Another Canadian soldier dies while on patrol to secure the construction of the Trans-Afghan gas pipeline.

A Canadian soldier, Cpl. Steve Martin, 24, of the Royal 22e Regiment, was killed when an improvised bomb exploded next to his patrol in a volatile area of southern Afghanistan Saturday.  Martin died while on a foot patrol near a major pipeline construction project that NATO is pushing into the restive Panjwaii district of Kandahar.

Martin was just two days short of his 25th birthday when he died. He is the 154th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since the U.S. war of aggression against Afghanistan began in 2001.

Within Asia, there’s something called the “Golden Crescent”, an area of illicit opium production.  Opium is used to make heroin.  Since the U.S. and NATO launched their illegal war of aggression against Afghanistan that country’s only major export is opium.  That Opium trade has been used for decades to finance CIA operations both abroad and in the United States. Opium grown to finance the CIA’s mandate of advancing U.S. foreign policy is just one reason for the occupation, but there’s another motive – transit of the black gold from one of the last bastions on the planet with a huge reserve of oil & gas … the Trans Afghan Pipeline (TAP or TAPI)

The 1,680 kilometres (1,040 mi) pipeline will run from the Dauletabad, Turkmenistan gas field to Afghanistan. From there TAP will be constructed alongside the new highway running from Herat to Kandahar (the same highway where the majority of Canadian soldiers have been killed), and then via Quettaand Multan in Pakistan. The final destination of the pipeline will be the Indian town of Fazilka, near the border between Pakistan and India.

There is now a sense of urgency to extract these reserves as peak oil has now been reached. Experts estimate the Caspian region could hold “possible reserves” of up to 233 billion barrels of oil. By comparison, Saudi Arabia had 261 billion barrels of oil (most of which has already been used up) and the United States 23 billion!

The Trans Afghan Pipeline will go through Afghanistan, under the protection of U.S. and NATO forces, and the U.S. imposed government, ran by Karzai (who was an employee of Unocal, the US oil company who were involved with a memorandum of understanding for the pipeline proposed build way back in 1996 and CIA money man from the U.S. to the Mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan). Afghanistan will get huge transit fees for this pipeline, hence the invasion of Afghanistan by the U.S.  You see the Taliban were the ones who were planning to build a pipeline and were open to bids for the pipeline from the United States, that was until the United States demanded complete control of the pipeline.  After the U.S. government made their intentions clear that they would build and control the pipeline the Taliban sought and granted the construction to a non-U.S. company.  The U.S. response to the Taliban protecting the interests of the Afghan people was an ultimatum – “Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold or we bury you under a carpet of bombs”.  The Taliban weren’t about to be bullied by the U.S. so they awarded the pipeline project to a company from Argentina – Bridas.

Between 1995 and 1997, negotiations were conducted between Bridas and the governments of Pakistan and Turkmenistan, as well as the ruling Taliban government in Afghanistan, to built the Trans-Afghanistan Gas Pipeline.These negotiations were in competition with those undertaken by Unocal, and although an agreement with Unocal-led corporation CentGas was reached, the deal was forfeited (U.S. demanded complete control of the pipeline project – from construction to completion to control of the flow of the gas through the pipeline) in January 1998 in favor of one with Bridas.Instability brought on by CIA operations in Afghanistan delayed construction of the pipeline.  Immediately following the United States invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the Bridas contract was rescinded in favor of the former one with U.S. Unocal.

Looking at the accompanying map you will notice that the deaths of Canadian soldiers are in and around the proposed pipeline, especially Helmand Province. The Trans-Afghan pipeline began construction in 2010, just after Obama ordered a surge in U.S. troop numbers – more troops were required to clear and secure the pipeline route.

It’s also interesting to note, that a brand new highway was constructed between Herat and Kandahar (where Corporal Steve Martin was killed on Saturday) which the Afghan people thought served no purpose, but of course it does serve a purpose because the gas pipeline will run alongside the highway!

So while the U.S. government continues to engage in a genocide of the Taliban and U.S. troops are positioned to protect the CIA opium (heroin) fields, the Canadian military is busy safeguarding the  Herat to Kandahar pipeline construction route. If more troops are sent in the name of democracy and fighting the Taliban freedom fighters (the resistance), expect more casualties of war in and around the this key region, thus corroborating the real reason for the war – OIL

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