Land & People vindicated: The Guardian Picks up the Trans Afghanistan Pipeline Story
By mercia – The Guardian has become the first British national newspaper to report on the importance and significance of the Trans Afghanistan Pipeline (TAP) project — a subject vital to understanding the causes underpinning the Afghanistan war after only the British National Party’s Land & People previously reported on it.
The following are some snippets from The Guardian’s report. The full article may be found by following the link at the foot of our report.
Quote: About 25 countries have promised to send more troops to Afghanistan in response to President Obama’s call for extra support from Nato members.
But France and Germany, the two European powers who could make a real difference, remain as hesitant as ever. French and German leaders now face a painful choice. Should they finally embrace Nato’s efforts in Afghanistan more wholeheartedly – which would mean accepting significantly more human and material sacrifices?
Or should they or conclude that the war has already been lost, or that “success” does not merit the cost, and abandon the mission altogether?
This is not about just about pre-empting future terrorist attacks on European capitals by stopping the Taliban from retaking the country.
At stake in Afghanistan is the survival of the transatlantic alliance, Europe’s energy security and independence, and whether the deepening ties between Europe — especially Germany — and Russia, will eventually lead to the western integration of Russia, or instead, to it gaining a stranglehold over European energy security.
In Afghanistan all three issues are interlinked. This fact remains largely ignored. Afghanistan is a crucial energy transit corridor in central Asia, potentially connecting the energy-rich central Asian republics with the Arabian Sea and/or the Indian Ocean.
Stabilising Afghanistan — not just temporarily to justify withdrawal, but for good — is crucial for the anticipated Trans-Afghanistan pipeline from Turkmenistan to India (known as Tapi) to be built and its security to be guaranteed.
The construction of Tapi is essential for Europe to diversify its energy supplies and reduce its dependence on oil and gas imports from the Gulf and Russia. Failure in Afghanistan, and by extension in Pakistan, would mean abandoning the construction of Tapi and in turn, pave the way for Russia to reassert its former hegemony in the region.
The Guardian article can be seen here while this article and others can be found on the Land and People website here.
