The Western-backed Karzai, who has shaky relations with Washington, had already condemned the deaths, but on Sunday addressed Petraeus directly at a cabinet meeting at which the US general was present.
"President Karzai said that David Petraeus's apology is not enough," a statement from the Afghan presidency said.
"The civilian casualties are a main cause of worsening the relationship between Afghanistan and the US," the statement quoted Karzai as saying. The main cause of bad Western-Afghan relations is something that happened in September of 2001 in North America.
"The people are tired of these things and apologies and condemnations are not healing any pain.
"On behalf of the people of Afghanistan I want you to stop the killings of civilians." Has Afghanistan ever apologized for 9/11?
Has Afghanistan ever shown gratitude for Western restraint, mercy and generosity towards Afghanistan after 9/11?
Has Afghanistan ever compensated the victims of 9/11 even symbolically?
About 500 people poured onto the streets of Kabul earlier on Sunday and chanted anti-American slogans over the deaths of the children.
Marching through central Kabul they shouted "Death to America -- Death to the invaders." A placard carried by a veiled woman read: "Occupation = killing + destruction." After 9/11 there were no demonstrations under the motto "Death to Afghanistan - Death to the aggressors", "Afghans = War Criminals" anywhere in the West.
[Tolo News] Afghanistan is in need of US permanent bases for security and peace, former Afghan Intelligence Chief has said at a joint presser.
Afghan experts said establishment of US permanent military bases would stop regional countries from interfering in Afghan affairs.
Establishment of US permanent bases in Afghanistan and withdrawal of foreign troops in July this year have turned into controversial issues, while officials in Washington and commanders in the field have denied that any decision has been made in this connection.
"Presence and establishment of US permanent bases in Afghanistan would be a warning to neighbours and they will come to know that they are no longer able to intervene in Afghan domestic affairs directly," Ahmad Zia Nikbeen, an Afghan political analyst, told TOLOnews.
At a joint presser, former Afghan interior minister with former Afghan spy chief highlighted that the government should not act sentimentally about establishment of permanent bases.
"Our nation needs a responsible politicianship, not political mania. We should decide responsibly about our interests," former Afghan interior minister Hanif Atmar said.
"Western countries could help us build economic fundamentals," said former spy Chief Amrullah Saleh.
But Mark Grossman, the newly appointed US Special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistain, says the United States has no intention to set up permanent military bases in Afghanistan.
Afghan citizens in Kabul hold different opinions about establsihment of US permanent bases.
"A forum should be formed to discuss whether it is beneficial or not," Karim Halimi, an Afghan student at Kabul University, said.
Another Afghan citizen, Ahmad Jawad, told TOLOnews, "I think formation of permanent bases would bring Afghan illusory sovereignty under question.
At a meeting with Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai, holy mans said establishment of such bases in the country wouldn't be beneficial to the country considering regional sensitivities.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
But Mark Grossman, the newly appointed US Special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistain, says the United States has no intention to set up permanent military bases in Afghanistan.
"No intention to set up permanent military bases"....or anything else of a permanent nature, at least until after the 2012 elections. The liberal base would never stand for it. Defense dollars must be transitioned into free gov't cheese and votes!
#2
Remember, the Palestinians have lived in temporary refugee camps since 1948. So temporary at this point can mean "over 63 years". I think we can work with that definition with regard to Afghanistan, should it become necessary.
#3
Spot on TW. Yes the "definition" of temporary is key. There is little that would indicate "temporary" about Kandahar Air Field (KAF) or Bagram Air Field (BAF). A beautiful, sunny and crisp Sunday morning here. I can see PAK off in the distance. Soldiers are cleaning weapons and chilling out.
#4
As long as we have enemies in the region Pakistan,Iran,Russia and China come to mind its good to keep them on their toes or be well behaved with the threat of bases in the region!
#5
The two important assets the US has in Afghanistan are Bagram AB, and the new, $100m intel center at Masar-i-Sharif, in the North.
Apparently our only other goals are keeping what's-his-name in power in Kabul, more or less, and regularly killing enough Taliban so they don't make a problem. This includes drone-zaps in Pak.
Without the backing of a conventional army, it won't turn into another Vietnam, but maybe we can squeeze a couple of decades of use out of it, before discarding it like so much greasy tissue paper.
#6
Jose's axiom to Murphy's Law: nothing is more permanent than that which is called temporary.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2011 8:46 Comments ||
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#7
So temporary at this point can mean "over 63 years".
Heck, we were working in and living in 'temporary' buildings constructed during WWII in the 80s. One thing that happened in the Reagan administration was the ripping down of a lot of that old wood, though there is still some of it around and being utilized.
#8
Bases that can be supplied are much more of a threat than those that can be turned into a Dien Bien Phu. We need to turn A-stan into a client by having sea bases in a neighbor from which we can threaten to return in force. I would like to use the port of Karachi in an Indian protectorate. The problem with A-stan is there are no good ports. Make that no ports. And that's the problem. It's like trying to dominate the US from bases in West Virginia.
#11
Best advice: "Avoid flying, blunt, and sharp objects. Consume nothing that is poisonous. Wear a hat. Exothermic reactions are best enjoyed in moderation. Save the last bullet for the other guy. It is better to land safely than to fly. And finally, she may look clean, but see 'hat', above."
[Asharq al-Aswat] Egypt's once feared former interior minister Habib al-Adly pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to corruption charges on Saturday, in the first trial of a member of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Standing in the dock and dressed in white prison clothes, Adly denied accusations of money laundering and unlawful acquisition of public money.
"It didn't happen," he said twice, in a calm tone.
Judge Al-Mohammadi Qunsua swiftly adjourned the hearing to April 2, after a heated exchange between the defence team and civil society lawyers attending the trial.
Defence lawyer Mohammed Yussef Manaa had asked for more time to study the documents of the case, and refused to comment after the trial.
Qunsua said Adly had used his position as a public servant to sell land to a contractor doing work for the interior ministry, in a deal worth 4.8 million Egyptian pounds (around $813,000).
He also accused Adly of implication in money laundering to the tune of 4.5 million Egyptian pounds (around $762,000).
Ibrahim Bassiuni, a civil society lawyer volunteering for the prosecution, called on Qunsua to allow television cameras into the courtroom because he said: "it is the public's right to see this murderer standing in the dock."
He also said money recovered from Adly's alleged illegal deals "should be handed to the martyrs of the revolution."
Cairo's criminal court in the Tagammu Khames suburb was surrounded by heavy security and army tanks were positioned at the entrance ahead of the high profile trial.
Dozens of people had gathered outside the court complex to demand the death penalty for Adly.
"The people want the execution of the murderer," a group chanted, as others held banners depicting Adly with a noose around his neck.
Adly was nabbed last month as part of a sweeping corruption investigation by the new authorities, along with several former ministers and senior members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
Mubarak, 82, resigned on February 11, handing power to a military council that pledged to pave the way for a free democratic system and bring to justice those found guilty of abuses.
Nationwide riots, that erupted on January 25 and led to Mubarak's ouster, saw bloody festivities between protesters and Adly's security forces.
The protests left at least 384 people dead and over 6,000 injured, while scores were jugged.
A few days into the protests, police disappeared from the streets, sparking accusations that Adly had deliberately sought to sow disorder.
Adly is also being investigated for ordering the shooting of protesters and creating a security vacuum.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] As Algeria evacuates its citizens from strife-torn Libya, the government forcefully responded to accusations that the country was aiding Libyan leader Moamer Qadaffy. ... Custodian of Wheelus AFB for long 42 years ...
"No Algerian aircraft has ever entered the Libyan airports except for those that were sent by the authorities to extract the Algerian residents in Tripoli and Benghazi," Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kabila said in a February 28th statement.
Ould Kabila blasted reports that Algerian jets were used to transport mercenaries to Libya, saying they were "a plot against Algeria". He added, "Those who claim to have evidence that proves the involvement of Algeria and intend to spread these false allegations, all they have to do is show this evidence."
"I think that the rebuttals of the Algerian authorities have reached the Libyan people, who announced once again their respect for the Algerian authorities and people for their choice and will for change, and I do not think that there is anyone who stands with the authorities against the will of people," the minister said.
Air Algerie also denied using its aircraft to transport African mercenaries to help Colonel Qadaffy. In a press statement to Echourouk, the director of human resources at the company, Othmane Adjrid, firmly disavowed the allegations, saying there was no truth in them whatsoever.
Adjrid said the incorrect satellite television information came from the return of old aircraft that Air Algerie had previously leased from Libya in 1986. He said the planes were returned because they were broken and no longer airworthy.
Algerians flee Libya chaos Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the unrest in Libya has triggered a wave of repatriation of foreign nationals. At least 3,780 Algerians have returned home since February 20th; the vast majority aboard Air Algerie flights. The remainder entered southern Algeria at the Debdeb border crossing, 450km north-east of Illizi.
Assistance was provided to 1,400 people at the border crossing by elements from the Algerian army, gendarmerie, Civil Protection Force, Algerian Red Islamic Thingy and the medical service of Sonatrach.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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BORDEAUX, France - French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Saturday his country was working with Britain to get a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose a no-fly zone in Libya.
"We are working in New York with the British to get a UN Security Council resolution creating an air exclusion zone to avoid bombings," he said in Bordeaux.
You don't need the UN. Honestly. You've trapped yourselves into thinking you do, but you don't. Tell the UN to push off and you'll see that nothing bad happens to you in response. These are the guys who put Libya on the Human Rights Commission, fergawdsake, it's not like they're going to punish you.
"We are watching very carefully" the situation in Libya and "this morning I spoke by telephone with minister Younes" Abdel Fatah, Libya's former interior minister until he resigned who is now in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
"We are on the side of all those who want to win their freedom and make a successful democratic transition," Juppe said shortly before leaving for Egypt and his first official visit outside Europe since being appointed.
On Sunday he was due to meet in Cairo the secretary general of the Arab League Amr Moussa.
Oh that'll be a great help. You'll get a carefully-worded statement of vagueness from the Arab League.
On Thursday, Juppe and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said they were preparing measures to propose to the European Union summit on Libya set for next Friday, specifically mentioning a possible no-fly zone.
The uprisings in the Arab world have proved testing for France. Its diplomats have been accused of having failed to see them coming and ministers of having had links with despotic and corrupt leaders.
Since he replaced Michele Alliot-Marie as foreign minister on Tuesday Juppe has made "refounding" President Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for the Mediterranean a priority. This has been made essential by the upheavals in progress and the departure of Egyptian former president Hosni Moubarak, Sarkozy's chief partner in the scheme.
President Sarkozy: if you want to implement a no-fly zone, as opposed to just talk about it, you'll need to get the Charles De Gaulle out to sea real soon. Use a task force centered on her to set up coverage over Benghazi as a start. Then negotiate with the new rebel government to put a small contingent of aircraft with a support and protection package into the airport there. That secures Benghazi and demonstrates to the world which side you're on.
Then you and the Italians (you DO have the Italians in on this, don't you?) need to convince Malta to let you put a squadron of attack aircraft in there. Bring tanker support in from Sicily. You'll need intel aircraft as well to identify potential anti-air units still loyal to Qadaffy, and you'll then need to eliminate them as a threat. If you can do that through subterfuge and propaganda so the much better. But you need to convince them that they shouldn't be the last men to die for Glorious Batshit-Crazy Leader.
Now then: perhaps the Italians could bring in the Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Cavour, both excellent small carriers, to the western coast of Libya. Between them and the aircraft you base in Malta, along with tanker and intel support, you suppress air units still loyal to Qadaffy there. The Benghazi strike group and the De Gaulle keep Libyan air units out of the east.
The idea here is to limit the mission strictly to enforcing a no-fly zone by Qadaffy-loyal air units. Don't allow mission creep to take hold. You're not going to bomb armor units, etc., and you'll take out only those anti-air assets that threaten your aircraft. That's quite enough -- ask the US Air Force and Navy about enforcing the NFZ over Iraq a decade ago.
I realize I'm no military expert. Listen to yours, but make it clear that if it CAN be done, then it WILL be done. This is going to be damned hard, but if you and the Italians (you don't need the Brits or the Spanish) can pull this off, the Libyan people will thank you. Maybe. But they will sell you oil.
You may thank me later.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Saturday his country was working with Britain to get a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose a no-fly zone in Libya.
What's the appropriate French word for 'cowboy'*?
Don't let us stop you. Go right ahead. Let us know how it all comes out.
Going to the UN is only cover to not do something, see Ivory Coast. After Sarkozy's MU lead, I would love to see France Gallic the f@k up. Expel any members who disagree with the stability and prosperity of the Mediterranean. May lose some members, but the ones who stick around will have proven their good intentions and the concept of a MU will be stronger.
*not necessarily suggesting the MU or no-fly is a good idea, honestly quite mixed about both, but every time a head of state publically suggests a NFZ and fails significant action they look very week. With the US taking a decisively ambiguous and el prez dusting off the ol golf clubs already it becomes a EU problem. I have a feeling that there would be great political point dividends for France, if France pulls this off. I'd also get a kick out of a thumb to the UN for a more local idea and quite honestly if North Africa decides to flee from its own harvest are they going to catch a boat north or catch a truck south?
[Asharq al-Aswat] Osama bin Laden's deputy is urging fellow Egyptians to establish Islamic rule over the country after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, who sought to curb Islamists throughout his nearly 30 years in power.
Al-Qaida's Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Second in command of al-Qaeda, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... made the appeal in an Internet audio message released Friday, his second recording since Mubarak was forced out on Feb. 11. It is unlikely his call for an Islamic state will resonate among the overwhelming majority of those who took part in the 18-day popular uprising and seek a democratic system to replace Mubarak's autocratic rule.
"The Egyptian people's demand to establish Islamic rule is one of the most prominent Egyptian realities, a demand by the vast majority which foreign powers try to deprive them of," al-Zawahri insisted.
Before becoming deputy al-Qaida leader, the Egyptian al-Zawahri headed Al-Jihad, an extremist group that fought Mubarak's regime in the 1990s with a wave of bombings and other attacks that also targeted foreign tourists.
The protesters who eventually toppled Mubarak's regime included people from all walks of life, including secular activists and -- in smaller numbers -- Islamists, particularly from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest political opposition movement. While the Brotherhood advocates the creation of a purist Islamic state in Egypt, it seems unlikely it would have enough support to dominate in a free election and push through such a goal.
Though some in al-Qaida have Brotherhood roots, the terror group and other jihadists despise the movement for participating in elections.
Instead al-Zawahri appealed to the Muslim scholars of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's pre-eminent institution of learning, to "rise up and lead the nation's struggle to build the Islamic sharia (law)."
It was a turnaround for the al-Qaida No. 2, who has often ridiculed the Cairo-based institution for following the dictates of the Egyptian government. Al-Azhar has also made efforts to combat extremism and promote moderate views and has always had close links with the government, which appoints it chief.
In Friday's recording al-Zawahri called Al-Azhar's scholars the "lions of the nation."
He accused the U.S. of seeking to spoil the uprising by installing a puppet regime in Egypt and in Tunisia, where protesters also overthrew a longtime autocratic leader.
"America has kept silent for 30 years about the corruption and thefts of Mubarak and his family and did not move to speak about the transfer of power in Egypt until after the security apparatus failed to quell the Egyptian uprising," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The investigation agency for International Crimes Tribunal has found former Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Ghulam Azam's involvement in genocides, rapes and tortures on the people of Rajshahi during the Liberation War in 1971.
The crimes against humanity proliferated in Rajshahi after Ghulam Azam gave provocative speeches abusing religion, said Sherlocks Additional Superintendent of Police (SP) Motiur Rahman and Inspector Shyamol Chowdury.
The two Sherlocks are visiting the north-western city probing war crime charges against Ghulam Azam.
Talking exclusively to The Daily Star, the Sherlocks said they found evidence and witnesses who testified that Ghulam Azam ordered various heinous measures during a meeting with the member of Central Peace committee in the town.
The Sherlocks, however, refrained from disclosing the names of the witnesses. They said before going to Rajshahi from Kushtia, they took a copy of Jamaat mouthpiece the Dainik Sangram of July 19, 1971 from Bangla Academy Library in Dhaka.
The issue has a report on Ghulam Azam's Peace Committee meeting at the municipal hall in Rajshahi on July 8 with the committee's Rajshahi chairman Ayen Uddin in the chair, which the witnesses also confirmed.
"There is nothing to prove that the Hindus are friends of the Mohammedans. They have always been holding the Mohammedans as rivals and killing Mohammedans has been a daily incident in India even after the separation," Dainik Sangram quoted Azam as saying.
The report also quoted him as saying, "The Hindus created divisions among the Mohammedans raising the question of Bangalee and non-Bangalee. Foundation of a nation with Hindus and Mohammedans is not possible unless the Mohammedans are separated over the language issue."
Investigators Rahman and Chowdhury came to Rajshahi Friday afternoon and separately talked with researchers, historians, freedom fighters, journalists and relatives of martyrs.
On Saturday, they visited nine spots of genocides, mass grave and Pak torture camps in Rajshahi city, Mugroil and Sakoa in Mohonpur, and Thanapara and Sardah Police Academy in Charghat upazila.
The team took photographs and footages of people identifying the mass graves and torture camps.
In the morning, the team went to Mugroil, around 25km from Rajshahi city, where there is a shaheed minar (monument commemorating martyrs) with names of only 15 martyrs inscribed on it.
The probe team talked to Basir Ali Sheikh and Hashim Uddin who lost their family members when the Pak occupation army captured 15 villagers on November 30, 1971 and shot them dead for helping freedom fighters.
The army ravaged the village and torched every house, they said, adding that razakars (Pak collaborators) Daud Hossain, Nur-e Anwar, Motiur, Wahed and some others, who led the Mighty Pak Army to the village, are still living freely in the village.
From Mugroil the probe team visited a torture camp at Sakoa Madrasa where a number of freedom fighters and commoners were killed and tortured.
In Rajshahi, the Sherlocks visited Babla Bon mass grave and torture camp near T Groyen of the Padma River.
The Mighty Pak Army with the help of their local collaborators picked up 17 people, including intellectuals and politicians, from their houses on the night of November 25, 1971, told freedom fighter Shahjahan Ali Borjahan in presence of journalists.
The locals believe all the martyrs were buried alive as their bodies bore no bullet wounds, he added.
At Moslem Ali's house near Boalia Police Station, Moslem's son Salauddin Raju told news hounds that after they had gone into hiding the occupation army took over their house to run a torture camp there.
The Sherlocks also visited Rajshahi University mass grave, Martyrs' Memorial Archive and Shaheed Shamsuzzoha Hall where countless men, women and kiddies suffered the atrocities of Mighty Pak Army and their collaborators since April 1971.
"Rajshahi apparently had been a bit different from other parts of the country, as the Pak collaborators here were so dominating that they opened torture camps at many places," said SP Matiur Rahman.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] South Korea's leader warned troops today to guard against North Korea's "reckless" military provocations, as a new dispute erupted between the two countries over four defectors from the communist state.
President Lee Myung-Bak stressed the need for separate branches of the military to work together to counter the threat from the North's special warfare forces, which Seoul says number 200,000.
"Through reckless military provocations, they (the North) are continuing to threaten peace," he told a multi-service officer commissioning ceremony at Gyeryongdae, 160 km south of Seoul.
The defector dispute is the latest episode in a year of high tensions and comes as US and South Korean troops stage major military exercises that the North has branded a rehearsal for invasion.
The South tried Friday to repatriate 27 North Koreans whose boat drifted across the border on February 5. But it says two men and two women who were on the boat chose to stay in the South -- a claim rejected by Pyongyang.
The North as of late afternoon had refused to send anyone to the frontier village of Panmunjom to accept the 27, apparently because it also wants the other four also to be returned.
A Seoul unification ministry front man said there was no word from the North on the transfer as of 6pm.
The communist state late Thursday accused the South of "despicable unethical acts" and said the group on the boat had been held hostage in a bid to fuel cross-border confrontation.
But Seoul said the four had not been forced to stay.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ION PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > JAPAN TO MOVE TROOPS CLOSER TO CHINA + JAPAN WARY OF CHINA'S MOVES TO BREAK THROUGH THE "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN" + JAPAN WORRIES OVER [proposed = 5-Year Plan]CHINA'S DEFENCE BUDGET.
* ASIA TIMES > KURILS: THE GREAT GAME [Trilateral = Russia-Japan-China] IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC.
ARTIC > Besides other, denotes that the KURILS/KURILES may be "RUSSIA'S FALKLANDS" [Japan's?] in NE ASIA = NORPAC.
Russia = UK?
Japan = Argentina?
Dare sexy slinky Net-SpyBabe ANNA CHAPMAN = MAGGIE THATCHER???
RUSSIA = may desire to turn the SOUTH KURILS = FORMER JAPANESE "NORTHERN TERRITORIES" IN LT INTO A GEOGRAPHIC SHOWCASE OF POST-SOVIET RUSSIAN POWER, POLICY + PROSPERITY [Russ Kurils = China's HAINAN ISLAND? = US' HAWAII as per Military, Tourism]???
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM/TOPIX > JAPAN WARNS OFF CHINA SHIP [survey vessel] NEAR DISPUTED ISLES + JAPAN JITTERS AS CHINESE CUTTER APPROACHES NEAR SENKAKUS. Came close but repor did not cross the maritime border lines.
POSTERS = opine that China + PLAN prolly have one or more UW Submarines nearby in case JAPAN + Naval SDF try something militarily.
SEOUL, March 6 -- North Korea has deployed tanks and other weapons around its leader Kim Jong-il's residences in Pyongyang to fortify them against a possible revolt spurred by the ongoing anti-government protests in the Middle East, a Seoul source said Sunday.
And yet the people love him so...
During a closed-door meeting with lawmakers on Friday, a senior official of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed reports of such activity, according to the lawmaker who sits on the parliamentary intelligence committee.
"In response to a question asking for confirmation of reports that ever since the collapse of the Mubarak regime (in Egypt), Kim Jong-il has placed tanks and many other weapons around his residences for fear of a similar situation, (the intelligence official) said that that is how he knows it," the lawmaker said.
The 69-year-old North Korean leader is known to own four residences in Pyongyang alone.
Asked whether the pro-democracy rebellions in the Middle East are having any effect on North Korea, the NIS official said they have had "practically none," according to the lawmaker.
The NIS official, however, did say that the Pyongyang regime was tightening its grip on North Korean embassy staff returning from abroad for fear that they would spread news of the Middle Eastern crisis to others around them, the lawmaker said.
As the famous American philosopher Wednesday Addams once said, "Wait."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Year 2011-2020/2025 is the gener "MAKE-OR-BREAK" PERIOD FOR ANY DESIRED PRO-US-VS-ANTI-US OWG-NWO.
US GLOBAL POWER + INFLUENCE is going to be challenged on a scale not seen since before WW2, or in the altern the CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS + 1973 YOM KIPPUR WAR [US-vs-USSR oer the Israeli mil threat to Cairo].
AGain, NORTH KOREA wants to stop starving + modernize + unify? wid South Korea, while Rising China wants to SOLE BASE RIGHTS ALA "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN".
KIMMIE + REGIME [+ DPRK/ Korean Commie-Soc Movement] = LIBYUH'S UNCLE MUAMMAR = WANT TO STAY AS ACTIVE, INFLUENTIAL, + ESPEC "INDISPENSABLE/VITAL" REGIONAL, GLOBAL POWERBROKERS AMAP ALAP UNTIL THE DAY THEY DIE. They don't want to resign + then politely quietly disappear in geriatric retirement or obsolescence as vee PERSONAL, IDEO LEGACIES.
Put another way, Muammar want to keep Libyuh modern, potent + hip in his view, KIMMIE WANTS TO FINALLY MAKE NORTH KOREA THE SAME.
Muammar want to keep his fellow Muslims in RADICAL ISLAM from pushing Libyuh BACKWARD IN TIME, whereas KIMMIE WANTS TO PUSH NORTH KOREA FORWARD IN TIME [validate NK Socialism + keep "North Korea for North Koreans/Koreans only].
Year 2011 may as well be 1910, or prior, or 1950 for the DPRK.
#2
Hey, NATO "allies". The gravy train has derailed. I suggest you pay your own fair share.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/06/2011 10:54 Comments ||
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#3
The echos of the union mobs in Madison. Hey, guys, the bank is broke. Running off the American military welfare support of the last thirty years is about to end. Maybe you too can hire some professional protesters to march outside the White House [doing the jobs Euros won't].
#4
...Before 2012, we're going to see in the open something I've been saying since the mid 90s: THERE IS NO NATO. The NATO nations (with the exception of the UK, which is now busily catching up) destroyed their militaries in the mid 1990s and have literally nothing but a few token units, certainly nothing they could actually hope to survive a war with. We've been paying for and providing easily 85% of the effort of defending Europe for 16 years now.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/06/2011 13:36 Comments ||
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#5
Its pretty simple NATO "allies" (other than the Tommies and Diggers):
ISAF means "I See Americans Fighting" (and not much anyone else other than the aforementioned Anglo allies).
Your troops will fight if you let them, but your politicians can governments have held back - so you can kiss our asses. We are the ones bleeding, and until you put some fight into the war, you should just shut up and stay out of the way.
You do not pull your weight in Afghanistan, and until you do, screw you.
#6
"We've been paying for and providing easily 85% of the effort of defending Europe for 16 years now"
Having lived in Europe, Mike, and having seen all the treasures of the Western world that are there, I used to think our sacrifice was worth it.
I've changed my mind. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/06/2011 14:29 Comments ||
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#7
I can't think of a better reason for cutting the military budget.
That said, I think that's that last thing that should be cut, and I include all the 'entitlements' on the chopping block, and I can retire in four years.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/06/2011 15:00 Comments ||
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#8
we spend 100's of billions on defense, time too disband NATO and let them pay their own way
Posted by: chris ||
03/06/2011 15:57 Comments ||
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#9
I'm not entirely sure that backing out of NATO is a wise move for us, and I say that as someone who in the past has advocated precisely that.
Think of the possibilities:
1) Europe re-arms and causes trouble. That's what Winston Churchill used to refer to by noting that Germans would be either at your feet or at your throat. We've had them at our feet these past 60 years (well the French have been sulking in a corner); do we really want Europe to decide to return to its old ways?
2) Europe DOESN'T rearm. Sub-possibilities --
a) Russia takes over.
b) Islam takes over.
c) Lichtenstein takes over.
You can see the problems.
Without NATO, within a generation the US and Europe would be back to the usual pre-WWII hates and mistrusts. I'm not sure that's good for the world. I'm re-evaluating.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2011 16:07 Comments ||
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#10
There just needs to be a way to make Nato :
a) effective and on demand
b) each country to pull its weight
Its a good buffer zone and dumping ground for you on the other side of the pond and has been far more effective over the years than the UN , not that that amounts to much. (facepalm)
Posted by: Oscar ||
03/06/2011 16:13 Comments ||
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#11
do we really want Europe to decide to return to its old ways?
This assumes the Euros want to return to their old ways and actually can. Both assumptions are questionable, particularly the later. They certainly aren't a threat to us and I'm not sure we wouldn't benefit if they became a threat to some others, especially those to the east and south of them. Frankly, I think Mexico is a much greater threat to us than Europe.
Nato was was created for a purpose, to prevent a military invasion of Europe by the Soviet Union. It was the most successful military alliance in world history because it achieved its goal with out ever engaging in organized combat. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the need for Nato disappeared. Rather than dissolve an unnecessary alliance we maintained our security umbrella over the EUros. The results have been as disastrous as the effect of the Great Society on the black family.
Rather than maintain the fictional alliance to protect a client population from a fictional enemy, we should dissolve Nato and create a real alliance between threatened parties to deal with the real enemy that threatens us, radical Islam. This threat is very different from the Soviet Union and will require an international response that is very different from Nato. That we have failed to do so is an indictment of the imagination and creativity of our leadership.
I see the historical replay that after the Goths et al had their way with the Western Roman Empire, Justinian exhausted financially and militarily the Eastern Empire trying to resurrect something that was already dead and past its time, leaving the remaining portion open to collapse when the first muzzies streamed out of the Arabian peninsula on their great conquest. It left the Eastern Empire a rump of what it once was and for what? There's a reason it's called the Dark Ages.
#13
I think what the Euros should be worried about is not so much a future reduction-in-force as the actual reduction-in-balls that occurred in January 2009. The Red Army would be in Paris by the time The One decided to fight them on the Vistula. (Assuming of course that their tanks didn't break down, which is a big if.)
Posted by: Matt ||
03/06/2011 18:17 Comments ||
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#14
With a few exceptions, the era of large, standing armies is drawing to a close. They are just too expensive.
So the alternative will be to go back to what existed before, after a fashion. Mercenary armies, or really, corporate armies.
Importantly, not as the main battle organization, but to perform the low intensity operations that both erode a fighting force, and are enormously expensive.
A company like Xe could save the US billions, and go to many places we as a nation abhor sending our military, read "Africa".
Europe can afford to do the same for its purposes.
#15
The problem with private armed forces (ex: Xe)is that they are for profit by nature and not sworn by honor/duty/history to protect the Constitution of the United States of America.
Maybe I've read too much Sci Fi and sech, but I do not want mercs as my first line of defense. And especially not as my last line of defense.
#17
With a few exceptions, the era of large, standing armies is drawing to a close. They are just too expensive.
Actually, they're cheaper per soldier than the professional armies. That's why they became the norm, starting with the Levee en Masse of the French Revolution. The mass was able to stop and then beat the professional armies of the monarchies. Of course when human life is considered cheap, then you can overwhelm the few with the many. What has happen is that technology and the leverage of powering down [read pushing authority and initiative to the lowest level] has provided a counter to the mass. However, it is very expensive and hard to sustain over the long run without being subject to historical patterns of rot and neglect by opportunistic politicians.
[Arab News] As Libya churned with popular rebellion, Serbia's ex-president flew to Tripoli to arrange an interview with Muammar Qadaffy for a Serbian TV channel -- giving the Libyan leader a platform to bluster about his grip on power.
"The Libyan people are fully behind me," Qadaffy defiantly told Pink TV in a telephone interview.
The gesture of support for Qadaffy was not officially endorsed by the Serbian government. But it has been criticized at home for failing to join worldwide condemnation of Qadaffy's bloody crackdown against the uprising.
A possible reason for the silence: hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military and construction contracts.
Serbia's cozy ties with Libya sit ill with its recent efforts to rehabilitate its image after the Balkan wars, in particular by participating in peace keeping missions.
It's almost certain that some of the ammunition fired by Qadaffy's troops against pro-democracy protesters in Libya was made in Serbia, and that some of the air force pilots who targeted rebel-held positions were trained by Serbs.
Western nations like Britain and Italy have armed and cooperated with Qadaffy's regime, but the issue is particularly sensitive for Serbia as it tries to join the European Union and possibly NATO and shed its image as a pariah nation.
"Serbia and former Yugoslavia had exposed themselves to a political risk with the defense deals with controversial regimes like in Libya," said military analyst Sasa Radic.
During the 1970s and 80s Yugoslavia's defense industry struck several export deals with nations in Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East, including Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which made the Balkan country one of the top 10 arms exporters in the world.
The trade collapsed when Yugoslavia itself disintegrated in the 1990s. But it has been picking up in recent years, particularly in Serbia, which retains the Balkans' largest defense industry.
A liberal Serb group has demanded that Belgrade stop arming the Qadaffy regime, even as Serbia's defense ministry claims it has suspended all ties with the Libyan military since the uprising began.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... has held religious intolerance responsible for the liquidations of Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, saying a small but increasingly belligerent minority is intent on undoing the very principles of tolerance upon which our nation was founded in 1947, according to the President's oped published in Washington Post.
He wrote: "Two months ago my friend Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was cut down for standing up against religious intolerance and against those who would use debate about our laws to divide our people. On Tuesday, another leading member of the Pakistain People's Party (PPP), Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for minority affairs and the only Christian in our cabinet, was murdered by Death Eaters tied to al-Qaeda and the Taliban."
Zardari said that these liquidations painfully reinforced his slain wife Benazir Bhutto's words and served as a warning that the battle between extremism and moderation in Pakistain affected the success of the civilized world's confrontation with the terrorist menace.
"A small but increasingly belligerent minority is intent on undoing the very principles of tolerance upon which our nation was founded in 1947; principles by which Pakistain's founder, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, lived and died; and principles that are repeated over and over in the Koran. The Death Eaters who murdered my wife and friends are the same who blew up the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad and who have blown up girls' schools in the Swat Valley."
President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... asserted: "We will not be intimidated, nor will we retreat," adding, such acts will not deter the government from our calibrated and consistent efforts to eliminate extremism and terrorism. It is not only the future of Pakistain that is at stake but peace in our region and possibly the world.
He said Pakistain's nation is pressed by overlapping threats. "We have lost more soldiers in the war against terrorism than all of NATO combined. We have lost 10 times the number of civilians who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Two thousand coppers have been killed. Our economic growth was stifled by the priorities of past dictatorial regimes that unfortunately were supported by the West. The worst floods in our history put millions out of their homes."
Zardari said the religious fanaticism behind Pakistain's liquidations is a tinderbox poised to explode across Pakistain. The embers are fanned by the opportunism of those who seek advantages in domestic politics by violently polarizing society, he added.
"If Pakistain and the United States are to work together against terrorism, we must avoid political incidents that could further inflame tensions and provide Death Eaters or opportunists with a pretext for destabilizing our decampedgling democracy."
He said the Raymond Davis incident in Lahore, which directly resulted in the deaths of three Pak men and the suicide of a Pak woman, is a prime example of the unanticipated consequences of problematic behavior.
"We need not go into the legal, moral and political intricacies of this case. Suffice it to say that the actions of Davis and others like him inflame passions in our country and undermine respect and support for the United States among our people. We are committed to peaceful adjudication of the Davis case in accordance with the law."
He termed as counterproductive the threats to apply sanctions to Pakistain over the Davis affair by cutting off Kerry-Lugar development funds that were designed to build infrastructure, strengthen education and create jobs. "It is a threat, written out of the playbook of America's enemies, whose only result will be to undermine U.S. strategic interests in South and Central Asia, he added.
President Zardari said in an incendiary environment, hot rhetoric and dysfunctional warnings could start fires that will be difficult to extinguish.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Please look at the Saudi influence in your country to realise where the intolerance comes from!
#2
Zardari said that these liquidations painfully reinforced his slain wife Benazir Bhutto's words and served as a warning that the battle between extremism and moderation in Pakistain affected the success of the civilized world's confrontation with the terrorist menace.
WHAT?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/06/2011 11:02 Comments ||
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[Geo News] Amir Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Fazlur Rehman Known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... Saturday vowed not to let Shahbaz Bhatti's killing to be used against Islam and for the destruction of Islamic institutions, Geo News reported.
Talking to media men after a meeting with Jamat-e-Islami Amir Syed Munawar Hassan ... The funny-looking Amir of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami... here, Mualana Fazl-ur-Rehman said the publishing of cartoons and desecration of the Holy Qur'an are a test for our patience. "The West must not demand a one-sided display of patience from us," he added.
He termed his meeting JI Chief as one for goodwill and not for forming an electoral bloc.
"I have already condemned the killing of Shahbaz Bhatti in the Parliament but it seems as if an international lobby is using such incidents to gain a leverage on religious parties," the JUI Chief asserted.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Senior Vice President All Pakistain Mulsim League, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Rashid Qureshi Saturday asserted that there had been no 'Shahadat' in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa and that such 'rumours' were intentionally circulated to malign Pervez Perv Musharraf, ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... Geo News reported.
"The consistency with which lies were told against Pervez Musharraf, at times, sounds fictional," Rashid Qureshi said while talking to media men after launching Pervez Musharraf Foundation in Lahore.
Referring to Pervez Musharraf Foundation, he said it is non-political welfare body the aim of whish is to provide relief to the affectees of flood and other natural calamities. Begum Sehba Musharraf, wife of Pervez Musharraf, will head of this organization, he added.
He said the missing persons were those who went to Afghanistan for 'Jihad' and were killed there.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2011 00:00 ||
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TEHRAN (AFP) -- Two Iranian warships, which entered the Mediterranean last month sparking an outcry from Israel, have passed through the Suez Canal back into the Red Sea, naval commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari said on Saturday.
"The flotilla ... has completed its mission successfully in the Mediterranean Sea and has returned to the Red Sea transiting through the Suez Canal," the official news agency IRNA quoted Sayari as saying.
It was the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution that Iranian warships had entered the Mediterranean and Iran's archfoe Israel described the move as a "political provocation." The frigate Alvand and supply ship Kharg passed through the Suez Canal on February 22 and docked two days later at the Syrian port of Latakia.
Sayari did not say when the warships began their return journey, but said it took them "10-12 hours to transit" the canal. He said the flotilla conveyed a message of "peace and friendship to friendly countries."
Israel, which considers Iran its biggest threat after repeated predictions by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of its demise, put its navy on alert during the flotilla's mission. Analysts say the deployment was an attempt by Iran to project its clout in the region at a time when anti-government protests sweeping the Arab world from Casablanca to Cairo are shifting the regional balance of power.
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.
The Western-backed Karzai, who has shaky relations with Washington, had already condemned the deaths, but on Sunday addressed Petraeus directly at a cabinet meeting at which the US general was present.
But Mark Grossman, the newly appointed US Special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistain, says the United States has no intention to set up permanent military bases in Afghanistan.
Moamer Qadaffy.
Zawahiri
North Korea
Asif Ali 
Zardari said that these 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Pervez 
