Re: isn't [really all] that strange...

Posted by Bobba on Jul 26, 2002 at 10:29
(208.58.229.247)

Re: isn't that strange... (anyman)


Thanks for that Anyman. I love a good conspiracy, especially when there’s more than a single grain of truth to it. I’ll address this one for fun.

Did you know that ... we supported
Bin Laden and the Taliban for years,
and viewed them as freedom fighters
against the Russians?
Isn't that strange?

Not so strange really. The distinction between terrorist and freedom fighter is only a matter of who’s side you’re on and what’s in your best interest.

As late as 1998, the US was paying
the salary of every single Taliban
official in Afghanistan?
Isn't that strange?

I’d have to wonder about the color of that statement. If you’re suggesting that the aid given to Afghanistan divided by the number of “Taliban Officials” equals the sum of their “salaries” I might agree. But it’d be misleading to suggest such. The U.S. has never, to my knowledge, supported the “ruling taliban”. We’ve proxied a great deal of money the region through front and back channels but never for the purpose of propping up that regime. It was mostly misguided opium eradication efforts posing as humanitarian aid.

There is more oil and gas in the
Caspian Sea area than in Saudi Arabia,
but you need a pipeline through
Afghanistan to get the oil out.
Isn't that strange?

I wouldn’t say there’s more oil in the Caspian Region but there’s certainly a whole double fistful. And getting it out is a problem. Russia has no warm water ports and that’s always been a problem for them. Other routes exist and more are planned. Table 4 of THIS LINK sums up the situation.

UNOCAL, a giant American Oil
conglomerate, wanted to build a
1000 mile long pipeline from the
Caspian Sea through Afghanistan
to the Arabian Sea.
Isn't that strange?

Least strange of all. UNOCAL is in the energy business. There’s energy in the Caspian Region. What’s strange about that?

UNOCAL spent $10,000,000,000
on geological surveys for pipeline
construction, and very nicely
courted the Taliban for their
support in allowing the construction
to begin.
Isn't that strange?

10 billion for a survey!? Hell, the finished pipeline wouldn’t have cost that much. I might believe 10 million though. But hey!, the former Soviet Union spent a lot more than 10 billion on military operations in order to secure the area so they could build the pipeline but the U.S. didn’t want them having that much market access so…well, you know the not-so-strange rest of the story.

All of the leading Taliban officials
were in Texas negotiating with UNOCAL in 1998.
Isn't that strange?

Ya know, the phrase “Taliban Official” is almost an oxymoron. Be that as it may, I still don’t see why that would be considered “strange”.

1998-1999 the Taliban changed its mind and
threw UNOCAL out of the country and awarded the
pipeline project to a company from Argentina.
Isn't that strange?

So they bled UNOCAL for all they could and UNOCAL finally gave up. Let’s see, who can they bleed next?

John Maresca VP of UNOCAL testified before
Congress and said no pipeline until the Taliban
was gone and a more friendly government was
established.
Isn't that strange?

And why is that strange? Seems logical to me.

1999-2000 The Taliban became the most evil
people in the world.
Isn't that strange?

I think they were always pretty evil IMO. It was in that time frame when they started asserting themselves in the international media. Do you remember the evil Budda statues they found it necessary to destroy in the name of Allah? There are many other examples but that sticks out most in my mind.

Senior American officials in mid-July told
Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary,
that military action against Afghanistan would
go ahead by the middle of October.
Isn't that strange?

Which “Senor American Officials” would that be? Evidence?

9/11 WTC disaster...
Bush goes to war against Afghanistan even though
none of the hijackers came from Afghanistan.
Isn't that strange?

On the surface it is but after scratching a bit the strangeness rubs off. That’s were the immediate “enemies” where currently staged and supported. The tangent “enemies” are elsewhere in other targeted and not-so-targeted nation-states such as Iraq, Iran, Saudia, Kuwait, etc. It is, after all, all about the oil.

Bush blamed Bin Laden but has never offered
any proof saying it's a "secret".
Isn't that strange?

There isn’t a doubt in my more than skeptical mind that Bin Laden was a primary player in 9/11. I’m willing to listen to other reasonable explanations but they’d have to be just that: reasonable.

Taliban offered to negotiate to turn over Bin
Laden if we showed them some proof. We refused;
we bombed.
Isn't that strange?

The Taliban was heavily implicated in 9/11 and therefore negotiation was not a reasonable avenue for remedy.

Bush said: "This is not about nation
building. It's about getting the terrorists."
Isn't that strange?

Bush is a politicians doing and saying what politician’s do and say. IOW, it isn’t strange at all. And while it really isn’t about “nation-building”, it really is about keeping a very tenacious balance between stability and instability. We want enough stability so as to continue to extract oil from the region but not so much stability that the individual nation states start to actually get along with one another. That would be a bad thing. The price we pay in said meddling is evident in the events of 9/11. The benefit derived by said meddling is evident at a gas station near you.

We have a new government in Afghanistan.
Isn't that strange?

And hopefully a pipeline soon.

The leader of that government formerly worked
for UNOCAL.
Isn't that strange?

Office clerk? Mail boy? What?

Bush appoints a special envoy to represent
the US to deal with that new government, who
formerly was the "chief consultant to UNOCAL".
Isn't that strange?

The one and only “chief consultant”!? Wow, you’d think a company like UNOCAL could afford more than one!

The Bush family acquired their wealth through
oil?
Isn't that strange?

Umm – no?

Bush's Secretary of Interior was the
President of an oil company
before going to Washington.
Isn't that strange?

Let’s see. Bush was in the oil business. The people with whom he is associated are therefore in the oil business. People trust those with whom they are associated. People hire those whom they trust. Yea, that’s pretty strange.

George Bush Sr. now works with the "Carlysle
Group" specializing in huge oil investments
around the world.
Isn't that strange?

Actually I think he’s doing more fishing than anything else but it’s nice to have a fallback in case you start running low on beer and pizza funds.

Condoleezza Rice worked for Chevron before
going to Washington.
Isn't that strange?

She is my personal favorite of the entire Bush administration. She’s so friggin’ tough and cool under pressure it’s mystifying. I’ve yet to see her screw something up – press wise that it. I’m sure she’s burned a casserole or had a fender bender but that shouldn’t count.

I’m tired now so I’ll stop.



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