Common Sense

In the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was described first as the World's "lone superpower", then a "reluctant sheriff", next the "Indispensible Nation", and, in the wake of 9/11, as the "New Rome".  In many ways the American Empire resembles the old Rome; we would do well to remember the forces that destroyed it, for those same political and economic forces threaten our future today.

In this second installment on the true motives of Islamic terror, we'll look at our recent history with regard to Afghanistan, the country we invaded first after 9/11 and the onetime hideout of our former ally turned foe, Osama bin Laden.

Afghanistan - pawn of western regimes

It is important to understand the context of Afghan political history vis-a-vis the West in general.  Like many of its neighbors it had been conquered by numerous invaders over the centuries, including such notables as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan.  But its history with (relatively) modern western empires began with its use by Britain as a pawn in its contest for dominion with Tsarist Russia in the early 19th century.  From 1839 to 1919 Afghanistan was under British dominion, punctuated by bloody wars in which the hapless local rebels were severely outclassed by the might of Imperial Britain.  In 1919 Afghanistan declared its independence and successfully fought its way to a negotiated settlement with Britain.  The willingness of the English to accede was no doubt influenced by the effective collapse of the Tsarist empire with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.

Ironically, it was the Russians who next took interest in the area for purposes of empire.  The Cold War proceeded after the model of the British Empire's manouverings against an earlier Russian state, and the superpowers' strategy of acquiring "buffer states" was inherited by the new contestants.  Thus, the Soviets incited and funded a coup by the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan in 1978.  In an uncharacteristic display of Cold War gamesmanship, the Carter administration in 1979 began a program to covertly fund, supply, and train a guerilla force to challenge Communist rule in Afghanistan.  In cooperation with the Pakistani ISI, the CIA funded and built bases in Pakistan for training the Mujahideen "freedom fighters" to engage in what we would today call "insurgency" and "terrorism" to "de-stabilize" the Russians' puppet government.

And so it was that the United States first became involved in the internal politics of Afghanistan.  Carter's program had what must be presumed to be the desired effect - the Soviets committed a force of 100,000 men to "stabilize" the situation in Afghanistan, and the secret proxy war was on.  The covert sponsorship of the Mujahideen was continued under the Reagan and Bush administrations until, in 1989, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving an estimated 600,000 to 2 million Afghanis dead and another 5 million expatriated as refugees to Iran, Pakistan, and other neighboring countries.

Victory, Abandonment, and the rise of Al-Qaeda

Flush with what they considered an ideological victory, the Bush administration turned its back on Afghanistan.  There was no Marshall Plan for the war-torn country, not even an acknowledgement publicly by the US of its role and share of responsibility for the chaos and ruin the country was left in.  Deep resentment began to set in with many of the US' former Islamic allies.

The resentment of the militant and radicalized faction of the former Mujahideen only increased with the US' continued support of Israel, and was inflamed by the garrisoning of US troops in Saudi Arabia, considered a holy place by Muslims.  Anti-US rhetoric ran high but was largely ignored back home.  The now vehemently anti-US former "freedom fighters" had no military, no economic or political might, no air force, navy, or nuclear weaponry to force the US to the negotiating table.  Guerilla warfare - terrorism - was seen as their only option.  Osama bin Laden and others revived the politico-religious radicalization and guerilla training program the CIA had so conveniently designed for them, to recruit agents of terror against the United States - and Al Qaeda was born.

And so the terror attacks began.  The World Trade Center was the target of a bomb attack in 1993; US military apartments in Saudi Arabia were attacked in 1996; US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; the USS Cole in 2000; culminating in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  It comes as no surprise to students of history that continued US refusal to acknowledge the grievances of our former allies led to this now-apparent pattern of escalation in the severity of these terrorist attacks.

Unocal, Caspian Oil, and the Taliban 

The story now takes us across the Caspian Sea to little-known Turkmenistan.  Turkmenistan is one of several countries defined along traditional ethnic lines in the former Soviet Union, and natural resource exploration has identified large oil and natural gas reserves there, along with lesser reserves in other countries bordering the Caspian Sea.  In 1993 Bridas, an Argentine oil company, negotiated a deal with Turkmenistan and Pakistan to build dual gas and oil pipelines across Afghanistan to Pakistan's port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea - necessary because the Caspian is landlocked.  Bridas lacked the funds to build the pipeline, and approached the Union Oil Company of California (Unocal) with a partnership proposition.  Unocal liked the idea so much that they went to Turkmenistan and Pakistan and negotiated a new deal, cutting Bridas out.  The inevitable lawsuit was thrown out of a Texas court for lack of jurisdiction, and Bridas lost the deal.

The problem with this grand scheme was that in the mid-90's Afghanistan was in a constant state of civil war.  Various factions of the victorious Mujahideen had been fighting in an ongoing power struggle.  There had been no victor in the fighting, and Unocal desperately needed a "legitimate" government in Afghanistan from which to secure the transit rights to pump Turkmenistan's oil to port.  Additionally, an internationally recognized Afghanistan would be a prerequisite for raising the international capital needed to fund the pipelines.

To serve these commercial interests and eliminate barriers to the exploitation of Turkmenistan's oil, the US and Pakistan worked out a secret arrangement; they would leverage an offshoot of the Mujahideen to end the civil war in Afghanistan and provide a new government with international legitimacy.  This group called itself the Taliban, or "students of Islam".

The Taliban proceeded to launch a US-backed war against the corrupt Tajik and Uzbek warlords of the "Northern Alliance", and eventually siezed the capital city of Kabul in 1996.  Somewhat independent-minded, the Taliban invited Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan later that year.  The US continued to tolerate and back the Taliban - in spite of its support for Al Qaeda and its sponsorship of terrorism - so long as it cooperated with the Unocal plan to gain access to the oil and gas reserves of Central Asia.

In the meantime, Unocal had put together the Central Asia Gas and Pipeline Consortium to help fund the pipeline endeavor and share in the profits.  How big a share?  Unocal held 46.5 percent, the Delta Oil Company of Saudi Arabia - cultivated because Unocal felt that its ties with King Fahd might influence the Taliban - held 15 percent.  As a reminder of the exploitative nature of these imperial endeavors, the government of Turkmenistan's share - in return for allowing Unocal and their partners to plunder the poor nation's resources - was a mere 7 percent.

Taliban falls from favor; war plans precede 9/11 by months

But what Unocal and the US didn't take into account was the ruthlessness and cruelty of their newfound friends, the Taliban.  The group received deservedly bad press for its atrocious record on human rights, and by November 1999 the UN imposed sanctions on Afghanistan.  Unocal was denounced by Mavis Leno, wife of television personality Jay Leno, at its annual stockholders' meeting for its ongoing support of the Taliban.  Unocal decided to cut its losses and withdraw from the deal, but the Administration in Washington wasn't ready to give up on using the Taliban to plunder Turkmenistan's oil.  When the Taliban proceeded to blow up two of Buddhism's most revered ancient relics, the monumental statues at Bamiyan, in March of 2001 - an incident causing international outrage -  Washington lost patience and decided regime change was in order.

The Administration went to work right away, conferring with allies in Geneva regarding a plan to overthrow the Taliban in May of 2001.  By the time of the G-8 summit in July, a detailed plan was revealed for launching attacks against Afghanistan in October of 2001.  In early August, the US held its last offical meeting with the Taliban in Islamabad.  The die was cast.  The Bush administration was moving toward war in Afghanistan.

Conclusion

Whether the attacks of September 11 were in response to the US plan to overthrow the Taliban, or simply another step in the steady escalation of Al-Qaeda's war on the US, the timing could not have been better for the Administration's plan to attack Afghanistan.  It now had a justification, and a hunger for retribution on the part of the American people, to garner support for its plan.  In fact, it would prove a perfect opportunity for hawks in the Bush administration to push for the long-planned war against Iraq as well.  For advocates of US empire abroad, the 9/11 attack and the subsequent "War on Terror" has been a godsend to their agenda of militarism and economic colonialism.

The initial justification for invading Afghanistan was to bring Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to justice for 9/11.  The Defense Department chose to rely on local warlords - the same Northern Alliance we sponsored the Taliban against - to lead us to bin Laden, and he soon escaped, presumed to be in Pakistan.  One might imagine bin Laden holed up in one of the numerous remote terrorist training camps in the region created courtesy of the CIA. 

We continue to stay in Afghanistan, publicly to maintain "stability". 

Many in the know suspect US motives may have more to do with oil reserves on the Caspian Sea. 

Thus ends our brief history of US-Afghan relations.  It is one marked with covert military support, then betrayal, of the Mujahideen and the Taliban after them, and the death of countless ordinary Afghanis as the US uses their country as a pawn in its modern-day economic and military empire, much as Imperial Britain had done in the centuries before.  We are indeed the new Rome.

Most Americans do not know about the covert programs of the US that led to the rise of first the Mujahideen, then Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.  Most Americans don't know that modern Islamic Radicalism did not develop on its own, that it was created by the CIA to challenge the Soviets in Afghanistan. 

Now that you know, what will you do differently?

Only you can decide. 

For my part, I will continue to speak the Truth - and to support the only Presidential candidate that wants to change the way the military and commercial interests run our expensive and dangerous foreign policy. 

That man is Ron Paul - check him out at www.ronpaul2008.com.