Afghanistan

US Interests In Central Asia Are Oil, Oil, Oil [ FEBRUARY 12, 1998 ]
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U.S. INTERESTS IN THE CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS
FEBRUARY 12, 1998
Mr. BEREUTER. I would like to proceed to the subject of the hearing for today, U.S. interests in the Central Asian Republics. I do have a statement. One hundred years ago, Central Asia was the arena for a great game played by Czarist Russia, Colonial Britain, Napoleon's France, and the Persian and the Ottoman Empires. Allegiances meant little during this struggle for empire building, where no single empire could gain the upper hand. One hundred years later, the collapse of the Soviet Union has unleashed a new great game, where the interests of the East India Trading Company have been replaced by those of Unocal and Total, and many other organizations and firms.
    Today the Subcommittee examines the interests of a new contestant in this new great game, the United States. The five countries which make up Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, attained their independence in 1991, and have once again captured worldwide attention due to the phenomenal reserves of oil and natural gas located in the region
    Stated U.S. policy goals regarding energy resources in this region include fostering the independence of the States and their ties to the West; breaking Russia's monopoly over oil and gas transport routes; promoting Western energy security through diversified suppliers; encouraging the construction of east-west pipelines that do not transit Iran; and denying Iran dangerous leverage over the Central Asian economies.......

    To begin, you may ask why is the United States active in the region? The United States has energy security, strategic, and commercial interests in promoting Caspian region energy development. We have an interest in strengthening global energy security through diversification, and the development of these new sources of supply. Caspian export routes would diversify rather than concentrate world energy supplies, while avoiding over-reliance on the Persian Gulf..........

    Four factors frame our policy. First, promoting multiple export routes. The Administration's policy is centered on rapid development of the region's resources and the transportation and sale of those resources to hard-currency markets to secure the independence of these new countries. Accordingly, our government has promoted the development of multiple pipelines and diversified infrastructure networks to open and integrate these countries into the global market and to foster regional cooperation......

    In general, we support those transportation solutions that are commercially viable and address our environmental concerns and policy objectives. Based on discussions with the companies involved, a Baku-Ceyhan pipeline appears to be the most viable option.....

Switching geography slightly, what is the status of proposals by Unocal and others to build a gas pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan?
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Translation: They have oil. We want oil. We are prepared to go to war to get it. Spending billions, killing thousands; we do what it takes. Obama wants Oil. Osama is an excuse.

 

Afghanistan Invasion Explained - It's Oil [ 12 July 2009 ]
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The second option is to build a pipeline south from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean. One obvious route south would cross Iran, but this is foreclosed for American companies because of U.S. sanctions legislation. The only other possible route is across Afghanistan, which has of course its own unique challenges. The country has been involved in bitter warfare for almost two decades, and is still divided by civil war. From the outset, we have made it clear that construction of the pipeline we have proposed across Afghanistan could not begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments, lenders, and our company..........

Unocal foresees a pipeline which would become part of a regional system that will gather oil from existing pipeline infrastructure in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. The 1,040-mile long oil pipeline would extend south through Afghanistan to an export terminal that would be constructed on the Pakistan coast. This 42-inch diameter pipeline will have a shipping capacity of one million barrels of oil per day. The estimated cost of the project, which is similar in scope to the trans-Alaska pipeline, is about $2.5 billion........

Last October, the Central Asia Gas Pipeline Consortium, called CentGas, in which Unocal holds an interest, was formed to develop a gas pipeline which will link Turkmenistan's vast Dauletabad gas field with markets in Pakistan and possibly India. The proposed 790-mile pipeline will open up new markets for this gas, traveling from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Multan in Pakistan. The proposed extension would move gas on to New Delhi, where it would connect with an existing pipeline. As with the proposed Central Asia oil pipeline, CentGas can not begin construction until an internationally recognized Afghanistan Government is in place.
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This evidence was given to the American Congress back in 1998. The 9/11 Job was just an excuse.
Starship Troopers was the name of a book by RA Heinlein. Pipeline Troopers are different.

Was the election corrupt? Of course. So what? Afghans have their own perfectly good system of government. They do not like being harassed by high tech hooligans.

 

Americans In Afghanistan Make It Worse, Not Better Says America Envoy [ 14 November 2009 ]
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U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan tells Obama: Don't send any more American troops, it will make things WORSE..... Karl Eikenberry said that bolstering the American presence in Afghanistan could make the country more reliant on the U.S. The former army general expressed his concerns in a series of forcefully worded messages to Washington, sent before Mr Obama's strategy meeting yesterday. The developments underline U.S. scepticism about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose government has been dogged by corruption..........

The war is now in its ninth year and is claiming U.S. lives at a record pace as military leaders say the Taliban has the upper hand in many parts of the country.
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Just why are the Americans there? The British National Party will get our men out soonest. Ditto for Iraq

 

Afghanistan Big Oil And Truth [ 11 April 2010 ]
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It has been revealed in the Indian media that efforts will be made to speed up the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project next weekend [ Efforts on to revive TAPI gas pipeline project ], the outcome of which could seal the fate of thousands of British and other Western troops over the coming years. The conference, to be held in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashkhabad, will be the first high-level meeting on the project for almost three years. It follows in the wake of Operation Moshtarak, the military offensive to wrest Afghanistan’s strategically important Helmand Province, through which the proposed pipeline will be built, from Taliban control.
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You might wonder just why it is that British troops are going to protect a pipeline through enemy territory to supply India. Remember that Falklands oil is not on stream yet. The Foreign Office tried to get rid of it. Maggie beat them but their treachery cost men's lives. Now it is all happening again.

General Says Don't Abandon Afghanistan [ 11 May 2011 ]
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The west must state clearly that it will not abandon Afghanistan after the handover of security to local forces in 2014 or risk further fighting in the region from an emboldened Taliban, the commander of British forces in the country has warned. In his first interview since becoming second in command of the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf), General James Bucknall told the Guardian "now is not the time to blink", and pleaded for more patience in the decade-long campaign because progress was being made.
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The man is stupid or misquoted. Afghan peasants want to run their own lives. If that means killing each other and playing with little boys that is their affair. Otto von Bismarck said that "The Balkans aren't worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier." He was not a sentimental old fool or a trigger happy hooligan. The men should be pulled out now, not later. Of course Bucknall might find himself on the dole queue. It is a price I would be delighted to pay.
PS Now that Osama is allegedly dead the original excuse for invading is gone. The Army should be gone with it.