our new $37 mil, 670 meter bridge between Afghanistan and Tajikistan opened

[donsu]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/II05Df01.html

Afghan bridge exposes huge divide


-snip-

Last week, the US Army Corps of Engineers plugged the gap in Alexander's logistics by building a bridge across the Pyanj River to connect Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The poignancy of the occasion was obvious. US President George W Bush made it a point amid the distractions over Iraq to send a cabinet-level official to be present at the bridge opening ceremony on August 26 in Tajikistan.

What is the significance of a 670-meter bridge? Previously, a sporadic ferry service connected the Tajik town of Nizhny Pyanj with the Afghan town of Shir Khan Bandar. The torrential river currents didn't allow the ferry to operate for months at a stretch when the ice and snow melted in the Pamirs and flooded the tributaries. But the new bridge can easily handle as many as 1,000 trucks per day.

Strictly speaking, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez didn't have to come all the way to witness the commissioning of the US$37 million project. But the US administration evidently regarded this as a showcase project. Gutierrez said the bridge would become "the widest connection between Afghanistan and the rest of the world". That was an interesting enough diplomatic statement - relating Afghanistan to its northern neighbors.

-snip-

Great game accelerating
It is extremely rare that the geopolitics of an entire region comes to be encapsulated within a single occasion. To be sure, the ceremony on the banks of the Pyanj River provided a movable feast for politicians, diplomats, the media and strategic thinkers alike. Anyone even remotely interested in the Great Game took note.
-long snip-
-----------------------


neo con empire marches along and we fund it

[IndyOp]

1. Rock on!

This will certainly make my morning commute safer and quicker.

:applause:

[kenny blankenship]

2. The New Improved Opium Road?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. so who actually paid for this wonderful bridge?

[SoCalDem]

4. You did.. I did ..We all did..n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. but I wasn't even asked!!!

I want a refund!

I think some billboard posters with a picture of this bridge and the one that fell in the USA would drive it all home to people how much they have been taken for a ride. I remember Kerry's plea of us building fire houses in Baghdad but not in the USA went unnoticed perhaps the bridge might be the answer?

[rodeodance]

12. The US-funded bridge across the Pyanj River leads in the north to China's

The US-funded bridge across the Pyanj River leads in the north to China's newly developed road links with Tajikistan. It provides China's Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region with yet another all-weather communication link with Karachi port, which the Karakorum Highway cannot.

The bridge underscores that China doesn't necessarily have to depend on the SCO for developing its transportation routes to the South Asia/Persian Gulf region.

In fact, a US State Department handout in Washington last week highlights this by pointing out, "On the Tajik side, the bridge will connect to routes leading north, west and east through roads that Japan plans to build or modernize; on the Afghan side, it will connect to Afghanistan's nearly completed ring road and Pakistan's port of Karachi through roads constructed with ADB financing."

There is enough food for thought here for strategic analysts rooted in their belief that China's access to the warm waters of the South Asian/Persian Gulf region would be completely antithetical to US strategic interests.

M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for more than 29 years, with postings including ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-98) and to Turkey (1998-2001).

[Quantess]

5. Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast remains in shambles

and our own bridges are crumbling.

[merh]

6. an image of the bridge

and another article

Tajikistan/Afghanistan: Road Bridge Opens With Aim Of Strengthening Trade
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/08/c2469723-5de7-4c33-992b-d5df4bfcdb42.html


And the drug trade routes improve.

£18.5m bridge spans missing link in Silk Road
By Magnus Slingsby
Published: 27 August 2007

Afghanistan and Tajikistan yesterday inaugurated a new $37m (£18.4m) bridge linking the two countries. The 680m (2,230ft) long structure, funded as a gift by the US Government, spans the river Pyanj and forms the missing link in the Silk Road - the ancient trading route between Europe and the Far East. It also replaces an intermittent ferry service across the fast-flowing waterway.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Emomali Rakhmon, the Tajik President, described the crossing as a "bridge of friendship". His Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, agreed, saying: "This bridge ties together not only two friendly countries but unites central Asia with southern and eastern Asia."

-snip-

However, it is feared the bridge may also provide the region's drug traffickers with a new way to export their contraband. Most Afghan heroin smuggled to Europe comes through Tajikistan. "It is necessary to prevent this bridge from being used for drug traffic," Mr Rakhmon warned.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2898428.ece

[Rosa Luxemburg]

but Bush can't repair our bridges yet he can build brand new bridges out there!!!!!!

:mad:

[kenny blankenship]

15. The Smack must flow...

[merh]

17. but, but, it was a gift ...

"it's the thought that counts" :argh:

repairing our bridges isn't necessary, they know they have us where they want us, fat, greedy, lazy and content - we don't need to be appeased, we won't do anything - we can't touch them.

[OxQQme]

18. The question I have is

'WHO' are the people that have the chutzpa/leverage to make this power play in such a remote part of the world?
What fairy tales did their nannys tell them as they were growing up?
This seems to be a first step in a long range plan.

[rodeodance]

8. America's 'Great Central Asia' strategy

America's 'Great Central Asia' strategy
Thus, for any number of good reasons, prying Tajikistan from the orbit of traditional Russian influence has become a key objective of US diplomacy. Washington is pressing Japan and the European Union to take interest. EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana visited Dushanbe last week.

The thrust of the United States' so-called "Great Central Asia" strategy is to pull Tajikistan toward Afghanistan by the scruff of its neck, as it were, in an effort to draw the Central Asian region itself incrementally toward the South Asian countries - with Afghanistan acting as a hub, or a revolving door. With the consolidation of US strategic influence in the recent years in the South Asian region, Washington estimates that its skillful midwifery in Central Asia has a fair chance of success.

The US has brought in financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to explore the possibility of funding trans-regional projects aimed at strengthening the infrastructure and communication links among the countries of the Central/South Asian region.

Russia has taken serious note of the United States' Great Central Asia strategy, and signaled that it will resist the alleged US policy to "detach" the Central Asian countries from Russia's sphere of influence. Equally, Chinese commentators have taken exception to Washington's strategy, which in essence aims at stimulating

Continued 1 2

[rodeodance]

10. k

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. oh yeah!

but what about OUR bridges (am I being too greedy?)

[radfringe]

9. it's not a bridge it's a target..

[donsu]

14. lol, I thought the same thing

nt

[Marrak]

13. Is there a tour-operation i can contact

to plan a excursion?:hurts:

:crazy:

:think:

[tabasco]

16. Republicans build bridges in bumfuck while US bridges fall down.

But millions of mentally-deficient voters still consider the republicans "the party of fiscal discipline."

[MadHound]

19. Great, they can build a bridge halfway around the world with our money

But keeping up the road and bridge infrastructure here at home seems to be beyond them. Think I'll save this one to send to my Congressman next time a bridge collapses.