> [from Sam Smith's Progressive Review]
>
> NOTE: A revealing graphic that goes with our piece on the secret war can
> be
> found at <http://prorev.com/indexa.htm>
>
> RECOVERED HISTORY
> The Secret War
.
There are two angles here. One is Unocal's proposed Afghanistan pipeline,
which requires a modicum of stability in the country as well as the
installation of a cooperative government. Its main importance for the U.S.
isn't profit, but the prospect of transporting Caspian oil and gas to the
ocean without having to go through countries like Iran or Russia or
countries dependent on Russia.
The larger angle is Central Asia. It has a lot of oil and gas but countries like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are increasingly dependent on Russia for their security in fighting Islamic insurgencies. This trend was symbolized by the July signing of the Shanghai Pact among Russia, China and four Central Asian countries. Russia thereby threatens to establish U.S.-Saudi-style client regimes in Central Asian countries that potentially contain enough energy to fuel a lot of the European and Chinese economies.
For the U.S., the root of the problem is twofold: a) the Islamic insurgencies forcing Central Asia to turn to Russia for security. These insurgencies are backed by bin Laden and the Taliban and use Afghan territory as bases; and b) the absence of a U.S. military presence in the region, one that could give these small countries some alternative to Russia as a source of security.
These reasons probably account for the Bush administration's hardening policy against the Taliban, which began months before the WTC attacks. In May Bush installed Chistina Rocca as Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs. Rocca was for 15 years a CIA covert operations official in Afghanistan in charge of aiding the Mujehaddin and later collecting stray Stinger missiles. Later she was Sen. Sam Brownback's foreign policy advisor. Brownback is an oil & gas man and leading proponent of inserting a U.S. presence in Central Asia and the Caspian.
In July, U.S. envoys to a UN "track-two" meeting on Afghanistan in Berlin conveyed to the former Pakistani foreign minister U.S. military plans to overthrow the Taliban and replace it with a government led by former king Ziad. The same idea now appears to be at the core of Bush's planned response to the terrorist attacks.
Seth