Washington plots, Kabul burns, Moscow crawls

by Jared Israel*

Colin Powell flew into Pakistan and gave a press conference several days 
ago. US fighter-bombers have been flying into Afghanistan all week.

The New York Times reported (17/10/01):

"American pilots have for the first time been free to choose their own 
targets and fire at will within specific zones around Taliban strongholds 
in Afghanistan".

While President Bush was exhorting school children to:

"go out and mow a lawn or do somebody a favor to earn a dollar' to help the 
children of Afghanistan, and told them to send it directly to the White 
House to be turned over to a Red Cross fund", (Washington Post, 
17/10/01) US planes were bombing the Red Cross in Afghanistan:

"US forces did not know that the ICRC was using one or more of the 
warehouses", a Pentagon statement said. The Red Cross said each of five 
warehouses in its compound was marked on the roof with a large red cross. 
The raids occurred in daylight, the agency said." (NY Times, 
17/10/01)

If clearly marked Red Cross buildings are not safe in the bright light of 
day, then any structure, animal or person, with the bad luck to be situated 
in a 'fire at will' zone may be blown to pieces.

And we will never hear about most such crimes because the US military is 
enforcing tight media control and most of the victims won't have the public 
relations clout of the International Red Cross. If a child screams in pain 
but you are not there to hear it, is the child actually wounded?

Why isn't this terrorism? Because the US government says it's not.

According to Washington, which has yet to present evidence that the WTC 
horror was in fact masterminded from Afghanistan, it has no choice but to 
bomb.

Government officials and the media say: "Bin Laden's terrorists are 
attacking us. We have no choice but to wage 'infinite war' to root out such 
terrorism."

The proof lies in one word: Pakistan. Pakistan is a key supporting player 
in the infinite war, supposedly against terrorism.

When Secretary of State Colin Powell held a joint press conference in 
Islamabad with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, military dictator of Pakistan the 
New York Times reported (16/10/01):

"The United States and Pakistan agreed today to work urgently for the 
creation of a new, broad-based government in Afghanistan that both sides 
said could include moderate elements of the Taliban movement ...

"Secretary Powell said he had come to tell Pakistan that the United States 
— long chastised here as having abandoned its cold war ally following the 
collapse of the Soviet Union — was returning "to demonstrate our enduring 
commitment" to "a great Muslim nation ... 

"The high praise heaped on Pakistan provided a curious sight: an American 
Secretary of State standing next to a general in uniform who seized power 
in a military coup, and lauding his achievements. 

"The American Secretary's visit left no doubt that a far more robust 
American military and diplomatic initiative lies ahead in southern Asia, 
one that will require large expenditures, a re-examination of sanctions and 
other restrictive policies and, in general, a much deeper involvement in 
the region than President Bush anticipated when he came to office nine 
months ago."

Despite the reference to Washington having 'abandoned' Pakistan after the 
cold war, there is overwhelming evidence that Washington has actively 
supported the efforts of Pakistani intelligence, which has guided the 
Taliban.

The bombing of Afghanistan is monstrous, not least of all because it is 
based on a lie.

Washington and Britain have not launched a war against terrorism. This war 
brings together the sponsors of terrorists in Afghanistan, the Balkans, the 
US, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The true goal is to establish a powerful US 
presence in Central and Southern Asia.

They are not there to knock out bin Laden. They are not there to destroy 
the Taliban. They are bombing Afghanistan to prepare the locals to have a 
proper attitude toward US domination and to send a message to any 
independent-minded leaders in Iran, India, China and especially the former 
Soviet Republics, that those who defy the US will get bombed.

The end goal is to set up a US-and-British-installed-and-dominated Afghan 
government. Pakistan will do a lot of the nitty-gritty dominating of these 
"independents", under CIA and State Department direction.

The independent government will approve a powerful US military presence, 
probably including a massive military base or bases, similar to Bondsteel 
in Kosovo.

We have been sold a vicious little war, my friends. The terrorists will not 
be eliminated. The talk of keeping 'moderate Taliban' in the government is 
the tip-off. A 'moderate Taliban' is one who does what the US tells him to 
do.

Washington plans to combine some of these moderates with moderate 
muhajedeen (i.e., terrorists) from the Northern Alliance, with the aim of 
creating a unified moderate terrorist apparatus modeled after the Kosovo 
Liberation Army (KLA).

This new terrorist apparatus will be used to attack the countries around 
Afghanistan, and to attack Russia.

And just as Washington coupled a KLA terrorist assault on Macedonia with 
military 'aid' to that besieged state, so the attack from Afghanistan will 
be coupled — as it has already been coupled — with all forms of aid, 
military and otherwise, to the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia.

Washington likes to control both the attack and the victim's response, the 
better to determine the outcome of the struggle.

The goal of all this is not small-time economic exploitation, as many on 
the Left think.

Washington does not need to decimate Central Asia in order to control this 
or that natural resource, for example oil deposits, or to put through a 
pipeline or some other economic project.

Washington is playing for vastly bigger stakes. The goals are:

1) to reduce the nations of the former Soviet Union to US-controlled 
territories, helpless to protect any of their treasures, whether oil or 
gold or forests or land or people or natural gas and,

2) to eliminate the potential threat that these former Soviet states might 
get together as a powerful political and military force and challenge 
Washington's ability to do the same thing all over the world.

A Russian reader informs us that politicians allied with president Putin 
have popularised a new slogan in Russia: "Better the US in Afghanistan than 
the Taliban in Tartarstan." 

This is consistent with Putin's role that has been to avoid challenging 
Washington by telling his people the truth.

He has accepted Washington's amazing self-definition as champion of the war 
on terror, even though everyone in Russia knows Washington has sponsored 
and continues to sponsor terrorist forces in the Balkans and covertly 
supports them in Chechnya and that it has openly threatened the former 
Soviet Republic of Belarus with a campaign of destabilisation and terror.

Moreover, Putin has not challenged Washington's version of the actual 
scenario on September 11, even though the head of the Russian Air Force, 
Gen. Anatoli Kornukov, rejects Washington's claim that the US Air Force 
could not intercept any of the hijacked planes.

Is Putin hopelessly misled? Or is he just a traitor?

Whatever Putin's intentions, his actual behavior betrays not only Russia 
but the whole world, because everyone, including the American people, needs 
Russia to rally nations to resist Washington's attempt to transform the 
planet, as it has transformed the Balkans.

The truth is, if the US takes over Afghanistan then it will not be long 
before the muhajedeen are in Tartarstan. And from there?

* * *

*Jared Israel is a journalist with Emperor's Clothes.

The URL for this article is:

http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/burns.htm