Afghanistan War

Friday, 16 March 2012

Afghanistan Massacre Suspect Sgt Robert Bales (Pic)

BBC News - Afghanistan massacre suspect named as Sgt Robert Bales:

Even The Danes Have Given Up

That was despite the fact that with 42 deaths, mainly in the frontline province of Helmand, Denmark lost more soldiers per capita from its 5.5 million population than any other European army. There are presently 720 Danish soldiers serving in Afghanistan. In the official Danish narrative, according to Ringsmose and Børgesen: “Denmark must, so a much reiterated government soundbite asserts, confront the terrorists in Helmand in order not to encounter Al-Qaeda in Copenhagen.” But Villy Soevndal, Danish foreign minister, broke a taboo late last year by acknowledging: “This war will not let itself be won militarily.” He told the Danish broadcaster DR News: “That is why I am very happy with the new strategy of transferring responsibility for military tasks and policing tasks to the Afghans themselves.” LINK

Danish Reconstruction Team Admiring Their Work

Some media outlets have started to make the killer out to be a victim of some kind. The real victims, as always, are poor villagers and civilians who did nothing to deserve their horrible fate at the hands of occupiers.

All they want is for the man who went from house to house shooting dead those who left their doors unlocked to be brought to justice.
These small farming communities have been left in agony. The funerals for all the dead - including nine children - were held at dusk on Sunday.
"We don't want coalition forces to stay here. We don't want them to come back to village. They have entered our homes and they killed our family members - children and women," Panjwai villager Seed Mohammad told me. READ MORE

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Karzai asks NATO to quit Afghan villages; Taliban end talks - AlertNet

Karzai asks NATO to quit Afghan villages; Taliban end talks - AlertNet:

Green on Blue Incidents in Afghanistan, Withdrawal, and the Detained Yemeni Journalist — Today’s Q’s for O’s WH – 3/15/2012 - ABC News

Green on Blue Incidents in Afghanistan, Withdrawal, and the Detained Yemeni Journalist — Today’s Q’s for O’s WH – 3/15/2012 - ABC News:

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Losing grip in Afghanistan: another day, another setback for the coalition strategy | Simon Tisdall | Comment is free | The Guardian

Losing grip in Afghanistan: another day, another setback for the coalition strategy | Simon Tisdall | Comment is free | The Guardian:

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Afghans Demand Justice

The horror, the horror - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

The horror, the horror - Opinion - Al Jazeera English:

Was Kandahar Massacre Killer Caught On Camera?

Most accounts of the shooting in the media say the suspect only left the base for a short amount of time before he turned himself in. It probably wouldn’t have taken long for the search party to have gotten approval from nearby Kandahar airfield, which is home to lots and lots of drones and manned spy aircraft. (The coalition flew 717 recon missions over Afghanistan in the last week alone, according to U.S. Air Force statistics.) There may also have been other eyes in the sky on separate missions that might have absorbed imagery of the assault. “I don’t know what ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] assets were available at the time, or were used at the time,” Kirby said.
The Washington Post notes that the reaction inside Afghanistan to the horror has been surprisingly muted. It’s possible that the lack of nationwide protests has to do with the routinization of U.S. special operations “night raids,” which many Afghans already believe are as bloody as the Zangabad massacre. But if videotape emerges, that relative calm may not hold. LINK