[ssf] The Lost History of Helmand

[adam]

  "When you look at footage of the fighting in Helmand today everyone
   assumes it is being played out against an ancient background of
   villages and fields built over the centuries.

   This is not true. If you look beyond the soldiers, and into the
   distance, what you are really seeing are the ruins of one of the
   biggest technological projects the United States has ever undertaken.
   Its aim was to use science to try and change the course of history and
   produce a modern utopia in Afghanistan. The city of Lashkar Gah was
   built by the Americans as a model planned city, and the hundreds of
   miles of canals that the Taliban now hide in were constructed by the
   same company that built the San Francisco Bay Bridge and Cape
   Canaveral ..."

   Adam Curtis
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2009/10/kabul_city_number_one_part_3.html