Saturday, April 18, 2009

The wars come and go but the enemy remains the same

Note how the Taliban has now become conflated with al-Qa’ida

By Robert Fisk

"Is the Ministry of Fear about to be reopened? I thought – when Lord Blair finally departed from us and George Bush left the White House – that the institution had been closed down, that we might have been allowed a few hours in the broad sunlit uplands. Change? Hope? Renewal? Inspiration? But no, the semantics of our masters are reverting to type. There are no uplands, just another new dark age of fear and terror...... Only, of course, this wasn't Bush-speak. It was a Bush-clone, called Obama-speak.......

....The border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan is now "the most dangerous place in the world", according to Obama......

Ho hum. In the days of empire, we crossed the Durand line from the Raj into Afghanistan. Now Obama's going to change the plot by invading in the opposite direction, from Afghanistan into the former Raj. And with just 20,000 extra troops.....

Do we never learn? Muslim Pakistan is detonating in front of our eyes while Israel, when it's not grabbing more land from Muslim Palestinians in the West Bank, is claiming that Iran – not Pakistan – is the greatest threat to world peace. Its foreign minister doesn't even want a Palestinian state any more. And what should we be doing? Trying to resolve the wound of Kashmir, of "Palestine", of Kurdistan, of Lebanon. But no, we're off on another adventure. Poison, dirty bombs, the lot. The most dangerous place in the world. Carry on up the Khyber."

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