Invisible History:
Afghanistan's Untold Story
Tells the story of how Afghanistan brought the United States to this place in time after nearly 60 years of American policy in Eurasia - of its complex multiethnic culture, its deep rooting in mystical Zoroastrian and Sufi traditions and how it has played a pivotal role in the rise and fall of empires.
Invisible History, Afghanistan’s Untold Story provides the sobering facts and details that every American should have known about America’s secret war, but were never told.
The Real Story Behind the Propaganda (read more)
Crossing Zero: The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire
Focuses on the AfPak strategy and the importance of the Durand Line, the border separating Pakistan from Afghanistan but referred to by the military and intelligence community as Zero line. The U.S. fought on the side of extremist-political Islam from Pakistan during the 1980s and against it from Afghanistan since September 11, 2001. It is therefore appropriate to think of the Durand/Zero line as the place where America’s intentions face themselves; the alpha and omega of nearly 60 years of American policy in Eurasia. The Durand line is visible on a map. Zero line is not.(Coming February, 2011) (read more)
Invisible History Blog
We'll explore anomalies we discovered while researching the causes of the Soviet and American invasions of Afghanistan. We look forward to your comments. Paul & Liz.
The struggle ahead
(excerpt) read the complete article here
When the next president of the United States enters the Oval Office in January, he will face the toughest foreign policy decisions of any president since Franklin Roosevelt. But the toughest of all will involve the struggle for Afghanistan.
A Moment that Revealed the Modern Strangeness of the Russian Conundrum
Why didn’t a new politic emerge towards Russia when the Soviet Union dissolved into individual capitalist nations at the end of the cold war?
On a trip to Moscow in 1986 under the auspices of Mark Gerzon’s Mediators Foundation, we got no further than Moscow’s Shermetyevo Airport terminal when we encountered Daniel Ellsberg, headed toward an outbound flight after consulting with the government of Mikhail Gorbachev. Attempting to reform the Soviet System, Gorbachev had invited Ellsberg and other advocates of nuclear disarmament to Moscow in the hopes of getting better ideas for dealing with the Reagan administration’s stand on the Strategic Defense Initiative and the deployment of Intermediate Nuclear Forces. In a conversation with Gerzon, Ellsberg related how he had advised his host to simply call Washington’s bluff and give them what they had asked for even though it was not in Moscow’s interest. Taking Ellsberg’s advice shortly thereafter, Gorbachev offered to remove all of Russia’s Euro missiles, exposing the American negotiating position as a fraud and infuriating Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger and Republican leaders Bob Dole and Jesse Helms. An exasperated Kissinger went so far as to condemn the Soviet disarmament move as unfair, complaining publicly that Gorbachev must have known the U.S. position was only a bluff.
For more information regarding Gorbachev’s bluff-calling see, The Power of Protest by Lawrence S. Wittner Sept. 16, 2004 on Znet
Casualties of Charlie Wilson’s War
(excerpt) read the complete article here
RE: "CHARLIE Wilson's Zen lesson" (Editorial, Jan. 4): As the first journalists to enter Kabul in 1981 for CBS News following the expulsion of the Western media the previous year, we continue to be amazed at how the American disinformation campaign built around the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan lives on.