Why is the U.S. the world’s
numero uno criminal? The article below explains clearly why. After directly
butchering millions of people in Asia and Latin America, the U.S. Murder Inc.
is heavily engaged in North Africa and the Middle East. But to conceal its
bloodstained hands, the U.S. hides behind allies and bloodthirsty proxies to do
its filthy work.
The U.S. principal crime
partner in Iraq, Syria, Libya and now in Afghanistan is the head-chopping ISIS.
With the able assistance of the Saudis, Jordanians, Qataris, Turks, Israelis,
and British, the Americans have trained, armed, supplied, and paid salaries to
the ISIS head-cutters. The objective is for ISIS to create havoc in those
countries whose governments the U.S. wants replaced.
How confident are we all
these are true? Well, we have the word of the criminals themselves admitting
their crime – the leaked 2012 intelligence report of the U.S. Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA). The Washington criminals knowingly support their
criminal ISIS partners launching crime wave after crime wave. This should not
be surprising. After all, it takes one to love one.
The Afghans hardly
recovered from war since 1979. Yet now they have to contend with the ISIS
Bubonic Plague courtesy of democracy promoter and religious observer of
international law: U.S.A. The idea behind the latest crime spree is the
disintegration of those countries (China, Central Asia, Russia, Iran, India)
currently integrating under the auspices of SCO, BRICS, AIIB, and the New Silk
Roads. The American policy seems to be: If we cannot own the party, we will
spray you with anthrax. Nothing can be more criminal than that.
Allan T.
CounterPunch
August 12, 2015
Eric Draitser
The nature of the war in
Afghanistan has shifted dramatically in recent months. While the US and NATO
continue to be actively involved in the country – their strategic objectives
having changed very little since the Bush administration launched the war nearly
a decade and a half ago – the complexion of the battlefield, and the parties
actively engaged in the war, has changed significantly.
The emergence of ISIS in Afghanistan, along
with the impending withdrawal of US-NATO troops from the country, has driven
the Taliban into a marriage of convenience, if not an outright alliance, with
Iran. What seemed like an unfathomable scenario just a few years ago, Shia
Iran’s support for the hardline Sunni Taliban has become a reality due to the
changing circumstances of the war. Though it may be hard to believe, such an
alliance is now a critical element of the situation on the ground in
Afghanistan. But its significance is far larger than just shifting the balance
of power within the country.
Instead, Afghanistan is now
in many ways a proxy conflict between the US and its western and Gulf allies on
the one hand, and Iran and certain non-western countries, most notably China,
on the other. If the contours of the conflict might not be immediately
apparent, that is only because the western media, and all the alleged brainiacs
of the corporate think tanks, have failed to present the conflict in its true
context. The narrative of Afghanistan, to the extent that it’s discussed at
all, continues to be about terrorism and stability, nation-building and
“support.” But this is a fundamental misunderstanding and mischaracterization
of the current war, and the agenda driving it.
And what is this new and
dangerous agenda? It is about no less than the future of Afghanistan and
Central Asia. It is about the US and its allies clinging to the country, a key
foothold in the region, and wanting to find any pretext to maintain their presence.
It is about Iran and China positioning themselves in the country for the
inevitable moment of US withdrawal and the opening up of Afghanistan’s economy.
At the most basic level, it is about access and influence. And, as usual in
this part of the world, terrorism and extremism are the most potent weapons.
The New Afghan War: Enter ISIS
However, within a few
weeks, ISIS militants committed a mass beheading in the
strategically vital Ghazni province, an important region of the country that
lies on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. This incident officially put ISIS on the
map in Afghanistan, and marked a significant sea change in the nature of the
conflict there.
While the western media was
replete with stories of ISIS and Taliban factions fighting together under the
Islamic State’s banner, it has become clear since then that, rather than a
collaboration between the groups, there has simply been a steady migration of
fighters from the Taliban to ISIS which, if the stories are to be believed,
pays much better. In fact, the last few months have demonstrated that, there is
in fact competition between the two, and that Taliban and ISIS groups have
fought each other in very intense battles. As Abdul Hai Akhondzada, deputy head
of the Afghan parliament’s national security commission told Deutsche Welle in June:
Local residents and
security officials confirmed that “Islamic State” (IS) fighters killed between
10 and 15 Taliban members in Nangarhar province…The Taliban have been fighting
for a long period of time in Afghanistan and they see their position threatened
by the emergence of IS. Of course, they won’t give up easily… While IS is
fighting to increase its presence in the whole region – not only Afghanistan –
the Taliban are fighting to overthrow the Afghan government.
Such skirmishes have now
become a regular occurrence, pointing to a growing war between ISIS and Taliban
factions. Increasingly, the war is being transformed from one waged by the
Taliban against the Kabul government and its US and NATO patrons, into a war
with competing groups fighting each other for supremacy on the battlefield and
in the political life of the country.
But of course, the true
nature of the conflict can only be understood through an examination of the key
interests backing each side. And it is here where the shadowy world of terror
factions and proxy armies are brought into the light of day.
It is now no secret that
ISIS is an asset of western intelligence agencies and governments. The group
has been directly sponsored and facilitated and/or allowed to develop
unhindered in order to serve a useful purpose in Syria and Iraq. As the now infamous secret 2012 US Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) document obtained by
Judicial Watch revealed, the US has knowingly promoted the spread of the
Islamic State since at least 2012 in order to use it as a weapon against the
Assad government. The document noted that, “… there is the possibility of establishing a
declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria…and this is
exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate
the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia
expansion (Iraq and Iran).”
Moreover, intelligence
agencies such as Turkish intelligence agency (MIT) have been facilitating ISIS militants crossing the border
into Syria, as well as supporting an international network of
terrorists to as far away as the Xinjiang province of China. Even US
Vice President Joe Biden has noted that:
Our allies in the region
were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks were great friends… [and] the
Saudis, the Emirates, etcetera. What were they doing?…They poured hundreds of
millions of dollars and tens of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight
against Assad — except that the people who were being supplied, [they] were
al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis who were coming
from other parts of the world.
Given all of this
information, it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that ISIS is to a large degree an
asset of the US and its western allies. As if one needed further confirmation
of this point, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, himself no stranger to the
machination of US intelligence, bluntly declared just last month
that ISIS could not possibly have expanded into Afghanistan “without a
foreign hand, without foreign backing.”
In Syria and Iraq, ISIS has essentially done the dirty work for the US
and its Gulf and Israeli and Turkish allies. In Libya, ISIS has become a
dominant terrorist force led by a documented US asset. In
Yemen, ISIS has gained a foothold and carried out terrorist actions in
support of the Saudi – and by extension, US – mission against the Shia Houthi
rebels and their allies. Taken in total then, ISIS has proven very effective in
furthering the US-NATO-GCC-Israel agenda. So too in Afghanistan.
Iran and Taliban Ally to Counter ISIS and Its Patrons
And it is for this reason
that the Taliban has turned to Iran for support. Though Tehran has officially
denied providing any weapons or financial support to the Taliban, sources in
the region have confirmed that indeed such support is given. A senior Afghan
government official speaking to the Wall Street Journal explained
succinctly that, “At the beginning Iran was supporting [the] Taliban
financially. But now they are training and equipping them, too.” Afghan
security officials have claimed that Iran is hosting Taliban militants at
training camps in the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, and Zahedan, and in the
province of Kerman. If true, it means that the level of cooperation between the
two has moved to a whole new level.
While one might want to
maintain some skepticism about all the claims made by US and Afghan officials
regarding Iranian support for the Taliban, the alliance makes good strategic
sense for Tehran. As Iran fights against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, so too must it
check the spread of this terror group in neighboring Afghanistan.
Moreover, Iran understands
that ISIS is, in effect, an arm of the power projection of its regional rivals
Turkey and Saudi Arabia, both of whom have been primary instigators of the war
in Syria and the attempt to break the alliance of Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah.
Therefore, from the Iranian perspective, the Taliban’s war against ISIS in
Afghanistan is essentially a new theater in the larger war against ISIS and its
backers.
Additionally, there is
still another important political rationale behind Tehran’s overtures to the
Taliban: leverage and access. Iran is preparing for the impending departure of
US-NATO forces from Afghanistan, and it desperately wants to make sure it has
friends in the new government which will likely include some key members of the
Taliban in important positions. And the recent moves by the Taliban to engage in peace talks only further
this point; Iran wants to be part of a peace deal which could unite the
non-ISIS forces in Afghanistan thereby giving Tehran both access and, most
importantly, influence over the decision-making apparatus in an independent Afghanistan.
China and the New Afghanistan
Iran certainly has partners
in the charm offensive toward the Taliban, most notably China. The last few
months have seen a flurry of rumors that China has
played host to a Taliban delegation interested in engaging in substantive peace
talks with the Kabul government, a move which threatens to fundamentally alter
the balance of power in Afghanistan and the region. Assuming the reports are
true – by all indications they are – China is positioning itself to become the
single most important player in a post-occupation Afghanistan.
Earlier this month in fact,
an Afghan delegation from Kabul met with Taliban representatives
in Islamabad, Pakistan to begin the dialogue process. It is a virtual certainty
that such talks would never have taken place had the Chinese not intervened and
opened direct channels of communication with the Taliban earlier this year. In
this way, Beijing has become the key intermediary in the peace process in
Afghanistan, a development which is likely to cause a fair amount of
consternation in Washington. China has a multitude of reasons for pushing so
hard for this dialogue process.
First and foremost, China
sees in Afghanistan one of the main keys to its entire regional, and indeed
global, strategy, from the New Silk Roads to the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization. Sitting in the middle of the strategically critical Central Asia
region, Afghanistan represents for China both a bridge to its partner,
Pakistan, and the key to the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia. Moreover,
it represents a critical node in the potential pipeline networks, as well as
trading routes.
Beijing also intends to be
a major player in the exploitation of the mineral wealth of Afghanistan. The US
Geological Survey has estimated that the mineral wealth of Afghanistan is worth
roughly $1 trillion, making it some
of the most prized land in the world. Iron, copper, cobalt, gold, lithium, and
many other minerals are to be found just underneath the surface of Afghanistan;
clearly an enticing prospect for China. Indeed, China has already heavily
invested in copper mining concessions among others.
It is in this arena where
China and its longtime rival India have come into conflict, as Delhi has also
been a major player competing for key mining concessions in Afghanistan,
including the vast iron ore deposits. Iran also figures into this question as
its port of Chabahar, seen as an important prize for both India and China, is
the likely destination for the iron ore extracted from Afghanistan, especially
if it is to be shipped to India.
Not to be overlooked of
course is the security issue. China’s ongoing struggle against Islamic
extremism in Xinjiang has led to fears in Beijing that any economic plans could
be jeopardized by terrorism-related instability. Xinjiang has seen a number of
deadly terrorist attacks in the last eighteen months, including the heinous
drive-by bombings that killed dozens
and injured over 100 people in May 2014, the mass stabbings and bombings
of November 2014, and the deadly attack by Uighur terrorists
on a traffic checkpoint just last month which left 18 people dead.
And it is here where all
these issues converge. China needs Iran both for economic and counter-terrorism
reasons. Beijing wants to see Iran act as the driving force in the battle
against ISIS terrorism in Afghanistan, as well as in the Middle East, in order
to destroy the Saudi-backed and Turkey-backed terror networks that support the Uighur extremists.
China also wants to be an active player in Afghanistan in order to both
buttress its own national security and to instigate itself as the central
economic force in the region. The strategic imperatives couldn’t be clearer.
Seen in this way,
Afghanistan is at the very heart of both China’s and Iran’s regional plans. And
this fact, more than any other, explains exactly the purpose that ISIS serves
in Afghanistan. From the
perspective of Washington, nothing could serve US imperial ambitions more
effectively than a destabilization of Afghanistan both as justification for
continued occupation, and to block Chinese penetration.
So, once again, we see ISIS
as the convenient tool of western power projection. No doubt strategic planners
in Tehran and Beijing see it too. The question is: will they be able to stop
it?
This piece first appeared
at New Eastern Outlook.
Eric Draitser is the founder of StopImperialism.org and host of CounterPunch Radio. He is an independent
geopolitical analyst based in New York City. You can reach him at
ericdraitser@gmail.com.
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