Afghanistan 'sliding towards collapse'
Source: The Guardian
The police and army in an increasingly violent Afghanistan will struggle to secure the country when foreign forces leave and the people face a corrupt presidential election in 2014, the Red Cross and a thinktank have warned.
At stake is the limited and fragile stability that has insulated Kabul and most other urban areas from more than a decade of escalating aggression since the US invasion. There are growing fears the country could face a full-blown civil war after Nato troops hand over security to the Afghan police and army, and leave.
"Time is running out," said Candace Rondeaux of the International Crisis Group thinktank, in a blunt report about the handover from coalition to Afghan troops. "Steps toward a stable transition must begin now to prevent a precipitous slide toward state collapse.
"Plagued by factionalism and corruption, Afghanistan is far from ready to assume responsibility for security when US and Nato forces withdraw in 2014."
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/08/afghanistan-collapse-red-cross
= new reply since forum marked as read
Is it any wonder that the country is divided?
There is no good reason to keep the Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other groups together.
Last edited Tue Oct 9, 2012, 02:43 AM - Edit history (4)
know what I mean????
.
.
It's ALL about fossil fuel and opium (from the poppies of course). Always has been and likely ALWAYS will be:
TAPI NATURAL GAS PIPELINE TREATY SIGNING (May 2012)
The Cabinet on May 17 gave its nod for signing of the gas sales and purchase agreement (GSPA) for the $7.6-billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project, which would ferry gas from Turkmenistan. Unlike the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project, TAPI has been supported by the US. A steering committee meeting of the member countries is expected to take place in Turkmenistan soon.
The import of gas is scheduled to commence after five years of the signing of GSPA. The GSPA contains all the contractual terms and conditions, including the gas price. The GSPA will be signed bilaterally between the members. Subsequent to the GSPA bids for building and operating the pipeline will be invited. Member countries of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline Project have agreed transit fee which is expected to be about 50 cents.
The transportation charges will be finalised when the project gets implemented by the consortium and all costs are known, sources privy to the development said. Transit fee is a crucial issue in such projects as invariably the country at the tail-end of the project ends up paying the maximum. However, sources said India and Pakistan will pay a uniform transit fee to Afghanistan. India would like the delivered price (landed cost) of Turkmenistan gas to be in the same range for all buyer countries – Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. India wanted that the Turkmenistan gas price should be more attractive than the current long-term contract price. Rough estimates show that the Turkmenistan gas may cost around $10/mmBtu.
The project envisages the construction of a 1,700-km-long pipeline, which would originate from Turkmenistan, travel through Afghanistan and Pakistan, before entering India. It would carry 90 mmscmd gas of which 14 mmscmd would be for Afghanistan and 38 mmscmd each for India and Pakistan.
Reference Link:
http://sunmediaonline.com/indiachronicle/jun12/infotech.html
And then there's karzai and his brother's opium business:
(Afghanistan/Pipelinestan is ALSO just a failed narco state )
It isn't like we will control Afghani oil any more than we control Iraqi oil. The real prize in Afghanistan is the precious metal reserves we uncovered a few years back. Billions if not trillions of dollars worth.
You hit the nail on the head with the poppies. We will see if the Taliban can eradicate most of it again. Unfortunately it will be at the price of all Afghans who "assisted" the occupying infidels. 
I fear for them, but it is time to bring our men and women home.
Last edited Tue Oct 9, 2012, 04:07 AM - Edit history (4)
Afghanistan is the pipeline and narco state that much fossil fuel pipeline is and will pass through on its way to India and other points. The pipeline network doesn't appear to be part of Afghanistan's infrastructure though. Afghanistan is to the pipeline network there as the U.S. is to the (proposed) Keystone Pipeline Network. There is no security for narco criminal/u.s. puppet karzai outside of Kabul. The country has no real sovereignty, and is essentially, a failed nation state under U.S. occupation. I've seen and read several stories about the (alleged) $1Trillion in precious gems, Rare Earth Metals, etc. and am still unconvinced that that is in fact...a fact. Saudi Arabia claims to have more potential income from precious gem riches than that from their oil reserves. I read about that, and have been told as much when I worked over there during the 1990s. So for now, Afghanistan is immediately important to the rest of the World as a fossil fuel pass-through country. Afghanistan's Mining Ministry also claims to have discovered a massive oil reserve within the country.
Thank you for reminding me of the USD$1T in valuable minerals claimed to be there as well. It reminds me of the fabled city of El Dorado that the Conquistadores sought as they hacked and slashed their way through the Americas searching for it. Sometimes it doesn't always turn out well for the Conquistadore....
1543: Pedro de Valdivia, a dreaded Conquistador, was captured by Native Americans and then executed by pouring molten gold down his throat to satisfy his thirst for treasures.
Looks like another age of conquest is underway under the guise of a phony war on terrorism. Wherever there is something of value that we want, terrorism just seems to sprout up...like spontaneous generation...
"If you draw a map that connects the dots between all of the bases that we have done since the Cold War ended, what You see is American military hegemony - covering 90 per cent of global energy resources."
-Karen Kwiatkowski
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oil_Factor
Reference Link:
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/oil_war.htm
Instead of a Papal Bull (decree by the Pope) this time, we go in chasing down terrorists and terrorist sympathizers. Now that the TAPI Natural Gas Pipeline Agreement has been signed (May 2012), it's time to give Afghanistan back to its people...sort of....It sure looks like deja vu all over again....or in the immortal words of two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner Major General Smedley Butler:
“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism."
Reference Link:
http://www.rationalrevolution.net/war/major_general_smedley_butler_usm.htm
-Thanks again for your post about the Afghani mineral find.
> 1543: Pedro de Valdivia, a dreaded Conquistador, was captured by Native Americans and
> then executed by pouring molten gold down his throat to satisfy his thirst for treasures.
The rest of your post was bang on point - especially the Smedley Butler quote - thanks!
