The “war on terror” has been a lovely earner for many Western corporations. For them, wars winding down in Iraq and Afghanistan could be bad for business. Here’s Walter Pincus in the Washington Post: The U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command on Feb.… 1 approved a $330… million five-month extension on a five-year contract. That contract now…
Showing all posts tagged Afghanistan
Finally, in the NYT, acknowledgement that media leading us to war against Iran
Slow down there, eager journalists, hacks, politicians, Zionist lobby and think-tankers. An attack on Iran is clearly the war you’ve been dying for (since Iraq and Afghanistan worked out so well for you). This piece in the New York Times, a paper with a long history of backing America’s imperial wars, offers necessary caution: The…
How vulture capitalism in the “war on terror” really works
I’m on a number of global email lists that discuss privatised security post 9/11. This is from an anonymous retired navy captain: Somebody’s civilian friends or benefactors have always been making money on our wars. The funny twist is how the “military industrial complex” of years gone by has evolved into a “personnel support complex”…
America wants “human terrain” to whitewash occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan
Years after 9/11, the US military believed that counter-insurgency meant learning about the countries you were invading and occupying. Sensible decision but nothing could alter the fact that America was conducting a brutal occupation of Muslim lands. Resistance rightly followed. “Human Terrain Systems” were employed – anthropologists, social scientists and others – to be the…
Mining in Afghanistan unlikely to bring stability to the nation
When the war in Afghanistan is truly over – ie. never – mineral exploitation is likely to bring further strife to the country. Western multinationals aiming to make a killing? Alas, yes, writes McClatchy: An Afghan-American company that failed to win a multibillion-dollar contract to develop one of Afghanistan’s most lucrative mines alleges that the…
What you need to know about the Afghan war and aren’t afraid to ask
With the war in Afghanistan an unmitigated clusterfuck, it’s remarkable still how many voices in the corporate press talk about goals, achievements and possibilities (usually given by anonymous “officials”). American journalist Michael Hastings obtains a fascinating document recently that reveals the depth of the mess: Earlier this week, the… New York Times’ Scott Shane published… a bombshell…
Remember MSM role over war; what the state says we report
Post 9/11, it was Afghanistan. Then Iraq. Then drones over Pakistan. Bombs against Gaza. Counter-terrorism in Somalia and Yemen. Now the main target is Iran. The vast majority of corporate media hacks in the West hear a statement from Israel and America and simply report it without question. That’s called stenography. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald writes:…
In Afghanistan, America fiddles while watching 10 plus years of abject failure
It is remarkable that the most powerful military in the world is utterly incapable of beating insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. And for this we should be grateful, as Washington clearly needs to learn again, post Vietnam, that its desire to expand empire has limits. Nick Turse in TomDispatch: In late December, the lot was…
The secret contractor toll in Afghanistan; this is how we fight our wars
Strong piece in the New York Times that reveals some of the reality behind the Western war in Afghanistan. Increasingly privatised with no accountability at all, it’s a system that suits the powers that be very much. Corporations are making a killing and governments look like they’re hiring less staff. Almost the perfect definition of…
When Afghans move away from privatised thuggery (in theory)
After years of the US allowing Afghanistan to become a paradise for private mercenaries, Kabul is fighting back (though, to be sure, a government with no legitimacy at all): The push by Afghanistan’s president to nationalize legions of private security guards before the end of March is encouraging corruption and jeopardizing multibillion-dollar aid projects, according…