World-News

2014 or Bust

Nick Turse, TomDispatch.com: "In recent weeks, President Obama has been contemplating the future of US military operations in Afghanistan. He has also been touting the effects of his policies at home, reporting that this year's Recovery Act not only saved jobs, but also was 'the largest investment in infrastructure since [President Dwight] Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950's.' At the same time, another much less publicized US-taxpayer-funded infrastructure boom has been underway. This one in Afghanistan. While Washington has put modest funding into civilian projects in Afghanistan this year - ranging from small-scale power plants to 'public latrines' to a meat market - the real construction boom is military in nature. The Pentagon has been funneling stimulus-sized sums of money to defense contractors to markedly boost its military infrastructure in that country."

http://www.truthout.org/1106091



Labor Antiwar Group Refocuses on Afghanistan

Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes: "According to US Labor Against the War, the money spent in Iraq and Afghanistan could have paid for a year's worth of health care for 140 million people - almost every working person in the U.S. The wars have cost each U.S. family $12,750 so far."

http://www.truthout.org/1110092

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Hollow Victory

By John Mearsheimer

According to the Republicans, the United States is once again at the crossroads of losing another critical war because of feckless Democrats. Only this time it's Afghanistan.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23910.htm



Can You Hear Us Now?

By David Michael Green

Where we go from here could be very, very ugly. The GOP right now is in the process of alienating and crushing every last scrap of moderately sensible politics from within its ranks.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23913.htm



Australia: No more troops, Faulkner tells US

Australia has made it clear to the US it is not in a position to increase troop or training commitments in Afghanistan if the Obama Administration decides to add to its troop levels in response to General Stanley McChrystal's report, the Defence Minister, John Faulkner, said in Washington.

http://snipurl.com/t3t0i


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=stimulus
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=recovery
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractor
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=healthcare
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nick+Turse
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Mearsheimer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Michael+Green
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jane+Slaughter

Los Angele Times

11/05/09

North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces said today they were investigating reports that nine civilians were killed in a rocket strike aimed at insurgents in the volatile southern Afghan province of Helmand. The incident came despite new efforts by international forces to avoid civilian casualties and make the Afghan population feel safe. Dozens of angry villagers carried the bodies today through the streets of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, before they were dispersed by police firing guns in the air, witnesses said...

http://tinyurl.com/yeydn3t


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civilian+deaths

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/11/04

Why and To What End in Afghanistan
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/04

Afghanistan as Vietnam: Heeding George Kennan's Wise Advice
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/04-4

Keeping Afghanistan Safe from Democracy
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/04-8

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Get out of Afghanistan

The National Interest
by Charles V. Pena

11/04/09

President Obama is considering two strategies for Afghanistan: sending in as many as 40,000 more troops to wage a full-blown counterinsurgency war (COIN in Army parlance), as General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has recommended, or keeping the number of troops at the current level of about 68,000 to wage a more limited, counterterrorist effort aimed at al Qaeda and, to a lesser degree, the Taliban. There is a third option: End our military occupation and leave Afghanistan to the Afghans. Let them deal with al-Qaeda and the Taliban...

http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=22432


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Afghanistan and the "Other" Vietnam War

Dallas Darling, Truthout: "When discussing the Vietnam War or comparing it to America's other conflicts, such as the current one in Afghanistan, the 'other' Vietnam War is rarely mentioned. This is very unfortunate, because it might be just the correct path to pursue in seeking a peaceful solution."

http://www.truthout.org/1114095



Counterterrorism in Shambles - Why?

Ray McGovern and Coleen Rowley, Truthout: "Yesterday, a blogger with the PBS NewsHour asked former CIA analyst Ray McGovern to respond to three questions regarding recent events involving the CIA, FBI, and the intelligence community in general."

http://www.truthout.org/1050912

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=counterinsurgency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=counterterror
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Qaeda
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ray+McGovern
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ralph+Nader
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ray+McGovern
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Scheer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Charles+Pena
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dallas+Darling
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Coleen+Rowley

By Robert Fisk

After Disneyworld elections, they are on the Karzai-government side against the Pashtun villagers of southern Afghanistan among whom the Taliban live. Where is the next My Lai? Journalists should avoid predictions. In this case I will not. Our Western mission in Afghanistan is going to end in utter disaster.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23897.htm



Afghan police infiltrated by Taliban 'at every level'

Afghanistan's police are poorly trained, plagued by drug addiction and infiltrated by the Taliban "at every level", a former British soldier has claimed.

http://snipurl.com/t28gv



Abdullah: Karzai's re-election as Afghan leader 'illegal'

Three days after pulling out of a run-off against the incumbent, Abdullah said a subsequent decision by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to hand Karzai another five years in power had no basis in law and underlined its bias.

http://snipurl.com/t28h2



Hamid Karzai reaches out to 'Taliban brothers' in Afghanistan

During his speech, Mr Karzai said: "Afghanistan has been defamed by corruption. Our government has been defamed by corruption." He said his regime would "strive, by any means possible," to eradicate it, but failed to spell out detailed proposals.

http://snipurl.com/t21ni



Karzai 'corrupt' but 'our guy', French FM tells NYT

"Karzai is corrupt, O.K.," Mr. Kouchner said, but corruption is endemic in Afghanistan and "he is our guy," despite being weakened by the recent election marked by fraud. "We have to legitimize him".

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/world/europe/05france.html



Meet Our Afghan Ally

By Patrick Cockburn

There is a dangerous misunderstanding outside Afghanistan about what 'corruption and mismanagement' mean in an Afghan context and a potentially lethal underestimation of how these impact on American and British forces.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23957.htm


From Information Clearing House

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US Fed Up With Troops Dying to Prop Up Karzai
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/06-4

Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) Calls for a Conclusion to the War in Afghanistan
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/11/06-0



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karzai
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kouchner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Fisk
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+McGeouh
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Patrick+Cockburn

Afghans Will Pay The Price

By Peter Galbraith

The declaration of victory caps weeks of farce and failure, especially for the UN.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23886.htm



A War That Can't Be Won

Starts with candy, ends in napalm

By Serge Halimi

The French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner still hopes to "win hearts and minds with a bullet-proof vest" (2) and McChrystal assures the world that "the American goal in Afghanistan must not be primarily to hunt down and kill Taliban insurgents but to protect the population".

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23888.htm



When Is It Legitimate For The Oppressed To Take Up Arms?

By Arundhati Roy

Roy is against the development of nuclear weapons without regard to the lives of the poor, and the refusal to grant Kashmir independence. She has called the US-led war in Afghanistan "another act of terror against the people of the world" and considers US-style capitalism to be the cause of much of the world's instability.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23887.htm



"Blood price" paid to prop up Afghan government: Former UN Aide

"Among the greatest mistakes of the international community has been its laissez-faire approach to the corruption, cronyism and venality of the Afghan government," he added.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5A11RF20091102


From Information Clearing House

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A long-term disaster for Obama and the US

CounterPunch
by Patrick Cockburn

11/03/09

The election in Afghanistan has turned into a disaster for all who promoted it. Hamid Karzai has been declared re-elected as president of the country for the next five years though his allies inside and outside Afghanistan know that he owes his success to open fraud. Instead of increasing his government’s legitimacy, the poll has further de-legitimized it. From Mr Karzai’s point of view he won through at the end and showed that nobody is strong enough to get rid of him. For President Obama the election has no silver lining. It has left him poised to send tens of thousands US troops to fight a war in defense of one of world’s most crooked and discredited governments...

http://counterpunch.org/patrick11032009.html



The American way of abandonment

The American Conservative
by Patrick J. Buchanan

11/03/09

That there are warlords who are war criminals, allied with the Afghan regime and us, that drug-traffickers are abetted by high officials, that Karzai stole the election, no one denies. That the Pakistani intelligence services are shot through with elements loyal to a Taliban they helped bring to power in Kabul, that there are Pakistani army officers who believe they should be defending their country against India, not fighting America’s war in Waziristan, is also undeniable. But what does it avail us to insult these people who have cast their lot with us, many of whom will, with famines and friends, pay a far more terrible price than we if we lose these wars. And if we are going to abandon these people, as we have so many others in the past, let us at least tell them, and ourselves, the truth...

http://tinyurl.com/y9m36sv


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Waziristan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karzai
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bernard+Kouchner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=warlord
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=napalm
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=capitalism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Peter+Galbraith
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Serge+Halimi
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Arundhati+Roy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Patrick+Cockburn
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Patrick+J.+Buchanan

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/03-5

Jeremy Scahill Takes on Max Boot over Afghan Fiasco
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/11/03-0

A Call for Clarity on the Afghanistan War
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/03-0

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Film: "The Good Soldier"

Bill Moyers Journal: "As America prepares to observe Veterans Day and President Obama weighs sending more troops to fight in Afghanistan, 'Bill Moyers Journal' broadcasts a powerful documentary about the impact on soldiers of learning to kill - or be killed."

http://www.truthout.org/1103096



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=veterans
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Veterans+Day
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Max+Boot
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ryan+Grim
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jeremy+Scahill
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sonali+Kolhatkar
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Moyers

„Der neue Verteidigungsminister bricht mit einem Tabu: Seiner Ansicht nach herrschen am Hindukusch kriegsähnliche Zustände. Damit ist der CSU-Politiker das erste Regierungsmitglied, das im Zusammenhang mit dem Einsatz das K-Wort in den Mund nimmt…“ Artikel in FTD online vom 03.11.2009 http://www.ftd.de/politik/deutschland/:bundeswehreinsatz-guttenberg-spricht-erstmals-von-krieg-in-afghanistan/50032018.html


"Sind Sie für die Verlängerung des Bundeswehreinsatzes in Afghanistan?"

Friedensbewegung startet bundesweite Abstimmungsaktionen. Informationen, Hintergrund, Material beim Friedenspolitischen Ratschlag http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/bewegung/afgh/abst-leitfaden.html


Im Windschatten der NATO: Die Europäische Union und der Krieg in Afghanistan

„Der Krieg in Afghanistan eskaliert immer weiter, der Grund hierfür liegt nicht zuletzt im immer aggressiveren Vorgehen der NATO, aber auch der Europäischen Union und Deutschlands. Ende November, Anfang Dezember wird die Debatte um die Verlängerung und den Ausbau des Bundeswehrengagements beginnen. Um die Kritik an dem Einsatz mit Informationen zu unterlegen, hat die IMI in Zusammenarbeit mit der EU-Abgeordneten Sabine Lösing eine Broschüre zum Thema erarbeitet, die sich ausführlich mit den verschiedenen Facetten des Krieges beschäftigt“ Neue Broschüre von und bei IMI (pdf) http://imi-online.de/download/Afghanistanbroschuere-Web.pdf

Siehe dazu im LabourNet Germany „Diskussion > EU > EU-Militärpolitik“ http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/eu/militaer.html


PR-Offensive – die Bundeswehr nach der Parlamentswahl

„Nun liegt also der Schwarz-Gelbe Koalitionsvertrag auf dem Tisch. Soviel ist jetzt schon klar, die Bundeswehr wird sich in den nächsten Jahren verändern, leider aber auf eine lediglich beim ersten Hinsehen positive Weise: die Wehrpflicht wird verkürzt, die atomare Teilhabe aufgehoben und auch auf dem Posten des Verteidigungsministers wird ein anderer sitzen. Regierung und deutsche Armee gehen nach der Bundestagswahl offensiv in den Kampf um die Herzen und Köpfe der Bevölkerung…“ IMI-Standpunkt 2009/060 von Michael Schulze von Glaßer vom 27.10.2009 http://www.imi-online.de/2009.php?id=2037


Pläne der Bundesregierung: Abschied vom Zivildienst

Der Zivildienst soll verkürzt werden: Die Klage der Wohlfahrtsverbände ist verständlich - und doch ärgerlich. Es gibt kein Recht des Sozialbereichs auf den Zivildienst. Ein Kommentar von Matthias Drobinski in SZ online vom 02.11.2009 http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,tt4m1/politik/798/493148/text/


Eine fast geheime Armee. Der Aufbau einer Truppe gegen den „inneren Feind“ ist weit fortgeschritten

„Deutschland verfügt über eine neue unbekannte Heimatarmee. 441 Kommandos aus jeweils zwölf ständig einsetzbaren Reservisten sind in sämtlichen kreisfreien Städten, Landkreisen und Regierungsbezirken eingerichtet worden. Sie stehen unter dem Kommando der Bundeswehrführung und haben kurzfristig Zugriff auf weitere rund 80.000 bis 100.000 speziell ausgebildete Reservisten. Eingebunden in die zivilen Katastrophenschutzstäbe, erhalten sie Einsicht in die Bereitschaftsstände von zivilen Behörden, Polizei, technischem Hilfswerk und Feuerwehr. Sie sollen vor allem den Katastrophenschutz verbessern. Doch was ist außerdem ihre Aufgabe? Und wie kam es zu dieser zusätzlichen Armee mit einer Truppenstärke von ca. 5300 Männern und Frauen - plus X?...“ Artikel von Ulrich Sander vom 26. Oktober 2009 bei Hintergrund http://www.hintergrund.de/20091026520/politik/inland/eine-fast-geheime-armee.html


Aufrüstung im Inneren

Neuer Fünfjahresplan für Europäische Union: Mit »Stockholmer Programm« sollen Kompetenzen der Polizei ausgeweitet und mit dem Militär verzahnt werden. Artikel von Hanne Jobst und Matthias Monroy in junge Welt vom 22.10.2009 http://www.jungewelt.de/2009/10-22/043.php


Aus: LabourNet, 3. November 2009

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Elitenkontinuität

Über die familiären und finanziellen Verbindungen Karl Theodor von und zu Guttenbergs.
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/31/31474/1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bundeswehr
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Schwarz-Gelb

Afghanistan has shown that the alliance has become "a corpse, decomposing," Hillier concludes. "Unless the alliance can snatch victory out of feeble efforts, it's not going to be long in existence in its present form."

http://snipurl.com/t0z35


From Information Clearing House

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Too Big to Fail? Why All the President's Afghan Options Are Bad Ones

Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "In the worst of times, my father always used to say, 'A good gambler cuts his losses.' It's a formulation imprinted on my brain forever. That no-nonsense piece of advice still seems reasonable to me, but it doesn't apply to American war policy. Our leaders evidently never saw a war to which the word 'more' didn't apply. Hence the Afghan War, where impending disaster is just an invitation to fuel the flames of an already roaring fire. As things go from bad to worse and the odds grow grimmer, our leaders, like the worst of gamblers, wager ever more."

http://www.truthout.org/1102092

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Opium, Rape and the American Way
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/02

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Recognizing the limits of American power in Afghanistan

Cato Institute
by Doug Bandow

10/31/09

Candidate Barack Obama was widely seen as running on a peace platform. More recently President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for supposedly offering a new international approach. Yet he is considering a major military escalation in Afghanistan. Instead, the president should rethink Washington’s objective. The conflict has become his war. He should not ask, is Afghanistan winnable? Rather, the right question is what should the U.S. attempt to achieve? The goal should be to advance American security, not build an Afghan state...

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10924


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nobel+laureate
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=opium
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chris+Hedges
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Doug+Bandow

By Eric Black

Al Qaida is not in Afghanistan. A resurgent Taliban does not threaten U.S. national security. The U.S. mission in Afghanistan is not stabilizing the situation in Pakistan. We are in the middle of someone else's civil war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23848.htm



The Fruits of Intervention

By Pat Buchanan

If we had it to do over, would we send an army into Afghanistan to build a nation? Would we invade Iraq?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23847.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=intervention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=national+security
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Qaeda
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pat+Buchanan

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/30-5

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Kipling Haunts Obama's Afghan War

Ray McGovern, Truthout: "The White Man's Burden, a phrase immortalized by English poet Rudyard Kipling as an excuse for European-American imperialism, was front and center Thursday morning (October 29) at a RAND-sponsored discussion of Afghanistan in the Russell Senate Office Building. The agenda was top-heavy with RAND speakers, and the thinking was decidedly 'inside the box' - so much so, that I found myself repeating a verse from Kipling, who recognized the dangers of imperialism, to remind me of the real world."

http://www.truthout.org/1101091

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Should Obama Fire Gen. McChrystal?

By Ray McGovern

It is not too late for President Barack Obama to follow the example of Harry Truman, who fired Gen. Douglas McArthur in 1951 for insubordination. Then, as now, the stakes were high. Then it was Korea; now it is Afghanistan. No more slaps on the wrist for Gen. Stanley McChrystal. In my view, Commander-in-Chief Obama should fire him for cause.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24035.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=imperialism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Scott+Ritter
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ray+McGovern