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Government propaganda

Dear Editor:

Some things our government says do not make sense, but few people seem to have the critical thinking skills to discern between propaganda (national security/national interests) and the facts – or maybe they are afraid to be called unpatriotic. The 2012 Defense Authorization Bill allocates $118 billion for Afghanistan and Iraq of the total $ 649 billion (a $17 billion increase over this year). We now accept that our security interest in Iraq was mainly oil. But we do not hear much about our real interest in Afghanistan, which is the Turkmenistan/Afghanistan/Pakistan natural gas (TAP) pipeline. It is to deliver natural gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan, possibly India and the West, by passing Russia and Iran.

We have been working on this pipeline since the mid ’90s. It makes no sense that we are spending $10 billion per month and have 100,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting 50-100 al-Qaida per the CIA estimates. Fighting the Taliban does not make sense either ,as it is a local movement that wants to run Afghanistan and expel the U.S. occupiers.



A recent study by the Eisenhower Research Project found that the “war on terror” has cost the U.S. economy between $3.7 trillion and $4.4 trillion plus interest payments of another $1 trillion. U.S. military contractors and global banking/financial elite are profiting from this war while our country is going bankrupt and suffering human, educational and economic losses. Additionally, the Pentagon and Congress want a global network of military bases to keep competitors like Russia, China and Iran in check and keep U.S. corporations happy.

After almost 10 years, approximately $5 trillion and U.S. bombs, bribes, surges and building U.S. bases, there still is not enough security to build the pipeline, which will mostly benefit “commodity traders, global finance majors and Western energy giants.” Meanwhile, we displaced around 8 million Afghans and Iraqis, created numerous enemies, disrupted bird migration, created toxic dust from bombs, deforested areas, not too mention all the fuel the military used.




If Americans used some critical thinking, they would not fall for government propaganda and realize we can accomplish goals without bankrupting ourselves, without killing (including 6,133 U.S. military) and maiming thousands and leaving countries like Iraq and Afghanistan in ruins. Gullible taxpayers and soldiers have been deceived.

Cathleen Krahe

Carbondale

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