Afghanistan - The war against the Taliban

[Posting a link?]

Forum Guidelines
Posting a link? Read This!

Forgot your password? Need help?
Click Here To Contact Us

Mudflats Merchandise
AKMuckraker Amazon Store
Support AKM Merchandise

Download it here!

[Sirenoftitan]

Violence in Afghanistan increased dramatically in the first four months of this year, the UN says.  In a quarterly report to the UN Security Council, it said roadside bomb attacks rose by 94%, compared with the same period in 2009.  On average, the report said, there were three suicide bombings a week, half of them in the country's volatile south.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia_pacific/10356741.stm

[Forty Watt]

Interesting article by Tom Friedman about the mess that is our continuing involvement.

What’s Second Prize?

The first question was hiding in plain sight: Why do we have to recruit and train our allies, the Afghan Army, to fight? That is like someone coming to you with a plan to recruit and train Brazilian boys to play soccer.

If there is one thing Afghan males should not need to be trained to do, it’s to engage in warfare. That may be the only thing they all know how to do after 30 years of civil war and centuries of resisting foreign powers. After all, who is training the Taliban? They’ve been fighting the U.S. Army to a draw — and many of their commanders can’t even read. [...]

 My bottom line: The president can bring Ulysses S. Grant back from the dead to run the Afghan war. But when you can’t answer the simplest questions, it is a sign that you’re somewhere you don’t want to be and your only real choices are lose early, lose late, lose big or lose small.

[Sirenoftitan]

<snip>
They are sceptical about the role of "nation building", as Fox demonstrated in an interview in which he compared Afghanistan to a 13-century state. Fox also rejected the idea that UK troops should next year be deployed in Kandahar, the Taliban's heartland, when Canada withdraws its troops.

The coalition government's sceptical attitude about Nato's military operations in Afghanistan, and Britain's role in it, has caused concern in Washington. It is also being observed with apprehension by some British military commanders who fear it might undermine their influence and role in Afghanistan, where the population suspects their troops will pack up and go home as soon as possible.

Afghanistan withdrawal before 2015, says David Cameron by Patrick Wintour, The Guardian

[Sirenoftitan]

Insurgents have attacked Nato forces in eastern Afghanistan.

Several attackers were killed in the Taliban attack on a base at an airfield outside Jalalabad, near the border with Pakistan.

Gunmen set off a car bomb and fired rocket-propelled grenades, wounding two soldiers, Nato said.

The attack came a day after US Gen David Petraeus warned of an "industrial strength insurgency" in the country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/10457745.stm

[Lani]

Fareed Zakaria harshly criticized the Afghanistan war on his Sunday CNN program.

"If Al Qaeda is down to 100 men there at the most," Zakaria asked, "why are we fighting a major war?"

Zakaria noted that the war is costing the U.S. a fortune in both blood and treasure. "Last month alone there were more than 100 NATO troops killed in Afghanistan.," the CNN host said. "That's more than one allied death for each living Al Qaeda member in the country in just one month.

"The latest estimates are that the war in Afghanistan will cost more than $100 billion in 2010 alone. That's a billion dollars for every member of Al Qaeda thought to be living in Afghanistan in one year."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/04/fareed-zakaria-criticizes_n_635170.html

There is a video at the link.

[Sirenoftitan]

Five more US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, sending Nato's death toll to 12 in 24 hours.  Four soldiers belonging to the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, Nato said.  Another US soldier died in a separate attack also in the south of the country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10633834

[Sirenoftitan]

Women in Taliban-held areas of Afghanistan say they are once again being threatened, attacked and forced out of jobs and education as fears rise that their rights will be sacrificed as part of any deal with insurgents to end the war in Afghanistan.

Women have reported attacks and received letters warning of violence if they continue to work or even contact radio stations to request songs.

One female teacher at a girls' school in a southern Afghan province received a letter saying: "We warn you to leave your job as a teacher as soon as possible otherwise we will cut off the heads of your children and will set fire to your daughter."

'Leave your job or we will cut your head off your body...' by Patrick Cockburn, The Independent

[Forty Watt]

Frantic hunt for missing US troops

Two US Navy service members disappeared in a dangerous area of eastern Afghanistan, prompting a massive search and appeals for their safe return, Nato and Afghan officials said. [...]

Vehicles and helicopters were dispatched to search for the two, who may have been killed or captured by the Taliban in the Charkh district of southern Logar province - about a two-hour drive south of Kabul, said district chief Samer Gul.

A Nato official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the two were Navy personnel, but would not identify their unit to avoid jeopardising search operations. The official said it was unclear what the two were doing or what would lead them to leave their compound. The official would not say whether the two were on official business.

The latest from Al Jazeera English

Taliban sources have told Al Jazeera they are holding one of the two US servicemen who went missing in eastern Afghanistan's Logar province, and say the other is dead.

[Forty Watt]

There seems to be doubt. Let's hope.

...the Taliban claims could not be verified.

Local elders say they believe they are alive and are trying to negotiate their release.
Taliban Conflict

Meanwhile, servicemen are conducting a massive sweep of the area, going house-to-house and calling people out with loud-hailers, asking for information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10753381

[Forty Watt]

I'm very tempted to wish there was a hand-wringing emoticon...

A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.

The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and more than 1,000 US troops.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks

What are we doing?

[boodog]

I'm very tempted to wish there was a hand-wringing emoticon...

I'm now beyond hand-wringing. 

[Forty Watt]

US condemns leaked Afghan 'secrets'

James Jones, the US national security adviser, said the US "strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organisations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk and threaten our national security".

"These irresponsible leaks will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common enemies; and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people."

The unverified documents allegedly consists largely of classified reports and assessments from junior officers in the field that analysts use to advise policymakers.

[Sirenoftitan]

More from the leaked documents referred to above..

<snip>
But if American and British commanders were worried about the missile threat, they downplayed it in public – to the extent of ignoring their own pilots' testimony. The CH-47 Chinook was shot down on 30 May 2007 after dropping troops at the strategic Kajaki dam in Helmand where the British were leading an anti-Taliban drive. Witnesses reported that a missile struck the left rear engine of the aircraft, causing it to burst into flames and nosedive into the ground. All on board died, including 28-year-old Corporal Mike Gilyeat of the Royal Military Police.

Later that day Nato and US officials suggested the helicopter, codenamed Flipper, had been brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade – effectively, a lucky hit. "It's not impossible for small-arms fire to bring down a helicopter," Nato spokesman Major John Thomas told Reuters in Kabul. A US official said it had "probably been brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade [RPG]".

Afghanistan war logs: US covered up fatal Taliban missile strike on Chinook

As the article goes on to explain, SAMs played no small role in the defeat of the Russian Afghani invasion.

[Lani]

Members of Congress on Tuesday ended a months-long standoff and agreed to fund President Obama's Afghanistan troop buildup, but not without debating withdrawal of U.S. troops from neighboring Pakistan.

The release this week of leaked classified reports about the Afghan war propelled efforts by Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) to push to bring U.S. military personnel home from Pakistan by year's end.

... The resolution demanding that U.S. forces withdraw from Pakistan had the distinction of being supported by Paul, one of the chamber's most libertarian members, and Kucinich, one of its most liberal. Both were unsuccessful candidates for presidential nominations in 2008: Paul for the GOP, Kucinich for the Democrats. Their resolution would have been largely symbolic, expressing the will of Congress.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-war-funding-20100728,0,3629884.story

[Sirenoftitan]

The Netherlands has ended its military mission in Afghanistan, after four years in which its 1,950 troops have won praise for their effectiveness.

Dutch military chief Gen Peter van Uhm said security had improved in Uruzgan province during the Dutch deployment.

But he acknowledged that "a lot still has to happen" after the withdrawal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10829837

[Sirenoftitan]

Eight foreigners and two Afghans have been found shot dead next to abandoned vehicles in the north-eastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, officials say.

The foreigners are believed to be six Americans, one Briton and a German, who worked for an international charity providing eye care and medical help.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10900338

<snip>
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility saying the attack was on "Christian missionaries" who were carrying bibles. It is possible the Taliban were simply exploiting early media reports about killings they in fact had nothing to do with.

A British doctor called Karen Woo was known to be on the expedition and played a major part in organising it, including by running fundraising events in London and Kabul to pay for the "Nuristan Medical Expedition 2010".

Woo, from London, had established an organisation called Bridge Afghanistan to help run medical projects in the country.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/07/british-aid-worker-killed-afghanistan1

[Sirenoftitan]

The Taliban's increasing use of homemade bombs and political assassination has caused a 31% increase in the number of civilians who have been killed or injured in fighting in Afghanistan this year, the United Nations said today.

The UN's Kabul mission released data showing that even as the number of child casualties has soared by 55%, strict rules on the use of airpower by Nato troops have led to a 30% drop in the number of deaths and injuries caused by foreign forces in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period in 2009.

Afghanistan civilian deaths up 31% this year, says United Nations by Jon Boone, The Guardian

[Forty Watt]

Taliban Stones Couple To Death — With Support of Our Allies

The Taliban resume public executions on Sunday by stoning to death a young couple who had committed the crime of falling in love and eloping. The couple — Khayyam, 25, and Siddiqa, 19 — publicly proclaimed their love for each other and reportedly refused to yield to the fanatics who are retaking control of parts of the country.

...The head of the Ulema Council in Kunduz Province, Mawlawi Abdul Yaqub, is considered a “moderate” figure in the country but said that the stoning was the appropriate sentence for an illegal sexual relationship. The woman had been told to marry another man and had refused. The Ulema Council is a body of Islamic clerics with religious authority that works closely with the government.

The national Ulema Council of hundreds of leading clerics issued a statement on August 10th calling for more such punishment under Shariah law, which includes stoning, amputations and lashings. We continue to spend billions and lose American lives to help a government that is quickly descending back into such medieval practices and oppressing women across the country.

[Sirenoftitan]

Taliban insurgents have attacked two coalition bases in eastern Afghanistan, Nato forces say.  Coalition forces repelled both attacks, killing 18 militants and capturing others, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said.  There were no coalition casualties in the fighting, in Khost province, south-east of Kabul, Isaf said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11118459

[Forty Watt]

KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the country’s most senior prosecutors said Saturday that President Hamid Karzai  fired him last week after he repeatedly refused to block corruption investigations at the highest levels of Mr. Karzai’s government.

Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, the former deputy attorney general, said investigations of more than two dozen senior Afghan officials — including cabinet ministers, ambassadors and provincial governors — were being held up or blocked outright by Mr. Karzai, Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko and others.

Mr. Faqiryar’s account of the troubles plaguing the anticorruption investigations, which Mr. Karzai’s office disputed, has been largely corroborated in interviews with five Western officials familiar with the cases. They say Mr. Karzai and others in his government have repeatedly thwarted prosecutions against senior Afghan government figures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/world/asia/29afghan.html

What is the point of continuing with this disaster?