[Peace-discuss] The mendacity of hope, AfPak division

[C. G. Estabrook]

The Nato meeting in Chicago was rightfully situated in at the site of  
Obama's original lying "peace candidate" campaign.

As exercise in "re-branding" an ongoing war - what the Pentagon calls  
"the Long War," for control of Mideast energy resources - the Nato  
meeting was Obama's attempt falsely to claim that Nato (meaning the  
US, dragging more-or-less willing EU armies) is withdrawing from  
AfPak. It isn't, but Obama needs a new propaganda cover, because  
"polls show massive majorities of voters in virtually every NATO  
notion overwhelmingly opposed to the conflict."

====================

Following in the rich history of fake endings to wars during the Obama  
Administration’s first term, the US and other NATO member nations are  
loudly hyping their endorsement of a transition pact, which is being  
presented as an “irreversible pullout” of occupation forces.

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“We are now unified to responsibly wind down the war in Afghanistan,”  
insisted President Obama. The pact pledges to see a transition to  
Afghanistan taking a “leading role” by summer of 2013. This is a great  
way to brand the war, since polls show massive majorities of voters in  
virtually every NATO notion overwhelmingly opposed to the conflict.

But despite the hype, the pact is materially no different from the one  
that came out of the Lisbon summit, which seeks to declare the war  
“over” at the end of 2014 but keep large but unspecified numbers of  
NATO troops occupying the nation in the nation long beyond that “end.”

But if the Lisbon language was misleading, the Chicago language is a  
deliberate scam, as President Obama was in Afghanistan earlier this  
month signing a deal to keep US ground troops in the nation through  
2024.

NATO has already been throwing out bogus claims of Afghanistan taking  
a “leading role” in operations for months, even when Afghan forces  
aren’t even informed of a NATO operation, as a way of claiming some  
cover when the attacks go wrong.

The claim of ending combat operations is also disingenuous, with  
officials openly talking about the post-2014 “non-combat” troops  
continuing to launch “anti-terror” raids, which is materially all  
they’re doing to begin with. <news.antiwar.com>