The Other War

Remember Afghanistan?


Of course you do! It is that little conflict in Central Asia that can be somewhat justified! Come on! Think about it!

Afghanistan, the country that has had three major wars in 24 years, now there is a distinction that not many would want to claim. First we had the USSR, and conflict soon followed, then they left and the rise of the Taliban came about, and conflict soon followed and then came 9/11 and Osama's connection with the Taliban and conflict soon followed with the Invasion of the US and its buds. That pretty much brings us up to date, with the wars, anyway.

Remember my little time machine? The Way Back? OK, then let us climb into the machine and set the controls for 1998. NOw we are in a meeting of the then govt and reps of Unocal. Unocal? Where have I heard that before? I believe it has something to do with Iraq and oil. But that was a past story, shall we move on?

OH yeah, the meeting! Unocal has tapped into the natural resources in Turkmenistan and is desparately seacrching for a way to get it to port. Idea! How about a pipeline through Afghanistan to ports in Pakistan? Now we have come to the reason for the meeting.

Unocal in its desire for the pipeline was wooing the Taliban, to the point of flying their reps to Texas for fun and sun. They were training Afghans on the proper construction of pipelines. But sadly, it was a wasted endeavor for shortly thereafter all hell broke loose and the plan was scrapped because of war.

Ok let us take another tact here. Do you remember the pres of Afghanistan? One, Hamid Karzai? He was the hand picked guy that the US wanted to run the country. He became the interim pres and then was elected pres. What good fortune!

I will bet you are asking, why would this be good fortune? Good question!

Even with the problems and the conflict a pipeline is being considered through Afghanistan. This time it is being funded by the International community. Now, is Unocal involved? They officially say no.

IMO, it is a bit suspect that they are involved. Why!? Karzai was an emplyee of Unocal in 1998. And we know how multinationals work and he is probably still on the payroll, unofficially. I find it completely suspect that the hand picked leader of the country was an employee of the company that had so much invested in the country before 9/11.

So, I ask, Was Karzai chosen to lead because he is an adequate leader? That answer is pretty obvious, just look at all occuring in Afghanistan. He does not lead the country in reality, he is little more than the Mayor of Kabul. If that is true, then was he chosen because of his connection to the oil giant? That seems to be the most accurate answer.

An after note--there was another player in the picture--Zalmay Khalilizad, who was the US special envoy to Afghanistan, now we know him as the US ambassador to Iraq and soon to be the ambassador to the UN. Why do we bring this up? He helped write the new Iraq Oil law and is a past employee of Unocal. Convienent ain't?



CHUQ
15/03/07