HAIKU (MAUI), HAWAII AMERICAN/GLOBAL AFFAIRS
AN ESSAY ON AMERICAN POLITICS
Afghanistan accounts for 90% of world production of opium, raw material for heroin
A 15-year update to “Perpetual War for Perpetual Commerce“-a Chronicles magazine 1998 column
 
Afghanistan: War for Lithium?
 
How supposed “War on Terror” and “War on Opium” morphed into “War for Lithium,” mineral essential for building of nuclear weapons; US troops deployment soars during Obama administration as does opium production; American casualties and costs mount; only “death merchants” and their corporate brethren benefit
Introduction: Afghan President Alleges US-Taliban Collusion
HAIKU, Maui, March 11, 2013 – Sunday morning editions of most major media carried a story in which they quoted the Afghan President Karzai as saying that there is possibly collusion between the apparent enemies which has led to suicide attacks which coincided with the new US Secretary of Defense (Hagel) “surprise” visit to Afghanistan (click here for one such story). Here’s this writer’s comment about that which was published later in the day in the Huffington Post World edition:
“PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL COMMERCE“

That is the only constant in US foreign policy regardless of who is in the White House or what party has the majority on the Hill. That was also the topic of this editorial column I wrote 15 years ago for the Chicago-based CHRONICLES magazine: PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL COMMERCE.

Why? Because war is good for business. And human lives are cheap when someone is on a quest to rule the world.

What Karzai said yesterday (Mar 9) about the US possible complicity in the alleged Taliban atrocities in Afghanistan is entirely plausible based on my experiences as a Balkans war correspondent and geopolitical columnist in the 1990. Washington has often covertly colluded with local thugs to kill and maim local population – their own people (!) – so as to justify the eventual foreign military intervention and the presence of NATO/American troops from which such local US “allies” benefited financially and politically.

In fact, it was the prevalence of such practices that allowed me to predict the Kosovo War, for example, well before it actually happened. See the “WASHINGTON CRISIS FACTORY” column, for example, published in the New Dawn magazine before the Kosovo War as a case in point: WASHINGTON CRISIS FACTORY.
The cartoon on the right was part of several columns this writer published on the subject of the so-called New World Order in the 1990s. These stories showed that the true motto of the globalist “elite,” whose goal is to eventually rule the world, is not “world peace through world trade,” as they keep saying, but “perpetual war for perpetual commerce” (Click on Truth in Media COLUMNS for more stories like this.).
And now, a story behind the Mar 10 Afghan news story…
* * *
War on Terror?
HAIKU, Maui, March 11, 2013 – Want to know the real reason the U.S. military is still in Afghanistan and American blood and treasure is being spent on this desolate country 12 years after the 9/11?
No, it’s not the “War on Terror.” That was the cover story – a 9/11 pablum for the American taxpayers. The Bush administration invented it and started to serve it right after 9/11. But it was actually Obama who actually more than doubled the pablum portion while talking pullout in Afghanistan (left chart).
Immediately after taking office, Obama signed an order increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan. A few months later, he increased it again, a move known as the troop surge. The US forces went from approximately 31,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan at the end of 2008, to about 71,000 a year later. The peak was 111,000 in 2011.
Not surprisingly, the American casualties have soared (see the chart) during the tenure of yet another Democratic president who talked peace while accelerating war (as Clinton did in the Balkans in the 1990s).
War on Opium?
So if it’s now a “War on Terror,” has our invasion of Afghanistan morphed into a “War on Opium?” That’s what some suggested. Like Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, during his visit to that country last year. After all, Afghanistan is by far the world’s largest producer of opium, the raw material for production of heroin (see the chart). This country alone accounts for 90% of the global opium crops.
Sounds good, doesn’t it?  Perhaps too good to be true? For, it would seem quite noble for Washington and its allies to be spending gazillions of dollars and sacrificing thousands of American soldiers’ lives to protect our youth from the heroin drug lords. And one thing we have all learned from the recent history is that there is nothing “noble” about the crowd who want to rule the world by force and at any cost.
So digging a little deeper, one discovers that Blair’s assertion is nothing more than typical politician double-talk. It is the “Cover Story 2,” if you like. The facts show otherwise.
The UN annual reports on global drug trade have consistently shown that in recent years the opium production in Afghanistan soared almost in proportion to the accelerated deployment of US troops.
The opium production was up 61% in 2011, the peak year for US troop deployment. And it was up again 18% in 2012 (see the chart). So if this is “War on Opium,” then the Taliban drug lords are winning it hands down.
Which once again brings back to mind Karzai’s Mar 9 comment about the possible collusion between the US and Taliban, our ostensible enemy whose financing depends on opium sales. Maybe “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” as the old saw goes, Washington denials notwithstanding?
War for Lithium?
So if it is not a War on Terror, and is not a War on Opium, what is the Afghan was about? In a word, it is a war for LITHIUM. Lithium is the story behind the story, the real reason Americans are still dying in this desolate country that managed to sap the patience and the resources even of the Soviet empire in the 1980s.
What do we know about Lithium? Well, it’s a material used in rechargeable batteries, for example. And they are ubiquitous. We all have them and use them even in the poorest countries of the world.
So am I suggesting that Afghanistan is a “War of Batteries?” That we are fighting and our soldiers are dying so that the American consumers can recharge their cell phones, watches, computers, digital cameras…?
No. That’s not what I am suggesting. That’s only a tiny part of the reason.  Even if fueled by greed, looking out for consumers would not be the MO of the globalist “elite” who are already running America and want to rule the world.
So what is it then that’s so important about Lithium?
Silvery-looking Lithium floating in oil
Lithium is one of the top 10 most valuable minerals in the world.  One reason it is so valuable is that it is essential for production of nuclear weapons. And Afghanistan is one of the world’s largest sources of Lithium.
The Soviet geologists were the first to publish information about Lithium and the mineral riches of Afghanistan. They should know. The Soviet Union explod