A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper
“Hey Draper, you buried the lead!
I’ve heard that one from an editor every now and then, when they felt I dumped some of the most important stuff in the back end of the story.
American writer Gore Vidal was never afraid to say it was, first and foremost, about oil.
I think I may have done a bit of that earlier this May with a commentary I posted entitled “The Killing Of Osama Bin Laden – Michael Moore Calls It An “Execution.” I Call It Justice,” which I still stand by and you still can find by srolling down the post for May on Niagrara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com .
Way down at the bottom of the commentary I quoted some words from one of the last legendary American intellectuals and gadflies from the past 60 years – one Gore Vidal – from a very brave book he wrote the year after 9/11 when, in patriotic fervor, everyone was all pumped up about going to war against anyone that may have hit the twin towers and Pentagon, called ‘Dreaming War – Blood For Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta’.
In that book of essays, Vidal described what he felt what the invasion of Afghanistan by NATO troops, including Canada and the United was “really about” and at one point in the book he put it this way; “What it (meaning the invasion of Afghanistan) was really about – and you won’t get this anywhere at the moment – is that this is an imperial grab for energy resources. Until now, the Persian Gulf has been our main source for imported oil. We went there, to Afghanistan, not to get Osama and wreak our vengeance. We went to Afghanistan partly because the Taliban – whom we had installed at the time of the Russian occupation – were getting too flaky and because Unocal, the California Corporation, had made a deal with the Taliban for a pipeline to get the Caspian-area oil, which is the richest oil reserve on earth.”
Vidal dared to say what at least a few of us were thinking back then. But if you mentioned the word “oil” as a reason for the invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent invasion of Iraq by the United States and its ‘coalition of the willing’, there were plenty of fellow citizens out there who were quick to call you unpatriotic or something far worse.
Yet here we are, a decade later, and Canada and the U.S. still have troops in Afghanistan fighting what seems like war that could drag on for the next hundred years. war if we choose to stay there for the next hundred years. As the decade rolled on, the Afghan campaign, which was originally supposed to be about hunting down Osama bin Laden and his terrorist gang has been spun by our politicial leaders into some kind of humanitarian mission for delivering civil liberties and democracy to the Aghani people.
Of course, there are numerous countries in Africa, the Far East and other parts of the world where countless millions of people are suffering and dying at the hands of tyrants. Are we going to invade them too? Quite likely not, unless they are located on or near sources and supply lines for oil.
Let’s get our young people out of Afghanistan now!
(Share your comment on this issue below and visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
The US need for revenge and excuse of spreading democracy is very selective indeed.
Why did it not invade Yemen or Saudi Arabia, the true source of the terrorists? Why is it not currently invading Somalia or Darfur to end the piracy and genocides? Why did it not allow the UN to act in opposing the genocide in Rwanda or even categorize actions there as genocide? (I would advise anyone interested to obtain the HBO movie “Sometimes in April” to see how the US denied the massacre of 800,000 people of one tribe was a genocide. Admitting it might mean they would actually have to do something. As the rebel leader said to the US diplomat, ‘what are you going to do, send in the Marines? There’s nothing here you want!’). SO TRUE!
The US and Britain also set up dictatorships throughout the Middle East, (Iraq, Iran, etc.) all of which have backfired and made the west justifiably hated and fomented increased radicalism against us. You reap what you sow. Now that we have the US boot licker, Harper installed I cannot forsee any sudden withdrawal of our young men and women who are dying in a quagmire for nothing. There will never be anything close to a victory there.
I remember standing on the Sheppard overpass as four young men’s bodies returned home. I cried for these boys I did not know and wondered why.
LikeLike
If this is repeated, excuse me as the first didn’t appear to go through.
The US spreading of democracy and desire for revenge is very selective indeed.
Why did they not invade Yemen or Saudi Arabia – the home of the terrorists? Why do they not invade Somalia or Darfur to end the piracy and genocide? What about the genocide in Rwanda. I advise anyone interested to see the HBO movie “Sometimes in April” where the US denied the murder of 800,000 people was a genocide. If they admitted it they would have to do something about it. As the rebel leader stsated to the US diplomat – “What are you going to do, send the Marines? There’s nothing here you want.” The US and Britain have set up despots in the Middle East for decades and it has always eventually backfired fomenting increased hatred of the west and radicalization of terrorists. The world is less and less safe now. GET OUT! It is cannot be won but with the US bootlicker Harper firmly ensconced, that won’t happen.
I can recall standing on the Sheppard overpass as the bodies of four young men came home. I did not know them but I cried for them and wondered why.
LikeLike
Are there any American readers out there that have opinions about this? I’d be interested in hearing them.
LikeLike
Thank you for asserting the shameful nature of our grab at Afghanistan and also for pointing out the existence of a book by Gore Vidal on this subject.
Paul Maine, Buffalo
LikeLike
I have never been involved in peace marches nor am I likely to be but I have come to believe that we don’t belong in Afghanistan. It’s sickening to see our young men and women die and so horribly wounded as they have been in Iraq and now Afghanistan. And, for what? They say we have to fight them there or we’ll have to fight them here. You may not like me saying this, but I say fight them here.
There will be casualties, of course, but this country is strong enough to beat these terrorists at their own game. We send our young people to do our job. What are we afraid of? I’m sick of the whole darn thing. As far as turning these countries into democracies – get real. They are what they are and always have been and always will be. I agree 100% with Linda McKellar. She’s got it nailed down.
1
LikeLike