No man is an island, and each man’s death diminishes me. But some more than others and the loss of Ahmed Wali Karzai, Governor of Kandahar, monster of corruption, second largest heroin dealer in the world, is not particularly saddening. It is, however, a tremedous reminder of the absolute futility of the war in Afghanistan.
NATO have killed uncounted thousands, many of them civilians, precisely to put Ahmed Wali Karzai and his like into power. Ahmed Wali and his counterparts have stolen many billions of Western taxpayers’ money, intended for aid and reconstruction. They have flooded the world with more and cheaper heroin than ever seen before. Somehow this has all been a great victory for the West.
The difference between Karzai and his brother is one of style, not substance. The idea that Ahmed Wali was up to his ears in drugs and corruption, but elder brother Ahmed is clean, is absolute nonsense. It is however part of the myth we are supposed to absorb to justify this war, which has been extremely profitable for weapons manufacturers and other military suppliers, and boosted the funding and standing of the military themselves, mercenaries and the whole shady “security industry”. What it has not done is improve the lives of the people of Afghanistan.
Ahmed Wali Karzai, by getting killed by his bodyguard, has done us a favour. Otherwise the media could have ignored him and all he stands for about the Afghanistan which NATO has created, and just continued to sell us the lies about improved security, wise governance and girls going to school – none of which are true.
http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2010/06/02/ahmad-wali-karzai-from-waiter-to-king-of-kandahar.html
Obama’s favourite dining spot? (!)
Two down, one to go. It seems likely that Osama bin Laden’s assassination was saved for “the right moment”, as the US apparently knew where he was in 2005. The BBC are being remarkably sympathetic towards Wali, of course.
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The Afghan conflict is being quietly run down in media importance. We are meant to look in other directions. The corporations will move in to exploit the recently discovered mineral wealth, and NATO forces will quietly hand over the task of protecting them to companies like Xe who, not being state forces, don’t deserve media attention.
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How long before President Karzai does a runner? And where will his new home be; the flat upstairs from Alisher Usmanov, maybe?
Or Troon, where, it is said, Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair lives? Nice beach, golf course. Lots of retired spies, walking their well-groomed dogs along the beach.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Adair
No one seems to know quite how Ahmad Wali Karzai came to be killed. The BBC are appealing for rumor and speculation, and request that you submit your conspiracy theories at the bottom of this page:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14118884
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Serious drug dealers are advised to refuse any offers of suitcases full of cash from strange Americans in dark suits and sunglasses, apparently lost in the Afghan mountains.
This program Afghanistan: The Unknown Country, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012g0dl.html includes an interview with him (unless I’m muddling him up with some other nasty bastard). Expires (the program, not the nasty bastard) next Tuesday, the 19th.
Ah, the interview clip I reference is actually at the top of the page Clark references. Still, the rest of the program is worth a look, too.
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Yes, I thought Lyse Doucet presented a decent overview and seems to have got to know people, incl. women, in Afghanistan, speaks Persian, etc.
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Off topic:
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You can watch Yates being questioned, live, at the Home Affairs Committee here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14118864
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Don’t know if it’s nearly over
“The idea that Ahmed Wali was up to his ears in drugs and corruption, but elder brother Ahmed is clean, is absolute nonsense”.
Very true, but it is a direct consequence of the foolish belief that everyone is either good or bad (depending on the colour of his hat).
If you believe that – as a lot of people apparently do – then Hamid Karzai must be good, as he works for NATO which represents the powers of good. But his brother must have been bad, if only because he was a drug dealer.
See how easy things become if you choose a simplistic enough ideology!
So if he was the second largest heroin dealer in the world, who is the largest?
Craig, do you reckon we will ever find out who killed Richard Conroy? His death is closely linked to the whole wretched game that is being played.
Gen.Dostum and Walid deceased, although from different tribes, cooperated their demands for cursor chems and the US/NATO sat by looked on as they were producing record amounts of heroin.
Anybody who wants to knock the stuffing out of this dangerous trade, which only flourishes as it does, due to the prohibitionary pressures world wide.
If our health services c/would purchase their opiates from Afghan farmers, legally, criminal gangs would lose their support within the population, slowly, agreed, but there would be alternative legal markets competing easily with an illegal one, if that would still exist at all.
Such a move would have to be instigated by the UN, thye already made noises, they can see South American countries disagreeing with prohibition which is proven to be more debiliating in all its effects than the drugs themselves.
Decriminalisation, regulation and subsequent legalisation of drugs would pull the rug away from underneath the current organised crime networks, after some flaying about, they would eventually wither away, unless off course, politicians could’nt cope with the extra monies freed, currently wasted on a futile war on drugs.
It would cost far less to police and legislate and imprison, whilst costing some more to educate, BUT, it would bring in a variety of new revenue schemes, save loads on NHS drugs, as once legal, we could use in their natural form, an economic increase overall.
Sorry, I could go on, a massive issue with multiple options.
In her ‘travelogue’ Lyse Doucet gazed longingly at the empty niches of the Buddhas that the Taliban destroyed and made great play of this but did not mention the thousands upon thousands of Afghan civilians and their little ones who have been maimed, burned and shredded by coalition weapons, many of which are propelled’ from drones. She cosied up nicely to Ahmed Wali Karzai I thought and seemed impressed by the quantity of armed goons in his compound. She is a shill for the antics of the PNAC/NWO operatives. She beguiles with her chat about poetry, archaeology and the like and smiles to the little children who have nothing. I loathe her, her propaganda and her kind.
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Afghanistan – The Unknown Country is on the iPlayer 60 mins
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012g0dl/Afghanistan_The_Unknown_Country/
comments from friends:
Couldn’t happen to a more worthy fellow. Getting a bit close to Karzai – if I were him, I’d be consulting the airline schedules and asking the staff to run dusters over the Washington pad and stock the fridge.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28441.htm
Above from Cynthia McKinney. I have all the time for her. See the clip of terrible barbarity which I assume is from Benghazi. Whatever – where is mankind? How terrible. I think of Il Duce, Hussein, that president of Afghanistan, what awaits Aziz and the millions of others.
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A Naval friend close to British special forces ‘black’ task forces has documented 43 ‘Blue on White’ or NC KIA incidents in Afghanistan killing families, two pregnant women and 32 children. Most are bombing raids or rocket attacks on ‘suspected’ homes harbouring Pakistani militants’ not Taliban. I have to stress I have been told attacks ‘do not occur without previous surveillance’ and militants ‘use children as shields’ and ‘those children will be sacrificed’ if necessary. I have deduced from this right or wrong that a secret war on Pakistan is in place by American and British special task forces under the radar of the Afghanistan war and the subject of misinformation and obfuscated by the media.
Mark –
Forgive my saying so, but I think your deduction is not only right, but has been obvious a long time!
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Frazer, yes, but not the children. The West’s whole policy in the region is wrong, and must be changed. The region has resources enough to be very prosperous, but it must be developed indigenously rather than exploited. Contented people don’t become violent extremists.
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CIA, ISI, who are friends, who are enemies?
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/15/pakistan-usa
Clark..far too complicated to think about that one now as it is 4pm over here and I am going home..
The more I hear from Frazer, the less I like what he says. Or is it just bravado? I know he is Craig’s cousin and thatn he does brave work but that is no excuse.
Frazer, you’ll always have my respect, for making things that would explode and kill, not explode and kill. Take care.
I think what is not obvious is the nuanced way British special forces have switched to targeting certain elements within the Pakistani Army and the ISI rather than seeking out Taliban militants in Quetta and Baluchistan. I believe a three-fold objective exists to (a)incite an uprising in Pakistan, (b)carry out certain objectives in Iran from Pakistan’s south west border and (c)arm certain Iranian dissident groups. According to my sources a recent shipment of Russian rockets and explosives was discovered by an SAS unit patrolling near the Iranian border and used to blame Iran for arming the Taliban.
See washington’s blog for some more interesting comments about 9/11.
Yugo Stiglitz will be gratified that that comments do not question the involvement of the 19, but asks questions about their supporters, and the involvement of the White House in inhibiting a thorough investigation and full disclosure of all connections and factors surrounding the event.
The interesting thing is that the unmistakeable stink, (for whatever reason), that continues to emanate from 9/11, is attracting attention and being commented on by people who are closer and closer to the centre and who previously would not have dared to raise any questions and, importantly, are much less easy to smear with the simplistic accusation of ‘conspiracy loon’.
It is also interesting that confidence is rising again in relation to the torture and rendition issues that Bush and his supporters have, so far, evaded.
This may be accounted for by the failure of Obama regime to make any meaningful changes, but i think it is notable that it is not forgotten, after a period when it seemed that it was being allowed to slip away into the mists of time.
Second thoughts on what I said to Frazer. Did I get it wrong? Was he saying good riddance to Ahmed Wali Karzai or to Afghan and Pakistani people and their children in general? If the former, agree.
Mary, if the latter, it wasn’t Pakistani people in general, but Pakistani militants, and we know what Suhayl tells us about them. They include the people that killed Benazir Bhutto. We also know that some of their funding has come from the West. I expect Frazer would be livid at that, had he the time to think about it. Let’s just wish him steady hands and a clear head so he can take on the politicians with his keyboard later in life.
Mary: “Was he saying good riddance to Ahmed Wali Karzai or to Afghan and Pakistani people and their children in general? If the former, agree.”
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Of course when he said the same about Osama bin Laden you were wailing about his lack of humanity.
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It’s funny to see which people those who congratulate themselves on their “humanity” and their “compassion” will mourn over and those whose deaths they will gloat over.
The first was the result of a turf war.
The second was the result of an extra judicial state assassination in a foreign country of someone who, if he actually still existed at the time, was not guilty of any crime as charged.
“The first was the result of a turf war.
The second was the result of an extra judicial state assassination in a foreign country”
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So the first is legitimate and the second isn’t? I fail to see the distinction. In fact, I am sure there isn’t one.
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“…of someone who, if he actually still existed at the time, was not guilty of any crime as charged.”
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This bit is meaningless. You mean either to say that there was no killing. Or that you don’t think he was guilty of anything he was accused of. Or you think he wasn’t formally accused of anything at all. But you’ve mashed it all together into an incoherent sentence.
Jeez, Angry, don’t you get tired of deliberate misinterpreting, trolling, feigning confusion and nit-picking all the time? It’s bleedin’ obvious what Mary is saying. Still, the more weak retorts you post, the better the chance someone might follow a link to your sad blog. Chin up, old boy – it’ll happen one day!