Replies to post #451381 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[newmedman]

you are too far gone for me to even recognize...

Your shit doesn't turn into shinola.

I guess we could have an argument about a world where nobody pays any taxes, there is no rule of law, there is no structure to help me to not kill my neighbor to steal their milk cow, as the infrastructure crumbles down and power costs a million per kilowatt, but hey, you be you....

I'm not anywhere close to that.

I hope wherever you live is all for it. Have fun🤠

[hookrider]

livefree_ordie: "No change in status for these funds going to a group of folks who want us all dead"

LOL, you are OK voting for Trump and the fucking republicans, that talk & make deals with the Fucking Russian every fucking day. So Fuck OFF!!!!!

[BOREALIS]

Speaking of CRAZY...

YES!
CRAZY is as CRAZY does

[fuagf]

livefree_ordie, You wouldn't be here but for your working brain. It will not work better if you continue to feel the need to tell us you have one. That said (in all generosity), it would be better for you, and for all those you attempt to communicate with, if you could direct that brain of yours to a bigger picture:

"So you are good with not changing the monies going here even though our death enemies control the country? No change in status for these funds going to a group of folks who want us all dead. Status quo means you do not have to use you're brain to refigure things out here. Most of us with a brain would not continue to send money to our enemies now even though for years we have done so but then our enemy was not in charge. So your method of management is maintain the status quo no matter who gets our money. Got It!!!!! CRAZY is as CRAZY does. I have a working brain and I say stop these payments and pay down our fake debt with it."

US Sanctions on Afghanistan Could Be Deadlier than 20 Years of War

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Related: How the US, its allies, and its enemies all made ISIS possible
[...] Who is to blame for the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)? The group's stunning military advances in Iraq and Syria have, together, built the most important safe haven for Islamic extremists since Taliban-held Afghanistan, and possibly ever. So it is important to understand where ISIS came from — and how it got so strong.
P - The truth, as usual, isn't simple. No one person or group can be blamed for ISIS's rise. The Iraqi and Syrian governments played a major role, but so did the United States, Iran, and Gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia. This doesn't just shed light on ISIS's past and on the tangled web of responsibility for its rise. It also illuminates much larger problems: the unpredictability of proxy wars, the danger of unintended consequences, the ways in which conflict can favor extremists, and the scale of how difficult it will be to eliminate all of the factors that have led to ISIS.
[...]Today, ISIS makes most of its money from oil and organized crime-style rackets. But back in 2011 and 2012, ISIS didn't have this sophisticated fundraising apparatus. Instead, their funding came from friends in the Gulf monarchies — most notably Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait.
P - That's not because these governments share ISIS's extreme jihadist worldview. Rather, it's that they hate the Assad regime and its ally Iran, and wanted to fund Assad's opponents. Just as the Cold War led the US to support far-right militias and governments because they opposed the Soviet Union, these wealthy Gulf states now find themselves indirectly helping ISIS in a regional proxy war against Iran and Assad.
P - Most of the money that initially went to ISIS, as Josh Rogin details in the Daily Beast .. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html, came from private citizens in the Gulf States. Until recently, when the scope of the ISIS threat became clear, these countries had extraordinarily weak laws preventing money laundering. This allowed private donors, often with wink-wink-nudge-nudge sanction from the government, to ship huge amounts of money to Syrian rebel groups — including ISIS.
P - Today, none of these countries want to cop to supporting ISIS. "ISIS has been a Saudi project," the Atlantic's Steve Clemons quotes a senior Qatari official as saying. The Qataris only (only!) admit to funding Jabhat al-Nusra, which is al-Qaeda's branch in Syria. But funding and arms shipments between these groups are fungible. The only thing that's obvious now is that Saudi, Qatari, and Kuwaiti donors funneled a bunch of money towards Syrian rebel groups at the time ISIS most needed capital — and did it without much regard for who ended up getting the money.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=106666035

Goodness, Putin/Russia behave like jilted lovers__Russia Slams 'Arrogant' US Policies In UN Speech
Colin Campbell Sep. 27, 2014, 4:48 PM
[...]
The Russian government dedicated the majority of its Saturday speech before the UN General Assembly to castigating the US and European powers for their alleged arrogance abroad.
P - Using terms like "national egotism," "double standards," and "attempts to distort the truth," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the international body that the US must pull back its unilateral approach to foreign affairs or risk the negative consequences. Lavrov placed particular emphasis on Ukraine.
P - "Today Ukraine has fallen victim to such an arrogant policy. The situation there has revealed the remaining deep-rooted systemic flaws of the existing architecture in the Euro-Atlantic area. The West has embarked upon the course towards 'vertical structuring of humanity' tailored to its own hardly inoffensive standards," Lavrov said, according to a UN transcript.
P - Ukraine has been a focal point of tension between Russia and US-aligned countries. The US has accused Russia of providing direct military support to Ukrainian separatists; Russia has denied the accusations despite evidence of its troops in Eastern Ukraine. Both the EU and the US have placed sanctions designed to punish Russia, which has taken steps to retaliate.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=106675295
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Photo: Mette Bastholm/Helmand PRT/Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Department for International Development.
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Mark Weisbrot February 04, 2022

[... here there is a list of other sites, and a faulty link to the "original site" ...]

All links

Economic sanctions have, in recent years, become one of the most important tools of US foreign policy. There are currently more than 20 countries subjected to various sanctions from the US government.

But if more Americans knew how many innocent civilians actually die as a result of these sanctions, would the worst of them be permitted?

We may be about to find out in Afghanistan. Sanctions currently imposed on the country are on track to take the lives of more civilians in the coming year than have been killed by 20 years of warfare. There’s no hiding it any more.

Projections through the winter estimate .. https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Afghanistan_AcuteFoodInsec_2021Oct2022Mar_report.pdf .. that 22.8 million people will face “high levels of acute food insecurity.” This is 55 percent of Afghanistan’s population, the highest ever recorded in the country. An estimated one million children are suffering from “severe acute malnutrition” this year. Children who are malnourished are more likely .. https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS014067361360937X.pdf .. to die from other diseases, even when they can get enough calories and nutrients to survive. Already, 98 percent of the population is not getting enough food, according .. https://www.wfp.org/news/15-millions-afghans-receive-wfp-food-assistance-so-far-2021-massive-uplift-needed-economy .. to the UN World Food Programme.

The biggest and most destructive sanction currently facing Afghanistan is the seizure of more than $7 billion of the country’s assets that are held at the US Federal Reserve. This is equivalent to about 40 percent of Afghanistan’s economy, and about 14 months of the country’s imports – which include food, medicine, and infrastructure needs that are vital to public health.

But the impact of this loss of Central Bank assets turns out to be much deadlier than the loss of essential imports. The assets confiscated are in dollars; countries need these hard currency international reserves in order to maintain a stable financial system and economy. Since the freezing of the country’s reserves .. https://www.nrc.no/resources/reports/life-and-death-ngo-access-to-financial-services-in-afghanistan/ .. , “Cash shortages and the loss of correspondent banking relationships have crippled Afghan banks,” reports .. https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files/Publications/REO/MCD-CCA/2021/October/reo-october-2021-english.ashx .. the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Press reports from the ground describe the calamitous human cost of the disruption that results when these reserves are lost: desperate mothers seeking .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/world/asia/afghanistan-starvation-crisis.html .. medicine for emaciated children; soaring numbers of people going without income; farmers giving up on working their land.

In the first four months following the sanctions, Afghanistan’s currency depreciated by more than 30 percent, driving the price of food .. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/wfp-director-afghanistan-warns-tsunami-hunger-82243085 .. and other essentials beyond the reach of many people in what was already the poorest country in Asia. Banks imposed a $400 limit on cash withdrawals, and also restrictions that make businesses unable .. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211226-trickle-down-misery-how-afghanistan-s-asset-freeze-hurts-everyone .. to meet their payrolls. This pushes more people into unemployment and acute hunger.

Supporters of the sanctions, in the US government and elsewhere, have responded that people who are starving, malnourished, or unemployed as a result of sanctions can be helped with international aid. However, it is clear that the logic of destroying an economy and then trying to save people with aid does not work. Aid will replace only a very small .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/world/asia/afghanistan-economy-collapse-sanctions.html .. fraction of the country’s loss of income, which the IMF estimates could fall by an astounding, unprecedented 30 percent in the months ahead.

And there are enormous difficulties in delivering the aid: the banking system is hobbled, international banks and even some aid groups are reluctant to take the risks involved in transferring funds, and there are breakdowns in transport, as well as other essential services because of the sanctions and resultant economic contraction.

Washington and its allies have argued .. https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-with-jake-tapper-of-state-of-the-union-on-cnn/ .. that sanctions are a necessary response to Taliban human rights abuses, including repression of women. But it’s the people, especially the poorest, who pay the price. How many tens or hundreds of thousands of women and girls should be sacrificed .. https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/afghanistan-has-become-the-worlds-largest-humanitarian-crisis .. in order to punish the Taliban?

Western governments, led by the US as during 20 years of war, are not likely to get any concessions from the Taliban by destroying the Afghan economy. But an enormous price will be paid by millions of innocent people, many of whom will die, as food, health care, employment, and income become increasingly scarce.

Members of the US Congress are starting to push back: four dozen sent a letter to President Biden in December noting: “The U.S. confiscation of $9.4 billion in Afghanistan’s currency reserves” is plunging the country “deeper into economic and humanitarian crisis.”

This collective punishment is hideously wrong .. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/joe-biden-never-ended-war-afghanistan-n1287763 .. and immoral .. https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-all-chris-hayes-1-12-22-n1287493 . The Biden administration can remove the biggest contributing factor with the stroke of a pen. They should do so immediately, before it is too late.

Mark Weisbrot | Co-Director
Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

https://cepr.net/us-sanctions-on-afghanistan-could-be-deadlier-than-20-years-of-war/