Can We "Buy" Cooperation? No More Than We Can Win Love By Being The Highest Bidder.
Dear Fellow Internationalists and Friends:
When we question somebody's impartiality, objectivity, bias, motivation and loyalty, whether it relates to the results of a scientific study, or to the favors which may be dispensed (out of a sense of obligation) by a candidate who wins a campaign, there are two things that even the most junior detective would ask:
1. Is there a conflict of interest at play?
2. Has money changed hands here? If so, who received the money and who contributed the money?
The general consensus seems to be that if you follow the trail of money back upstream to its source, that is the party who is exerting the influence, a likely beneficiary to the findings, reported results, decisions made or actions taken, and the base of the recipient's loyalty and fidelity. Plainly, people pay other people to do things (or to not do things) for them...if I issue a payment, unless it is strictly motivated by philanthropy or charity...I am expecting something back from you. Money Motivates.
If you are willing to take money from anybody, that generally means that either you are a thief (if you do it at gunpoint), or a prostitute (if you don't use a gun, but you are ready to give yourself to the "benefactor of the moment."
If you spend the night with me (pretending to love me) because I've given you money, then you are a prostitute...If you spend the night with me because you actually do love me, it is not prostitution -- it probably means that either an opthomologist or a psychiatrist would question your judgment.
In the latest non-revelation concerning an Iranian official paying bags full of cash to an Afghani official during the course of the past several years, President Karzai finally admitted what everybody has always known, as did sources within the Iranian government -- that it was actually happening. The United States is hurt because Afghanistan has been getting bags of money from the United States all along (it has become a matter of U.S. foreign affairs policy to bypass ideology and education and just get to "silver or lead"...the drug cartel's credo: "We'll either use our military might to crush you, or we'll use our money to bribe you." In fact, maybe we'll do one first [either], and then try the other if the first doesn't work!).
The U.S. has been buying influence, or trying to forestall a meltdown in the region. The Iranians, admitted enemies of the United States, have been doing the same thing.
Afghanistan cheerfully accepts these gifts from both suitors. Why? Because Afghanistan is a prostitute. And prostitutes do not make their living by being choosy or chaste.
And if Afghanistan is a prostitute, what does that make both the United States and Iran?
Fools.
Can either side truly win the hearts and minds of the Afghanis with these deliveries of tribute? No. Never.
Will either side actually put its foot down and stop pouring money into that wretched wreck of a country? No. Never.
What each "client" will do now is quietly attempt to outbid the other. That's right. Instead of being abandoned by both suitors (each with its own noble intentions), Both sides will compete with eachother, each trying to outbid the other, to win Afghanistan's non-existent fidelity. Two fools bidding against eachother for a non-prize. What a terrible waste of time and money.
Particularly ironic is the fact that conducting of international affairs no longer involves any notion of pursuasion or partnership, of ideology or education, of leading by example...no. We no longer use our exquisite charms to seduce "difficult" countries. Sadly, in terms of its implications for Humanity, the big, powerful countries, just like the big powerful companies, have decided that the only tools required to control the actions of others are two: silver (bags of money) or lead (bullets).
An excerpt from an Associated Press (AP) article about this "love triangle" [did I hear you snickering?] follows for your entertainment. It seems so silly, but yet it speaks so poorly of the state of our Great Human Civilization:
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Iran acknowledges it funds Afghan government
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran acknowledged Tuesday it has been sending funds to neighboring Afghanistan for years, but said the money was intended to aid reconstruction, not to buy influence in the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran acknowledged Tuesday it has been sending funds to neighboring Afghanistan for years, but said the money was intended to aid reconstruction, not to buy influence in the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai said Monday he receives millions of dollars in cash from Iran, adding that Washington gives him "bags of money" too because his office lacks funds.
In Washington, President Barack Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, denied that.
"We're not in the big bags of cash business," he said Tuesday.
Earlier, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said some of the U.S. aid to Afghanistan is in cash.
U.S. officials asserted the money flowing from Tehran was proof that Iran is playing a double game in Afghanistan — wooing the government while helping Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. and NATO forces. Iran denies that.
"Iran has provided the country with plenty of help," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday in his weekly news briefing in Tehran. "Iran has helped construction of Afghanistan and the preparation of its economic infrastructure and it will pursue it in the future, too."
Mehmanparast said Iran's help began years ago. He said peace and stability in Afghanistan is important for Iran.
The acknowledgment prompted a challenge from seven Iranian lawmakers who demanded that Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki appear before parliament to clarify the payments, according to the news website http://www.Khabaronline.ir.
The call indicated that lawmakers — who have the power to impeach ministers — were unaware of the payments. Under Iran's constitution, government funds sent abroad, including aid donations and loans, must get parliamentary approval.
In a letter, the lawmakers demanded to know the amount of money sent over the past five years, where it came from, the way it was transferred and the legal basis for the payments.
On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Iran was giving bags of cash to President Karzai's chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, to buy his loyalty and promote Iranian interests in Afghanistan. The Times quoted unidentified sources as saying the cash amounted to a slush fund that Karzai and Daudzai used to pay lawmakers, tribal elders — and even Taliban commanders — to secure their loyalty.
Karzai told reporters Monday that he had instructed Daudzai, a former ambassador to Iran, to accept the money from Tehran.
Before Karzai spoke, the Iranian Embassy in Afghanistan dismissed the allegations that the Iranian government was making cash payments to Daudzai, calling them "ridiculous and insulting."
Iran publicly opposed the U.S.-led offensive that toppled the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, though its relations with the Taliban regime had been frosty.
Iran is believed to not want the Taliban to return to power. But it remains wary of a long-term U.S. military presence on its doorstep in both Iraq and Afghanistan. ####
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
THE INTERNATIONALIST PAGE
http://theinternationalistpage.blogspot.com/
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