Afghanistan – War, Waste and Genocide
The Cold War and Afghanistan
I read in the The Wall Street Journal on July 13, 2010 that the United States spent more than one hundred million dollars to upgrade a power plant in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan.
This is somewhat misleading. Rebuilt an American made power plant might have been more to the point.
Lashkar Gah is located at the historic site of the city of Bost. The city is in the southern part of modern Afghanistan and is the capital of Helmand Province.
I use the word ‘modern’ because the borders of Afghanistan have been changed several times during its history - the most recent change taking place in 1947 when Pakistan was formed following pressure from the forced exchange of millions of Muslim and Hindu Indians after India was granted its independence.
Part of Afghanistan was incorporated because the administering authorities from the British Foreign Office and Pakistani government representatives were not sure how much land they would need to accommodate the flood of fleeing Muslims from India’s western provinces.
As it turned out the northwestern provinces of new territory of Pakistan were already inhabited by Afghans. This area is now referred to as the ‘Tribal Areas’of Pakistan but historically (from the mid-twentieth century) that area was part of Afghanistan.
These Afghans living in the northwestern part of Pakistan were the ones referred to when Pakistan asked for assistance from the Americans with the ‘Afghan’ problem. They claimed that millions of refugees were pouring into Pakistan from Afghanistan as a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In point of fact many of these ‘refugees’ that the Pakistani government wished to repatriate to Afghanistan were in their homelands already. Even though the Soviets caused a major disruption in Afghanistan the breadth of the problem seemed to be overblown by the political machinations and territorial plans of the Pakistani Muslim government.
When the refugees from India had arrived in Pakistan to escape the religious killings in India (and as the Hindus in Pakistan fled to India to escape the religious killings in Pakistan) they clustered mostly in the southwestern portion and along the coast of the new country. The western portion of Pakistan and most of the coastline was at one time the coastline of Afghanistan. This too was taken away ‘officially’ by the departing British bureaucrats as they withdrew their administration after triggering the mass migrations between Pakistan and India in a misguided attempt to bring order.
This, of course, solved the problem of Soviet Russia getting a warm water port through Afghanistan by direct invasion from the north. The Pakistanis were then combined with the Afghanis to form a blockade of nations to further Russian expansion to the south which would have put them in an advantageous position to spring into the Middle East or spread their influence there.
The city we are discussing, Lashkar Gah, is situated between the Helmand and Arghandab rivers and as such is strategically and economically important.
Kandahar to the east, Zaranj to the west, and Herat to the north-west are all connected to Lashkar Gah by highway.
It is an arid and desolate location.
Even so, large irrigated farms exists around the Helmand and Arghandab rivers.
The location has been settled and abandoned many times in human history. The present city of Lashkar Gah was built as a headquarters for American engineers working on the Helmand Valley Authority (HVA) irrigation project in the 1950s, modeled after the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the United States. Lashkar Gah was built using American designs, with broad tree-lined streets and brick houses with no walls separating them from the street. In the wake of the Soviet invasion and the long Afghan civil war, it is reported that the trees were mostly destroyed and traditional walls went up.
Average yearly rainfall in the area is about four inches. Temperatures range from 18 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity is low, and strong dry winds frequently cover the western part of the valley. Forty percent of the country's total water resources flow through the valley. The obstacle against agricultural development in the Helmand Valley was not the availability of water but a lack of irrigation to get the water from the rivers to the fields.
Afghans made a feeble attempt in 1910 to expand agriculture in the valley when a portion of the ancient irrigation canals were reconstructed. The first functional canals were operating by 1914.
Foreign assistance arrived in the 1930s when the canal project was expanded with German and Japanese assistance. The Germans provided engineering assistance. The Japanese, through the years of 1937 to 1941, dug about nine miles of canals near Boghra. Another 16 miles of canals were put in place between the years of 1941 to1946 by Afghan contractors.
With this historical perspective we can see why it was so easy for the United States to coax Japan and Germany into sending armed troops into the area. They have had interests there for some time – as has the United States.
The point being here is that Afghanistan had been a pawn of the British Empire in the 19th Century and into the 20th Century and then became a pawn during World War II and during the Cold War the country took on its final form – still a pawn – and still dominated by outside forces. In the last case it was the United States.
As Vietnam escalated, however, American interest in Afghanistan dwindled away as it seemed that the Soviets had firmed up their southern borders and would not attempt to approach the Middle East as nations like Iraq and Iran had allied themselves to the United States and appeared to be ready militarily to oppose Soviet expansion. However, Iran fell to religious terrorists and shortly thereafter the Soviets pushed into Afghanistan.
Then led the series of events that culminated in Texas Representative Charlie Wilson’s interference in the situation which then, coupled with economic and military moves by a reckless President Reagan led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the ensuing years, however, it was little noticed that individuals most responsible for the Holy War in Afghanistan were also wildly anti-American and anti-Western in general. It was from the core group of those men that Osama Bin Laden rose up and along with his Saudi Arabian compatriots arranged a successful terror attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.
Referring back to the recent history of Afghanistan it was during World War II that the English from their position in India to the East and the Russians to the North directed the Afghan government to expel all German, Italian and Japanese nationals or face attack and invasion. This phase of the Helmand project was immediately abandoned. Decay began to set in as trade and assistance was removed.
The pain and suffering this caused throughout the region was nearly as devastating as a direct attack by bomb, bullet and bayonet could have been. Financial arrangements, business efforts and the simple process of providing food to the populace was slowed considerably. The beginning of modernization of the country was brought to a screeching halt. The reverberations of this aggression have echoed through the decades with the result facing us now.
The educated and less traditional leaders in the country at the time were disgraced. The traditional, ignorant, religious factions began at this time to assert themselves militarily. Even though foreign technical aid had ceased the flow of modern weapons into the region had only just begun. English profiteers moved guns and ammunition into the area in ever increasing amounts.
What amounted to a sacking of the country then ensued as rights to land, precious objects and other items were traded in lopsided agreements with English traders and Russian operatives. Both the English and Russians were hungry for money, metal and mayhem. The region was destabilized almost as quickly as it had started to organize itself into a functional and independent government.
It was this weakness and confusion that later allowed the English to arbitrarily lay the outline of Pakistan and carve out nearly one-third of Afghanistan and hand it over to the Muslim Indians from the East as a peace offering.
At the conclusion of World War II in 1945 arrangements were made between the faltering Afghan government and Morrison-Knudsen, an American company based in Boise, Idaho.
This was the massive Helmand irrigation project. Beginning in 1945 the activity continued into the 1970s. It created one of the most extensive farming zones in southern Afghanistan. It opened up many thousands of acres of desert to cultivation and habitation.
The project focused on three large canals: the Boghra, Shamalan, and Darweshan. The responsibility for maintaining the canals was given to the Helmand Arghandab Valley Authority (HAVA), which was a semi-independent government agency whose authority rivaled that of the provincial governors.
At present this area in Helmand is the deadliest province for U.S.-led coalition troops. The area is where more than a quarter of total fatalities in the nine years of the war have occurred.
The irrigation project and the repairs going on at the Lashkar Gah power plant are helping to irrigate thousands of acres of fields used for poppy production. So the money being spent to generate electricity for remote villagers in Afghanistan is causing a surge in poppy production which is used to make opium. Opium is used to manufacture heroin.
American and coalition soldiers are dying to ensure that illegal trade in heroin not only continues but flourishes and expands.
Morrison-Knudsen originated in Idaho's Boise Valley in the early 20th century when a two named Morris Hans Knudsen and Harry W. Morrison. They joined together to reap the profits offered by the National Reclamation Act of 1902. The United States government used cash subsidies to irrigate the deserts of Idaho and other Western regions.
Morris Hans Knudsen was Danish.
He had moved to Idaho in 1905 and became well known for his skill using horses and scrapers to move dirt. Harry W. Morrison was born in Illinois and moved to Idaho in 1904 and continued as a concrete superintendent for government water reclamation projects.
1912 saw Harry W. Morrison and Morris Hans Knudsen working together on their first job. Work at a pumping station. Their early work did not make much money.
Then they starting working on dams. In 1914 they worked on the Three-Mile Falls Dam located in Oregon.
That work established their organization as the ’go-to’ group for dams. That is where the company continued to make most of its money during its long operation. They have reportedly built more than 150 dams including the Brownleeon the Snake River for Idaho Power; the Karadj, near Teheran, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the San Luis Dam in California and a couple of large dams in Montana.
Morrison-Knudsen worked on the construction of two diversion dams, one on the Helmand River and the other on its chief tributary, the Arghandab River. The worked to enlarge an irrigation canal and worked on the construction of roads in the valley.
In 1946 an agreement was reached, but it is not clear with who, which resulted in the formation of Morrison-Knudsen Afghanistan Inc. (MKA). The headquarters of that company were in San Francisco.
The MKA Helmand Valley Project (also referred to as the HVP Project) was an important turn of events in the history of modern Afghanistan.
In 1996, a company called the Washington Group acquired Morrison-Knudsen Co. of Boise. Morrison-Knudsen, besides working on the projects listed also was one of the consortium of firms that built the Hoover Dam and the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and many other large projects of American infrastructure.
Morrison-Knudsen was also involved in the construction of rail projects such as the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) extension and reportedly built 80 of the C2 passenger cars for BART. Each car can carry up to 200 passengers in a ‘crush’ load They also built the single track Apoera-Bakhuys railway in Suriname between the years of 1976 and 1977.
At one point the company built other rail passenger cars and light rail and locomotives.
Morrison-Knudsen’s origins date to 1905 when Harry Morrison met Morris Knudsen when working on the construction of the New York Irrigation Canal in southwestern Idaho.
Morrison was a 27 year-old concrete superintendent for the Reclamation Service and Knudsen was around fifty and a Nebraska farmer (of Danish nationality as has been noted) who ran a team of horses and a fresno scraper. A fresno scraper is the horse drawn precursor to modern earth moving machines – commonly referred to as road graders.
They worked first together was in 1912 on a pump plant in Grand View where they reportedly lost money but gained experience. For several years following they dug irrigation canals, expanded logging roads and built railway sections. They incorporated in 1923.
During World War II Morrison-Knudsen became a large contractor for the Federal Government. They built airfields, storage depots and ships.
Following the war the company found lucrative contracts paid for by the Federal Government or supported or arranged by the Federal Government in foreign construction.
For example, it built the locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Distant Early Warning system (which is a series of military bases in the Arctic designed to warn the United States of imminent nuclear attack from Russia), Minuteman missile silos, NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and over 100 further major dams.
Knudsen died in 1943 and so did not live to see the company expand into what appears to have become the Construction Department of the United States Government. Morrison died in 1971.
As time went by Morrison-Knudsen attempted to branch out from profiting primarily from government contracts. It went bankrupt in 1995 and was bought by the Washington Group International in 1996.
Washington Group International was an American corporation which provided engineering, construction and management services to businesses and governments around the world.
Based in Boise, Idaho, about 25,000 people were employed by it. Their offices were located in over 40 states and more than 30 countries.
Its primary areas of expertise were: infrastructure, mining, industrial/process, energy, environment and power.
It was subsequently purchased itself by by URS Corporation of San Francisco in November 2007 for $3.1 billion and is currently operating as the "Energy and Construction Division" of URS.
URS Corporation is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol URS. It was founded in 1951 in San Francisco. Its area of operation is reported as being ‘worldwide’.
Martin M. Koffel is the Chief Executive Officer. He was born in 1939. He is 72 years old.
Revenue for the present company is reported at US$ 9.249 billion from 2009.
In 2010 the company reported having 46,500 employees on its payroll.
They are primarily an engineering design firm and unabashedly a United States Federal Government contractor.
Their most recent appearance in the news was in regards to a bridge collapse over the Mississippi River in Minnesota which killed 13 people and injured 145.
In 2003, URS was retained by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to conduct a fatigue evaluation and a redundancy analysis of the bridge. Lawsuits filed in 2008 and 2009 cite the company with negligence. In 2010 these lawsuits were settled out of court without the finding of negligence or wrong doing on the part of URS.
On September 10, 2010, URS completed its acquisition of the British engineering firm Scott Wilson Group.
The Berger Group is a company operating out of Morristown, New Jersey. It is a firm not unlike URS and it relies for a large part of its income on government contracts.
The Berger Group is the company that is performing the upgrade of the power plant at Lashkar Gah. The plant is known as the Kajaki hydropower plant.
URS and the Berger Group have worked before. The Department of Defense selected the Berger Group, in association with URS, to upgrade Iraq's transportation network.
The $565 million contract has them managing over 170 individual projects, including improvements to the Baghdad, Al Basrah and Mosul airports - upgrade of Umm Qasr Port. They have also contract to rehabilite of 101 railway stations and build nearly 600 miles of roads.
The two companies have also been involved in what appear to be exclusive contracts to rebuild parts of the Panama Canal.
Both URS and the Berger Group are active in Afghanistan.
After more than 66 years – dating from the time that Martin M. Koffel, CEO of URS, was about 6 years old – the remains of the company that Morrison-Knudsen ran have returned in a way to the projects they started in 1945. I wonder if Mr. Koffel appreciates the historical perspective his company enjoys.
Afghanistan remains a pawn in the world stage. Today President Barack Husein Obama claims the war there is a ‘Just War’. It is generating record profits for engineering firms, experience for battle worn soldiers not to mention dead soldiers and record harvests of opium and ever higher production levels of heroin which are finding their way into international markets.
The partition of Afghanistan by the British Empire on behalf of the Pakistani government has led to a serious problem in the region. It is not only an ethnic and religious problem but one of race. Both the Pakistanis and the Afghanis in the area are descendants of Aryan races. Many of the inhabitants of central and southern Afghanistan are descended from Semitic tribes taken from Israel and most specifically Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II and settled there by him.
The Pakistanis are of a much darker complexion and during World War II they became acquainted with eugenics and the idea of a Master Race as described by Nationalist Socialists in Germany. They combined these ideas with the ideals and social structure they inherited from India and have created a new caste system that does not include the lighter skinned Afghans.
It seems that the Pakistani government has conspired to exterminate the peoples living in the Tribal Areas in order to resettle their poor, illiterate and backward population. Currently their population is centered mostly in the eastern and southern parts of their country. The land is not very fertile and the population density is high. By expanding to the north and west they are taking the 19th century ideals of British Colonialism into the 21st century.
The problem for them has been, however, that the area is settled already and so the final solution for them is to kill all the Afghans and take their land.
This is an additional and modern pressure that the Afghan people are facing. It is the true and real danger to the area and it is the reason that illiterate and insane religious fanatics from Tajikistan and Saudi Arabia have been able to form and maintain the group known as the Taliban.
Pakistan now has nuclear weapons. It is a continuing threat to India to the East because of these weapons. Now it is a growing and malignant threat to Afghanistan to its West through the weapons of starvation, mass murder, gun smuggling, drug smuggling, money laundering and what appears to be a coordinated effort at genocide in order to expand their territory at the expense of their neighbors’ lives.
The Berger Group has interests in Pakistan including the port of Karachi.
Retired Senator William Frist of Tennessee is on the Board of Directors of URS Group and has been since 2009. Even though he is a retired United States Senator he is listed as ‘Senator William Frist’ as a member of the board.
Also a member of the board for URS is General Joseph W. Ralston, USAF (Ret.) whose duties included Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C. from 1996 to 2000 and Commander, U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO from 2000 to 2003. Those duties give him a unique perspective and probable influence into the crafting and signing of construction projects in the War Zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
One of the ways that the United States is aiding and abetting Pakistan in this widespread murder by bullet and bread is that the United States is apparently accepting at face value the information provided by the corrupt and violent Pakistani ‘Intelligence Community’ to identify the persons to kill with drones or midnight attack.
From what I have read it seems that many of these people that the Pakistanis are targeting are not enemies of the United States but are people that the Pakistanis fear themselves might call for independence from their violent regime so that they can rejoin their native lands to Afghanistan.
In this way the United States is creating more enemies by attacking the enemies of the Pakistanis. At the same time money and effort is wasted on false targets while the true terrorists and criminals behind the murder and mayhem continue on in office and in rank without fear of reprisal or of being called accounted for their actions.
It is as if the United States had, during the Vietnam or Korean Wars, accepted intelligence reports from the Chinese and Russians about who to attack. Do you think our enemies will tell us to attack them?
It seems that Pakistan is taking advantage of the situation and is acting to destabilize the region for its own short sighted gain.
Just look at their Constitution to see a glimpse of their national priorities, “Wherein the territories now included in or in accession with Pakistan and such other territories as may hereafter be included in or accede to Pakistan shall form a Federation wherein the units will be autonomous with such boundaries and limitations on their powers and authority as may be prescribed;…”
…territories as may hereafter be included or accede to Pakistan…
Also consider these items :
“Wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed;…”
“PART IX - Islamic Provisions
227. Provisions relating to the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah.
(1) All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, in this Part referred to as the Injunctions of Islam, and no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such Injunctions.”
Now we turn to Afghanistan’s Constitution which states :
“Article One
Ch. 1. Art. 1
Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic, independent, unitary and indivisible state.
Article Two
Ch. 1, Art. 2
The religion of the state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam.
Followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law.
Article Three
Ch. 1, Art. 3
In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.”
A Glimpse of the Human Cost of the War in Afghanistan
Sargeant David Senft was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on December 16, 2010.
He died in a parked sport utility vehicle on an American air base in Afghanistan.
It appears he committed suicide.
Sergeant Senft was 27 years old. He was a crew chief on a Black Hawk helicopter in the 101st Airborne Division’s aviation brigade.
The ‘official’ reason for his death is recorded as "injuries sustained in a noncombat related incident" at Kandahar Air Base on November 15, 2010.
The Army has repeatedly declined to specify the actual cause of death. As of January 1, 2011 the Army stated that three separate inquiries into the death were under way.
His father is an electrician from Grass Valley, California. He reportedly had worked in Afghanistan for a military contractor. Performing such work is very lucrative. It is reported that the first eighty-five thousand dollars in earnings are tax free.
His father is reportedly convinced that his son committed suicide. According to what I read so are many of his friends and family members and soldiers who served with him.
This young man who had been put in charge of an attack helicopter had reportedly already attempted suicide twice while stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
He had been sent to a mental institution near the base.
I read that after arriving at Kandahar, Afghanistan early in 2010 that the Army took away his weapon and forced him into counseling.
Suicide among American troops have been increasing.
National Guardsmen, who signed up to serve in their home states have been sent into a war zone under questionable circumstances by two Presidential Administrations and a Congress that is ignoring its duties under the Constitution.
In 2004 the United States Army reported 67 soldiers on active duty committed suicide.
In 2009 the number was 162.
In 2010 the United States Army reported 144 suicides through to November.
Suicide in the Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Siegfried Sassoon - 1918
American Congressional Interference in the Internal Affairs of Afghanistan
On the walls of his Capitol Hill office, Representative Michael Rogers of Michigan reportedly displays a tomahawk made of metal from a Soviet tank given to him by Afghans, and a long knife given to him by Pakistanis.
Having read this description of this legislator’s office I recalled some lines from a movie I had seen regarding a man who had collected an array of weapons and spent ammunition and kept them in his office for display. The spoken lines are these : “Any man with a collection like this is a man who's never set foot on a battlefield. To him a miniball from Shiloh is just an artifact. But to a combat vet, it's a hunk of metal that caused some poor bastard a world of pain.” – Robert Redford in ‘The Last Castle’
Let’s leave behind the world of popular entertainment for now and consider the facts.
Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan reportedly displays a metal tomahawk made from a Soviet Tank – given to him by Afghans. The United States gave money and materials to Afghans to fight the Soviets. It turned out that the Soviets were fighting a people and culture that was far more degenerate and dangerous than theirs. The result of the ‘victory’ of the mercenaries and killers in Afghanistan led to a brutal religious dictatorship in the country and allowed a band of Saudi Arabian lunatics led by Osama Bin Laden to attack New York City on 9/11.
Now Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan is displaying a war prize won by the bloodthirsty Taliban and terrorists that have taken up arms against the United States on the wall of his office in the Halls of Congress.
As if that were not bad enough – he reportedly is displaying a ‘long knife’ given to him by Pakistanis. We need a little history for this one but not much.
Prior to World War II Adolf Hitler put a murderous plan into effect called ‘The Night of the Long Knives’. It was a political purge that took place between June 30 and July 2, 1934. It was a calculated series of political executions.
Pakistan does not have political relations with Israel.
Pakistan does not recognize Israel as a country.
Like many other Muslim countries Pakistan would not mind seeing the entire nation of Israel wiped off the face of the earth.
Now back to that ‘long knife’ on Representative Mike Rogers’ wall.
What sort of message or messages is Representative Mike Rogers sending? Is this the sort of activity and message that the people who voted for him believe in? Do the people that voted for Representative Mike Rogers even know what he has been up to? What sort of people would put a man who would hide under such symbols into office in the first place?
Representative Rogers of Michigan is, in my opinion, one of the ‘new’ politicians that have arisen in the past two or three decades. At one point he was employed as an agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This government employment seems to have been the stepping stone he used to elevate himself into the political position of being able to run for public office.
This behavior has become all too common in the United States.
Representative Rogers of Michigan is just one example.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation that Representative Rogers comes from has come under a cloud of suspicion and allegations of incompetence. It has recently been cited as overstepping its bounds and concurrently not fulfilling its duties to the American people.
Practices at the Federal Bureau of Investigation appear to include entrapment but these charges are hard to press because of the secretive nature of the process used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gain indictments. The Federal Grand Jury system at this time is cloaked in mystery and is believed by some to be riddled by corruption.
The State of Michigan, part of which Representative Rogers represents, is an entry point for illegal aliens from Canada. They cross openly by boat and land along the Detroit River at various points on a regular basis. Harsens Island is an example of the way the illegal immigration occurs in Michigan. It is known that landings take place there fairly often. The reporting structure for these invasions is that if local residents notice people who look like illegal aliens running across the golf course they call the Sheriff.
Drugs, illegal immigration and the transport of weapons are fairly common activities in Michigan. The activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation appear to encourage this activity as they seek out the ‘source’ of the criminal activity. It is a sad and sorry situation where the Federal Bureau of Investigation furnishes drugs, money and stolen material along with a scenario to commit a crime in order to arrest someone. In some of these cases it appears that the activity has gone beyond simple entrapment into the realm of daytime television drama. These soap opera scripts are carried out sometimes to tragic conclusions.
When these ‘investigations’ are underway local, city and state police may be warned off arresting someone because of an ongoing investigation. The ripple effect of crime, despair and negative civil impact has a real economic price attached to it which is not appreciated by the persons who have unleashed this tragi-comic police state on the people of Michigan.
That is, in my opinion, the type of law enforcement agency that Representative Rogers and his political ideas spring from.
It seems to me that Representative Rogers is eager to make his imprint in the world. Like his predecessor from Texas, Representative Charlie Parker (to whose name has been attached the origin of the modern strife and war in Afghanistan) it seems unclear to me if he understands the ramifications of his actions and words as they appear to be targeted at undermining international cooperation, expand war and generally confuse American policy for personal interest.
In my opinion Representative Mike Rogers and the interference of other Congressmen with like mind represents the wrong approach at the wrong time.
Representative Parker created Osama Bin Laden.
What sort of monsters is Representative Rogers of Michigan creating?
It seems time to exit Afghanistan and bring the United States Army back home.
The real enemy is to the south of the United States and it is the Mexican Government. Representative Mike Rogers, for all his worldly experience with the Federal Bureau of Investigatin, is, in my opinion from a sheltered location. In my opinion he lacks real insight into international matters and has exploited the ignorance and hatred of some Michigan supporters to gain the votes he needed to get into office.
Perhaps Osama Bin Laden will surface again and our military can finally do their job and kill him. Right now he is hiding with impunity, apparently with the very people that Representative Rogers has so closely identified himself with in that region. It is this sort of interference and unnecessary politicking by Congressmen that has taken the focus of the effort in Afghanistan from winning the war into a way to make money from confusion and mayhem.
We need the army home now to deal with the evil and perverted Mexican government but the political will in Michigan and nearly every one of the fifty states by politicians who profess to support the United States of America but who seem more bent on personal gain at the expense of victory, peace, stability and propserity.
A story I read indicated that Representative Mike Rogers was visiting a military base in Afghanistan and he reportedly witnessed persons whom he was told were Taliban loading rockets to attack the base.
The story continued that he asked an officer what they were going to do about it and the officer replied that they could do nothing because the fighters were in Pakistan and the Americans could not cross the Pakistani border to get them.
It was said that Representative Rogers left the base which was then attacked that night with rockets.
There was no report of fatalities or injuries from the alleged attack.
Not unlike the movie version of Representative Charlie Wilson it is said that Representative Rogers was frustrated by the responses he had received.
It was further reported that he took it upon himself to carry out a campaign to force the George W. Bush Administration to do more about these alleged attacks from Pakistan.
The story which I read was widely publicized but it stated that in a story that was known only to a small group of participants Representative Rogers played the lead role in convincing President Bush to issue a July 2008 order that increased the number of Predator drone strikes against alleged fighters in Pakistan – fighters that were identified by what appears to have been the Pakistani military and possibly their intelligence agency.
It seems then that Representative Rogers’ frenetic activity as a forceful front man for the secret drone program helped to expand it even further by President Obama.
Reportedly because of this Representative John Boehner, Republican Leader of the House named Representative Rogers as the chairman of the intelligence committee.
Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan reportedly stated, “Mike went out and found the ground truth on this stuff.”
Apparently the rate of American unmanned guided missile attack in the ‘tribal area’ of Pakistan is now on the average of two a week.
According to what I have read Representative Mike Rogers declined to comment on the drone program.
On October 16, 2010 Representative Mike Rogers attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at General Dynamics, the makers of the Stryker MGS (mobile gun system) along with company employees and reportedly Representative Candice Miller of Michigan, Senator Carl Levin and his brother Representative Sander Levin of Michigan and Senator Debbie Stabenow. Also at the ceremony was the mother of convicted political criminal Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Representative Carolyn Kilpatrick. Several Macomb County and Sterling Heights officials also attended.
General Dynamics also sought out and acquired contracts with the United States Air Force to produce drones. General Dynamics reportedly contributed about $7,500 to Mike Rogers’ 2002 Election Campaign.
Also in 2002 United Defense, apparently a part of BAE Systems, contributed $7,000 to Mike Rogers’ Election Campaign. BAE Systems is a foreign owned company headquartered at 6 Carlton Gardens, London, SW1Y 5AD, United Kingdom. That’s in Europe.
In 2004 General Dynamics donated $6,000.
In 2006 General Dynamics forked over $10,960 and Lockheed Martin donated $4,000. Boeing also threw in $3,000 in 2006.
BAE donated again in 2008 with $5,500 and General Dynamics with $8,250 and Lockheed Martin with another $4,000.
In 2010 General Dynamics provided $10,000 and Honeywell also donated $10,000. Lockheed Martin donated $7,000 and Boeing followed with $6,000. Raytheon donated $10,000.
General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE, Honeywell and Raytheon all manufacture drones intended for direct attack, reconnaissance and in the case of Honeywell for use by American law enforcement to be used in observing Americans in the United States.
It has been widely reported that innocent people are often killed in these drone attacks.
These reports are widely denied by those carrying out the drone attacks.
In 2007-2008 Raytheon gave Senator Carl Levin $9,000 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $10,000.
In 2007-2008 BAE Systems gave Senator Carl Levin $10,500 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $5,000.
In 2007-2008 General Dynamics gave Senator Carl Levin $22,050 and his brother Representative Sander Levin $6,000 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $7,000.
In 2007-2008 Lockheed Martin gave Senator Carl Levin $10,000 and his brother Sander Levin $2,500 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $9,000.
In 2007-2008 Boeing gave $11,000 to Senator Carl Levin and his brother Sander Levin got $10,000 while Peter Hoekstra received $10,000.
In 2007-2008 Honeywell gave Senator Carl Levin $10,000 and his brother Representative Sander Levin $10,000 and Representative Peter Hoekstra $5,000.
In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $64,955 from Raytheon.
In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $32,312 from BAE Systems.
In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $48,117 from General Dynamics.
In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $136,000 from Lockheed Martin.
In 2007-2008 President Barack Obama received $196,652 from Boeing.
Disgrace for NATO and Advantage for Pakistan – Genocide by Proxy
On February 20, 2011 yet another report was made of a massacre of innocents by foreign troops in Afghanistan.
This time the government of Afghanistan contended that 50 civilians were killed in a battle which occurred in a remote part of eastern Afghanistan. The location was in Kunar province which is on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It is one of the areas that Pakistan would be interested in undermining and destabilizing as it pushes against the native Afghans who were trapped inside Pakistan when the nation was arbitrarily formed in 1947.
Afghanistan reported that 22 of the 50 civilians killed were women. Other dead included young boys and old men. Another village destroyed. An Afghan tragedy. A Pakistani ‘victory’.
NATO denies this assertion and claims that exactly three dozen insurgents were killed and no civilians. They promise to investigate.
These attacks are often egged on by Pakistani officials keen on depopulating the area in order to make it easier to continue mopping up operations on their side of the border as they drive people born into a civilization that has persisted there for over 2,000 years.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik claimed that Osama bin Laden was most likely hiding in Kunar Province in the spring and summer of 2009.
Malik is quoted as saying, "According to our information Osama is in Afghanistan, probably Kunar, as most of the activities against Pakistan are being directed from Kunar.”
‘…activities against Pakistan…’
There are no recorded activities against Pakistan – but there are repeated instances of Pakistani soldiers attacking villages and towns in their northwestern region.
Combined with uncanny specific descriptions of persons that Pakistan believes the United States and coalition forces want to kill these brutal actions of the Pakistanis have taken on the tinge of genocide.
The persons they hand information over to the Americans to attack with drones and the towns and villages their army destroys are nearly always of the same one or two ethnic groups that live in the region.
Following the attacks, if they are successful, there is evidence that over the past 20 or 30 years that Pakistan then carries out a process of colonization in order to deal with its own overflowing population and to satisfy its bloodthirsty territorial goals in the region.
It seems as long as the Pakistanis conjure the name of Osama Bin Laden then the Americans will keep killing any one the Pakistanis point out.
In the meantime Osama Bin Laden is still at large and the nation which spawned him and his terrorist gang – Saudi Arabia – continues to enjoy favored nation status even as it drives its own population into poverty and breeds new generations of terrorists.
President Hamid Karzai, ‘Our Guy Karzai’ to the Americans, has been trying to get rid of the Americans and NATO and these constant civilian murders have become a rallying point for his administration.
In a strange coincidence tales of corruption and ineptitude within his administration increase in volume and crowd the news media outlets each time he calls out against these senseless deaths and horrific injuries.
He is stormed with a public relations mob each time he points out that the murder of innocents will only increase ill will and each death or injury will make more enemies and push the conflict even further into the future.
Over the years Pakistan has provided ‘information’ that Osama Bin Laden was in the Afghanistan provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Paktia, Nangarhar, Kunar, Badakhsan and Helmand – all of them bordering on Pakistan.
In October of 2010 a NATO official announced that they had information that Osama Bin Laden was not in Afghanistan at all and was living in protected comfort in Pakistan.
“Allying Ourselves With the Next United States”
Inspired by John Kerry’s Attempt to Interfere With Internal Egyptian Matters
Following the explosive events in Egypt Senator John Kerry took it on himself to write an ‘Op-Ed’ piece in the New York Times giving detailed instruction to President Mubarak of Egypt on how to deal with the present situation and Senator Kerry also offered apologetics for the Obama Administration to some extent. Following is a satire of that ‘Op-Ed’ piece which puts the focus of the issues on President Obama rather than President Mubarak.
Room for Debate: President Barack Husein Obama’s Role and Mideast Peace
EVEN if the job loss and home evictions destroying the American peace subside in the next few days, which, I admit, is not likely, the chaos of the last two years of Obama’s regime has forever changed the relationship between the American people and their government. The corruption and ignorance forcing a diverse range of citizens out of the homes and jobs and being thrown into the streets will not disappear without sweeping changes in the social compact between the people and the government.
President Barack Husein Obama must accept that the stability of his country hinges on his willingness to step aside gracefully to make way for a new political structure. One of the toughest jobs that a leader under siege can perform is to engineer a peaceful transition. But Americans, sorely used and abused these past few years have made clear they will settle for nothing less than greater democracy and more economic opportunities separated from advantages given to New York Banks, Stock Brokers and Chicago Politicians.
Ushering in such a transformation offers President Barack Husein Obama — a great nationalist ever since he stopped smoking marijuana and learned that his father’s generation of revolutionaries helped their country escape the last vestiges of British colonialism in Kenya — the chance to end the violence and lawlessness, to begin improving the dire economic and social conditions in this country and to change his place in history.
It is not enough for President Barack Husein Obama to pledge to “play fair” in the economy, as he has done on a nearly a daily basis, including Saturdays and Sundays. The most important step that he can take is to address his nation and declare that neither he nor Joe Biden nor any of his cronies will run in the next presidential election. Americans have moved beyond his regime, and the best way to avoid declining business opportunities from turning into a Major Depression is for President Barack Husein Obama to take his parade out of the equation.
Further, he must guarantee that the election will be honest and open to all legitimate candidates and conducted without interference from the military or security apparatus and under the oversight of international monitors. The American people are demanding wholesale transformation, not window dressing as men like John Kerry and John McCain have proposed. As part of the transition, President Barack Husein Obama needs to stop working with New York Banks and Stock Brokers immediately so that the confusion and disharmony he is creating in national and global markets will cease.
President Barack Husein Obama has contributed significantly to Middle East peace though it is not clear exactly how or why he did it – but he won a Nobel Peace Prize and that must be worth something – I think it’s worth something like 1.5 million dollars. Now it is imperative that he contribute to prosperity in his own country by convincing American that their concerns and aspirations are being addressed and the best way to do that is to step aside and reduce is inflammatory rhetoric and decrease to zero his furious schedule of public appearances. He appears on the television, in the newspaper and on the radio at least once a daily in nearly every market in the United States. His cult of personality has drained the news media of trust from the public. It has come to appear that the press is merely another of the hundreds of departments that President Barack Husein Obama has created and presides over. If he demonstrates leadership and accomplishes those goals, he can turn the America into a model for how to get rid of incompetent and scheming politicians.
Given the events of the past week, some are criticizing Democrats’ and Republicans’ past tolerance of Obama’s regime. It is true that our public rhetoric did not always match our private concerns. But there also was a pragmatic understanding that our relationship benefited American foreign policy and how much money we could make for ourselves individually before getting caught. And make no mistake, a productive relationship with people with lots of money remains crucial for both Democrats and Republicans.
To that end we must accompany our rhetoric with real assistance to the American people. For too long, financing nearly every third world dictator’s military has been a cash cow. For too long we have been spending money we don’t have and could never hope to make. For too long we have been stealing from the American people. For too long we have been lying to the American people. For too long we have been misstating facts, misrepresenting the people we are supposed to represent and last but not least for too long have the upper offices in government been dominated by incompetents, drunkards and perverts. Congress and the Obama regime need to consider providing civilian assistance that would generate jobs and improve social conditions in the United States, as late as that may be and as untrustworthy as the Obama regime has been. We need to guarantee that American military assistance is reduced around the globe immediately.
The awakening of Americans across the nation must bring new light to Washington, too. Our interests are not served by watching our friends collapse under the weight of the anger and frustrations of their own investors. Nor by transferring power to radical groups that would spread low interest rates and conduct fair trade. Instead, the best way for our stable friends to survive is to respond to the genuine political, legal and economic needs of their investors. The Obama regime must step aside so that these needs can be met.
At other historic turning points, we have not always chosen wisely. We built an important alliance with a free Philippines by supporting the people when they showed Ferdinand Marcos the door in 1986. But we continue to pay a horrible price for clinging too long to Iran’s shah. How we behave in this moment of challenge in Washington is critical. It is vital that we stand with the people who share our values and hopes and who seek the universal goals of freedom, prosperity and peace.
For many years, the United States pursued an Obama policy. Now we must look beyond the Obama era and devise an American policy.
The Absurdity of Leading With No Direction
A quote from President Barack Obama about democracy in the United States :
"This is what change looks like," Obama said in Philadelphia. "In a big, messy democracy like ours, a country that's huge and diverse, you know, it's not smooth. But it's worthwhile."
Let us compare, “No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character. “ - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
President Obama also stated, "As a consequence of reckless decisions that had been made, the economy was on the verge of collapse. Those same businesses now are profitable; the financial markets are stabilized. The only thing that we've said is that we've got to make sure that we're not doing some of the same things that we were doing in the past that got into this mess in the first place."
“Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination. “ -
Harry S. Truman
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953
The Secretary of Homeland Security in Afghanistan
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited Afghanistan in December of 2010. The trip was reportedly to meet troops and discuss security.
It was not clear why the Secretary of Homeland Security would need to meet with American soldiers in a war zone in another country.
She reportedly went there to discuss border security and measures to secure the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It was not clear whether she was there to learn about border security or to share the miserable failures that the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly experienced along the United States – Mexico border.
Even though the flood of illegal immigrants, drugs and weapons continues nearly unabated from Mexico into the United States Janet Napolitano had the gall to visit Afganistan and travel throughout the Middle East and Europe to discuss ‘international and regional security’.
It was reported that Napolitano was accompanied by six Department of Homeland Security customs and border agents who will join other American Department of Homeland Security personnel in Afghanistan to try and provide civilian security assistance to local officials.
It is not clear what experience these and other American Department of Homeland Security employees have had with suicide bombers. They are being directed, however, to assist in trying to secure Afghanistan’s border from militants, gun smuggling and drug smugglers.
Considering their record here in the United States, where they are based and where the speak the language and can pretend to know the land I wonder if the people and government of Afghanistan have been informed of their ineptitude and record of failure in these same activities on behalf of their own nation.
According to reports Secretary Napolitano stated, "In the last twelve months, DHS has expanded its effort here in support of President Obama's policy of civilian engagement. It is an honor to meet with our dedicated military and civilian men and women who are helping to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, and I thank them for their continued efforts and sacrifices here to make the American homeland safer and more secure."
In February of 2011 reports surfaced of retired and active American law enforcement officers – police, sheriffs, deputies – being offered lucrative one year contracts to live and work in Iraq.
Rather than the Department of Homeland Security handling this however, the State Department is taking on police powers and has been meeting with local and state law enforcement officers to work out attractive opportunities that will be made available to them in Autumn of 2011.
The Obama Administration, faced with illegal immigration, drug crime and general strife due to loss of jobs to ‘Free Trade’ has decided to take full responsibility for creating Iraq's police and border forces starting on October 1.
Even though President Barack Husein Obama has declared the war over in Afghanistan he is now working to create a network of paramilitary police agencies in Iraq to replace the violent and oppressive police agencies that flourished under Sadam Hussein.
The original announcement for beginning this new scheme was made the day two bombings killed six policemen and wounded at least 22 people in western Iraq.
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