The Chessboard : A Meandering Tour from Peshawar to Herat

A Meandering Tour from Peshawar to Herat

[Image: stolen from Pepe’s piece linked at the end. No attribution is given there, thus I have none to offer. Perhaps its his?]

Publication date: 2021-09-02

An interview becomes a conversation between the interviewees. The interviewers are so engaged that they cannot speak. Welcome to CN Live "Afghanistan: The 20-Year Disaster".

The Ante Pasta is Scott Horton and David McBride reflecting on the latest Afghan war, with some background on the Zbig plan to Mujaheddin the USSR. The Carne comes out with a robust Red as Pepe Escobar and Scott Ritter leave little room for either Joe Lauria or Elizabeth Vos to interject upon the conversation. Like any great dinner conversation this meanders over the Hindu Kush, through the ancient tribal lands of civilizational interchange, into valleys of humor, to a Herat of reflection.

The main course of the Eurasian geo-political tour begins at 00:38:36.

Along the east to west Afghan conversational journey one receives an analysis of recent USA politi-speak about "no more nation building". Likely current CIA disruption tactics against whatever "national unity" government the Taliban can muster is plumbed. Ritter's analysis of the shooting of so many civilians during the recent suicide bombing at Kabul airport by Ritter is so good that both Escobar and Lauria declare it the best analysis they're heard/read. Onwards it winds, illuminating events and tectonic shifts as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's impending full member incorporation of Iran appears in the rear-view mirror. In the HiLux's headlights are the China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, India, and the central Asian 'stans' consideration of threats to and the possibilities of integration of Afghanistan. With a pipeline to the right and a new highway underneath the conversation turns through culture, history, political affiliation, the rights of women and a new geo-political reality.

As a sweet with the coffee I offer Pepe's writings on his Afghan tour from 2000, before we were all subjected to the horror of the War on Terror decades.

PS: Feel free to skip the Ante Pasta to 00:38:36, the main course is worth every second.

Sources

Pepe Escobar, Scott Horton, Scott Ritter and David McBride join CN Live! to discuss two decades of disaster in Afghanistan, CN Live and Guests, Consortium News, 2021-09-01

Back to the Future: Talibanistan, Year 2000, Pepe Escobar, Unz Review, 2021-09-01

Parts 2 and 3 for the above story are linked, at the end of the introduction, to the The Internet Archive versions of the original posts. We love The Internet Archive.

Fixing a Hole, The Beatles, Sgt. Peppers album, back in the day