Multi-Billion-Dollar Terrorists and the Disappearing Middle Class by James Petras http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25574

The first is the geopolitics of Afghanistan : The US is actively establishing forward military bases, surrounding and bordering on China .Secondly, US bases in Afghanistan serve as launching pads to foment “dissident separatist” armed ethnic conflicts and apply the tactics of ‘divide and conquer’ against Iran , China , Russia and Central Asian republics.Thirdly, Washington’s launch of the Afghan war (2001) and the easy initial conquest encouraged the Pentagon to believe that a low cost, easy military victory was at hand,

one that could enhance the image of the US as an invincible power, capable of imposing its rule anywhere in the world, unlike the disastrous experience of the USSR.Fourthly, the early success of the Afghan war was seen as a prelude to the launching of asequence of successful wars, first against Iraq and to be followed by Iran , Syria and beyond. These would serve the triple purpose of enhancing Israeli regional power, controlling strategic oil resources and enlarging the arc of US military bases from South and Central Asia, through the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean