Kilcullen: U.S. Will Be in Afghanistan Two More Years

Aug. 8 (EIRNS)—David Kilcullen, an Australian Army reservist and top advisor to Gen. David H. Petraeus during the troop surge in Iraq, told an audience at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington on Aug. 7, that the United States will see about two more years of heavy fighting in Afghanistan and then either hand off to a much improved Afghan fighting force, or "lose and go home." Kilcullen will shortly assume the role as a senior advisor to Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

McChrystal is preparing a report which is expected to recommend changes in the way the United States and NATO organize and manage the war. Ahead of those recommendations, the Pentagon has set up a new command center, an ultra-secure war room where people from a mix of services and disciplines are supposed to quickly process information and bulldoze some of the Pentagon's legendary bureaucracy. Responding to the new war strategy waiting in the wings, Kilcullen said Obama's counterterrorism mandate isn't "at the top of my list." His top reasons: The United States and NATO have promised protection to the Afghan people; the future of the NATO military alliance could hinge on perseverance in Afghanistan; and if Afghanistan crumbles, nuclear-armed Pakistan would probably follow.

China as the British Empire's New Germany

Aug. 3 (EIRNS)—World War I had its roots in the late 19th Century, as Britain's Edward, Prince of Wales, organized an anti-Germany coalition in Europe to reverse the America System industrial policy being successfully followed in Germany and elsewhere in the world. Now, British imperial strategist Niall Ferguson is promoting a replay: "Imagine a rerun of the Anglo-German antagonism of the early 1900s, with America in the role of Britain and China in the role of imperial Germany," said Ferguson in a July 27 interview with the New Perspectives Quarterly. "It captures the fact that a high level of economic integration does not necessarily prevent the growth of strategic rivalry and ultimately conflict."

Ferguson is an unabashed defender of the Empire. Formerly at Oxford, and now at Harvard, he is the author of Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, which claims that the British Empire was a boon to mankind. His latest book is The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, which was turned into a TV series for the Public Broadcasting System.

In his endgame scenario, Ferguson lays out a strategy for busting up the four-power alliance (U.S.-China-Russia-India) that Lyndon LaRouche has identified as essential to defeat the British Empire today. "The end of [the China-America relationship] is causing India and the United States to become more closely aligned. It's creating an opportunity for Moscow to forge closer links to Beijing." Remind you of Edward?

Just three days before Ferguson's interview, the same formulation appeared in a July 29 Asia Times article, "Wilhelmine China?" by Sebastian Bruck. Bruck recently completed his Ph.D. at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and works for a major international strategic consulting company, according to Asia Times.

Doubled Life Span in Xinjiang—Cultural Deprivation?

Aug. 8 (EIRNS)—The average life span in northwest China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region has more than doubled in the past 60 years, a regional health official said yesterday. In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, average life expectancy there was 31 years. Today it is 71 years, said Memet Yasin, head of the regional health bureau.

Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the separatist World Uighur Congress, is known for statements such as, on a recent visit to Japan, "I came here to let the Japanese people know the terrible conditions that the Uighurs are suffering."

The Dalai Lama constantly makes similar statements about Tibet and the supposed loss of cultural identity, while ignoring all the improvements in health care, nutrition, clean water, education, etc., that have increased the life span of the average Tibetan.