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Obama's Silent War Shocks Pakistan
The latest Taliban bombing has uncovered America's low-profile funding of the Pakistan military
To many Pakistanis the most shocking aspect of the latest Taliban bombing was not the death toll, or the injuries inflicted on survivors, but the question that it raised: what was a team of American soldiers doing in a tense corner of North West Frontier province?
A map of Pakistan locating Lower Dir. A bomb blast in Pakistan claimed by the Taliban killed eight people Wednesday, including three US soldiers and children.
(AFP/Graphic) In a
way, the attack tugged the veil from a multi-faceted military
assistance program that, while not secret, is rarely publicized – by
either side.
President Obama's public aid to Pakistan is transparent: $1.5bn a year for the next five years, mainly to boost the civilian government. But behind the scenes the US is engaged in other ways. Over the past decade it has given over $12bn in cash directly to the military to subsidize the costs of fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida. The program to train the Frontier Corps, which the killed soldiers were involved with, is estimated to be worth $400m more over several years.
Generously provisioned counter-narcotics programs operate along the Afghan border, funding everything from wells to schools. In Islamabad military contractors – usually retired army personnel – are paid to advise the army, discreetly working out of suburban houses. All this is hugely sensitive. Public opinion in Pakistan is overwhelmingly hostile to American "interference".
Last year a media furor erupted over the role of the contractor Blackwater, which vocal right-wing commentators believed was part of a covert plot to steal the country's nuclear weapons.
The Taliban played on that fear yesterday with a spokesman describing the bomb as "revenge for the blasts carried out by Blackwater in Pakistan".
The critics are backed by public opinion. A survey last October found that 80% of Pakistanis rejected American assistance in fighting the Taliban.
- Posted in
31 Comments so far
Show AllAll that to go after a hundred or so mountain people pissed off at the MIC world wide war web. What a sham?
What a shame, Obummer doesn't tell the whole story and I fear he too has been bought, paid for, and threatened, by the dirty little bastards in the private MIC.
Even scarier is how few Americans realized this when they voted to empower his administration.
And even scarier still is how few options they have been made to feel that they have.
"I fear he too has been bought, paid for, and threatened, by the dirty little bastards in the private MIC."
You're *just* realizing this?
Dude, you're late to the party...
"Dude, you're late to the party..."
So are 100 million other Americans.
Why did so many people think that a slick advertising campaign and a penciled X were all it would take to get rid of their sick government?
-"The critics are backed by public opinion. A survey last October found that 80% of Pakistanis rejected American assistance in fighting the Taliban."
American propaganda works better on the US population than on countries like Pakistan, where they can either see the reality for themselves or have access to reliable news services like al jazeera.
jlocke, its harder to sell propaganda to a man with the tip your spear in his face.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
--"American propaganda works better on the US population than on countries like Pakistan"
Americans are not interested in winning the hearts and minds of Pakistanis. As long as the Pakistani Military does our bidding we are happy. They have always been our client State ... for the last 60 years. This sudden realization by our Media is whats really shocking.
80% of Pakistanis rejected American assistance in fighting the Taliban.
And the US budget cuts back all spending except on the country's main industry and export, making wars and maehem arround the world in order to keep the MIC turning.
Just imagine the reduction of conflict and killing in this world without a USA or Israel defending their staregic "interests" which apparently have no borders and no rules.
And how many American health plans, or educations could have been paid for with those wasted funds, not to mention the lives of non-Americans in Pakistan, Iraq, etc.. not destroyed.
Instead we have ignorant people who believe the propaganda and only know foreigners are to be suspected or killed.
They hate us for our freedom and values... Ya, Sure they do!
Obamescalation, wider Bush wars, and "advisers" killed across "sovereign" borders; it's VeetNamaBad!
More headaches for the pipeline..
It's interesting that it was our tax money that Bush sr. used to fund the Taliban, and supply them with weapons, when the bad guys worked for him, and Bush Jr. who used our tax money to buy weapons to kill them, to gain control of the oil. Obama is following Bush with a push by the X-CIA chief, Robert Gates.
MADDY, it sorta reminds one of Jay Gould's (in)famous quote, "I can hire half the working-class to kill the other half".
Although, now that I think of it, Gould's quote is more appropriate to what this Global corporate/financial/militarist Empire is planning to do with their financial 'shock doctrine' to us in the U.S., rather than what the Bushes or Obama are doing to the Afghans and Pakistanis.
Alan MacDonald
Sanofrd, Maine
"boysgramps February 3rd, 2010 5:14 pm
Obamescalation, wider Bush wars, and "advisers" killed across "sovereign" borders; it's VeetNamaBad!"
Obama did make it perfectly clear in his speech in Berlin before he was elected President of the USA that:
The walls between groups, tribes, nations, races, blacks white, christians, jews, muslims, migrants (!) etc. 'These now are the walls that must be torn down'....'
Now, and for America's public consumption, he ordered drones to patrol America's border with Mexico! ...
Do I hear Bread and Circuses?
Do I hear "Nobel Peace Prize"? It's time for this country to be held accountable for all the bloodshed and destruction it is causing around the world. When is it enough? US soldiers are not "serving" their country--they are serving evil and they are not going to be thanked for the evil they are doing under the cover of "orders." Sorry, but you don't follow immoral and evil orders. The Nuremburg trials settled that issue. No wonder Obama did nothing to hold Bush accountable for his war crimes--he has so many of his own to cover up.
This article opens the interest in the topic of what is actually going on, and implies that the author knows more, but fails to provide any details. Perhaps the editor gutted most of the journalist's article.
"And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask, I don't give a damn. At least it's not Iran."
Shades of 'Nam 'mission creep'...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zdH09mWVF8
"The critics are backed by public opinion. A survey last October found that 80% of Pakistanis rejected American assistance in fighting the Taliban."
Shadow America Inc. CEO Dick Cheney: "No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls."
He added: "Go f**k yourself, Pakistan."
The Only "Freedom" the United States of America defends, is it freedom to kill whomever it likes, whenever it likes, where-ever it likes for what ever reasons they wish.
Truly a rogue nation.
Yep, rogue nation we are, and there's not a goddamned thing we can do about it.
I marched against the Vietnam War in the early 70's, actually thought I was doing good. Dodged rubber bullets and dye packets from the national guard. No, it helped no one. Fold your tents people, head for the hills, grab your guns. Understand, I hate guns, I despise the nra. Best wishes, Stephen.
Yeah, that is the problem; is that many like you and me, see the problem but feel so helpless. There seems to be little we can do to stop this draconian monster that lives off of the blood of other nations,other than a mass civil disobedience or some kind of non-violent regime change by millions of people. In my dreams, I would like to see about 50 million American patriots surround D.C. and throw everyone out. We need some kind of a non-violent coup d' etat to take our country back from the fascists.
I agree with you Paul Revere.....but......while we are surrounding the White House, what/who will be surrounding the crowd? Will the ensuing massacre be publicized? Yes, I am afraid for the people of this country. There will be martyrs for sure....plenty of us! Does anyone else out there give any credence to the writings of Gregg Braden....talking about changes in consciousness and changing reality with our feelings and thoughts? According to his books "The Divine Matrix" and "Fractal Time," we have the power within us to change our world without all being killed in the process. I don't know.....I'm contemplating his theories and meditating on it. The latest research in quantum physics suggests he may be onto something. Also, ancient writings, prior to Christianity, i.e., 'The Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran texts, suggest the same thing.
Looks to me like 80% of the people in Pakistan do not want us to bring them freedom and democracy!
We'll bring our unwelcomed "democracy" to Pakistan regardless of what the Pakistani people want in order to get our grubby paws on the pipeline and natural resources.
Of course it's all about money and control.
The reasons for war--follow the money.......................
--"Looks to me like 80% of the people in Pakistan do not want us to bring them freedom and democracy!"
They certainly do not want American 'democracy' or freedom's'. It does nothing but kill them.
The tendency of 'Leftists' to side with the Taliban is nauseating. The Taliban are no better or worse than American and Pakistani troops massacring Afghans and Pakistanis. We should save our contempt for all three entities. Siding with the Taliban is ass-backward Bushist you-are-with-us-or-with-them thinking.
What's nauseating is watching Americans actually believe the crap slung by Bush and Obama: "We must invade and occupy foreign countries to protect the Homeland."
It's the same BS the German youth once bought into as they proudly served "their" empire and Fuhrer.
This is Obama's Cambodia. We need a new version of the "Pentagon Papers".
Read another view of how Pakistanis feel about this in Ignatius' column in the Washington Post today. Anyone who wasn't deluding themselves last year knew Obama was going to handle the war as a centrist. Wake up and smell the rot of Jihad.
Southeast Asia
Feb 5, 2010
THE ROVING EYE
STRING AT THE ABYSS
BY PEPE ESCOBAR
TEJAKULA, north Bali - As far as precious little corners of paradise in Southeast Asia go, one could hardly ask for more. An isolated octagonal house with a beautiful garden, owned by a retired couple from California, facing a volcanic rock beach to the north of the tropical island of Bali, with the only locals being fishermen who at night set out on a junkuh - the elegant, wooden predecessor of the catamaran - to scour the calm, warm waters for tuna and barracuda.
The night is mostly pitch black - courtesy of punctual power shortages from the grid in distant Java. The sound is the usual, cacophonous tropical jungle "silence" - deafened by the inevitable daily storm. There's not much to do except sit at the seaside
bale, pinpoint the kerosene lamps identifying the junkuh, and stare at the Bali sea.
But this being Bali, where everything is a matter of sekala and niskala, soon I saw myself staring at the abyss.
Sekala is the fabulous, fascinating Balinese world of ritual, ceremony, dance, drama and endless daily offerings to the spirit world. But the real action is in niskala - the occult, the magic underlining it all. In Bali definitely what you see is not what you get.
So while staring at the sea I was actually thinking about the late, great Howard Zinn, American historian, author and activist who died on January 27 this year, and his take on this sorry world of non-stop war and infinite injustice; Zinn asked how can we "stay socially engaged", committed to a struggle for justice and truth, and still keep our sanity and not become resigned or cynical, or turn into a vegetable, or totally burn out.
Did I miss much while staring at the Bali sea? Oh, the usual shop of horrors. The ghost of Osama bin Laden released a new audio hit blasting the US for global warming and inciting everyone to dump the US dollar (the ghost is right on both counts). Pakistani Taliban supremo Hakeemullah Mehsud may or may not have been blasted to bits by a US drone (who cares? His replacement is already in business). US President Barack Obama's surge duly proceeds as a Kill Bill-style killing spree on both sides of the AfPak border. The Central Intelligence Agency swears al-Qaeda will try another hit inside the US within the next six months. There was a corporate takeover of American democracy (so why not "elect" US politicians by auction, once and for all?) and neo-cons are now rehashing the mantra "Bomb, Bomb Iran" as the only way for Obama to save his presidency.
So the moment I laid my eyes on the Internet, borrowing the satellite dish signal of my neighbor Hans, a Dutch architect who wisely said bye-bye to cranky, fearful, priced-out and reactionary Europe - the Bali sea instantly vanished. It was not only a matter of niskala taking over sekala. It was a matter of being sucked back into the realm of the hungry ghosts - and all that's left in this case is the abyss, as in the Pentagon's "long war".
Ghosts in regalia
Last weekend, the Pentagon told the Obama administration to tell the whole of US media that it was stepping up its war machine (from extra Patriot missile batteries in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to Aegis-class cruisers on permanent patrol) against possible missile attacks by Iran on those helpless peons to democracy - the Arab Gulf petro-monarchies.
The operative word is "possible". Former president George W Bush's preventive war ethos rules more than ever in Washington. It does not matter that the possibility of Tehran launching a first strike on any US Arab ally is as high as corporations not owning US democracy. And by the way, what happened to missile defense in Eastern Europe, also supposed to protect it from those same evil Tehran missiles?
ARTICLE CONTINUED
============================
STARING AT THE ABYSS BY PEPE ESCOBAR
So Pentagon logic now totally rules. The Pentagon assumes Iran will now prop up its own defenses. Thus the Pentagon may claim that Iran is "threatening its neighbors" - and deploy even more military might. It's the logic of an arms race, which Tehran obviously cannot keep up with, that may give the Pentagon the "defensive" excuse it's been waiting for, so one more war can be marketed to the battered US populace.
Pentagon hawks, always oblivious to internal political subtleties of "The Other" - the developing world enemy du jour - obviously ignore that for the regime in Tehran the key existential threat now is the internal opposition movement. The military dictatorship of the mullahtariat has better fish to fry than to launch a missile at Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure ever built.
The whole thing still qualifies as a tragicomedy when added to the fact that the Pentagon was forced to admit its attempt to shoot down a mimicked Iran ballistic missile miserably failed, courtesy of a "rogue" Raytheon radar.
To top it all, tragicomedy finally melts into farce as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "warns" China that it must support more sanctions against Iran - as if Beijing would agree to what amounts to an act of war against one of its key energy partners, especially after the Obama-approved US$6.4 billion arms sale to US client Taiwan, which includes 60 Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot missiles and advanced Harpoon missiles that can be used against land or ship targets, all of them obviously mainland Chinese.
The US Senate also approved a bill that would punish companies for exporting gasoline to Iran or helping Iran to expand its oil refining capability - by the way, this is another act of war. All these moves obviously have to be seen within the "grand chessboard" (copyright Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US national security advisor ) of the New Great Game in Eurasia and the irreversible decline of the American empire/ascension of China. The Beijing collective leadership is not exactly quaking in their Ferragamos.
What does it take for Washington elites to realize that mini-acts of war simply won't intimidate a military dictatorship of the mullahtariat, which is now fighting internally for its own survival? President Mahmud Ahmadinejad himself - for all his outbursts - has been wily enough to defuse the whole nuclear issue, saying on Iranian state TV the country would have "no problem" to send its low-enriched uranium abroad at 3.5% for further enrichment at 20% and taking it back four or five months later, as dictated by the United Nations. This voids any possible rationale for an attack on Iran by the US, Israel, or both. But it does not mean the attack won't happen.
The Islamic regime's short-term strategy is to lump all internal opponents as lackeys of the US and Israel and at the same time beef up its already considerable prestige in the Arab street as well as around the Muslim world as resisters to American imperialism. Meanwhile, in the US, the Israel lobby, industrial-military hawks, the Republican right and corporate media will keep up relentless pressure on Obama to "act". The abyss scenario for 2010 reads like a crescendo series of Washington ultimatums against an already cornered military dictatorship of the mullahtariat. There can only be one terrible outcome; Tehran surrenders, or the dogs of war will be unleashed.
Barry does Indonesia
And all this is still part of a larger - warring - picture. This week, Pentagon supremo Robert Gates released two new key documents - the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR in Pentagon-speak), and the Pentagon's 2011 defense budget proposal, at a staggering $708.2 billion (plus a request for $3 billion to help pay for the AfPak war).
The QDR (one year in redaction, full support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) may have, at least in theory, finished off with Bush's pre-emptive war doctrine. But still it paints a Hieronymus Bosch-like picture of Hobbesian hell - including everything from suicide bombers attacking inside the US to waves of attacks against the worldwide US empire of bases, biological terrorist attacks and even Taiwan being attacked by - what else? - Chinese missiles.
The new arsenal of weapons Gates needs was immaculately described by a top Pentagon civilian strategist as "a broad portfolio of military capabilities with maximum versatility across the widest possible spectrum of conflict". Problem is, all those masses of supremely equipped American soldiers will still have no ground intelligence and won't be able to speak a single "hello" in a foreign language. So much for conquering the hearts and minds of the inscrutable “other”.
The hungry ghosts are having a ball. Early this week, the US launched Cobra Gold - its mega-military exercise in the Pacific in cooperation with allies Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia. The Pentagon, industrial-military and political elites, and their courtiers in the American corporate media would rather crave then abandon the mindset of a "long war" for global hegemony.
Obama will come to Indonesia next month to relive his "Little Barry" 1967-1971 Jakarta years and practice his Bahasa Indonesia vocabulary. It might do him some good to skip Java for a while and go Balinese. Maybe staring at the sea will make him see niskala - and prevent him from being permanently engulfed by the realm of the hungry ghosts.
Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).
He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
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