Day: June 16, 2010

Good News For Afghanistan?

Inkwell Institute

International Studies Group

Central Asia Desk

It seems that the country of Afghanistan and its bloody little armed conflict is making its way into the news more and more…..recently we  in the US have passed a milestone, that is 1000 troops have been killed in this war.

Further back there has been a back and forth between Washington and Kabul on who is in charge and there was the humor that was the latest Afghan elections….corruption is rampant and that is just the most obvious of conditions in the war torn country.

Now the US has planned the all important push around Kandahar….looking for the hearts and minds of the locals in their attempt to isolate the Taliban….but this operation is NOT looking as good as it once did…..

The offensive had been slated to begin this month, but, as McChrystal admitted, the US has been unable to win the support either of tribal leaders and power brokers or of the populace in and around Afghanistan’s second largest city. The town of 450,000 in the heart of the Pashtun-dominated south is the birthplace of the Taliban and remains a key stronghold of the anti-occupation insurgency.

One result of the US offensive in Helmand province has been increased Taliban activity in Nimroz, the province to the west of Helmand that borders on Iran and Pakistan. The Army Times reported June 11 that Taliban fighters forced out of Helmand have shifted operations to Nimroz, previously considered the most stable part of southern Afghanistan.

There is the real story……the NATO troops move in…Taliban moves out and starts up again…this game of cat and mouse is NOT going to win any long term success for the occupation.

And now the worse news that can be had….

The previously unknown deposits of iron, copper, cobalt and gold are so huge that it could transform the impoverished nation into one of the world’s important mining centers, the report on the newspaper’s website said. (here)

The mineral wealth, discovered by a team of Pentagon officials and U.S. geologists, is scattered throughout the country including in the south and east along the border with Pakistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency is the most intense.

It is said to be worth about a trillion dollars……yes I said the WORSE news!

Why?

What chance does a country that is still living in the 2nd century have at controlling their new found assets?  What are their chances of avoiding the exploitation that is coming?  What are the chances that the US will stay to help protect US business interests?  What are the chances that any cash will be used to further the fundamentalism?

If you listen closely you can hear the Afghan politicians jerking off in the corner…they are drooling and smiling uncontrollably……if you want proof of my thoughts look at other resource rich countries like Nigeria and Bolivia…the corruption will only get larger and the people well get hungrier…….

My question is why now?

The Russians knew about the mineral deposits in 1985 and the US Pentagon has a report about them from 2003…so why is it reported now?  Personal opinion….it will give the US an excuse for NOT pulling out of Afghanistan totally……we cannot let China or Russia get their hands on all that copper or iron or whatever….and if an American company gets the mining nod then someone has got to protect their interests….Right?

Nothing about this announcement smells kosher!

Is Obama Protecting BP?

Daily Agitator

Last night the President made his first speech from the Oval office…this was his opportunity to take the lead on the Gulf oil spill….to show the American people that he is in charge and BP will be made to pay……..(pause for reflection)……..he failed!  I heard NOTHING that had not been said before…..mostly it was his optimism that all will be made right……he told me all about the Noble Prize winners in his cabinet and the commission he has appointed to deal with the spill…..commission?……we do NOT need a commission…we need a CORK!

There has been so much back and forth on how Obama has handled the Gulf oil spill…Repubs are making it a politically weapon for their elections…the Dems are defending the actions of Obama and his response to the spill….and the media is just doing nothing more than fanning the flames of discontent……everyone on the air whether politician or journalist seem to be having an agenda to pursue…and while they are doing this the people effected by the spill keep getting further and further screwed by the very people that are there to “help”…..

in an article written by Hiram Lee…….

Last week the Interior Department released a statement to the press with a new estimate placing the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per day. The numbers came from a survey conducted by the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group, a team consisting of government scientists and representatives from universities across the US. The White House stood by the new estimates and BP executive Robert Dudley appeared on national television to promote them.

In reality, the scientists conducting the survey reported this estimate only reflected the “lower bounds” of their findings, meaning that the numbers represented the very least possible amount of oil flowing into the Gulf.

The escrow account that the Dems are proposing…..is it a way to protect BP from the massive lawsuits heading their way?

“The BP chiefs will suggest to Mr. Obama that the rhetoric from the White House and other parts of the administration is destabilising markets and damaging US investors, who hold 40 percent of its shares,” the Times writes. “The BP executives will tell the administration that the company can afford to pay an already announced first quarter dividend as well as meet its bill for coping with the Gulf of Mexico spill.”

Any “truce” will be on the backs of the those devastated by the crisis. This is because all sides in the discussion—the Obama adminstiration as much as BP—start from the premise that the BP and the oil industry as a whole must remain under the control of private investors, whose money-mad drive for profit created the disaster and has dictated every step of the response.

I have NO doubt that BP will NOT be held totally accountable for the is spill….just as Exxon was NOT held accountable for the Valdez incident……,IMO, BP will be protected from the entirety of the spill….and in doing so…this whole scenario will be re-visited again in the future….just like the financial crisis….in 10 years we will be deal with it again…..Why?    because NONE of the SLUGS in Washington have the guts to really repair a broken system….they just throw minor diatribes at it and hope that it will go away….