Friday 31 August 2012
AQ In Syria
The NATO Dilemma in Afghanistan
But before it can do that, Afghan security forces have to receive intensive training from their NATO partners. Joint operations against insurgents can be seen as one part of the training. But this so-called "partnering strategy" don't seem to be possible, according to Schetter.
"The training of Afghan soldiers is now being conducted with wooden rifles. They are trying to demilitarize Afghan soldiers on all levels. But training on wooden rifles can only get you so far - it is more difficult to re-enact serious situations than with real weapons and ammunition.""The NATO dilemma in Afghanistan | Asia | DW.DE | 31.08.2012:
Thursday 30 August 2012
Wednesday 29 August 2012
Karzai Sacks Intelligence Chief
"At an extraordinary meeting in the Palace this morning, President Hamid Karzai thanked Eng. Rahmatullah Nabil, for his two- year service as the Director General for the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and wished him success in the new job," the statement added.
According to the statement, the former head of National Directorate for Security (NDS) or spy agency would soon take over as an ambassador to a foreign country.
Prior to his two years as the NDS chief, Mr. Nabil had served for six years as the director of the President's Protective Service guard.
Afghanistan Veterans' Obama Plot - Don't Ask, Don't Tell
There is a curious reticence about this story. When US Military personnel are compiling guns and explosives to remove their Commander In Chief, who happens to be the US President, why isn't this headline news? I know the perpetrators are wingnuts and goopers, to use the American terminology, but they are US service members and serving soldiers. Can you imagine the brouhaha if the equivalent happened here in the UK? Or anywhere really.Part of the coyness by the US media may be down to the Republican Convention taking place and the US Presidential campaigns being underway. They could use the excuse that such a story could skew the debate. But that kind of logic has never stopped the US media, all sectors, from swarming all over scandal-type stories in the past.
They could also use the excuse that the murder trial of the conspirators for killing one of their ex-comrades and his innocent girlfriend could be compromised. Again, such sensitivity has been conspicuous by it's absence from the US newswires in previous times.
I suspect that the truth is that the story is too grotesquely embarrassing for America, even for the vulgar, venal, celebrity-worshipping and superficial sections of the US commentariat. Maybe they can't believe it. Blowing up the president by 'our boys', the heroes of Helmland - that really would be change you could believe in.
But, on a serious note, the underbelly of US society, not just the military which reflects it, is about to be on show once again in all its ugliness to the whole world. The fanatic who massacred his fellow Americans at the Sikh temple was a racist bigot and ex-soldier. The four accused in this case will turn out to be nothing much different. This story has legs and will run. Even after Obama gets his second term. LINK
Tuesday 28 August 2012
Obama Plot Soldiers Appear In Court
The couple murdered are believed to have been killed because they knew of the plot against Obama. US news media are being coy about the plot at the moment because of the murder case and also because of the embarrassing implications for the US military and securocrats.
Monday 27 August 2012
Up To 100 Korans Burnt By US Military
The US Army earlier announced that six soldiers received "administrative punishments" for their part in the burnings.
But the military investigation, whose findings were announced today, rejected suggestions that the soldiers involved had malicious intent to defame Islam.
Instead, distrust between US troops and their Afghan partners was cited among the reasons for the incendiary incident. LINK
The Attack On Syria
Green On Blue Toll Now at 42 This Year
The latest 'isolated incident' claimed two US soldiers.
Rogue Afghanistan Soldier Kills US Troops | Stuff.co.nz:
Rogue Afghanistan Soldier Kills US Troops | Stuff.co.nz:
Taliban insurgents behead 17 civilians in Afghanistan
Not much ISAF/ANA 'law and order' around this part of Afghanistan:
Taliban insurgents behead 17 civilians in Afghanistan - Asia - World - The Independent:
Taliban insurgents behead 17 civilians in Afghanistan - Asia - World - The Independent:
Sunday 26 August 2012
Saturday 25 August 2012
Friday 24 August 2012
Thursday 23 August 2012
Obama On Syria's 'Chemical Weapons'
Another WMD scam? Certainly the satraps in the UK were quick to jump on Obama's bandwagon. His spin men probably wrote the press releases for them. Somebody should tell both governments that they themselves used chemical weapons against civilian districts in Fallujah. The results are seen down to the present day.
Wednesday 22 August 2012
Why is Afghanistan Obama's Taboo Subject?
For all these reasons, and perhaps others, President Obama has largely shirked the traditional commander in chief duty of mobilizing political and public support for the wars he is leading. In contrast with President Bush, who clearly believed in the wars he led and sought every opportunity to try to rally the public to the war cause, President Obama seems far more ambivalent about some of his war duties. MORE
Tuesday 21 August 2012
Robert Fisk In Syria
Monday 20 August 2012
Debacle In Slow Motion
This process unfolds without the American people having any say. Neither President Obama nor his Republican challenger Mitt Romney have spoken publicly about the wave of attacks on US soldiers by their Afghan allies. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans take a break from their mutual mudslinging to discuss US policy in Afghanistan. Both parties invoke the same slogans—the “war on terror,” the struggle for “freedom and democracy” against the Taliban—without any examination of the colossal cost of the 11-year war for the Afghan population, as well as the American."
BBC to broadcast soldiers being fatally wounded in Afghanistan
BBC to broadcast soldiers being fatally wounded in Afghanistan - Telegraph: "In one extraordinary video screened for the first time, Kingsman Darren Deady, 22, is seen just moments after he was shot through the chest in 2010.
As he pleads for medics to “hurry up", doctors desperately attempt at least nine times to insert a drip, the Sun reported.
The documentary, to be screened after the watershed at 9pm, captures the chaos just minutes after he and Captain Andrew Griffiths, both from Arnhem Company, 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, were fatally wounded."
Maybe one day they will get round to showing actual civilian fatalities.
New Zealand To Pull Out Of Afghanistan
“While decisions still have to be finalized, it’s likely it will take place in the earlier part of 2013 rather than the later,” he said at a news conference in the capital, Wellington.
Among the casualties on Sunday was the first of the country’s female soldiers, a 26-year-old medic, to be killed in the Afghan war. She and her two colleagues died early Sunday as they were traveling in a convoy of vehicles to a forward operating base to take one of the members of their patrol to a doctor. The deaths brought to 10 the number of New Zealand soldiers who have died since the country’s forces were deployed in 2003. Earlier this month, two soldiers were killed and six others were wounded in a gunfight, also in Bamiyan. MORE
Sunday 19 August 2012
US drone strikes in Pakistan kill 13
Sensitive of them to launch these attacks during Ramadan.
US drone strikes in Pakistan kill 13 in flurry of weekend attacks | World news | guardian.co.uk:
US drone strikes in Pakistan kill 13 in flurry of weekend attacks | World news | guardian.co.uk:
Operational Failures In Afghanistan
Someone should tell Rajiv that the whole enterprise is an operational failure.
Obama's Operational Failures of the War in... by NewsLook
Obama's Operational Failures of the War in... by NewsLook
More 'Isolated' Incidents
Saturday 18 August 2012
Taliban and NATO coalition argue over recent civilian deaths in Afghanistan
A NATO statement last week said they had bombed (on the Pakistani side of the AfPak border) compounds in the 'vicinity' of 'suspected' militants. There were six fatalities. Vicinity and suspected. Two reasons why nothing else has to be said to condemn that stance. #warcrime
Taliban and NATO coalition argue over recent civilian deaths in Afghanistan | News | National Post:
Taliban and NATO coalition argue over recent civilian deaths in Afghanistan | News | National Post:
Recent Film From Afghanistan - Discretion Advised
Recent film from Al-Emara Studio Da Ishgalgarano Anjaam in Afghanistan. Graphic in places. Don't know what the deal is here but interesting to get a point of view which is not filtered through the lens of western observers and editors.
Friday 17 August 2012
2 US troops killed in Afghan Police Attack
Another Green on Blue incident on 17th August :
NATO: 2 US troops killed in Afghan police attack | Fox News:
NATO: 2 US troops killed in Afghan police attack | Fox News:
Thursday 16 August 2012
Julian Assange - Extradition Scandal
As US satrap-states Britain and Sweden push for the extradition of Julian Assange, Ecuador shows what it is to be an independent, proud and principled state.
Wednesday 15 August 2012
3 reasons Obama and Romney Don't Mention Afghanistan
You've guessed the first one - they haven't got a clue.
3 reasons Obama and Romney aren't talking about Afghanistan - The Week:
3 reasons Obama and Romney aren't talking about Afghanistan - The Week:
The Assange Saga - Good Precis
541 days ago an electronic tag was fastened to the ankle of Julian Assange and ever since he has lived under house arrest in a UK manor home. Though no formal charges have at any point been laid against Assange he has been prohibited from leaving the Norfolk estate unless reporting to police or attending court. The house arrest was ordered by UK authorities pending their decision to allow Assange to be extradited to Sweden for questioning.
From the confines of the manor, Assange, as the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, has overseen the release of the Spy Files, the Global Intelligence Files, the Guantanamo Files, and, notoriously, the Cablegate Files – and in doing so has brought scathing criticism upon the US government, intelligence companies and the military. LINK
Tuesday 14 August 2012
Why Taliban Are So Strong
The harsh reality is that an increasing number of Afghans are turning to the Taliban, having grown mistrustful of Nato and Afghan forces.
In remote parts of the country where the government rules only on paper, the Taliban are often preferred.
"Americans are like Kuchi nomads," a tribal elder from the south-east once told me. "They come with their tents for some time and before you know them, they leave."
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