The Hindu cites Jon Flanders!

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2001/10/13/stories/05132524.htm

The Hindu (India)

October 13, 2001

Opinion

America, Oil, and Afghanistan

By Sitaram Yechury

It has finally happened. American imperialism has begun its unilateral war
against Afghanistan. Ominously, it has formally notified the U.N. Security
Council that the military operations would expand beyond Afghanistan. Other
countries would be targeted. It is a greater tragedy that this "war against
terrorism" will consume innocent lives in gruesome proportions. Is all this
being done really to exterminate terrorism?

Before we answer this question, it is necessary to reiterate that the
perpetrators of the horrendous attacks in New York and Washington on
September 11 must be brought to book. This, however, must be done, as many
countries in the world had voiced, on the basis of unquestionable evidence
in accordance with international laws and under the auspices of the United
Nations. The U.S. and its President, Mr. George W. Bush, by launching
attacks on Afghanistan have dismissed with imperialist arrogance and
contempt, this widely-held international opinion.

For appearances sake, "evidence" was shared with trusted U.S. allies -
Britain and Pakistan. Mr. Tony Blair made a mockery of sharing this
"evidence" with the British Parliament by stating that this is not to be
judged on a strictly legal basis. In a much-publicised live press
conference, Gen. Pervez Musharraf echoed Mr. Blair in stating that it was
immaterial whether the "evidence" would stand legal scrutiny. The issue,
according to him, was that "evidence" points towards Osama bin Laden.

Once the initial shock and hysteria gave way to reason, it became clear
that the U.S. was using, in a diabolic way, this human tragedy to further
its imperialist hegemony worldwide and to invoke a more draconian domestic
rule by curtailing democratic rights and freedom in the name of combating
terrorism. The crucial element in this strategy of zeroing in on Osama bin
Laden, however, goes largely unnoticed.

Afghanistan occupies the central position in the U.S. strategy for the
economic control of the oil and gas resources in the entire Middle East.
The U.S. currently imports 51 per cent of its crude oil - 19.5 million
barrels daily. The Energy Information Administration estimates that by
2020, the U.S. will import 64 per cent of its crude - 25.8 million barrels
a day. Caspian region oil reserves might be the third largest in the world
(after Western Siberia and the Persian Gulf) and, within the next 15 to 20
years, may be large enough to offset Persian Gulf oil. Caspian Sea oil and
gas are not the only hydrocarbon deposits in the region. Turkmenistan's
Karakum Desert holds the world's third largest gas reserves - three
trillion cubic meters - and has six billion barrels of estimated oil
reserves. Current estimates indicate that, in addition to huge gas
deposits, the Caspian basin may hold as much as 200 billion barrels of oil
- 33 times the estimated holdings of Alaska's North Slope and a current
value of $4 trillion. It is enough to meet the U.S.' energy needs for 30
years or more. The presence of these oil reserves and the possibility of
their export raises new strategic concerns for the U.S. and other Western
industrial powers. As oil companies build oil pipelines from the Caucasus
and Central Asia to supply Japan and the West, these strategic concerns
gain military implications.

Before we proceed further, it is necessary to remind ourselves that both
Mr. Bush and the Vice-President, Mr. Dick Cheney, were intimately connected
with the U.S. oil industry, serving as senior executives in many companies.
Jon Flanders, in an article, "The World Trade Center attack... Caspian Oil
and Gas and the Afghanistan Pipeline Connection", quotes Michael Klare,
author of the book "Resource Wars", which has a major focus on the oil
resources in the Caspian region, who in a recent interview to "Radio Free
Europe" has said: "We (the U.S.) view oil as a security consideration and
we have to protect it by any means necessary, regardless of other
considerations, other values".

The U.S. Government Energy Information factsheet on Afghanistan dated
December 2000 says that: "Afghanistan's significance from an energy
standpoint stems from its geographic position as a potential transit route
for oil and natural gas exports from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea. This
potential includes proposed multi-billion dollar oil and gas export
pipelines through Afghanistan".

The Caspian Sea region has oil and gas resources worth $4 trillion,
according to the U.S. News and World Report. Mr. Cheney, as CEO of
Halliburton, a major player in the oil industry, a Fortune 200 company,
told oil industry executives in 1998, "I cannot think of a time when we
have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant
as the Caspian". The oil and gas from this region currently moves northward
towards European markets. According to Mr. Bob Todor, executive
vice-president of Unocal, the company that is leading an international
consortium to construct the central Asian pipeline through Afghanistan,
"Western Europe is a tough market. It is characterised by high prices for
oil products, an aging population, and increasing competition from natural
gas. Furthermore, the region is fiercely competitive".

Among the many advantages of the Afghanistan route, according to Mr. Todor,
is that it would terminate in the Arabian Sea, which is much closer than
the Persian Gulf or northern China to key Asian markets. The pipeline
becomes crucial for U.S. oil giants because it would allow them to sell
their oil in an expanding and highly prospective Asian market. The profits
here are viewed to be substantially higher than in the European market.
But, the construction of this promising route can only begin if and when an
internationally recognised Government is formed in Afghanistan.

This is the crux of the matter. Though the oil companies have the agreement
of all warring groups in Afghanistan for the proposed pipeline, the
situation is far from being comfortable. The bombing of U.S. Embassies in
North Africa in 1998 allegedly by Osama bin Laden's terrorists and the U.S.
retaliatory response and the consequent bombing of Afghanistan had created
predictable complications. Even if the U.S. were to have succeeded in
separating Osama bin Laden from the Taliban leadership and the Government,
problems still continued with the uncertainty concerning the attitude of
the Northern Alliance. The pipeline would have been an easy target to blow
up by either side. Even threats could be used as instruments of blackmail
by Afghan groups.

Hence, it becomes clear that to advance the interests of its oil majors and
to establish effective control over the oil resources in the region, the
U.S. requires a pliant Government in an unified Afghanistan. The proposal
to bring back the ousted monarch, Zahir Shah, and the open patronage being
provided by the U.S. to the Northern Alliance reflects this desire. Mr.
Bush's candid admission that he had given the Taliban two weeks to hand
over Osama bin Laden was also an effort to, once again, separate the two
and to do business with the Taliban. This having failed, now the effort
seems to be to install a pliant Government at the expense of destroying
what remains of Afghanistan and possibly killing thousands of innocent people.

It is chilling to realise that it is such cold-blooded pursuit of economic
interests and profits that defines U.S. maneouvres in the region and its
attacks on Afghanistan. That all this should happen in the name of grieving
the death of nearly 7000 innocent American lives is plain cruelty. The
world today is being asked to side with the U.S. in a fight against global
terrorism. This is only a cover. The world is being asked today, in
reality, to side with the U.S. as it seeks to strengthen its economic
hegemony. This is neither acceptable nor will be allowed. We must forge
together to state that we are neither with the terrorists nor with the U.S.

Copyright (c) 2001 The Hindu. All Rights Reserved.

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Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org

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