Subject: 1) new and important book by Andrew Bacevich; 2) Asia Times
article
1. Yesterday a friend contacted me urgently both by phone and email
to watch a C-SPAN2 BookTV presentation of the appearance of
veteran
and Boston University Professor Andrew Bacevich appearance
with an interested group at Boulder Book Store--in Boulder, Colorado
is my impression--on August 16, 2010. The interest has to do with
his
new book, Washington Rules- Americas Path to Permanent
War (August 2010). You can see the Andrew Bacevich
CSPAN2 BookTV presentation at
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/232321 You can see editorial
reviews at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0805091416/sr=8-1-fkmr0/qid=1284318558/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1284318558&sr=8-1-fkmr0
and customer reviews at
http://www.amazon.com/Washington-Rules-Americas-Permanent-American/product-reviews/0805091416/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
This is an important book. Of course it might be depressing,
yes--we Americans are not where I want us to be in the world
either--but it appears to me that veteran Professor Bacevich has a
view of things that is based on reality.
I join Prof. Bacevich
in suggesting to you that it might be good if you can afford it to
buy a bunch of copies and give them to certain of your
acquaintances. :-)
2. I have in mind that you might put this article in juxtaposition
in your mind with the new book by Professor Andrew Bacevich, above.
"AfPak and the new great game"
by Pepe Escobar, September 9, 2010,
Asia Times
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LI09Df01.htmlHere's the Skinny About the Secret Plotting and Scheming of the
Power Players in the Afghan War)
You may know that
Asia Times is a major Hong Kong
publication with two versions, English and Chinese. I have seen
serious and authoritative news published there many times in the
past. I have also read enough of book author Pepe Escobar to have a
very favorable impression of his grasp of reality. This article
focuses on the huge economic issues at stake, huge economic issues
that are generally kept well hidden. It has been awhile since I
have seen much about the oil pipeline issues that are related to the
United States and Afghanistan, not to mention also related to the
economics of some other countries. One major issue among countries
is, of course, energy economics. Another major issue not often
mentioned is the defense of the petrodollar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrodollar It is the petrodollar that
enables the United States to print free money. No other country can
do that. To maintain that ability, the United States must somehow
manage to continue to enforce the rule that oil trading worldwide is
to be conducted in U.S. dollars.* Note that this is referred to as
a "hypothesis" at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrodollar_warfare
:-7 I remember a most convincing article by Steve Lendeman on this
topic several years ago. Yes all this does seem to have a lot to do
with what the U.S. military and U.S. NGO contractors have been and
doing in Afghanistan. Personally I think Osama bin Laden's
continuing importance is primarily for use as propaganda for
Americans. Sorry. That is not to say he has
no other
importance, just that any other importance is diminishing in real
significance to my family's personal security or yours. The U.S.
military and NGO contractors are making money and spending
our
money to create many other enemies for us to be concerned about
also. It's quite a business.
Larry
* You might remember, whatever the excuses that George Bush gave,
that in fact the U.S. attack on Iraq came just as Saddam Hussein was
about to open a well-publicized oil trading "bourse" where other
currencies besides U.S. dollars could be used to buy Iraqi oil. LS
