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

Tue Sep 14 22:27:18 CDT 2010

  The first line should be, "What's missing here is the reason for the Obama 
administration's constant lies and exaggerations about 'stopping terrorism' 
throughout the REGION..."


On 9/14/10 4:34 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>  [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
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