10/15/15 – Eric Margolis – The Scott Horton Show

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Alright, you guys.
I'm me, it's my show, Scott Horton's Show.
I got Eric Margulies on the line.
Hey Eric, how are you, man?
I'm fine, Scott, just writing about Turkey at this moment, another big disaster area.
Yeah, another compared to what?
Oh yeah, that list.
Afghanistan, Iraq.
Palestine.
Syria, you name it.
Man.
Alright, well, so listen, everybody.
The reason that I have you listen to Eric all the time is because, yeah, he knows what he's talking about.
He's covered 14 wars, wrote a couple of books about it, war at the top of the world.
American Raj, that is empire, liberation, or domination, and really is an expert on all these places, been to all these places, and I almost sorta kinda don't know where to begin, but let's talk about Afghanistan here, Eric.
Dear Leader says, the troops that didn't leave at the end of last year, like in the deal, they're staying for at least another few years.
Of course, this is in reaction to the fall of Kunduz, and there's a great article by Tom Englehart, in fact, today, where he's quoting DIA guys, or whatever, CENTCOM guys, from a couple of months ago, saying, oh yeah, you know, the Taliban, they've been doing little hit-and-run attacks around Kunduz for a little while here, but we're pretty sure that that's never gonna amount to anything, and that Kunduz is in no danger of actually being attacked itself, or anything like that.
This is just a couple of months ago.
Now the whole thing's falling, and they've decided, I don't know if they were ever leaving or not, but now at least they're admitting that they never were.
So then, what do you think's gonna happen?
I think what's gonna happen is that American troops will remain like a British imperial garrison during the 19th century, and they'll be there long enough to hold some major cities and the American air bases.
Same thing that the British Empire did in Iraq.
And they'll keep their puppet government, Ashraf Ghani, in power, and pretend everything is good.
But really, America also has 35,000 mercenary troops in Afghanistan, and these guys will remain and work America's will.
But here's the problem with the mercs, and even the so-called professional army, I don't know if you're trying to distinguish there, between the Afghan army and mercs, that's pretty much all they are.
They only fight for a paycheck, so when the Taliban come, they run.
Because they're not there to fight for God and country, and this and that.
They're there fighting to try to get a little bit ahead before they have to quit.
That's right, and many of them are from ethnic minorities, like Tajiks and Uzbeks, with whom the Americans have allied themselves, immediately making them enemies of the majority Pashtuns.
But the American-paid mercenaries are much more reliable.
They're the scum of the gutter from all over the world.
They're professional gunmen.
They're not as likely to run away as the useless Afghan army.
So, in other words, you're saying, basically, they're going to keep enough power to keep the Taliban out of Kabul.
They're going to have enough American and allied mercenary and NATO and whatever power to keep the Taliban from taking the capital city.
Maybe take back Kunduz?
Well, Scott, yes.
I think the Taliban has pulled out of Kunduz for the very good reason that the U.S. Air Force is blasting the hell out of it.
Oh, they already have retreated, then.
And as we saw in last week's horrifying attack on the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz by an American C-130 gunship, it's American air power that is decisive in Afghanistan.
If the U.S. Air Force was not on call 24-7 in the skies over Afghanistan, America would be run out.
Its troops would be cut off, and they'd have to flee for their lives, just like the British did three or four times in the 19th century.
All thanks to the Air Force that we keep our imperial banner flying in the Hindu Kush, however, comma, it costs a mint.
Yeah.
Well, and even then, I mean, obviously, they're keeping the Taliban from rolling into Kabul the way ISIS rolled into Mosul kind of thing in a big convoy.
But they can pretty much just sneak their guys in there a few at a time and maybe do some kind of Tet Offensive type of thing from the inside.
I mean, they've only got, what, a couple of 10,000 guys, including the mercs and all of that.
How many did the Taliban have?
They're at least from there.
They've got to be able to field more than the Americans at this point, no?
Oh, yes, they do.
But it's not numbers of infantry volunteering for you that will decide the war.
You know, I covered, I was there in Afghanistan when the Najibullah regime, another puppet regime that was backed by the Soviets, was left to confront its enemies, who were the Mujahideen, who were our freedom fighters, as President Reagan called them.
And they only turned into terrorists afterwards.
And what became very clear is that any Afghan with even a tiny IQ had made secret deals with the opposition, knowing that the Soviet puppet regime would not survive.
Everybody called up their cousin Abdul, who was in the Taliban, and made deals so that a lot of things that happened were arranged in advance.
And the Afghans have been at war forever.
They've learned to prepare and to plan for these kind of changes.
Yeah.
All right now.
So, hey, let me ask you real quick about what's going on, especially in East Jerusalem, but in Palestine, what you make of it.
Do you think there's a major change coming to the status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque there?
I hope not, but it is possible because Israel's right wing, far right wing, which are very dominant, has made this a major issue and wants to implant Jewish control or increase it over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the second holiest site in Islam.
Now, you know, I find feuding and fighting over religious things to be exceptionally distasteful and low IQ, but both sides are at a hammer and tongs, and the Israeli security forces are shooting down Palestinians in the street.
They say they have a knife for their attackers, but the situation is growing much more dangerous.
But unfortunately, the only way Palestinians can fight is that stabbings, rock throwings and having large numbers of people killed so that it stays in world headlines.
Yeah.
And now, so do you think that the Palestinians have good reason to fear that the Israelis are going to just take it over and kick them out and start rebuilding the Third Temple or some crazy thing?
I don't think that's going to happen, at least not now.
But I think the Israelis will use salami tactics to expand their control over Al-Aqsa and to deny access to more and more Palestinians so that they can then begin some sort of Temple Mount renovation.
But this is going to take a while and it's going to be a bloody business.
All right.
Well, I guess I'll try to have you back either tomorrow or Monday or as soon as I can about your Turkey article as soon as it comes out, because there's a lot to learn about that place that I got to do here.
And I think a lot of the audience is with me on that.
So very much looking forward to talking with you about that thing as soon as it comes out.
It's a deal, Scott.
All right.
Good deal.
Thanks very much, Eric.
That is the great Eric Margulies, everybody.
Eric Margulies dot com.
Spell it like Margolis.
Eric Margulies dot com.
You can find him at Lou Rockwell dot com all the time, too.
We'll be right back in just a sec.
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