I am so proud to be an American. I am humbled by the sacrifice that our armed forces make to protect us and keep us free. You all know that my family supports our country in so many and varied ways from writing to soldiers every month, flying the flag, going to the airport to welcome back troops.....yeah we love our country and appreciate our troops and their families and the sacrifices they make for the US.
I prefaced this because I am a Vietnam era person. I saw how friends, loved ones and perfect strangers were treated when they returned from a very unpopular war. It was our TV war. Every night at the dinner table my folks had the news on and every night there it was in our kitchen. But when my friends came home they were called horrible names and told they had been involved in something less than honorable. So that's where my thought process comes from.
I have never been able to wrap my mind around why we are in Afghanistan. I know terrorists. Stablizing the area. Helping the people of Afghanistan run their own country. I know what I have been told.
The Pentagon just released this information. Now did you know that Afghanistan has been found to have the richest deposits of iron, gold, copper, lithium and many other metals necessary for making steel in the world....untapped? One trillion dollars worth of mineral deposits, this is conservative estimate. Did you know that the majority of the US non combatants in the area are there to determine just how rich this find is and a strategy for extraction? Did you know that the Kandihar (sp) area is where this huge mineral bonaza can be found? Do you know that is the area where the majority of fatalities of our troops are? Chief among their duties is guarding these non combatants in the quest for minerals?
Whoa...hold the damn phone. Is this deja vu all over again?
Isn't this exactly how and why we, the United States got involved in rescuing the French in the 1950's from their greedy conquest and mercenary interest in south east asia? And no one has ever explained to my why Russia was so interested in Afghanistan prior to our going there. Hmmmmmmmmm. I think I am more than just a little sceptical. "They" the people who are so much smarter than the rest of us and have to keep info from us so we won't worry (cut me some slack) have been involved in this knowledge pool since 2006.and I am sure longer than that. The lithium find alone could make Afghanistan the Saudi Arabia of lithium, which is used for most all electronics batteries, everything from cell phones to computers.
I am puzzled. Why are we in Afghanistan? For whose best (greedy) interests? Please let me be wrong. Let the Pentagon report I read be an over reaction, a mis spoken thought. I so want to be wrong. But our track record (the US government) isn't exactly sterling when it comes to the intentions and rationale for being involved in conflict....money is usually the root of our evil.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The government only tells us what they want us to hear...something to make us support what they are doing...the rest is for the benefit of the rich...to make them richer...
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Like you, I grew up in the Vietnam era. I remember coming home from school at night and watching those horrifying scenes on television...and I also remember how badly our boys were treated when they came home. There is one story that really sticks with me. I was in high school and one of the boys had the most handsome brother. I had such a crush on the brother. He was very young, fresh out of school himself when he went to Vietnam. I was a freshman. When he came home, he was never the same. One day the principal came and took his brother out of class. Later I heard that his brother had taken a shotgun, went into the basement, put the gun in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. That was my first-hand experience with Vietnam and something I have never been able to forget.
ReplyDeleteMary
Well who knows what is going on. We hear various bits and pieces. It would be very bad to have those minerals in the hands of madmen who want to subjugate the world in the name of their religion, remember that angle. Might make you feel a bit better.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, It is very troublesome indeed, the governments of this world are all the same, they do not have the people's best interest at heart. I hate getting into politics as I get so upset but we need some changes.
ReplyDeleteThe little town I live in Canada was a huge destination in the 60's for draft dodgers. Their presence here make us a very interesting rural area. Last year we tried to put up a bronze statue to commemorate their bravery for refusing to fight an unjust war. The Fox network did a special presentation on our little town ( 10,00 people) and the statue. We were inundated with hate mail. Since we are a tourist town, we had to pull the plug on the tribute. There is still is not a lot of real understanding of the issues involved.
ReplyDeleteDarlin' you know why we're there...not because of some 12th c. stone age savages with AK-47's and missile launchers, but because of Corporate America...the most notorious and deadly terrorists in the world!! Are you reading this you Hooverites??????????
ReplyDeleteOther than that, I'm having another dizzy day and not from the news, but from a drug withdrawal and what membership of America are these drug companies that claim we need them to survive our horribly tumultuous lives, let's all say it together, Corporate America!!
Great post, and I am on your page...nice to meet you...I'll be back :-) peace and blessings...BTW, I have spent a good deal of time in NM...love it!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand war either...I'm not a political person (althought I probably should be) it's just that I'm old and my health is such that whenever I talk politics my blood pressure goes up and I get all worked up...actually, the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, that and selfisheness and greed - power hungry polititians and of course, organized religion...there's a bunch of stuff that contributes to war...it's an ugly thing indeed!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your thoughts. I too get worked up when it comes to lying or deceiving in whatever form. Be it personal life, community or governmental. I know we have to be concerned about everyone knowing everything but this report wasn't a surpirse so much as it was a REALLY???? hmmm fancy that another almost truth. I get sick of that.
ReplyDelete