STILL THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!

STILL THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!

(Asian Times, Filkis Dexter, Reuters, the Guardian, Associated Press, Deutschland Welle)

(Sydney Morning Herald, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Like the good book says, my mother said, and historical scholars wrote, (money is the root of all evil), and it hold true today probably more than at any time in our history as Homo sapiens. The things that we do for money, as a people truly is unbelievable.

 

The latest example of how money grubbing we can be comes from Afghanistan and our stupid occupation of the country to face the dilemma of terrorist’s activity. According to those high officials in our government, we first entered Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden, to punish him and his followers for the dastardly 9-11 attack, and we remained so that we could keep terrorist activity out of our country!

 

Initially I had absolutely no problem with that attitude, I did however hope that our military forces could capture Bin Laden alive, and bring him to justice through either a tribunal, or at a civilian court. I guess in the light of reality, hoping for a trial of any kind for a person so hated by the west was naïve on my part.

 

We now find ourselves in the traditional bog downed situation that we seem to always find ourselves lately, another military mission with a laughable exit strategy, kind of like up a s--- creek without a paddle. We never seem to learn, military activity never, never gives anybody the results that they were hoping for. In the case of the United States and Afghanistan, even though military men with tons of lettuce on their lapels, (awards) do not have a clear exit plan.

 

People die every day, we are told by our military leaders that training for the Afghan security forces may be years away from a satisfactory level. There is corruption galore at every turn, even at the highest levels, and now the Kabul Bank scam…..what in hell is going on?

 

From the very beginning I did not trust Hamid Karzai, way too much was going on around him during his first years as the president of the country. And today, some five or six years later, when Karzai talked the talk of a democracy, peace, and jobs for his people, the situation continues as before, and is possibly even worse.

 

The national economy of Afghanistan is, at best tenuous, and at worst, at the edge of collapse, you’d think that any responsible leader would have the best for his people at heart…..right? We now learn, from the foreign press, basically, that the great Kabul Bank that was touted by President Karzai and funded in part by the United States ended up being kind of like the great Northfield Minnesota bank robbery.

 

There, of course, are several differences when one compares the Kabul Bank and the Northfield Bank in Minnesota. The big difference is that the architects of the Minnesota fiasco, Jesse and Frank James, Cole Jim, and Bob Younger are all dead, and their haul amounted to $26.70. The designers of the Kabul Bank caper made off with millions of dollars, and the two men caught…..so far, we serve five year jail terms.

 

PRIORITIES, MY MAN

Washington has vociferously denounced Afghan corruption as a major obstacle to the United States mission in Afghanistan. Huh, now we have it, America’s mission in the hilly, mountainous dry and arid country that resembles more a sand box with prickly burrs covering more than half the region. The missions of the United States military…..to nation build---pure and simple.

 

Oh you won’t find that mission in any printed material, you won’t ever hear that from any military official, and you damn sure won’t here that from Capitol Hill. As in Iraq, nation building efforts in Afghanistan by American forces, to borrow a German word, is kaput. Sadly the United States government or its military leaders do not understand either the Afghani or the Iraqi peoples.

 

Neither country wants a democratically run government, they have practiced their own brand of government for hundreds of years, why in hell would they change in an overnight fashion…..the answer, they haven’t…..and won’t any time soon. Remember that the next time somebody gets sick and tired of the antics that happen in Iran, or the buffoon that is the mouth-piece for North Korea, both fall into the same category as Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

As with most countries, governments favor a select few people, those high rollers, the Robber Barons, those Captains of Industry. It’s what nation building militarily centered countries always do; it’s in their best interest. Oh sure they package whatever slop that they are dribbling about as a humane and just effort…..but in the end it’s all about the cha-ching that they can put into their back pockets.

 

Sherkhan Farnood and Khalilullah Ferozi, the names sound like some sort of seasonal ice-cream, have both been identified, tried, convicted and jailed for five years in Afghani jails…..where they both we be introduced to some guy named Ivan the Awful, and undoubtedly learn a whole new way to practice safe sex.

 

Both Farnood and Ferozi have had strong ties to the Karzai government as well as the United States C.I.A. The Karzai government has asked the West to help recover the illegal insider loans totally close to a billion dollars. Without a doubt, about as much cash will be recovered as pieces of paper in an Afghani wind storm.

 

You can say anything you want about Sherkhan Farnood, but ya gotta admit he has his priorities in the right place. He learned his banking practices in Moscow were he ran a Hawala, or a money transfer organization. The Hawala was rumored to be used by heroin and opium smugglers to transfer money to Tajikistan and Afghanistan. In 1998 the Hawala was closed down by Russian authorities for money laundering and its role in the transfer of drug money.

 

Farnood escaped criminal prosecution because he had left Russia months before the scheme was came to an end. Farnood is originally from Kunduz Province of Afghanistan and operated under the name of  Sherhan Mohammad Morad. Little information has surfaced thus far and about the banks Chief Executive, Khalilullah Ferozi, but he was found guilty of stealing $530 million, all we can say here at Chronicle headquarters to these two bankers is, “good luck with your new bunk mates.”

 

DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH…..AFGHANISTAN

During the early part of the 21^st century, the United States government and its military have formed a habit of helping themselves, and simply saying “thank you very much.” Money won’t be returned any time soon by the Pentagon, the C.I. A. or the elected government of the United States.

 

Close to a billion dollars was taken in the latest scam to hit that part of the world, evidently military and private enterprise has discovered a jewel of a place to make money for those high officials in the war department as well as the private sector. Way to go boys, keep up the good work, and:

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!