Posted on 12/10/2009 12:36:27 PM PST by staffjam
Operation Enduring Freedom, on Oct. 7 will begin its ninth year. At $4 billion per month, a National Priorities Project has determined that the total cost of military operations in Afghanistan by the end of the year will be almost $200 billion. Thoughtful American taxpayers may ask why the Obama administration has not only embraced the Central Asian ground war that it inherited from Bush, but is seeking to expand not only the U.S. military footprint, but subject its NATO allies to contribute more troops and funding as well.
Shorn of post 9/11 patriotic and fervor against the perpetrators of that terrorist deed, the answer is simple access to the rising volumes of Central Asian energy, particularly natural gas, long locked up and exploited by the USSR and its successor state, the Russian Federation.
Central Asian energy has four possible directions for export. The USSR spun a network of export pipelines, the Truboprovodnaiia sistema Sredniaia Aziia-Tsentr (the Central Asia-Center, or SATS) network, which ran northwards to bring Turkmen gas via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to the Russian SSR. The SATS eastern branch consists of SATS-1, 2, 4 and 5 pipelines, which were built between 1960 and 1988. Construction began after the discovery of Turkmenistan's Dzharkak field, with the first SATS section coming online in 1960, while SATS-4 was commissioned in 1973.
The collapse of the USSR changed everything. Suddenly independent and buffeted by rampant inflation and economic dislocation caused by the implosion of the Soviet Union, the newly independent states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan looked westwards for desperately needed foreign investment to unlock their hydrocarbon potential and provide the wealth for restructuring their societies in the post-Soviet era.
While Western energy companies scored successes first with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan
Full article: Afghan War
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
We can’t even get our own resources much less those in s.e. Asia...right?
So, it’s blood for oil, right?
Troll
Recent joinup, posts nothing but articles attacking oil companies, and has never responded within a thread.
It would be horrible if we were able to project power over central asian oil and coal fields. I believe the author must be getting a retainer from the Chinese who are real horney for resources in asia as well as africa.
Troll - the articles aren’t attacking Oil Companies - where exactly do i attack them??? These are well researched Geopolitical pieces on numerous issues!
So let me get this straight.
The Tollybohn offered Aal queedah sanctuary in Ahfghoneestahn in the ‘90s to train and equip the terrorists.
Said terrorists then bombed the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the embassies in Africa, the USS Cole and then as a coup de grace, hijacked multiple aircraft in the United States ultimatel killing thousands with their attacks so that the evil and empirical Bush Administration would then have a reason to invade Ahfghoneestahn so we could secure their oil and other resources?
Dude, you need to adjust the tinfoil on your head. That type of speculation just beggars belief. It implies that the U.S. was complicit in starting the wars.
That whole “article” is bereft with falsehoods. Using the tired and false “There were no WMD’s in Iraq.” argument sealed it for me.
More likely a blog pimp...
Tollybohn
Aal queedah
Ahfghoneestahn
I looked up your posting history....
This post to which I am replying is the first time you’ve ever posted within a thread (not the thread originator). This is classic Troll behavior, and it astounds me you’ve not been zotted by now.
You know, I heard that “It’s all about oil” B.S. from people back when gas cost 5$ a gallon.
Now, IF we were there for the oil, wouldn’t gas cost $1.29 OR LESS?!
Get that bit of REALITY through your thick heads!
IBTZ
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