U.S. Foreign Policy Part II: Afghanistan

Out of the tens of thousands of Afghans that have been killed, none were linked with 9/11.  Afghanistan itself is not responsible for 9/11.  That’s a quite shocking realization.  When we fathom that The U.S. government is spending billions of tax payers dollars a year, killing ten of thousands of people, some who are innocent civilians, and we weren’t quite sure if the people responsible were even staying there.  Yea, not to worry it’s just some peasant Afghan family that we unintentionally killed, surely our rights to national security have priority over their lives.

If one had to struggle to consider that there may be other reasons the U.S sent troops to Afghanistan, here is some interesting information that may explain why.   

Afghanistan is next door to the Caspian Sea a central region of Asia which reportedly has the 2nd largest proven resources of petroleum and natural gas.  It is well situated to supply much of south Asia, pipelines that can by-pass those not-yet clients Iran & Russia.

TAPI- (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) was an oil deal that was drafted when a Californian based company called Unocal Corporation held talks with the Taliban Government.  The Clinton Administration was totally aware of the brutality of the Taliban Regime but was only too willing to talk business.  Taliban officials even made trips to Washington for discussions, testifying before the House Sub-Committee.   When Talks stalled in July 2001, the Bush administration threatened the Taliban with military reprisals , if the government did not go with US demands.  The talks finally broke down the following month, a  month before 9/11.

From a European Governmental perspective.  The former German President at the time Horst Koehler resigned after stating Germany was fighting in Afghanistan for Economic reasons.  Speaking to German troops in Afghanistan he said,

‘Germany depends on exports and free trade and must be prepared to use Military force’.  The country he said ‘ had to act to protect its own personal interests.’

The U.S. argue that enemy insurgents know when American troops are going to attack using innocent people as shields.  Perhaps they rush innocent civilians to the spot before the bomb is dropped. Or its a place where they live and the enemy rushes its own people to a building so they can die with them.  If one was to think logically,  maybe members of Al-Queada live there, who have children and a wife and the bombs are being casually dropped there.  The US has stated that there have been unintended deaths, however if you continue to drop large explosives in populated areas over and over again from Vietnam to Iraq, at what point does the statement Unintended, still hold weight.

Criticism also exists of the U.S. Army building military establishments near civilian areas putting innocent life’s at risk.

The LIBERATION OF WOMEN ARGUEMENT has no creditability, because in the 1980s the US government played an indispensable role in overthrowing a secular progressive government.

Under the governance of the secular government in Afghanistan, women had complete freedom of who the chose to marry, fixed minimum age of marriage was 16 for women 18 for men.  In addition there were extensive literacy programs especially for women- putting girls and boys in the same classroom- giving women a more active role in politics.

The overthrow of the Government brought to power the Islamic Fundamentalist Regime soon in the hands of the awful Taliban.  These strategic movements were ones that were in favour of the U.S. government as for them, replacing the secular government with the Taliban aided the U.S’s values, in the cold war against the Soviet Union.