How supposed "War on Terror" and "War on Opium" morphed into "War for Lithium" - mineral essential for building of nuclear weapons; US troops deployment soars during Obama administration as does opium production; American casualties and costs mount as only "death merchants" and their corporate brethren benefit

HAIKU (MAUI), HAWAII AMERICAN/GLOBAL AFFAIRS

A 15-year update to " Perpetual War for Perpetual Commerce "-a Chronicles magazine 1998 column

Afghanistan: War for Lithium?

How supposed "War on Terror" and "War on Opium" morphed into "War for Lithium," mineral essential for building of nuclear weapons; US troops deployment soars during Obama administration as does opium production; American casualties and costs mount; only "death merchants" and their corporate brethren benefit

Introduction: Afghan President Alleges US-Taliban Collusion

HAIKU, Maui, March 11, 2013 - Sunday morning editions of most major media carried a story in which they quoted the Afghan President Karzai as saying that there is possibly collusion between the apparent enemies which has led to suicide attacks which coincided with the new US Secretary of Defense (Hagel) "surprise" visit to Afghanistan (click here for one such story). Here's this writer's comment about that which was published later in the day in the Huffington Post World edition:

“PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL COMMERCE"



That is the only constant in US foreign policy regardless of who is in the White House or what party has the majority on the Hill. That was also the topic of this editorial column I wrote 15 years ago for the Chicago-based CHRONICLES magazine: PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL COMMERCE.



Why? Because war is good for business. And human lives are cheap when someone is on a quest to rule the world.



What Karzai said yesterday (Mar 9) about the US possible complicity in the alleged Taliban atrocities in Afghanistan is entirely plausible based on my experiences as a Balkans war correspondent and geopolitical columnist in the 1990. Washington has often covertly colluded with local thugs to kill and maim local population - their own people (!) - so as to justify the eventual foreign military intervention and the presence of NATO/American troops from which such local US "allies" benefited financially and politically.



In fact, it was the prevalence of such practices that allowed me to predict the Kosovo War, for example, well before it actually happened. See the "WASHINGTON CRISIS FACTORY" column, for example, published in the New Dawn magazine before the Kosovo War as a case in point: WASHINGTON CRISIS FACTORY.

The cartoon on the right was part of several columns this writer published on the subject of the so-called New World Order in the 1990s. These stories showed that the true motto of the globalist "elite," whose goal is to eventually rule the world, is not "world peace through world trade," as they keep saying, but "perpetual war for perpetual commerce" (Click on Truth in Media COLUMNS for more stories like this.).

And now, a story behind the Mar 10 Afghan news story...

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War on Terror?

HAIKU, Maui, March 11, 2013 - Want to know the real reason the U.S. military is still in Afghanistan and American bloo d and treasure is being spent on this desolate country 12 years after the 9/11? No, it's not the "War on Terror." That was the cover story - a 9/11 pablum for the American taxpayers. The Bush administration invented it and started to serve i t right after 9/11. But it was actually Obama who actually more than doubled the pablum portion while talking pullout in Afghanistan (left chart). Immediately after taking office, Obama signed an order increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan. A few months later, he increased it again, a move known as the troop surge. The US forces went from approximately 31,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan at the end of 2008, to about 71,000 a year later. The peak was 111,000 in 2011. Not surprisingly, the American casualties have soared (see the chart) during the tenure of yet another Democratic president who talked peace while accelerating war (as Clinton did in the Balkans in the 1990s). War on Opium? So if it's now a "War on Terror," has our invasion of Afghanistan morphed into a "War on Opium?" That's what some suggested. Like Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, during his visit to that country last year . After all, Afghanistan is by far the world's largest producer of opiu m, the raw material for production of heroin (see the chart). This country alone accounts for 90% of the global opium crops. Sounds good, doesn't it? Perhaps too good to be true? For, it would seem quite noble for Washington and its allies to be spending gazillions of dollars and sacrificing thousands of American soldiers' lives to protect our youth from the heroin drug lords. And one thing we have all learned from the recent history is that there is nothing "noble" about the crowd who want to rule the world by force and at any cost. So digging a little deeper, one discovers that Blair's assertion is nothing more than typical politician double-talk. It is the "Cover Story 2," if you like. The facts show otherwise. The UN annual reports on global drug trade have consistently shown that in recent years the opium production in Afghanistan soared almost in proportion to the accelerated deployment of US troops. The opium production was up 61% in 2011, the peak year for US troop deployment. And it was up again 18% in 2012 (see the chart). So if this is "War on Opium," then the Taliban drug lords are winning it hands down. Which once again brings back to mind Karzai's Mar 9 comment about the possible collusion between the US and Taliban, our ostensible enemy whose financing depends on opium sales. Maybe "where there's smoke, there's fire," as the old saw goes, Washington denials notwithstanding? War for Lithium? So if it is not a War on Terror, and is not a War on Opium, what is the Afghan was about? In a word, it is a war for LITHIUM. Lithium is the story behind the story, the real reason Americans are still dying in this desolate country that managed to sap the patience and the resources even of the Soviet empire in the 1980s. What do we know about Lithium? Well, it's a material used in rechargeable batteries, for example. And they are ubiquitous. We all have them and use them even in the poorest countries of the world. So am I suggesting that Afghanistan is a "War of Batteries?" That we are fighting and our soldiers are dying so that the American consumers can recharge their cell phones, watches, computers, digital cameras...? No. That's not what I am suggesting. That's only a tiny part of the reason. Even if fueled by greed, looking out for consumers would not be the MO of the globalist "elite" who are already running America and want to rule the world. So what is it then that's so important about Lithium? Silvery-looking Lithium floating in oil

Lithium is one of the top 10 most valuable minerals in the world . One reason it is so valuable is that it is essential for production of nuclear weapons . And Afghanistan is one of the world's largest sources of Lithium. The Soviet geologists were the first to publish information about Lithium and the mineral riches of Afghanistan. They should know. The Soviet Union exploded a device making use of Lithium-6 before the United States did. Now Washington is catching up to it. Besides, the US, Russia, Britain, France and China are all believed capable of making Lithium-6 in the quantities needed for the manufacture of large nuclear stockpiles. But why do we still need them? Why are we still stockpiling the weapons that can wipe out most of life on this planet? Weren't we told by our leaders that the nuclear race is over? That it died along with the Cold War? "Afghanistan could become the 'Saudi Arabia of lithium,'" a Pentagon memo revealed according to this OpEd piece published nearly three years ago ( Afghanistan, the Saudi Arabia of lithium? - Huffington Post , July 2010). I suggest you read this story very carefully. Because the 2,200 American dead in Afghanistan prove that the Cold War is far from cold or dead when it comes to the American "death merchants" or to the Pentagon ambitions. To these two, both Afghanistan and Lithium are sacred words, a godsend. They give them a new lease on life, now that the Soviet Union is no more. Clinton, Bush, Obama and whoever comes next are just the patsies, the heralds, the "talking heads" whose job is to sell the Afghan and future wars to the American public. And to invent new enemies when none are self-evident. Or targets... Washington Crisis Factory I asked tongue-in-cheek in some of my 1990s columns: Question: "What is the difference between the civil and mechanical engineers?" Answer: "Civil engineers build the targets. Mechanical engineers build the weapons." :-) Conclusion: "Either way, the 'death merchants' and their corporate pals win. Either way, people lose."

So we are back to " Washington Crisis Factory ," a 1998 essay which predicted the Kosovo War using similar deduction about the ruthless tactics of the ruthless globalist "elite." "The more the world changes, the more it stays the same," as Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Carr noted in 1849.

As you can see, things are rarely what they seem at face value based on Washington or globalist media pontifications. Americans may be dying in Afghanistan for Lithium, or so that the US "death merchants" can keep on lining their pockets with taxpayers' money. Now that's a conclusion you can take to the bank. It is a glove that fits the hands that masterminded most of the global conflicts since the end of the Cold War nearly a quarter century ago. Our so-called "elite" use the same MO as the Romans - "divide and conquer." And we all know what happened to the Roman Empire. Smart people try to learn from history so as not to repeat it. What does that tell us about how smart this so-called "elite" is? And what does it suggest their future is going to be like, even if some of us don't get to see it in this lifetime?

The universe is unfolding as it should. That's the good news.

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Bob Altzar Djurdjevic is a writer, musician, video maker, thrice-ordained Inca-shaman and business consultant based in Maui, Hawaii (altzar.org, djurdjevic.com, gaiasteward.org, and yinyangbob.com). He is also a former war correspondent and geopolitical commentator whose columns have been published by major media in the U.S. and around the world.

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For more on this topic, also see...

" Perpetual War for Perpetual Commerce " (Aug 1998); Plutocrats of the New World Order (Mar 1997); Bilking Main Street to finance Wall St.'s greed (May 1997), DANCING 'ROUND THE GOLDEN CALF (Aug 1997), WIPING OUT THE MIDDLE CLASS (May 1998), Toward a Nation of Morons (Washington Times, Jan 2006, click here for the TiM version), etc.

Click on COLUMNS for more stories like this.