KABUL ATTACK NO BIG DEAL
"... (it was) the longest attack in Kabul since the US-led invasion in 2001. Eleven Afghan civilians were killed, including several children, in the fighting... along with five Afghan policemen and 11 insurgents. At least nine Afghans, including four police officers were killed, and 23 people including civilians were wounded... The US ambassador to Afghanistan has described a 20-hour assault on Kabul's diplomatic and military quarter as "not a very big deal..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/14/kabul-attacks-us-ambassador
20-HOUR INSURGENT ATTACK IN KABUL
"The 20-hour insurgent assault on the heavily guarded Afghan capital left 27 dead - including police, civilians and attackers... This week's strike was the third deadly attack in Kabul since late June..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/14/kabul-attack-ends_n_961447.html
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
WAR ON TERROR BREEDS NEW TERRORISTS
"... The National Intelligence Estimate on “Trends in Global Terrorism” issued in April 2006 concluded that the war in Iraq was “breeding deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim World and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.” It found that “activists identifying themselves as jihadists, although a small percentage of Muslims, are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion.” And in a prophetic warning, it said “the operational threat from self-radicalized cells will grow in importance…particularly abroad but also at home.”
"(And) If there is one place on earth where it is obviously irrational to antagonize the male population on a long-term basis, it is the Pashtun region that straddles Afghanistan and Pakistan, with its tribal culture of honor and revenge for the killing of family and friends..."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/12
"... The National Intelligence Estimate on “Trends in Global Terrorism” issued in April 2006 concluded that the war in Iraq was “breeding deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim World and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.” It found that “activists identifying themselves as jihadists, although a small percentage of Muslims, are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion.” And in a prophetic warning, it said “the operational threat from self-radicalized cells will grow in importance…particularly abroad but also at home.”
"(And) If there is one place on earth where it is obviously irrational to antagonize the male population on a long-term basis, it is the Pashtun region that straddles Afghanistan and Pakistan, with its tribal culture of honor and revenge for the killing of family and friends..."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/12
Friday, September 9, 2011
KARZAI AND HIS GOVERNMENT NOT SEEN AS LEGITIMATE
"... (Karzai's) brothers or high officials were mired in the Da Kabul Bank scandal. The bank appears to have been looted by its own investors and money used to by villas in Dubai. Norway, along with some internaional hosts, has suspended aid to Afghanistan until the mystery of the Bank’s missing funds is resolved...
".. (and) Not only were there charges of widespread irregularities in the 2009 presidential election, but the parliamentary elections of a year ago were likewise attended with accusations of ballot fraud...
"... As a result of these financial and electoral scandals, Karzai increasingly lacks legitimacy. This outcome is important because the new Afghan army being trained by NATO can only hope to succeed in counter-insurgency if its troops and officers believe in the government for which they are fighting..."
http://www.juancole.com/2011/09/a-tale-of-two-afghan-leaders-before-and-after-911.html
"... (Karzai's) brothers or high officials were mired in the Da Kabul Bank scandal. The bank appears to have been looted by its own investors and money used to by villas in Dubai. Norway, along with some internaional hosts, has suspended aid to Afghanistan until the mystery of the Bank’s missing funds is resolved...
".. (and) Not only were there charges of widespread irregularities in the 2009 presidential election, but the parliamentary elections of a year ago were likewise attended with accusations of ballot fraud...
"... As a result of these financial and electoral scandals, Karzai increasingly lacks legitimacy. This outcome is important because the new Afghan army being trained by NATO can only hope to succeed in counter-insurgency if its troops and officers believe in the government for which they are fighting..."
http://www.juancole.com/2011/09/a-tale-of-two-afghan-leaders-before-and-after-911.html
AL QAEDA SUCCEEDING IN DECLINE OF U.S. POWER
"... Al Qaeda appears to have largely succeeded in its hopes of accelerating the decline of U.S. global power, if not bringing it to the brink of collapse. That appears to be the strong consensus of the foreign-policy elite which... believes that the administration of President George W. Bush badly "over- reacted" to the attacks and that that over-reaction continues to this day... The estimated three to 4.4 trillion dollars Washington has incurred either directly or indirectly in conducting the "global war on terror" account for a substantial portion of the fiscal crisis that transformed the country's politics and brought it to the edge of bankruptcy last month..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105041
"... Al Qaeda appears to have largely succeeded in its hopes of accelerating the decline of U.S. global power, if not bringing it to the brink of collapse. That appears to be the strong consensus of the foreign-policy elite which... believes that the administration of President George W. Bush badly "over- reacted" to the attacks and that that over-reaction continues to this day... The estimated three to 4.4 trillion dollars Washington has incurred either directly or indirectly in conducting the "global war on terror" account for a substantial portion of the fiscal crisis that transformed the country's politics and brought it to the edge of bankruptcy last month..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105041
SINCE 9/11 U.S. IS NO SAFER, BUT WEAKER
"... We aren't safer from terrorism than we were a decade ago. Safety, after all, is a product of our defensive capabilities and resiliency measured against an enemy's capacity to attack us. While al-Qaeda's capacity to attack us hasn't increased significantly, the United States has far weaker capabilities than it did 10 years ago: even if al Qaeda has experienced a decline in the past decade, then the U.S. has declined more steeply... (so) it is hard to say that we've grown safer since September 11. The only chance a relatively small and weak actor like al-Qaeda has to beat a strong actor like the U.S. is by turning its strength against it. The group has managed to put the U.S. in a position where many of its offensive and defensive measures -- armies deployed in far-away and hostile places, travel and commerce slowed by cumbersome security theater -- do in fact make the U.S. more vulnerable by exhausting it..."
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/al-qaeda-is-winning/244701/
"... We aren't safer from terrorism than we were a decade ago. Safety, after all, is a product of our defensive capabilities and resiliency measured against an enemy's capacity to attack us. While al-Qaeda's capacity to attack us hasn't increased significantly, the United States has far weaker capabilities than it did 10 years ago: even if al Qaeda has experienced a decline in the past decade, then the U.S. has declined more steeply... (so) it is hard to say that we've grown safer since September 11. The only chance a relatively small and weak actor like al-Qaeda has to beat a strong actor like the U.S. is by turning its strength against it. The group has managed to put the U.S. in a position where many of its offensive and defensive measures -- armies deployed in far-away and hostile places, travel and commerce slowed by cumbersome security theater -- do in fact make the U.S. more vulnerable by exhausting it..."
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/al-qaeda-is-winning/244701/
Monday, September 5, 2011
AFGHAN SOLDIERS DESERTING
"At least one in seven Afghan soldiers walked off the job during the first six months of this year... Between January and June, more than 24,000 soldiers walked off the job, more than twice as many as in the same period last year, according to the NATO statistics. In June alone, more than 5,000 soldiers deserted, nearly 3 percent of the 170,000-strong force... At one point this summer, the pace of desertions climbed to an annualized rate of 35 percent..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/more-afghan-soldiers-deserting-the-army/2011/08/31/gIQABxFTvJ_story.html
"At least one in seven Afghan soldiers walked off the job during the first six months of this year... Between January and June, more than 24,000 soldiers walked off the job, more than twice as many as in the same period last year, according to the NATO statistics. In June alone, more than 5,000 soldiers deserted, nearly 3 percent of the 170,000-strong force... At one point this summer, the pace of desertions climbed to an annualized rate of 35 percent..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/more-afghan-soldiers-deserting-the-army/2011/08/31/gIQABxFTvJ_story.html
Thursday, September 1, 2011
WAR ON TERROR WAS ABANDONED BY BUSH AGENCIES AS INEFFECTIVE
"... The War on Terror was based on the notion that Islamic terrorism represented a unified, ideologically coherent, and operationally centralized threat, demanding a singular and predominately military response. This notion was rejected by U.S. security officials long before the killing of Bin Laden. Indeed, it was abandoned well before the election of President Obama.
By the latter years of the Bush administration, the exceptional tactics that defined the War on Terror -- preventative detentions, pain-based interrogation, ethnic and religious profiling, and widely expanded domestic surveillance powers -- were either abandoned or dramatically scaled back based on overwhelming evidence that they were ineffective. Meanwhile, the actual wars initiated in the name of the War on Terror, in Afghanistan and Iraq, rapidly evolved into counter-insurgency and then counterterrorism campaigns as military leaders recognized that the U.S. was unable to replace theocrats and autocrats with stable, western-style democracies.
The War on Terror lives on today only as political theater..."
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/08/who-killed-the-war-on-terror/244273/
"... The War on Terror was based on the notion that Islamic terrorism represented a unified, ideologically coherent, and operationally centralized threat, demanding a singular and predominately military response. This notion was rejected by U.S. security officials long before the killing of Bin Laden. Indeed, it was abandoned well before the election of President Obama.
By the latter years of the Bush administration, the exceptional tactics that defined the War on Terror -- preventative detentions, pain-based interrogation, ethnic and religious profiling, and widely expanded domestic surveillance powers -- were either abandoned or dramatically scaled back based on overwhelming evidence that they were ineffective. Meanwhile, the actual wars initiated in the name of the War on Terror, in Afghanistan and Iraq, rapidly evolved into counter-insurgency and then counterterrorism campaigns as military leaders recognized that the U.S. was unable to replace theocrats and autocrats with stable, western-style democracies.
The War on Terror lives on today only as political theater..."
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/08/who-killed-the-war-on-terror/244273/
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