US in Afghanistan: Just War or Justifying Oil Profits?

opinion by David Ross, Contributor

What are the real reasons for the bombing of Afghanistan? What isbehind the calls for unity and blind patriotism? Have the fewpowerful corporations that own the majority of the mass media told usthe whole truth about the “war on terror?” The desire of the immenselypowerful transnational oil corporations to control the world’s limitedoil supplies is the primary reason for the US government’s bombing andinvasion of Afghanistan.

Most sectors of our society are fueled by oil: includingtransportation, energy, heating, plastics, fertilizers and pesticides.The problem (aside from climate change) is that there is a finitesupply of oil in the world. Whoever controls the oil supplies of theworld will command great power and wealth.

The Caspian Sea Basin, north of Iran, is one of the largest untappedreservoirs of oil in the world. An oil pipeline through Iran would bethe shortest distance to the sea and Asian markets, but the US doesn’thave their man, the Shah, in Iran anymore. Thus, security for apipeline could not be guaranteed. Thankfully, there is already apipeline in Turkmenistan adjoining the Caspian Sea, which oilcorporations could extend through Afghanistan and Pakistan to theArabian Sea for export.

In 1998, Vice-President Cheney, then CEO of Halliburton, the largestoil services corporation stated, “I cannot think of a time when wehave had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategicallysignificant as the Caspian.” One US oil corporation seeking to exploitthe Caspian Sea Basin is Unocal. On February 12, 1998, John J Maresca,the company’s vice president, said to a committee of the House ofRepresentatives, “Construction of our proposed pipeline [throughAfghanistan] cannot begin until a recognized government is inplace….”

Enter the Taliban. Central Asia expert Amed Rashid wrote in his bookTaliban, “Impressed by the ruthlessness and willingness of thethen-emerging Taliban to cut a pipeline deal, the State Department andPakistan’s ISI agency agreed to funnel arms and training to theTaliban…” Congressman Dana Rohrabachr, involved in Afghanistan sincethe early 1980’s, testified before the Senate Foreign RelationsSubcommittee: “There is and has been a covert policy by thisAdministration to support the Taliban… [under] the assumption that theTaliban would bring stability to Afghanistan and permit the buildingof oil pipelines from Central Asia through Afghanistan toPakistan….”

Ted Rall reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 2, 2001,“as recently as 1999, US taxpayers paid the entire annual salary ofevery single Taliban Government official.” Hugh Pope wrote in theOct. 27, 1997 Wall St. Journal, that, indeed, Unocal had secured anagreement from the Taliban to build the pipeline. But the deal fellthrough because the Taliban harbored Osama Bin Laden and could notsubdue the tribal warlords of Afghanistan, thus preventing a stableenvironment for a pipeline.

September 11 rolls around. The Taliban that the US had financed arenow declared “evil.” No doubt a more compliant regime will beinstalled that will serve the oil corporations with proper respect,and thereby enjoy mutual enrichment.

The War on Terrorism is a smokescreen just like the War on Drugs andthe Cold War; obscuring what the economic and political elites reallywant: to militarily intervene in any country when they need to protectcorporate investments, in this case oil, and gas; and to funneltaxpayer dollars (perhaps an additional $30-$60 billion this year)into the military-industrial complex—the so-called “defense”industries—probably the greatest welfare scam in history; and torepress dissent at home (USA “PATRIOT” Act) and abroad in neo-colonialregimes—puppet regimes and all those caught in the debt bondage to theUS-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Word Bank.

David Ross is a grass-roots activist who has worked on the Nadercampaign, corporate accountability, US imperialism, and environmentalissues. He can be reached atdaveross27@hotmail.com.