Source | Coldplay Lab ID | coollabs
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has developed to this day, and the war situation is far more anxious than we imagined.
Although the military strength of the two sides is very different, but at present Russia is caught in more and more military strength, the front line is getting longer and longer, Ukraine is still desperately tightening, organizing defenses, delaying time, watching a "blitzkrieg" is about to be dragged into a protracted war.
Caught in such a situation, on the one hand, Russia is very restrained in attacking Ukraine; on the other hand, the "contribution" of the West is also indispensable.
According to the Associated Press statistics, since last week, many European countries have successively approved military assistance to Ukraine. Germany announced that it would supply Ukraine with 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles "as soon as possible". It was also agreed to ship 400 German-made anti-tank missiles from the Netherlands to Ukraine, as well as 9 D-30 howitzers from Estonia to Ukraine.
The Czechs said it would supply Ukraine with 30,000 pistols, 7,000 assault rifles, 3,000 machine guns and 1 million rounds of ammunition. The Polish side provided Ukraine with a large amount of ammunition.
This kind of arching fire behind the ground and adding fuel to the fire is naturally indispensable to the figure of the United States. According to reports, the United States has secretly provided $350 million worth of military assistance to Ukraine, including sophisticated military weapons in air defense, anti-armor and other aspects.
The explanation given by the White House is to "avoid the outbreak of World War III", but those familiar with their urine know that the United States is not only the initiator of every major war, but also good at reaping profits, not fishing for a sum of war money, and will not give up.
By this year, they are even more "inching forward", and even this early "investment" does not want to come out, simply let others do it for themselves.
Not long ago, Biden signed an executive order that plans to use half of the roughly $7 billion in frozen assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan to compensate the victims of 9/11 and the other half to set up a trust fund to "relief" the Afghan people.
As soon as this move came out, it ignited international public opinion, and people said that the United States began the "money stealing plan" at this time, obviously a group of Saudi terrorists bombed the US building, and finally let the Afghan people bear it, in other words, withheld your money, took this money to subvert you, and showed that it was unreasonable banditry.
More than 200,000 netizens participated in the protest online, demanding that the United States unconditionally return assets belonging to the Afghan people and not even grab the rations and money of the hungry Afghans.
To this end, the mainland has also expressed a strong opposition. On March 2, Zhang Jun, China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said in a speech at the UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan that the arbitrary disposal of overseas assets of other countries has no precedent, violates Afghan national sovereignty and property, and seriously violates international law.
Zhang Jun also stressed:
These assets are one of the few home assets in Afghanistan and are essential for stabilizing order and national development. The ruthless freezing and misappropriation of these assets at a time when the Afghan people need them most is a "secondary injury" to them and is completely contrary to the moral spirit they deserve. Returning all of someone else's money is not a virtue of generosity, but a matter of course. Returning half of someone else's money and deducting half of it is not a handout but a theft. This is the simplest truth. The U.S. approach is neither legal, nor reasonable, nor humane. China once again calls on the relevant countries to return these assets to the Afghan people in full and immediately and unconditionally, and not to do anything worse, let alone to practice double standards on humanitarian issues.
Not only that, but the mainland has also supported Afghanistan with practical actions. In the past few days, we have provided humanitarian assistance worth nearly 300 million yuan to Afghanistan, including food, medicine, vaccines, wintering materials, etc., and will continue to provide additional assistance according to the needs of the Afghan people.
So while shouting the pursuit of "peace" and "democracy", while spending a lot of money to fund wars, and frequently squeezing weak countries, as the world's first superpower, why can't it always live with barren Afghanistan?
01
Some people in the West say that just $7 billion is not much money?
That's true and it's not. For most countries, this is true. 7 billion is not an astronomical amount. But for a country that has just crawled out of the mire of war, these assets mean life-saving money and hope for survival.
In this regard, the local people have the most say.
A reporter from Xinhua News Agency once went to interview in the Sankin region of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, where Abdul Wajid, a local resident, complained: "We have experienced 20 years of war, massacres, destruction, people are terrified, and our agricultural production, commercial activities and daily life have been completely destroyed." ”
Wajid also told reporters: "The US military has launched many fierce attacks on Sankin, and the military operations are day and night. Not only airstrikes, but also ground attacks, and scenes of civilians being killed are unbearable. ”
In his 30s, he was indignant about the war crimes committed by the U.S. military. He cannot forget the horrific scenes of the brutal massacre of civilians and the massive destruction of their homes by the U.S. military in his homeland.
In Wajid's view, the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan are unjust, not for the sake of counter-terrorism, let alone for the so-called "reconstruction of Afghanistan." Pointing to the destroyed houses, he told reporters that most of the buildings in the Sankin area, including houses, shops and markets, were destroyed by the military operations of the United States and its NATO allies.
Abdul Ghaniyeh in the Sankin region was also a victim of Atrocities committed by the U.S. military. He told Xinhua: "On February 9, 2017, the United States killed 6 of my family members and destroyed our house in a military operation, and all the belongings and livestock were destroyed. ”
Today, Ghani and his children live in ruins and live a miserable life. He said the U.S. military not only never apologized for such war crimes, but also did not pay any compensation. He said that he was destitute and now unable to rebuild his home, and normal life was even more out of reach.
Another resident, Hakdad, said people in the Sankin area had suffered so much that at least thousands of civilians had died in U.S. military operations and that they had come here not to help us rebuild our homes, but to "bomb and destroy."
When it comes to Afghanistan, it is not so devastated, but a land of milk and honey, with many highlight moments.
But in the last hundred years, it has been very unpleasant. Because of its important geographical location and more important oil resources, it has become a piece of "fat meat" that the major powers are competing for.
From the Sun Never Set in Britain at the end of the 19th century, to the Cold War domination of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, to the Superpower of the United States in the early 21st century, a total of three superpowers have been born in modern times, all of which have invaded Afghanistan.
However, these three superpowers have all ended up in the same place - spending a lot of national power but still returning without success, so many people like to ridicule this as an "imperial graveyard", and Afghanistan is indeed deserved.
Buried between the Hindu Kush Mountains is not only the inflated ambitions of the imperial powers, but also the accumulated bones of the Afghan people.
On August 30, 2021, the United States announced a total withdrawal of troops, which symbolizes the failure of another superpower's aggression against this land; it also symbolizes that Afghanistan has ended two decades of war and chaos, obtained a relatively peaceful and stable development environment, and finally has the opportunity to build a new motherland as quickly and economically as possible.
But years of war, combined with the plundering of the U.S. military, have left Afghanistan facing various economic difficulties, and it can be said that it is currently one of the poorest countries in the world.
Statistics show that in 2020, Afghanistan's per capita GDP is only 508 US dollars, one-twentieth of China's, and nearly 40% of the population is in absolute poverty of living on less than 1 US dollar a day. In this barren land, a third of the country is severely droughted, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, and there is nothing they can do about the epidemic. Whether it is industry, transportation, communications, or agricultural infrastructure, it is very difficult to destroy it, to blow it up, and even to plant something to wrap itself in.
Therefore, at this time, a huge amount of money from the former Nationalist government overseas became an important part of the organizational reconstruction. But when it comes to the beginning of the use of money, Afghanistan will find out, eh? Where did my money go?
The money was stolen by the world's richest country, the United States.
02
If the 7 billion is heavier for Afghanistan than Taishan, then for the United States, it is as light as a feather.
In the past 2021, the fiscal revenue of governments at all levels in the United States has reached 7.3 trillion US dollars.
What is this concept? According to the current GDP ranking of the world's countries, Japan, the third largest in the world, is about $5 trillion. In other words, the U.S. government collects more taxes in a year than most countries in the world generate in a year.
It is reasonable to say that with so much money a year, it will no longer cost this little more than 7 billion, but the US government is not, they choose to repeatedly increase the defense budget, expand the armaments on a large scale, and exhaust the military.
In 2021, U.S. defense spending will reach $740.5 billion, of which more than $630 billion will be spent on the basic budget for defense programs and $69 billion for overseas military activities, both of which are record highs. On December 27, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022, which established a defense budget of $768.2 billion, up about 5 percent from the previous year. This is the sixth consecutive fiscal year in which U.S. military spending has risen.
According to data released by the Global Firepower Index (GFP), the defense spending budgets of 140 countries or regions in 2021 total about $1.94 trillion. According to this calculation, the U.S. defense budget in fiscal year 2022 accounts for nearly 40% of total global military spending, more than the combined military expenditure of the next 13 countries in 2021.
Still, in the eyes of some politicians in Washington who seek "absolute security," the super budget is "not enough." According to media reports, many Republican lawmakers felt that Biden's original defense budget plan was not enough to increase, so they added $25 billion.
It can be seen from this that the United States is not unable to afford these billions, but wants to use this money to arm itself, and then directly rush into other people's homes to "rob."
But for an Afghanistan that has just experienced two decades of war and is in a time of disarray, this funding may be related to whether the new government can quickly rebuild to restore the economy, whether young adults can have stable jobs to support their families, and whether children and the elderly can eat every day.
According to statistics, 22.8 million Afghans are currently facing serious food security problems, but the total population of Afghanistan is about 39 million, which means that more than half of Afghans are still struggling with food and clothing. It cannot be said that it is destitute, but it can also be said that it is hungry and cold.
A few months ago, UN officials warned that millions of Afghans could run out of food before winter arrived, and that without immediate action, 1 million Afghan children were expected to die of starvation "at the most dangerous moments."
It can be seen that this 7 billion is really a crucial "life-saving money".
The United States, on the other hand, while the Afghan people are suffering from cold and starvation, is squandering and wasting.
According to a 2019 report released by global risk consulting firm Verisco Maple Garden, the United States accounts for only 4% of the global population, but it generates 12% of the world's municipal solid waste, which is the world's most wasteful country and far exceeds the second place.
According to the U.S. Food Waste Report, in 2020, the U.S. discarded more food than any other country (about 40 million tons), and the average person wasted 99 kilograms of food, which occupies half of the garbage dump.
According to data from the nonprofit Feed America, Americans waste up to $218 billion ($1) worth of food each year, with dairy products being the most wasted food. An average American family of four wastes $1,600 a year on food.
On the one hand, it is too poor to open the pot, and on the other hand, it is rich enough to flow oil, and it is also rich and unkind.
This contrast has to be lamented.
03
Last year's "Kabul Moment", the hasty withdrawal of US troops, let the people of the world once again see the embarrassment of a superpower.
But the United States also quickly launched a strong retaliatory action to fight back. On the one hand, airstrikes were launched on the neighborhoods of Kabul, of which 6 of the victims were children. On the other hand, it is economically moving, freezing $7 billion deposited by the former Afghan national government in U.S. banks.
To use the money that belongs to the Afghan people to "improve the well-being of the Afghan people", do the Afghan people still have to be grateful to Dade? It belongs to the weasel who pulls off one of the chicken's legs to give the chicken a New Year's greeting.
The United States has also used to fight terrorist organizations and help build Afghanistan in the name of democracy and human rights. However, in fact, the United States has never played any help in the construction of Afghanistan, nor has it passed on the technical level to Afghanistan, but has taught the Afghans to grow opium, and left a mess in the local area.
With the "humanitarian help and support" of the United States, Afghanistan has now become a notorious "opium country", from which opium flows to the world, accounting for more than 80% of the total.
Even the pandemic has not stopped local opium production, with opium poppy cultivation still growing by 37 percent in Afghanistan in 2020, with large tracts of plantations spreading like a virus throughout the country. With the rise of opium, Afghanistan's drug industry is also expanding, and now the local drug production has accounted for 94% of the world's total. In contrast, the long-famous Golden Triangle and Mexico have bowed their heads in shame – it turns out that some people are more than ten times more fierce than the two of us combined.
If we anthropomorphize two countries, it would be the equivalent of the world's richest man driving a luxury car and wearing a mink coat, snatching away the only single coat left by a poor man in the snowy winter. As for whether this poor man can survive this winter? He didn't care.
And as long as the United States remains the hegemon of the world, they can indeed do whatever they want, and the next "Afghanistan" may appear at any time.
However, some countries see these things in their eyes and remember them in their hearts.
In the East, there is a country that has been devastated by the Great Powers since 1840. After more than a hundred years of bloodshed and struggle, at the expense of countless martyrs and benevolent men, we finally established a new China that can eat enough food and no longer needs to be bullied and oppressed by the great powers.
It is precisely because of this more than 100 years of aggression and bullying that the Chinese people have always maintained empathy and compassion for these equally oppressed countries. At the same time, under the guidance of Comrade Mao Zedong's "three worlds" concept, the Chinese government has always been helping third world countries and supporting the liberation struggle of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Regarding the US act, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin directly spoke out for Afghanistan: The US behavior exposes that the "rules-based order" flaunted by the US side is not a rule order that defends the weak and just, but a rule order that safeguards power and hegemony.
At the same time, the Chinese government has also supported Afghanistan with practical actions, sending a large amount of aid to Afghanistan on the one hand, and helping Afghanistan rebuild its economy on the ground on the other hand.
In terms of building materials, whether it is steel bars, door handles, or faucets, plastic steel doors and windows, behind them are Chinese companies operating. If a person buys a house in Afghanistan, then 80% of the things he renovates are Chinese goods, and without the help of Chinese, it is difficult to build a kitchen in the local area.
In the field of power generation, only 35% of the population of Afghanistan has access to electricity, and the local people have blackouts every three to five minutes, sometimes for several days, which is extremely affecting normal life. In 2008, in order to solve the problem of local "electricity difficulties", a "death squad" of 100 cars braved the rain of bullets and bullets to escort a hydroelectric generator to a power-starved area. This generator comes from China.
Also in 2008, a consortium of investments formed by the mainland MCC Group and Jiangxi Copper took over the local Afghan Ainaq copper ore project. The project, which has invested billions of dollars, can provide nearly 10,000 jobs for the Afghan people and greatly increase the local income level.
Not only that, in 2019, we allowed 25 representatives of the Afghan Ministry of Energy and Water Resources to study in China. Through professional lectures, technical exchanges, visits and inspections, etc., they are given 21 days of solar energy application technology "training", which can be described as teaching people to fish, it is better to teach people to fish.
The United States brought war and poverty to Afghanistan and treated it as a colony. However, China has come to Afghanistan to build civil engineering and infrastructure, and even does not hesitate to teach our advanced technology to local enterprises, and supports Afghanistan in an all-round and multi-field manner, which is the real "improvement of the well-being of the Afghan people".
As for the suffering of the Afghan people, ordinary people in China are also in the eyes. Many netizens spontaneously donated money through channels such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, and some video bloggers came directly to the scene in Afghanistan to buy a large amount of food for refugees and children out of their own pockets, helping the local victims within their capabilities.
It can be said that China, from the government to the people, is supporting the Afghan people with its own practical actions. The Chinese people who have always implemented the idea of "three worlds" have also proved to the world that even in the dark age of US hegemony, there will still be light and hope, and the red star in the East is rising. I believe that one day we will meet at the dawn without imperialism.
End
Today, the entire Western world is clamoring for Russia's withdrawal, and the media are unanimously shouting for Russia's "aggression."
However, in the face of what the United States has done, they have chosen to collectively lose their voices and turn a deaf ear, as if they have never seen or heard of them.
The old people in Afghanistan eat and sleep in the air, they do not say; the children of Afghanistan are not clothed, they do not ask; the streets of Afghanistan are devastated, they regard it as air; the United States is low on the real capital behind the scenes, but it extends its hand to the rations of the hungry people in Afghanistan, and they feel that there is no opinion worth expressing; after years of war and turmoil in Afghanistan, the few family foundations left behind have ended up in the pockets of the United States, which is also considered to be perfectly normal.
Those benevolent gentry, those noble foreigners, those intellectuals, regard the suffering of Afghanistan as in vain, and only by staring at Russia's every move can they show the nobility and purity of their hearts.
However, I still want to say that while these people are accusing Russia, it is better to first accuse the United States of indiscriminate bombing of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and other countries, not only to spare civilian children, but also to knock out the marrow and squeeze the last drop of blood from others.
When they once again make those statements that seem to be full of human brilliance, they should first look at The European and American countries, at the innocent civilians and children of Afghanistan, and at how many hegemonic things Europe and the United States have done to maintain the existing international pattern, and then make up their minds.
Coldplay Labs Collation Editor
First published on WeChat public account: Coldplay Labs (ID: coollabs)