The MIC wanted to botch the Afghan withdrawal

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 3:32pm

I really hate Biden, so it puts me in a very uncomfortable position to have to defend him. Yet there are people that I hate even more than Biden, and they are the Military-Industrial-Complex. It's those warmongers that are creating a false anti-Biden narrative about the withdrawal from Afghanistan that both conservatives and liberals are falling for.
Allow me to list the reasons:

#1) President's aren't supposed to do logistics.
Yes, the Afghanistan withdrawal was botched. But how is that the president's fault? Do you really think the president was supposed to be micromanaging a military evacuation? There hasn't been a president since Ike that would even be qualified to do that. And would you want the president directly in charge of military logistics? Of course not.

#2) No, Trump wouldn't have done better.
Yes, Trump did sign the withdrawal agreement, but this is the same guy who botched the Covid response. This is Mr. Short-Attention-Span we are talking about. Even more importantly, you are assuming that Trump intended to fulfill that agreement.

President Donald Trump’s top national security officials never intended to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, according to new statements by Chris Miller, Trump’s last acting defense secretary.
Miller said the president’s public promise to finish withdrawing U.S. forces by May 1, as negotiated with the Taliban, was actually a “play” that masked the Trump administration’s true intentions: to convince Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to quit or accept a bitter power-sharing agreement with the Taliban, and to keep some U.S. troops in Afghanistan for counterrorism missions.

Yeh, that puts a whole different spin on things. It also partly explains why so many Americans in Afghanistan weren't ready to evacuate.

#3) It's no secret that the MIC didn't want to withdraw.
I don't think that it's necessary to show evidence of this claim.
If you think about it, the MIC had every incentive to botch this. If it went smoothly, who knows which militarily occupied nation we might pull out of next? But if it gets botched, well, politicians will be less incline to withdraw from our forever wars in the future because it would almost certainly be repeated.
This isn't a conspiracy. This is just facts.

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Afghanistan withdrawal

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Submitted by Snode on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 3:59pm

Trump

set free 5,000 Taliban fighters and essentially got nothing in return in the agreement. As for the MIC, there was a revolving door from the military into the "Afghan consultant/contractor" industry, and that gravy train going off the tracks has got to hurt.

Submitted by fire with fire on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 4:04pm

Agree in Principle; Disagree About Details

I completely agree that the media frenzy is on cue from the Military Industrial Complex and that it is a bogus interpretation of events to "blame" Sleepy Joe for things turning chaotic last weekend. Further, this pearl clutching is utterly FAKE.

Where I disagree with your post is that this was "botched." That formulation assumes that there is a correct way to abandon an occupied country. Put this many troops in this installation; block these roads to the airport; have an orderly plan for several thousand people to board airplanes; have a way for the last guy out to turn out the lights.

Nope chaos is as chaos does.

Too many Americans have what amounts to a religious faith in expertise. If you just act competently, you can give the Taliban the slip and you can gain control of all the coming variants of Covid from alpha to omega and on through the Russian alphabet.

But, the problem is, all our leaders are dunces who keep botching everything. I honestly believe that this competence meme is part of the overall scam -- as we see in the "coverage" of Joe's incompetence at evacuating Kabul.

Thanks for posting this -- very interesting stuff.

—

I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 5:48pm

True

@fire with fire
#1) It was always going to be messy, even under the best of conditions.
#2) The sudden collapse of the Afghan army just made the situation worse.

OTOH, 10,000+ Americans scattered all over Afghanistan?? That just incompetence by the Pentagon. Or more likely, deliberate ineptitude.

Submitted by fire with fire on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 4:15pm

deliberate ineptitude

@gjohnsit .

Good desccription.

—

I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 5:44pm

Two words sum it all up

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit

deliberate ineptitude

I honestly do not believe we will be out of there, regardless of the current optics. We will continue to be in Afghanistan via the CIA and private contractors (mercenaries). After all, big pharma needs someone to guard the poppy fields and big tech needs someone to be there in order for them to extract resources, particularly lithium.

The bottom line is that Congress upped the public budget for the DoD and we know that there is also a black budget for covert operations. When the MIC has a hammer, they need to be able to use it somewhere in addition to new wars. My guess is why would they want leave a very profitable war (either overt or covert) in Afghanistan where they are already invested?

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 5:06pm

Proof that Human Rights Watch is a tool

Sometimes ignorance gives everything away. For example, take this article on HRW.

UN Rights Body Needs to Investigate Abuses in Afghanistan
Human Rights Council’s Credibility Hinges on Taking Strong Action at Emergency Session

That's the headline. Here's the body.

As reports mount of grave human rights abuses by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the United Nations Human Rights Council will hold an emergency session this week. It should immediately mandate the strongest possible monitoring mechanism.
Before their takeover of Kabul on August 15, Taliban forces were already committing atrocities, including summary executions of government officials and security force members in their custody. In Kabul since then, they have raided homes of journalists and activists, apparently searching for those who criticized them in the past. In places around the country they have restricted girls’ education and women’s ability to work. This follow years of abuses by all parties to the conflict.

Blah, blah, blah. I've got news for the author of this stupid article:
The U.N. is and has been investigating human rights abuses in Afghanistan for years. It's called the International Criminal Court. You know, the same group that the Trump Administration sanctioned?

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 5:32pm

Taliban may be the best equiped army in the region

The Biden Administration has taken down two recent audits of the weapons we gave the Afghanis from their web site, but we still know too much.

Just by 2016 we've sent them
1) 75,000 vehicles, including 1,000 MRAPS
2) 200 aircraft
3) 600,000 guns

and then there was what we sent them in the following two years

From 2017 to 2019, the U.S. also gave Afghan forces 7,035 machine guns, 4,702 Humvees, 20,040 hand grenades, 2,520 bombs and 1,394 grenade launchers, according to the since removed 2020 SIGAR report, reported by The Hill.

Submitted by CB on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 6:04pm

The US may send them even more ordinance,

@gjohnsit
in the form of bombs, in order to destroy much of that equipment once they complete the evacuation.

Submitted by NYCVG on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 6:10pm

Last week's take and I agree

Today was the Military Image Rescue performed on TV.
Which I've named Dunkirk in the Desert.
All a farce

As Curchill said, "Wars are not won by evacuations." True but the US Military doesn't want to seem as inept as they are.

—

NYCVG

Submitted by edg on Tue, 08/24/2021 - 6:07pm

I partially disagree.

@NYCVG

The military isn't inept. It just fights wars in ways that don't make sense unless you follow the money. The goal is not to win wars. The goal is to keep the military budget pumped up and ever expanding. This kabuki in Afghanistan will be followed by the Pentagon going to Congress hat in hand claiming they need more money to keep things like this from happening. And they will get it.

Submitted by zed2 on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 6:37pm

Afghanistan - has it been about oil and gas the whole time?

Here's what I think. Going all the way back to the beginning, I had a strong suspicion it was about OIL and natural gas at the core. At the beginning it was definitely about a pipeline they wanted to build to get oil and gas out. Anybody remember how basically the entire GW Bush Administration was put together out of veterans of the oil industry, specifically Standard Oil, I still think that's likely. There may be a lot of natural gas in Afghanistan. The Taliban certainly know that.

Now China is deeply involved too. Which seems to be at the core of their Belt and Road Initiative, etc.

There are lots of reasons that China may be the next "stuporpower" to get stuck in Afghanistan, it seems to me., China shares a short border with Afghanistan but the border region seems to be not secure enough that they feel safe using it to bring oil/gas into the country. (The US may have made some kind of deal with them to leave.)

This all has zero to do with whats best for the people of Afghanistan, its all about more powerful entities (countries and corporations) looting the country as shamelessly of fungible natural resources as they all can. Its likely been about these resources all along.

And the arms trade which will get a huge boost from the huge proliferation of deadly weapons.

Its really horrible and sickening.

Submitted by CB on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 7:51pm

That would be the Wakhan Corridor

@zed2

The Afghanistan-China Belt & Road Initiative

Potential routes exist along the Wakhan Corridor and via Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, but it is Pakistani access to Kabul that looks the better option – as long as the Taliban can provide stability, develop Afghan society, and refrain from regional aggression.
...
The Current Situation At China’s Border With Afghanistan

Security and surveillance all along the Chinese border has been stepped up with initial plans to do so going back months. Part of the current situation with certain Uyghur factions being detained in China is to do with the possibility of unrest, although the radicalization of Uyghurs is more likely to come from Pakistan to the south, where the connectivity infrastructure, via both the Karakorum Highway and direct air connections to Islamabad are far better than connectivity between Afghanistan and China. There is little chance of any Taliban or other encroachment into China from the Afghanistan border as activity can easily be spotted and the terrain is extremely difficult.
...
The Afghanistan-CPEC Corridor

It is for these reasons that an extension of CPEC into Afghanistan and directly to Kabul looks the most likely option, while China’s Belt and Road connectivity with Afghanistan from its direct borders looks a longer-term play. The Wakham Corridor itself is only sparsely populated and at present offers minimal opportunities – unless any viable mineral extractions are within the region.

Accordingly, while China’s Pamir infrastructure build with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan can be expected to include the potential for future Afghan routes, a simpler, and less expensive solution for China to access Afghanistan is via the Khunjerab Pass from Kashgar into Pakistan and improving the existing Friendship Highway with links through to Islamabad and Peshawar. That can be expected to be augmented with a reappearance of the proposed Kashgar-Gilgit railway with improvements also to be made to the Pakistan national rail network from Gilgit to Peshawar as part of this. Connectivity from Peshawar to Kabul then makes sense.

Submitted by zed2 on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 8:52pm

Planning?

They were never going to "abandon" all that oil and gas.
Speculation: This is all theater in order to get people to support a re-invasion with enough arms to turn Afghanistan into another Texas. They didnt trade Afghanistan to China, or BP or East Turkymenistan.

All those natural resources are what they are after, and too much of the rest [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64wZWv6zqE8] is quite possibly theatre, and hype..

What's the big picture, really?

Were seeing lots of disconnects here, only time will tell whats really happening.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuUqml7H2vk]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsahFAp7Jno]

Submitted by CB on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 9:50pm

Ashraf Ghani, the former president

@zed2
of Afghanistan had worked for the World Bank about the time that video was produced.

China has no need for Afghanistan gas since they discovered massive gas fields in Xinjiang province.

PetroChina strikes big gas find in China Xinjiang's Junggar basin: state media
December 20, 2020

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - PetroChina，Asia’s largest producer of oil and gas, has struck a large natural gas discovery in northwest China’s Xinjiang region with an initial estimated reserve exceeding 100 billion cubic meters, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported over the weekend.

This marks another breakthrough in the state oil firm’s natural gas development in the region, following a similar-sized discovery at Tarim basin in September last year.

PetroChina tapped 610,000 cubic meters of daily gas flow and 106.3 cubic meters of crude oil at exploration well Hu-1, located in an exploration zone totalling 15,000 square kilometers at the southern rim of the Junggar basin, Xinhua said.
...

But China is VERY interested in Afghanistan's mineral deposits. China had invested $2.9 billion in 2007 for a 30 year stake in the Mes Aynak copper mine and will stand to gain from the current situation.

Taliban inherit untapped $1 trillion trove of minerals
While the insurgents' takeover may deter other foreign investors, China seems willing to do business with them
August 23, 2021

The Taliban now hold the keys to a nearly untouched trillion-dollar trove of minerals including some that could power the world’s transition to renewable energies, but Afghanistan has long struggled to tap its vast deposits.
...
Copper, which is needed to make power cables, became a hot commodity this year as prices soared to more than $10,000 per tonne.
...
World demand for lithium is expected to grow by over 40 times by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency.

And Afghanistan “sits on a huge reserve of lithium that has not been tapped to this day,” said Guillaume Pitron, author of the book The Rare Metals War.

Afghanistan is also home to rare earths that are used in the clean energy sector: neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium.

The country’s untapped mineral riches have been estimated at $1 trillion by the USGS, though Afghan officials have put it three times as high.
...
China investment

While the Taliban’s takeover may deter foreign investors, one country that appears willing to do business with them is China.

The world’s second-biggest economy has said it was ready to have “friendly and cooperative” relations with Afghanistan after the Taliban entered Kabul.

The state-owned China Metallurgical Group Corporation won rights in 2007 to lease the giant Mes Aynak copper ore deposit for 30 years and extract 11.5 million tonnes of the commodity.
...
But Global Times cited a source at the group as saying that it would “consider reopening it after the situation is stabilized, and international recognition – including the Chinese government’s recognition of the Taliban regime – takes place.”
...
“Beijing’s lack of development at its major investment in the Mes Aynak copper mine demonstrates its willingness to exercise patience in pursuit of return on investment,” he wrote.

French expert Pitron said: “The Chinese don’t condition their business deals on democratic principles.”

Submitted by CB on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 11:46pm

It is doubtful that Biden

has the capacity to be a real part of any 'executive' decision in pulling military forces out of Afghanistan. He simply doesn't have the mental capacity. I believe he is just a patsy.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slrs29r5KW8]

We have to look at who/what is the true "power behind the throne". I'm looking at Hillary, Obama and Susan Rice as part of the core group. Harris is too 'goofy' but they will use her as a 'tool' to memorize her lines until the next election.

I am thinking Pompeo is going to run in '24 and, as things are now developing, he just might get elected. The US is now rudderless and the situation is degrading. America needs a new scapegoat to blame it's failed domestic economic/social policies and foreign debacles on.

[edit some typos]
China is a powerful enough country to serve this purpose especially if is backed by Russia. This is America's last chance to maintain global hegemony. China, which has already surpassed the country's GDP/PPP in 2016 is set to surpass gross GDP between 2025-2030. The US will fail trying to maintain hegemony.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beCMQ48Xzxs]

Submitted by WoodsDweller on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 7:53pm

Someday this war's gonna end

[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbXfEGVpqrM]

I'm giving Biden some credit here. If we had pulled out 18 years ago it would have been messy. If we stayed another 20 years it would be messy. The only clean way to walk away is with a competent central government in Kabul, and that was never going to happen.

So Biden sucked it up and said "OK, I'll take the hit. We're leaving now." Good for him.

If the central government had held together until August 31st this would have gone more smoothly. I think the only fault here is not realizing that it would fold not when the Americans left, but when they started to leave. But what plans could they have made? Relocating all the Americans to the airport ahead of time? Were none of them needed at their posts?

TBH I'm fairly happy with the way the evacuation is proceeding. Only the MIC, intelligence spooks, and their media propaganda tools are upset about it.

Margorie Taylor Greene -- FDA approval is conspiracy to distract from Afghanistan

No, ma'am, Afghanistan is a conspiracy to distract from the IPCC sixth assessment, which is a conspiracy to convince people there is still time to prevent extinction.

So good on Biden for finally cleaning up Bush's mess.

—

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 8:20pm

Power sharing agreement with the Taliban

Interesting stuff in this article and it has some interesting points in it.

https://www.islamtimes.org/en/article/949562/7-lies-about-afghanistan

Presidents Macron and Biden are playing dumb about the Taliban’s "takeover of Kabul". According to them, "Afghan political leaders have given up and fled the country. The Afghan army has collapsed, sometimes without even trying to fight. But how did they flee, if not with Western military aircraft? And the Afghan army did not "sometimes seek to fight", it was the other way round: it only "sometimes" sought to fight. The Afghan borders were among the most secure in the world. US soldiers recorded everyone’s identity with electronic means, including iris recognition.
The Afghan army consisted of 300,000 men - more than the French armies - who were very well trained by the US, France and others. It was over-equipped with sophisticated equipment. All its infantry had body armour and night vision systems. It had a very capable air force. In contrast, the Taliban has no more than 100,000 men, which is three times less. They are hooligans in sandals and armed with Kalashnikovs. They had no air force - they suddenly have one today with trained pilots from who knows where -. If there had been fighting, they would have been defeated for sure.

The regime change was decided under President Donald Trump. It was to take place on May 1st. But President Joe Biden changed that timetable to change history. He used the delay to set up military bases in the neighbouring countries and send at least 10,000 mercenaries. He has mobilised the Turkish army, which is already present in the country, but which no one is talking about. The latter has already recruited at least 2,000 jihadists living in Idleb (Syria) and continues to hire them.

OBL died in December 2001 and he could never have done dialysis from a cave over there. Bhutto told us that he’d been dead for a decade before she was killed. I remember that.

The biggest reason we were there for so long was so oil companies could do their thing, the CIA could take control of the poppy fields and so people involved there could make boatloads of money.
Just how much did that MOAB that Trump was excited to use bomb cost? Millions I’m betting.

I’m glad we are leaving, but concerned about where the next war of terror and money transfer is happening next. It could have done less haphazardly if they wanted it to I think.

—

Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Submitted by CB on Mon, 08/23/2021 - 10:07pm

Perhaps it will be Indochina redux?

@snoopydawg
Don't forget that Obama did that 'Pivot to China' that has set the gears in motion.

BTW, the CIA are working overtime to Color Revolution(TM) Myanmar and are also working on Malaysia.

Interesting stuff in this article and it has some interesting points in it. https://www.islamtimes.org/en/article/949562/7-lies-about-afghanistan Presidents Macron and Biden are playing dumb about the Taliban’s "takeover of Kabul". According to them, "Afghan political leaders have given up and fled the country. The Afghan army has collapsed, sometimes without even trying to fight. But how did they flee, if not with Western military aircraft? And the Afghan army did not "sometimes seek to fight", it was the other way round: it only "sometimes" sought to fight. The Afghan borders were among the most secure in the world. US soldiers recorded everyone’s identity with electronic means, including iris recognition. The Afghan army consisted of 300,000 men - more than the French armies - who were very well trained by the US, France and others. It was over-equipped with sophisticated equipment. All its infantry had body armour and night vision systems. It had a very capable air force. In contrast, the Taliban has no more than 100,000 men, which is three times less. They are hooligans in sandals and armed with Kalashnikovs. They had no air force - they suddenly have one today with trained pilots from who knows where -. If there had been fighting, they would have been defeated for sure. The regime change was decided under President Donald Trump. It was to take place on May 1st. But President Joe Biden changed that timetable to change history. He used the delay to set up military bases in the neighbouring countries and send at least 10,000 mercenaries. He has mobilised the Turkish army, which is already present in the country, but which no one is talking about. The latter has already recruited at least 2,000 jihadists living in Idleb (Syria) and continues to hire them. OBL died in December 2001 and he could never have done dialysis from a cave over there. Bhutto told us that he’d been dead for a decade before she was killed. I remember that. The biggest reason we were there for so long was so oil companies could do their thing, the CIA could take control of the poppy fields and so people involved there could make boatloads of money. Just how much did that MOAB that Trump was excited to use bomb cost? Millions I’m betting. I’m glad we are leaving, but concerned about where the next war of terror and money transfer is happening next. It could have done less haphazardly if they wanted it to I think.

Submitted by zed2 on Tue, 08/24/2021 - 2:37pm

Trade deals are set up so only the MIC jobs pay well+are safe.

As time sses this will get worse and worse, especially with the public sector because of new procurement policies. Especially in highly competitive service, where workers around the world are trapped in a race to the bottom on wages and benefits. Of course this is great for the LDC's firms that will broker these services, who are basically getting free money from others work. Also state and local governments and the Federal government which is excited about having all sorts of services done dirt cheap without having to pay to educate young people.They and their "unrealistic expectations" . Who needs higher education, why buy labor (educate people) when you can rent? But as of a few years ago they officially at least now have to pay a legal US wage. At least for now, although they are challenging this in the WTO which in anything involving services is the new "Supreme" court. The scope of GATS is basically "everything you cannot drop on your foot" So will the foreign workforce want to work for a fraction of what they are worth if we are dismantling the reson they wanted to move here, decent pay and a future. we're making the US more and more like the LDCs because the profits to the oilygarchs is huge when they pay workers almost nothing.

But we cant complain because its what we pay our own workers... They call this the wage parity issue.

GATS regulates everything you cant drop on your foot.
Everything, almost!

So many previously high paid fields, like teaching, nursing, public works and so on even energy and construction may fall off the map wage wise, or so is the idea. A huge global grab.

and no longer be worth doing, even if one could get them but not being a guest worker, you have too many rights as an American so they wont want you. You would just leave for another job as soon as you could find one.

BUT, suppose you are an American citizen and you cant find a job because you have too many rights and you get paid too much (Thats their take away, we make too much and it needs to fall) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vc_KeZ80cwh. You can disempower yourself by traveling to another country to become a migrant worker under GATS. And probably get paid what they get paid which might be a few yundred dollars a month. If that.

OR.. There is only one area that likely wont be outsourced or off-shored, soon, at least for now WARS! SECRECY.. That's why we keep having forever wars..

(although that might change because of a recent WTO Decision, they think countries are using national security to shirk their GATS obligations! Imagine that.

See: [Case here:https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds512_e.htm]

Yes, the only area thats not likely or even certain to be outsourced and offshored in the huge payback to the LDCS for shoring up our system, is national security. Which they can say just about anything is, if there is even a shred of justification. they are givenj a lot of latitude. I read.

Where will the in demand US jobs go?

The children of the oligarchs of the world need entry level jobs, once they graduate college, or they forget what they learned. So thanks.

I see lots of contractors in war but certain aspects of war and the surveillance state which is being built up at an incredible rate may remain domestic and high profit for the foreseeable future. For those with the right security clearances and knowledge.

Everything else is unlikely to remain here for much longer as global guest workers are incredibly cheap, compared to US workers with similar levels of education.And now that we have voted for the globalization and digital poorhouse type infrastructure, privatized infrastructure, digital payments, cashless, debut cards, RoboDebt and so on.. thats all been planned for >30 years and is supposed to be irreversible,

its almost a sure bet. They couldn't change this no matter what we do.

They just pretend they can to capture your votes.

Certainly voting could not change what we agreed to in 1994, now.. So now all jobs are heading to whoever bids the lowest. The country with the lowest wages and least regulations will get the jobs, more and more jobs. Jobs become bound to these setups if even a penny of tax money is spent subsidizing them. Roads too, will be subject to outsourcing and privatization if tax money goes into them. Water will be privatized and prepay meters will become the norm, so if you have a big debt you'll have to pay it back before drinking. Wter fountains in public buildings will have to be shut off if its thought they are cutting into sales.

The jobs will have to be privatized to remain in the US - or they will have to have all sorts of secret spying stuff built in making them national security jobs. Every bit of gear you have will be declared obsolete for one reason or another so you have to replace it with new spying on you stuff..
This is happening in the Internet industry, I'm sure. All your internet enabled products are selling info about you. Its a real cash cow for them.

Privatization. Making all that information the property of the data aggregators. So bye bye privacy.

In a world of extreme unpredictability all the risk has been shifted away from corporations and onto the taxpayers who will pay a high price if any reversal of the globalization liberalization occurs via [video:http://policyspace.xyz/ISDS]. Read Virginia Eubanks "Automating Inequality" book about the Digital Poorhouse which is caused by GATS. Shes interviewed by blogger Sam Seder in the embed.

How can people avoid this? Be Rich, be rich now. Virginia Eubanks points out the history and its clear that we are capable of an atrocities causing more mortality than the prisons of North Korea, the most inhuman places in the world today. In the recent past. Yes, we killed the poor. In large numbers, here in America.

And TISA is even worse.. Its GATS on steroids.

FYI people, we spent around 2 trillion dolllars building up Afghanistan while our own country is falling apart. And now they are hiding the fact that money we spend maintaining it from now on (well AGP/GPA started in, I think 2014) will probably go to other countries firms not ever create good jobs here. (unless we figure out how to automate the jobs almost completely away so we will win the bids. ) Our priorities seem to be totally wrong. What happens to the losers? the millions of Americans who lose jobs? Well, watch Ms. Eubanks interview with Sam Seder (the video embedded here). Keeping ion mind that this insanity is whats required by GATS because everything done or policy everything all measures has to be "minimally trade restrictive" which means it cant hurt corporations business profits. This is why they cant create new services if they reduce, say health insurance sales or foreclosures on mortgages incomes for banks, especially foreign banks. They see a huge windfall coming as Americans lose their homes to banks. Its almost inevitable. This will mean they want to get in on all that action. Also part of their payoff for the world trade agenda, as the PIIE puts it.

Submitted by CB on Tue, 08/24/2021 - 12:09am

Caitlin Johnstone reports on Afghanistan

OMG Afghanistan Is Invading Afghanistan: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

During the Trump years the media wept for the poor kids in cages and ignored all the bombs he was dropping. Now the media ignore the kids in cages and weep for the poor neglected bombs.

The US empire will literally invade a country so it can spend decades using the people who live there as target practice for its expensive new military technologies and then tell you to worry about motherfucking Cuba.

Sure is a crazy coincidence how government foreign policy decisions that would advance humanitarian interests always happen to align perfectly with government foreign policy decisions that would be extremely profitable for weapons manufacturers.
...

Submitted by Fishtroller 02 on Tue, 08/24/2021 - 10:17am

Biden is full of shit and just as culpable as everyone else

who ever had a hand in this whole "adventure".

Here is a classic statement by Joe just the other day.

"This is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history, and the only country in the world capable of projecting this much power on the far side of the world with this degree of precision is the United Sates of America."

And from his latest letter asking for money for the DNC...

We all know that life can knock us down. But in America, we always get up. And that's what we're doing, we're rising anew. Choosing hope over fear, truth over lies, and light over darkness. America is ready for takeoff. We are working again, dreaming again and discovering again. We are leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world. There is no quit in America."

I give him NO pass and NO sympathy on his handling of Afghanistan.

—

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 08/24/2021 - 11:22am

Something to ponder

Ponder the absurdity of a US military operation in which there have been zero US casualties being declared the greatest “catastrophe” of modern times

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 24, 2021

Submitted by zed2 on Tue, 08/24/2021 - 12:36pm

Joe certainly is doing what BIG Business wants isnt he?

He's their guy.

Delaware is one of the biggest secrecy jurisdictions in the world. Stay hidden from people who you have injured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TCTuFfe6bc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0nHETD1wxg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubB9zbq4W_I

Submitted by zed2 on Tue, 08/24/2021 - 1:09pm

Separating families started

Separating families started in the 90s.. I lived near a homeless shelter for families so I heard all the stories.

They were really going after the poor. A virtual war on them.. now we have this huge drought. The price of food is going to go sky high as water is not available to farm. Millions of farmers will lose their land to banks and billionaires who are buying land up.

Will we see starvation?

Thats what happens during global El Nino famines.