\n
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 11 – Four Afghan protesters were killed and
\n more than 60 were injured today in the eastern city of Jalalabad in the
\n worst anti-American demonstrations Afghanistan has seen in the three
\n years since the fall of the Taliban. At least a dozen buildings were
\n ransacked and burned, including the governor’s office, several government
\n buildings, the United Nations mission compound, and a number of offices
\n belonging to aid groups.<\/p>\nBAGHDAD, Iraq, May 11 – Insurgents struck in northern and central Iraq
\n today in a series of bloody bombing attacks that killed at least 79 people
\n in three cities, and wounded at least 120 others, according to figures
\n provided by police and hospital officials. The attacks appeared to signify
\n an intensification of attempts by Sunni Arab militants to disrupt Iraq’s
\n newly formed Shiite majority government.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nlatest New York Times dispatches from (Afganistan<\/a>) and (Iraq<\/a>)<\/p>\n
Whooops! Just when things were starting to settle down enough to get
\n back into business, this nasty holy war against Americans keeps coming
\n back like a bad dream. Especially in Afghanistan, which the theory of comparative
\n advantage tells us is the perfect place to produce some of Americas most
\n indispensable consumables, such as heroin and hashish. Before this latest
\n rash of bad news, Afghan drug production was skyrocketing, and the country
\n was well on its way back to the top of the intoxicant export business
\n worldwide.<\/p>\nIn Iraq the situation has been more problematic. In Iraq, of course,
\n the business is oil. The oil is there, just waiting, reasonably safe
\n a mile underground. And from
\n some
\n points
\n of view, the longer it stays there, the more it will be worth, as we near
\n the endgame of the Great Petroleum Extravaganza that defined the 20th century,
\n and the first half of the 21st. <\/p>\nIn the meantime, this holy war business
\n is attracting a lot of this Jihad riffraff out from under their rocks
\n to get their asses blown off before they figure out how to hit us where
\n we’re
\n unprotected.
\n Much
\n better
\n to be blowing them up in their countries, rather than ours. So we could
\n afford to sit on the oil, and clean up the vermin, except for the drip,
\n drip,
\n drip
\n of
\n blood,
\n and body parts flying through the air, and those damn bloggers who won’t
\n let people forget.<\/p>\nAh, it’s a dangerous and twisted
\n game we are playing over there, and the body count is making it harder
\n and harder to distract attention from
\n what
\n is really
\n going on. Except that, maybe the body count, and the whole act in Iraq,
\n is distracting attention from what is really really<\/em> going on.
\n Machinations within maneuvers with misdirection. <\/p>\nIt was such an attractive concept, killing numerous dirty birds with
\n one stone, plus the deadliest military force ever directed against anyone,
\n anywhere. Getting rid of Saddam. Testing out all our new toys. Intimidating
\n the neighbors. Showing those pansy Eurotrash. Guaranteeing America’s
\n vital supplies of the two indispensable foreign-produced supplies
\n we need to survive in the 21st century; oil and drugs. And it was working
\n so nicely, especially in Afghanistan The Dowbrigade was actually
\n thinking of visiting on an upcoming vacation.<\/p>\nAh, well, colonialism is long gone, and economic imperialism isn’t what
\n it used to be. Military occupation is still a steady standby in a crunch,
\n but even the Romans realized it was a lost cause in the long run. If you
\n can’t find a reliable and effective puppet to rule in proxy, the only
\n alternative is to not leave one stone standing. Watch and learn, boys
\n and girls.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KABUL, Afghanistan, May 11 – Four Afghan protesters were killed and more than 60 were injured today in the eastern city of Jalalabad in the worst anti-American demonstrations Afghanistan has seen in the three years since the fall of the … Continue reading