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TechnoratiOpium, Rape and the American Way
The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger.
"We need to tear the mask off of the fundamentalist warlords who after the tragedy of 9/11 replaced the Taliban," Malalai Joya, who was expelled from the Afghan parliament two years ago for denouncing government corruption and the Western occupation, told me during her visit to New York last week. "They used the mask of democracy to take power. They continue this deception. These warlords are mentally the same as the Taliban. The only change is physical. These warlords during the civil war in Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 killed 65,000 innocent people. They have committed human rights violations, like the Taliban, against women and many others."
"In eight years less than 2,000 Talib have been killed and more than 8,000 innocent civilians has been killed," she went on. "We believe that this is not war on terror. This is war on innocent civilians. Look at the massacres carried out by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Look what they did in May in the Farah province, where more than 150 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. They used white phosphorus and cluster bombs. There were 200 civilians on 9th of September killed in the Kunduz province, again most of them women and children. You can see the Web site of professor Marc Herold, this democratic man, to know better the war crimes in Afghanistan imposed on our people. The United States and NATO eight years ago occupied my country under the banner of woman's rights and democracy. But they have only pushed us from the frying pan into the fire. They put into power men who are photocopies of the Taliban."
Afghanistan's boom in the trade in opium, used to produce heroin, over the past eight years of occupation has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the Taliban, al-Qaida, local warlords, criminal gangs, kidnappers, private armies, drug traffickers and many of the senior figures in the government of Hamid Karzai. The New York Times reported that the brother of President Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been collecting money from the CIA although he is a major player in the illegal opium business. Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium in a trade that is worth some $65 billion, the United Nations estimates. This opium feeds some 15 million addicts worldwide and kills around 100,000 people annually. These fatalities should be added to the rolls of war dead.
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said that the drug trade has permitted the Taliban to thrive and expand despite the presence of 100,000 NATO troops.
"The Taliban's direct involvement in the opium trade allows them to fund a war machine that is becoming technologically more complex and increasingly widespread," said Costa.
The UNODC estimates the Taliban earned $90 million to $160 million a year from taxing the production and smuggling of opium and heroin between 2005 and 2009, as much as double the amount it earned annually while it was in power nearly a decade ago. And Costa described the Afghan-Pakistani border as "the world's largest free trade zone in anything and everything that is illicit," an area blighted by drugs, weapons and illegal immigration. The "perfect storm of drugs and terrorism" may be on the move along drug trafficking routes through Central Asia, he warned. Profits made from opium are being pumped into militant groups in Central Asia and "a big part of the region could be engulfed in large-scale terrorism, endangering its massive energy resources," Costa said.
"Afghanistan, after eight years of occupation, has become a world center for drugs," Joya told me. "The drug lords are the only ones with power. How can you expect these people to stop the planting of opium and halt the drug trade? How is it that the Taliban when they were in power destroyed the opium production and a superpower not only cannot destroy the opium production but allows it to increase? And while all this goes on, those who support the war talk to you about women's rights. We do not have human rights now in most provinces. It is as easy to kill a woman in my country as it is to kill a bird. In some big cities like Kabul some women have access to jobs and education, but in most of the country the situation for women is hell. Rape, kidnapping and domestic violence are increasing. These fundamentalists during the so-called free elections made a misogynist law against Shia women in Afghanistan. This law has even been signed by Hamid Karzai. All these crimes are happening under the name of democracy."
Thousands of Afghan civilians have died from insurgent and foreign military violence. And American and NATO forces are responsible for almost half the civilian deaths in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians have also died from displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, crime and lawlessness resulting from the war.
Joya argues that Karzai and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, who has withdrawn from the Nov. 7 runoff election, will do nothing to halt the transformation of Afghanistan into a narco-state. She said that NATO, by choosing sides in a battle between two corrupt and brutal opponents, has lost all its legitimacy in the country.
The recent resignation of a high-level U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, was in part tied to the drug problem. Hoh wrote in his resignation letter that Karzi's government is filled with "glaring corruption and unabashed graft." Karzi, he wrote, is a president "whose confidants and chief advisers comprise drug lords and war crimes villains who mock our own rule of law and counter-narcotics effort."
Joya said, "Where do you think the $36 billion of money poured into country by the international community have gone? This money went into the pockets of the drug lords and the warlords. There are 18 million people in Afghanistan who live on less than $2 a day while these warlords get rich. The Taliban and warlords together contribute to this fascism while the occupation forces are bombing and killing innocent civilians. When we do not have security how can we even talk about human rights or women's rights?"
"This election under the shade of Afghan war-lordism, drug-lordism, corruption and occupation forces has no legitimacy at all," she said. "The result will be like the same donkey but with new saddles. It is not important who is voting. It is important who is counting. And this is our problem. Many of those who go with the Taliban do not support the Taliban, but they are fed up with these warlords and this injustice and they go with the Taliban to take revenge. I do not agree with them, but I understand them. Most of my people are against the Taliban and the warlords, which is why millions did not take part in this tragic drama of an election."
"The U.S. wastes taxpayers' money and the blood of their soldiers by supporting such a mafia corrupt system of Hamid Karzai," said Joya, who changes houses in Kabul frequently because of the numerous death threats made against her. "Eight years is long enough to learn about Karzai and Abdullah. They chained my country to the center of drugs. If Obama was really honest he would support the democratic-minded people of my country. We have a lot [of those people]. But he does not support the democratic-minded people of my country. He is going to start war in Pakistan by attacking in the border area of Pakistan. More civilians have been killed in the Obama period than even during the criminal Bush."
"My people are sandwiched between two powerful enemies," she lamented. "The occupation forces from the sky bomb and kill innocent civilians. On the ground, Taliban and these warlords deliver fascism. As NATO kills more civilians the resistance to the foreign troops increases. If the U.S. government and NATO do not leave voluntarily my people will give to them the same lesson they gave to Russia and to the English who three times tried to occupy Afghanistan. It is easier for us to fight against one enemy rather than two."
98 Comments so far
Show AllWhat is funny about war torn countries. I admit deaths by war and war in themselves are wrong. It is a failure to have someone capable of interacting with other people and nations in control. Yet in all reality citizens have no real say. But what I would like to point out is. When this war first started the cameras were flying over opium fields and saying they were going to let the farmers harvest them because it was there only income. Bam the door was shut. That is the last I heard about it. Now years later these problems jump up. Yet they have been going on for centuries. Just like the wars. Why is all of a sudden all problems in countries the problems of the world when no one was complaining or reporting before. And statistics is another of my complaints. Are there any real statistics anywhere. I don't trust anyone. Nobody, zip, nada. Words anymore are just that, words. You might as well go around with a microphone and just start spitting. Truth is gone. Everybody is the bad guy. And the good guys are corrupt, just hasn't been proven or found. It is not worthy of arguing about drugs trade. The thing is to find a way that is better than drug use. Problem is no one knows about this planet. Don't eat meat. Stop animal testing. These subjects are worthy of change. And could possibly lead to a more peaceful planet. When your dinner is death. You have accepted killing in your heart. Dig yourself out.
i just wanted to tell chris that this is the best article i have read in a long time, (and i do a lot of reading)
it brought out alot of emotion, sparking a fire underneath me i have not felt for some time now.
i sent it to both of my girls, hoping to spark their fading fire as well, after all, the ball is now in their court.
keep doing what you obviously do so well. your family must be proud!
To moderateIndependent---
You write, in part:
"Afghan women were raped by Afghan men, not American men."
Try both.
I appreciate your point of view and that was among my worst posts. Nevertheless, to my mind the existence of Wal*Mart is a metaphor for the collapse of small businesses in the U.S. and a resultant cooptation of individualism.
As for American men being idiots, I mean the militarism and the macho thinking and idea that we can keep controlling the world through the power relationships that include the subjugation of women. I am also aware that there are women who, as another has noted here, seem to like being dominated. Military wives for example. That's an alien culture to me. I suspect a dependence on totalitarianism there but I'd have to study it more, like asking about how they related to their fathers.
One aspect of American men being idiots is not only their choice of cars, but how they drive them and what it says about their psyches. And how the cars are advertised to entice their purchase. Most American men I know who are over 50 tend to be a bit reflective while most under 50 remain IDIOTS. They make bad choices. They don't think. Most cannot spell well and are math-challenged. They are TV-addicted and are football-entranced. They drink too much beer and are more pot-bellied than not. They can't name their Congressperson, don't know the number of their Congressional district despite receiving the junk propaganda, and may be able to name only one of their Senators, if that.
I'll stick by my thought here. Most American men are IDIOTS.
Their understanding of economics is minimal. They still think that "credit" is a given and they are entitled to it even if their real estate is under water. Their sense of "entitlement" enslaves them to a political system that cannot be sustained except by Empire, which itself has always, and inevitably, failed. Finally, they are ahistorical, rarely read, and have short memories.
I'm not sure how it came to this pass. How it came to be that I can fix my own faucets and lawnmowers and old cars while most American men have to hire others to do that. Also, they can't cook worth a damn! Let alone plant and HUSBAND a garden. They seem to think they're entitled to exist merely because they exist and will create their own self-fulfilling prophecy by having fat and lazy children. In general they work at uselsss jobs (or worse, outright destructive jobs), don't vote, and contribute nothing to the world. What percentage of American men have ever planted a tree? Or lifted a finger to help a stranger? What we have is a culture of exclusion. And exceptionalism.
Who gave us the right to invade and bomb Afghanistan? American men. What did the Afghans do to us? Absolutely nothing. The United States has become a profoundly criminal nation, which Chris Hedges is trying to tell us. Perhaps it is time to stop being "civil" in our response. Perhaps it is time to recall the "civil disobedience" of the Sixties, and recall the old axiom that "we have nothing to lose but our chains."
But to take this on to another level, concerning macho behavior, if you study male IMPOSITIONS, including RAPE, you will find that for all the TESTOSTERONE that the American military keeps trying to PUMP UP, the actual LIFE FORCE of their SPERM is DECREASING! They are becoming incapable of fecundity. They may feel horny but they cannot reproduce. Their sperm lack motility. Yet they keep supporting the system of fascism that has enslaved them. Thus, IDIOTS.
I know perfectly well that my viewpoint is going to cost me. I care. But I no longer care. Death is becoming an option. Feight against the dying of the light, and name the last time you saw the word, "feight."
Am I being harsh? You bet.
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Ray Berthiaume
One third of the women in the U.S. military are sexually attacked or raped by fellow soldiers.
OleManRiver-as a foreigner, with a very very few exceptions, i whole heartily agree. Just go to your neighborhood bar, sit around some men, listen to their conversations. you'll hear a lot of machismo, overconfidence, loud voices - no substance. add to this that American men are gullible, easily manipulated, non principled, whiny as women when it comes to workplace, can't fix s...t in the house (that's so true!), messy, and quiet boring. Perhaps it's an effect of years of womens' beating them to death for the rights, so these days, they, as we say are "neither meat nor fish", kind of mellow, without an opinion and much drive for life. they can't "sweep you off your feet", simply because they are afraid next thing you will sue their ass for rape or something nonsensical. old rules of gallantry and gentlemen are simply non-existent, you'd be lucky if he pays for your coffee, forget about him giving you a hand. just go to any international airport and see how men react when you are carrying a big suitcase, and then compare to Americans. not that i can't carry my suitcase, in fact, i can carry a heavy backpack to the top of the mountains many people wouldn't go to, including men, but nevertheless... it's a matter of an attitude. they are afraid to be assertive, because they are overly concerned about your "feelings". once married, they are so afraid to have any women friends because usually, their wives have them tight in their "high morality" fists. And yes, they know nothing about the world, and frankly, they know more about fantasy football than the world around them.
there are always exceptions, especially in the coastal areas, but society in large, it seems, favors these mushy-washy creatures-not men, not women-somethings.
Republican Orrin Hatch, senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee which installed Osama bin Laden as head of a front organization known as Maktab al-Khidamar — or MAK — that funnelled money, arms and fighters to Afghanistan (MAK was in turn nurtured by Pakistan’s state security services, the main CIA conduit for the covert war against the USSR in Afghanistan), once stated that he did not regret the decision — even knowing what bin Laden would do subsequently [on 9/11]. ‘It was worth it,’ he said. ‘Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an important role in the downfall of the Soviet Union.’
I can imagine the good Senator and his cronies in the US government shaking their heads and saying, "Afghan women? Sad, but that's war ... and once again there are greater issues at stake (like oil for US war machines)!"
lennon's strawberry fields have become karzai's poppy fields forever. ashcroft tried to get turner broadcasting to morph the poppy fields where dorothy fell asleep into corn fields, as part of an anti-drug campaign. he tried to change the wizard of oz as well as drape the sculpture of lady justice to suit his conventions of morality.but seriously folks, what is afghanistan supposed to do to raise cash? no one wants to invest in a war torn country featuring multiple factions lost in interneccine struggle, though i hear that the chinese have a nice copper mine just outside kabul, protected, of course, by the us marines. from the halls of montezeuma to the mines of kabul; well, it just doesn't sound right.but missing more than a syllable are our leaders, who must acknowledge that afghanistan would be desparate if not for the cash flow from the poppy crop. before the war of 2001, the poppy fields were almost non-existant, but in the desolation and dislocation of war, folks turn to the simplest way to survive, where the most cash can be churned out for the least effort. there are no alternatives for the afghans, a citizenry that has been in a state of almost perpetual war since 1978. mc chrystal's plan won't work. you can't be both mother teresa and ghengis khan at the same time to the same people.he should be fired , anyway, for leaking his suggestions that should have been for the president's eyes only. here's a guy who shows up in combat fatigues to meet the president and, yes, he's the same guy who covered up the truth about pat tillman's death. we won't even mention that he wouldn't let the red cross into camp nama in iraq, for he knew they would find many victims of the routine torture in which he so acquiesced.instead of being sent to kabul, he should be flown to the hague, or perhaps nuremberg, if its courtroom is still standing. how these folks can perpetrate one monstrosity after another is astounding!
lennon's strawberry fields have become karzai's poppy fields forever. ashcroft tried to get turner broadcasting to morph the poppy fields where dorothy fell asleep into corn fields, as part of an anti-drug campaign. he tried to change the wizard of oz as well as drape the sculpture of lady justice to suit his conventions of morality.but seriously folks, what is afghanistan supposed to do to raise cash? no one wants to invest in a war torn country featuring multiple factions lost in interneccine struggle, though i hear that the chinese have a nice copper mine just outside kabul, protected, of course, by the us marines. from the halls of montezeuma to the mines of kabul; well, it just doesn't sound right.but missing more than a syllable are our leaders, who must acknowledge that afghanistan would be desparate if not for the cash flow from the poppy crop. before the war of 2001, the poppy fields were almost non-existant, but in the desolation and dislocation of war, folks turn to the simplest way to survive, where the most cash can be churned out for the least effort. there are no alternatives for the afghans, a citizenry that has been in a state of almost perpetual war since 1978. mc chrystal's plan won't work. you can't be both mother teresa and ghengis khan at the same time to the same people.he should be fired , anyway, for leaking his suggestions that should have been for the president's eyes only. here's a guy who shows up in combat fatigues to meet the president and, yes, he's the same guy who covered up the truth about pat tillman's death. we won't even mention that he wouldn't let the red cross into camp nama in iraq, for he knew they would find many victims of the routine torture in which he so acquiesced.instead of being sent to kabul, he should be flown to the hague, or perhaps nuremberg, if its courtroom is still standing. how these folks can perpetrate one monstrosity after another is astounding!
Until government gets out of foreign interventions, nothing will change in Afghanistan. Let's just leave Afghanistan and let the people fix things themselves. Government should be investing their money on health care for all instead of warlords and Taliban. Either government do that and get out of their way or why not just abolish government?
Abdullah Abdullah the opposition candidate has withdrawn from the race saying that the same forces of corruption remain in place in any runoff, leaving Karzai the de facto President and he received a call from President Obama acknowledging the government in Kabul.
Meanwhile, James Edwards, writing from some Brit colony somewhere (spelling it "honouring" our "human responsibilities") obviously you don't get it. We TRANSCENDED humanity long ago. We Bushites are Uber Menschen. Robama is merely an extension of a strategy long ago worked out and put in place and there ain't nothin you can do about it because sure as hell Medvedev/Putin are now part of the plan.
Do you really believe Russia or China or anyone else is gonna bomb the U.S. because of a pun(ic)y war in Afghanistan? I sympathize with your fantasies while realizing that that is what they are.
Hey, James Edwards, I think I just invented a word: Robama. It puts a prefix where everybody else has posted a suffix. How about Robamabots? Put that to his Press Secretary.
Meanwhile, I don't mean to demean your point. Our country HAS gone crazy. I agree that "Americans, not Afghans have to do what the Afghan woman says" but we won't until we shut down Wal*Mart.
In my own view, the Afghan civilization is actually a higher form than the American one. A hundred years ago I could not have said that, but since then we have been totally corrupted by greed and avarice.
Who dropped two atomic bombs on humans? And how did we explain it away? (And what has prevented this happening again?)
Ours is a tragic species. We are our own worst enemy and no religion has confronted our selves for what we are. The United States is a symptom. There is also a sexual abyss here, that goes to the RAPE of Afghan women. In the long run, American men are idiots. After all, think about Wall Street. What were they thinking? Absolutely nothing. They were thinking with their pricks and their cocaine and their fictional derivatives. Their unregulated hubris threw humanity over a cliff and now they want to start all over again. And Robamabot is trying to create a "recovery."
Good luck!
-30-
WalMart?!? BWAAA HA HAAAAAAAAA ahhhhhhhhhhhhh walmart is coming! If WalMart unionized tomorrow the left would say they are a great store.
I cannot blame you for the outrage but there are some points I find questionable. While you are correct that neither China nor Russia will bomb the US, they still have plenty of credit for the debt we owe them and can take on us economically.
What does shutting down Walmart have to do with Afghanistan? People go to Walmart because they want everything dirt cheap.
There is plenty to be angry about the USA for but it is better than Europe in some aspects and worse in others.
Calling American men idiots for Wall Street and the rape of Afghan women makes no sense. Wall Street faced opposition from both sexes but the politicians didn't listen to them.
Afghan women were raped by Afghan men, not American men.
We need to be careful who we call idiots. How do you expect to win a cause for yourself and others you cherish by calling American men idiots? I understand your anger but a moderate tone would be nice.
The situation is worse. Americans are just not behaving as a sane human entities any more. Judging simply by the actions of its governmental agents, psychopathy is rampant in America and the day is coming that Americans will be accosted and neutralised in America for they have become lethal global pests. Ideally, the leaders and the now mercenary servicemen and those who get their money must bear the brunt. It is becoming beholden for all humans to insist that Americans and remove their psychopaths from effective life everywhere.
This is not an exaggeration. It is very unfortunate but it is a logical and balanced assessment. At no stage in history would human beings allow such unrestrained piracy to take place without attacking the home base of the pirates responsible.
What has happened to you Americans? Your country has gone crazy. Either you take the psychopaths and those who use them out, hopefully legally, in which case we have to recognise that, however repugnantly, capital punishment is legal in the US, or others will have to. The danger of all out war is growing because you Americans are not honouring your human responsibilities. If it comes to the death it is going to be very messy indeed.
Americans, not Afghans have to do what the Afghan woman says
I agree completely, Johnathan Edwards; and as an American I am grieved everytime I read the news or see it on TV (ESPECIALLY the news we get here, behind the : "Patriotic Curtain..."). America--i.e., the United States, IS a juggernaut of unrestrained greed, bullying, fanatacism and psycopathy that insinutates itself everywhere and on everyone and I wonder how long the rest of the world will stand for it?!
Not all Americans are the same. We have bad leaders but that doesn't necessarily make all Americans bad. We have to use psychology to motivate people to vote for better leadership.
If you hate white people from what you call "gringolandia" why don't you do something about it, except attack folks here. You simply assume that I am white and everyone else is as well. You don't even know. You need to deal with your hatred or else it will eat you up, I speak from experience.
Another 'Plan Colombia' success story? We should leave AfghaNam to the Taliban.
Hah, check this out.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news
/u_s_continues_quagmire_building
GOOD GOD (whatever that is) !
THose words by the Afghan woman are the most powerful of anyone from an occupied country i have ever read! she speaks as if the Voice out of the depths of History itself....especially how she binds together all the clashing interests and consequences into the last words in the article:
after distinguishing, and giving a LESSON to westerners and meddlers who "MY PEOPLE ARE" - taliban, non-taliban, warlords, etc...
"IF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AND NATO DO NOT LEAVE VOLUNTARILY ...MY PEOPLE WILL GIVE THEM THE SAME LESSON THEY GAVE TO RUSSIA AND TO THE ENGLISH WHO THREE TIMES TRIED TO OCCUPY AFGHANISTAN.
IT IS EASIER FOR US TO FIGHT ONE ENEMY RATHER THAN TWO."
"He may be an SOB but he's our SOB" first uttered by FDR in describing the US-backed dictator Somoza of Nicaragua,is still true and shows that US imperialism goes way back and crosses party and ideological lines.
So it does not matter whether it is The Taliban candidate, The Northern Alliance Candidate, The Unocal-CIA candidate (Hamid Karzai)or the CIA candidate (Abdullah Abdullah) US inperialism will seek to rule Pipelinestan.
Poet
"War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society."
He might have also added that it xfers wealth and consolidates power into the hands of psychotics...
And this is why Class, our country wages war all the time...since 1609...the deliberate genocide of 10-12 million Indigenous in the continental US was simply an appetizer, a warm up for the gluttony of our global Empire...ain't we just the dickens? After all, they could just surrender, couldn't they? Just look at the wonderful places, we call them Reservations, where we put the survivors. Some people just won't recognize a good thing when they see it, just difficult I suppose, so we kill them and then sodomize their 14yo boys in front of their mothers, just to rub it in...ingrates...don't they know we're bringing them Xrstian values? Don't they know this? Did someone forget to tell them?
I celebrate the honesty and courage of Malalai Joya, but I think we would better honor her spirit by asking why the United States is slaughtering civilians and enriching corrupt warlords at such a steep cost to U.S. citizens. Obviously, we are not spending a trillion dollars to protect the U.S. from attack by the 100 Al Qaeda members which the military think inhabit Afghanistan. What is the real military goal being sought in Afghanistan?
In fact, the great game which the U.S. is playing, with the lives of Afghani and Pakistani citizens as the chips, is "the prevention of a Russian energy monopoly" in Central Asia or Chinese domination of the energy-rich region, according to an article published last year in the magazine of the US Army War College by Dr. Stephen Blank, the college’s professor of National Security Studies. Studying the strategic papers of those who guide the national security state can yield rich understanding to those who want to counter their tactics.
For some reason we rarely hear about a promised pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India, the TAPI pipeline, when pundits discuss the Af-Pak conflict on CNN. The energy industry is currently seeing a major expansion of its facilities in the Middle East. The Obama policy is focused on aiding American firms seeking energy exploration, refining, and marketing opportunities in that region.
"Not surprisingly," Blank writes, "the leitmotif of US energy policy has been focused on fostering the development of multiple pipelines and links to foreign consumers and producers of energy" that bypass the control of our regional rivals. Strangely enough, he singles out the most important of these pipelines as the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAPI) pipeline, which would pump oil and natural gas from Central Asia across the exact territory now occupied by US troops. Of course, many on the left assume this is a mere coincidence.
Suddenly, the 3.6 billion a month that we taxpayers are contributing to the "Great Game" begins to make sense. What are a few tens of thousands of Afghanis and Pakistanis and American soldiers compared to the control of Central Asian energy resources?
One other quick point - a strong, united Afghanistan could cause difficulties in our plan for dominating the region. Much better to have a failed state ruled by warlords, especially those in the pay of the CIA. Of course, the more civilians we kill, the more recruits flock to the Taliban, keeping the situation in an endless swirl in which we can work our will without resistance.
Conservatives often go nuts about spending but when it comes to war spending, they are dead silent about it. Even the liberals don't want to utter a word about it. There is no crime in taking a counter-conservative talking point on wasteful spending and applying it to enriching the corrupt warlords. The energy industries are also counting on neither side to raise a stink about wasteful spending. I don't understand why liberals want to copy the conservatives on increasing such military spending at the cost of slashing domestic spending.
If we don't get the hell out of Afghanistan, then we'll all be singing Country Joe's song, but with modified lyrics (which Dave Lindorf just premiered at a solo performance at a fundraising dinner last week in Philadelphia for the local chapter of Veterans for Peace):
Come on all you young women and men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself into a terrible jam,
Way off yonder in Afghanistan.
You ain't got a job, so pick up a gun!
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun!
All you folks in the National Guard,
You won't be protecting your back yard.
We may have floods and hurricanes here,
But you'll be dodging bullets in the desert there.
But if that's not what you signed up for,
We'll send you there a few times more!
General McCrystal, jump right in!
Your big chance has come again.
The VC whupped us back in '74,
But now you can show some Muslims what-for,
And maybe even earn you a medal or three,
Sittin' at your desk in DC.
Chorus:
Oh it's one, two, three what are we fightin' for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn.
Next stop's Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven, open up the Pearly Gates.
Ain't no time to wonder why.
Whoopee! We're all bound to die!
Come on mothers, here's the plan,
Send your son off to Afghanistan.
Come on fathers, it's all cool,
Send a daughter off to Ka-Bool.
And if they die, they come home free,
And nobody has to see.
chorus
Okay Wall Street, here's the deal:
Middle East oil is yours to steal.
Afghani blood, American too, is being shed now
Just for you!
And you can charge whatever you dare,
Cuz Washington don't care.
chorus
Bush and Obama, you've done your best,
You've made the Middle East into one sweet mess!
But that's okay, there's still a plan:
To divert attention just bomb Iran!
And if that seems a bit unwise,
Well hell, you've got the Nobel Prize!
Chorus:
And it's one, two, three, what are we fightin' for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop's...
Pakistan?
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and folksinger. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
Now that's entertainment ! Great poem.
Malalai Joya is hot.
another good source for inside Afghanistan is Ann Jones's book, Winter in Kabul.
lots about what it's really like, and what it's like to be there, and watch cnn telling the official story- all fantasy.
one interesting thing she said is Afghans unanimously get all nostalgic for the good old days of soviet occupation. They say the soviets did not swagger and push them around, raid their houses, or lock them away in secret prisons. also they gave them lots of free food, medical care, and provided good schools. Oh and it was like democratic and free.
i THINK I also saw her speech in new york on youtube somewhere. she was very direct..very no-nonense..and extremely erudite and sophisticated in the way she explained how the west doesn't really understand that it has no business being an occupier in the her country.
and -- a very beautiful woman.
Malalai Joya is justified in her anger and frustration. She knows better than anyone what is going on on the ground in her country. But if she means to help her people she can't stop at the frustration and anger. Ms. Joya is foolish to not see the current occupation of U.S. forces in her country as an opportunity. International press cover Afghanistan every single day. I didn't hear one story in the U.S. mainstream media on the brutal oppression of Afghan women all the years the Taliban ruled the country. It was as if it wasn't happening. I say to Ms. Joya and the Afghan people, rise up and nominate an honest candidate for the presidency. Use Common Dreams and the international press to get the word out about this candidate so the world press will shine a light on on this person and offer her or him cover. That's how it's done! Is there not a single honest man in Afghanistan who can run? It's no secret the election was a sham--International peacekeepers brought it to the attention of the world and called for a run-off election--progress, one must admit. So the world is watching. It's easy to fall back on old worn out gripes that the west, the west, they are to blame. BUT WHERE IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY IN THAT? If there was ever a time for the Afghan people to get it together and unite and make their country a prosperous free nation for all, it's NOW. You have the U.S. forces, you have the sympathy of international leaders, including Obama. You have the attention of the world. What positive, constructive steps are you, the people of Afghanistan, going to take to make your country free and fair?? If free and fair is indeed what the people of Afghanistan want for their country.
The sympathy of international leaders and Obama? Yeah right. The Afghan people would be taking constructive steps if government would get out of the way.
So... in the aggregate, given all the above comments and citations, and all the ins and outs of international narco-trafficking, this nasty little war really is about drugs more than oil. I mean, if you annualized the economic history here, wherein we see that before the U.S. invasion the Taliban GOVERNMENT had allegedly banned opium production while AFTER the U.S. invasion they reverted to essentially taxing it to fund their resistance while we are essentially doing the same thing but at a different level, everybody is making much more money from opium production than from oil production. Eh?
And, yes, I knew about Bayer and heroin. Those 19th century German chemists from whom I am in part descended were a clever bunch.
I've been trying to think of the title of a book I read many years ago about an elderly Chinese guy who gave a long soliloquy on the benefits of smoking opium. The name Emile Zola came to mind and I googled him and opium, which was interesting, but wrong.
We are still in the opium wars. Our government has OUTLAWED virtually every "natural" pharmaceutical out there while privatizing through "patent" the corporate profits from the synthesis of more "potent" "purification" of the "active ingredients." This is part of the reason "health care" costs so much. Pretty soon it will be illegal to grow a willow tree, let alone chew its bark. Come to think of it, when was the last time you actually saw a willow tree?
Meanwhile, I loved ezeflyer's post:
"In "Little Miss Sunshine" the boy tells his grandfather, "... but you use heroin". His grandpa answers "...at your age you'd be crazy to use it... but at my age you'd be crazy not to""
Pardon my use of double quotes here... Without researching the source, my bet is that ezeflyer is paraphrasing and opium should be substituted for heroin. Think of end-of-life support. For my own part I want some degree of sentience in my last days, not oblivion, and I doubt I'm alone on this score. Thus opium or the intermediary morphine, depending on your medical system and where you live. And hashish! My younger sister survived an extra year of lung cancer on morphine while she "put her affairs in order." May we all be enabled to do likewise.
No more war. What have we to show for it? Stop the killing. End the madness.
There's that old canard about Ghandhi being asked about Western Civilization to which he allegedly replied, "I think it would be a good idea." Today I doubt that it is even possible. We may be beyond redemption. As Chris Hedges writes via his second sentence in this article:
"The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional." And he is correct to point to the fundamental role of women and their subjugation, here as well as there.
Most men are really stupid. It takes a lot of energy to educate a man and then they forget easily. You were taught to recite the alphabet and then put words together. Never mind the strange things those Germans and French do with vowels, like, you know, ø. Meanwhile, it is probably the case that pollution is making us more stupid minute by minute. Not merely our brains, but our MINDS, are being putrified by the poisons of, you guessed it, CAPITALISM, the major malignancy and a chemical poison. The Russians know it. The Chinese know it. The Indians are corrupt.
Years ago I met an Orthodox Jew, a young man who strapped a little black box to his forehead and recited over and over again the same litany. I thought he was out of his mind. Today I think he was onto something.
Today, recite the alphabet. It ain't qwerty. Try to even imagine a quadratic equation. If you are close to my age our teachers taught it; can you even arrange the variables? What is the PURPOSE of a quadratic equation? What does comprehending it PRODUCE? See? a/b=c/d. Hmmmm.
Individual intellect is being replaced by brain-dead Wal*Mart employees who just want the paycheck and their televisions.
***
To Sioux Rose---
I realize that you would agree with me that you are NOT equating ALL men as being from MARS and that some of us, like Mahler, are actually sentient. We have a true full moon tonight and I am listening to Mahler on WGUC-Cincy. The sunset was spectacular second evening in a row. The Full Moon rose from just about directly east, very rare.
What we need is not some uprising in the street, but instead a global recognition that we have been wrong in our thinking and that it has been self-destructive. The Internet MAY offer a way of recognizing and repairing. The actual, physical damage to the very stuctures of human survival go so deep that I have serious doubts. Already, we may be eating our children!
How about a silent revolution, where everything changes.
-30-
Sioux Rose
OLE MAN RIVER: The BEAUTY of the heavenly circle model is that it contains TWELVE archetypes. Too many are accustomed to only polarized sets, this or that, good or bad, white or black, male or female, etc. They seem to resent any thinking that does not comform to that limited box! They prefer the idea of teams, and the comforting egotistical notion that they are on the "right" one. The central reason I bring the LOGOS into this forum is to help expand our understanding of the nature of personhood and take it beyond these sets of antithetical opposition. Just as JESUS chose 12 disciples, and Abraham founded 12 tribes, the astro-logos utilizes 12 powerful archetypes to bear witness to the central motivating causes that human beings are heir/heiress to. MARS has been taken as the NORM for men, and it is hardly the only one possible. Yet it's obvious as seen in the percentage of our nation's funds directed at the military, its suppliers, and/or wars of conquest (a/k/a resource acquisition) how powerful this persona is. What society's disproportionate EMPHASIS on this particular masculine archetype has cost not only us, but the world, goes beyond what words can begin to shape. The wounding is both overt and covert, exists at levels from the international to the very personal and intimate.
It's always fascinated me that the word ATOM is almost a derivative of ADAM. The splitting of the atom that made for nuclear holocaust has been the supreme advance of Mars, god of war, over humanity. When only HALF the life force takes hold of the powers of life and death, all humanity suffers. The basic dyad whether seen as sun and moon, Yang and Yin, Mars and Venus is echoed in the very building blocks of life. DNA is a doubled sequence of millions of pairs of genes taken in equal measure from BOTH parents. Thus the force of life requires equal input from the Divine Yin and Divine Yang. With Mars using his power to dominate the female, steal all of Mother Nature's resources (now even demanding how genes, the very biological banks of time, ought line up), things have been thrown so far off balance, that truly the world wrestles with cataclysmic events. They are ALL the result of the emphasis on Mars, which is also: personal ego over group needs, aggression over diplomacy, war over peace, macho force over negotiation, the rudiments of war and power of destruction celebrated instead of investment in the arts and things of love and beauty. The list is far longer, but this is my point.
Because up till the 20th century women were not included in any government decisions, church canonization of law and rules expected of citizens (the church being THE rule of state), or generally allowed ownership of property or the vote, means that the MALE perspective has governed the planet for centuries. When men argue that women of power today do what men do, they fail to notice that the conditioning of the past 4000 years has led to very twisted beliefs. ONLY those who can see beyond the programming suitable to the current paradigm (and they are not many) can begin to undo THAT programming. Indeed it marks or should I say MAIMS both genders. However, whether it's the product of hormones (I think not), or the acts of Mothering the newborn, the female generally remains closer to the prospects of nurture and compassion (or empathy) than does the male who is punished by society when he does not conform to the "hero" notion of the warrior/Mars.
Any who take from this thesis the misguided notion I am anti-male are incapable of hearing my words and understanding what I am saying. It is not my job to be their counselors or raise their consciousness. They would rather shoot the messenger then rise to a higher understanding. In any event, I have stated this case many times in this forum, so I apologize to any who tire of its thesis. I believe it reflects the CENTRAL truth of our times. Mars alone cannot make life, and given free reign, he is showing a care-less will to destroy so much of it. The healing of mankind's collective spirit begins with EQUAL respect for the feminine partner, her vision, her unique sensibilities, and her DIVINE co-equal status with the presumed male god.
I don't think you are anti-male and you have made some good points. There are some recent events and reversing trends which conflict with some of what you just said. I also have questions about your defining feminism and masculinity.
First, I had a chance this morning to see your site and read your articles if siouxrose.com is your site. I don't quite agree with classifying all masculinity under Mars. I assume you meant to say machoism under Mars. There is a difference between masculinity and macho. Masculinity means general male qualities of which boldness and strength are included. The general dictionary definition does not include abuse, control, domination, etc... unlike macho which does. I agree with your association of feminism with Venus but macho feminism needs to be classified accordingly. I am unable to understand where macho feminism falls under, Mars or Venus?
Second, you are biologically correct that it's the woman's job to nurture the newborn but it can't be long until it is the job of both the male and female to nurture the child. There are cases where the mother cares more for the child than the father and vice versa. Usually, the former is the case but the latter has been gaining ground. Now, you say the male is punished for not being the war "hero". I can agree with that. To overcome that trend, both men and women will have to stop pressuring men into being engaged in war mode. If you have met army wives, you might have found out that most of them brag about their husbands serving and that is usually a sign that they are also part of pressuring them to serve. I see both men and women at fault.
I question the general nature of feminist activists. I voted for Nader while they all went Obama or Mccain so I doubt their commitment to feminism. To me, that sends a message that they are hooked to macho feminism and that is not feminism at all. That needs to be corrected as well.
Very well said and fairness given to both men and women. The extremes on both sides are cannon fodder for the ruling class. It's not "sexy" to be a moderate thinker compared to being an extremist.
Most people believe that feminism is only tied to liberals but it's not. Conservatives use feminism too for their own political purposes. The problem with feminism today is it's all about women only which violates its own core meaning. Let's pretend that a guy and a girl both get beaten up by school bullies. For the girl, feminists are there to help her but for the guy, feminists shut the door on his face and the macho male crowd spits on him as well. At the end of the day, the girl somewhat recovers while the boy is still doubly betrayed. The feminism of the 60s and 70s would have been kind to both the male and female. Today's feminism is getting to be just as dangerous as masculinity turned macho became. I may live in CO Springs where most people are psychos but if even the feminists voted a war criminal for president over Ralph Nader, they're not feminists. The same goes for the gentlemen. Voting for a war criminal ready to allow the raping and bombing to continue shows that most alleged feminists are hypocritical.
Martian Bachelor,
Militaristic feminists do not fall under Venus. They fall under Athena who was the daughter of Zeus. I hope Sioux Rose doesn't mind my quoting one of her older posts. Here's what she is talking about. You need to explore this in terms of positions. Take the time to read this. If you need any more help or explanation, just ask and I will do my best to help.
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Siouxrose November 12th, 2007 5:37 pm
STAR OF SEA: Athena is a PERMANENT archetypal imprint, as is Mars. But the beauty of this Truth is realized through the geometric design of the circle, where specific positions counter-balance others' mandated functions. VENUS is given THREE positions, more than any other entity. First she appears as the great mother, Demeter; then as the wife of Zeus and champion of marital union and EQUALITY as Isis/Juno; and finally exalted in Pisces, the sign where all things come full circle to fulfill the law of karma, she teaches the great oneness and the necessity that Compassion (the higher love) rule the human experience. These 3 positions form a cosmic triangle that was intended to hold Mars, the war god, in check. I explain in my book on this subject (almost done. Amen! A long, long labor!) that centuries of excluding female values from power bastions and academe (think how emotion and feeling is never tolerated and considered less valuable than logic or the rational mind) has paralyzed Venus' intended function(s).
As is evident in the vast majority of prophecy, we have come to the end of a cycle and all hell has broken loose. Out of this chaos a new and very different (from the current patriarchal format) will arise.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stellar reference. For now the battle (carried on with every human engagement, like Agent Smiths Of War popping up every 15 seconds to be Akido'd into peace converts) is defined so as to be easier to be on with and the conquering begun. The out of balance mentality/ego (dominating) all gender forms (Trans, he/she's, female, male, bi, hetero, homo...etc): as symbolized in mass culture with the great idol Cortex for the Human Body Exhibit, Droidge's "morphesus of narcissus" book cover, the Feldenkrais Symposium of Self phrenology schema, the Merzenich/Baniel collaboration further splitting human conceptualizing of a full body/brain in environment (with the bestest of intention...the bestest they try) they kneel before their great god Cortex and his bolt of lightening Neuroplasticity, and repeat Candece Purt's mantra "IF god was in the body he would be sitting in the frontal lobes"...all of this though Father Campbell (Hero With A Thousand Faces, The Power OF Myth) says "it's just a secondary organ"...
...and The Way of Peace (author ?) calls for the Venus Triad: square/base, foundation, solidity; triangle/energetic, power; circle/mind, mindfulness...."keep your mind in your belly and you will emerge victorious in all battles".
So...where is the mindfulness energy of the person with you? In their belly...head...outside their body (hint: this last one predominates)? First stabilize your mind in your belly, then "judo" flip the one you're with so Demeter, Isis and Pisces triangulate Mars....add this to the supreme conversation -- The Reverend "Wright" Conversation: For Peace -- wa laa...World Peace In Three Months!
"Most men are really stupid. It takes a lot of energy to educate a man and then they forget easily."
That's not necessarily true. The environment that they grow up in makes a difference. A girl in Boise is not as likely to be smart as a boy in Denver. Subjects are another factor. Men are likely to excel in math and sports while women are likely to excel in literature and arts. I have met and still meet both men and women who are equally stupid but I reside in Colorado Springs so your mileage may vary.
If most men are stupid, then are women trying to copy them? I voted for Nader while most men and women chose between Obama and Mccain.
Love your comments OleManRiver. Are you thinking of of Thomas De Quincy's "Confessions of an Opium Eater"?
Thank you!Tony
Love your comment, love your wisdom, love your outspokenness.
And yes, the regulations of natural 'pharmaceuticals' and especially the related patent laws serve only corporations and investors. THEY are eating our children.
"We need to tear the mask off of the fundamentalist warlords who after the tragedy of 9/11 replaced the Taliban"
I couldn't agree more. Let's hang Bush and Cheney...by the balls!
Hear, hear!
The only problem will be getting that microscope and tweezers in position to try to locate them.
Pakistan's intelligence appears still to want a Taliban of some type in Afghanistan for a whole complex of mostly bogus, self-serving but ill-considered reasons. That means that if the US miraculously withdrew troops from the country and support from the Karzai "government", the Taliban would still be the biggest force in the conflict. There is a good chance they would take Kabul and re-establish their reign of terror.
It looks to me like the women and children of Aghanistan are the innocent bystanders at their own massacre. Nobody gives a damn about them inside the country. Their job is simply to suffer and die, while the men swagger around bombing and shooting everything that moves.
This toxic macho mental state, all in the grip of the most rank, simple-minded "honor", "pride", "respect" and "piety" is poisoning the entire world. Afghanistan is only one of the worst examples. Two weeks ago, some Latino gangbangers beat and stabbed a 16 year-old boy to death right down town. Apparently he was wearing the wrong color shirt. He had to be taught to "respect" the gang's "colors" in their "territory". One of the murderers has already been arrested. If he goes to prison, it'll be a mark of pride and accomplishment among his "homies". He'll become part of the "inside" gang and have opportunites to rise in the ranks, mostly by stabbing more people. All this will get him more "respect" from the gang and on the street in general.
So, a fragile sense of self + ignorance + weapons + encouragment to use them + "pride, honor and respect". Throw in "piety" (lot's of church-going Catholics in this crowd). See any parallels? Hard to see any differences actually.
Sioux Rose
JAREILLY: You made a good supportive case for MARS rules, knowingly or otherwise. Thank you for your post.
BOYD C COLLINS: Once again, excellent analysis. "It's about the pipeline, stupid... public/pundits." One wonders if all the generals enamored with the "art" of war even recognize the real reason why troops are over there? Do the higher ups believe the hype about fighting them "over there" rather than here, or that they are helping bring democracy, or oh, so chivalrously improving the status of women? How deluded do such persons become when they live inside a bubble entirely focused around the srategies of aggression, the expert use of armaments?
A striking insight drawn from "JFK & The Unspeakable," is how much the military top brass chomped at the bit for another "chance" to use nuclear weapons. Putting such dangerous toys nearly into the hands of those who WANT an excuse to use them, those who see no value in life, is probably the ultimate curse of this particular "advance" in technology. Einstein understood this, that for all the advancements in the technologies of "killing other," so little growth or spiritual maturity has taken place on this planet. I attribute that outcome the result of "bondage to the old gods," religious theologies that demand persons adapt to the ways things were done in the past, added to the subjugation of women. Females today still have to fight for control of their own bodies, and I mean in the U.S. The proliferation of gang-bang porn is definitely a factor as this obscenity emerges into ACTUAL news events. It also factors into the "no man's land" sexist mine field that young women unfortunate enough to sign up for military service find themselves crossing. The levels of misogyny that exist in so-called modern society are a case study in a pathology few wish to uncover. Even in this forum, MOST men give this thing short shrift, preferring to think "You've come a long way baby," that sexism, like racism, is a thing that ONCE was a problem. The notion may be comforting for those on the easier side of the power equation, but it is neither true nor comforting to those of us who still experience the "lesser" status.
Tom Edgar.
War IS Terrorism. If you don't agree then to war you've never been.
Who has the largest killing organisations,i.e military?U S A.
Who has the largest occupancy in foreign countries?....U S A.
Who makes the largest profits from foreign wars?.......U S A.
Which country has the most W M D's.....................U S A.
Which "Western"country is most fundamentally religious?U S A.
Which "Western"country has the lowest education level..U S A.
Which "Western"country is the most HYPOCRITICAL?????????????.
Now I ask. How can it be Americans think their country is a LEADER when clearly they lead in areas that they themselves deplore in others?
Hypocrisy. Everything Americans know, they've learned from religion.
sierra7
For a seminal view of the role of the CIA and drugs in this decrepit world, start with:
"The Politics of Heroin" by, Alfred McCoy...first printing in the 1970's. He has updated his book in the last decade.
You will begin to understand the connection between funding the "black budget" and the CIA's role...along with those in our government who facilitate this dastardly process.
Get out of Afghanistan/Iraq now.
We are now terrorizing Western Pakistan and fulfill the classic American defined role of "terrorists."
It matters not who is "elected" president either here in the USA or in Afghanistan; the rot is deep and very, very evil!
"They used the mask of democracy to take power. They continue this deception. These warlords are mentally the same as the Taliban. "
Yeah, but they are the USA's warlords....the Taliban has that pesky religion, and didn't toe the line when THEY worked for the USA.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
In "Little Miss Sunshine" the boy tells his grandfather, "... but you use heroin". His grandpa answers "...at your age you'd be crazy to use it... but at my age you'd be crazy not to".
This is not an endorsement of recreational opiates.
Chris Hedges is usually my cup of tea but his article on Afghans is biased on talking about only the female victims of war and opium boom. Men have been dying in Afghanistan for years/decades and rarely gets a page in the news but when a woman dies there it’s front page news because women are worth more than men. Most men do just as much hard work and try to look their best. Did you know that in Afghanistan men who shave risk losing their lives? Men who try to save and assist Afghan women are always at greater risks of losing their lives and their losses go unreported let alone analyzed. Credit should be given to good brothers and fathers risking their lives to save women and children. War lords damages both men and women equally.
Military culture, a culture that saturates the entire US society, projects this notion that mens lives, especially the lives of the men in the countries we are at war with, mean nothing, whether they are soldier or civilian. Their only purpose, this militaristic culture dictates, is death; which is the overarching philosophy that seeps through our media, whether it is video games, movies or TV shows.
But we see this devaluation here as well as the military promotes this "be a real man, die for your country" mentality. These guys get this idea in their heads that through duty they can achieve honor, and that 'bravery' is following orders and doing things they'd otherwise would never do.
On one level, all these guys are being tricked into giving up their lives for some arbitrary higher purpose, they are seduced into believing that the only way to be a 'real' man is to enlist, suffer, be brave, be strong, and perhaps one day they will be seen as heroes. Typical masculine qualities are preyed upon by the military propaganda machine, to get a whole bunch of men to believe they are sacrifices, ultimately for a cause that has nothing to do with them, their families, or even their country.
The military is ultimately a trap set up by viscious, wealthy men high up on the political and economic hierarchy who view "lower" men as disposable, worthless beings who's only purpose is to gain for those at the top more wealth of some variety. These wealthy men then put these 'lower' men in fierce situations, not really caring too much for their well-being, knowing that if twenty or thirty die, there are hundreds waiting in line to take their place, just so some resource can be salvaged for the benefit of some corporation. These orchastraters of war could care less how horribly their "war planning" is, they don't really care if 300, or 600,000 die, or how long the war lasts, or for that matter, how long the men they have fighting in it must endure it, whether its 12 months or four years, as long as the archatects of war get their prize in the end.
A man's life is just as valuable as a womans life, the militaristic culture that permeates US society should be denounced. The value of life needs to be restored in our culture, as much for men as for women. Our militaristic culture promotes a completely backwards approach to life that encourages aggression and stifles compassion - which moves our society nowhere. We are in for a mess as long as we let this continue, this isn't even a call for peace as much as it is a call for a significant cultural reality check. Our collective mindsets in this country, instilled in us by those viscious, wealthy men way up in the political/economic hierarchy will ultimately get the better of us and destroy us if we aren't careful.
There are more women enlisting as well and I have encountered women in high school, college, and beyond who display typical macho qualities or expect their men to do so. Feminism, if pushed too far, can be just as dangerous as masculinity that is pushed too far. Masculinity is not the same as macho. Taken from the dictionary, masculinity is about boldness and strength but that does not mean bullying or controlling someone. Macho is the word for bullying and controlling others, male or female. People need to properly distinguish between masculine and macho if progressives are to win just like a clear distinction needs to be made between original feminism and militaristic feminism that is infecting more women these days.
Great analysis otherwise.
It is tough to separate the good from the bad guys when it comes to Afghanistan. I once came across a very well educated woman whose husband is Afghan and she knows a lot about Afghan foreign policy. She shared a lot of information about the equality that used to exist between both men and women in Afghanistan up to the 1970s. She would agree with you that both men and women have been equally suffering even for those who have been surviving these last 3 decades in poverty. I don't know if she is here but I can look up the archives and pull up that useful information if you wish.
Here's the kicker: Does anyone know who invented heroin?
Bayer. Yes, the aspirin people.
From wikipedia - "From 1898 through to 1910 diacetylmorphine was marketed under the name heroin as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough suppressant. Bayer marketed heroin as a cure for morphine addiction before it was discovered that it rapidly metabolizes into morphine. As such, heroin is essentially a quicker acting form of morphine. The company was embarrassed by the new finding, which became a historic blunder for Bayer."
Don't tell that to Fox News watchers; they might stop taking aspirin.
Did you mean to say 'double up on their dosis' instead?
A rather different point-of-view and analysis of Karzai's victory that is quite stimulating can be found here, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KK03Df04.html and should be read against an "American freelance journalist" POV published by the same source, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KK03Df06.html
We're exporting the American way of life, you know, democracy and free enterprise and truth and justice, to these savages. It will surely win their hearts and minds.
When you export something as noble as liberty, well, nothing can be perfect. Little stuff like building the world's biggest drug cartel, like 2 million Afghan heroin/opium addicts. They'll get over these issues in a while.
You know what? President Obama is going to get hosed, and I'm not talking about Sheriff Bull Connor's firehoses in Alabama in the 1960s.
You're absolutely right. Mexico is the perfect example of that. Look at how well the American way has worked there.
Who are the real "savages?" Who rape, plunder, ruin economies and run countries amuck (including their own)? OMG, its Amerika!
Very few Afghans use opium or its derivatives (heroin). While much of the drug trade is with Europe, there is a growing trade with China. As with Vietnam, drug use in the US military is exploding.
The Taliban "discourages" use among the Afghans - hashish is the drug of choice
The Taliban does encourage poppy cultivation to fund their operations. They have built up a substantial war chest and are currently discouraging growth to keep the world prices high.
The CIA may be the major supporters of the drug trade. The Afghan drug trade is little different than Vietnam and Columbia - a well organized business to fund a wide range of CIA buisnesses and operations.
One of the reasons why the US switched from heroin in the seventies to cocaine in the eighties was the shutdown of western operations in Afghanistan - during the Soviet occupation - although there was a substantial growth in heroin use in the Soviet military and among soviet civilians.
Maybe our friend should step outside of the US to see how much democracy, free enterprise, truth and jsutice really exists in Amerika.
Anyone who believes that we enjoy these liberties must be smoking crack
I really did hear the 2 million heroin/opium addicts number for Afghanistan. The local drug warlords are not above extracting great wealth from their own locals by giving out free tastes of the stuff. The BBC went on to show an Afghan woman addicted to the stuff.
I really thought I was laying the sarcasm on thick with a trowel. I guess not quite thick enough. Oh well...
The only way that this whole mess is ever going to stop is when we, the people re-organize the whole mess.
Who cares about your view, we live in gringolandia, you said you did not. Why should WE give a toss? We are separated by Westphalian borders that were created by elite European whites. So, the evil white devil slave masters have brought about the nation-state system that separates us.
While Malalai Joya is essentially correct regarding the futility of foreign forces fighting the Taliban and propping up corrupt warlords, this question remains: once the foreigners leave, who exactly will take up arms against the warlords and the Taliban?
Locals might sooner ask "If the Taliban leaves or disarms, who exactly will take up arms against the Americans?".
American forces kill more than anyone in the area. They destroy far, far more. What they build, they build for themselves. Of all groups, they have the least vested interest in local residents or a liveable Afghanistan.
Most who fight the Americans are not Talib, but given the American threat, working with the Taliban becomes a reasonable compromise for many in many circumstances.
The notion that American atrocities are somehow better than those of despots - of other despots - dies hard, even among those who disapprove of both.
The argument seems to go that American elections, worth something even as they are, make American despotism abroad democratic, or more democratic, or less antidemocratic, or somehow in the service of democracy, or something like that. Accordingly, people argue over the non-election of Hamid Karzai as though were he elected, America would have in some sense brought democracy to Afghanistan.
Insofar as Afghanistan is governed by any central government, it is governed from Washington, not Kabul. As long as American soldiers dominate Afghanistan, nothing short of allowing the residents of Afghanistan to run candidates, vote in American elections, and generally conduct themselves as part of the American polis would approach even marginal democracy.
It's that "taxation without representation" thing again.
Another question might be, "With Americans running all over Kabul, how can we afford to do anything with the Taliban?'
Your fairly long reply still leaves the original question unaddressed. And the piece completely failed to addressed the question of the Pashtun-centric nature of the Taliban. Anyone who knows remotely anything about Afghan history knows that the other peoples of the country: Tadjiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, & Kirgiz, did not do well under Taliban mark 1, nor are likely to do well under Taliban mark 2.
Thus to move this along further; as anyone whom had read my prior posts regarding this subject knows, I favor the West getting out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible, but leaving their weapons and equipment in the hands of the non-Pashtun peoples whom suffered at under the prior Taliban regime. If the Pashtuns desire to be ruled by religious zealots whose "ideas" make the Wahhabis look modern, so be it. Letting the Taliban impose their virtually genocidal rule over non-Pashtuns is a truly bad idea on many levels.
A fairly short version is this: When the US leaves, the people of Afghanistan will be better able to deal with these problems.
Sure they're problems.
Perhaps I'm mistaking you: I had taken you to mean that the internal problems of the region might in some way constitute a reason for American depredation or a reason to condone it.
Skull & Bones
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
bligh4
Just goes to show you there is no "good side" in Afghanistan.
Pull out and let them fight it out among themselves.
Civilian deaths won't cease though. Over 2/3's of the civilian deaths so far has been caused by the warlords and taliban.
Not our problem though.
"Not our problem though."
Yeah WE'RE the good guys. We just invaded and occupied this country because WE'RE good people. WE'RE just spreading some good old fashioned Democracy and THEIR Civil War is screwing up our plans.
bligh4
So you think we should stay?
The country was screwed up long before we got there. Let the Afghans solve their own problems.
The country was far, far less screwed up "before we got there" if we means influential Americans.
To examine this, we have to go back before Jimmy Carter lured the Soviets there. Afghanistan has been our baby since, albeit alternately beaten and dumpstered.
All the more reason to vamoose, though.
"Afghanistan's boom in the trade in opium, used to produce heroin, over the past eight years of occupation has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the Taliban, al-Qaida, local warlords, criminal gangs, kidnappers, private armies, drug traffickers and many of the senior figures in the government of Hamid Karzai."
. . . which, of course, also means right into the hands of the CIA.
Re Seventhson November 2nd, 2009 11:33 am
To mention the drug trade and the CIA in the same sentence is to approach the truth. To include the world's great banks, who facilitate the trade and take their silent cut, and the politicians, who will not even discuss legalization, is to land squarely on it.
The gangster-politician-CEO axis of evil will use any weapon, from a suppressed Hi-Standard .22 semiauto pistol to F-18s to ersatz "democratic elections," to maintain their global hegemony.
Ah yes, I did neglect to mention the huge banks.
In fact, wasn't that what the BCCI scandal in the 90s was all about? Banking, drug money, the CIA, and terrorism all rolled into one neat package?
Thanks to Chris Hedges and Malalai Joya for telling the truth about Afghanistan. Hedges is one of the men who understands what war is about: "War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society."
All the USA does is create more warlords everywhere including here at home where the bulk of our money goes to keep this petro, narco, military industrial complex in power ever planning more wars. The US military is planning for "the long war" . There are never enough wars for these domestic warlords. And we must remember that in modern warfare 90% of who die are civilians mainly women and children. And this is called collateral damage. It seems the dreaded apostate Mary Daly was right to say all war is war against women.
We must understand that to the military everyone but the military and their corporate, government sponsors are collateral and they have a calculus for how many collateral deaths are allowed. That means far more civilian deaths are acceptable than military ones. So what democracy could ever come from killing people with no voice in the struggle?
At this point the USA relies on the defense industry to keep its economy afloat. Bloated generals and bankers and defense industry honchos pay thousands of lobbyists to keep their white man welfare going. All our senators and congressmen celebrate the war businesses they bring home while mouthing platitudes about peace. We sell guns to the world, we are number one in selling arms to the world.
This is a filthy evil system growing out of patriarchy and all the more vicious for being married to capitalism and advanced technology. When will we see we need advanced social skills, not more of this military macho death machine? They are one; the US generals, the Afghan warlords, Al Quaeda; the rapists and killers in Africa all these men with their pistolas, Kalashnikoffs,drones and the cops with tasers too. Living in a media hyped frat boy fantasy of ever hardness and power through weapons. And they always kill and rape women. War does not help women that's just another bunch of bs for the civilians to be fed to keep them quiet while the big boys rake in the dough doing what they love.
We the people of the USA must oust our warlords who are so much of the problem worldwide. We the women of the world are beginning to collectively understand that there is no more protection for our countries in war than there is protection for individual women in marriage where battering occurs so frequently. The defense/war industry is a protection racket just like the Mafia. We need to turn to ourselves and our communities and create a broader international community for genuine security.
"in modern warfare 90% of who die are civilians mainly women and children."
That number sounds way off. Men have been dying too but they aren't reported. If 90% of those who die are women and children, then why do I hear about more widows than widowers. From which source did you find such a percentage?
Here's one source Recovery from armed conflict in developing countries - Google Books
by Geoff T. Harris - 1999 - Political Science - 340 pages
and then there are reports form US reporter like a US soldier who said"he shot "the chick" because she was standing too close to an Iraqi soldier he was targeting."
I think part of why war goes on and on is that too many men are invested in seeing it as a noble adventure by the good guys. Of course the good guys are always whoever is speaking to justify why he wars. War won't end until we understand how it is tied so to the construction of masculinity. This is why working class men bought the Bush propaganda though the Bush/Cheney regime was profoundly against their class interests. Above all they don't want to be wimps and that is always defined by a refusal to fight physically not about moral courage.
I saw a chapter from that book dedicated to women and children. I was able to read some of the pages for free so maybe the 90% number you mentioned is in one of those blocked pages. It is oddly high though given the lack of reporting on men but if it actually says so and explains where that number is coming from, I am prepared to accept that.
I don't know why men who are murdered are not given a page to have their deaths reported compared to women. It might have to do with some unknown fear that reporting male deaths would stir up the oppressive groups or that the media and its audience find it emotional and sexy to report female deaths as very valuable compared to male deaths. Either way, such dishonest and biased reporting is wrong.
I won't deny that working class men voted against their own economic interests and the same can be said of working class women. I voted for Nader while most of them voted D or R. Your framing of good guys is different from what I perceive as good guys. The good guys to me are the ones who don't want anything to do with war while the macho guys are the ones pushing it. I understand where everyone is coming from when they say "Men are from Mars and women are from Venus". That might have been true in the past but I have witnessed mixups and reversals. To say that good guys want war is to overlook what their women are really thinking. When I was in high school and college, I had to put up with macho minded women and for those who weren't macho, I was a loser to them because I was a peace advocate while their boyfriends sounded tough and some of them were preparing to go to war. I did date a couple of women. On my first date, one of them asked that I sign up and look like a hero and then we broke up. On second date, one week before we were to get married, I had to call the wedding off when she told me that she was interested in the "stud" and thought that marrying a peace man meant having a boring life. I gave up and stuck to being a proud bachelor. That wasn't the end of it. In the later years, I talked to some of my high school and college mates who were serving and some of them confirmed that their wives were pressuring them into staying and fighting even when some of the guys wanted out. Half of these army wives would come out bragging and exaggerating about their man serving and some would knowingly embarrass me in public calling a "peace loser". Some of them have called themselves feminists even when they're macho women. You're right. These guys don't want to be wimps but it's not just other guys who are putting peer pressure on them but their own women are also doing their part to pressure them into staying and fighting as well. I believe in moderated masculinity and moderated feminism. Either one is dangerous if taken too far I fear.
You need to move to a major city and meet some hippies man. Environmental activists are very peaceful too.
I suppose Denver would look ok compared to Colorado Springs. I'm already called a hippie according to the looney rightwingers where I live at.
Oh God, Colorado Springs? No wonder...military town + evangelical Christian base = psychotic people.
Yep, that's true. The increase in immigrants has reduced some of the psycho but I've gotten used to turning the other cheek. I'm used to living in CO Springs but could move any day except for my house being 90k below value thanks to the housing crash.
Sioux Rose
ARTEMIX: Profound and most-excellent post. I have nothing to add apart from a thank you. I wish more people "got it."
I looked up the three women you told me the other day about. I respect what they did for feminism although I think they pushed too far at some point. Don't get me wrong. I don't hate women but I support moderated feminism and am strictly for equal gender rights. I am not comfortable with aggressive feminism which I initially perceived from your earlier post until I saw your reply to jake on astrology.
Thanks to Chris Hedges and Malalai Joya for telling the truth about Afghanistan. Hedges is one of the men who understands what war is about: "War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society."
All the USA does is create more warlords everywhere including here at home where the bulk of our money goes to keep this petro, narco, military industrial complex in power ever planning more wars. The US military is planning for "the long war" . There are never enough wars for these domestic warlords. And we must remember that in modern warfare 90% of who die are civilians mainly women and children. And this is called collateral damage. It seems the dreaded apostate Mary Daly was right to say all war is war against women.
We must understand that to the military everyone but the military and their corporate, government sponsors are collateral and they have a calculus for how many collateral deaths are allowed. That means far more civilian deaths are acceptable than military ones. So what democracy could ever come from killing people with no voice in the struggle?
At this point the USA relies on the defense industry to keep its economy afloat. Bloated generals and bankers and defense industry honchos pay thousands of lobbyists to keep their white man welfare going. All our senators and congressmen celebrate the war businesses they bring home while mouthing platitudes about peace. We sell guns to the world, we are number one in selling arms to the world.
This is a filthy evil system growing out of patriarchy and all the more vicious for being married to capitalism and advanced technology. When will we see we need advanced social skills, not more of this military macho death machine? They are one; the US generals, the Afghan warlords, Al Quaeda; the rapists and killers in Africa all these men with their pistolas, Kalashnikoffs,drones and the cops with tasers too. Living in a media hyped frat boy fantasy of ever hardness and power through weapons. And they always kill and rape women. War does not help women that's just another bunch of bs for the civilians to be fed to keep them quiet while the big boys rake in the dough doing what they love.
We the people of the USA must oust our warlords who are so much of the problem worldwide. We the women of the world are beginning to collectively understand that there is no more protection for our countries in war than there is protection for individual women in marriage where battering occurs so frequently. The defense/war industry is a protection racket just like the Mafia. We need to turn to ourselves and our communities and create a broader international community for genuine security.
Chris Hedges is an expert at picking at a wound. Piece by piece he pulls up the scab and looks at the bloody viscera underneath. Fascinating. But, he does not explain why the wound is there, or what can be done about it.
Why the wound is there - it is time to begin to understand the world of international finance and its control of the world's 'democratic' governments. The time for a serious study of conspiracy theories has arrived.
What to do about it - the only active campaign I know about is Cindy Sheehan's plan to stage continuous civil disobedience in Washington DC. I don't think it has the chance of a snowball in hell, but at least it seems directed in the right direction. To fail to mention it is inexplicable.
Considering the 2-3 hour public rape in CA, I certainly do not believe that the last thing Afghanistan wants is that kind of "democracy" being brought to them.
As for opium and the war lords, what's to be surprised about? We have a drug war here in the US where Big Pharma gets to dictate its poison pills while at the same time banning the peaceful plant Cannabis. As I eventually learned and confirmed, legalizing cannabis would open the doors to growing our own fuel without having to go to wars for oil or be tied to nations such Iran and Saudi Arabia where the working class people in both nations are persecuted.
The best way to end the drug war is to remove all legal barriers to all drugs and let people decide what they want to keep and feed their own bodies with.
jenniferbedingfield says:
The best way to end the drug war is to remove all legal barriers to all drugs and let people decide what they want to keep and feed their own bodies with.
Ahhh...stop...listen to the wilderness and breathe deeply the wonderfully fresh air in this oasis of clarity...
before we once again plunge back into the dark jungle of insanity and murder, and quickly, lest this clarity become habit-forming...addicting...
Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...acoustic, agrarian living...personal rights and responsibilities restored in this area and others...personal engagement in one's sustenance and decisions the new requirement...
the brother of President Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been collecting money from the CIA although he is a major player in the illegal opium business...
----------
As Dave Lindorff correctly pointed out we have a zero tolerance policy for people caught possessing drugs in this country...We ought to have the same policy with the CIA.
When will the criminal investigation of the CIA's involvement in illegal drug trade begin?
Or will we allow this crime to go unpunished too?
We already know the answer.
And why do we have a "zero tolerance policy" in this country? Because it drives the price up.
Let's see here: we were at war in Vietnam when they produced a lot of opium. At 'war' in Columbia, the cocaine capital. And now in Afghanistan...
And the CIA was involved in how many of these?
Things that make you say "Hmmmmm" indeed.
It's well-known that the police forces of large USan cities are as currupt. There simply hasn't been a journalist yet to connect the dots between the culture of those organizations and the CIA.
A lot of the fight to reveal the CIA's involvement in drugs was done by Mike Ruppert at FromTheWilderness and the late Gary Webb, who published "Dark Alliance." Ruppet's first website has archived his documentation of CIA drug involvement here, http://www.copvcia.com/free/ciadrugs/index.html
Re karlof1 November 2nd, 2009 1:20 pm
Good sources, thanks (and rest in peace, Gary Webb). The seminal work on this subject is "The Politics of Heroin," formerly titled "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia," by Prof. Alfred J. McCoy. It's probably in its 16th or 17th printing by now, and continuously revised and updated.