War in Afghanistan and Pakistan - Part 9

The Pakistani Air Force is now in the business of operating pilotless drones:

http://www.daily.pk/paf-starts-drone-production-9267

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/y...'m sorry, but I was wrong to support the war in Afghanistan[/url]

M. Spector wrote:

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/y...'m sorry, but I was wrong to support the war in Afghanistan[/url]

If he were to realize that war doesn't fix anything (never has, never will), then it could be said he had a truly epiphanous experience in his thinking.

Here's a profile of the new commander of the Pakistani Taliban, Zulfiqar (aka Hakimullah) Mehsud:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8219223.stm

M. Spector wrote:

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/y...'m sorry, but I was wrong to support the war in Afghanistan[/url]

Sometimes intervention is the only option, often a lesser evil. Ultra-nationalist Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo would have successfully exterminated or driven out indigenous Muslims from those lands had NATO not intervened.

But certain NATO countries did intervene both before and after Balkanization of Yugoslavia. The Clinton regime helped transform Bosnia into a militant Islamic state. And if Muslim Kosovars were not the large majority before destabilization efforts began, they would be if Alija Izetbegovic had anything to do with it. His attitude toward radicalization and purification of Bosnia amounted to so much one people, one state, one fuhrer mentality. In fact, the New York times described Izetbegovic as having joined the Young Muslims in Ustashe ruled Croatia during WW II, which was a group torn between supoprting Tito's partisans and Handzars, a group which favoured working with the waffen SS. Alija supported the Handzars. 

Non-Albanians and Serbs were suddenly considered undesirables in a part of Yugoslavia that was founded by Serbs over one-thousand years ago. There are several war criminals from the 1990's who the Hague Tribunal refused to acknowledge were guilty of ethnic cleansing and general all around crimes against humanity.

Quote:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/08/25/afghanistan-violence025.html

A large blast made by five car bombs strung together rocked Kandahar city Tuesday night, killing at least 41 people, wounding 66 and damaging dozens of buildings, officials said.

Gunfire followed the explosion, which sent flames shooting into the Afghan sky. It targeted a Japanese construction company that mostly hires Pakistani engineers, said Haji Agha Lalai, a provincial council member.

He said the vehicles were filled with explosives and detonated together.

One Associated Press reporter estimated that the blast destroyed about 40 shops.

"Once again, they've killed children, women, innocent Afghans," said deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Sher Shah. "They are not human. They are animals. You can see for yourself the destruction of this enemy."

I call bullshit!

Since when does a vehicle, even 5, have enough power to destroy 40 shops and kill 40 people? And attack the Japanese?

This is more like a NATO bomb dropped on purpose to try and set up the Taliban.  When will pople open their eyes.

Frmrsldr wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/world/asia/27kandahar.html?_r=1&ref=world

"The bomb exploded with such force that it was felt even by people miles away outside the city. Not only was the scale unusual. but also the fact that the attack appeared to be aimed not at the police or coalition forces but at civilians."

Sounds like a clumsy attempt by the CIA to turn the Afghan people against the Taliban and/or Afghan insurgents.

Oh, the glad gang would never stoop so low so as to perpetrate a false flag op causing mass hysteria among the public in order to justify a repressive national security state or anything? It's not that something like this has ever happened before? At least, I don't think so. This is one of those run of the mill clean-dirty wars with straightforward objectives as usual. Has to be. 

Here's another straightforward objective in our clean-dirty little war:

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/08/27/us-copter-opens-fire-on-afghan-medica...

Taliban's growth in the north threatens to expand war:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/74543.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/taliban-claim-victory-over-vot...

Quote:

He said his fighters never intended to follow through on threats outlined in “night letters” – leaflets warning death and dismemberment to would-be voters.

“We are not targeting Afghan civilians. We are targeting foreign fighters,” the Taliban commander said, an oft-repeated pledge meant to win the support of Afghan civilians, who have suffered high casualties in insurgent attacks....

I find it hard to blieve the Taliban were actually threatening to murder anyone who went to vote but lets just say they did. Why would they threaten to kill people for voting?

Isn't that what we want?  Them to NOvote in an american puppet?  If the people of Afghanistan support the Taliban, which they do, why not prove it?  Threatenign to kill people doesn't seem conductive of a good relationship?

Quote:

The men are frustrated by the lack of obvious purpose or progress. "The soldiers' biggest question is: what can we do to make this war stop. Catch one person? Assault one objective? Soldiers want definite answers, other than to stop the Taleban, because that almost seems impossible. It's hard to catch someone you can't see," said Specialist Mercer.

"It's a very frustrating mission," said Lieutenant Hjelmstad... "There's no tangible reward for the sacrifice. It's hard to say Wardak is better than when we got here."

Troops disillusioned in Wardak

This reaction is entirely predictable. The US and its running-dog lackeys went into this (these) war(s) with no objective other than to get revenge for the WTC/Pentagon attacks, and inflict pain on someone else, no matter who.

The first rule in Military Theory 101 is to have a clearly-defined goal for a mission. The Afghan mission has no goal other than to create misery for those people The West holds responsible for Sept. 11. Unfortunately The West holds the swarthy Muslim races responsible, and so all Arabs and Muslims are considered enemies. To achieve success in the mission is therefore to kill Muslims, not to achieve any strategic goal. Thus, the mission cannot help but fail.

Quote:

Truth is war's first casualty. The Afghan war's biggest untruth is, "we've got to fight terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them at home."

Many North Americans still buy this lie because they believe the 9/11 attacks came directly from the Afghanistan-based al-Qaida and Taliban movements.

False. The 9/11 attacks were planned in Germany and Spain, and conducted mainly by U.S.-based Saudis to punish America for supporting Israel.

Taliban, a militant religious, anti-Communist movement of Pashtun tribesmen, was totally surprised by 9/11. Taliban received U.S. aid until May, 2001. The CIA was planning to use Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida to stir up Muslim Uighurs against Chinese rule, and Taliban against Russia's Central Asian allies.

Al-Qaida only numbered 300 members. Most have been killed. A handful escaped to Pakistan. Only a few remain in Afghanistan. Yet President Barack Obama insists 68,000 or more U.S. troops must stay in Afghanistan to fight al-Qaida and prevent extremists from re-acquiring "terrorist training camps."

This claim, like Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction, is a handy slogan to market war to the public. Today, half of Afghanistan is under Taliban control. Anti-American militants could more easily use Somalia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, North and West Africa, or Sudan. They don't need remote Afghanistan. The 9/11 attacks were planned in apartments, not camps.

What Lies Beneath the War in Afghanistan

by Eric Margolis

Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor wrote:

WASHINGTON - The recent spate of terrorist bombings in Pakistan is likely to figure in President Obama's ongoing review of Afghanistan policy with top advisers next week.

Discussions of the violence in Pakistan will underscore the interconnected nature of the challenges the US faces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, say South Asian analysts who have advised the administration on its policies...

... But Pakistan is also a critical part of the administration's deliberations, Mr. Riedel says, with this week's targeting of the Pakistani military only augmenting nervousness over the future US direction in Afghanistan...

... Others such as Mr. Biden say Pakistan should be the focus of a counterterrorist strategy that eschews higher troops levels in Afghanistan in favor of more surgical air strikes against terrorist targets in Pakistan.

In their view, the bombings in Pakistan underline the importance of targeting terrorist bases rather than fighting over territory in Afghanistan. "The Al Qaeda threat is not to be equated with control of a particular piece of real estate," says Paul Pillar, a former deputy director of the CIA's counterterrorism center who is now at Georgetown University in Washington.

according to Mr. Pillar, who participated in a Brookings event on Afghanistan Friday, Afghanistan's place in determining what happens in Pakistan has been largely overstated. "The course of events in Pakistan," he says, "will depend mostly on what happens in Pakistan."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1017/p02s01-usfp.html

Latest news as seen by the Frontier Post in Peshawar, which generally supports the Awami National Party government of the NWFP -- a progressive secular Pakhtun party with Gandhian traditions, which therefore sympathizes with Pakhtuns on both sides of the Durand line, and favours conciliation with anyone (even the Taliban) when possible, although politically opposing Islamists of all stripes. They gave up on conciliation some time in 2008 or early 2009, as I recall, yet they are anti-American enough to oppose American anti-Taliban conditions.

138 people killed in 13 terror incidents in 2009.

At least 11 insurgents were killed in the jet bombings on the first day of the ground military action launched by over 30,000 military troops against militants in Mehsud dominated areas of South Waziristan on Saturday.

Quote:

After announcement of the formal military action, the contingents of security forces started advancing towards Mehsud dominated areas of South Waziristan Agency from three sides. The personnel of security forces were already deployed in Ahmadzai dominated areas of Wana in South Waziristan, Frontier Regions of Jandola and Razmak region of North Waziristan Agency. Taliban militants have planted dozens of IEDs, land mines and other explosive material on all roads and routes, connecting Mehsud dominated areas with rest of Waziristan and Tank. Earlier the region was also known for harbouring thousands of foreign militants but now almost all of them have slipped from this part of Waziristan into other regions like North Waziristan and Ahmadzai Wazir dominated areas of South Waziristan. As a result of ground military action, thousands of people are now abandoning their homes in South Waziristan and moving towards peaceful region. Majority of them prefers districts like Tank and Dera Ismael Khan. According to reliable sources the operation is expected to last around two months. The United Nations has said it is preparing to help civilians who are fleeing the region. Up to 150,000 civilians have already left in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault, but there are perhaps as many as 350,000 remaining. It is nearly impossible to independently verify information from the region, which is largely controlled by local tribes and has little infrastructure or government presence. Foreigners require permission to enter tribal areas, and few Pakistani journalists risk travelling there.

"The people are now breathlessly inquisitive to know at what price are they being sold into the American enslavement."

Quote:

Not all the aid will flow into the government treasury, under whatever pretext. Much of it will land into the unaccountable private pockets of NGOs. Indeed, going by the present indications, in the first year hardly about one-third of the aid will be received by the government; all the rest is to be consumed up by the American administration in laying down administrative procedures, methods and infrastructure for its spending. Indeed, as a sideshow the disbursement issue has embroiled bitterly two American entities themselves in a noisy turf war. At loggerheads are the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Obama administration's czar for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, with the former accusing the latter of poking his nose unwarrantedly in aid disbursement affairs and trying arrogating in his own hands a monopolistic control of all the pledged aid spending in Pakistan. But going by media reports, at the heart of their tiff is no sublime principle but a dispute if the aid handlers have to be international NGOs or the Pakistani. The USAID wants the international; Holbrooke wants the Pakistani. Their bickering has already led to suspension of work on the ongoing USAID projects in the country and the sacking of the staff working on them with a three months salary. The aid agency says it will await the US administration's decision on the tiff to resume its aid activities here. But it will be same for this country's hapless people whether international or national NGOs are involved. For, neither have a glorious track record for performance. It was the international NGOs that together handled something like $25 billion in foreign aid in Afghanistan. But they have nothing spectacular to show on their slates for this mountain of cash, having spent far more on their own upkeep and very little on the nation-building and economic reconstruction tasks assigned to them. As for the Pakistani NGOs, the little said the better. They are veritably money-minting machines in the hands of their operators, who have combined up to turn the NGOs as the nation's most flourishing industry. It indeed would not be wrong to say that if this American aid is to be channelized through the NGOs, it will enrich some select elite pockets, leaving the nation holding a staggering debt tab to pay up. If the government is now all set to an abject surrender to this atrocious aid contrivance, at least it must take up a firm stand that the money will not land in private hands under whatever pretence and will be spent on development schemes and projects holding import and priority in its own scheme of things. After all, for a puny sum that makes just a small fraction of our annual budget no respectable government would even think of signing up to a surrender document like this US aid law. In any case, the government must tell the nation at what price it is giving it in the suzerainty of the Americans.

Thousands of Internally Displaced Persons in South Waziristan are deprived of basic necessities, said the UNHCR spokesperson Michelle Montas: about 80,000 people have gone to Dera Ismail Khan and Tank from South Waziristan. "The UN is facing problems in carrying out support activities in Pakistan after the attacks on its offices, but it will continue its work."

Punjab Chief Minister, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has said that the entire nation is united to cope with the challenge of terrorism and we will jointly make the country a haven of peace after elimination of the menace of terrorism. The significance here is that the province of Punjab is ruled by the main conservative opposition party, which would normally be criticizing the PPP national government. 

Pakistan Peoples Party leaders Matloob Wariach, Abdul Qadir Shaheen and Muhammad Salim Mughal in a joint statement Saturday lauded the government for launching a military operation against terrorists in South Waziristan Agency. They appreciated all political parties for supporting the government on the operation. (Is this a dog bites man story, PPP leaders supporting their govenment? But these three are leaders of the party's labour wing, and old Benazir Bhutto loyalists; it's good news that they are speaking out, apparently.)

The Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Saturday apprised NWFP Governor Owais Ghani of the PRCS plan for Internally Displaced Persons from South Wazaristan Agency (SWA).

Here's a fascinating story: some schools in the FATA tribal areas, which would be part of the NWFP except that they have never accepted that they are even part of Pakistan in the first place, are funded from the national government. The teachers of National Education Foundation Community Model Schools FATA staged protest demonstration demanding immediate release of their salaries for the last four months by the education departments. "After seven months, the male and female students of the schools has yet to be provided with books, the protested said."

Border security officials from India and Pakistan exchanged sweets at the Attari-Wagah border joint checkpost Saturday to mark the festival of Diwali. Border Security Force (BSF) personnel on the Indian side offered sweets to the officials of Pakistan Rangers. Border security officials had exchanged sweets during the Eid festival last month also. (Another dog bites man story? But the Awamis favour peace with India, although no one in Pakistan wants to stop supporting freedom for Kashmir.)

Listening to the Canadian state media this morning they kept calling the area "ungovernable" which I gathered is a synonym for unconquerable.

[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15761]America's Phoney War in Afghanistan[/url]

Quote:

[url=http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/afghanistan-a-war-of-... to author Erik Margolis[/url], prior to the September 11,2001 attacks, US intelligence was giving aid and support both to the Taliban and to Al Qaeda. Margolis claims that "The CIA was planning to use Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda to stir up Muslim Uighurs against Chinese rule, and Taliban against Russia's Central Asian allies."

 

The US clearly found other means of stirring up Muslim Uighurs against Beijing last July via its support for the World Uighur Congress. But the Al Qaeda "threat" remains the lynchpin of Obama US justification for his Afghan war buildup.

 

Now, however, the National Security Adviser to President Obama, former Marine Gen. James Jones has made a statement, conveniently buried by the friendly US media, about the estimated size of the present Al Qaeda danger in Afghanistan. Jones told Congress, "The al-Qaeda presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."

 

That means that Al-Qaeda, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan. Oops...

 

Even in neighboring Pakistan, the remnants of Al-Qaeda are scarcely to be found. The Wall Street Journal reports, "Hunted by US drones, beset by money problems and finding it tougher to lure young Arabs to the bleak mountains of Pakistan, al Qaeda is seeing its role shrink there and in Afghanistan, according to intelligence reports and Pakistan and U.S. officials. For Arab youths who are al Qaeda's primary recruits, 'it's not romantic to be cold and hungry and hiding,' said a senior U.S. official in South Asia."

 

If we follow the statement to its logical consequence we must conclude then that the reason German soldiers are dying along with other NATO youth in the mountains of Afghanistan has nothing to do with "winning a war against terrorism." Conveniently most media chooses to forget the fact that Al Qaeda to the extent it ever existed, was a creation in the 1980's of the CIA, who recruited and trained radical muslims from across the Islamic world to wage war against Russian troops in Afghanistan as part of a strategy developed by Reagan's CIA head Bill Casey and others to create a "new Vietnam" for the Soviet Union which would lead to a humiliating defeat for the Red Army and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union.

 

Now US NSC head Jones admits there is essentially no Al Qaeda anymore in Afghanistan. Perhaps it is time for a more honest debate from our political leaders about the true purpose of sending more young to die protecting the opium harvests of Afghanistan.

U.S. use of drones questioned by UN:

Reuters wrote:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States must demonstrate that it is not randomly killing people in violation of international law through its use of drones on the Afghan border, a Uniited Nations rights investigator said Tuesday.

The investigator, Philip Alston, also said the American refusal to respond to United Nations concerns that the use of drones might result in illegal executions was an "untenable" position.

Mr. Alston, who is appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, said his concern over drones had grown in the past few months as the American military prominently used them in the rugged area along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/28nations.html

Wilf Day wrote:

President Barack Obama must admit to certain hard realities says the Frontier Post, the voice of progressive secular Pashtuns in Pakistan:

The Soviet occupiers did it too. Yet they kissed defeat. The Afghan resistance controlled the countryside where it assembled, trained, planned actions and from there launched their attacks on Soviet garrisons, encampments, ammunition depots and convoys. The stratagem did not work then, and it sure is not going to work now.

But what did this author do with real history in comparing the US occupation with the proxy war of the 1980's? The truth is that among many other progressive reforms, the PDPA imposed a ban on poppy growing in the country sides. The CIA openly admitted to propping up Afghan drug barons and war lords with billions of US taxpayer dollars delivered covertly to these characters via the Pakistani ISI and US-backed military dictatorship of General Zia at the time. And then when the Afghan government fell to the fundamentalists, the CIA began funding and arming the most ruthless of them directly.

Drug addiction from Kandahar to Lahore and Islamabad was described as "flat" until the CIA, the world's biggest dope delivery sevice,   moved in.

And now Malalai Joya is asking where $36 billion in western world aid money has disappeared to? Into the pockets of the drug barons and war lords, says Malalai Joya. Naturally.

[url=http://www.workers.org/ww/2001/afghan0927.php]How U.S. destroyed progressive secular forces in Afghanistan[/url] Deirdre Griswold

Just another failed state that the American public has to bear the burden of helping out of their ignorance and on the road to democracy.  Its not like they were ruled by the British for hundreds of years and have had the facade of a democracy for the last 50.  

Given Pakistan has had years of British (centuries might be more accurate) and American training and 50 years of democracy and they apparently are still a failed state incapable of controlling anti-American activity;  How long will we need to be in Afghanistan before they can reach the same level of failure as Pakistan?

It's not colonialism. Their trespasses of today are a result of an advanced case of abused child syndrome dating from crazy George III through to George II of recent times. They're in between crazy Georges right now. Torture and merciful beheadings are still on with Bracket Obomba.