"The pipeline signifies a breakthrough in the longstanding Western efforts to access the fabulous mineral wealth of the Caspian and Central Asian region. Washington has been the patron saint of the TAPI concept since the early 1990s when the Taliban was conceived as its Afghan charioteer. The concept became moribund when the Taliban regime was driven out of power from Kabul.
"Now the wheel has come full circle with the project's incremental resuscitation since 2005, running parallel with the Taliban's fantastic return to the Afghan chessboard. TAPI's proposed commissioning coincides with the 2014 timeline for ending the NATO 'combat mission' in Afghanistan. The US 'surge' is concentrating on Helmand and Kandahar provinces through which the TAPI pipeline will eventually run. What an amazing string of coincidences!" [10]
Last week NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen affirmed that "as the long-term partnership that President Karzai and I signed at Lisbon demonstrates, our commitment to Afghanistan will continue well beyond 2014." [11]
On December 22 U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry confirmed that the Pentagon "will retain a 'sizable mission' in Afghanistan beyond 2014" and that a troop withdrawal, if it ever occurs, would be "conditions-based; not calendar-based." American troops "could also stay on to carry out counter-terrorism operations," added the retired general and former deputy chairman of the NATO Military Committee. [12]
In a recent interview, American analyst Gareth Porter asserted that NATO troops are killing and dying in Afghanistan "because bureaucrats in Brussels, in the NATO headquarters, wanted more responsibility, [they] wanted a job for NATO to be able to take on in order to justify the continued existence of that organization." [13]
The U.S. and NATO require and are exploiting the endless war in Afghanistan and Pakistan for more reasons than simply to justify the continued existence, even the global expansion, of the world's only military bloc.
As Bhadrakumar has pointed out, far more is at stake: The military encirclement of Russia, China and Iran and control of Eurasia's strategic energy resources.
1) Associated Press, December 22, 2010
2) Associated Press, December 17, 2010
3) Xinhua News Agency, December 20, 2010
4) U.S. Army: 'Insatiable Demand' for UAVs in War Zone
Defense News, December 16, 2010
5) Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan
November 2010
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/November_1230_Report_FINAL.pdf
6) US plans to expand raids in Pakistan
Voice of Russia, December 21, 2010
http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/12/21/37384229.html
7) Gaochao Yi, More players and more pieces in the New Great Game
Xinhua News Agency, December 19, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-12/19/c_13655299.htm
8) Asia Times, December 23, 2010
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LL23Df05.html
9) NATO Trains Afghan Army To Guard Asian Pipeline
Stop NATO, December 19, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/nato-trains-afghan-army-to-guard-asian-pipeline
10) Asia Times, December 23, 2010
11) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, December 16, 2010
12) Pajhwok Afghan News, December 23, 2010
http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2010/12/23/eikenberry-sees-continued-role-us-beyond-2014
13) US-led Afghan war serves NATO's existence
Press TV, December 20, 2010
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156276.html
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