The Afghanistan Thread

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

Karzai surrounding himself with anti-US adviserS

The Associated Press


KABUL, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai is increasingly isolated and has surrounded himself with an inner circle of advisers who are urging him to move closer to Iran and Pakistan as the U.S. draws down its role in Afghanistan, several friends and aides tell The Associated Press.

Their advice is echoed in Karzai's anti-West rhetoric, which has heightened both in his public speeches and in private. He met recently with Iran's defense minister, and constantly cautions against trusting the U.S. to have Afghanistan's best interests at heart.

Several of Karzai's close friends and advisers now speak of a president whose doors have closed to all but one narrow faction and who refuses to listen to dissenting opinions. They say people allowed to see the president are vetted by an inner circle of religious conservatives who belong to a nonviolent wing of Hizb-i-Islami, a radical Islamic group whose relentless attacks on American soldiers forced the U.S. to withdraw from bases in northeastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces.

The group's leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was once an American ally but has since been declared a terrorist by the United States.

Although Hekmatyar shares the Taliban's goal of an Islamic regime, his men have also fought Taliban militants over the past year, and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar is said to despise him. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, Hekmatyar spent five years in exile in Iran.


http://www.e-ariana.com/ariana/eariana. ... enDocument


GULBUDDIN IS THE NASTIEST PIECE OF WORK IN A PLACE THAT HAS SEEN A LOT OF NASTINESS FOR ENDLESS DECADES

HE HAS BEEN HUNTED HARD FOR MANY YEARS BUT HE IS GOOD AT HIS CALLING LIKE IMAD MUGNIYEH ONCE WAS

[Tinker]

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was the ISI's man with the plan after the successful repulsion of the Soviets. Apparently he's a total psychopath, and wasn't necessarily America's man, but because we were working so cheaply trying to spend as little as possible and get those funds matched by Saudi Arabia we deferred to the ISI in all things, which is how the Saudis wanted it. He was the anointed one before the Taliban took over. I've actually wondered why we've heard so little about him in recent years.

[skyhook77sfg]

Because gulbuddin is very very good at his calling.


He is without question the top operator in the entire Indo Af Pak AO.

[AzariLoveIran]

.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is probably an Iranian agent


.

[skyhook77sfg]

Gulbuddin was a triple agent for some time.

He knows no loyalty other than to his self.

Some day he will become pink mist

settling in to a big hole in the ground.

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

US shifts Afghan supply routes to Central Asia

Monday July 04, 2011 (1231 PST)




WASHINGTON: The US military is expanding its Central Asian supply routes to the war in Afghanistan, fearing that the routes going through Pakistan could be endangered by deteriorating US-Pakistani relations, The Washington Post reported.

Citing unnamed Pentagon officials, the newspaper said that in 2009, the United States moved 90 percent of its military surface cargo through the port of Karachi and then through mountain passes into Afghanistan. Now almost 40 percent of surface cargo arrives in Afghanistan from the north, along a patchwork of Central Asian rail and road routes that the Pentagon calls the Northern Distribution Network, the report said.

The military is pushing to raise the northern network’s share to as much as 75 percent by the end of this year, the paper said. In addition, the US government is negotiating expanded agreements with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries that would allow for delivery of additional supplies to the Afghan war zone, The Post said.

[Mr. Perfect]

[Tinker]

The Democrat in charge who is being criticized by John McCain for drawing down troops in Afghanistan? That President?

[Mr. Perfect]

Yes, that President. If McCain in White House, this would be wall to wall MSM coverage.

[Tinker]

[Mr. Perfect]

But that would meant the MSM is taking sides. Wouldn't it.

And that they are capable of falling for another fake pullout.

Did you know we will have essentially the same troop levels in the ME for Obama's first term as there were in Bush's 2nd term? Is that what you were expecting? You know what happens when a Democrat governs like a Republican, the country usually just says we may as well just vote for the Republican then.

[skyhook77sfg]

US activity in Afghanistan is no longer about Afghanistan.

both zbig and henry understand the McKinder Eurasia imperative.

so do all their annointees.

The Great Game resumes.


Team lineups are shifting as we speak

into alignments that will surprise all the naifs .

On to Balkh and Bukhara and Baku boys....

energy...energy...energy

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

it's been working for some time...

a lot better than say 50 years ago.

the imperative is to prevent the coalescing of smaller powers into a dominant central asian power.

division is conquest so to speak.

[Tinker]

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

pardon my uncontrollable chuckle at that last statement....

annoying yes.

prickly yes.

but the most dangerous?

rpg's katushas and speedboats

not quite up to US death star standards yet.

[Tinker]

That's right rest of the world, when you look up into the night sky, just remember, "That's not a moon, it's a battle-station!"

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

my understanding of the term dangerous is the one in common usage by native born anglophones.

if you are suggesting however the greatest threat to the current global control scheme

of the parasitic class of fractional reserve money and market manipulators

and the military industrial congressional enablers of the two party scam

(or is it the two party con artist enablers of the military industrial congressional machine}

if so threaten away with my public blessing....


dominus vobiscum

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

NY Times Op-Ed by Senators Tom Udall, Jeff Merkley, Rand Paul: Let's Not Linger in Afghanistan



Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) has been one of the most outspoken members of the Senate advocating for a genuine and timely troop departure from Afghanistan that fulfills President Obama's promise to the American people for a meaningful July 2011 start to the transition. Last month, he joined a group of 24 members of the Senate who sent a letter to Obama urging an end to US military involvement in Afghanistan, arguing that the primary objectives of “destroying al-Qaida’s safe haven and removing the Taliban government” have been accomplished. “The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits. It is time for the United States to shift course in Afghanistan,” the letter said.

Sen. Udall continued that advocacy this weekend with a July 4th op-ed in the New York Times entitled "Let's Not Linger in Afghanistan" that was jointly written with Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY). Udall and the other Senators tell it like it is:

"LAST month President Obama announced plans for withdrawing by next summer the approximately 30,000 American troops sent to Afghanistan as part of the 2009 surge.

"We commend the president for stiCking to the July date he had outlined for beginning the withdrawal. However, his plan would not remove all regular combat troops until 2014. We believe the United States is capable of achieving this goal by the end of 2012. America would be more secure and stronger economically if we recognized that we have largely achieved our objectives in Afghanistan and moved aggressively to bring our troops and tax dollars home. "


READY ON THE RIGHT

READY ON THE LEFT

[Hans Bulvai]

One must ask....

So what was accomplished?