as an aside, on another site someone argued that even if big energy concerns were the main motivation for war, it's a "moot point" if our intentions and the eventual results are good. but ultimately, is this true? on the heels of events in iraq, doesn't this go toward sustained erosion of credibility on top of the prolonged violence and destruction of long-term war and military occupation? and this does no deeper, longer-term damage? counts for nothing?
http://original.antiwar.com/bock/2009/0 ... about-oil/
I'm not exaggerating or caricaturing too much when I suggest that the usual "it's all about oil" argument goes something like this. To get that pipeline built, it was/is necessary to invade, quash the unfriendly/uncooperative elements, and install a puppet government willing to do the bidding of the international oil consortium and facilitate building the pipeline and protecting it from saboteurs and other unpleasant types. . . To which I can only say, both with regard to the Afghan pipeline and the oil industry in general in Iraq, eight years on: "How's that working out?"
here's an oil/gas-related afghanistan timeline (and some highlights):David Kilcullen, an Australian counterinsurgency guru who is said to have briefed both Barack Obama and John McCain during the campaign last year and is considered one of the strategists behind the "surge" in Iraq, has recently published a book, The Accidental Guerrilla, that explains some of the reasons the U.S. "should avoid such interventions wherever possible, simply because the costs are so high and the benefits so doubtful." Among the many problems is that U.S. intervention provokes a backlash that leads many who would never have considered doing so otherwise to become "accidental guerrillas." . . . there may be some oil industry people who still think that heavy U.S. military and foreign-aid intervention into and management of resource-rich regions is just the ticket. It may be that Dick Cheney thought he was doing his buddies in the oil industry a favor with the invasion of Iraq, but such thinking is shortsighted and ultimately incorrect.
http://www.ringnebula.com/Oil/Timeline.htm
i don't like the look of that time line.1995: Unocal, seeking to build a pipeline across Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (for delivery to energy hungry Asia via the Pakistani Arabian Sea coast), signed an agreement with Turkmenistan for natural gas purchasing rights for transport through a proposed pipeline.
1997: US Congress passed a resolution declaring the Caspian and Caucasus region to be a "zone of vital American interests."
Dec. 1997: Unocal invited Taliban representatives to their corporate headquarters in Sugarland, TX. (11) to discuss the pipeline project. They were thereafter invited to Washington for meetings with Clinton Administration officials.
Jan. 1998: Unocal agreement signed between Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and the Taliban to arrange funding of the gas pipeline project, with Unocal also considering a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-Arabian Sea coast oil pipeline. VP Dick Cheney, then CEO of the giant oil services company, Halliburton, stated: "I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."
Feb. 1998: Unocal VP International Relations addressed US House of Representatives(14) clearly stating that the Taliban government should be removed and replaced by a government acceptable to his company. He argued that creation of a 42 inch oil pipeline across Afghanistan would yield a Western profit increase of 500% by 2015.
Dec. 1998: The Trade and Development Agency commissioned Enron to perform a feasibility study (20) re: an east-to-west route, crossing the Caspian Mountains and terminating in Turkey along the Mediterranean. (The route was considered impractical as it would cost an estimated $1 billion more than a route through Afghanistan.) Unocal issued a statement (21) that it had withdrawn from the pipeline project on 12/4/98, noting "business reasons."
Apr. 1999: Excluding US interests, Afghanistan, Pakistan, & Turkmenistan reactivated the pipeline project.
Jul. 1999: An executive order (13129) was issued by Clinton, freezing US held Taliban assets (23), & prohibiting trade plus other transactions.
Oct. 1999: UN Security Council Resolution 1267 imposed sanctions on the Taliban (24a), demanding that the Taliban "turn over the terrorist Usama Bin Laden without further delay..."
Jan. 2001: Upon taking office, the Bush administration immediately engaged in active negotiations with Taliban representatives (27) with meetings in Washington, DC, Berlin, and Islamabad. During this time the Taliban government hired Laila Helms, niece of former CIA director Richard Helms (28), as their go-between in negotiations with the US government.
Bush (oil) administration (29) includes:
* Dick Cheney, VP: Until 2000 - President of Halliburton (in position to build the Afghan pipeline).
* Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor: 1991-2000 - Manager of Chevron Oil, and Kazakhstan go-between.
* Donald Evans, Sec. Commerce: former CEO, Tom Brown, Inc. (a $1.2 billion oil company).
* Gale Norton, Sec. Interior: former national chairwoman of the Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates - funded by, among others, BP Amoco.
* Spencer Abraham, Sec. Energy: Up through his failed bid for senatorial reelection in the 2000, he received more oil and gas industry money than all but three other senators (January 1997 through July 2000) (30).
* Thomas White, Secretary of the Army: former Vice Chairman of Enron and a large shareholder of that company's stock.
May 2001: Regarding the placement of the Unocal Pipeline, a US Official delivered this ultimatum to the Taliban (via the Pakistani delegation acting as their interlocutors): "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs."
JULY 2001: Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July (34a) that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October. (See also BBC report(34b))
Aug. 2001: Last meeting with the Taliban (5 weeks before the 9/11/01 attack). Christina Rocca, in charge of Central Asian affairs for US government, met with the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan (Abdul Salam Zaeef) in Islamabad, at which time Taliban representatives were reminded that the US had provided monetary relief assistance. (The above referenced State Department report fails to mention that oil topics were also discussed.)
John O'Neill - Deputy director FBI, established national expert on the al-Qaeda network and in charge of that investigation, resigned in protest over the Bush Administration's obstruction of those investigations.
Aug. 23, 2001: John O'Neill accepted position as chief of security, World Trade Center buildings. NOTE: Electronic security for the World Trade Center was provided by Securacom (now Stratesec), a company initially founded with Kuwaiti capital. Marvin P. Bush, President George W. Bush's youngest brother served as a Securicom/Stratesec board member from 1993 through 2000.
Sept. 4-11, 2001: July - Sept. 2000 - Pakistani Intelligence Chief (ISI) Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad reportedly instructed British born Saeed Sheikh (alias: Ahmad Umar Sheikh, Mustafa Muhammad Ahmed, ....) in Pakistan to wire $100,000 (7/00-9/00) to two Florida bank accounts held by hijacker Mohammed Atta. Lt. General Ahmad entered the United States and subsequently met with many top officials within the Bush Administration.
Sept. 11, 2001: - Lt. General Ahmad concluded a breakfast meeting with Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), Representative Porter Goss (R-FL), and Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ). (Graham and Goss subsequently served as CO-Chairs of the Joint-Intelligence Committee investigating the 9/11 attacks.) During Ahmad's brief stay in the US, he also met with: Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman, and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE).
World Trade Center attacked by al Qaeda; fifteen of the nineteen were from Saudi Arabia. John O'Neill, WTC security chief, and former deputy director of the FBI, where he headed investigation of the al-Qaeda network, was killed in those buildings on that day.
Oct. 7, 2001: Military operations with aerial bombardment began in Afghanistan.
Oct. 31, 2001: The Bush White House drafted an unprecedented executive order (43a) sealing presidential records including those of prior administrations.
Dec. 22, 2001: The US-backed interim government headed by Hamid Karzai took office in Kabul, Afghanistan.
(Hamid Karzai had formerly functioned as a Unocal Corporation consultant)
Dec. 31, 2001: Bush appointed Zalmay Khalilzad, as his Special Envoy to Afghanistan. Zhalilzad, like Karzai had earlier functioned as a Unocal consultant, participating in 1997 talks between Unocal and Taliban officials. (Regarding Zhalilzad's "neocon" credentials, See: 45b).
Jan. 29, 2002: CNN reported: "President Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Tuesday to limit the congressional investigation into the events of 9/11/01"
Feb. 2002: Proposal to deploy US Special Operations forces to the Caucasus state of Georgia (would help enforce a Washington pipeline policy - neutralizing Russian influence in Central Asia.)
May 2002: Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai to hold talks with his Pakistani and Turkmenistan counterparts regarding a pipeline from Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan, and through Pakistan to the coast. Mohammad Alim Razim, Afghanistan's minister for Mines and Industries, stated Unocal was considered "the lead company" to build the pipeline. (See also: 47d.)
May 2002: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan agreed to construct a gas pipeline to the subcontinent.
Now, that is a solution that even L-Rod would be proud of...