Hello Hugh,
Re: Ray - normally I don't agree with your take on the world,
Normally I take the world to be pretty disagreeable myself....
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Funny you should mention Carter. His National Security advisor plays an interesting role in America's imperialist ambitions. As a companion book to Cooley's "Unholy Wars" you might consider Zbigniew Brzezinski's "The Grand Chessboard"
amazon.com
I've read it and I would suggest borrowing it from a library. Most of it is dross, but the section on Central Asia is pure essence of arrogant imperialist scheming. If you want to predict what Bush is up to next, here's the roadmap.
As far as what you might also read as an eye-opener, here's a snippet of an interview that Brzezinski gave to Le Nouvel Observateur in an unguarded moment:
fair.org
<COPY>
One of the most fascinating items of Internet samizdat is a 1998 interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, conducted by the French publication Le Nouvel Observateur. In the interview -- translated by author and CIA critic William Blum -- Brzezinski boasts that the CIA was supporting guerilla activities inside Afghanistan six months before the Soviet intervention, taking steps to “induce” the Soviets to intervene:
BRZEZINSKI: According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujaheddin began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, Dec. 24, 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
LNO: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
BRZEZINSKI: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
LNO: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?
BRZEZINSKI: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.…
LNO: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
BRZEZINSKI: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Interviewed in Oct. 2001 by columnist David Corn, Brzezinski said he still had no regrets about launching the Afghan covert operation, knowing it would likely induce the Cold War foe to fall into a trap.
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Ahh, the Great Game. Are we having fun yet?
-R. |
