Puppet Masters

Anti-war activists mock CNN as it cries over $1T worth of 'desperately needed' minerals left behind in Afghanistan

RT
Thu, 19 Aug 2021 15:55 UTC

CNN has been hit with a wave of anti-war sentiment after publishing a curious piece highlighting the $1 trillion worth of minerals in Afghanistan being left behind that "the world desperately needs."

When the US finishes its exit from the country after 20 years, it will be leaving behind valuable, untapped mineral deposits worth a $1 trillion, according to US military officials and geologists in 2010.

Minerals such as iron, copper, gold and lithium are found in huge quantities there, and have remained mostly untouched due to the unstable state of the nation, something that doesn't look to be changing as the US continues its chaotic exit from the country amid a Taliban takeover. Rod Schoonover, a scientist and security expert who founded the Ecological Futures Group, told the outlet about the deposits:

"Afghanistan is certainly one of the regions richest in traditional precious metals, but also the metals [needed] for the emerging economy of the 21st century."

Comment: The cost of occupation far outweighs the cost of purchase and not only monetarily.

Putin reportedly rejected Biden's request for bases near Afghanistan

Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart
Thu, 19 Aug 2021 19:27 UTC

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a request by U.S. President Joe Biden to allow an American military presence in countries near Afghanistan, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Biden reportedly made the request at the two leaders' summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in June, hoping that Putin would allow the bases so that the U.S. could continue to carry out operations against terrorist groups. But the Russian leader, famously irritable at the U.S. presence in former Soviet territory, refused.

The Journal reported:

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a June 16 summit meeting with President Biden, objected to any role for American forces in Central Asian countries, senior U.S. and Russian officials said, undercutting U.S. plans to act against new terrorist dangers after its Afghanistan withdrawal.

The previously unreported exchange between the U.S. and Russian leaders complicated Biden administration hopes of basing drones and other counterterrorism forces in countries bordering landlocked Afghanistan. That challenge has deepened with the collapse over the weekend of the Afghan government and armed forces.

The exchange also indicates that Moscow is more determined to try to maintain Central Asia as a sphere of influence than to expand cooperation with a new American president over the turmoil in Afghanistan, former and current U.S. officials said.
...
Without access to Central Asian nations, such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan, the U.S. would need to rely on bases in Qatar, other Arab Gulf states and U.S. Navy aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean to fly aircraft to Afghanistan. Flight times from the Gulf states are so long that a U.S. drone might spend more than 60% of its mission flying to and from Afghanistan from the U.S. base at Al Udeid, Qatar, a former senior U.S. military official said. This would limit the time for conducting reconnaissance or carrying out strikes over the country.

Vietnam bans people from leaving their homes; New Zealand extends lockdown

South China Morning Post
Fri, 20 Aug 2021 18:30 UTC

Vietnam will deploy troops in Ho Chi Minh City and prohibit residents from leaving their homes, authorities said on Friday, as the country's biggest city turns to drastic measures to slow a spiralling rate of coronavirus deaths.

Vietnam's toughest order yet comes amid a spike in fatalities and infections, despite weeks of lockdown measures in the business hub of 9 million people, the epicentre of the country's deadliest outbreak.

"We are asking people to stay where you are, not to go outside. Each home, company, factory should be an antivirus fort," Pham Duc Hai, deputy head of the city's coronavirus authority, said on Friday.

The government said it was preparing to mobilise police and military to enforce the lockdown and deliver food supplies to citizens.

Police with loudspeakers were seen driving around residential areas on Friday instructing people to follow protocols and assuring them food supplies would be provided.

The defence ministry plans to send 1,000 military medics and medical equipment over the weekend, according to a military document reviewed by Reuters.

The government also extended restrictions on Friday in the capital Hanoi by a further 15 days, state media reported.

Kabul embassy warned Biden about Afghanistan collapse in JULY cable

Nick Monroe
The Post Millennial
Fri, 20 Aug 2021 15:43 UTC

Officials at the Kabul embassy directly warned the Biden administration about the imminent danger of the Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

Days after President Biden publicly doubted the strength of the Taliban to take over Afghanistan, the Kabul embassy in July 2021 warned Secretary Antony Blinken and the State Department of exactly that.

The Wall Street Journal reports that embassy officials in Kabul sent a memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and "another top State Department official" in July warning of the potential collapse of Kabul after the full withdrawal of troops from the region.

Comment: Seeing the disarray displayed by the Biden administration with regard to Afghanistan, one might wonder if President Houseplant was not being kept completely informed about the realities on the ground. Is he being set up by the Harris camp to be removed from office under section 25?

Bribe money? EU gives countries bordering Belarus 'handout' to deal with 'flood' of refugees fleeing through Eastern European nation

Layla Guest
RT
Thu, 19 Aug 2021 15:56 UTC

© Reuters / Janis Laizans
FILE PHOTO. Lithuanian army soldiers install razor wire on border with Belarus in Druskininkai, Lithuania.

Faced with a sharp rise in the number of desperate people from Africa and the Middle East seeking refuge coming through the forested frontier from Belarus, the EU is now stumping up cash and equipment to try and stem the flow.

In a statement issued after the bloc held talks on the crisis on Wednesday, member states' interior ministers "agreed to deploy additional experts and agency teams as well as the necessary technical equipment" to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

According to the release, "the ministers expressed solidarity with the three affected states". Slovenia's Interior Minister Aleš Hojs, whose country currently holds the presidency of the EU Council, further reiterated that the bloc stands against Belarus' purported "attempts to instrumentalize human beings for political purposes". In recent weeks, Minsk has been accused of flying in vulnerable refugees from countries like Iraq, Syria and the Congo, before bussing them to the border with the EU and encouraging them to cross over in an effort to stoke a political crisis in response to sanctions from Brussels.

Comment: It's likely that this migrant issue, that has already plagued Europe for over half a decade now, is being used by all parties to their own benefit: The EU wants to ensure border countries stay on side in excluding and smearing Belarus so it offers them large sums of money to sweeten the deal; border countries see both opportunity to extract more cash, and they need some incentive to do Brussel's bidding; and Belarus, due to the sanctions, but also due to politics, may have decided to no longer take responsibility for the wave of economic migrants and refugees that, lest we forget, are, primarily, due to the imperialist actions of the West in the Middle East and Africa.

Either way, it's notable that this was preceeded by a variety of other apparent attacks on Belarus following its pivot to Russia, away from the West:

Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis

EU foreign chief calls fall of Kabul "catastrophe"

Raf Casert
AP
Thu, 19 Aug 2021 12:19 UTC

© AP
Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, left, Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, walks to attend the Central and South Asia 2021 conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Friday, July 16, 2021.

The European Union's foreign policy chief on Thursday called the fall of Afghanistan's capital and the resurgence of the Taliban "a catastrophe" and "nightmare" that laid bare a failure of intelligence and trans-Atlantic cooperation.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell further criticized U.S. President Joe Biden for underplaying the commitment to nation-building in Afghanistan. Borrell insisted that instilling the rule of law and achieving basic rights for women and minorities were goals of the Western military intervention in the country, along with the initial goal of stamping out terrorism emanating from the region.

"President Biden said the other day that it has never been the purpose, state building was not the purpose. Well, this is arguable," Borrell told a European Parliament committee.

Comment: See also:

Pepe Escobar: How Russia-China are stage-managing the Taliban

Pepe Escobar
The Saker Blog
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC

The Taliban delegation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin on July 28th

The first Taliban press conference after this weekend's Saigon moment geopolitical earthquake, conducted by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, was in itself a game-changer.

The contrast could not be starker with those rambling pressers at the Taliban embassy in Islamabad after 9/11 and before the start of the American bombing - proving this is an entirely new political animal.

Yet some things never change. English translations remain atrocious.

Here is a good summary of the key Taliban statements, and here (in Russian) is a very detailed roundup.

Comment: For more, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: The Great (End)Game - Closing the Afghan War, Opening the 'Covid War'?

Afghanistan invasion 'brought stability' & 'reduced terrorist threat', says UK's Labour Labour Party leader Keir Starmer

RT
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 12:13 UTC

UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer argued in Parliament on Wednesday that the invasion of Afghanistan "brought stability" to the region and reduced the threat of terrorism in the West - days after the Taliban took over Kabul.

During a House of Commons debate over the withdrawal of US and UK troops from Afghanistan this week, which led to the Taliban quickly taking over the country, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that the UK would "judge" the new "regime on the choices it makes and by its actions rather than its words."

Starmer, meanwhile, condemned the "disastrous week" and "staggering complacency from our government about the Taliban threat," before attempting to argue that the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks was meaningful and worthwhile.

Comment: It's helpful when character disturbed people in positions of power expose themselves in this manner, because, whilst some people may believe the nefarious nonsense he's spouting, a significant number of his voters know the truth. They resent former Labour Leader, and then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, for taking their country into illegal wars and sacrificing their soldiers in heinous war crimes. And by associating himself with, and supporting the evil deeds of, his predecessor, there will be little doubt to a great many as to whose side he's on; and his spiraling approval rating already shows as much: UK PM's approval rating lowest ever, Labour leader's also falling

See also:

For more on Afghanistan, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: The Great (End)Game - Closing the Afghan War, Opening the 'Covid War'?

Biden and Kamala camps falling out over Afghanistan disaster

Jack Posobiec
Human Events
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 20:04 UTC

Kamala Harris has been eerily quiet over the last week, as her and Joe Biden seem to be in the middle of a White House shade war. Indeed, Harris hasn't been seen publicly in six days after she refused to join Biden for his Afghanistan press conference on Monday.

As reported by the Daily Mail, rather than standing in her usual spot behind Biden's right shoulder, she watched the speech from the "green room."

From Afghan War Diary to Afghanistan Papers, US 'Reconstruction' Long Known to be Farce

Morgan Artyukhina
Sputnik
Mon, 16 Aug 2021 19:46 UTC

The US spent $143 billion on "nation-building" in Afghanistan, a cause US President Joe Biden said Monday was never Washington's goal, despite regular boasting about the progress made toward westernizing the country's political system and values. In the end, little has changed in 20 years, except the deaths of nearly half a million people.

The quick folding of the US-backed Afghan government before a Taliban advance has caught many off-guard after Pentagon leaders claimed little chance of its overthrow. However, almost since the 2001 US invasion, a steady stream of reports showed the "reconstruction" was a rolling disaster.

Quote of the Day

State power has its own limits defined by the fact that it is authority that reaches people from outside. State power cannot oversee and dictate the creative states of the soul and mind, the inner states of love, freedom and goodwill. The state cannot demand from its citizens faith, prayer, love, goodness and conviction. It cannot regulate scientific, religious and artistic creation. It should not intervene in moral, family and daily private life, and only when extremely necessary should it impinge on people's economic initiative and creativity.

- Ivan Ilyin

Exactly the same Faustian Bargain is being offered by Comrade Ardern here in NZ. Trouble is, there is no further plan, no "what happens next", and...

Martin Harris

winters and summers come and go and the downfall of earth is constantly wrongly predicted. summer is here; [Link] +1

rakarb

He's bloody moron and West's stooge. He was kissing frau Merkel's ass only a few weeks ago.

sinip

No way. Have you noticed that conspiring is practically, the most common social activity in existence? So how could that be?

sir_isO

RT = CNN So this piece is likely agitprop. "The beatings will continue until morale improves." Please, just follow the $cience.

DeliciousTears

Puppet Masters

Anti-war activists mock CNN as it cries over $1T worth of 'desperately needed' minerals left behind in Afghanistan

Putin reportedly rejected Biden's request for bases near Afghanistan

Vietnam bans people from leaving their homes; New Zealand extends lockdown

Kabul embassy warned Biden about Afghanistan collapse in JULY cable

Bribe money? EU gives countries bordering Belarus 'handout' to deal with 'flood' of refugees fleeing through Eastern European nation

EU foreign chief calls fall of Kabul "catastrophe"

Pepe Escobar: How Russia-China are stage-managing the Taliban

Afghanistan invasion 'brought stability' & 'reduced terrorist threat', says UK's Labour Labour Party leader Keir Starmer

Biden and Kamala camps falling out over Afghanistan disaster

From Afghan War Diary to Afghanistan Papers, US 'Reconstruction' Long Known to be Farce

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