"You see, when it was the Soviets occupying Afghanistan, it was okay for the U.S. Empire to conspire with the Haqqanis to help rid their country of a foreign occupier. Unlike today, when the Haqqanis are considered “bad guys” for trying to rid their country of a foreign occupier, back then they were considered to be “good guys” for trying to rid their country of a foreign occupier. And unlike today, when the Haqqanis are considered to be an official enemy, back then Americans were taught that they were an official friend of the U.S. Empire."

Another Official Enemy for the Empire

by Jacob G. Hornberger

For statists who have been depressed over the killing of Osama bin Laden and the near-destruction of al-Qaeda, fear not: the U.S. Empire has come up with another new official enemy as part of its never-ending war on terrorism.

This time the official enemy is an Afghan group called the Haqqanis, who the New York Times described in a front-page article on Sunday as a “brutal and growing crime clan bedeviling the U.S. in Afghanistan.”

The Times also described the Haqqanis as a “terrorist network” responsible for “widespread violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including recent attacks against the United States Embassy and NATO’s headquarters in Kabul.”

The Times also stated that the Haqqanis are “the Sopranos of the Afghanistan war, a ruthless crime family that built an empire out of kidnapping, extortion, smuggling, even trucking.”

In fact, U.S. officials are now charging Pakistan’s intelligence service of having conspired with the Haqqani network to recently bomb the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. So far Americans are expected to continued treating Pakistan as an official friend, especially given that their tax monies are still helping to fund the Pakistani regime, but that could change on a moment’s notice. Tomorrow, Pakistan could easily be converted into another official enemy of the Empire, requiring Americans to quickly change Pakistan from friend to enemy within their hearts and minds, as they have done with Iran, Iraq, and others.

Indeed, according to that same Times’ article, that’s precisely what happened with the Haqqanis. Believe it or not, this brutal, ruthless, Soprano-like, terrorist crime family used to be a friend of the Empire, whom the American people were expected to embrace as an official friend of the Empire.

When was that? Well, when it was the Soviet Empire, rather than the U.S. Empire, that was doing the occupying of Afghanistan. The Times points out:

A quarter-century ago, the Haqqani fighters were not the targets of C.I.A. missiles. They were the ones shooting C.I.A.-supplied missiles, the shoulder-fired Stingers that would devastate Soviet air power over Afghanistan.

You see, when it was the Soviets occupying Afghanistan, it was okay for the U.S. Empire to conspire with the Haqqanis to help rid their country of a foreign occupier. Unlike today, when the Haqqanis are considered “bad guys” for trying to rid their country of a foreign occupier, back then they were considered to be “good guys” for trying to rid their country of a foreign occupier. And unlike today, when the Haqqanis are considered to be an official enemy, back then Americans were taught that they were an official friend of the U.S. Empire.

Yet, when one analyzes the situation, isn’t it the Haqqanis who are conducting themselves consistently? Like many other Afghans throughout history, they oppose the foreign occupation of their country, by the Soviets, the Americans, the British, or anyone else, just as many Americans would oppose a foreign occupation of the United States. Thus, how can it surprise anyone that these “good guys/bad guys” would take up arms against the U.S. Empire just as they took up arms against the Soviet Empire?

In fact, a separate paragraph in the Times article points that out:

For Americans who worked with them in the 1980s, the fact that the Haqqanis are now fighting their former American allies is no shock. The Russians were the foreign occupiers before; now the Americans are.

How long will be it before the American people see through all this Orwellian nonsense? How long will it be before Americans realize that it is their very own national-security state, which was founded to fight the Cold War against their old official friend and ally the Soviet Union, that is responsible for so many of the woes under which Americans are now suffering — from the never ending war on terrorism, to ever-growing infringements on civil liberties, to the threat of national bankruptcy owing to out-of-control federal spending and debt?

When will Americans realize the horrible damage that the Empire is doing to our culture, our spirit, and our way of life with its invasions, occupations, sanctions, embargoes, regime-change operations, foreign aid, support of dictatorships, coups, torture, kidnappings, assassinations, drug war, and never-ending war on terrorism?

What better time than now to dismantle the national-security state, including the CIA, the NSA, and the U.S. military Empire, and liberate the American people in the private sector to lead the world out of the statist morass? What better time than now to liberate the American people — the private sector — to befriend and interact with the people of the world? What better time than now for America to lead the world to peace, harmony, prosperity, and freedom?

Link:
http://www.fff.org/blog/index.asp