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A glance at a map and a little knowledge of the region suggest that the real reasons for Western military involvement may be largely hidden.
Afghanistan is adjacent to Middle Eastern countries that are rich in oil and natural gas. And though Afghanistan may have little petroleum itself, it borders both Iran and Turkmenistan, countries with the second and third largest natural gas reserves in the world. (Russia is first.)
Turkmenistan is the country nobody talks about. Its huge reserves of natural gas can only get to market through pipelines. The U.S. is pushing for "multiple oil and gas export routes." High-level Russian, Chinese and American delegations visit Turkmenistan frequently to discuss energy. The U.S. even has a special envoy for Eurasian energy diplomacy.
Pipelines are important today in the same way that railway building was important in the 19th century. They connect trading partners and influence the regional balance of power. Afghanistan is a strategic piece of real estate in the geopolitical struggle for power and dominance in the region. Since the 1990s, Washington has promoted a natural gas pipeline south through Afghanistan and the TALIBAN have visited the US on many occassions to discuss it, (see link). The route would pass through Kandahar province. The proposed pipeline is called TAPI, after the initials of the four participating countries (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India). The main player in TAPI, is the American oil giant, UNOCAL, (based in Bush land in Texas, funny that), which has a 54% share. Afghan President Hamid Karzai worked briefly for UNOCAL, (now part of CHEVRON), when he was studying in the States. Yes! He's not just some fucker that's stepped out a tent!
A very big game is underway, with geopolitics intruding everywhere. With the U.S. surge underway and the British ambassador to Washington predicting a decades-long commitment, it's reasonable to ask: Why are the U.S. and NATO in Afghanistan? Is it to 'free' the Afghans from the Taliban, (who BTW were 'freedom fighters' when the Russians invaded), or to once more sustain the US's oil and gas supplies? I know which I believe!
40 comments:
Do I give a fuck about Freedom & Democracy for Afghanistan? No, not really, especially as they don't seem to want it anyway.
Would I rather the flatulant and ageing USA, flailing around in decrepitude after barely 60 years as Top Country, retain access to vital (if outdated and outmoded) sources of energy (and for us in remnant UK also), yes I would.
Still does not excuse the lying politicians lying though, cunts.
Gonnae stoap daein that banner photie?
I gies me the boaks, especially on an empty stomach.
Banned, I don't give a fuck about democracracy and freedom in Afghanistan either, that will come as part of the evolution of the Afghan people. However, I don't think we should be invading them to enrich oil corps in the States and to line the pockets of politicians. If there any advantages to be gained from an oil pipeline for the Afghan people, it should be helping the people not the Taliban. I swear to fuck, you will see Taliban buying English Football teams in 20 years time and swanning about London like the Russians do now.
On another note I believe that His Holiness the Holy Father etc gave a special mass only for children yesterday.
It was a sort of Pick n Mix for his immediate entourage.
Bugger, No. I am supporting Diane in the leadership election. She is what the Labour party needs, not some middle class, Jewish, public schoolboys. What fun it would be if the fat, black one got the vote!
Bugger, I thought Woolworths was shut! I'll need to tell you the one about the Priest, the Rabbi and the choirboy sometime.
DL,
The oil is important, for sure, but there is also the matter of the $2 trillion worth of minerals, gold, silver, copper etc that they knew about BEFORE the invasion.
Wars are always about money and real estate.
Be in no doubt.
Selling/installing "democracy" is nothing but a joke, a ruse, so that we, the ignorati, will go along with it and more importantly, fund it.
CR.
Is that the one when they're on the plane that's about to crash ?
Ranters, It is a long process to elucidate to the people, just what is going on. We bloggers, know about it but as the Zionist owned media are not going to educate them, it's up to us birds! Our only hope is that as someone passes by, they stop and think, before moving onto the next blog about knitting, fashion or cooking.
Oli, no, it's the one about the Rabbi and the Priest who were good friends. The Priest is waiting for the Rabbi to visit him and as he hasn't seen him for ages he is really look forward to it. Anyway, just as the Rabbi arrives a woman also appears, insisting on confessing. He tells the Rabbi to take a seat while he hears the confession. Just as he's about to enter the confessional, a guy runs in from the street and tells him that there has been a terrible car acident and people are dying all over the place and they need the last rites. The Priest tells the Rabbi that he will have to take the confession. "but I don't know how". "It's dead easy says the Priest, ask what they've done and there is a list up on the wall".
So the Rabbi goes in and asks what she did. Well she says, "I let my boyfriend touch my tits". The Rabbi looks at the list, -touching tits, 3 hail Marys. "But she says, I let him shag me",-shagging 10 hail marys. "but Father you don't understand I gave him a blow job"! The Rabbi looks at the list and there is nothing for a blowjob. Just at that there is a choirboy passing the confessional. The Rabbi asks him, "What does the Father give for a blow job"? "A Mars bar and a packet of crisps", says the choirboy.
Have you heard it? What's the one about the plane crash and what happened to your blog?
DL,
It's not just oil and gas. I suggest you also look at the massive growth in poppy production. The CIA have been shipping this stuff back and forward into the USA for years now.
U.S. : Afghan poppy production doubles
Afghanistan displaces Myanmar as top heroin producer: US
The Lies About Taliban Heroin
It's not so crystal clear as you think.
We need to have as many sources of oil and gas to ensure energy security for the future. Holding Iraq and Afghanistan is essential.
The large Nato bases in both countries should be able to fight off the local populations and ensure we keep the oil for ourselves. We've got compliant govts in both countries now aswell and with Saudi already under our control the future looks secure. Inshallah.
looking good,
Are you a wind up? A Muslim (Inshallah?) agreeing with the invasion of Muslim lands so the West can benefit? You've go to be.
harbs..
Yeah a bt of a wind up. But what I say is true. The wars weren't about 'freedom' and 'democracy' but about securing our long term energy interests. We need the puppet govts in place to keep the energy flowing our way. At least our cars will keep running for a few more decades.
looking good,
At least our cars will keep running for a few more decades.
I don't know if I'll agree with that one LG. End of Peak Oil? I don't think people truly realise the energy crisis coming our way. If the paper's printed the truth there would be mass panic. Instead they'll just lie, while the oil barons make as much money as they can before everything goes tits up.
I give it a decade. If that.
Turkmenistan: I heard that because matches cost money there they leave the gas on all the time because it is free.
Bugger said...
Gonnae stoap daein that banner photie?
Bravo.
Harbingers, thanks for that, interesting stuff. I've subscribed to Ruppert's e-mail alerts so we'll see what that brings. Absolutely no doubt that the poppy crop has increased since 2001 and it is at this time funding the CIA's black ops, that even the black President doesn't know about.
Looking good, we'll be driving to nirvana. As someone who doesn't believe in an afterlife or reincarnation, I just wish I was here to see what happens when the oil runs out, Imschi Marsala!
Harbingers, I would say that 'looking good' is about as much of a Muslim as you are. Mind you.....!
Looking good 2, Of course that's what it's all about. Not sensibly planning ahead with what the World's energy needs are going to be and planning it instead of everyone fighting tooth and nail to get supplies of oil and the only ones who are benefiting are corrupt politicians, oil barons and certain Zionist Bankers who control the 10 biggest banks in the World. Just wait until the middle class in China gets bigger, as it will and they want cars, as midle clas people do. At the moment oil supply is decreasing by 9% per year and supply is increasing by 30%. There has to be a point when we start to run out of oil and I don't think it will be decades. I'm glad I'm in my fifties, but if I was in my thirties, I would be buying some arable land, because local farmers will become kings when the oil runs out.
Harbingers, no I think it will be more than a decade, but anymore than 20 years? Well that'll depend on the demand from China and India.
Cassandras, welcome to the blog. That would be handy in winter, which I would imagine could be pretty cold in Turkmenistan, but a bit of a drawback in the summer. Mind you in Scotland you wouldn't notice the difference!
" the only ones who are benefiting are corrupt politicians, oil barons and certain Zionist Bankers"
Not really DL. The fact that we have the best troops and weapons means the West benefits with cheap oil. We pay the govts in the middle east to keep the oil price low so that we can keep driving our gas guzzlers.
The Opium is also the reason that the war started. Cf Britain and the China Opium wars. Lord Palmerston and Queen Victoria
How else did they manage to pay so much money to De Beers to buy the Cullinan diamond....
Theres a whole host of reasons, but the Taliban decreasing the amount of Opium in 2001 to 7 hectares only was a big reason.
The opium from Afghan sources funds big people...
Lookers, for the supposed best troops in the world, there seem to be plenty coming back in body bags, killed by sheet heads. A shocking waste of life, but it's theirs to give. I don't know where you are filling up your car but it's fucking expensive in the UK, with the Government making billions in tax which has floated the economy since the 70s, when Scottish oil was dicovered.
Cassandras, you are 100% correct. All these mugs who think we are there because of Al Qaeda are off their heads. Does Bin Laden exist? I doubt it. How can the supposed best troops in the world with all the sophisticated weapons they have not find some arthritic, old man who lives in a cave. Aye pull the other one. They're good links Harbinger gave a few comments up. Check them out.
DL.Yes but what if we didn't control the Afghan, Iraq and Saudi govts ? It would then be either China or Russia who ran the show. You just have to look at the way Russia turns on / off the gas to Ukraine to see the dilemma we would be in if they could do the same to us. Prices would sky rocket.
The fuel tax is a scandal right enough though. We don't seem to riot like the Greeks so that will go up and up.
Lookers, I don't deny that from the point of view of continued supplies it is handy to 'control' most of the middle east. What about just having oil and gas supplies that are controlled by the open market. How about planning for the day when oil will run out, or it becomes to expensive to extract. Since 1970 when world oil production peaked, we have gone from using 50 million barrels of oil PER DAY to a current usage of 85 million barrels per day. Having said that the oil will run out is not strictly true as there will always be some oil, but once it takes more than the sale price to extract one barrel, or it takes more energy to extract a barrel than one gets from burning it, there is no point in using it. Gas of course is important as we use it to heat our homes, but we could use electricity which of course has the big drawback that it can't be stored adequately, so if the wind isn't blowing when we need the energy, we're fucked. The problem is that most things that we use are made from oil, including the tyres on the electric cars which use 7 gallons of oil. Multiply that across the world.
" What about just having oil and gas supplies that are controlled by the open market"
Unfortunately there are too many conflicts around the world that render this hopeless ( WW2 , Yom Porkipper, GW1 ,GW2 etc)
So we need to be the ones calling the shots and paying off / arming whoever is in charge to make things go our way.
Good article on the present state of play re our energy fiasco here..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8010926/Britains-energy-policy-is-in-crisis.html#dsq-content
And a good article showing why the SNP are bonkers throwing their £8Bn behind renewables here..
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100053493/windfarms-the-wind-of-change-has-started-to-blow/
( Scotland will be in this situation in 10 years if the current policy is followed - not theory - fact -as shown in the article)
Hemp Oil runs diesel engines, but hemp is a controlled crop. Look into hemp oil production and you could shut the oil fields down with no loss of power.
I and many others in Scotland have long since learned to tryst nothing that The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian as well as the Scottish titles have to say.
They are all banging away on a drum to their business advantage, one way or the other.
There are "mountains" worth" oil sitting under the sea as well as under the soil of exotic places. The question is whether it is politic or economic to extract it and in which order to proceed.
Off the N West coast of Scotland there is a fair good chance that there are biggish oil deposits which are peripheral parts of the sub Arctic giga field. That is deep sea extraction, way beyond the Caribbean BP well (see below)
Most oil wells, the ones that are no longer active, are only 50-70% depleted under conventional processes. There are tar sands in Canada equivalent to Saudi Arabia, many times over awaiting the technology to extract it economically. Under the Caribbean there is a huge reservoir of gas which could power the World. The problem is that it is at an enormous pressure that no one has a clue how to control. The big worry over the BP oil leak was that the oil reserves were intertwined with a small pocket of this sub sea gas and they would never be able to lug the hole.
Finally, oil can be grown or at least the processes which made the oil can be replicated and accelerated. It has been done on the laboratory and is not very difficult by using algae and bacteria. The key is how to get the Sun's energy translated into biomass and onto an exploitable fuel without it costing more energy than it yields.
The sun is giving off more than enough energy to keep us going for millions of years so long as we don't blow ourselves apart with our nuclear toys.
It is all geopolitics.
Lookers, Banned is right, (I'm reading ahead). We don't trust Unionist publications in this country. The only reason that the SNP are pushing renewables is for jobs, fuck all to do with green energy. Don't be fooled.
Cassandras, as you say Hemp is Marijuana and is therefore controlled. Why Governments should be able to control a natural plant is beyond me, but that's another argument. Hemp could never take the place of oil for 2 main reasons. 1.We couldn't grow enough and 2, The world would starve if we turn arable land which is at the moment is just sustaining life on the planet to biofuels. There will be a huge increase in the population in any case and food will be in short supply soon, because of current bio-fuel production.
Bugger, first of all apologies, I called you Banned. It's because you both complain about my banner ads!
There may be 'mountains' of oil around the world but as I said above, but once it takes more than the sale price to extract one barrel, or it takes more energy to extract a barrel than one gets from burning it, there is no point in using it. Remember that there is no guarantee when they drill for oil, they are going to find any and that can be fucking expensive. I doubt they can replicate 80 million barrels of oil DAILY in Labs, remembering that demand is rising 30% per annum.
6% of the USA's arable land would produce enough hempseed to make enough oil for the whole of the USA
The by product after pressing the oil can be fed to animals.
Hemp can be turned into lots of things... plastics etc
cassandra..
Do you have shares in hemp ?
Cassandra, if it was possible to take out 6% of arable land in the US, fine, but a lot of that would be in the mid-west. The problem is that if it was profitable, everyone with land would be growing hemp, there would be no food and everyone would be stoned out of their minds! Hmmm, maybe not a bad idea.
Poley, or smoking it! Just kidding, Cassandra, interesting comments.
Thanks for asking , DL . Haven't been blogging as I've not been keeping too well . Also the current mob haven't yet filled me with the same incandescent rage that the last mob did .
No doubt that will change .
Anyway ... A priest , a rabbi and a minister are on a plane with a troop of boy scouts when it develops engine trouble and begins to crash . The rabbi discovers that there are only 3 parachutes , one of which he puts on and offers the others to his two ecclesiastical pals .
"What about the Boy Scouts ?" asks the minister , clearly troubled by this moral dilemma .
"Bugger the Boy Scouts !" yells the rabbi impatiently .
"Have we got time ?" asks the priest .
Boom ! Boom !
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