Daily Loaf

Parag Khanna’s maps of the South Central Asia around the 12 minute mark in the video below is a great way of understanding our role in Afghanistan. With this map you can assume that we are not leaving Afghanistan for a long time. We need it to be safe to deliver oil from the South Central Asian countries that most Americans don’t even know about. These small countries have great wealth waiting to be shipped overseas for Chinese and American demand. During the fall of Soviet Russia Oil and natural gas was found in the Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

In 1998, a book by the name of The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski (an adviser to Jimmy Carter/Ronald Reagan/George Bush, as well as a part of the Council on Foreign relations) came out detailing how America could and should maintain a position within the South Central Asian countries. Some quotes from his book:

“For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia… Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia – and America’s global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained.”

“How America ‘manages’ Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa’s subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world’s central continent. About 75 per cent of the world’s people live in Eurasia, and most of the world’s physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world’s known energy resources.”

“Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public’s sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.”

“Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.”

 
Inner strife in this region is building up between these nations over water rights to the Aral sea. Damns built up to irrigation to create cotton in this Arid desert by Soviet Russia over decades ago has left the Sea nearly dry and the rivers leading from are nearly bone dry . The nations are at near conflict as Kazakhstan takes more than it’s fair share and 50 million find themselves effected by more  saline water sources down stream. The larger picture of this region for the foreseeable future is of strife, as well as American involvement. As larger oil fields around the world begin to decline in production, this virgin untapped area will succumb to our oil addiction. The vast pipelines being worked upon in Afghanistan now will connect with those in Pakistan to form a route to the Sea for this oil. A grand chessboard is what Mr. Brzezinski spoke about, and what we are achieving.

There is another more sinister plot afoot than any 9/11 conspiracy theory. That is the understanding of the opium trade that originates from Afghanistan. The largest drug problem we currently have in America originates directly from Afghanistan in the form of opium derived narcotics. Oxycodone, Roxycodone, Percocets are the leading prescription pills that are widely distributed in Florida homes for less than $10 a pill. These are probably the most addictive substances you can find – I currently have friends struggling with their addiction and at one point I gave them a try. While the high is intense, the price is obvious. Your central nervous system becomes immune to them and you constantly require more till you need upwards 30 pills a day for some addicts. You never feel quite “right” until you get your next fix.

I wonder what the baby boomer generation and older generations before them think about the state of our economy. Will they voice their opinions,  will they revolt, will they be brave enough to say enough is enough? Will we have a revolution in this country that is sorely needed? Why are we still in Afghanistan, and moreover, isn’t that why everyone on the streets calling for Peace?

I hope this post circulates around the web and more people uncover more truths about how our American Empire is really acting. We sorely need a change, and unfortunately, it’s not coming at all from the White House. I feel lied to, let down, and deceived. For all my life I believed in America and the constitution, the founding fathers of this nation had an awesome vision that came to fruition. Greed destroyed that vision and left of with this empire we are now all apart of. My desire is to see a truly sustainable, just, peaceful world be created in my lifetime. I am willing to fight and die for it, but not in some backwoods desert for oil and drugs.

I still see America as the shining example of what man can do. While parts of us may be evil, the greater part of us is still good. We are a nation that can still re-emerge as the leader it needs to be for this coming century for humanity. We need to come together in earnest to create a sustainable society that can permanently live on this planet peacefully coexisting. Than maybe, just maybe , we will have the right to travel to the stars.

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