By Ray McGovern
I was asked to be one of the speakers Saturday at an unusually interesting conference on Afghanistan; I learned a lot listening to some genuine experts on the country and from the Q & A periods.
International Conference on Afghanistan (Virtual) – July 31, 2021
Afghanistan: A Turning Point in History After the Failed Regime-Change Era
Organized by the Schiller Institute
The video is at: https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2021/07/29/afghanistan-a-turning-point-in-history-after-the-failed-regime-change-era/
Introduction: We face an extraordinary moment: a choice between further descent into chaos, or the potential of Afghanistan becoming the seed-crystal of a new era of international cooperation so desperately needed to contend with disease, famine and violence worldwide.
The failure of the 20-year misadventure of the U.S. and NATO in Afghanistan, and in the other failed wars in Southwest Asia, poses the question: Can the great nations of the world cooperate in the transformation of Afghanistan, and the other war-torn nations, into modern economies, participating in the kind of co-operative development exemplified by China’s Belt and Road Initiative?
Conference Speakers
Moderator: Dennis Speed
— Keynote: “Afghanistan: The Bright Future for the Coming Cooperation of the Great Powers” by Helga Zepp-LaRouche
— Pino Arlacchi (Italy), former Executive Director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, and former European Parliament Rapporteur on Afghanistan
“Eradicate Opium in Afghanistan, Develop Modern Agriculture, Build the Nation, Now”
— Ambassador Hassan Shoroosh (Afghanistan), Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Canada
“The Way Forward for Afghanistan”
— Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva (Russia), Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN “Russia’s Outlook for Afghanistan and Eurasia”
— Dr. Wang Jin (China), Fellow with The Charhar Institute
“Afghanistan and the Belt and Road Initiative”
— Ray McGovern (U.S.), former analyst, CIA and co-founder, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
“How ‘Exceptionalism’, White Supremacy and Racism Still Color U.S. Policymaking”
(Ray’s segment runs from 2:17:10 to 2:41:00. A discrete link to his indiscreet talk will be posted here separately tomorrow.)
— Hassan Daud (Pakistan), CEO, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Board of Investment
“The Perspective from Pakistan: The Role of the Belt and Road Initiative for Afghanistan Reconstruction.”
— Hussein Askary (Sweden/Iraq), Southwest Asia Coordinator for the Schiller Institute
“Put Afghanistan on the Belt and Road to Peace!”