"forward, forward I say"

September 10, 2008 2:18 AM

"Fog of War"cited by United States Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad. He was speaking to journalists to clarify reports concerning his unauthorised contacts with foreign government officials, among them Asif Ali Zardari; a then contender to succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan. Earlier this year he was being touted as a possible successor to Hamid Karzai as President of Afghanistan as seen in these two articles. So who is Zalmay Khalilzad? Neo con and oil businessman.

From Scourcewatch "Just as oil industry conflicts of interest have not been a concern for the Bush administration in its appointments, Khalilzad's historic support for the Taliban seems not to be either..." and "Even as the Clinton administration was beginning to recognize the repressive nature of the Taliban regime and its links to [Osama] bin Laden, Khalilzad called for U.S. engagement with the Taliban. 'The Taliban do not practice the anti-US style of fundamentalism practiced by Iran...'
Some more profiles: - Wiki
and rightweb and Democracy Now and Emperor's Clothes

posted by adamvasco (8 comments total)

Seems kind of weird for one of the U.S's top diplomats to then go be the president of a whole other country, but there was a rumor about Madeleine Albright running for president of the Czech Republic.
posted by delmoi at 3:46 AM on September 10, 2008

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad

Links to the Ronnie Raygun administration, former RAND Corporation stooge, PNAC signatory, appointed by the same Republican president who appointed his neo-con predecessor, John Bolton. What more do I need to know about him?

It will take President Obama a long time to complete his program of anti-Bushification.

delmoi - it's not so strange at all - at least for the Clinton Administration. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the JCS under Clinton was strongly recruited by Georgia to become the president of that miserable country.
posted by three blind mice at 4:24 AM on September 10, 2008

Well, these Bush administration mistakes are certainly timely. Is there still time left to impeach?
posted by dhartung at 9:23 AM on September 10, 2008

Chalabi 2.0
posted by eclectist at 10:31 AM on September 10, 2008

So who is Zalmay Khalilzad? Neo con and oil businessman.

I'm all shocked and awed.
posted by rokusan at 11:33 AM on September 10, 2008

Chalabi was just a grasping, slippery, thieving weasel. Khalilzad has an agenda; he's Cheney's protege; being Negroponte's follower in Iraq has produced infighting now but I think he's an oil man to his fingertips. Anything but deal with Iran; and Russia is the enemy so the great game continues.
posted by adamvasco at 11:36 AM on September 10, 2008

I’d speculate we’ll eventually deal with Russia (deal - ‘make a deal’ not deal - ‘bust up’).
Doesn’t mean there won’t be some rocky road, but they’ve got greater agility right now and it’s a long ways off for the U.S.
So it’ll probably come to China being ‘the enemy’. All things being equal.

The taliban is in the drug biz, so they’re not competition for oil interests. Tho’ humanitarian aid and economic reconstruction makes sense - we should rebuild their agrarian infrastructure. That would take engagement - on the other hand I doubt my understanding of the meaning of those words paralells Khalilzad’s.

...Y’know, I get the strategic value of the manuvering with oil and energy (I disagree with it in execution, but...), I just don’t get the long term solution (if there is one).

Ultimately - oil just gets more and more scarce, and we just fight harder and harder for it?
Silly. Especially if mechanization is going to be less and less of a factor with China sitting on that much manpower.
Sure, driving the Ferrari F60 gives one a huge erection (buddy of mine has one) but c’mon this all can’t last forever.
You’ve gotta wean off the oil teat.

I don’t think any of those people consider the cost in lives or order. But it’s just unworkable, not only in goals, but in the necessity in its execution.

So we’re going to smear egg all over Pakistan’s face (after watching all the chest thumping they did with India and such)?

‘Yeah, let’s manipulate events such that the public will back the military against the powerful oil guy. Maybe fracture the tenuous “let’s not kick each other in the nuts” sort of truce going on right now.
Hey, let’s do a high viz hit on that Chaudhry guy while were at it. Y’know, ‘scare’ folks. They won’t riot. Nah.
No, I don’t know who’s got the nukes now that you mention it - why?’

I think these people are so blinded by the money they’re actually believing the b.s. propaganda they’ve been passing off as political theory and foreign policy.

I mean, I wouldn’t take my buddy’s Enzo if he gave it to me (well, I would, but I’d sell it). You’ve got to, at some point, put away the toys and do the work of ensuring your survival.
This is all counter to that.
I keep thinking of those folks on Easter Island - “Yeah! Look at the size of my head! I’m the richest, most status filled mf’er on this island! Yeah!”
Some other dude spends all his time cutting down more trees and building bigger heads. And on.
Couple years later they’re all eating rats. However it happened, if people on my island are starving, I’m not going to keep working on my megalith.

And that’s all that this effort seems to be. Gee, another big pipeline. Great.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:53 PM on September 10, 2008

Afghanistan is not about oil. The Unocal pipeline was a nineties thing. The ballgame has changed. Khalilzad made no efforts to foster a pipeline when he was the US ambassador, when he had de facto probably more power than any other person in Afghanistan. That was then - now, an attempt to build a pipeline through the South? Please.

Incidentally, one of the largest copper deposits in the world - the Aynak deposit - was found by the Soviets in Afghanistan in the late seventies, and has just been sold under a World Bank tender process to a Chinese company. Can't see it making live any more peaceful.
posted by YouRebelScum at 6:24 AM on September 11, 2008