John Steppling is a playwright, screenwriter and teacher. He is an original founding member of the Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, a two-time NEA recipient, Rockefeller Fellow in theatre, and PEN-West winner for playwrighting. Mr. Steppling has produced plays in LA, NYC, SF, Louisville, and at universities across the US, as well in Warsaw, Lodz, Paris, London and Krakow. He also taught screenwriting and curated the cinematheque for five years at the Polish National Film School in Lodz, Poland. His plays include The Shaper, Dream Coast, Standard of the Breed, The Thrill, Wheel of Fortune, Dogmouth, and Phantom Luck, which won the 2010 LA Award for best play. Residing now in Norway, John Steppling's Film credits include 52 Pick-up (directed by John Frankenheimer, 1985) and Animal Factory (directed by Steve Buscemi, 1999). He has been widely published on Middle East and world politics and his works have appeared on Press TV, Counterpunch, etc. In an interview with Mr. Steppling, Khamenei.ir has asked questions on ISIS's new targets and who benefits the most from the terrorist group. The following is the text of the interview:
Why did Daesh choose Afghanistan as their new base in and around west Asia, do you think?
I think the answer is: who knows? I certainly don't. One can make a few educated guesses, though. It's a convenient destination after the defeats suffered in Syria. Also, there has been over the last couple of years a number of discoveries of rare earth mineral deposits in Helmund, in the south. Then again honestly, this is all just guessing. In addition, the idea of them moving into the north as a pressure on Russia seems unlikely. But, there is one other factor and perhaps it's the biggest one and that is the Heroin trade. What is being called the Afghan Ratline. And a number of reports have come out about just how extensive this trade has become. Also, the country is thick with military contractors. You can't spit and not hit a western mercenary; Or nonwestern for that matter. It is a reasonable assumption that some of this DAESH and ISIS movement to Afghanistan was on US and Saudi instructions in order to justify US military presence continuing or even escalating. This has the feel of a James Mattis' strategy—, which dovetails nicely with the need for bodies to secure the Opium and Heroin transits. Pepe Escobar, a couple of years ago, reported a huge traffic in chemicals for heroin processing, all coming from Western Europe—the Netherlands and France in particular. The counter argument is that it is not Mattis and the Pentagon but the CIA, and within country military higher ups. In other words, nobody is listening to Trump or Mattis. Honestly, I don't know. Sibel Edmunds last year asked how it Afghan production went from "7,600 hectares prior to the US-NATO invasion to 224,000 hectares since the invasion?" The answer is rather obvious.
Which foreign powers are involved in transferring Daesh to Afghanistan?
Again, one would assume it is CIA and Saudi Arabia. And probably in some form, a support from the Zionist regime.
Daesh is killing both Shiites and Sunnis in Afghanistan. In your opinion, what does this reveal about the nature of the terrorist group?
These are mercenary forces: ones with long standing financial relationships with Western capital. Which in turn brings us to the one important question that we can discuss with some clarity.
Why do you think the U.S. seeks to cause continuous unrest in the region?
The United States—speaking in broad terms—wants global hegemony. If one breaks that down, the precursors to that have to do with domination of the Middle East and west Asia. The defeat in Syria, the failure to remove Assad, has been a huge blow. On the other hand, both Russia and China might be seen to be profiting from this. Much reconstruction in war-torn areas is being done by the Chinese. How cooperative Russia is with China and the US is an open question. Nevertheless, funding war via illegal drug sales is something the CIA, the U.S. has done before (time to go back and read Gary Webb again). It is interesting that Hollywood seems bent on rewriting this particular period of history, with a number of movies that express a deeply revisionist history of Vietnam and Air America and the role of the CIA. Nothing really ever changes. Therefore, this move into Afghanistan by DAESH fits perfectly with CIA and US history, with foreign policy by the neo-cons still advising the US government. Add to that the role of military contractors (Eric Prince is a favorite of Trump) and the supply lines to ISIS and DAESH that run through NATO ally Turkey, and up into Eastern Europe, and a picture starts to emerge of US desperation to keep conflict going. Also, one cannot forget that the current administration is awash in anti-Iran hardliners and is being advised by the Zionist regime in ways few previous administrations ever were. Netanyahu is a desperate man clinging to power. The Zionist regime is itself getting desperate. So to answer the question simply, the US wants unrest in the region—well, let me change that: they want to control the region. If unrest occurs, that's fine, but hegemonic control is the goal. And DAESH are just a useful tool, as are the Kurds and Saudi Arabia ultimately.
Comment