which is pretty clearly what they did. The CIA and the NSC later only gave moderate confidence to the evidence, but the damage was already done. The CIA pretty clearly but this bullshit into the PDB to leak it later. It doesn’t matter what disagreements the intel community has after the fact. The CIA steered the conversation by leaking the intel and then the House Armed Services Committee kneecapped the troops withdrawals within a week’s time.
Hope that clears up my point.
I would recommend reading this article by Gareth Porter. https://thegrayzone.com/2020/07/07/pentagon-afghan-bountygate-us-intelligence-agencies/ “In fact, the intelligence reporting from the CIA Station in Kabul on the NDS Russia bounty claims was included in the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) on or about February 27 — just as the negotiation of the U.S. peace agreement with the Taliban was about to be signed. That was too late to prevent the signing but timed well enough to ratchet up pressure on Trump to back away from his threat to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan. Trump may have been briefed orally on the issue at the time, but even if he had not been, the presence of a summary description of the intelligence in the PDB could obviously have been used to embarrass him on Afghanistan by leaking it to the media. According to Ray McGovern, a former CIA official who was responsible for preparing the PDB… Read more »
Thanks for the further explanation.
There is the possibility that whoever injected the raw intel into the February PDB did so off his/her/their own bat, for whatever reason of self-interest might be involved, contrary to usual or proper CIA procedure.
Quite likely the CIA station in Kabul wanted to justify its own position on something. The Grayzone excerpt seems to suggest that the raw item was shoved into the PDB at the bottom of page 1,113 of a 1,114-page report (I just made those numbers up but readers will get the hint) to put pressure on Trump and his staff and at the same time spring a later trap on them should they ignore the item at the time the PDB was passed to them. The trap has now been sprung.
Afghanistan’s poppy fields have been key territory for occupation by the Anglo Zio Capitalist empire ever since the City of London used Queen Victoria’s soldiers to force opium from British-occupied Afghanistan onto a reluctant China.
Today the U$ branch handles the AZC’s global Afghan business “on the ground” (ie drug production and distribution), but I believe the City of London remains as Launderer in Chief.
https://youtu.be/wguPc5wnzuc
This is absolutely right. Any commentary that fails to discuss Afghanistan’s vital role in producing 90%+ of the world’s heroin supply and the ensuing world wide distribution by the CIA is deficient in a vital area. One also needs to look at Afghanistan’s location, in proximity to key US geopolitical targets. They will not leave voluntarily, so the war is likely to continue for a long time yet.
In 2018, Fentanyl took over from heroin as the primary cause of opioid related deaths in the USA (overdoses). Even modern heroin is now laced with Chinese Fentanyl to improve the price.
Alfred McCoy is #1 on this topic – he was hounded out of the U.S. for many decades after his research linking drug production and trade to U.S. wars and CIA operations.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175225/tomgram:_alfred_mccoy,_afghanistan_as_a_drug_war__/
Edit for attention of Admin – this post with a single hyplerlink is marked, “Awaiting for approval” sic
Yip and the British Empire is now vilifying their corporation “USA” for their warmonger efforts forgettting Russia invaded/handled on the ground for ten years too. Bad usa good Russa is the msms meme. Divide and conquer.
“Bad usa good Russa is the msms meme.” LOL Quite a vivid imagination you have there!
Very valid point. I actually wrote another article that talks about this exact issue. I believe the CIA is neck deep in the opium trade in Afghanistan. It’s how you finance off-the books proxy wars. The CIA has been doing it forever (Golden Triangle, Latin America, etc): http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=1281
President Putin won’t give a hoot about US’s Bagram continuance in one pocket of Afghanistan, but Xi Jinping will: disturbing his expansionist Belt and Road project.
The brains of so-called liberals have certainly turned to mush. For them nothing happened before Trump. Nothing at all. No black dudes were shot by cops during the Indonesian Messiah’s two terms. No immigrant children were caged. No immigrants were deported. No drone bombings happened. No foreign invasions took place. No Guantanamo torture continued. No CIA black sites were in operation. Etc, etc, and fucking etc. It didn’t take long for Pinter’s excellent Nobel speech (“Nothing happened”) to become real-time commentary.
Trump gave a great 4 July speech. My liberal mates and colleagues are now accussing him of being a white supremacist: like they learned the words to say from the NYT itself.
They say his very presence at Mount Rushmore is white supremacy: HRC and Obama both visited Mount Rushmore during their campaign tours, there was no problem then.
Some of my fellow citizens are being led astray by the current media pandemic.
“Liberals’? “Conservatives?”. In actuality no such things. Those are terms that the corporate fascist war racketeers use to enslave their victims. Terms that are used to divide and get the victims to fighting amongst themselves. Terms misused to distract from the grand theft robbery scam the victimizers are inflicting upon their victims.
Tis a pity the schools do not educate and instruct the young on critical thinking and thought, on questioning. Instead they drill into them OBEDIENCE. Is it any surprise why there is some many MASK NAZIS? So many slaves?
Carlin’s words do not apply to the US alone.
““Liberals’? “Conservatives?”. In actuality no such things.”
I think that misusing terms doesn’t mean that the original terms refer to nothing. If I call skateboarders, “fascists”, then you don’t say because I misused the term that there is actually no such thing as fascists. Liberal and conservative ideas do exist, and so do people who describe themselves as such.
The author of this article is probably a conservative, because he uses the words, “neocon” and “Republican”. He doesn’t make any distinction with “liberal”. He doesn’t say, “neoliberal” or “Democrat”. So I’m probably a liberal because I’m sensitive to that;)
The terms “liberal” and “conservative” seem to mean different things to different people (and different centuries); meaning they vary (are changeable) depending on who uses them. A skateboarder (one who uses a skateboard) is far more specific, just as the word fascist is far more specific.
In short the two words are so broad and so vague as to be rendered useless or meaningless. About the only purpose they serve today are as attack words used to enslave and steal from the general population by the corporate fascists.
As to words “Republican” and “Democrat”, they are just two aliases used by the Republicrat political racket to perpetuate the illusion of political choice. Eugene Debs saw that over a century ago.
https://www.deviantart.com/redamerican1945/art/Eugene-V-Debs-Republican-Democratic-Party-674343047
Liberals is what a huge segment of the population call themselves. Now they may be politically illiterate but that’s the word they use.
Most Democrats Now Identify As ‘Liberal’ – https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/most-democrats-now-identify-as-liberal/
Those Democrats are the neoliberals.
I wrote this piece. I would probably be a left-winger by most traditional definitions. The use of the term liberal was meant to be kind of tongue in cheek. People in the USA run around calling themselves liberal while advocating for immoral wars of aggression to continue.
Some of the people advocating for staying in Afghanistan to fight Russia even self-identify as progressive. There is a strong left-wing anti-war movement that did not fall for this crap. However, they are in the minority because Russiagate has completely melted a lot of people’s brains.
“The use of the term liberal was meant to be kind of tongue in cheek.”
That’s good to know. I apologize, Mr. Barbour:)
Also I included partisan liberal/partisan Democrat to try to convey that their ideology is flimsy at best. It’s all for cheap political points. The liberal part is not what makes them susceptible to bullshit campaigns. It’s the partisan part.
The Cocaine Importers Of America (CIA) needs its narcotic trade. “It needs it badly baby. A day without CIA brand smack is a day without sunshine. Close down those Afghan poppy fields? No way, no how.”
Smedley Butler would be appalled. If Smedley were alive today he would say that the CIA and the NSA are NAZI criminal operations (rackets) that are threats to humanity and should be shutdown immediately.
https://twitter.com/LatuffCartoons/status/900860584471797760/photo/1
The FT has an interview: David Simon: ‘The next Trump will be more frightening’
Too right. Because the Liberals were conned into demanding real fascism. And they are to blame.
They fell for “The Worst Literal Hitler Ever” meme and yet the response of @TheResistance was to lionize the CIA, to ally with the Deep State, to praise Robert Mueller to the skies. To demand censorship and thought leadership, while rejecting critical thinking and logic as patriarchal. To embrace identity politics and trans/third wave gender studies, while rejecting actual politics.
To resist without any clue what they’re resisting.
These fools who couldn’t define fascism if their lives depended on it, have embraced real fascism while sneering at a pantomime ghoul.
“Deep State”? A more fitting term would be the “criminal corporate fascist war racketeer state.”