Is it because of oil, Palestine, US sanctions on Iraq?
Is it because Pakistan wants control over Afghanistan?
Because the USSR invaded Afghanistan? Because
Aghanistan is ethnically fragmented, geographically
isolated, an agrarian society dependent upon such a
harsh land for survival? The truth seems so much more
complicated. . . . life is truly like a John Sayles
movie--well, just as complex,perhaps not as beautiful
. .
--- Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [BRC-NEWS] America, Oil, and Afghanistan
> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 07:08:36 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Dimitri Devyatkin <devyatkin at earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: thehindu at vsnl.com
> To: brc-news at lists.tao.ca
>
>
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2001/10/13/stories/05132524.htm
>
> The Hindu (India)
>
> October 13, 2001
>
> Opinion
>
> America, Oil, and Afghanistan
>
> By Sitaram Yechury
>
> It has finally happened. American imperialism has
> begun its
> unilateral war against Afghanistan. Ominously, it
> has
> formally notified the U.N. Security Council that the
> military operations would expand beyond Afghanistan.
> Other
> countries would be targeted. It is a greater tragedy
> that
> this "war against terrorism" will consume innocent
> lives in
> gruesome proportions. Is all this being done really
> to
> exterminate terrorism?
>
> Before we answer this question, it is necessary to
> reiterate
> that the perpetrators of the horrendous attacks in
> New York
> and Washington on September 11 must be brought to
> book.
> This, however, must be done, as many countries in
> the world
> had voiced, on the basis of unquestionable evidence
> in
> accordance with international laws and under the
> auspices of
> the United Nations. The U.S. and its President, Mr.
> George
> W. Bush, by launching attacks on Afghanistan have
> dismissed
> with imperialist arrogance and contempt, this
> widely-held
> international opinion.
>
> For appearances sake, "evidence" was shared with
> trusted
> U.S. allies - Britain and Pakistan. Mr. Tony Blair
> made a
> mockery of sharing this "evidence" with the British
> Parliament by stating that this is not to be judged
> on a
> strictly legal basis. In a much-publicised live
> press
> conference, Gen. Pervez Musharraf echoed Mr. Blair
> in
> stating that it was immaterial whether the
> "evidence" would
> stand legal scrutiny. The issue, according to him,
> was that
> "evidence" points towards Osama bin Laden.
>
> Once the initial shock and hysteria gave way to
> reason, it
> became clear that the U.S. was using, in a diabolic
> way,
> this human tragedy to further its imperialist
> hegemony
> worldwide and to invoke a more draconian domestic
> rule by
> curtailing democratic rights and freedom in the name
> of
> combating terrorism. The crucial element in this
> strategy of
> zeroing in on Osama bin Laden, however, goes largely
> unnoticed.
>
> Afghanistan occupies the central position in the
> U.S.
> strategy for the economic control of the oil and gas
> resources in the entire Middle East. The U.S.
> currently
> imports 51 per cent of its crude oil - 19.5 million
> barrels
> daily. The Energy Information Administration
> estimates that
> by 2020, the U.S. will import 64 per cent of its
> crude -
> 25.8 million barrels a day. Caspian region oil
> reserves
> might be the third largest in the world (after
> Western
> Siberia and the Persian Gulf) and, within the next
> 15 to 20
> years, may be large enough to offset Persian Gulf
> oil.
> Caspian Sea oil and gas are not the only hydrocarbon
> deposits in the region. Turkmenistan's Karakum
> Desert holds
> the world's third largest gas reserves - three
> trillion
> cubic meters - and has six billion barrels of
> estimated oil
> reserves. Current estimates indicate that, in
> addition to
> huge gas deposits, the Caspian basin may hold as
> much as 200
> billion barrels of oil - 33 times the estimated
> holdings of
> Alaska's North Slope and a current value of $4
> trillion. It
> is enough to meet the U.S.' energy needs for 30
> years or
> more. The presence of these oil reserves and the
> possibility
> of their export raises new strategic concerns for
> the U.S.
> and other Western industrial powers. As oil
> companies build
> oil pipelines from the Caucasus and Central Asia to
> supply
> Japan and the West, these strategic concerns gain
> military
> implications.
>
> Before we proceed further, it is necessary to remind
> ourselves that both Mr. Bush and the Vice-President,
> Mr.
> Dick Cheney, were intimately connected with the U.S.
> oil
> industry, serving as senior executives in many
> companies.
> Jon Flanders, in an article, "The World Trade Center
> attack... Caspian Oil and Gas and the Afghanistan
> Pipeline
> Connection", quotes Michael Klare, author of the
> book
> "Resource Wars", which has a major focus on the oil
> resources in the Caspian region, who in a recent
> interview
> to "Radio Free Europe" has said: "We (the U.S.) view
> oil as
> a security consideration and we have to protect it
> by any
> means necessary, regardless of other considerations,
> other
> values".
>
> The U.S. Government Energy Information factsheet on
> Afghanistan dated December 2000 says that:
> "Afghanistan's
> significance from an energy standpoint stems from
> its
> geographic position as a potential transit route for
> oil and
> natural gas exports from Central Asia to the Arabian
> Sea.
> This potential includes proposed multi-billion
> dollar oil
> and gas export pipelines through Afghanistan".
>
> The Caspian Sea region has oil and gas resources
> worth $4
> trillion, according to the U.S. News and World
> Report. Mr.
> Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, a major player in the
> oil
> industry, a Fortune 200 company, told oil industry
> executives in 1998, "I cannot think of a time when
> we have
> had a region emerge as suddenly to become as
> strategically
> significant as the Caspian". The oil and gas from
> this
> region currently moves northward towards European
> markets.
> According to Mr. Bob Todor, executive vice-president
> of
> Unocal, the company that is leading an international
> consortium to construct the central Asian pipeline
> through
> Afghanistan, "Western Europe is a tough market. It
> is
> characterised by high prices for oil products, an
> aging
> population, and increasing competition from natural
> gas.
> Furthermore, the region is fiercely competitive".
>
> Among the many advantages of the Afghanistan route,
>
=== message truncated ===
===== "Someday, companeras, I don't know when, we're gonna get to that place where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun . . ."
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