Could have the US addressed the Taliban resurgence?

When the US thought it kicked out the Taliban after they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 through 2001, Bush, its president, focused on “nation building”, promising that women would be free, in order to leverage its support among females, and creating an Afghan military in the American image. 

The Taliban, were more pragmatic. Instead of spending the money they didn’t have, like Bush did, they decided to build a financial empire in order to regroup and eventually regain control over that country. As of today, they’ve rebuilt their fighting force from about 30,000 soldiers in 2010 to perhaps 100,000 today. 

They accomplished that by setting up a constant stream of income that has amounted to $400 million per year around 2011, and might have grown to $1.5 billion annually. To accomplish that, their cash-flow was secured through a variety of sources and a widespread taxation system. 

They first relied on foreign donations, coming from the “usual suspects” like Pakistan, Iran and Putin (the man was too happy to reciprocate Reagan's help to the mujaheddin during Soviet occupation) even though each players denies it. 

In addition private citizens from Pakistan and Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, threw money into their coffers amounting in the half a billion dollar range a year. Another excellent reason to purchase an electric car!

Then, there also was generalized extortion as well as the drug trade (Afghanistan is the world's largest grower of opium), to brings even more money. Its estimated annual exports can reach several billion dollars and are employing almost 120,000 Afghans. Where were our B-53 bombers that should have sprayed and eradicated these opium fields? 

Of course, the Taliban deny their involvement in the drug business. The 10% tax collected from opium farmers and refiners earn them up to another $400 million a year. 

The Taliban's financial network extended well beyond taxing just the opium business; in an open letter in 2018, the Taliban warned Afghan traders to pay their taxes on all goods - including fuel and construction materials - when traveling through areas they controlled. 

After ousting the Afghan government, the Taliban now controls all the major trade routes in the country, as well as border crossings, creating more opportunities to tax imports and exports. To add insult to injury, Taliban have also lined their pockets by taxing the money we lavished Afghans to build their infrastructure and services. Good job America! 

For instance, the Afghanistan's Electricity Company told the BBC that in 2018, the Taliban siphoned more than $2 million a year by billing electricity to consumers. 

There are also the country’s minerals resources and precious stones, still under-exploited as a result of years of war. That resource is estimated to be worth $1 billion annually, according to the Afghan government. The Taliban have already taken control of mining sites and extorted money from ongoing legal and illegal mining operations. 

All this to say that there was a very low-hanging fruit in the 20 years of occupation that we’ve totally chose to ignore, and that was cutting these sources of revenue and drying the financial stream that has made the Taliban stronger than ever before. 

Instead, we choose to shower corrupt Afghans with money, believing that their medieval culture would make a miraculous U-turn, that these leaders would be honest and the a US-inspired military would work. 

How naive were we or better yet, how idiots were we to believe that Congress which gets its money from Big Oil and the Military-Industrial-Complex would act differently than it did?

Valery Giscard d’Estaing’s secret

For those of you who don’t recall the man, didn’t know him, or were simply not paying attention, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, also known as Giscard, or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. 

He passed away in 2020 at the age of 94. A long life, chuck-full of great accomplishments, and in my opinion all of them the result of him always wearing what could be called a “magic necktie”. 

This photo of Giscard skiing in the 60s, hints to a number of tangible details that support my assertion: 

1. He had no need for protection, wore no headgear, either knit hat or of the hard helmet type. 

2. In spite of being bald, I presume that he wore absolutely no sunscreen either. Ultra violets rays couldn't touch him. 

2. He eyesight must have been excellent. He didn't have to worry about the effect of UV on his vision either, and wore neither sunglasses nor goggles.

3. He seemed impervious to cold and had no need for a ski jacket 

4. He also had an uncommon sense of balance and didn’t need to hold on to the Poma. 

All these observations validate the magic power of Giscard’s necktie, and make me believe that all the safety features that are creeping up on all of us are just conspiracy theories!

A first trip ‘round the world, part 48

As an Australian ski resort, Mt. Buller found itself in the midst of a forest of eucalyptus.

Long after a snowfall, the flexible tree limbs would normally stand and hide their surroundings with their year-round greenery, but under the weight of a recent snowfall, their leafy crown would almost collapse revealing the entire village. 

Now you see it, now you don’t! The flexible tree is either called eucalyptus, gum tree or even snow gum. Without a question, it’s the ubiquitous tree of the Australian landscape that remains always green through the entire year. 

With more than 800 species, these trees dominate the country scene, forming forests, woodland and shrublands in all environments except for the most arid deserts. The trees are called "gum tree" because of the sticky rubbery substance that flows from the injured bark. 

The sight and smell of eucalypti are also defining part of Australian life. It’s a fragrance that I have always since associated with my Australian experience. In fact, the sight of the blue haze from the eucalyptus oil arising from the bush in the mountain ranges west of Sydney gave the Blue Mountains their name. 

In the Snowy Mountains, these trees are also called “snow gums”. In winter, eucalyptus trees simply stop growing and produce no new buds, but when they grow, some of them, in the plains, can reach over 300 ft (90 meters) tall — taller than any trees but the Californian redwoods! 

Like for most trees, eucalyptus lifespan depends on the species, but most can survive over 250 years in the wild. Beside being very fragrant, their leaves are rich in oil that can be used to alleviate the symptoms of bronchitis, sore throat and nasal congestion… 

Three main eucalypti make up the mountain woodlands. The Black and White Sallees (eucalyptus stellulata and pauciflora) are both snow gums and are unique to the alpine environment. 

 These trees have been twisted and contorted by the harsh weather conditions and have some beautiful colors especially when wet. The Candlebark (eucalyptas rubida) grow much taller and straighter than the snow gums and have a beautiful red trunk in the warmer months. In addition to eucalyptus trees, were the acacias. 

Two species are found in the Snowy Mountains, the acacia delbater and the acacia melanoxolin and these provide a home for birds and offer some extra colors to the landscape during spring. 

I will always remembers these beautiful sunny mornings, the frozen snow wrapping lift towers and Mt. Buller's fragrant eucalyptus trees!

Toyota and the Taliban

For decades, the Japanese brand has been known for its ruggedness, durability and dependability. It’s never been an innovative company, except perhaps for the Prius, but overall, the vehicles it put out work. ISIS seem to know that as well as the Taliban. 

I figure these two groups aren’t very good at maintaining vehicles, they might be able to refuel them, inflate tires and occasionally change oil, but their ability to care for their set of wheels was pretty much limited to that. Both have been using 4x4 like the Toyota Hilux pickup truck, the overseas version of the Toyota Tacoma or “Tac” as my grandson would say, and the Toyota Land Cruisers.

We’ve seen them spreading mayhem during the ISIS campaign in Iraq, Syria and Libya, and more recently in the hands of the Taliban during its reconquest of Afghanistan with their truck beds loaded with heavy weapons and cabs jammed with its disheveled, bearded terrorists. 

Toyota is uneasy with that unwanted, but effective publicity and would love to disengage itself from these modern bandits. In fact, the company has long worked to distance its association with terror groups and has publicly supported a US Treasury Department investigation into how some of is vehicles end up into the hands of terrorists. 

Toyota has also announced a new policy it launched the 2022 version of the Toyota Land Cruiser, the company’s longest-running model. After it went on sale in Japan on August 2, priced at around $46,500, the car manufacturer announced that anyone buying one had to sign a contract promising not to resell the vehicle within a year. 

This certainly won’t stop the export of gently-used Japanese vehicles, through the Sea of Japan, to Vladivostok, the world's capital of the Japanese car second-hand market, and some rogue dealers will maintain a brisk business and keep clients happy whether they are Taliban or other terrorists. Another war-related hypocrisy...

Sick of Covid

After 18 month, the entire world is now Covid-sick. I’m not talking about the full-blown Covid-19 with hospitalization and being placed in a ventilator and what-not, but just living under that pervasive threat, that lingering uncertainty and with all that surrounding noise that is for the most part totally useless and destructive. 

The rock-bottom interest rates make no sense, the stock-market neither and Trump’s legacy on demonizing masks and vaccine has created too much unneeded and irreparable chaos and damage. 

No matter how mentally strong we are, this feels like a never-ending dystopian story, an everlasting “freeze” and, with time, this lingering crisis becomes very hard to sustain.

Maybe I’ve got some form of ADD, but I like to do things, go forwards, try new roads, but I can’t! I feel somehow held back by this social psychosis called Covid-19. My usually strong drive feels blunted and I can’t get my fierce motivation back. Is it the age, Covid or both? Or is this just me, or do you feel the same?

The Army we have…

The late Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld famously declared, "You go to war with the Army you have." I guess, based on that kind of comment, our army was less than prepared and competent at the onset of the Afghan and Iraq wars. 

Did it get better? Not as far as both theaters operations were concerned based on the time we got stuck there, all the casualties and the obscene price-tag of these adventures. 

That’s why I’d now tend to agree with Rumsfeld, as our military performance has equally failed to impress me, particularly the last two decades in Afghanistan, pacifying the population and training a new army at the tune of more than 2 trillion dollars for each war! 

The top brass kept on promising us that the cultural turn-around of that backward country was always “around the corner” and that the following month would see some definite progress. Had Biden not pulled the plug on this serial incompetence, we could have stayed in that place for another 30 years without seeing one once of improvement. 

Of course, now it’s Biden’s turn to be blamed when whatever blame that must be parceled out, ought to be placed on back of the most costly military institution in the world. If this is not woeful incompetence on the part of our generals present and past, I don’t know what is.

Today, in view of that total failure, lack of good judgment and sound plans, I wonder if there’s any working strategy left to defend our country if it suddenly fell under attack...

A first trip ‘round the world, part 47

In terms of my favorite Mt. Buller ski runs, I might have left another good one for last; namely, Federation, which in those days was part of the competition's Orange Lift Network. 

We got there because they’d let us, as I assume there was some kind of reciprocity between the Blue and Orange Lifts to let ski instructors ride all lifts, free of charge. 

From a skiing standpoint, Federation’s skiing was, almost like Bull Run’s, no as large an area for sure, but the second best ski bowl available after Bull Run that was steep and had good snow quality when there was sufficient coverage to ski on the whole mountain. 

Remember that in those days Mt. Buller had no snow-making and the bottom of the southern ski runs were too close to the typical snow line. With a vertical drop of only 625 ft, Federation’s bowl was significantly shorter than Bull Run’s. 

The particularity of Federation was its “bluff”, a small rounded cliff that was running across the top from side to side and transitioning the slope from gentle to very steep. Compared to Bull Run slopes Federation’s were much more wooded, adding to the challenge as no one wants to hug a gum tree! 

This place was another favorite of mine, that I loved to escape to when I was able to get there for some free skiing. The terrain was seemingly rougher than that of Bull Run, but was varied enough to justifying skiing the place every now and then.

The old T-bar made by GAM, an Australian company, that we used to ride on, was upgraded to a triple, fixed-grip Doppelmayr chair with a much increased vertical drop going to 1,000 ft just in time for the 1981 season.

 I don’t know where the extra 375 ft. of vertical were found, most likely by moving the top station much higher towards the flat top and by moving the bottom station further down the hill.

Let’s go back and compare the two lifts, plus all the new ones, as soon as we get a chance!