[Peace-discuss] Why Obama needs terrorism, his and others

[C. G. Estabrook]

  [What's missing here is the reason for the Obama administration's constant 
lies and exaggerations about "stopping terrorism" throughout the reason: it's 
because the only constitutional authority he has to wage war in SW Asia is the 
"Authorization for the Use of Military Force" (itself of questionable 
constitutionality) passed by Congress in October of 2001. When he kills people 
in order to control energy resources in the Mideast, he must say he's doing it 
because of Al Qaeda, not because of oil.]

"...the report ... finds little Al Qaeda threat elsewhere, notably in Somalia 
and Yemen. Yet Washington is beefing up its attacks on both turbulent nations. 
The ... findings are a direct challenge to Obama... This report undermines the 
rationale used to sustain the increasingly unpopular conflict. It will certainly 
convince sceptics that the real reason for occupation of Afghanistan has to do 
with oil, excluding China from the region, and keeping watch on nuclear-armed 
Pakistan.

"...the former head of Britain’s domestic security service, MI-5, testified that 
the Iraq War was generated by a farrago of lies and faked evidence ... What we 
call 'terrorism' is largely caused by the western invasions of Afghanistan and 
Iraq, she testified."

Bombshell from London
By Eric S. Margolis
September 14, 2010
Toronto Sun

THE London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), is the 
world’s leading think tank for military affairs. It represents the top echelon 
of defence experts, retired officers and senior military men, spanning the globe 
from the United States and Britain to China, Russia and India.

I’ve been an IISS member for over 20 years. IISS’s reports are always 
authoritative but usually cautious and diplomatic, sometimes dull. However, two 
weeks ago the IISS issued an explosive report on Afghanistan that is shaking 
Washington and its Nato allies.

The report, presided over by the former deputy director of Britain’s foreign 
intelligence agency, MI-6, says the threat from al-Qaeda and Taliban has been 
"exaggerated" by the western powers. The US-led mission in Afghanistan has 
"ballooned" out of all proportion from its original aim of disrupting and 
defeating al-Qaeda. The US-led war in Afghanistan, says IISS, using 
uncharacteristically blunt language, is "a long-drawn-out disaster".

Just recently, CIA chief Leon Panetta admitted there were no more than 50 
members of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Yet US President Barack Obama has tripled 
the number of US soldiers there to 120,000 to fight Al Qaeda.

The IISS report goes on to acknowledge the presence of western troops in 
Afghanistan is actually fuelling national resistance. I saw the same phenomena 
during the 1980’s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Interestingly, the portion of the report overseen by the former MI-6 Secret 
Intelligence Service deputy chief, Nigel Inskster, finds little Al Qaeda threat 
elsewhere, notably in Somalia and Yemen. Yet Washington is beefing up its 
attacks on both turbulent nations.

Abandoning its usual discretion, IISS said it was issuing these warnings because 
the deepening war in Afghanistan was threatening the west’s security interests 
by distracting its leaders from the world financial crisis and Iran, and burning 
through scarce funds needed elsewhere.

The IISS’s findings are a direct challenge to Obama, Britain’s new prime 
minister, David Cameron, and other US allies with troops in Afghanistan. This 
report undermines their rational used to sustain the increasingly unpopular 
conflict. It will certainly convince sceptics that the real reason for 
occupation of Afghanistan has to do with oil, excluding China from the region, 
and keeping watch on nuclear-armed Pakistan.

The report also goes on to propose an exit strategy from the Afghan War. Western 
occupation troops, IISS proposes, should be sharply reduced and confined to 
Kabul and northern Afghanistan, which is mostly ethnic Tajik and Uzbek.

Southern Afghanistan – Taliban country – should be vacated by Western forces and 
left alone. Taliban would be allowed to govern its own half of the nation until 
some sort of loose, decentralised federal system can be implemented. This was, 
in fact, pretty much the way Afghanistan operated before the 1979 Soviet invasion.

Meanwhile, the war in Afghanistan is turning against the increasingly wobbly 
western occupation forces. The US-installed Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, openly 
prepares for direct peace talks with Taliban and its allies – in spite of 
intense opposition from the US, Britain and Canada.

Pro-government Afghan forces are increasingly demoralised. Only the Tajik and 
Uzbek militias, and Afghan Communist Party, both supported by India, Russia and 
Iran, want to keep fighting the Pashtun Taliban.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar last week proclaimed the western occupiers were 
rapidly losing the war. He may well be correct. Nothing is going right for the 
US-backed Kabul regime or its western defenders. Even the much-ballyhooed US 
offensive at Marjah, designed to smash Taliban resistance, was an embarrassing 
fiasco. Civilian casualties from US bombing continue to mount.

Europeans are fed up with the Afghan war. Polls report 60% of Americans think 
the war not worth fighting.

The IISS bombshell comes on the heels of the most dramatic part of the British 
Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the invasion of Iraq. Baroness 
Manningham-Buller the former head of Britain’s domestic security service, MI-5, 
testified that the Iraq War was generated by a farrago of lies and faked 
evidence from the Blair government. What we call "terrorism" is largely caused 
by the western invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, she testified.

The truth about Iraq and Afghanistan is finally emerging.

Afghanistan may again prove to be "the graveyard of empires".

Eric S. Margolis is a contributing editor to the Toronto Sun chain of 
newspapers, writing mainly about the Middle East and South Asia.
Comments: letters at thesundaily.com

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26362.htm