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Today's
Stories
October 8, 2009
Saul Landau
A Late September Morning With Fidel
Paul Fitzgerald /
Elizabeth Gould
Dark Omens for the US in Afghanistan
October 7, 2009
Brendan Cooney
Are Republicans Breaking US Law in Honduras?
Paul Craig Roberts
Dead Labor: Marx and Lenin Reconsidered
Dean Baker
Bernanke's Recovery: Unemployment Up, Wages Down (But the Banks Have Been Saved ... Sort Of)
Jonathan Cook
A Third Intifada?
John Stanton
HTS:
Congress Rewards Failure, Puts Personnel in Harms Way
Joanne Mariner
Tortured Language
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Cherry Blossoms
Stephen Lendman
The Gaza War's Effect on Women
Sen. Russell Feingold
Time to Draw Down in Afghanistan
Mary Lynn Cramer
Doublespeak on Health Care
Website of the Day
How to Bag a Wolf by Aerial Assault
October 6, 2009
Mike Whitney
Dollar Hysteria: Is the Sky Really Falling?
Gareth Porter
The Iranian Rift in the IAEA: Leaked Paper Based on Disputed Intel
Jonathan Cook
How Israel Buried the UN's War Crime Probe
Boris Kagarlitsky
My Hour as Talking Head in Moscow
Iain Boal
The New Crisis at Pacifica
Ron Jacobs
Why Are We in Afghanistan?
John Ross
Wave of Anarchist Bombings Strikes Mexico
Michael Dickinson
Panic in Istanbul: Smoke, Mayhem and the World Bank
Stephen Fleischman
Beware the Predator
Ira Glunts
The Audacity of Nope
Missy Beattie
Outside Looking In
Website of the Day
Round Up the Usual Suspects
October 5, 2009
Pam Martens
Wall Street Titans Use Aliases to Foreclose on Families While Partnering with a Federal Agency
Mike Whitney
Dead Man Walking: Welcome to the US Economy
Paul Craig Roberts
How the Feds Imprison the Innocent
Harry Browne
Ireland Says, "Yes, Please"
Sara Mann
My Little Town: Nothin' But the Dead and Dyin'
Omar Barghouti
Dissolve the Palestinian Authority
Shamus Cooke
A Jobless Recovery?
Brenda Norrell
A Dirty New Low for Peabody Coal
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML:
Reconciling Medical Pot Use and Legalization
Binoy Kampmark Copenhagen Blues: McChrystal and the Afghan Trap
Website of the Day
In Goldman Sachs We Trust?
October 2-4, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
Geezer Renditions
Saul Landau
News From Raul Castro
Diana Johnstone
After the German Elections:
Is Socialism Really Dead in Europe?
Greg Moses
Cramming for the Downside
William Blum
The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Another Cold War Myth
Brian Cloughley
Iran's Nuclear Program: Where's the Proof?
Russell Mokhiber
Welcome Back, Michael Moore
John Ross
Chomsky in Mexico
Ellen Brown
IMF Catapults From Shunned Agency to Global Central Bank
David Ker Thomson
Cop Shocks
David Macaray
The Audacity of Toyota
Gary Engler
Unions in a Rut
Robert Fantina
Meet the New Boss (Same as the Old Boss)
Lisa Stolarski / Naomi Archer
Pittsburgh: Still a (Coal) Company Town
Anthony Papa
Here is Your Chance to Help End the Failed War on Drugs
Joe Allen
The Good Wife:
Bad View of a Corrupt System
Harry Browne
Tarantino Scalps His Audience
Ron Jacobs
Collective Fiction
Charles R. Larson
Cultural Warriors: Austrialian Aboriginal Art Triennial
David Yearsley
Hanns Eisler's Great National Anthem for East Germany is Available: Make It America's
Poets' Basement
Taylor, Gardner and Landau
Website of the Weekend
Wrongful Convictions of Youth
October 1, 2009
Andy Worthington
A Truly Shocking Gitmo Story
Carl Ginsburg
The Great Marginalization
Mary Lynn Cramer
Seniors on the Chopping Block
Col. Douglas Macgregor
The Bog of History in Afghanistan
Brian M. Downing
The Paradox of Financial Disorder
John V. Walsh
Mao's China at 60
Ramzy Baroud
The Big Diversion
Norman Solomon
Starting Another Year of War in Afghanistan
Dan Bacher
Undamming the Klamath
Brenda Norrell
Lazy Journalists are the Darlings of the Corporations
Website of the Day
Neoliberalism as Water Balloon
September 30, 2009
Vijay Prashad
McChrystal's Afghan Desolation
Gareth Porter
U.S. Story on Iran Nuke Facility Doesn't Add Up
Andy Thayer
The Fiasco Behind Chicago's Olympics Bid
Paul Craig Roberts
Another War in the Works
Dean Baker
Medicare Buy-In: What's Wrong With Giving People a Choice?
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Mission Impossible
Laura Flanders
Punch in the Streets, But Not in the Suites
Dave Lindorff
The Baucus Excuse
Seumas Milne
Why British Workers Are Angry
Martha Rosenberg
What Integrity Means to Pfizer
Website of the Day
Why You Should Boycott Hyatt Hotels
September 29, 2009
Marshall Auerback
A Neoliberal Hijacking
Alan Farago
Recovery Without Feeling
Jeff Sher
Shopping for Health Care
Bruce Jackson
60 Minutes and the General
Gareth Porter
Fears of Defeat in Afghanistan
Jonathan Cook
Palestinians in the Israeli Army
Bouthaina Shaaban
Arabs in the International Balance
Dave Lindorff
Looking Under the TARP
Stephen Soldz
Spreading Hysteria About Swine Flu "Hysteria"
Sara Mann
The Party of No Meets the Island of No
Website of the Day
Cosmos, Autotuned
September 28, 2009
Laura Carlsen
The Sound and Fury of the Honduran Coup
Anthony DiMaggio
The U.S., Iran and Nuclear Terror
Paul Craig Roberts
More Lies, More Deceptions
Neve Gordon
On Palestinian Civil Disobedience
Bill Quigley
Street Report From the G20
Harvey Wasserman
Obama's LBJ Moment
Nicola Nasser
Stuck Between Two Failures
Ben Rosenfeld Murder in New Orleans: Remembering Kirsten Brydum
Website of the Day
The Short March
September 25-7, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
The Ruin of His Presidency
Daniel Wolff
Speculating on Education
Rev. William E. Alberts
How "White Magic" Makes the Ism of Race Disappear
Mike Roselle
Send Lawyers, Guns and Money
Saul Landau
Covert Memories From Miami
Eshan Azari
Why Afghan Intellectuals Live in National Despair
Winslow T. Wheeler
The Pentagon Feedlot
Robert Jensen
Is Obama a Socialist?
Jonathan Cook
Sleeping with the Enemy
Nelson P Valdés
Cuba, Hurricanes and the Internet
David Michael Green
Dumping Dubya
Ramzy Baroud
The Goldstone Report and Israeli Impunity
John V. Whitbeck
The Partition Straightjacket
Andy Worthington
Gitmo Trial Delayed ... Again
David Ker Thomson
The Lady Vanishes
Seth Sandronsky
Obama and Race Management
Jim Goodman
Why are Farmers Afraid of Michael Pollen?
Charles R. Larson
From Oppression to Opportunity
David Yearsley
Froberger's Travels
Kim Nicolini
Hardcore Capitalism
Lorenzo Wolff
Transparent Pink
Website of the Weekend
An Emergency Appeal in the Fight Against Big Coal
September 24, 2009
Steven Higgs
Even in Indiana, Doctors Support National Health Insurance
Christopher Brauchli
Death Pays
Marshall Auerback
The Shortfall at the FDIC
Stephanie Westbrook
Italy's Fallen Soldiers
Nadia Hijab
Know Your Dictator
Sen. Russell Feingold
Fixing the Patriot Act, Restoring the Constitution
David Macaray
Goodbye "Norma Rae"
Binoy Kampmark
Curry Bashings in Oz
Joe Allen
Dancing With the Hammer
Website of the Day
The Most Corrupt Members of Congress
September 23, 2009
Paul Craig Roberts
The Economy is a Lie, Too
Gabriel Kolko
The United States in Afghanistan: Eight Years Later
Uri Avnery
The
Waldorf-Astoria Summit
Shamus Cooke
The First Shots of the Trade War
Missy Beattie
The Sound of Money
Gareth Porter
Taliban Rising
Mark Weisbrot
How Much Repression Will Hillary Clinton Support in Honduras?
Dr. Susan Block
The Murder of Annie Le
Norm Kent
Pot and the Right to Pursue Happiness
Richard Neville
Apocalypse Porno
Website of the Day
In Carver Country
September 22, 2009
Franklin C. Spinney The Huge Hole in Gen. McChrystal's Afghan Counterinsurgency Strategy
Russell Mokhiber
Who's the Pimp?
Greg Grandin
Zelaya's Brazilian Gambit
Nikolas Kozloff
Salvaging Democracy in Honduras Will Be Tricky
John Ross
Mexico Convulsed by Paranoia
Ron Jacobs
Gen. McChrystal's Salespitch
Tariq Ali
The Afghan Folly
Dave Lindorff
NYT
Trashes Single-Payer
Harvey Wasserman
Tom Friedman's Idiocy Atomique
Vijay Prashad
Is Anything Better Than Nothing?
Kareem Shora
After the CIA Torture Report
Website of the Day
Did a State Dept Official Sell Nuclear Secrets?
September 21, 2009
JoAnn Wypijewski
Will Trumka or the Steelworkers Push Labor Into Battle?
Carl Finamore
Backstage at the AFL-CIO Convention
Uri Avnery
Sliming Goldstone and His Report
Nikolas Kozloff
Joe Wilson's Immigration Hypocrisy
Paul Simpson, M.D.
Why Your Doctor May Have PTSD
Alan Nasser
New Deal Liberalism Writes Its Obituary
Ray McGovern
CIA Torturers Running Scared
Dave Lindorff
Thoughts on Saving an Old Barn
Lina Thorne
Women, War and Afghanistan
Jeb Sprague
Confronting the G20
Website of the Day
Petition: Save the Yellowstone Grizzly
September 18-20, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
When Gossip Came Back and Our Modern Age was Born
Russell Mokhiber
Meet the Real Death Panels
Mike Whitney
The Post-Bubble Malaise
David Michael Green
Can America be Salvaged?
Jonathan Cook
Boycott Derails Jerusalem Rail Line
Nadia Hijab
Sinking the Goldstone Report
Mark Weisbrot
Recession, Recovery and Reform: Will Anything Change?
Michael Winship
Let's Make a Deal, Beltway Edition
Michael Leonardi
The Nuclear Dump in the Mediterranean Sea
Andy Worthington
The Kuwaiti Who Met Bin Laden
Fred Gardner
The Prohibitionists' Manifesto
David Macaray
What Happens in Congress Stays in Congress
David Rosen
System Failure and the Garrido Case
Jason Mark
Hacking the Sky
Mike Ferner
In Praise of Senator Baucus
Farzana Versey
The Great Indian Rope Trick
Ron Jacobs
Dr. Guillotin and Dr. Faustus: an Interview with Marc Estrin
elin o'Hara slavick
Flags for Hiroshima: Artist's Statement
Gilad Aztmon
Vengeance, Barbarism and Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds
David Yearsley
Mendelssohn as Organ Maestro
Charles R. Larson
Darkness, Dignity and Hope in Liberia
Lorenzo Wolff
Dialing Up The Clash
Website of the Weekend
Meet Your Conservative Movement
September 17, 2009
Joshua Frank
Max Baucus: the Slick Swindler
Brenda Norrell
Cry Me a River: Uranium and Genocide in Indian Country
Robert Weissman
The Financial Crisis, One Year Later
Pam Martens
The Filmmakers vs. the Capitalists
Franklin Lamb
Palestinian Camps Are Ready to Erupt
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Cuban Five: An Insult to Humanity
Jed Bickman
Drone War Over Pakistan
Alan Farago
The Mayor of Coconut Creek Gets Butterflies
Website of the Day
C.R.O.C.
September 16, 2009
Ray McGovern
Torture and Accountability
Stephen Green
America's Strange Health Care Debate
Andy Worthington
Is Bagram Obama's New Secret Prison?
Dean Baker
Short Sellers:
the Unsung Heroes of the Financial Crisis
Anthony DiMaggio
Killing the Messenger
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Cuban Five:
The Unheard Call
Benjamin Dangl
Justice Follows Direct Action
Robin Willoughby
The World Seed Conference: Good for Farmers?
Eric Walberg
EuroPeace, the Sounds of Silence
James Ridgeway
Bring That "Boy" Down
Website of the Day
Baucus' Bogus Bill
September 15, 2009
Mike Whitney
The Real Lesson of Lehman's Fall
Mutadhar al-Zaidi
The Story of My Shoe
Marshall Auerback
Government Spending is the Solution--Not the Problem
Afshin Rattansi
The Deal That Led to the Srebrenica Massacre: Former UN Spokeswoman Fingers Holbrooke and the Clinton Administration
Jonathan Cook
How US Tax Breaks Fund Israeli Settlers
Gareth Porter:
Niger Redux?
IAEA Conceals Evidence Iran Nuke Docs Were Forged
Dave Lindorff
Congress Needs More Catcalls
Winslow T. Wheeler
Obama and Pentagon Pork
Franklin Spinney
Bin Laden's Latest Message and the Nuttiness of the War on Terror
Karen Korenoski /
Michael Yates
Up in Wood Smoke: Boulder's Dirty Little Secret
David Macaray
Government Cheese
Susie Day
President Mao-bama's Little Red Primer
Website of the Day
The Cotton Pickin' Truth: the Persistance of Slavery in Mississippi
September 14, 2009
Paul Craig Roberts
The Health Care Deceit
M. G. Piety
The Danes Do It (Health Care) Better
Shamus Cooke
Wall Street Under Obama: Bigger and Riskier
Bouthaina Shaaban
Three Faces and a Homeland
Alvaro Huerta
In Defense of the Undocumented: Immigrants and Health Care
John Ross
Mexico Loses Its History
Harvey Wasserman
The Supreme Court and Corporate Money
Adam Federman
The Plight of the Bumblebee
Stephen Fleischman
The Federal Twist
Robert Jensen
Can Journalism Schools be Relevant in a World on the Brink?
Website of the Day
The Origin of Sex Offender Registries
September 11-13, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
Obama's Big Speech: Math Trumps Rhetoric
JoAnn Wypijewski
Trumka Takes Over AFL-CIO
Carl Ginsburg
The Patient as Profit Center
Leonard Peltier
I am Barack Obama's Political Prisoner Now
Franklin Lamb
Ted Kennedy's Changing Take on Israel
Benjamin Dangl
Throwing Bullets at Failed Policies
Mike Whitney
How to Fight Deflation
John Berger
In Search of Antonello
Saul Landau
Watergate and Modern Scandals
Russell Mokhiber
Disgraceful Democrats
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Pryor's Judgment
Felice Pace
NPR's
Linda Gradstein Has Done It Again on Gaza
Jordan Flaherty
The Battle Over Discriminatory Housing Laws in New Orleans
Ron Jacobs
It's Time to be Impolite About Afghanistan
David Macaray
The Utility of Boycotts
David Correia
Welcome to the Business-Friendly Carpenter's Union
Robert Bryce
Wind Turbines and Bird Kills
Christopher Brauchli
Defenders of the Classroom
Paul Krassner
Aha! A Few Words About the 9/11 Truth Movement
Charles R. Larson
Deracination
Kim Nicolini
"Extract:"
An Exercise in Economic Realism
David Yearsley
Tall Buildings: the Sound and the Silence
Lorenzo Wolff
In Defense of the One Hit Wonder
Poets' Basement
McEnteer and Corseri
Website of the Weekend
Pizarchik: the Wrong Choice
September 10, 2009
Joshua Frank
Inside Hanford's B Reactor: a Tour of the World's Most Toxic Nuclear Site
Dean Baker
Bernanke's Bad Money
Brian M. Downing
The State of U.S. National Security
Franklin C. Spinney
Portrait of an Afghan Firefight: Up Close and Personal
Andy Worthington
No Escape From Guantánamo
Chase Madar
Samantha Power and the Weaponization of Human Rights
Farzana Versey
A Tale of Two Slums
Ronnie Cummins
Whole Foods, Fair Trade and Organics
Binoy Kampmark
Health Care, Obama and the System
Timothy Lebrón
The Conservative Case for Health Care Reform
Charles R. Larson
A Solution to the Health Care Dilemma
Website of the Day
The Debtor's Revolt Begins!
September 9, 2009
Richard Neville
Trigger-Happy in Afghanistan
Melissa Checker
Double Jeopardy: Carbon Offsets and Human Rights Abuses
Nadia Hijab
Settling for ... Settlements?
Robert Weissman
The Stakes at the Supreme Court
Jonathan Cook
Israeli Arabs Call for General Strike
Russell Mokhiber
Pollan, Mackey, Whole Foods and Single Payer
James Ridgeway
The Dotty Factor: Will Demented Geezers Wreck the Economy?
Richard W. Behan
Obama's Imperative in Afghanistan
James McEnteer
The Photo and the Secretary: How to Appall Robert Gates
Martha Rosenberg
Hatchery Horrors
Website of the Day
Belmondo Verité
September 8, 2009
Henry A. Giroux
The Corporate Stranglehold on Education
Stephen Soldz
Psychologist Accused of War Crimes Opposes Investigations
John Ross
Rituals of the Absurd
Jeff Leys
Health Care vs. Warfare: the Future of the Afghan War
Mike Whitney Ashcroft: Repugnant to the Constitution
Shamus Cooke
Obama's Empty Labor Day Speech
Ellen Brown
Did Lehman Brothers Fall or Was It Pushed?
Norman Solomon Men With Guns: In Kabul and Washington
Deepak Tripathi
The Axis of Evil and the Great Satan
Laray Polk
Personality Cults, Indoctrination and Inculcation
Charles R. Larson
Just Who Does He Think He Is?
Website of the Day
The President is Not a Guidance Counselor
September 7, 2009
Vicente Navarro
Obama's Mistakes in Health Care Reform
Bouthaina Shaaban
In Praise of Admiral Mullen
David Macaray
Obama's Labor Day Report Card
Paul Craig Roberts
Indefensible Nation
Jonathan Cook
Israeli Ads Warn Against Marrying Non-Jews
Conn Hallinan
Brazil Flexes Its Muscles
Walter Brasch
The Origins of Labor Day, the Unknown Holiday
Mark Weisbrot
IMF Gives Honduran Government $175 Million
Carl Finamore
China's Birthday Stimulation
C. G. Estabrook
Advance Text of Obama's Big Speech
Website of the Day
One Down, 20,000 to Go
September 4-6, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
Deeper Into the Tunnel
Carl Ginsburg
Saving New Orleans' Charity Hospital
Jonathan Cook
The Missing Link in Israeli Organ Theft?
George Wuerthner
The Unintended Consequences of Wolf Hunting
Marc Levy
The Bling They Curse and Carry
Ray McGovern
Holbrooke's Afghan Benchmark
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
It Happened in Miami
Joe Paff
Organizing the Mission
Gareth Porter
Taliban's Tank-Killing Bombs Came From CIA, Not Iran
Devin Beaulieu
Scaremongering About Bolivia and Islam
Anthony Papa
Why Leslie Crocker Snyder Should Not Become New York City's New DA
David Ker Thomson
Love and Dekes in Utopia
Don Fitz
The Case of the Biodevastation 7:
What the Police Won't Apologize For
Lee Sustar /
S. Sepehri
The Fallout From Iran's Elections
Jim Goodman
Why Honor Organized Labor?
Wajahat Ali
Domestic Crusaders: Making Muslim American Theater
Ron Jacobs
Agitator Journalism: Remembering Ramparts
Helen Redmond
The Lion Sleeps Tonight: the Crimes and Misdemeanors of Teddy Kennedy
John V. Walsh
Obama to Cindy Sheehan: Get Lost
Charles R. Larson
Mandanipour's Masterpiece: Censoring an Iranian Love Story
Mark Scaramella
Ho-Bleeping-Hum: a Few Well-Chosen Words About Valerie Plame's Book
David Yearsley
Cameron Carpenter's Amazing Organ Transplants
Ben Sonnenberg
Hooking, Breaking Friendships, Cross-Dressing and, Above All, Delphine Seyrig
Poets' Basement
Davies, Orloski and Bready
Website of the Weekend
Architectural Semiotics with Glenn Beck
September 3, 2009
Marcus Rediker
Inside Auburn Prison
Ron Jacobs
Embedded With the Taliban
Mike Whitney
How Bad Will It Get?
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Untold Story of the Cuban Five:
Indictment À La Carte
Saul Landau
Moby Dick and Asian Typhoons
Anat Matar
Israeli Academics Must Pay a Price to End Occupation
Tanya Golash-Boza
How Immigration Enforcement is Weakening National Security
Dave Lindorff
Which Side Are You On?
Andy Worthington
The Story of Gitmo's Two Syrians
Website of the Day
Plundering Appalachia
September 2, 2009
John Ross
Mexico's Plagues
Vijay Prashad
Hey Ram, the Things the Financial Times Group Does!
Rev. Jim Rigby
Why is Universal Health Care "Un-American"?
Joanne Mariner
What the Inspector General Found
Missy Beattie
Hejira: At Martha's Vineyard with Cindy Sheehan
Soren Ambrose
Multilateral Money
Diane Farsetta
Water: the Newest Wave of Corporate "Social Responsibility"
Nadia Hijab
Mulling Mullen's Message
Shamus Cooke
How to Lower the Deficit Without Killing Social Security
Charles R. Larson
Is Dick Cheney Running Scared?
Website of the Day
Inside the Egg Hatchery
September 1, 2009
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Wolf at Trout Creek
Paul Craig Roberts
Why Not Sanctions for Israel?
Mark T. Harris
The Whole Foods Boycott: It's About More Than CEO Hypocrisy
Dean Baker
Bank Profits Are Up: Did You Hear Anyone Say, "Thank You"?
Jeffrey Buchanan
Ending the Human Rights Crisis in KatrinaRitaVille
Robin Mittenthal
A Sea of Monocrops: Old MacDonald Never Had a Farm Like This
Ellen Brown
Mercury Mischief
Martha Rosenberg
Vytorin Marketing is Back
Website of the Day
Crazy Town Hall Protester Interviews
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October 8, 2009
The Gathering Storm
Dark Omens for the US in Afghanistan
By PAUL FITZGERALD and ELIZABETH GOULD
Now officially in its ninth year since the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. should have little reason to recount, in Chalmers Johnson’s words, the Sorrows of Empire. By now everyone on the planet knows by heart the tragic tale. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan without a clear understanding of its goals and after eight years remains as torn as ever over defining them. It was hoped that the incoming Obama administration and its new AfPak strategy would finally end the drift toward quagmire, but that hope is fading fast. Last week, AfPak architect Bruce Riedel revealed in the Financial Times that “Pretty much six months has since gone by without a rigorous implementation of what was agreed to and that has only made a bad situation worse.”
As Washington’s paralysis deepens and Afghanistan slips further into chaos, the U.S. faces a crisis of credibility. Can Washington shift its focus to nation-building and help the Afghan people restore their ravaged nation to health? Or should the U.S. continue to pursue what seems at this point an opium dream; hunting an elusive Al Qaeda, who are “believed” to be hiding in Pakistan? Last week one major player on the world scene made their opinion known, but nobody in the U.S. was listening.
Amidst the deafening internal debate in Washington, a startling event  occurred. On Monday September 28, in the Chinese government owned English language newspaper China Daily, an article titled, “Afghan peace needs a map,” by Li Qinggong, deputy secretary-general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, stated flatly that the time had come for the United States to withdraw from Afghanistan.
“To promote much-needed reconciliation among the parties concerned, the US should end its military action. The war has neither brought the Islamic nation peace and security as the Bush administration originally promised, nor brought any tangible benefits to the US itself. On the contrary, the legitimacy of the US military action has been under increasing doubt.”
A Chinese challenge to the war’s legitimacy is of no minor consequence. The Chinese have their own well established agenda regarding the growth of Al Qaeda extremism on their southern border. A July report in China Daily claimed that for the first time in its 82 year history, the 2.3 million-strong People’s Liberation Army has drawn up separate regulations for its anti-terrorism operations. The Chinese view extremists and separatists as terrorists and employed harsh military force on Muslim Uyghur separatists in their own Xinjiang province last July. What should be a wakeup call to Washington is the willingness of an official Chinese newspaper to interfere in what would normally be viewed as an internal U.S. government struggle, at a decisive and vulnerable moment in its evolution of the administration’s AfPak policy.
Of shocking interest was Li Qinggong’s desire to separate the U.S. military from its own commander and chief, who “Since taking office,… has been under pressure from the Pentagon for military reinforcements in Afghanistan.,” advising him that, “The calls of war opponents over that of supporters will give the young US president the best chance to extricate himself from the Pentagon’s pressure.”
Coming at a critical moment when U.S. economic power is in decline and China’s on the rise, Li Qinggong’s message should be taken as a serious sign that if Washington is not willing to decide the limits of its empire, the Chinese are. China’s involvement in Afghanistan is nothing new, but until now they have kept their ambitions largely to themselves. Although denied by Beijing, the Chinese played a supporting role in pushing the Soviets to invade in December 1979 by arming and training Islamist extremists in Xinjiang province. According to a British Round Table of April 1981, (No. 282) “earlier in 1979 China had already tried to set up a Muslim Republic of Pamir on the Afghanistan territory of Badakhshan and the Wakhan corridor.”
In the last few years China has emerged as a major player in both Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s economy. In 2007, China’s Metallurgical group won a $3.5 billion bid to develop Afghanistan’s Aynak copper field in Logar province. In Pakistan, China’s development of the strategic port of Gwadar on the Makran coast has been described as Pakistan’s flagship infrastructure project.
But should the Chinese decide that the time has come to draw a line on American involvement in Afghanistan and flex their growing influence in the region, the war that the U.S. has been fighting for the last eight years will seem merely as child’s play to what is to come.
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould are authors of "Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story," published by City Lights. They can be reached at www.invisiblehistory.com |
