An Old Sign of the Oil Wars |
As has been pointed out often over the years here on Dredd Blog, there are religious, corporate greed, and propaganda reasons we do not understand Afghanistan, "America's longest war" :
Since the first oil field was discovered in Afghanistan in 1959 ...(Secret Afghanistan Underground, cf. here). A war which the media calls "the Afghanistan war."
The USGS has previously conducted broad regional oil and gas resource assessments of northwestern Afghanistan as part of the Amu Darya basin, most of which is located in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. These assessments were published by Kingston (1986 and 1990), Masters and others (1995), and Ulmishek (2000).
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As the war in Afghanistan unfolds, there is frantic diplomatic activity to ensure that any post-Taliban government will be both democratic and pro-West. Hidden in this explosive geo-political equation is the sensitive issue of securing control and export of the region's vast oil and gas reserves. The Soviets estimated Afghanistan's proven and probable natural gas reserves at 5 trillion cubic feet - enough for the United Kingdom's requirement for two years - but this remains largely untapped because of the country's civil war and poor pipeline infrastructure.
More importantly, according to the U.S. government, "Afghanistan's significance from an energy standpoint stems from its geographical position as a potential transit route for oil and natural gas exports from central Asia to the Arabian Sea."
To the north of Afghanistan lies the Caspian and central Asian region, one of the world's last great frontiers for the oil industry due to its tremendous untapped reserves. The U.S. government believes that total oil reserves could be 270 billion barrels. Total gas reserves could be 576 trillion cubic feet.
"The longest war" is actually another war still riding the roller-coaster of a hundred years of time, and is properly called the oil wars (The Universal SmeSummaries and Data Packages of Important Areas for Mineral Investment and Production Opportunities in Afghanistandley - 2; The Peak Of The Oil Wars, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; The Fleets and Terrorism Follow The Oil - 2).
Religious leaders of mithraic persuasions, such as Jerry Falwell Jr., have always followed the tenets of mithraism by overlooking war, so long as some trumps sound out during the mayhem ("It is forbidden to kill therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire).
The shape shifter in chief (The Shapeshifters of Bullshitistan) has cast off his non-affinity for endless war, and now embraces them (Trump Calls For a Troop Increase in Afghanistan).
So, the
The previous post in this series is here.
"Years from now, when honest historians and scholars examine the Trump moment, it is certain that among the greatest beneficiaries of his presidency will be the military and CIA. But it would be a mistake to attribute this exclusively to Trump. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump, Hillary Clinton — and yes, even Bernie Sanders — all made clear that they supported and would continue the “targeted killing” program." The Intercept
ReplyDelete"Trump 2013: ‘We Should Leave Immediately… No More Wasted Lives’" (Breitbart).
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the ever-alluring marauding for plunder and booty by "our" hegemonic "government" to keep the façade up another day.
ReplyDeleteIt's a mess.