Russians Invade Afghanistan (Again!), Chinese Fight Iraq War (Again!) What
If It Weren't Us?
By <
http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/tom> Tom Engelhardt
25.11.2014
Let's play a game, the kind that makes no sense on this single-superpower
planet of ours. For a moment, do your best to suspend disbelief and imagine
that there's another superpower, great power, or even regional power
somewhere that, between 2001 and 2003, launched two major wars in the
Greater Middle East. We're talking about full-scale invasions, long-term
occupations, and nation-building programs, first in Afghanistan and then in
Iraq.
In both countries, that power quickly succeeded in its stated objective of
"regime change," only to find itself mired in deadly conflicts with modestly
armed minority insurgencies that it simply couldn't win. In each country, to
the tune of
<
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/world/middleeast/american-intelligence-of
ficials-said-iraqi-military-had-been-in-decline.html> billions and
<
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/03/20/u-s-might-be-
paying-ghost-workers-in-afghanistan-security-forces/> billions of dollars,
it built up a humongous army and allied "security" forces,
<
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/much-of-60b-from-us-to-rebuild-iraq-wasted-spec
ial-auditors-final-report-to-congress-shows/> poured money into
"reconstruction" projects (most of which proved disasters of
<
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175583/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_imperial
_reconstruction_and_its_discontents/> corruption and
<
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghanistans-multimillion-high
way-to-nowhere-7922542.html> incompetence), and spent
<
http://costsofwar.org/article/economic-cost-summary> trillions of dollars
of national treasure.....
Read it in PDF attachment below:
Received on Tue Nov 25 2014 - 15:14:08 EST