Afghan Corruption
The New York Times has moved the inestimable Dexter Filkins from Iraq to Afghanistan. His first major report is not encouraging.
Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more than the enrichment of those who run it.
A raft of investigations has concluded that people at the highest levels of the Karzai administration, including President Karzai’s own brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, are cooperating in the country’s opium trade, now the world’s largest. In the streets and government offices, hardly a public transaction seems to unfold here that does not carry with it the requirement of a bribe, a gift, or, in case you are a beggar, “harchee” — whatever you have in your pocket.
As Obama withdraws from the Iraq disaster he seems intent on spending our blood and treasure on what is becoming the world’s biggest Kleptocracy. This is a fool’s errand and it would be a tragedy to have an administration that shows great promise in its ability to rebuild America, get bogged down in another fruitless foreign adventure.
There is however one thing we could do to help the situation. The G-20 should form a cartel to buy all of the opium from the Afghan farmers at a price slightly higher than the Taliban and Warlords are paying. They would then resell it to regional pharmaceutical companies who today are selling billions of dollars worth of synthetic opiates like Oxycontin. After all Rush Limbaugh could have just as easily gotten a phony prescription for morphine.
Robbing both the Warlords and the Taliban of their funding source would be the smartest thing we could do.
“The G-20 should form a cartel to buy all of the opium from the Afghan farmers at a price slightly higher than the Taliban and Warlords are paying.”
Haha,
I’ll assume that was tongue-in-cheek.
These warlords could just as easily become middlemen for such a transaction and get a (really fat) cut anyway.
Sort of like private contractors do in the US…
“The G-20 should form a cartel to buy all of the opium from the Afghan farmers at a price slightly higher than the Taliban and Warlords are paying.”
Haha,
I’ll assume that was tongue-in-cheek.
These warlords could just as easily become middlemen for such a transaction and get a (really fat) cut anyway.
Sort of like private contractors do in the US…
“The G-20 should form a cartel to buy all of the opium from the Afghan farmers at a price slightly higher than the Taliban and Warlords are paying.”
Haha,
I’ll assume that was tongue-in-cheek.
These warlords could just as easily become middlemen for such a transaction and get a (really fat) cut anyway.
Sort of like private contractors do in the US…
Just buy the opium and drop it free of charge everywhere in the world where people are fighting one another. Fire rockets full into Gaza; dump it all over Iraq. Distribute it to all the Somalis and the rest of Africa. Get them all wasted and they may not be killing one another.
Just buy the opium and drop it free of charge everywhere in the world where people are fighting one another. Fire rockets full into Gaza; dump it all over Iraq. Distribute it to all the Somalis and the rest of Africa. Get them all wasted and they may not be killing one another.
Just buy the opium and drop it free of charge everywhere in the world where people are fighting one another. Fire rockets full into Gaza; dump it all over Iraq. Distribute it to all the Somalis and the rest of Africa. Get them all wasted and they may not be killing one another.
OK, so that was satire, but once again, what the hell are we doing there? Just get the hell out and let them work their own things out. Same with Iraq.
OK, so that was satire, but once again, what the hell are we doing there? Just get the hell out and let them work their own things out. Same with Iraq.
RT-Well said, as usual.
RT-Well said, as usual.
Don’t worry- all is going according to plan. We are spending billions of dollars of borrowed money to help revive the opium product. Proceeds from the illicit drug trade will be used to help fund black ops for the intelligence agencies. It’s sad how well documented this all is, yet we seem powerless to stop it.
Don’t worry- all is going according to plan. We are spending billions of dollars of borrowed money to help revive the opium product. Proceeds from the illicit drug trade will be used to help fund black ops for the intelligence agencies. It’s sad how well documented this all is, yet we seem powerless to stop it.
Don’t worry- all is going according to plan. We are spending billions of dollars of borrowed money to help revive the opium product. Proceeds from the illicit drug trade will be used to help fund black ops for the intelligence agencies. It’s sad how well documented this all is, yet we seem powerless to stop it.
Afghanistan has not been fixed because we have underestimated the problem for ages.
Take a look at this 1939 Tata Airline Route map. Tata Airline now has become Air-India, but if you look at the top left of the map which shows the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the situation is till the same. 70 years! and we have not seen a change here. Something to consider when planning a surge.
Afghanistan has not been fixed because we have underestimated the problem for ages.
Take a look at this 1939 Tata Airline Route map. Tata Airline now has become Air-India, but if you look at the top left of the map which shows the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the situation is till the same. 70 years! and we have not seen a change here. Something to consider when planning a surge.
Amen to that.
Amen to that.
Got a few hours? Read Gary Schroen’s self-panegyric book on how well he and his band of merry men did “inserting” the CIA into “Afghanistan” after 9-11, and get a little glimpse of how humans operate in tribal-religiosity-feuding-feudal “societies.” “First In” is the name of the book. After reading, tell me in 100 words or less, what is “the Taliban?” And whether it makes any sense to try to bribe Pashtun or other groups’ warlords to “make nice” with American GIs, even if the bribes are just a steady diet of Viagra.
Got a few hours? Read Gary Schroen’s self-panegyric book on how well he and his band of merry men did “inserting” the CIA into “Afghanistan” after 9-11, and get a little glimpse of how humans operate in tribal-religiosity-feuding-feudal “societies.” “First In” is the name of the book. After reading, tell me in 100 words or less, what is “the Taliban?” And whether it makes any sense to try to bribe Pashtun or other groups’ warlords to “make nice” with American GIs, even if the bribes are just a steady diet of Viagra.
Got a few hours? Read Gary Schroen’s self-panegyric book on how well he and his band of merry men did “inserting” the CIA into “Afghanistan” after 9-11, and get a little glimpse of how humans operate in tribal-religiosity-feuding-feudal “societies.” “First In” is the name of the book. After reading, tell me in 100 words or less, what is “the Taliban?” And whether it makes any sense to try to bribe Pashtun or other groups’ warlords to “make nice” with American GIs, even if the bribes are just a steady diet of Viagra.
it wouldn’t be the first time that war has been used to find out who the unethical ones on both sides are. look at mexico just south of us and those druglords. where were the druglords going with their money? the world stock market? when the latin american druglords pulled their laundered money out they tried to go into the u.s. stock market. the financial community said ‘not’ and black tuesday happened in 1987. at the time, i was working for l.roy papp and associates, in phoenix, arizona. roy was a friend of alan greenspan. i had just translated the papp marketing shpiel into spanish for a wealthy mexican investor who wanted to hire the firm to manage his $. roy’s son, harry, smelled a rat. and the potential client did check out mexican druglord. he was the beginning of a repeating scene at small money management firms across the country. it was not okay. interestingly, there is nowhere for those druglords to go with their tainted money right now. also interestingly, my brother was the first one to find the paper trail of the iran contra scandal when he was in the air force in panama working in the finance office. i had an apache helicopter friend who was able to mail coffee to me from that area. normally, it is confiscated because the smell of the highly aromatic coffee hides the scent of drugs from the dogs. the package was ripped open to examine contents on it’s way to me, but i got it, along with multiple copies of the army newsletter about the breast cancer threat to our women soldiers. he was the same apache helicopter pilot who the army was using to transport the ambassadors around in bosnia, i live in sierra vista, az, sister-city to ft. huachuca, home to signal corp.
there is some kind of door in afghanistan, in another realm, it is probably the opening of a wormhole that gets you pretty far out into space. it is not our time. if you could talk to the afghani drug addicts, they are probably seeing parts and pieces of that other place through the blue smoke of their delusions. there used to be a large sea in afghanistan, there are whale fossils in the valley. it used to be paradise. the sunnis have a foot in that time, they are mystics. whatever else happens in the area, they care not one whit about, they know they have one foot in paradise, in this lifetime. the afghani drug addicts are shamanic. i imagine that the timeframe is 2 years. it will be like a rapture, the sunnis will just disappear from our world into that land of milk and honey, jericho. it is the end all of tribal law to the faithful. this is way beyond the comprehension of a western mind. piet hut of the institute for advanced studies at princeton would probably be able to make some sense out of it. you cannot get to the higher realms if you buy into capitalism and materialism. you have to live a simple life because that is what is on the other side, a simple life. the land of milk and honey is about the simple pleasures of self-sustenance. the tribes are almost home. best regards, anna martina
it wouldn’t be the first time that war has been used to find out who the unethical ones on both sides are. look at mexico just south of us and those druglords. where were the druglords going with their money? the world stock market? when the latin american druglords pulled their laundered money out they tried to go into the u.s. stock market. the financial community said ‘not’ and black tuesday happened in 1987. at the time, i was working for l.roy papp and associates, in phoenix, arizona. roy was a friend of alan greenspan. i had just translated the papp marketing shpiel into spanish for a wealthy mexican investor who wanted to hire the firm to manage his $. roy’s son, harry, smelled a rat. and the potential client did check out mexican druglord. he was the beginning of a repeating scene at small money management firms across the country. it was not okay. interestingly, there is nowhere for those druglords to go with their tainted money right now. also interestingly, my brother was the first one to find the paper trail of the iran contra scandal when he was in the air force in panama working in the finance office. i had an apache helicopter friend who was able to mail coffee to me from that area. normally, it is confiscated because the smell of the highly aromatic coffee hides the scent of drugs from the dogs. the package was ripped open to examine contents on it’s way to me, but i got it, along with multiple copies of the army newsletter about the breast cancer threat to our women soldiers. he was the same apache helicopter pilot who the army was using to transport the ambassadors around in bosnia, i live in sierra vista, az, sister-city to ft. huachuca, home to signal corp.
there is some kind of door in afghanistan, in another realm, it is probably the opening of a wormhole that gets you pretty far out into space. it is not our time. if you could talk to the afghani drug addicts, they are probably seeing parts and pieces of that other place through the blue smoke of their delusions. there used to be a large sea in afghanistan, there are whale fossils in the valley. it used to be paradise. the sunnis have a foot in that time, they are mystics. whatever else happens in the area, they care not one whit about, they know they have one foot in paradise, in this lifetime. the afghani drug addicts are shamanic. i imagine that the timeframe is 2 years. it will be like a rapture, the sunnis will just disappear from our world into that land of milk and honey, jericho. it is the end all of tribal law to the faithful. this is way beyond the comprehension of a western mind. piet hut of the institute for advanced studies at princeton would probably be able to make some sense out of it. you cannot get to the higher realms if you buy into capitalism and materialism. you have to live a simple life because that is what is on the other side, a simple life. the land of milk and honey is about the simple pleasures of self-sustenance. the tribes are almost home. best regards, anna martina
it wouldn’t be the first time that war has been used to find out who the unethical ones on both sides are. look at mexico just south of us and those druglords. where were the druglords going with their money? the world stock market? when the latin american druglords pulled their laundered money out they tried to go into the u.s. stock market. the financial community said ‘not’ and black tuesday happened in 1987. at the time, i was working for l.roy papp and associates, in phoenix, arizona. roy was a friend of alan greenspan. i had just translated the papp marketing shpiel into spanish for a wealthy mexican investor who wanted to hire the firm to manage his $. roy’s son, harry, smelled a rat. and the potential client did check out mexican druglord. he was the beginning of a repeating scene at small money management firms across the country. it was not okay. interestingly, there is nowhere for those druglords to go with their tainted money right now. also interestingly, my brother was the first one to find the paper trail of the iran contra scandal when he was in the air force in panama working in the finance office. i had an apache helicopter friend who was able to mail coffee to me from that area. normally, it is confiscated because the smell of the highly aromatic coffee hides the scent of drugs from the dogs. the package was ripped open to examine contents on it’s way to me, but i got it, along with multiple copies of the army newsletter about the breast cancer threat to our women soldiers. he was the same apache helicopter pilot who the army was using to transport the ambassadors around in bosnia, i live in sierra vista, az, sister-city to ft. huachuca, home to signal corp.
there is some kind of door in afghanistan, in another realm, it is probably the opening of a wormhole that gets you pretty far out into space. it is not our time. if you could talk to the afghani drug addicts, they are probably seeing parts and pieces of that other place through the blue smoke of their delusions. there used to be a large sea in afghanistan, there are whale fossils in the valley. it used to be paradise. the sunnis have a foot in that time, they are mystics. whatever else happens in the area, they care not one whit about, they know they have one foot in paradise, in this lifetime. the afghani drug addicts are shamanic. i imagine that the timeframe is 2 years. it will be like a rapture, the sunnis will just disappear from our world into that land of milk and honey, jericho. it is the end all of tribal law to the faithful. this is way beyond the comprehension of a western mind. piet hut of the institute for advanced studies at princeton would probably be able to make some sense out of it. you cannot get to the higher realms if you buy into capitalism and materialism. you have to live a simple life because that is what is on the other side, a simple life. the land of milk and honey is about the simple pleasures of self-sustenance. the tribes are almost home. best regards, anna martina