America Fights; China Prospers
By Case Wagenvoord
01 January, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Finally we know the real reason we’re in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our military’s mission is to prepare the way for China’s commercial interests. First, China and Russia squeezed us out of the oil concessions in southern Iraq. Now, The New York Times tells us that China has won the rights to mine one of the world’s richest copper deposits near the village of Aynak in Afghanistan. (The current price of copper is $6,600 a ton.)
The article points out that, “The world’s superpower is focused on security. It’s fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce.”
Of course, the Chinese have one advantage we don’t—they aren’t saddled with a voracious corporate-military parasite that needs a steady diet of wars and threats to survive. We destroy; they build. Our military drags us into bankruptcy; they prosper.
As one Afghani put it, “The Chinese are much wiser. When [they] went to talk to the local people they wore civilian clothing, and they were friendly. The Americans—not as good. When they come there, they have their uniforms, their rifles and such, and they are not as friendly.”
The article notes that the Chinese “flush with money and in control of both the government and major industries, meld strategy, business and statecraft into a seamless whole.”
The copper contract China has inked with Afghanistan underscores the difference between their approach and ours.
· They will build a 400-megawatt generating plant to power both the mine and Kabul. We bomb wedding parties.
· They will dig a new coal mine, with Afghani workers, to power the generating plant. We kill women and children.
· They will build a smelter to refine the copper. We torture.
· They will build a railroad to carry ore to the smelter and refined copper back to china. We support a corrupt regime.
· They will build schools, roads and mosques. We have reduced their country to rubble.
The article goes on to point out that, “[T]he conclusion is inescapable: American troops have helped make Afghanistan safe for Chinese investment.”
China is proving that the pen is mightier than the sword, especially if the pen is used to ink contracts.
Case Wagenvoord blogs at http://belacquajones.blogspot.com and welcomes comments at [email protected].
