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15 Aug, 6 tweets, 3 min read
The US is to blame, not just Afghan "corruption." The US created a puppet regime with no popular support.

And you "forgot" to mention the *hundreds of thousands of Afghans killed* in this imperial war, not to mention the mineral wealth stolen by corporations & CIA opium pipeline
Stop with this chauvinist "all we got for $2 trillion & thousands of American lives" BS. Afghanistan is not a US colony. It's not some corporate investment.

And the US empire and foreign corporations pillaged Afghanistan for its $1 trillion in minerals
occrp.org/en/investigati…
The endemic corruption in Afghanistan was built into the structure of the neoliberal puppet regime that the US gov't created to enrich itself and US officials.

It's the US that is responsible. Stop with these arrogant colonial tropes about corrupt Afghans
occrp.org/en/investigati…
It's not a coincidence that after the US invasion, opium production skyrocketed in Afghanistan.

The US empire sucked that country dry for 20 years, using heroin to fund dirty imperial ops around the world (while fueling the deadly opioid crisis at home)
mronline.org/2021/06/29/geo…
When the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the CIA bribed tribal warlords to support the US military occupation. They increased opium production to fund their battles -- fueling the global heroin trade.
theguardian.com/world/2002/nov…
In 2016, opium production in Afghanistan had increased by approximately 25 times in relation to its 2001 levels, from 185 tons in 2001, when the US invaded, to 4800 tons in 2016.

"CIA external operations are financed from these profits."
sputniknews.com/columnists/201…

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More from @BenjaminNorton

Ben Norton Profile picture
12 Sep
In addition to being the anniversary of the CIA coup in Chile, 9/11 is also the anniversary of the 2012 attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which was being used by the CIA to funnel weapons to al-Qaeda-allied Salafi-jihadist "rebels" in Syria
lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/…
The CIA rat line in Benghazi "was used to funnel weapons and ammunition from Libya via Turkey and across the Syrian border to the opposition. Many of those in Syria who ultimately received the weapons were jihadists, some of them affiliated with al-Qaida"
lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/…
The CIA ratline sending weapons from Benghazi, Libya to al-Qaeda-allied Salafi-jihadists in Syria was funded by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, and supported by Britain's MI6.

They used front companies in Libya, under cover of Australian entities. It was led by David Petraeus. ImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
4 Sep
If you want to know why Western governments and their mouthpieces in the media are freaking out so much over US-NATO losing in Afghanistan, this explains it:

The new Taliban government is going to join China's Belt & Road and help build the new silk road
scmp.com/news/china/dip…
A main goal of the 20-year US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan (aside from exploiting its minerals & poppies and building military bases next to Iran) was to try to halt China's rise by putting a US puppet regime in the middle of its planned new silk road

That obstacle is now gone
This is a big deal: A spokesperson for the new Taliban-led interim government said "China is our most important partner and represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity for us, because it is ready to invest [in] and rebuild our country."

He also praised the Belt & Road
Read 6 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
18 Aug
I'm hosting a show on the new independent streaming platform @theRokfin, which unlike Big Tech giants doesn't censor alternative media.

This August 19 I'll be doing a livestream to discuss Afghanistan war profiteering and how the CIA created the Taliban: rokfin.com/stream/8332/Ho…
This August 19 I'm also doing a livestream with @MaxBlumenthal discussing the Afghanistan pullout, CIA ratline, pipeline conflict, and new cold war.

Starts at 2 pm ET / 11 am PT / 1800 UTC.

It'll be both on @TheGrayzoneNews YouTube channel and on Rokfin: rokfin.com/stream/8334/In…
"The 'loss' of Afghanistan should be interpreted as a repositioning. It fits the new geopolitical configuration, where the Pentagon’s top mission is not the 'war on terror' but to try to isolate Russia & harass China on the expansion of the New Silk Roads" asiatimes.com/2021/08/the-is…
Read 4 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
15 Aug
Nicaragua's Sandinista government issued one of the most fiery statements I've ever seen, condemning the US client regime in Costa Rica for meddling in its affairs, stressing "Nicaragua is sovereign, and it's not and will never again be a colony of anyone"
el19digital.com/articulos/ver/…
Nicaragua condemned Costa Rica's US client regime for mimicking "pretentious airs of expired [colonial] Europe, which also looks down on them"

It said Costa Rica should treat its own workers better, where "everything is a lie and everything is for sale, including human dignity"
Nicaragua: "If there is something more unreal, fake, fantastical, fictional, it's the supposed policy of the 'Switzerland' of Central America (Costa Rica), which in real life carries out racism and extremism, abusing Nicaraguan migrants and workers, who they mistreat and enslave"
Read 5 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
28 Jul
Peru's new leftist President Pedro Castillo announced at his inauguration that he will not govern from the typical palace, which is named after a murderous Spanish conquistador

Instead Castillo will make it a museum that tells Peru's real colonial history noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-notici…
Pedro Castillo, the new leftist president of Peru, said at his inauguration today, "I believe that we have to break with the colonial symbols to end with the chains of domination that have remained in place for so many years" noticieros.televisa.com/ultimas-notici…
As the new president of Peru, Pedro Castillo announced that the Ministry of Culture will change its name to Ministry of Cultures to recognize Indigenous peoples:

"In a diverse country like ours, a ministry is needed that recognizes diverse cultures and other spoken languages"
Read 4 tweets
Ben Norton Profile picture
25 Jul
A dirty tactic of imperialist hybrid war: regime media mouthpieces like The Guardian of Blairism (which supports every war and neoliberal reform and sabotages leftists like Corbyn) spread disinfo to divide the Latin American left

They did the same against Nicaragua and Venezuela
The Guardian is a right-wing pro-war rag controlled by UK spy agencies. It obediently prints lies to support every imperialist war

And it spends a lot of energy printing propaganda to divide the left, lying about Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to destroy international solidarity
Leaked documents obtained by @declassifiedUK show how The Guardian was effectively taken over and neutralized by UK spy agencies

It's a disinformation weapon of the British government, used to spread propaganda against countries targeted for regime change
dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-0…
Read 4 tweets

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