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Britain Wants A Rerun Of The War On Afghanistan
Immediately after the Taliban victory an enormous dis-information campaign was launched to again badmouth them.
There are now suddenly all kinds of allegations that the Taliban are doing this or that bad. These are mostly based on hearsay and no or very little evidence is presented. Don't believe them without direct confirmation from original sources.
The launch of Amrullah Saleh and Ahmed Massoud as leaders of a new resistance against the Taliban must have been long prepared. One does not get op-ed space in the Washington Post and several big European papers just some three days after Kabul falls without some lead time and without serious 'western' backing.
While Saleh is an old CIA spy Ahmed Massoud has been prepared by the Brits:
After finishing his secondary school education in Iran, Massoud spent a year on a military course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.In 2012, he commenced an undergraduate degree in War Studies at King's College London where he obtained his bachelor's degree in 2015. He obtained his master's degree in International Politics from City, University of London in 2016.
The type of disinformation campaign combined with the well prepared launch of the 'resistance campaign', allegedly with SAS trained Afghan soldiers, and the regional op-ed placements let me conclude that he is run by the Brits. They are quite excellent in their 'strategic communication' disinformation business.
The conservatives speaking in their special parliament session were also the most angry about the outcome of their imperial war on Afghanistan and about their own inability to stop its end while claiming to be a 'Global Britain'.
As Richard Murphey remarks on Withering Britain:
This then is a massive moment for the role of the US in the world. It does not create a vacuum, but the risk that one might follow – which China will all too willingly seek to fill – seems very real at present.
And where does Britain fit into this? In a sense it does not. The US did not consults us, and is still not apparently telling us what it is doing in Kabul. We were not a player. There was no special, relationship. Our opinion was not worth having. It did not matter to the US. The pretence is over.
With that the vestige of British power, built on the coat-tails of the 1940s and the mutually advantageous myths formed since then, has gone. We are now just a rather remote, small, and fairly insignificant state who is just one amongst many. The delusion that we are otherwise has to go.
But will the delusion disappear? Will we, with its demise, stop building aircraft carriers that were strategically useless decades before they were designed? Will we stop thinking ourselves exceptional? And will an England thwarted become ever more aggressive towards its last vestiges of empire – those states it subjects to its rule within the supposed United Kingdom, which increasingly feels anything but that?
These are big questions. Only time can provide the answers. But I have a feeling that everything has changed. The image of British power has withered away. If all involved now deal with the reality for the these islands and their future that might be for the better. If at the same time we stop hectoring and abusing the world and actually learn to live with and work alongside it, so much the better too. But will we do that? That’s anyone’s guess. The wise will hope that we do.
That hope is, see above, in vain.
Stories about alleged Taliban acts 'against Afghan women' will now again get special features. Women have been used to sell the long war on Afghanistan since its very beginning. But how many women were actually killed by Soviet, British and U.S. bombs during the war?
On the abuse of feminism to promote the never ending war on Afghanistan, the badmouthing of the Taliban please read the excellent piece Afghanistan: The End of the Occupation which was co-written by a female anthropologist who has done field work there.
@106 grieved. You said:
… in regard to the one @76, I think that line of exploration is a dead end – however, we should let it run its course.
I reply: Grieved, please be more specific. I said a lot in that post, and I’m trying to ID the part you take exception to.
@107 grieved. You said:
There are commenters here of long standing who will sometimes present a view on a matter that seems wrong. Other times, on other matters, they may seem completely correct. Politics makes strange bedfellows, and we should take the rough with the smooth.
Some people have very gentle minds – and truth and insight finds no problem to flourish in such minds – but they won’t take a beating and stick around. If they don’t stick around, we don’t get to read them on the next matter that arises, where they may form part of the winning consensus.
We should strive not to drive people away. We should let our compelling analyses rule – analysis, not personas, is all that needs to rule here. People will fall away, naturally and gently, if they don’t belong with that.
I reply:
Well said. The reason we come here to MoA is to perfect our world-view. We all start somewhere, and that somewhere isn’t always the best-informed point. I am grateful to each of you for helping me form that “winning consensus”.
@85 Gordog:
You seem like someone that’s had some experience in political settings, and I’m sure you realize how intensely political the top echelons of decision-making here in the U.S. are.
We’ve already established that a great deal of the war-making activity projected by the U.S. is about directing the national wealth into the pockets of the well-connected. One powerful and well-connected shake-down operation is the MIC-media-corporate cabal.
All the hubbub in the press is testament. The messaging about “chaos at the airport” and “women’s rights” are pressure points applied to roll back or at least delay the pullout. The “pullout” represents a fundamental change in course, and it has major implications for the MIC. Major.
Biden has clearly made a choice, and I’m not sure it’s a “pivot to China”. I think it’s a pivot to fundamental realities: the U.S. can’t project Empire any longer. That game is closing down. Our economy is hosed from top to bottom,and it’s going to take a herculean effort to fix it.
But the general welfare is clearly not of concern to these clowns. The cabal will fight like hell to _prevent_ that pivot. One great way to fight is to make the decision to pivot look bad. Which they are doing. Biden has a lot more freedom to act politically than Trump: people here are fed up with war. MIC over-played their hand, and Biden called them on it. Astute gamesmanship.
Now let’s re-examine all this “chaos”. Recall that many positions were vacated “without telling anyone” in the early stages of the final exit operation. That was a pre-emptive move. Recall also that G. Britain’s nose is out of joint because, to hear them tell it, “we didn’t tell them what we’re doing”. “The special relationship isn’t so special”.
Think about the significance of those remarks.
What that tells me is that Biden has decided to conduct the pullout no matter what, he knows how the infighting will happen, and where it’ll come from.
He over-ruled them, and moved pre-emptively without notification because he anticipated all their road-block moves. Remember: Biden’s been around a long, long time. He knows the game, the players, their moves.
Biden kicked their ass. I’m not his biggest fan, but he “done that one good”.
Did Biden expect the Taliban to move as fast as they did? Probably not. Is it material? I say “no”. The material thing is that the obstructionists – known to exist, known methods – had almost no time to sandbag him the way Trump was sand-bagged.
For those of you not familiar with the games MIC plays, this is how the game works. MIC/Intelligence people want to keep their game going, for all the well-known reasons (elites make money, officers get promoted, status remains high).
So they tell the Prez to stay the course. Don’t cut and run, etc. Prez tries to over-rule, so they discredit him. They “fumble the ball”. Leak stuff to the press to discredit the policy. They know how to do this, and they’ve been running this con for decades.
Biden outsmarted them. He can’t control all the details on the ground, and there are plenty of sand-bag opptys, and he can’t control all of them. Ya makes your choices, and ya takes yer lumps.
Finally, on the subject of “chaos”. I think that pull-out is mighty orderly. Got line-ups at the airport? Not significant. Got a lot of hangers-on profiteers, who have been leeching off the taxpayer discomfited? Is that necessarily a bad thing? Not from my vantage point.
How many U.S. people got shot?
And if they did get shot, whose responsibility was it to protect them? The prez? The prez ordered them out, and told them Sept 11 deadline. If anyone got shot, it was the sand-baggers’ fault. That’s the choice they made. Put the blame where it ought to be.
If you broaden your perspective, and look at _who_ the people are that are shrieking the most, they are (mostly) all of a stripe: the folks running the con.
There is a major, major political battle happening behind the scenes @ top echelon U.S. & related Empire operations. Politics is very messy, and the mess plays out on the ground and in the press if people “don’t get their way”. Like it or not, it’s the way the game is played.
Lastly, the big question is “if not Empire, then what?”. That is the really significant question. The U.S. has huge economic challenges ahead, and I think the top people are very, very aware of them, and recognize that playing the Great Game isn’t as much fun as it used to be.
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Aug 21 2021 12:22 utc | 149
by: vk @ 11 Americans are always like that: they just play the anti-war card when they’re losing. The lesson is clear: the rest of the world must ramp up their military prowess, imposing their will on the Americans by force.
<= vk continues to confuse Americans with those who control the USA, UK, Saudi, Israel, French, and Turk governments. These government are used as <=control tool of the oligarchs and their leg breaker corporations that keep the oligarchs rich and powerful. Rule of law is the source corporations use to own the natural resources important to their profits and assets, and as a whip, which allows them to reduce humanity to producer slaves (as if they were machines). .. The Oligarch have placed profit, assets, greed and power over human rights, <= but it is the humans in each of these nation states that have allowed themselves to be made producer slaves. So, why is there no effective collective world wide human effort to fix this unfortunate global situation?
It is wrong to continue to blame the people confined to one nation state for the direction those in power of the nation have forced these people to take.
These nation state confined people (the governed) are manipulated, used, cajoled, by both local and the global nation state franchise system.
What is it about the nation state that keeps humanity conformed to initiatives against its better being? How does that voluntary imprisonment come about? Slowly human history discovered, individuals have super rights which overpower Emperor, king, parliament, or committee propaganda. Progressively wealth and power has been reduced and distributed to lower and lower echelons of more and more humanity (meaning more people now participate and share in the good life of the nation state. The distribution of governing power started with the Emperor The trend is toward direct democracy..
Challenged, the Oligarch began to understand if they did not stop the trend, they would loose their power to the distribution of their power to the masses. The Oligarch would be forced to share their wealth with masses. To stop this trend, they refined the emerging idea of the nation state and learned how to engineer constitutions to suit their intentions. They joined the independent nations and tribes into a membership(citizen of) system(based on territory). that placed groups of humans under control of a nation state franchise. In other words people in certain territories were made to share the same prison cell (the nation state), to obey the same rule of law, to donate the productive capacities of their lives to the prison. Why? Because the nation state was a systematic means that could allow the Oligarch to stay in power and to stop the continual trend of global governance toward the direct democracy tread. The powerful and wealthy few, had to stop the Trend. The nation state offered a global system capable to retain power and capable to redirect wealth from the rule of law controlled masses to the Oligarch few.
Oligarchs liked the way nation states could be used to separate, indoctrinate, manipulate and control all humanity <=in one go. The Oligarch realized the nation state system reaches to every corner of the globe, reaches to every spot in which humanity can hide, and does so, without more than to write into nation state law, what the oligarch demand humans do.
Humans are indoctrinated from birth to death to conform their thoughts, behaviors, hopes and desires to the nation state in which they are born or reside. Indoctrination implemented by propaganda, family tradition, public school, books, movies, jobs, military and contact with just about every institution found within the nation state converts the self image (human) to self image (part of the state). Instead of obtaining the air to breath themselves, they are taught to attach themselves within the body of the nation state, and depend on its vascular system for life giving oxygen, the vascular system of the state would provide the individual his or her oxygen. Rewards are created that cause people born into a particular nation state to transfer their survival priorities from sovereign self to survival needs of the state. Humanity is a dependent of the the nation state because from birth it has been taught that such a dependency is natural. But dependency is not natural, it is absorbed as one grows up.
In my opinion, humanity needs to develop its own constitution and recognize that as robots become more human like, survival of governed humanity becomes less likely.
Max @ 12..The people's debt is the bank's profit and look at how amendment XVI reversed word for word Article I, Section 9 [4].. in the US constitution in 1913.
the result Fed Bank's profit $x = people's cash in hand $X
each increase in gov't debt.. increases banks profit; Tax Payer get worthless paper.
To answer question who suffers most when the Financial Empire falls: UK or USA..
Ans it depends on whether or not subject government fails..if government falls
oligarch will be stripped of the bank schemes and property, people start over.
If govt d/n fail, people will loose b\c they must pay the debt off, so
private banks win. That is why in the Constitution of the United States at Article VI. Sec 8 ([1] "All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the US under this Constitution, as under the confederation. <= In other words, the British Bankers and Recipients of land grants from British governments before the American Revolution (1776) wrote this clause into the constitution.. to save their wealth and power. It was the British who discovered how to use constitutions in foreign lands to save their wealth and power.
jackrabbit at 13 quotes
Caitlin Johnstone , who explains:
Corporate media is mind control at mass scale. People who identify as smart, independent thinkers have their minds altered by it every day, and they believe they came to those opinions on their own. Until this problem is addressed, none of our other major problems are going away.
<= corporate media is supported by every person or corporation that advertises or that makes the nightly news. MSM probably receives more revenue than any other industry in the world, yet few of us believe a word of their propaganda. ??
Posted by: snake | Aug 21 2021 14:55 utc | 172
Around and roundabout news.
This warning is because several Chinese were killed in a bus blast (maybe 2 buses?). It is aimed at the Pakistan/Chinese port through which the BRI will pass after Afghanistan. China is not happy.
Global Times. “Some external forces reportedly have incited the terrorists in Pakistan to inflict damage on China and Chinese interests. Once China obtains evidence that they support terror forces in Pakistan, China will punish them.”
***
The US has brought in at least ten or more small, rapid, helicopters for Urban fighting. These are touted as being the last to leave to cover everyone else. But then where would they go to?
“Night Stalker Special Ops Helicopters Now In Kabul Could Be Critical To Evacuation”
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Now that Qatar is full with 10’000 Af refugees, the problem of where they are to go has become acute. The EU (Germany and France have taken quite a few) but only 2’000 have gone to the US.
“State of play: With the U.S. military’s efforts to evacuate American citizens and at-risk Afghans from the country ramping up, and Qatar’s al-Udeid air base at maximum capacity, the U.S. was scrambling for more places to take evacuees.
– Bahrain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan “have been or will soon be transiting Americans or in some circumstances, others, through their territories to safety,” the State Department said on Friday.
– State Department spokesman Ned Price said that “Albania, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Mexico, Poland, Qatar, Rwanda, Ukraine and Uganda have also made generous offers regarding the relocation efforts for at-risk Afghans.”
– No U.S. flights left Kabul for eight hours on Friday afternoon as Qatar had reached capacity.
– President Biden clarified later Friday that the flights had paused to process the arriving evacuees at the transit point, but that Kabul officials already gave orders for outbound flights to resume.”
* US troops are being used to reinforce garrisons in the ME. Even in Syria, and Iraq. Might not be long term assignements, as in Iraq they are up to the 122’nd IED attack on logistical convoys.
****
There are at least five warships off the coast of Lebanon today. I don’t know whose. Could be Israel but they seem (from a distance) to be too big. Possibly Russian.
Might be connected with the arrival of Iranian Oil tankers, and the 24 missiles fired at Syria yesterday. (22 shot down).
To watch.
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The Afghan army is reforming in Pansjir, There seem to be quite a lot of foot soldiers. Reminds me of a SciFi story I once read where a Medieval English village, took over an Intergalactic Empire (“Weskers” if I remember correctly) by using commonly used, at that time, warfare tactics. In one incident, the Weskers were besieged in an impenetrable fortress. So the English Lord sent in ALL the hostages he could round up from the neighbourhood, and sent them into the enemy fortress. The Weskers capitulated soon after. Why? – not enough food, and the “refugees” only made the situation worse.
Suggestion? The Taliban round up ALL those who want to leave and send them into the Pasjir valley. How long before they all starve?
Posted by: Stonebird | Aug 21 2021 17:08 utc | 194
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