This summer, foreign troop deaths have exceeded those of U.S. forces in Iraq. 'We feel that things are going very, very well for us,' one Taliban fighter says.
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- A summer of heavy fighting during which Western military leaders had hoped to seize the initiative from Islamic militants has instead revealed an insurgency capable of employing complex new tactics and fighting across a broad swath of Afghanistan.
Over the last three months, insurgents have exacted the most punishing casualty tolls on Western forces since the Afghan war began nearly seven years ago. Numbers of foreign troops killed have exceeded U.S. military deaths in Iraq.
As Washington prepares to increase troop levels and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates paid a visit, militants have created a palpable sense of encirclement in Kabul with a series of small but highly symbolic attacks near the capital. They have reaped a propaganda bonanza from accidental killings of civilians by foreign forces and undercut reconstruction efforts by targeting aid workers.
Meanwhile, the vast narcotics empire presided over by the Taliban has continued to flourish, its profits helping to ensure a flow of cash and weaponry. "In all, we feel that things are going very, very well for us," said a Taliban field commander in Kandahar province whose men fought hit-and-run battles with Canadian and British forces during the summer, the season when fighting is most intense. "And what is more, time is on our side."
insurgency capable of employing complex new tactics
punishing casualty tolls on Western forces
a palpable sense of encirclement in Kabul
reaped a propaganda bonanza from gullible and or dishonest and/or approving Western media accidental killings of civilians by Coalition foreign forces
demonstrated new strength, sophistication and ambition
defied expectations
jarring setbacks
orchestrated a spectacular prison break here that set hundreds of insurgents free , who were tracked into the hills by unmanned drones and, possibly coincidentally, have never been heard or seen since
Oh, and by the way: hundreds of insurgents [and d]ozens of veteran mid-level commanders have been arrested or killed
#2
All the propaganda you can use from the LA Times. I think I would have any of these reporters covered so tight we would know when they fahrt, let alone contact the Taliban for stories. I would like to think anyone they were to contact would have a very short "shelf life" thereafter (unless they were contributing GREAT intel).
#3
Numbers of foreign troops killed have exceeded U.S. military deaths in Iraq.
Absolutely brilliant - this sentence needs an award. Instead of "Iraq casualties plummeting" it's "Afghan casualties rising, everybody panic!" And journalists wonder why nobody trusts them. I bet if you confronted the writer of this sentence, he'd deny until his dying breath that it was biased - and in his own little world, he'd be right.
#5
The problem is that the enemy are able to attack from safe havens - either in Pakistan or among civilians - and counterattacks routinely generate damaging negative public relations (any recent corpse in the area is called an innocent civilian casualty).
#6
In June, the Taliban orchestrated a spectacular prison break here that set hundreds of insurgents free.
Knock 'em out and install a GPS device in their remaining tooth. When they are sprung, the network rollup begins.
#7
Well it does seem clear that the tempo of attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan is increasing, in some areas significantly. We don't have enough assets in the country right now and some of our allies are going wobbly (wotta suprise). Karzai's government is either toothless or corrupt (most likely both and in the narco trade up to their eyeballs). Our supply lines run through enemy territory, which, coincidentally provide a safe haven for our enemies. Things are not trending to the positive at present.
I am pessimistic on Afghanistan. I don't see how we are going to take the tribal savages accurately shown in the photo into the modern world. Cripes, I don't care about taking them there. I just want to make it clear, using a mighty big stick, that if trouble comes our way from this area, we are going to flatten it without remorse using technology, not our guys on the ground.
MOST of what we are presented with are pure leftist wishes ie. shit sandwiches, That are slopped up into the shape of pretend newspaper articles and served up as real...
Cheer UPPPP! :)
~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/18/2008 21:00 Comments ||
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(AKI) -- Iran's Revolutionary Guards have been arming Taliban groups in western Afghanistan for the past year, an independent journalist has told Adnkronos International (AKI).
"The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have regularly been supplying arms to Taliban groups operating in the province of Herat," the journalist, A.B., told AKI from Zahedan, the capital of Beluchistan province in southeastern Iran. "The Revolutionary Guards actually sell the weapons to the Taliban, who apparently pay for them in drugs, not cash," A.B. added.
"Besides sub-machine guns that can also fire grenades, the Afghan rebels are also interested in anti-tank mines manufactured in Iran," he said.
Iranian officials deny these claims, which have previously been made by the Afghan government and by ISAF, the NATO-led security and development mission in Afghanistan.
"Lies! All lies!"
But a Taliban commander confirmed in a recent interview with BBC that Afghan rebel forces have received Iranian arms. "We are especially interested in Iranian Egdeha mines, which can destroy military tanks," the commander told BBC.
An unnamed British military source confirmed that "a limited quantity" of Iranian arms have been sold to the Taliban. There was no evidence that the Iranian government has approved such sales, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"But that is imposssible Hitler is far right and Stalin is far left."
"But that is impossible Saddam is secular and bin Laden an islamist"
"But that is impossible Taliban are sunni and Iranian Mullahs shiah"
(AKI) - Egyptian police arrested 31 members of the banned Sunni Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday. Most of those arrested were university students from Cairo's al-Azhar University. Nineteen of the men were arrested in the Nile Delta area in northern Egypt, a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed by the Egyptian government, which accuses the group of encouraging violence in order to establish an Islamic state. The students were accused of belonging to an illegal organisation and of being in possession of literature deemed illegal.
The organisation is considered the most powerful opposition group in Egypt even though it has been banned since 1954. In some cases, its members have won parliamentary seats as independents in recent elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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The United States said Wednesday that a vicious attack on its embassy in the Yemeni capital earlier in the day was a failed attempt to breach the compound's walls.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that the embassy's security upgrades, combined with the response of security officials, were effective in stopping attackers armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and at least one suicide car bomb.
Officials say sixteen people were killed, including six assailants. McCormack said that no Americans were hurt, but that a U.S. embassy guard from Yemen was killed, along with several Yemeni security officials and some terrorists.
The assault bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack, he said. A group calling itself Islamic Jihad in Yemen claimed responsibility for the bombing, which it said was a suicide attack. The group threatened attacks on embassies of other nations, including those of Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
It had threatened in a previous statement Tuesday to launch a series of attacks unless the Yemeni government met its demands for the release of several of its members from jail. "We, the organization of Islamic Jihad in Yemen declare our responsibility for the suicide attack on the American embassy in Sanaa," the statement read. "We will carry out the rest of the series of attacks on the other embassies that were declared previously, until our demands are met by the Yemeni government."
TV news networks Al-Jazeera of Qatar and Al-Arabiya of Saudi Arabia reported a car bomb explosion outside the embassy and an exchange of gunfire between guards and unidentified assailants. A second car carrying gunmen in police uniforms arrived at the scene soon after the car bomb exploded, they said, adding that the gunmen had immediately begun firing at the embassy's guards.
A fire also broke out in one of the embassy's buildings, the two stations reported.
A medical official said at least seven Yemeni nationals were wounded and taken to the city's Republican hospital. They are residents of a housing compound near the embassy and included children, he said. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said ambulance cars were rushing to the area and that hundreds of heavily armed security forces were deployed around the embassy. Police kept reporters well away from the immediate vicinity of the embassy, he said.
The embassy has repeatedly been the target of attacks. In March, three mortar rounds targeting the American mission crashed into a high school for girls next door, killing a Yemeni security guard and wounding more than a dozen girls.
In 2006, a gunman opened fire outside the embassy but was shot and arrested by Yemeni guards. The gunman, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, claimed he wanted to kill Americans.
In March 2003, two people were fatally shot and dozens more were injured when police clashed with demonstrators trying to storm the embassy when tens of thousands rallied against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Almost exactly one year earlier, a Yemeni man lobbed a sound grenade into the embassy grounds a day after Vice President Dick Cheney made a stop for talks with officials at Sanaa airport. The attacker, who allegedly sought to retaliate against what he called American bias toward Israel, was sentenced to 10 years in prison but the sentence was later reduced to seven years.
Al-Qaida has an active presence in Yemen despite government efforts to destroy it. The group was blamed for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden that killed 17 American sailors and an attack on a French oil tanker that killed one person two years later.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
One report says an American citizen was killed: "Family members say a Lackawanna newlywed and her husband were among victims of Wednesday's attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital.
Susan Elbaneh, an 18-year-old senior at Lackawanna High School near Buffalo, had gone to Yemen to get married last month and the couple were planning on returning to New York to live, her brother Ahmed Elbaneh said...Susan Elbaneh was related to a seventh alleged member of the ["Lackawanna Six"], Jaber Elbaneh, who faces U.S. charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Relatives, however, stressed that has nothing to do with Susan, an innocent victim. They said neither she nor they have had any contact with Jaber Elbaneh, who was convicted in Yemen for planning attacks on oil installations and is in Yemeni custody.
A product of two cultures, Susan Elbaneh was born and raised in western New York, attended public schools with American friends and was planning a nursing career following her Aug. 25 arranged marriage.
Ahmed Elbaneh said his younger sister was not concerned about terrorism or violence before traveling to Yemen." Unfortunately, it appears she should have been very concerned about terrorism back in the Old Country.
British Muslims need to overcome their "victim mentality" and focus more on improving their lives than protesting about issues like Iraq, a Muslim lawmaker and junior government member said Wednesday.
Sadiq Khan, one of four Muslim members of parliament, said Muslims need to do more to integrate into British society, for example by learning English, denouncing sexism, and condemning forced marriages. "We need to take responsibility for our own lives," he said in a booklet for the Fabian Society, a leading left-of-centre think-tank, adding: "Muslims need to recognize childcare is as important as Kashmir."
"We need to take more responsibility for our own families, ignore those who propagate conspiracy theories, and above all we need to leave behind our victim mentality," he said.
Mohammed Shafiq, head of Muslim youth organization the Ramadhan Foundation, said Khan was out of touch with ordinary Muslims. "To suggest we are obsessed with foreign policy, when Muslims are being killed around the world, when over a million people have been killed in Iraq ... that's an obsession I'm proud of.
"I think any Muslim would be proud of it too," he added, saying: "It's time for the government and ministers like Mr. Khan to really address the real failure of 10 years of missed opportunity."
Khan, a lawmaker representing the south London constituency of Tooting and an assistant government whip -- a junior member of the government -- said Muslims should not let concern over British foreign policy deter them from seeking to improve their everyday lives. "I challenge British Muslims to accept that, as strongly as they feel about Iraq or counter-terrorism measures, poverty and inequality... do most damage to life chances and prevent potential being fulfilled," he said.
And he added: "Even if your passion is foreign policy, your ability to help people thousands of miles away is made much greater if you are an active citizen and player at home in the UK."
In the 80-page booklet, Khan said all mosques in Britain should consider letting women in, urged Muslims who do not speak English to learn it, and called on them to condemn forced marriages and honor killings. "We must all agree that honor killings are murder and forced marriages are kidnapping. These traditions have no place here or anywhere," he said in the booklet, entitled "Fairness, Not Favours."
He added: "The requirement to learn English is not colonial. English is a passport to participation in mainstream society -- jobs, education and even being able to use health services."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I wish more Muslims would think and talk along the same lines!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
09/18/2008 7:30 Comments ||
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#2
I would be just as happy for them to continue speaking whatever language they like so long as they do it somewhere else.
#3
This guy has figured it out, unfortunately I think he's one in a thousand.
Posted by: Titus Jeanter4551 ||
09/18/2008 8:31 Comments ||
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#4
Muslims are much like the typical defeated, mean people. They bow and grovel to everyone they think better than themselves, but they take it out on the weak and helpless, by forcing them to bow and grovel to the Muslim.
They are stuck in the paradigm. When no longer oppressed themselves, all their energies are turned to oppressing others. The end result is the crude, dog-like behavior: "if you can't eat it or fornicate with it, then piss on it to deny it to others."
#5
The Fabian Society? I'd no idea those idealistic socialists were still around. The playwright, pamphleteer, and critic George Bernard Shaw was a member back in the early part of the last century.
#7
"UK Muslims suffer from 'victim mentality': MP"
Was asserting that the Muslims are victims of this victimhood in the article title meant to be ironic on the part of the author? Somehow, I don't think so.
#4
Yeah, just too bad about their stock market isn't it. Yep, nobody rushing to help them out. Gosh, wonder why??? I thought they were all capitalists now and a chummy member of the world community. Have they done something recently to indicate otherwise??? Hmmmmmm, lemme think...
#5
hey "remote": we ARE capitalists now. Parts of RTS already began trading again. RTS will begin trading tomorrow. And no, we don't need anybody's "help," that's not how it works, you idiot.
The U.S. State Department declined on Tuesday to confirm the report that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted missile engine test several months ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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TOPIX > NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR: POST-KIM NORTH KOREAN MILITARY TAKEOVER IS UNLIKELY.
CHINA'S GOVT has long contnually managed/mentored KIM JONG NAM, KIM JONG-IL's "HEIR APPARENT"???
The chief participants in this debate—all Iraq War veterans—fixate on two large questions. First, why, after its promising start, did Operation Iraqi Freedom go so badly wrong? Second, how should the hard-earned lessons of Iraq inform future policy? Hovering in the background of this Iraq-centered debate is another war that none of the debaters experienced personally—namely, Vietnam.
The protagonists fall into two camps: Crusaders and Conservatives.
The Crusaders consist of officers who see the Army’s problems in Iraq as self-inflicted. According to members of this camp, things went awry because rigidly conventional senior commanders, determined “never again” to see the Army sucked into a Vietnam-like quagmire, had largely ignored unconventional warfare and were therefore prepared poorly for it. Typical of this generation is Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, once the top U.S. commander in Baghdad, who in late 2003 was still describing the brewing insurgency as “strategically and operationally insignificant,” when the lowliest buck sergeant knew otherwise.
Younger officers critical of Sanchez are also committed to the slogan “Never again,” but with a different twist: never again should the officer corps fall prey to the willful amnesia to which the Army succumbed after Vietnam, when it turned its back on that war.
To Nagl, the lessons of the recent past are self-evident. The events of 9/11, he writes, “conclusively demonstrated that instability anywhere can be a real threat to the American people here at home.” For the foreseeable future, political conditions abroad rather than specific military threats will pose the greatest danger to the United States.
War in this context implies not only coercion but also social engineering. As Nagl puts it, the security challenges of the 21st century will require the U.S. military “not just to dominate land operations, but to change entire societies.”
NaglÂ’s line of argument has not gone unchallenged. Its opponents, the Conservatives, reject the revisionist interpretation of Vietnam and dispute the freshly enshrined conventional narrative on Iraq. Above all, they question whether Iraq represents a harbinger of things to come.
A leading voice in the Conservative camp is Colonel Gian Gentile, a Berkeley graduate with a doctorate in history from Stanford, who currently teaches at West Point. Gentile has two tours in Iraq under his belt. During the second, just before the PetraeÂus era, he commanded a battalion in Baghdad.
Writing in the journal World Affairs, Gentile dismisses as “a self-serving fiction” the notion that Abrams in 1968 put the United States on the road to victory in Vietnam; the war, he says, was unwinnable, given the “perseverance, cohesion, indigenous support, and sheer determination of the other side, coupled with the absence of any of those things on the American side.” Furthermore, according to Gentile, the post-Vietnam officer corps did not turn its back on that war in a fit of pique; it correctly assessed that the mechanized formations of the Warsaw Pact deserved greater attention than pajama-clad guerrillas in Southeast Asia.
Gentile also takes issue with the triumphal depiction of the PetraeÂus era, attributing security improvements achieved during PetraeÂusÂ’s tenure less to new techniques than to a “cash-for-cooperation” policy that put “nearly 100,000 Sunnis, many of them former insurgents, Â… on the U.S. government payroll.” According to Gentile, in Iraq as in Vietnam, tactics alone cannot explain the overall course of events.
All of this forms a backdrop to Gentile’s core concern: that an infatuation with stability operations will lead the Army to reinvent itself as “a constabulary,” adept perhaps at nation-building but shorn of adequate capacity for conventional war-fighting.
The biggest question of all, Gentile writes, is “Who gets to decide this?” Absent a comparably searching Great Debate among the civilians vying to direct U.S. policy—and the prospects that either Senator McCain or Senator Obama will advocate alternatives to the Long War appear slight—the power of decision may well devolve by default upon soldiers. Gentile insists—rightly—that the choice should not be the Army’s to make.
Both sides have good arguments and neither is exclusively right. But the problem is how to divide limited resources. The big loser, it seems to me, is the USMC which could have carved out a niche much as it did with amphibious operations before WWII. There's lots more at the link.
#1
The big loser, it seems to me, is the USMC which could have carved out a niche much as it did with amphibious operations before WWII.
To discuss this aspect would likely take up most of Rantburg. But some reasons for not being able to carve a niche is a) the emphasis on joint operations, 2)a serious blurring of interservice missions/interoperability (particularly SPECOPS), 3) the 'heavy-ing' of the USMC.
#2
...the (Viet Nam) war, he says, was unwinnable, given the "perseverance, cohesion, indigenous support, and sheer determination of the other side, coupled with the absence of any of those things on the American side.
Bull feathers. When we went to the Paris Peace Talks the NV diplomats started arguing about the shape of the table, etc and wouldn't talk about anything of substance. So we fired up the USAF and commenced to turn Hanoi into a field of smoking craters. The NV diplos rushed back to the table and started talking peace loud and clear.
My point? While we were not permitted to invade N. Viet Nam, We had other options to make Viet Nam winnable.
#3
Being an artillery troop (Fire Direction Control) in the late '70s I can testify how quickly the skills for a competent artillery unit can vanish, with deadly consequence. The same is true for all conventional forces.
Like the close air support we so appreciate requires first that air supremacy be obtained so too is the ability to control the battlefield required before the techniques of the "long war" can be applied.
As in a proper diet, a little of everything is required. Don't fight the last war, including this one. Try to be flexible enough to fight the NEXT one, whatever it may be.
#4
It seems to me that this is mostly a training question. The low-tech, social engineering phase of a war can only come after a certain level of stability has been achieved. That stability can only come when the enemy has been degraded significantly. The degradation comes about through the use of traditional force application (both tools and techniques).
That said, do we gear-up for a war with China or do we gear-up for a prolonged Afghan-type operation. I guess this is a "how heavy" question. But I don't see a prolonged conflict with China on the horizon.
#5
Do not look at the direct situation. Usually when these guys are rabble rousing, they are planning something else completely. When the big boys there get together, they usually want to discuss business. Not so much borders. Chess.
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Pakistan's ongoing support for America's fight against terrorism has dissolved ideological differences among Islamic militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan and they have united in a dangerous new militia war.
Under President Pervez Musharraf, a former general, the country's military leadership had incongruous dealings with different players and lines between friends and foes were often blurred.
Those who supported a strict enforcement of Islamic law, like Afghan Taliban leaders Mullah Fazlullah and Baitullah Mehsud were called flagrant ideologues, while indigenous zealots like Haji Nazeer or Jalaluddin Haqqani were seen as good sons of the soil.
But the victory of secular democratic forces in Pakistan in February this year and the success of General David Patraeus' strategy against Al-Qaeda in Iraq marked the end of Musharraf's covert regional strategic agendas.
Now there are fresh battles ahead as NATO and Pakistani security forces have a single regional strategic agenda, while all Taliban groups and Al-Qaeda stand united under one policy of regional war.
In a recent controversial US drone attack, several missiles were fired at an Islamic madrassa (seminary) and the house of powerful Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani in Dandi Darpa Khail in the North Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border.
Jalaluddin, spiritual leader of the Haqqani network and a legendary figure in the Afghan mujahadeen, and his son, Sirajuddin, operational head of the most powerful component of the present Afghan resistance, were not there.
Most of those killed were women and children from the families of the Haqqanis and the attack provoked a fierce reaction in Pakistan.
In the last week in August, fighters loyal to commander Haji Nazeer attacked Pakistani security forces in South Waziristan. Haji Nazeer operates the biggest Taliban network in the neighboring Afghan province of Paktika.
This is the same good old friend of the Pakistani establishment who conducted the massacre of Uzbeks in January 2007 at the instigation of Pakistani security forces.
Haji Nazeer along with Hafiz Gulbadur, another Wazir from North Waziristan, recently tried to join forces with slain tribal chief Haji Namdar in Khyber Agency, to challenge the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Taliban's network.
Early September saw three strikes, two on South Waziristan and one on North Waziristan, Haji Nazeer's area of command.
"The recent drone attacks in South Waziristan specifically aimed at Haji Nazeer's areas changed the mindset of Haji Nazeer," a Pakstani Al-Qaeda militant told Adnkronos International (AKI) on condition of anonymity.
"The shura (consultation) discussed the issue and concluded that those attacks were not possible without Pakistan's help and therefore it was decided to warn the security forces to leave South Waziristan or face the music."
According to senior American officials, US President George W. Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government.
There have been at least five attacks inside Pakistan either by US drones or by US special forces in September and this clearly indicates that the US has already opened up a war theatre in Pakistan.
The assassination of Haji Namdar, a loyalist of Mullah Omar and the Pakistani security forces, has also increased the Taliban's activities under the Ustad Yasir in the Khyber Agency.
There are now fears that the militia war could lead the country into deeper chaos like that seen during the Lebanese Civil War, several African countries and in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
We didn't train them or support them for 30 years, so play nice with your friends boys!
Posted by: Titus Jeanter4551 ||
09/18/2008 8:26 Comments ||
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(AKI/DAWN) - Britain's Justice Secretary Jack Straw has stressed the need for respecting Pakistan's territorial sovereignty and said that foreign incursions would be counter-productive.
After a meeting with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani in Islamabad on Tuesday, Straw also said Pakistan had made many sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. He expressed the hope that Pakistan would continue to allow NATO supply convoys through its territory on their way to Afghanistan.
Straw spoke about territorial sovereignty after several controversial incursions by US forces in recent weeks and the news that US President George W. Bush personally endorsed the attacks from Afghanistan.
Gillani called for an immediate end to violation of Pakistan's territory by the US and NATO forces and vowed that the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be protected at all costs. He said Pakistani armed forces were capable of handling any eventuality.
Reiterating his government's resolve to combat terrorism, Gillani urged the international community to remove the root causes of terrorism -- socio-economic disparity and unresolved political disputes. Reiterating his government's multi-pronged strategy, he criticised the previous government's policies.
The prime minister expressed Pakistan's desire to maintain friendly relations with all its neighbours and said that a stable and prosperous Afghanistan was in the country's interest.
The prime minister briefed Straw on the issue of reinstatement of the deposed judges and vowed to work towards an independent judiciary.
In a meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Straw acknowledged Pakistan's contributions in efforts to promote stability in Afghanistan and peace in the region. He also praised Pakistan's support for Afghan refugees. The two sides reviewed bilateral relations, discussed the situation in Afghanistan and counter-terrorism strategy.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#3
Britain's Justice Secretary Jack Straw has stressed the need for respecting Pakistan's territorial sovereignty and said that foreign incursions would be counter-productive.
Washington will work with Islamabad to address the problem of Taliban safe havens in the Tribal Areas, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters at the Bagram Air Base, Gates said he was encouraged by recent Pakistani military operations against the Taliban. Gates voiced "sincere condolences ... over the recent loss of innocent lives in coalition airstrikes", and announced a joint probe with Afghanistan into civilian deaths in a recent airstrike.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
'US to work with Pakistan against Taliban sanctuaries'
Whether Pakistan wants to or not.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/18/2008 17:57 Comments ||
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(PTI) Amid a raging row with Pakistan over incursions into its territory, the US today vowed to respect Islamabad's sovereignty, seeking to ease the tension that has brought their troops in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation along the porous Afghan border. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, who arrived here on an unannounced visit, handed out the assurance during meetings with his Pakistani counterpart General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, a US embassy statement said. "The conversations were extremely frank, positive, and constructive," it said. That mans we started sentences with "Looky here, Bub!"
The US military chief, on his fifth trip to the country since October, met top commanders a day after Pakistan army said its forces have been given orders to fire on US troops if they launch cross-borders attacks on militants inside Pakistan.
The embassy said Mullen resolved "to develop further US-Pakistani cooperation and coordination on these critical issues that challenge the security and well-being of the people of both the countries." "The Pakistani leaders reviewed the progress of Pakistan's efforts to combat militancy, violence, and terrorism," it said.
Mullen appreciated the positive role that Pakistan is playing in the war on terror and pledged continued US support to Islamabad, the statement said.
The visit assumed significance in the wake of Pakistani forces and US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan coming to almost confrontation on the mountainous Pak-Afghan border, where Washington suspects elusive al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were hiding.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Diplomacy often means saying "Nice Doggie!" while reaching for a rock.
A Marine sergeant singled out by President Bush for throwing his body on a grenade to save his comrades in Iraq will receive the prestigious Navy Cross rather than the nation's highest military award, military officials said.
The family of Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who was posthumously nominated for the nation's highest military honor, told the North County Times of Escondido, Calif., they were disappointed he was not receiving the Medal of Honor. "I don't understand why if the president has been talking about him," his mother, Rosa Peralta, told the newspaper, which was the first to report the bestowing of the Navy Cross.
Rosa Peralta said she was informed during a meeting with Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski that a committee could not agree on awarding the Medal of Honor to her son, who Marine Corps officials say was first wounded by friendly fire. She said the general mentioned the friendly fire aspect as part of her son's death during the discussion.
Marine Corps spokesman Mike Alvarez confirmed the meeting, saying only that it was a personal briefing between Natonski and Rosa Peralta to inform her that the secretary of the Navy would award the Navy Cross posthumously for extraordinary heroism. The Navy Cross is the second highest honor for combat heroism a Marine can receive.
The secretary of the Navy's public affairs office in Washington, D.C., did not immediately return an after-hours telephone call Wednesday seeking comment.
Headquarters Marine Corps spokesman Maj. David Nevers told The Associated Press that the Navy Cross for Peralta "is not bestowed lightly." Nevers said only 23 sailors and Marines out of the thousands who have served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have received the Navy Cross. "The awarding of a medals of valor is a methodical process and carefully conducted to ensure the sacrifice and service of our Marines and sailors is appropriately honored," he said.
Peralta was shot several times in the face and body during a house-to-house search in Fallujah on Nov. 15, 2004, during some of the fiercest fighting of the war. According to a report by a Marine combat photographer who witnessed the act, Peralta lay wounded on the floor of a house and grabbed a grenade that had been lobbed by an insurgent. He absorbed the blast with his body, dying instantly.
In 2005, Natonski, then-commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, ordered an investigation to determine the source of a bullet fragment recovered from Peralta's body. "Following multiple and exhaustive reviews, the evidence supports the finding that Peralta was likely hit by 'friendly fire,'" the Marine Corps said Wednesday in a press release. "This finding had no bearing on the decision to award the Navy Cross medal."
Bush cited Peralta's heroism in a Memorial Day speech in 2005, saying the Marine "understood that America faces dangerous enemies, and he knew the sacrifices required to defeat them."
Peralta, who was assigned to Hawaii's 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, moved to San Diego from Tijuana as a teenager. He was 25.
#1
I am actually glad of this. While he deserves credit for his act of self sacrifice, there is realistically almost no reason to ever throw yourself on a hand grenade, and grenade instructors have long fought against Hollywood depictions of jumping on hand grenades.
Under most circumstances, it is just an act of suicide based on ignorance of how grenades function and explode.
#2
Disagree; but if the MoH disqualifier was the 'friendly fire' fragment, then i think somebody should rethink this; he could have 'retreated' to have his first wounds looked at, and who knows how many the full force of the grenade would have affected.
GWB, override this decision. Please.
#3
USN: it is a combination of probabilities and physics.
Grenades that land on the ground (disregarding airburst and burst as soon as they hit), have a probable time window for detonation of between one and three seconds.
Unless you are already prone and immediately roll on the grenade, it will take you at least a second to a second and a half to get down on top of it. However a stoop-grab-grounder toss can be done in less than a second. Advantage goes to tossing.
You can test this one yourself.
In the open, when a grenade on the ground explodes, the vast majority of the blast and frag go in an upward 90 degree cone. If you can get out of that cone, both blast and frag injuries are significantly lower.
Even a one-step-away-and down effort will give perhaps a ruptured ear drum and lesser frag injuries. Distances more than that are inverse square in severity, except for the "lucky frag" injuries in the maximum hazard area.
#4
It removes nothing from the Love this man had for his friends. It is impossible to do the two second thing from a turret all geared up. I stood there before. You assume the windows in the cab are open? It is not a pick and flick. It is a warn and dive or a go down on it decision.
In circumspect, Those who get that medal usually have a tinge more done.
#5
Just saw this article (posted @ 7:41 Seattle time): his Mother is going to Congress to try to get the MoH.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/379738_hero19.html
In recent days, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have reinforced the security details around their top leaders in Damascus out of fear that they will be targeted for assassination by Israel, according to Arab media reports. The reports say Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal and Islamic Jihad secretary general Ramadan Shallah have altered their security routines.
Last week, a U.S.-based Syrian opposition group said that Meshal's secretary was shot and killed in broad daylight in the city of Homs in Syria. According to an article that appeared on the website of the Reform Party of Syria on Monday, Meshal's secretary Hisham al-Labadani was dragged from his car and shot to death, in what the party says some are calling a message from the regime of Syrian President Basher Assad for Hamas to halt cooperation with Iran. The article says the shooting was kept under wraps by the Assad regime for 4 days, out of fears that if it came to light it would ignite tensions with the pro-Iranian camp inside Assad's regime.
According to the Reform Party of Syria, many Mideast observers believe that Iranian influence has become so entrenched in Syria that continued bloodshed should be expected as Assad's regime attempts to dislodge them from a position of influence.
The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported in early September that Meshal left Damascus to live in Sudan at Syria's request, in a move stemming from Syria's desire to advance indirect peace talks with Israel. The paper quoted Palestinian sources stating that the move was part of a secret deal between Meshal and the Syrian authorities. Meshal has been based in Damascus since his expulsion from Jordan some ten years ago. Hamas denied the report, saying "media reports that Hamas' politburo chief, Khaled Meshal, and other members will move to Sudan are false."
#1
Maybe if they released a kidnapped soldier, quit shooting rockets into Israel and quit sending mental cases on terror missions they wouldn't have anything to fear?
Former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon on Tuesday issued a harsh criticism of the Israel Air Force's operations during the Second Lebanon War, claiming it failed in its mission.
During statements he made Tuesday at a military and security conference at the Armored Corps Museum in Latrun Ya'alon said "There was an air agenda and a dictatorial way of thinking, and after this way failed, there were those who placed the blame on others," he said.
This is not the first time that Ya'alon has attacked the military leadership during the July 2006 war. "If they had determined the right objectives, the war could have been finished from the air within five days."
"An air agenda was part of the decision-making process," Ya'alon added. "The air force leadership thought that this was their opportunity to put on a show. After the war, they pushed their responsibility onto their inferiors."
The former chief of staff compared the government decision-making process prior to the war with the process that lead to operation 'Grapes of Wrath' in 1996 which attempted to end the shelling of northern Israel by Hezbollah, saying "Many discussions were held prior to the Grapes of Wrath operation whereas before the Second Lebanon war, there was a two and a half hour talk which did not define any military goals." "It was decided to carry out a retaliatory mission which wasn't even called a war."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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The armed wing of the Islamist Hamas group on Wednesday urged militants in the West Bank to use force if security men loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction try to arrest them.
Iz al-Din al-Qassam brigades, Hamas' armed wing, issued the call after it said Fatah security forces had detained two of its gunmen in the West Bank city of Hebron. "We call upon our people and the [fighters] to defend themselves by all available means against any attempt to arrest them by [Fatah security] services, which are now working as a unit of the Zionist army," the brigades said in a statement.
The statement could raise tensions in the West Bank, where Fatah - whose forces lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas fighters in June 2007 - holds sway and is engaged in a U.S.-backed security campaign.
In the West Bank, Palestinian police spokesman Adnan Damiri said: "These are irresponsible words and they know their actions fuel sedition and attack the legitimate authority."
Hamas said some 300 of its members had been detained by Fatah in the West Bank over the past year, and about half remained in custody. Fatah says Hamas has arrested several hundred of its men in the Gaza Strip since the takeover, and at least 150 are still in jail.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"you guys over there, you should fight to the death. We will have felafal in your honor over here"
(AKI/Jakarta Post) - The local government in Indonesia's Muslim-devout province of Aceh announced it is inviting former GAM separatist rebel leader Hasan Tiro to celebrate the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
"From our meeting with Deputy Governor Muhammad Nazar, we have agreed to invite Hasan Tiro to Aceh," said a legislative council member, Mukhlis Mukhtar.
Mukhtar said it would mean a lot for the people of Aceh to celebrate together with with local hero Hasan the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr - which marks the end of Ramadan. Hasan has lived in Stockholm, Sweden, for 25 years, from where he led the separatist GAM (Free Aceh) movement in exile.
GAM and the Indonesian government signed in August 2005 a landmark peace accord in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, which ended a 29-year conflict in which an estimated 15,000 people died.
Hasan has not yet returned to Indonesia.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It's interesting that Iran imports gasoline not because it doesn't have refining capability. It's that the refineries don't produce gasoline because the price doesn't even come close to the cost of production.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- A summer of heavy fighting during which Western military leaders had hoped to seize the initiative from Islamic militants has instead revealed an insurgency capable of employing complex new tactics and fighting across a broad swath of Afghanistan.
Chief Hamas aide assassinated in Syria last week?
