https://thegrayzone.com/2021/08/21/us-afghanistan-pullout-cia-opium-pipeline/
~~ posted for dmorista with introduction by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista
This is a two hour long interview with Pepe Escobar. Escobar is very anti-American (tiresomely so sometimes) but has spent a lot of time in Afghanistan and knows some of the Afghan people.
The first part of the interview refers to an article he wrote for Asia Times (below).
Introdution:
This is a nearly 2-hour long interview of Pepe Escobar by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton both working at The Grayzone. Escobar is a relentlessly anti-American commenter who has written articles and opinion pieces at Asia Times On-Line for many years. His work is reposted at various places including Global Research. The interview looks at some of the underlying reasons for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, i.e. various proposed pipeline projects, control of the opium poppy and heroin trade, and the many mineral resources found in Afghanistan. They also discuss the fact that Afghanistan is very strategically located in a crossroads region in Central Asia. Many of the ongoing Chinese projects to build road and high speed rail systems and to exploit mineral resources cross the territory of Afghanistan.
Escobar says that the Chinese and Russians have been establishing close relations with the Taliban for years, and that they are advising them to actually not impose the draconian policies they enforced in the country the last time they ran it. It is a fact that both Russia and China are located in Eurasia near Afghanistan. They naturally have an outlook on some issues that is in common with the Afghans, and both the Chinese and Russians expected that the U.S. would give up on their occupation of Afghanistan and withdraw sooner or later. A large part of the interview refers to an opinion piece Escobar had posted at Asia Times on August 19 “China and Russia are Stage-Managing the Taliban”. This view is quite different from that being presented in the Corporate Controlled U.S. media outlets, that are reporting that Afghans who cooperated with the American occupation are being hunted down and killed. What the exact truth is is not quite clear right now, but we will see. Escobar has been right on the money in many of his observations in the past
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Inside US Afghanistan pullout, CIA opium ratline, pipeline conflict, new cold war
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton of the Moderate Rebels podcast discuss the US military pullout from Afghanistan with journalist Pepe Escobar, who has extensive experience reporting in the country and was arrested by the Taliban twice.
In the first part of the interview, we talk about the geopolitics of the conflict, how the Taliban has changed, what the future Afghan government could look like, and the corruption of US puppet President Ashraf Ghani and other CIA assets.
In the second part, we discuss the 20-year US/NATO war in Afghanistan, the opium ratline the CIA used to fund dirty covert ops, the fight over pipelines, and the estimated $1 trillion worth of untapped mineral reserves in the country, as well as Washington’s “pivot to Asia” and how Afghanistan is central in the new cold war on China and Russia.
Pepe Escobar says he and other geopolitical analysts he has spoken with think the US defeat in Afghanistan “is even more important than 9/11.”
“Everything that happened in the century until now, of course for all of us the most important geopolitical happening of the 21st century, the start of the 21st century, was 9/11,” Escobar explained. “And now the circle has closed, and we are into a new paradigm.”
“The number one and two strategic threats to the United States, or at least for the people who assume they are conducting policy for the United States, are Russia and China, which happens to be a strategic partnership,” he continued.
“So you can imagine [Zbigniew] Brzezinski rolling in his grave 24/7, because he was always desperate about the emergence of a peer competitor in Eurasia, especially in the Eurasian heartland. This is a geopolitics 101, in fact.”
“And that is what moved Brzezinski at the time, even before the Soviets entered Afghanistan, to invent a jihad. Which is something that we are living the after-effects of this intervention, 40 years later. And now the whole thing is turned upside down.”
Escobar said the newly independent government in Kabul will now likely join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, alongside Beijing and Moscow.
“So what does this tell us tell us?” he continued. “Once again, the big story of the 21st century, which irrespective of what the US was doing, which was basically the ‘war on terror’ for most of these past 20 years, the big story is the integration of Eurasia, with Russia and China as let’s say the primus inter pares – everybody is more or less equal, but of course Russia and China are more equal than the others. And everybody is under the same roof.”
This “is something that we’re going to see in the next few months,” with China and Russia “discussing among other extremely important geopolitical issues how are we going to integrate Afghanistan into an all-Asian project of economic and political integration, how are we going to support their efforts to have a country that is relatively stable.”
“Behind the scenes,” Escobar added, Beijing and Moscow “are more or less, I described it as stage-managing, but it’s more like it stage-managing in the sense of pointing the Afghan Taliban where to position themselves in the global stage. So the other half, which is what we could call NATO-stan – the United States and Europeans in NATO, more or less – have to respect this new paradigm, and at least try to live with it.”
You can download an audio-only podcast version of the interview below.
Historic US defeat in Afghanistan: Is it ‘most important geopolitical event of 21st century’? (Part 1)
Afghanistan: Pipelines, minerals, and CIA opium ratline (Part 2)
You can read some of Pepe Escobar’s columns here:
- “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan back with a bang: The US ‘loss’ of Afghanistan is a repositioning and the new mission is not a ‘war on terror,’ but Russia and China,” Asia Times (August 16, 2021)
- “China, Russia are stage-managing the Taliban: Beijing, Moscow are working overtime to scrub the Taliban’s ‘terrorist’ label and endorse it as a legitimate political movement,” Asia Times (August 19, 2021)
- “A Saigon moment looms in Kabul: August 12, 2021 will go down as the day the Taliban avenged America’s invasion and struck the blow that brought down its man in Kabul,” Asia Times (August 13, 2021)
POSTED IN OPINION
"China, Russia are stage-managing the Taliban"
Beijing, Moscow are working overtime to scrub the Taliban's 'terrorist' label and endorse it as a legitimate political movement
By PEPE ESCOBAR, AUGUST 19, 2021 ASIA TIMES, at < China, Russia are stage-managing the Taliban - Asia Times >
The first Taliban press conference after last weekend’s Saigon moment geopolitical earthquake, conducted by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, was in itself a game-changer.
The contrast could not be starker with those rambling pressers at the Taliban embassy in Islamabad after 9/11 and before the start of the American bombing – proving this incarnation of the Taliban is an entirely new political animal.
Yet some things never change. English translations remain atrocious. Here is a good summary of the key Taliban statements. These are the key takeaways:
– No problem for women to get an education all the way to college and to continue to work. They just need to wear the hijab, like in Qatar or Iran. No need to wear a burqa. The Taliban insist “all women’s rights will be guaranteed within the limits of Islamic law.”
– The Islamic Emirate “does not threaten anyone” and will not treat anyone as enemies. Crucially, revenge – an essential plank of the Pashtunwali code – will be abandoned, and that’s unprecedented. There will be a general amnesty, including people who worked for the former NATO-aligned system. Translators, for instance, won’t be harassed and don’t need to leave the country.
– The security of foreign embassies and international organizations “is a priority.” Taliban special security forces will protect both those leaving Afghanistan and those who remain.
– A strong inclusive Islamic government will be formed. “Inclusive” is code for the participation of women and Shiites.
– Foreign media will continue to work undisturbed. The Taliban government will allow public criticism and debate. But “freedom of speech in Afghanistan must be in line with Islamic values.”
– The Islamic Emirate of Taliban wants recognition from the “international community” – code for NATO. The overwhelming majority of Eurasia and the Global South will recognize it anyway.
It’s essential to note, for example, the closer integration of the expanding Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – Iran is about to become a full member, Afghanistan is an observer – with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The absolute majority of Asia will not shun the Taliban.
For the record, the Taliban also stated that it took all of Afghanistan in only 11 days: that’s pretty accurate. They stressed “very good relations with Pakistan, Russia and China.”
Yet the Taliban don’t have formal allies and are not part of any military-political bloc. They definitely “won’t allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for international terrorists.” That’s code for ISIS/Daesh.
On the key issue of opium and heroin, the Taliban say they will ban its production.
As eyebrow-raising as these statements may be, the Taliban did not even get into detail on economic and infrastructure development deals – as they will need a lot of new industries, new jobs and improved Eurasian-wide trade relations. That will likely be announced later.
What this first press conference reveals is how the Taliban are fast-absorbing essential PR and media lessons from Moscow and Beijing, emphasizing ethnic harmony, the role of women, the role of diplomacy and deftly defusing in a single move all the hysteria raging across NATOstan.
The next bombshell step in the PR wars will be to cut off the lethal, evidence-free Taliban-9/11 connection; thereafter the “terrorist organization” label will disappear and the Taliban as a political movement will be fully legitimized.
Moscow and Beijing are meticulously stage-managing the Taliban’s reinsertion in regional and global geopolitics. This means that the SCO is stage-managing the whole process: Russia and China are applying consensual decisions that have been taken in SCO meetings.
The key player the Taliban are talking to is Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s special presidential envoy for Afghanistan. In yet another debunking of the NATOstan narrative, Kabulov confirmed, for instance, “we see no direct threat to our allies in Central Asia. There are no facts proving otherwise.”
The Beltway will be stunned to learn that Zabulov has also revealed: “we have long been in talks with the Taliban on the prospects for development after their capture of power and they have repeatedly confirmed that they have no extraterritorial ambition, they learned the lessons of 2000.”
Zabulov reveals plenty of nuggets when it comes to Taliban diplomacy: “If we compare the negotiability of colleagues and partners, the Taliban have long seemed to me much more negotiable than the puppet Kabul government. We proceed from the premise that the agreements must be implemented. So far, with regard to the security of the embassy and the security of our allies in Central Asia, the Taliban have respected the agreements.”
These contacts were established “over the past seven years.”
Faithful to its adherence to international law, and not the “rules-based international order,” Moscow is always keen to emphasize the responsibility of the UN Security Council: “We must make sure that the new government is ready to behave conditionally, as we say, in a civilized manner. That’s when this point of view becomes common to all, then the procedure [of removing the qualification of the Taliban as a terrorist organization] will begin.”
So while the US/EU/NATO flee Kabul in spasms of self-inflicted panic, Moscow is practicing diplomacy. Zabulov adds: “That we have prepared the ground for a conversation with the new government in Afghanistan in advance is an asset of Russian foreign policy.”
Meanwhile, Dmitry Zhirnov, Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan, is working overtime with the Taliban including a meeting with a senior Taliban security official on Tuesday. The meeting was “positive, constructive … The Taliban movement has the most friendly; the best policy towards Russia … He arrived alone in one vehicle, with no guards.”
Both Moscow and Beijing have no illusions that the West is already deploying hybrid war tactics to discredit and destabilize a government that isn’t even formed yet and hasn’t even started working. No wonder Chinese media is describing Washington as a “strategic rogue.”
What matters is that Russia and China are way ahead of the curve, cultivating parallel inside tracks of diplomatic dialogue with the Taliban. It’s crucial to remember that Russia harbors 20 million Muslims and China at least 35 million. These will be called to support the immense project of Afghan reconstruction and full Eurasia reintegration.
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