Very true and as you list… the Zionist Version as pimped by Stephen Zunes, Antonia Juhacz, Noam Chomsky and even ANSWER Coalition honchae such as the Beckers et al. has thoroughly corrupted and misdirected the Left to the point of ineffectiveness and ineptitude.

Pepe Escobar’s mot “Pipelinestan” is so elegantly clever that it took me a while to realize its incompatibility with the facts and its compatibility with the Zionist Version as pimped by Stephen Zunes, Antonia Juhacz, Noam Chomsky and even ANSWER Coalition honchae such as the Beckers et al.

The US military cum “Intelligence” operations in Afghanistan have nothing to do with anything that can be gained from the soil or the population of that unfortunate country itself. The real underlying reasons the Zionist Power Config masters of the US State Apparatus ordered Bush & Co to invade & occupy Afghanistan are three, of which the most important has to do with Pakistan. The fact that this Muslim country’s Muslim military possesses a small nuclear capability is absolutely intolerable to any self-respecting Zionist; even sans the nuclear weapons, any large Islamic country, even the most impoverished, stands as a potential obstacle to the achievement of full “security” (aka full-spectrum dominance) for “Eretz Yisroel”. So Pakistan must be broken up, balkanized and disorganized, denuded of infrastructure etc etc, given the Iraq Treatment.
The second reason has to to with the envisioned dismemberment of China. A third is the desire to punish the puritanical fanatic Taliban for disrupting the highly profitable Opium industry, which had since the eviction of Soviet influence been in the hands of persons with ties to the CIA, which is to say the Mossad since it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.
If this statement seems farfetched to any of DV’s younger readers, let me refer you to Alfred McCoy’s “Politics of Heroin in SE Asia”, plus any biography of Charles “Lucky” Luciano.
It was probably also seen as convenient to make a show of going after Osama Bin Laden in a place where it would be impossible to find much less capture him.
The point is, “Oil” had nothing to do with it. If US “Big Oil” interests had wanted to build a pipeline bad enough to carry out occupation of the country, after eight years they would have built it. All the talk of “a war for Oil” is nothing but a diversion, just as it has been with reference to Iraq. Such tales belong down the toilet with nonsense about “WMD” and Iran’s fictitious nuclear weapons program.

So, my answer is firm: US/nato is there to posses it in myriad manners and not just via permament occupation; aka, military bases, spy agencies, and other forces.

US/nato may not be even be a tad against taiban mad; the wicked alliance may even welcome it.
We know for certain that US/israel/nato welcomed over 60 yrs any military retaliation by pal’ns.
To ensure pal’n retaliation, isr had engaged in numerous provocations; too well known to list now.
Resistance or no resistance, once christian nations; or rather, their respective leaderships, have designated pal’n utter destruction, palestina as we knew her, will never rise again.

The same fate awaits afgh’n, and iraq. Let’s face it: euros may have been happy with americas and parts of other continents but that no longer suffices.
To thrive, euros now want all of the planet. But wld anyone be that stupid having that much power not go for the ultimate?

After all history is not a mystory; it’s clear: all wars are waged for land and everything that is in and on it; it may or may not include it’s people nor winning their hearts and minds.
But i don’t think anyone actually thought that the shiboleth was true????!
As palestina proves, christian lands went to war against palestina with intent to make pal’ns hate them.
For that was profitable for them. Is it any different in iraq or afgh’n?
Or does one think that the uncle is a bit sad over a loss of lad? tnx