And saved the sum of things for pay

"a war begun for no wise purpose, carried on with a strange mixture of rashness and timidity, brought to a close after suffering and disaster, without much glory attached either to the government which directed, or the great body of troops which waged it. Not one benefit, political or military, was acquired with this war. Our eventual evacuation of the country resembled the retreat of an army defeated”.

Sounds a bit familiar, it could be so many wars, this is a quote from a survivor of the First Afghan War (1839-1842).  That war was fought to prevent Russia establishing influence over India.  Again the Second Afghan War (1878-1880) was fought to prevent Russian influence, this time Britain w0n "the Great Game" and blocked Russian expansion.  Third Afghan War (1919), even I am getting bored, this is a very simplistic explanation for the timeframe and reasons of war and I have had to remind myself that thousands of soldiers and civilians died in these terrible wars, was fought to prevent a tribal uprising.  This third Afghan war, the last one fought in a "Victorian" fashion, started and ended in 1919 with the Afghans achieveing full control of their country.

Then we have the "modern wars".  The outbreak of civil war in 1978 led to an invasion by the USSR in 1979, what followed was 10 years of vicious fighting using conscripts as the Soviets propped up the communist government and fought against a loose coalition of Islamic insurgents.  The Mujahideen toppled that government in 1992. Then the Taliban fought a civil war against the Mujahideen and took over the country in 1996.  The Taliban were tolerated by the world community even though they demonstrated time and again that they supported the most extreme teachings of  something which definitely was not Islam and then distorted those teachings to a further level that included murdering women and desecrating ancient world heritage treasures when they blew up Buddhist statues because they were evil idols. 

In 2001 America overthrew the Taliban because they supported international terrorism and established a corrupt regime in Kabul; the war has continued until today, there is talk of withdrawal in 2014 now that Osama bin Laden is dead.

Now, that is the history, here is the reality. The cost of the war for America  EACH MONTH is $10 billion and another $300 million each month for what are called "civilian led projects".  This is untenable, no country can spend this on a neverending basis and I haven't mentioned all the soldiers and civilians who have been killed and maimed or the terrible cost their families pay. Since Osama's death both sides of American politics have called for troop withdrawals and they are going to begin in a modest way this year and next. 

But the big problem is the pipeline.  What pipeline, you ask?  It's the crux of the whole problem and another version of the "Great Game".
The roots of the pipeline begin in the involvement of international oil companies in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in the 1990s. Russia controlled all the export pipelines of these countries and refused to allow use of its pipeline network, so these companies needed an independent export route avoiding both Iran and Russia.

The original project started on 15 March 1995 when an inaugural memorandum of understanding between the governments of Turkmenistan and Pakistan for a pipeline project was signed. This project was promoted by an Argentinian company Bridas Corporation. The U.S. company Unocal, in conjunction with the Saudi oil company Delta, promoted an alternative project without Bridas' involvement.

On 21 October 1995, these two companies signed a separate agreement with Turkmenistan. In August 1996, the Central Asia Gas Pipeline, Ltd. (CentGas) consortium for construction of a pipeline, led by Unocal, guess who worked for Unocal, only Hamid Karzai, funny old world isn't it, was formed. On 27 October 1997, CentGas was incorporated in formal signing ceremonies in Turkmenistan, by several international oil companies along with the Government of Turkmenistan.

Since the pipeline would go through Afghanistan, it was necessary to work with the Taliban. The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Oakley, moved into CentGas in 1997. In January 1998, the Taliban, selected CentGas over the Argentinian competitor Bridas Corporation and signed an agreement that allowed the proposed project to proceed.  In June 1998, the Russian company Gazprom relinquished its 10% stake in the project.

On 7 August 1998, American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were bombed under the direction of Osama bin Laden, and all pipeline negotiations stopped, as the Taliban announced that Osama bin Laden had their support.  Unocal withdrew from the consortium on 8 December 1998, and soon after closed its offices in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

America invaded Afghanistan and a new deal for the pipeline was signed on 27 December 2002 by the leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.  That's why you often see TAP or TAPI as the way its reported (Turkmenistan, Afghan, Pakistan and India). In 2005, Forbes magazine reported that"the project has been revived and drawn strong US support" as it would allow the Central Asian republics to export energy to Western markets "without relying on Russian routes" and Iran would be out of the loop as well.

The 1,680 kilometres (1,040 mi) pipeline will run from the Dauletabad gas field to Afghanistan. From there it will run alongside the highway  from Herat to Kandahar, and then via Quetta and Multan in Pakistan. The final destination of the pipeline will be the Indian town of Fazilka, near the border between Pakistan and India.  I'm sorry to go into so much detail about business but this is part of the world's real politick.

We have been fightng a "resources war" for years under the guise of fighting terrorism which is also a fantasy.  You can't fight an idea only a country. 

Now being unable to continue to pay for the war or justify the war to the American public now that Osama is dead and the elections are coming up for Obama and that is an event which always focusses the minds of American politicians;  yet needing to protect the pipeline and all the other resources to be mined and gouged out of Afghanistan and at the same time control Russia and Iran's presence in the region America has found an answer.  Mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, condottieri or as they are called now civilian led projects, private security and risk management companies like "Blackwater" now called "Xe" and "Aegis" the new company built on the ruins of "Sandline" and where America leads Britain will follow.  Of course there are "Oliver's Armies" fighting hidden private wars right now but we are going to see war privatised, unaccountable, very brutal and beyond the budgetary control of Parliament or Congress on a scale that has not been seen probably since the days of Renaissance Europe.  What are all the newly redundant soldiers affected by the newest round of cuts going to do?  Even if they did not want to continue soldiering there are no jobs in "civvie street" and unemployment will only get worse next year.  Soldiering will at least mean your are using your skills and feeding your family.

It's terrible to see what playing the "Great Game" has brought us to - so much waste and corruption for so little gain:  "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed". that quote is from Doug Eisenhower and I will leave it there but I will probably come back to the problem again.






















 years of  Russia fighting and having to admit defeat and withdraw, since 2001 America

Let's face the music and dance



I am in the middle of writing the last chapter of "Days of Thrift" with the last part of the editing to do;  on the 14th July 2011 it will go onto Amazon to be sold as an e book for £6.00.  I have been writing it since January 2011 and it covers subjects such as being unemployed, eating well on a tight budget, getting free food, barter, finding a new job and squatting, the six blogs I have written are also included.

I don't know if what I have written is any good or will do any good, I had a panic the other evening when I thought, what if everyone hates it and then I thought, well it's been written now and there is no going back, which made me feel more cheerful.

To keep myself sane I have been writing childrens stories at the same time, out of nowhere four characters emerged and became 6 stories centred around a cafe in Bristol called "The Artistic Yetis Cafe" run, of course, by 4 Yetis. I want to write 12 stories in all and again publish as e books.

Some days I have been getting up at 5am working until 9am, then watching "The Wright Stuff" after that back to writing until 7pm when Channel 4 News starts.  In the middle of all that I have been looking for work as my savings have run out and I have signed on, so I am living my work.

The title for this blog is "Lets face the Music and Dance" and that is how I feel, tired yet hyper which is always the way I used to feel when I finished work on a script and raring to go.

"Let's face the Music and Dance" could be the title for the upheavals the country is going through as well, the News of the World scandal is going to open up a huge window on how the "Great and Good" have used and abused their positions, not just in News International and the Murdoch empire but in a lot of other areas too, why would you need to hack the phones of relatives of dead soldiers? 

Well, they always say if you wait long enough by the river the bodies of all your enemies will float by and I really hope the enquiries will not be whitewashes but show what so many of us have said for a long time that a corrupt and greedy plutocracy is destroying our rights, our economy and our country and then rein in their power with legal curbs that work.

With huge price jumps for gas, high food prices and every week new job losses I can see we are all going to dance to a different tune.  I hope the tune brings a clarity  which will allow us to connect the dots between the bankers casino banking practices, the hedge funds price manipulation, and all the other issues I have banged on about over the months and the tune show us all a way forward that is ethical, inclusive and brings prosperity for all of us

How funny,I have just got an e-mail saying that I am now a VIP with one of the survey companies because I have filled in my surveys promptly and fully and so I have been entered into a new prize draw and would I like to fill in a new survey?  Okay, what is it this time - milk shakes, carpet cleaners or motorbikes.  No, its cat food.  See you soon.