The missile shield and the “grand bargain” on Afghanistan and Pakistan

[Orwellian_Ghost]

The missile shield and the “grand bargain” on Afghanistan and Pakistan
Posted by: Myra MacDonald

Back in 2008, even before Barack Obama was elected, Washington pundits were urging him to adopt a new regional approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan involving Russia, India, China, Saudi Arabia and even Iran. The basic argument was that more troops alone would not solve the problems, and that the new U.S administration needed to subsume other foreign policy goals to the interests of winning a regional consensus on stabilising Afghanistan.

It would be simplistic to suggest that the Obama administration’s decision to cancel plans to build a missile-shield in eastern Europe was motivated purely — or even primarily — by a need to seek Russian help in Afghanistan. But it certainly serves as a powerful reminder about how far that need to seek a “grand bargain” on Afghanistan may be reshaping and influencing policy decisions around the world.



“Securing Afghanistan and its region will require an international presence for many years, but only a regional diplomatic initiative that creates a consensus to place stabilizing Afghanistan ahead of other objectives could make a long-term international deployment possible,” Barnett Rubin and Ahmed Rashid argued in their much-cited 2008 policy paper titled “From Great Game to Grand Bargain”. (pdf document).

Many of those arguments reappeared in a more recent report by the Asia Society (pdf document) — formerly chaired by U.S special envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke – so they are worth studying closely.



http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2009/09/17/the-missile-shield-and-the-grand-bargain-on-afghanistan-and-pakistan/?rpc=401&

War is an extraordinary tool for changing the culture of nations into the designs of the elite.

[Johonny]

1. remember Bush spent the first 8 months in office on the shield

to protect America from missiles that didn't exist with a system that may be too complex to ever be possible. Not counter terrorism. How'd that work out?

[leftstreet]

2. Russia's PM Putin to meet U.S. businessmen

MOSCOW, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet several top U.S. executives on Friday, including General Electric Co (GE.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N), the Russian government said on Thursday.

Putin's meetings with top Western executives are usually a precursor of major business deals. Earlier this year oil majors Total (TOTF.PA) and Royal Dutch/Shell (RDSa.L) announced plans to expand in Russia at meetings with Putin.

Talks with the U.S. firms follow a U.S. government decision to halt the deployment of a missile shield defence system in Europe, a move received positively by the Russian government.

The press service said Putin would meet David Bonderman, founding partner of one of the world's largest private equity firms, TPG , and the chief executive of General Electric Co (GE.N), Jeff Immelt.

Putin will meet the executives in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, which is hosting an investment forum. He will also hold talks with John Mack, who is to quit as CEO of Morgan Stanley (MS.N) at the start of 2010.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLH50324420090917

Tear Down That....wait, what?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Catch-22. Build a useless "missile shield" or continue a lost war.

Both of which are unaffordable.

Instead, scrap the missile shield, and try to drag Russia and China into the quagmire as a CYA effort.

It's gone past absurdity and into insanity.

[blindpig]

4. The reasoning is laughable.

Even a blind pig could see those missiles were meant for Russia. A bullshit gambit from the start, what we have here is a retrenchment of empire. Bush pushed the envelope too far, what we are seeing here is smarter imperialism. It's a good move but we shouldn't be fooled.

[maryf]

5. stablizing...

"only a regional diplomatic initiative that creates a consensus to place stabilizing Afghanistan ahead of other objectives could make a long-term international deployment possible," We have such a warped notion of what stabilizing a country means...but regardless, we would never place that above or ahead of the objectives of oil control and strategic positioning...

K&R number 5 (for how many times?)

[jonnyblitz]

6. k & r,

thanks.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. K & R

[Orwellian_Ghost]

8. Controlling Eurasia With American Imperial Power

From The Grand Chessboard:

“In brief, for the United States, Eurasian geostrategy involves the purposeful management of geostrategically dynamic states and the careful handling of geopolitically catalytic states, in keeping with the twin interests of America in the short-term preservation of its unique global power and in the long-run transformation of it into increasingly institutionalized global cooperation. To put it in a terminology that hearkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.” - 40

“…the issue of how a globally engaged America copes with the complex Eurasian power relationships - and particularly whether it prevents the emergence of a dominant and antagonistic Eurasian power — remains central to America’s capacity to exercise global primacy.” - xiii

“A geostrategic issue of crucial importance is posed by China’s emergence as a major power. The most appealing outcome would be to co-opt a democratizing and free-marketing China into a larger Asian regional framework of cooperation.” - 54

“In effect, Japan should be America’s global partner in tackling the new agenda of world affairs. A regionally preeminent China should become America’s Far Eastern anchor in the more traditional domain of power politics, helping thereby to foster a Eurasian balance of power, with Greater China in Eurasia’s East matching in that respect the role of an enlarging Europe in Eurasia’s West.” - 193

You probably already know this but for those who don’t know, among many other things, Brzezinski was an advisor to John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, and Jimmy Carter. He was also the first director of the Trilateral Commission and board member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was also a top foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama during Obama's campaign for presidency.

[maryf]

9. Brzezinski

the man behind the curtain?? pay no attention to him...(didn't know he went that far back)

[Orwellian_Ghost]

10. Pretty amazing isn't it?

When Zbig was appointed/selected as an advisor to Obama during the campaign that was certainly an unavoidable red flag and yet folks chose to ignore what this meant.

[malaise]

11. Kick n/t

[lunatica]

12. This empire is rotting from the inside out

So it won't last. Rising unemployment and outsourced manufacturing jobs give other countries power.