The Islamic Peace Studies Initiative
4 hours ago
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
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According to the Taliban’s web page, it appears to be “been there, done that” when it comes to bribing “moderate” Talibs to get them to switch sides, as is being touted by the U.S.
It didn’t take long for the Tailban’s English-language web page to share this tidbit (PDF version at non-terrorist page here), attributed to highish-up Taliban commander (“Deputy-Amir of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” according to the statement) Mullah Brader Akhund, calling the idea:
an old weapon that has failed already. The British invaders used it in the 19th century but failed; the former Soviet Union used it, it failed too. The Afghan Mujahid people and the Mujahideen at the front lines have vast experiences of the past three decades in this regard and know all tactics used by the enemy.And the idea of “moderate Taliban”? The statement straightens us out on THAT score:
The terms of moderate (Taliban) and extremists are American-invented terms, which have no physical existence.[In Full]
Missile that killed Afghan civilians not faulty: NATOThis is an indication that, for the military-industrial complex in the US it's more important to convince potential purchasers of Western manufactured weapons systems (The only high $$$ manufacturing left in the US, except the up-and-coming UAV industry) that they perform to spec and are worth buying... ...than the importance of putting on any humanistic pretense in the US government's PR about our dirty war on Afghanistan to the international community.
LONDON (Reuters) - NATO forces in Afghanistan have resumed using a type of rocket that killed 12 civilians after concluding that the missile hit its intended target and did not veer off course, a NATO commander said on Tuesday. [Source, Reuters]
“Little America” in Afghanistan: Is the US Repeating a Failed 1950’s Experiment in Social Engineering?
Last October, Adam Curtis posted an article on the BBC website that provided a detailed look at the forgotten history of US development efforts in Helmand province. As the NATO offensive heads into its second day there, it is useful to compare the current efforts to what transpired fifty years ago.
Here is how Curtis opens the piece:
When you look at footage of the fighting in Helmand today everyone assumes it is being played out against an ancient background of villages and fields built over the centuries.As Curtis works his way through the remarkable history, it is clear that the US attempts at development in Afghanistan that began in the 1950’s were doomed from the start, but political forces kept them in operation:
This is not true.
If you look beyond the soldiers, and into the distance, what you are really seeing are the ruins of one of the biggest technological projects the United States has ever undertaken.
Its aim was to use science to try and change the course of history and produce a modern utopia in Afghanistan. The city of Lashkar Gah was built by the Americans as a model planned city, and the hundreds of miles of canals that the Taliban now hide in were constructed by the same company that built the San Francisco Bay Bridge and Cape Canaveral.
"But almost immediately things started to go wrong. In 1949 the first, small diversion dam was built. But it raised the level of the water table in the whole area. And that brought salt to the surface.Curtis also provides a photo of a page from the Morrison Knudsen (the engineering firm that built many of the projects) magazine touting "Little America" in Afghanistan. [In Full]
The American engineers realised this meant that the whole project probably wouldn’t work. But at that very moment President Truman made a speech promising to give aid to poor countries. It was the start of the Cold War and Truman was going to use development projects and American money to stop countries from becoming communist.
The Japanese government has said they will have Captain Peter Bethune of New Zealand taken to Japan to be tried on unknown charges in a Japanese court.The initial report on the boarding is here
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“Captain Peter Bethune’s $3 million dollar vessel the Ady Gil was rammed, sunk and destroyed by the Captain of the Shonan Maru #2. The incident injured one of the six crewmembers and could have killed all six.” Said Captain Paul Watson. “Captain Bethune was entirely in his rights to confront the man who almost killed him and destroyed his ship. And now this same Japanese captain who destroyed a ship almost killing its crew is intent on bringing Captain Bethune back to Japan as his captive. [In Full]
Speaking of scams, Neoconservative Douglas Feith is teaching at Georgetown. So in the run up to the 2003 war, I’m told, Douglas Feith was challenged by a State Department official who knows the Middle East about what in the world the US would do in Iraq once it won the war.Da Buffalo had an epiphany shortly thereafter:
State Dept. Official: “Doug, after the smoke clears, what is the plan?”
Feith: “Think of Iraq as being like a computer. And think of Saddam as like a processor. We just take out the old processor, and put in a new one–Chalabi.”
State Dept. Official: “Put in a new processor?”
Feith: “Yes! It will all be over in 6 weeks.”
State Dept. Official: “You mean six months.”
Feith: “No, six weeks. You’ll see.”
State Dept. Official: “Doug.”
Feith: “Yes?”
State Dept. Official: “You’re smoking crack, Doug.”
Feith: “Oh, so you’re disloyal to the President, are you?” [Source]
“I elaborated a few days back about an anecdotal Doug Feith’s quip that it (the Iraq invasion) would be over in a matter of weeks, not to worry. I commented that it wasn’t some crack fantasy… it sounded like they had people inside Saddam Hussein’s baathist regime, not just in the early 60s as has been documented as “penetrated”, but just before we invaded Iraq as well.
Professor Cole’s anecdote re-iterated:
[Redacted]
This just showed up @ the National Security Archive, Georgetown University:
National Security Archive Update, February 14, 2007It wasn’t the battle plans, tactics, and strategy that fell apart on them, the WHOLE DANG THING fell apart on them because they were deluded enough to think that a ‘herd of Chalabis’ could just… take… over… and run the show. [Source]
TOP SECRET POLO STEP
Iraq War Plan Assumed Only 5,000 U.S. Troops Still There by December 2006
For more information contact:
Thomas Blanton/Joyce Battle - 202/XXX-XXXX
http://www.nsarchive.org
[…]
“First, they assumed that a provisional government would be in place by ‘D-Day’, then that the Iraqis would stay in their garrisons and be reliable partners, and finally that the post-hostilities phase would be a matter of mere ‘months’. ”
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