“It appears that almost everywhere U.S. interventionism goes, the drug market seems to follow.” – Max Parry [1]
“What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?” – Zbigniew Brzezinski [2]
October 7, 2023. The very day the War on Terrorism was launched. Twenty-two years ago last Saturday. [3]
The United States, reeling from a major attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon determined, or at least decided, that Osama Bin Laden and the infamous Al Qaeda network of terrorist he presided over, was responsible for the attack. They said he was living in Afghanistan and demanded the government immediately hand him over. The reigning Taliban insisted they show him evidence that Bin Laden was responsible for the September 11 attacks. No evidence was handed over, merely an ultimatum: Hand him over or the terrorists or “share in their fate.” [4]
The government approved by the International Security Assistance force, approved by the US and the UN then saw Hamid Karzai placed as the “new and improved” leader of the Afghan population. However, while the Taliban would be waging guerrilla warfare for the next few years, a number of difficult factors began to emerge – predominantly opium. [5]
Opium is the source of heroin. Afghanistan had been the source of 90 percent of the illicit narcotic. The Taliban had virtually eliminated opium crops from Afghan soil during the year from 2000 to 2001. This substance was now back in circulation thanks to the new U.S. approved government! [6]
If the U.S. is determined to eradicate this substance, along with the narcotics trade generally, why does the amount of it actually increase following the military moves it has championed, not just in Afghanistan, but in south-east Asia and Latin America as well? These are questions that will predominantly be the study of this anniversary edition of the Global Research News Hour.
In our first half hour we speak with Max Parry, a journalist in the US, who has written an article back on 2021, entitled The War in Afghanistan: The Real ‘Crime of the Century’ Behind the Opioid Crisis. He investigates the general tendency of the US to be as addicted, in a way, to proceeds from the illicit drug trade as individuals cast in despair on the sidelines. He describes the history of mixing drug markets with imperial conquests and explains what he thinks of the return starting in 2022 of the Taliban to vanquishing opium poppies from their soil.
Then in our second half hour, we speak to Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of CovertAction Magazine, about his article, 1979 Assassination of U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Adoplph Dubs Set Groundwork for America’s Longest War, also written in 2021. He explores the origins of the downturn of Afghanistan started in 70s which was sparked by the assassination of the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan at the time: Adolph Dubs. He also talks about how Zbigniew Brzezinski and the U.S. “Deep State” entities the Trilateral Commission and the Safari Club played a key role in a major re-direction of the country’s foreign policy toward weakening and eventually playing a role in pummelling the Soviet Union. And yes, the illicit drug trade played a major role in this operation as well.
Max Parry is an independent journalist and geopolitical analyst. His writing has appeared widely in alternative media. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction .Magazine. He is the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018).