Paranoia Papers 2 – Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Russia
No Me Digas. Op-Ed: Keith Price
Do you think that it is odd that during the Trump years, the significant relationships that he fostered were with Putin of Russia, The King and Prince of Saudi Arabia, and the Taliban of Afghanistan now? His admiration for those countries with rulers like Andrzej Duda in Poland, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, or Kim Jung-un of North Korea told us so much about him, and we refused to listen.
We already knew that Putin collected on his investment with the Trump administration in so many ways that are almost immeasurable. By sowing seeds of propaganda through many of our legislators and defending Russia’s interference by undermining our own intelligence on the world stage, the Russian relationship was deeply entrenched. Yet, am I being paranoid?
With Saudi Arabia, Trump’s administrative minions began the lascivious and avaricious relationship with the Royal Saudis, and it continued even after the 2020 election but before the January 6th’s insurrection attempt. I guess we should assume that it is not happening anymore, right? Now there is a really weird connection between the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, his security team, and a deceased journalist, Jamal Kashoggi. Somehow the conversation behind the connection has ceased.
However, the fact that he was killed in Turkey at the Saudi consulate seemed so random, right? I am not sure why “someone” would want to have this man killed, but in his writing he accused the Saudi government of ignoring real extremists in its crackdown, and he compared the crown prince to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Oddly enough, he also cautioned against his country’s “overly enthusiastic embrace” of then US President-elect Donald Trump in late 2016. Imagine that?
Anyhoo, within a year after the murder of Khashoggi, Turkey and the Kurds had a bit of thing near the Syrian border. I don’t know if any of it is connected, but Turkey and Russia both decided to work together to control the border AFTER the Americans left. Considering the strange relationship that Trump had with both countries, does any of it seem fishy? Again, am I just paranoid?
Now that Afghanistan is being returned to the Taliban, and the airlifting of refugees, translators, and Americans is the cause of the moment, how strange is it that the Trump administration would have secretly released one of THE biggest prisoners of the original Taliban, Abdul Ghani Baradar?
Along with about 5000 original Taliban prisoners, Bandara is free to pull together this whole new Taliban rule of a “once Democracy seeking” nation. He spent time negotiating with the Trump administration while also being photographed with then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to negotiate the exodus that we are witnessing in Afghanistan today. He now gets to negotiate with the members of the current administration who had him imprisoned in the first place. Those meetings are going to be really interesting. I wonder, will crow sandwiches be served?
In this new deal the Afghanistan government of the past 20 years ceases to exist, and now the country is under Taliban rule. The United States gets pretty much nothing but a new immigration issue. How about that for the art of the deal? Isn’t it weird that in a country where the motto has always been “we don’t negotiate with terrorists”, they were:
- Invited by Trump to Camp David
- Time was spent negotiating with the lead terrorist of what once was deemed a terrorist organization, as they
- Take over a country trying to establish a democratic government?
Again, am I the paranoid one?
Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay Distanced.
