Sarah Meyer

[Click on graph to enlarge.]

Following Afghanistan Murder and Security catastrophes in September ‘08, we now have a global economic disaster. We also have forecasts of “doom” in Afghanistan.

Global financial meltdown followed the Bush Bailout vote on 1 October 2008. The US financial collapse is related to the “industrial military complex”, and defense expenditures. Eight days after 7% Bush signed the Bailout, while global markets were collapsing, a headline announced: "Pentagon Wants $450 Billion Increase Over Next Five Years." On / following 1 October '08, the US awarded, to date, AT LEAST $3.3 billion for military contracts for Afghanistan and Iraq. (see "contracts" below. * A proper assessment needs doing!) No, Mr. Bush and Co., for all your crocodile compassion, you failed to learn in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan, that human beings and community structure are more important than Propaganda, People- killing and Toys for the Boys.

The day following the Bailout, “harsh conclusions” on the war in Afghanistan were made by the UK’s Ambassador to Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles. On 4 October, the Times reported Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith as saying that a military victory over the Taleban was “neither feasible nor supportable.” General John Craddock, NATO’s Supreme-Allied Commander, allegedly defended Brig. Carleton-Smith’s viewpoint. Fitzgibbon, the Australian Defense Minister, echoed his frustrations on 8 October. The French army chief concurred with Carlton-Smith. Canada’s Prime Minister chimed in, depending on where he was electioneering. A further verdict came from a US report to be published after the election. The report represents “a harsh verdict on decision-making in the Bush administration, which in the months after the Sept. 11 2001 attacks made Afghanistan the central focus of a global campaign against terrorism.”

Both Obama and McCain agree to wage the “Good War” [sic] in Afghanistan; both want a bigger force “to help thwart terrorism” It is disturbing, presuming that Obama wins the election, to hear him feel “honoured” by the support of war criminal, Colin Powell. It is even more disturbing to hear his reasoning for wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan: “The other thing that we have to focus on, though, is al Qaeda. They are now operating in 60 countries. We can't simply be focused on Iraq. We have to go to the root cause” and that is in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”. Erm. Bypassing AIPAC, isn’t the “root cause” the Israeli wall and illegal “settlements” accompanied by Israeli violence and intimidation of farmers in Palestine?

Meanwhile, the US started its 3rd war, illegally invading Pakistan on 3 September, killing 15 men, women and children with drones. Drone systems will soon be operated by teenagers pushing death buttons – thus even further alienating the killer from the victim(s).

Index
1. Preface
2. Poverty; Refugees, Women; Transportation, Security & Kidnapping
3. The ‘Neo Taliban’
4. The War in Afghanistan (War Zone Timeline, Dead)
5. Killing Civilians
6. Viewpoints on the war in Afghanistan
7. Oil and Gas in Afghanistan
8. Aid in Afghanistan
9. Opium in Afghanistan
10. United States in Afghanistan (Reports, Happy Families, Black Sheep, "Disaster Capitalism")
11. Military Industrial Complex; Contracts; Contractors
12. US-NATO
13. NATO Coalition (Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, UK)
14. Dead in Afghanistan
15. Human Rights (Media, “War on Terror”, War Crimes, Detainees, 9/11, Prisons, Siddiqui, Torture)
16. Obama and McCain on Afghanistan
17. References

You can study the rest of this extensive and interesting material at Sarah's site, Index Research.

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Source: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2008/10/index-on-economics-and-peril-in.html