Warriors For Their Country?

The reporting on the U.S. army casualties in the recent downing of a Chinook helicopter by Taliban insurgents is, to put it kindly, inappropriate. Thirty soldiers were killed in the largest single incident of U.S. casualties to date. It is a tragedy, but it deserves a certain reflection not included in the “hoo-rah” chest-beating media attention it is getting. This CNN segment, wherein a widow of one of the Navy SEALs slain in the attack is interviewed, is a perfect example.


The US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan has absolutely nothing to do with the safety or security of any single American citizen; in fact, this ongoing atrocity makes us all less safe,because it radicalizes those left standing into the waiting embrace of the Taliban.

So, if this war is not about security, why is it being fought?!?

This is a very publicly funded war, ultimately for private profit.And what interests are profiting now, and will profit in the future?

First, the large military contractors which provide mercenaries and supplies. Secondly, the drug lords, and the banks which launder the drug money. In both cases, we are talking billions of dollars in profits.

If and when the TAP (Turkmenistan/Afghanistan/Pakistan) pipeline, financed by the Asian Development Bank, gets finished, there will be profits to be had from the operators and administrators of this pipeline.

So to view the occupation of Afghanistan from a very "sang-froid" perspective, the reason US and NATO military personnel continue to get maimed for life and die is to make sure that the private profits from this war keep flowing.

If every Congressional representative, taking their moment for a "photo-op" with a mourning family which has just lost a loved one in this meatgrinder, were honest, and had any shred of morality, this is precisely what they would tell that family.

Of course, because they have collectively had their consciences surgically removed before running for office (and are generally "acquired" by the very companies specializing in the death-dealing technology we see in use in Afghanistan), they won't.