Press TV
March 21, 2014
US dam project in Afghanistan ‘publicity stunt’: Rick Rozoff
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Efforts by the United States to upgrade the Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan are a “publicity stunt” and a “pretense” for a permanent military presence in the country, a peace activist says.
The dam, constructed between 1951 and 1953 by a US firm during the height of the Cold War, had a hidden “political agenda,” Rick Rozoff, a member of Stop NATO International, told Press TV on Thursday.
According to Stars and Stripes, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is taking one more shot at finishing Kajaki Dam, a project that has thwarted American plans and drained its coffers since rehabilitation of the dam began in 2004.
The dam, located in the southern province of Helmand, was never fully completed by the US due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970’s and was seriously damaged after the US-led invasion of the county in 2001.
Like so many of the US plans for Afghanistan, the dam’s completion date has repeatedly missed its target.
Rozoff gave several reasons for why the US may want to rehabilitate the dam, including to “dominate” and “control” Afghanistan’s energy resources.
In addition, “this may simply be a publicity stunt,” he said. “It also gives the US the pretense for maintaining a permanent military presence to guard the dam and other facilities within the country.”
The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but after more than 12 years, the foreign troops have still not been able to establish security in the country.
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