NATO has made more mistakes in Afghanistan than USSR, says Russian envoy.

[Octafish]

It's madness to keep wars going that do nothing but bankrupt America. It's even crazier when you think that even the "good works" we're supposed to be doing are amounting to nothing more than wasted money and shattered lives -- there and here.

So. Why are we still at war? The money: The richest and most powerful people in the world are building on their already enormous fortunes.

The West has made even more mistakes in Afghanistan than us, says Russian envoy to Kabul

Britain and America have made a string of strategic blunders which will delay any prospect of successfully withdrawing from Afghanistan, the Russian ambassador to Kabul has said.

By Ben Farmer in Kabul
The Telegraph (UK)
Published: 7:47PM BST 11 Sep 2010

Andrey Avetisyan, a veteran Kabul diplomat, said talk of a handover to the Afghans was currently unrealistic because the coalition had failed to build the nation's forces or economy.

SNIP...

"For the last eight years, there have been no big projects, not infrastructure projects," he went on.

"A school here, a hospital there. When it is built people start asking 'Well where are the teachers and the doctors?' because no one thought about it before." The Afghan government was crippled by a shortage of able, trained civil servants. The new army was being trained "almost on the battlefield".

SNIP...

Russia is worried that an unstable Afghanistan could become a launch pad for Islamist militant attacks and wants to stem the heroin which kills 30,000 Russians annually.

CONTINUED...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7996788/The-West-has-made-even-more-mistakes-in-Afghanistan-than-us-says-Russian-envoy-to-Kabul.html

Where there's money to be made, you'll find the BFEE.

[Octafish]

1. The Skinny About the Secret Plotting and Scheming of the Power Players in the Afghan War.

Know it's a lot of verbiage, but that's the part called information:

Here's the Skinny About the Secret Plotting and Scheming of the Power Players in the Afghan War

What is Washington's real reason for spending $100 billion a year (and counting) fighting a bunch of Arab jihadi instructors?

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
September 8, 2010

Nine years ago -- one day before Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, Lion of the Panjshir, was killed by two al-Qaeda jihadis disguised as journalists; and three days before 9/11 -- who would have thought that Afghanistan would still be mired in a war of 150,000 United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops against 50 or 60 al-Qaeda jihadis plus a horde of Pashtun nationalists vaguely bundled up as "Taliban"? Not even the Bearded One upstairs who, by the way, according to Stephen Hawking, had nothing to do with creating this valley of tears we all inhabit.

Another year. Another 9/11 anniversary. The same Afghanistan war. It may not be the "war on terror" anymore -- rebranded "overseas contingency operations" by the Barack Obama administration. It may have become Obama's "good war" -- rebranded as AfPak and costing US taxpayers $100 billion a year (and counting). But Obama still wallows in the mire of being a hostage to George W. Bush's wars.

As much as Washington may entertain the illusion that it's in command, it's actually Hamid Karzai, the wily Afghan president, who is playing an attacking game in this latest installment of the New Great Game in Eurasia. And, as usual, there's never a mention anywhere of the key Pipelineistan game.

Round up the usual suspects

As it must be clear by now, Pakistan is essentially an army/intelligence establishment disguised as a country. The army/Inter-Services Intelligence tandem has been and will always be pro-Taliban. Anyone who believes the tandem will "reform" - with or without billions of dollars of US aid - believes in the Easter bunny.

For Islamabad it's still - and will always be - about "strategic depth", the doctrine that rules Afghanistan as a privileged Pakistani-controlled backyard (that's exactly what it was between 1992, at the start of the intra-mujahideen wars, till the end of the Taliban "government" in 2001).

Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kiani - a darling of the Pentagon - has been granted a three-year extension to his mandate. Karzai took no time to duly note the obvious: Kiani will continue to pull all stops to be the top dog in Kabul. So he must be accommodated.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/world/148118/here%27s_the_skinny_about_the_secret_plotting_and_scheming_of_the_power_players_in_the_afghan_war/

It's better than saying: "Too-many-words-for-its-own-good-kick."

[H2O Man]

2. Our policy there

is really the same as the what was done in the 1800s with the "reservation system" that was forced upon Native Americans. But the dynamics are different, and Uncle Sam is going to have a historical experience similar to other empires that invaded that territory.

[Octafish]

3. General George Armstrong Custer Bush

Thank you for putting the situation into words, H20 Man. The nation's "owners," who believe they are now entitle to plundering the entire planet, have found that there are too many damn Indians. So they encourage the real "nuclear option" with Dr. A.Q. Khan and Co. and their chums who imprisoned Mordechai Vanunu.

Same family types who believe in sacrifice on behalf of racial superiority and, thus, ritual suicide -- cough, genocide -- for the lower classes and orders.