Karzai, regional leaders agree to pipeline project through Taliban territory in Afghanistan

[bemildred]

Source: LAT

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan —
Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with regional leaders Saturday to sign an agreement for a massive energy project that could eventually net his country billions in revenue: a proposed 1,000-mile natural gas pipeline whose route cuts through the heartland of the Taliban insurgency.

As if to highlight the complications facing the project, at least 26 people were killed in a series of attacks Friday and Saturday, including a Taliban commander and possible members of a private security firm, Afghan and NATO officials said.

The United States strongly supports the proposed pipeline because it could draw Central Asia's significant energy resources to Pakistan and India while bypassing Iran, Washington's top adversary in the Middle East.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-bombings-20101212,0,4177099.story

[Arctic Dave]

1. This is nothing but a conspiracy theory!

We would never go to war for resource control.

[social_critic]

24. It's not about resource control

The idea was to establish a "client state" close to Western China and Russia's underbelly. The resources they are discussing are natural gas, and Iran already has huge gas reserves - the US media is well known for a) ignorant and b) deceitful articles. A much simpler scheme would be to ship Afghan gas to Pakistan (they are next to each other), and even that will be nearly impossible because the line would go through Pashtunistan.

[David Zephyr]

29. Yep, just a crazy "conspiracy theory".

After all the bumps on my head for saying the words "pipeline" since October of 2001, here's a story that somehow got the light of day.

[jtuck004]

2. Wanted: Pipeline welders also proficient with AR-15. Good benefits, occasional explosions. n/t

[elias49]

3. "It's the gas, stupid." nt

[The abyss]

4. Oh - Wow! What a novel idea!

:sarcasm:

Seems like I recall someone suggesting this sometime back....

[silver10]

5. Repuke-supported Corporate Welfare

The War in Afghanistan and your government tax dollars at work.

[Forkboy]

6. Never saw this coming.

:freak:

[David Zephyr]

26. They finally get their friggin' pipeline.

Apparently, you are as stunned as I am, Forkboy.

Of course, this was the original sin, wasn't it? :)

[Trajan]

7. Did someone say 'Carpet of Bombs' ?

[David Zephyr]

27. Thank you for saying the magic words.

That's it right there. $2 Trillion of wars waged on lies, one million dead:

Carpet of gold or carpet of bombs.

Thanks, Trajan. Some of us know.

[caseymoz]

8. Doesn't sound so desperate or dangerous . . .

. . . next to say drilling for oil more than 5,000 feet under the ocean.

[eomer]

12. So you don't care if we invade countries in order to secure advantageous treatment?

As long as it's not too desperate or dangerous?

It is fairly dangerous, I would think, but I guess not to you personally, so what the heck. If only brown funny-talking people are killed, we're good, right?

[caseymoz]

17. lol. You miss my sarcasm because for some reason I can't activate emoticons.

I can't even bring the table up. I tried to put the word sarcasm into brackets but it totally did not work. It's an issue on my firefox browser I haven't dealt with yet.

I'm with you, but this sounds like a fiendish, desperate plan, something that a movie villain would concoct, and one that won't work minimally without casualties.

[eomer]

18. Oh, sorry, I did miss it.

Until you get the DU emoticon thing working, use sarcasm with a : (colon) before and after it. There are some other ones that work the same way like grin, rofl, popcorn, applause, etc., all with a colon before and after.

[peace13]

9. Well finally, he said it before wiki could.

If this is news to anyone ....well....they simply weren't listening for the past ten years!

[FirstLight]

10. hmmm

once again it is apparent that we are not Liberating, we are after resources...

this will not end well

[CanonRay]

11. Well not theres no more need for a war.

[Monk06]

13. Looks like the US is finally going to get what it wants out of Karzai

And this is why the US will never leave Afghanistan.

And also the main reason for invading in the first place

http://www.counterpunch.org/tomenron.html

[Solly Mack]

14. Well, just shock me shitless

Snort

[David Zephyr]

28. LOL.

Me, too.

[Downwinder]

15. Rather expensive way to get an easement.

What ever happened to DADT, just build it.

[Gin]

16. bring my Marine home from that god foresaken place and they

can blow themselves up with the gas...for all I care..

Karzai can drop dead in his hat & cape...asshole.

I am so fed up with us being in that country that all reason has been replaced with disgust and ill-will.

[truth2power]

19. A pipeline? Through Afghanistan? ...I'm shocked. Shocked I tell ya'...

I'm so sick of these lying fools. That was the SOLE reason we invaded that country. Had nothing to do with democracy or women going to school, yada yada.

Wasting our blood and treasure so multi-national corporations can rake in the loot. :banghead:

[aquart]

20. Yep. And if they think it's gonna get built....LOL!

[David Zephyr]

30. "the sole reason"

It was.

[Robb]

21. There's something missing from this picture:

Gas.

The Turkmenistan-China pipe opened about this time last year; the second parallel pipe is (IIRC) set to be turned on in the next month or so. Short shot from Saman Depe to Alashankou, through Uzebekistan ad Kazakhstan. And pumping already.

TAPI, whether it goes to India or the Gulf of Oman, still has to go south through the absolute worst parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan to get even as far as Quetta.

For a fraction of the cost Turkmenistan could route all the natural gas they ever produce to this proven, reliable route -- and China would buy every cubic centimeter of it.

My money's still not on TAPI laying an inch of pipe. Ever.

[crikkett]

22. Mission Accomplished. n/t

[David Zephyr]

31. Yes, mission accomplished.

Well said.

[ooglymoogly]

23. The C-eye-a and the $tate dept. are denying rumor of any plans to invade

neighboring Fucksuckistan where a pumping station is planned; stating emphatically that the rumors of Fucksucistani women being used as pack mules to carry weapons across the border are totally false; allowing that isolated incidences may have occurred.

[David Zephyr]

25. Well, bemildred, they finally got their pipeline going.

$2 Billion of wars later, over 1 million dead, and now the deal is approved.

[crim son]

32. Well, thank God!

Our young men and women will not have died in vain! (is the sarcasm smiley really needed?)

[Nihil]

34. And the victory song was recorded in 1973 ...

Rejoice! glory is ours!
Our young men have not died in vain,
Their graves need no flowers
The tapes have recorded their names.

:-(


Isn't it sad that a bleak "futuristic" song can get
so damned close to the truth today?

Cold and misty morning, I heard a warning borne in the air
About an age of power where no one had an hour to spare,
Where the seeds have withered, silent children shivered, in the cold
Now their faces captured in the lenses of the jackals for gold.
...
Suffering in silence, they've all been betrayed.
They hurt them and they beat them, in a terrible way,
Praying for survival at the end of the day.
There is no compassion for those who stay.

[crim son]

36. Nihil, just saw this now.

Yes, sad indeed. Betrayed and lied to, our young people, and the old. It's more vile than I have words to say.

[pampango]

33. Should make Pakistan and India happy, assuming no one blows up the pipeline everyday. n/t

[conspirator]

35. This should read "Puppet signs the damn documents that he was put in power to sign"

in a parallel reality were lies are not allowed.