The Afghan pipe dream

America’s convoluted, Alice-in-Wonderland interpretation of this summer’s top political show – the “free expression of the people” in the Afghanistan election – reads like an opium dream. In fact, it is actually a pipe dream – as in Pipelineistan. With the added twist that no one’s saying a word about the pipe that’s delivering the opium dream.
As in an opium dream, delusion reigns. The chances of United States President Barack Obama actually elaborating what his AfPak strategy really is are as likely as having his super-envoy Richard Holbrooke share a pipe with explosive uber-guerrilla warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Obama says “success in Afghanistan” involves “diplomacy, development and good governance” – but all dazed and confused

world public opinion sees are packs of extra marines being deployed to “fight the Taliban”.

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While all this funky charade goes on, virtually nobody – apart from Canadian energy economist John Foster, in an op-ed published by The Star newspaper – is talking about the (real) Afghan pipe dream. Once again, since the late 1990s, it all comes back to TAPI – the Turkmenistan/Afghanistan/Pakistan/India gas pipeline, the key reason Afghanistan (as an energy transit corridor) is of any strategic importance to the US, apart from being deployed as an aircraft carrier stationed right at the borders of geopolitical competitors China and Russia. TAPI, financed by the Asian Development Bank, should in theory start to be built in 2010.

Both Russia and Iran, accomplished chess masters, are honing their moves to make TAPI unworkable. Until then, the AfPak theater basically boils down to the US and NATO at war against nationalist Pashtuns. Washington hysteria will continue to rule – as in “the Taliban” about to take over Islamabad’s nukes and convert the US into TalibanUStan. And last but not least, please save the last bowl of opium for that oh-so-savvy wild bunch – the warlords.

Asia Times