Ann Wright
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It is a pleasure to speak at the Geopolitics of Knowledge and Emerging World Order, October 30-31, 2018 at the National Defense University in Islamabad, Pakistan.
And it's a pleasure to be back in Islamabad -- and I will tell you why in just a few moments.
But first, let me say that I was a part of the U.S. empire for most of my adult life. I was in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves for 29 years and retired as a Colonel. I also was a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and represented the United States in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia.
As I mentioned in the beginning, it is a pleasure to be back in Islamabad. I was first here almost 17 years ago, in December 2001. I was on the small team of five U.S. diplomats that reopened the U.S Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 17, 2001 after it had been closed for 12 years since January 30, 1989 during the period of the war among the various mujahadeen factions that had defeated the Soviet military and during the rise of the Taliban and its government over most of Afghanistan.
Pepe Escobar, editor of Asia Times and Mohamed Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran, Iran
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Speakers from China, Turkey, Iran, Sweden, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, the United States and Pakistan covered many topics in the conference entitled "Geopolitics of Knowledge and Emerging World Order" that looked at "the assumption of unipolar, Euro/NATO-centric, warmongering world order" with the capitalist architects of this world dis-order being the Deep State of NATO countries, but especially the United States and Israel. Western terms such as democracy, free speech and human rights were discussed through the lens of colonial genocide history which has attempted to annihilate theories of knowledge, art and architecture of highly advanced cultures and civilizations. The challenge of resuscitating the lost foundations of world civilization is key to the decolonization of the mind and dismantling the structures that enable the slow pace hybrid wars against many countries, including Pakistan, that has been a frontline state since the beginning of the War OF Terror.
I was last here at the National Defense University about five years ago in 2013 when I had been invited to speak on the U.S. assassin drone program--to which I was, and still am, very opposed.
I had worked in eight Presidential administrations beginning with the Lyndon Johnson administration in 1967 during the U.S. War on Vietnam and ending with my resignation from the George W. Bush administration in March 2003 in opposition to the U.S. War on Iraq. I was one of only three persons who resigned in opposition to the war on Iraq, although hundreds of colleagues from both the military and the diplomatic worlds got in touch with me and the other two Foreign Service officers who had resigned, thanking us for our resignations -- but saying as much as they wished they could resign, mortgages, kids in college, financial reasons prevented them from acting on their conscience.
I have seen the U.S. war on Vietnam, the U.S. invasion and occupation of the tiny island nation of Grenada, the covert U.S. war on Nicaragua by funding the Contras, the U.S. support of the mujahadeen of Afghanistan in its battle against the Soviet military, the U.S. "humanitarian" mission in Somalia that turned into a war between U.S./UN forces and Somali warlords and militias, a rebel/military coup against the elected government of Sierra Leone and the U.S. "war on terror" beginning with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in the search for Bin Ladin/Al Qaeda that turned into the war with the Taliban, the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, the US funding of militias in the war on Syria, the US/NATO war on Libya and US assistance to Saudi Arabia on the war on Yemen and the US military support to the Israeli war on Palestine.
Until 15 years ago I was a part of the military/diplomatic section of the Empire of the United States.
Since my resignation in 2003, I have been challenging each Presidential administration on a variety of issues that I believe have rightfully weakened the U.S. and are dangerous for the world. Those issues include:
-- the war culture of the United States;
-- the massive military budget; huge weapons sales to countries around the world;
-- the unnecessary curtailment of civil liberties, first through the Patriot Act and now through countless illegal electronic invasions of privacy on a worldwide basis;
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