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The Evil Twin
Stoned Immaculate
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 2979
Location: Toronto
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 Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | From the article,
Afghanistan is an Islamic state and its constitution defers to the Qur'an as the ultimate authority. Mohseni said the law simply reiterates rules from Islam's holy book.
"In Shariah law, it states that a woman cannot....... |
So Caoimhin, we're in agreement that Canada (or NATO) has no business sending troops to fight and die for such a reactionary, theocratic regime? Good.
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"Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it." - Stevie J. Harpoon |
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Sifo-Dyas
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 390
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| Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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| The Evil Twin wrote: | | So Caoimhin, we're in agreement that Canada (or NATO) has no business sending troops to fight and die for such a reactionary, theocratic regime? Good. |
I agree with that. |
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No Yards
Glutton for Punishment
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 2944
Location: Toronto Ontario
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| Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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| caoimhin wrote: | | Maestro wrote: |
As others have commented, what 'fundamentals' are you talking about? |
| caoimhin wrote: | From the article,
Quote:
Afghanistan is an Islamic state and its constitution defers to the Qur'an as the ultimate authority. Mohseni said the law simply reiterates rules from Islam's holy book.
"In Shariah law, it states that a woman cannot.......
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But if we're truly looking for some "prime instigator" then we have to consider that Afghanistan only became an "Islamic state" that "defers to the Qur'an as the ultimate authority", because the CIA put the people that believe that kind of shit into power ... maybe it was the Bible and all its "ultimate authority" nonsense that motivated the CIA?
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I follow, but more importantly, respect the Golden Rule. I fully and completely respect your right to be 'done on to' as you would 'do on to' others. |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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U.S. denies letting troops convert Afghans
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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Canada, and the raped boys of Afghanistan
| Quote: | I've been waiting to see what our military had to say about the Afghan troops who raped boys at one of our forward bases in Afghanistan.
And this isn't good enough.
| Quote: | "It was determined that the initial allegations concerning such incidents contained serious discrepancies, could not be corroborated, were not reported to the chain of command and ultimately were not substantiated," said a statement released Tuesday by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service.
Military police in Afghanistan did not receive sexual abuse complaints of Afghan male children, Tuesday's statement said, adding that the NIS has no jurisdiction over the Afghan National Army or locally contracted interpreters in Afghanistan. |
I know we're fighting a war...and brutish customs.
But how can they suggest that it didn't happen when Canadian soldiers witnessed it?
How can we seriously expect raped kids to complain when rape victims and gay people are jailed?
How can we claim no jurisdiction over the Afghan National Army when we are TRAINING them...and it happened on OUR base.
We need an inquiry because this reeks of a cover-up. |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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bshmr
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 2982
Location: Central USA, Earth
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| Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | But how can they suggest that it didn't happen when Canadian soldiers witnessed it? |
Easy, the world already knows that Canadians in uniform, like the RCMP, are in-credible witnesses. <G> |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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U.S. reverses Afghan drug policy
| Quote: | Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told allies on Saturday.
[...]
"The Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure. They did not result in any damage to the Taliban, but they put farmers out of work," Holbrooke told Reuters after a series of bilateral meetings in Italy.
"We are not going to support crop eradication. We're going to phase it out," he said. The emphasis would instead be on intercepting drugs and chemicals used to make them, and going after drug lords.
He said some crop eradication may still be allowed, but only in limited areas.
Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world's heroin. |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Rufus Polson
Purple Library Guy
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 2875
Location: SFU and/or the college of Riddlemastery at Caithnard
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| Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:05 am Post subject: |
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| As rushes of brains to the head go, that one strikes me as too little, too late. |
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Tehanu
More or less, more or less
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 16607
Location: Toronto
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| Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 1:54 am Post subject: |
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The "feel free to rape your wife" law has been amended. Now she just has to do housework.
| Quote: | Afghanistan's government has revised a law that stirred an international outcry because it essentially legalized marital rape, officials said Thursday. The new version no longer requires a woman submit to sex with her husband, only that she do certain housework.
... Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said the revisions show that Karzai has followed through on a pledge made in April to expunge the offensive parts of the marriage law, which applies only to minority Shiite Muslims.
Women's rights activists welcomed the new draft, but many said the government had not done enough and that little will change in day-to-day life.
... Two of the most controversial articles have been drastically changed, according to documents supplied by the ministry. An article that previously required a wife to submit to regular sex now requires her only to perform whatever household chores the couple agreed to when they married. The revised version makes no attempt to regulate sexual relations between husband and wife.
A section that required a wife to ask her husband's permission to leave the house has also been deleted. In its place, an article states that a woman is the "owner of her property and can use her property without the permission of her husband." |
Toronto Star. |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:06 am Post subject: |
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Afghanistan: US discouraged inquiry into mass killing of Taliban prisoners
| Quote: | During the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, an incident occured in which hundreds or thousands of Taliban POWs were killed by a warlord supported by the US.
Bush administration officials repeatedly thwarted efforts to investigate the mass killing, according to American officials and human rights groups. The warlord responsible, Abdul Rashid Dostum (shown above while campaigning for president in 2004), still retains a high position within the Afghan government. How (and if) the Obama administration will deal with ongoing calls for an investigation remains to be seen. Snip from NYT article today by James Risen:
| Quote: | American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation -- sought by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department, the Red Cross and other human rights groups -- because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported Karzai government, in which General Dostum has served as a defense official.
"At the White House, nobody said 'no' to an investigation, but nobody ever said 'yes,' either," said Pierre Prosper, the former war crimes ambassador for the United States. "The first reaction of everybody there was 'Oh, this is a sensitive issue. This is a touchy issue politically.' " It is not clear how -- or if -- the Obama administration will address the issue. But in recent weeks, State Department officials have quietly tried to thwart General Dostum's reappointment as military chief of staff to the president, according to several senior officials, and suggested that the administration may not be hostile to an inquiry. |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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A dead British soldier's letter to his mother:
| Quote: | A young British soldier writes to his Mum to tell her why he died.
| Quote: | Hello its me, this is gonna be hard for you to read but I write this knowing every time you thinks shits got to much for you to handle (so don't cry on it MUM!!) you can read this and hopefully it will help you all get through.
For a start SHIT I got hit!! Now Iv got that out the way I can say the things Iv hopefully made clear, or if I havent this should clear it all up for me. My hole life you'v all been there for me through thick and thin bit like a wedding through good and bad. Without you I believe I wouldn't have made it as far as I have. I died doing what I was born to do I was happy and felt great about myself although the army was sadly the ending of me it was also the making of me so please don't feel any hate toward it.
If I could have a wish in life it would to be able to say Iv gone and done things many would never try to do. And going to Afghan has fulfilled my dream ie my goal. Yes I am young wich as a parent must brake you heart but you must all somehow find the strength that I found to do something no matter how big the challenge.
Mum, where do I start with you!! For a start your perfect, your smell, your hugs, the way your life was dedicated to us boys and especially the way you cared each and every step us boys took. I love you, you were the reason I made it as far as I did you were the reason I was loved more than any child I no and that made me feel special. |
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One of Montreal Simon's readers posted the following (highly appropriate) quote:
| Quote: | "He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war."
Universal Soldier
As long as young men join up, put on a military uniform for adventure and allow their bodies to be cannon fodder, war will continue. This is directed to young men (Canadian and Taliban both). |
Rifleman Cyrus Thatcher was not just some innocent victim:
"I died doing what I was born to do I was happy and felt great about myself [...] going to Afghan has fulfilled my dream ie my goal."
No, he's no innocent victim. That phrase is reserved for the thousands of dead Afghan civilians, who are being butchered by both sides.
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:42 am Post subject: |
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Afghan girl killed, policemen injured in two separate incidents in Kandahar
| Quote: | Soldiers had dismounted from a convoy in the volatile Panjwaii district when a motorcycle came speeding toward them, said Task Force Kandahar spokesman Maj. Mario Couture.
When the driver did not heed signals to stop, a warning shot was fired and the motorcycle changed direction and sped away.
Moments later, the soldiers noticed a crowd gathering and discovered that a girl, whose age was not disclosed, had been hit with the ricocheting bullet, Couture said. Attempts to save the girl were unsuccessful, he added.
About an hour later, in a separate incident, soldiers inspecting a suspected improvised explosive device on a road in neighbouring Dand district fired on a vehicle advancing on them in the dark with its lights out.
He said the soldiers used lights and a warning shot to try and stop the truck, but to no avail.
"A shot was fired like it normally is at the ground to get their attention," Couture said. When that didn't work, soldiers fired on the vehicle, injuring three men inside. About 10 shots were fired.
"They gave them first aid and evacuated them to the hospital (at the NATO base in Kandahar)."
Two Afghan National Policemen suffered minor injuries and were released, while the third remains in hospital.
Joint investigations of each incident are underway by the Afghan National Police and the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service.
Tuesday's incidents were just the latest to comprise a series of shootings by Canadian soldiers in the past week. |
more @ link
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:45 am Post subject: |
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| Hephaestion wrote: | U.S. reverses Afghan drug policy
| Quote: | Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told allies on Saturday.
[...]
"The Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure. They did not result in any damage to the Taliban, but they put farmers out of work," Holbrooke told Reuters after a series of bilateral meetings in Italy.
"We are not going to support crop eradication. We're going to phase it out," he said. The emphasis would instead be on intercepting drugs and chemicals used to make them, and going after drug lords.
He said some crop eradication may still be allowed, but only in limited areas.
Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world's heroin. |
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But...
US military blows up piles of poppy seeds to win the “hearts of minds” of Afghan citizens
| Quote: | According to antiwar.com, the US military has "dropped several tons of explosives on a field in the Helmand Province, destroying mounds of poppy seeds which had been gathered there."
| Quote: | | State Department official Tony Wayne says the attacks are part of the campaign to win the “hearts of minds” of Afghanistan’s civilian population. He claimed farmers were being “intimidated” into growing poppies instead of wheat, which the US has been attempting to subsidize as an alternative crop. |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:48 am Post subject: |
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Afghanistan mass grave coverup: update on evidence
| Quote: | Following up on last week's post about our government's attempts to block investigation into mass killings in Afghanistan by a US-backed warlord (see this NYT article by James Risen):
There is an update to the story today from Mark Benjamin at Salon, where you can also read through the archive of related FBI documents in PDF form.
And Ben Greenberg writes in from Physicians for Human Rights, the organization that discovered the mass grave where the victims were buried. They've been investigating the case and advocating for appropriate action since 2001. Ben says:
| Quote: | We've produced a 10 minute documentary video about the massacre and the three federal investigations that were impeded by the Bush Administration. It's called War Crimes and the White House: The Bush Administration's Cover-Up of the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science has also produced a report based on high resolution satellite imagery that shows evidence of when and how the mass grave site was subsequently dug up. A blog post on the satellite imagery report is here and the main images from the report are available here, along with a .kml file that can be used with Google Earth. |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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Canadian soldier says he shot friend in Afghanistan in self-defence
| Quote: | A soldier accused of shooting and killing a colleague in a tent in Afghanistan over two years ago says he felt his life was threatened by someone when he whirled and fired his weapon.
Cpl. Matthew Wilcox took the stand in his own defence Friday in his manslaughter trial in Sydney, N.S., and told the four military jurors that he heard someone cocking a pistol.
He told a hushed military courtroom that "he just reacted," and turned quickly, drawing his gun from his holster before shooting.
Wilcox says he only realized seconds later that he had shot one of his best friends, Cpl. Kevin Megeney.
"I felt my life was threatened and lethal force was the minimum force needed," said Wilcox.
"There was a weapon pointed at me."
He said he realized it was Megeney two seconds later.
"Only after the recoil of my weapon did I realize it was him," he added.
"Everything happened so quickly, in less than two seconds. I was just reacting to a threat against my life." |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
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Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:24 am Post subject: |
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Britain and U.S. defend war effort in Afghanistan
| Quote: | Britain and the United States on Wednesday vowed a sustained effort in Afghanistan, despite growing public skepticism over the war after the deadliest month since it began in late 2001.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in Washington for talks on Afghanistan, said it was a "tough phase" for all nations with troops in Afghanistan but he believed the British public supported the mission.
"I think the British people will stay with this mission, because there is a clear strategy and a clear determination on behalf of the United States and other coalition members to see this through," Miliband said at a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
British troops just ended a five-week offensive named "Panther's Claw" aimed at clearing the Taliban out of population centers in southern Afghanistan ahead of August 20 presidential and provincial elections.
Miliband said Afghanistan was the "incubator" for attacks such as the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the British people understood this.
Clinton also underscored what she said was the strong commitment and resolve of both nations in Afghanistan. "We will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder," she said.
The number of British troops killed in Afghanistan has surpassed those who perished in the Iraq war, a statistic that has soured public support for the effort.
This month alone as British and U.S. forces launched major offensives, 22 Britons were killed, bringing the toll to 191 since the war began. So far 39 U.S. troops were killed there this month.
An opinion poll in Britain's Independent newspaper this week found 52 percent of people thought troops should be withdrawn immediately. U.S. opinion polls show about half of Americans, weary after the Iraq invasion, support the war. |
Sounds like David Miliband is full of shit. What else is new?
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 3431
Location: Hamilton
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| Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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What's not to defend?
In Afghanistan, Child Rapist Police Return Behind US, UK Troops
| Quote: | The strategy of the major U.S. and British military offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province aimed at wresting it from the Taliban is based on bringing back Afghan army and police to maintain permanent control of the population, so the foreign forces can move on to another insurgent stronghold.
But that strategy poses an acute problem: The police in the province, who are linked to the local warlord, have committed systematic abuses against the population, including the abduction and rape of pre-teen boys, according to village elders who met with British officers.
Associated Press reporters Jason Straziuso and David Guttenfelder, who accompanied U.S. troops in Northern Helmand, reported Jul. 13 that villagers in Aynak were equally angry about police depredations. Within hours of the arrival of U.S. troops in the village, they wrote, bands of villagers began complaining the local police force was "a bigger problem than the Taliban".
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I thought she was going to marry that snooty rich guy! |
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Legless_Marine
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 05 Jun 2007
Posts: 575
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| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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There's a great deal of misunderstanding in the west about various cultural practices of the Pashtun, which leads to this kind of surprise when things don't turn out as expected in the idyllic, post-Taliban world.
The truth is, it's not Taliban, it's tradition.
You can take the Taliban out of the Pashtun, but you can't take the Pashtun out of the boy.
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Enjoying a high standard of living thanks to cheap energy and slave labor - Just like you! |
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bshmr
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 2982
Location: Central USA, Earth
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| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Legless_Marine wrote: | ...The truth is, it's not Taliban, it's tradition.
You can take the Taliban out of the Pashtun, but you can't take the Pashtun out of the boy. |
Are Marines like that, too? Just askin'. |
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Fidel
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 639
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| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Legless_Marine wrote: |
The truth is, it's not Taliban, it's tradition.
You can take the Taliban out of the Pashtun, but you can't take the Pashtun out of the boy. |
I've read some reports that pedophilia, as far as the western world goes, is more common among heterosexual men. Why should we believe it's any different in Central Asia? I've stopped reading the pro-USA news diddies a long time ago - hysterical rightwing pap most of it.
The Taliban were the USA's and Brits' installed proxy government in Kabul from 1996-2001. Contrary to what they want us to believe, NATO and Yanquis are not occupying Afghanistan for reasons of fighting a war on terror. The US and its NATO friendlies were A-Okay with the Taliban and other militant extremist ideologues in Central Asia for several years leading up to 9/11. And contrary to what they'd have us believe, Afghanistan, a desperately poor and backwards thirdworld country, did not attack America on 9/11. And neither did Iraq.
The Taliban, "al-Qa'eda", and Northern Alliance are all creations of the USA's, British, and Saudi-Pakistani efforts of the 1980s and 90's to destabilize Central Asia. And it appears that their efforts succeeded. What a mess.
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thwap
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Location: Hamilton
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 1:25 am Post subject: |
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Whether there's some sort of tradition there or not, I'm pretty sure that there are fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers who would rather not have their sons/brothers raped.
Cdn. Forces personnel have also complained about this. I believe stephen harper's two-year investigation managed to report back early that the problem wasn't substantiated. One reason was apparently because the CF guys didn't complain to the proper authorities. The fact that they occasionally did was easily dismissed because senior officers apparently told them to shut-up about it.
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anne cameron
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 1:39 am Post subject: |
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Amazing how bent out of shape some folks get when it's boys being raped and how blase they manage to remain when it's girls and women.
Rape is an atrocity. Condoning rape is also an atrocity. |
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Fidel
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 3:03 am Post subject: |
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Western leaders and their puppet in Kabul have been trying to offer the Taliban a place in government for a few years now. A British report says neither side will win this war soon and that peace talks were needed some time ago. And I agree with this considering the number of Afghan casualties among not only the Taliban but ordinary men, women and children in this phony war on terror.
Saving the Bankers With a Make-Believe War Peter Chamberlin
Official: Pakistan can help broker U.S.-Taliban talks
So we have the Pakistani ISI controlled Taliban proliferating in that country where the people have formed neighborhood watch groups to stave off Talibanization. And we have reports from Malalai Joya who says the Taliban are being used as an excuse for the US-led military occupation of her country involving Canada and 38 other countries' military contingents in the mean time. I think rumors of peace negotiations in US and Pakistani news media is bunk. None of the principals in this phony war on terror actually desire a brokered peace deal. Peace talks are mentioned every now and then, but this is to be expected in any protracted war achieving nothing fast. It's a phony war.
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thwap
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Location: Hamilton
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 3:41 am Post subject: |
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| anne cameron wrote: | Amazing how bent out of shape some folks get when it's boys being raped and how blase they manage to remain when it's girls and women.
Rape is an atrocity. Condoning rape is also an atrocity. |
That's quite interesting anne. I wasn't fixated on the maleness of the rape victims. I think the first story I heard on this was about a boy victim. And then the discussion might veer off on that but that regardless, the rape of children was bad.
But your comment prompted me to think about the child-brides, married off for money into conditions that are often legal rape. And then there are the beatings and rapes for the rest of their adult lives. Why are we fighting to maintain that?
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Fidel
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 3:53 am Post subject: |
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Photo Op: Child Brides in Afghanistan
| Quote: | | Ghulan Haider, 11, is to be married to Faiz Mohammed, 40. She had hoped to become a teacher but was forced to quit her classes when she became engaged. Stephanie Sinclair/New York Times Magazine |
Talibanization of those two countries in the 1980s and 90s was not a democratic process.
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Legless_Marine
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 6:14 am Post subject: |
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| Fidel wrote: | Photo Op: Child Brides in Afghanistan
| Quote: | | Ghulan Haider, 11, is to be married to Faiz Mohammed, 40. She had hoped to become a teacher but was forced to quit her classes when she became engaged. Stephanie Sinclair/New York Times Magazine |
Talibanization of those two countries in the 1980s and 90s was not a democratic process. |
Perhaps true, but what does that have to do with child brides?
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Fidel
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 6:40 am Post subject: |
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| Legless_Marine wrote: | | Fidel wrote: | Photo Op: Child Brides in Afghanistan
| Quote: | | Ghulan Haider, 11, is to be married to Faiz Mohammed, 40. She had hoped to become a teacher but was forced to quit her classes when she became engaged. Stephanie Sinclair/New York Times Magazine |
Talibanization of those two countries in the 1980s and 90s was not a democratic process. |
Perhaps true, but what does that have to do with child brides? |
I think youre saying that middle-aged and old men marrying children and perhaps misogyny in general is cultural tradition for the Pashtun, if I'm not mistaken. We might also say that slavery was tradition for white people in the deep south of America at some point. But there was a civil war and about eleven confederate states fought tooth and nail against a Union army from the North in order to preserve that tradition. And they failed. It was the early beginnings of a civil rights movement in America.
Now imagine that mercenaries and fundamentalists from 40 plus countries intervened in the American civil war on the side of the confederates. Imagine that rightwing militia groups and kkk seized control of the US and have gained political strength and notoriety since. That's somewhat comparable to what happened in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1980s and 90s. And today, there are armies from about 40 countries, again, trying to impose their will on Afghans. This time it's NATO gangsters.
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Maestro
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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Uh, actually it was NATO gangsters the last time too. Well, ok, it was the US and the UK, outside of their NATO roles, that intervened on behalf of the extreme fundamentalists. It didn't involve all of NATO until the conflagration spread to Yugoslavia.
Let's be very clear about this. The US, Canada, UK, NATO generally, could care less what happens to girls, boys, women, or anyone else for that matter, in Afghanistan.
The expressed concern over specific events is for propaganda purposes only. Who could object to an intervention on behalf of those aforementioned innocents. Except that NATO is killing more civilians than the Taliban are, and in the most cowardly, despicable fashion.
I worked for a while with an Afghani who fled the country because his parents were identified with those opposed to the Taliban. His take on the whole thing was that Afghani's would never stop fighting to remove foreign troops from their country. They're all willing to use foreign troops as a battering ram against their local enemies, but in the end, they'll never give up the fight to remove those troops from the country.
Afghanistan is a hard land, and it's populated with hard people. They've also been there for thousands of years, making their living as best they can with the little the land gives them.
The Taliban achieved power in Afghanistan because of the utter chaos the country had been thrown into. They were the only ones with the discipline necessary to bring some level of order to everyday life. They were the 'last man standing' after the demolition derby of the Soviet invasion, and the US response of massive aid to Islamic fundamentalists.
All of the propaganda in the world won't make them go away, and there is no possibility of a military victory.
I honestly don't know if there is a solution, but eventually some talking has to happen, and perhaps the future will allow a turning towards more human rights, more equal rights, and some real peace.
The course currently being taken won't do that.
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Fidel
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, youre right, Maestro. The Taliban are a product of US-CIA, and Saudi radicalization of Pakistan and Afghanistan during the 1980s and 90s with the help of then US-backed military dictator in Islamabad, General Zia. US taxpayers and Saudi princes funded thousands of madrassas in Pakistan and Afghanistan - upwards of 11,000 madrassas according to some reports. Pakistani news journalist based in London, Khaled Ahmed, said that Pakistan and Afghanistan are still not purely ideologically driven Islamic states. Afghanistan's was probably the first civil war in history to begin as a womens rights movement. Canadian John Ryan said that Afghans embarked on a new direction in the 1970's, and that it was " totally indigenous happening" which not even the CIA blamed the Soviets for. Afghanistan's social and cultural structures were left untouched for decades by the Stalinists in the former USSR. Keep in mind that the Soviets intervened once in western affairs in America's "backyard" with Cuba in the 1960's. And it nearly resulted in WW III.
I agree with you, Maestro, and Tariq Ali, Jack Layton etc, that there needs to be UN mediated peace talks with the Taliban. The violence and related drugs and weapons smuggling are spilling over Afghanistan's borders into surrounding countries. Some of those countries dont want NATO in their backyard. Some of them are alleged to be funding and supporting the Taliban. And caught in the middle are millions of desperately poor Afghans who favour neither NATO occupation nor a step back in time unde repressive rule by the Taliban.
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Rufus Polson
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Legless_Marine wrote: |
There's a great deal of misunderstanding in the west about various cultural practices of the Pashtun, which leads to this kind of surprise when things don't turn out as expected in the idyllic, post-Taliban world.
The truth is, it's not Taliban, it's tradition.
You can take the Taliban out of the Pashtun, but you can't take the Pashtun out of the boy. |
OK, first, WTF?
But OK, imagining this is something worth engaging . . .
Uh . . . so if it's just normal traditional behaviour shouldn't the villagers be cool with it? Is it not the locals who are upset here?
(Is northern Helmand province even Pashtun territory? And if it is, are the warlords+warriors currently in charge and responsible for the abuses themselves Pashtun? The "Northern Alliance" who ended up in charge of a lot of shit were mostly not Pashtun, right?
As to "tradition"--well, maybe you could call the violence that's been going on for like 30 years now a "tradition"; I'm sure the average age of the population is so young that lots of people don't remember anything different. But it's hardly *local* tradition, it's what we and the Pakistani ISI arranged for them. Child rape as a "tradition", courtesy of Zbigniew Brzezinski. |
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Fidel
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| Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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Bombshell: Bin Laden Worked for US Till 9/11
| Quote: | July 31, 2009 "Daily Kos" -- Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript).
In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained 'intimate relations' with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, "all the way until that day of September 11."
These 'intimate relations' included using Bin Laden for 'operations' in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These 'operations' involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner "as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict," that is, fighting 'enemies' via proxies. . . |
Eric Margolis is mentioned and has some interesting comments as well. And Benazir Bhutto said , before her assassination, that bin Laden himself had been murdered. I think she claimed to know who in her country was responsible.
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thwap
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| Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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Every time my local rag, "The Hamilton Spectator" prints a story about a local soldier serving in Afghanistan they seem to always ask if they support "the mission" over there, and invariably, the soldiers say that yes indeed they do.
My response to that is that I'm not going to change my mind about Canada in Afghanistan just because some interviewed soldier says that they are in complete accord with what we're doing there. Especially if they don't explain why they support it AT ALL. Sometimes they'll add some little touch about building schools, sending girls to school, and etc., but that's not enough for me either.
You could look into the eyes of a hundred children going to school and think "it's worth it." You could then look into the eyes of a hundred children, some dead, others wounded, others shattered by the deaths of their loved ones in a NATO air-strike and think "it's not worth it."
But I wonder whether an CF personnel feel obliged to say they support the mission when they talk to the media, because to criticize it would lead to trouble? Then, these meaningless assertions of agreement get to become fodder for the propaganda wars back home.
Obviously, there are also soldiers who are going to want to "see the job done" because their comrades died in the effort. But that's no reason for other people to vote for us staying.
I suppose, finally, that I could go to some pro-war military blogs and get some greater detailed accounts of their support for the mission, but in all honesty, I hate pro-war blogs, and I'm pretty sure it's all a fucking waste of time. If the pro-war mainstream media can't find someone to say something coherently and concisely after eight years of trying (and I've done some looking) then why should I descend into one of those internet snake-pits to read tiresome dirges about the global-Islamo-fascist conspiracy?
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Legless_Marine
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| Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:23 am Post subject: |
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| thwap wrote: |
But I wonder whether an CF personnel feel obliged to say they support the mission when they talk to the media, because to criticize it would lead to trouble?
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They fully support it... it's their raison d'etre. One would get a similarly honest answer by asking a Fox about the culinary value of Hens.
| thwap wrote: |
I suppose, finally, that I could go to some pro-war military blogs and get some greater detailed accounts of their support for the mission, but in all honesty, I hate pro-war blogs, and I'm pretty sure it's all a fucking waste of time. If the pro-war mainstream media can't find someone to say something coherently and concisely after eight years of trying (and I've done some looking) then why should I descend into one of those internet snake-pits to read tiresome dirges about the global-Islamo-fascist conspiracy? |
You're right on the money, and have saved yourself considerable time and grief with this observation.
I got banned off of Army.ca for attempting to make a *military* case that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable on strictly military grounds.
I got banned off of freedominion for attempting to enlighten someone who was regurgitating the false claim about Ahmadinejad wanting to "wipe israel off the map".
The assumption-gap is far wide to make any reasonable communication or engagement possible.
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:52 am Post subject: |
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Ah, yes. "In times of war, the first victim is truth."
Who was it said that?
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TS.
Delicious schadenfreude
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
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Location: Toronto, ON
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| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:44 am Post subject: |
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| Legless_Marine wrote: | | thwap wrote: |
But I wonder whether an CF personnel feel obliged to say they support the mission when they talk to the media, because to criticize it would lead to trouble?
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They fully support it... it's their raison d'etre. One would get a similarly honest answer by asking a Fox about the culinary value of Hens. |
Which brings to mind The Universal Soldier.
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fork
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| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Legless_Marine wrote: | | thwap wrote: |
But I wonder whether an CF personnel feel obliged to say they support the mission when they talk to the media, because to criticize it would lead to trouble?
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They fully support it... it's their raison d'etre. |
"He went to help, but he didn't find what he expected"
| Quote: | Christian Bobbitt went to Afghanistan determined to help civilians, but an aunt says it wasn’t long before the young soldier’s idealism ran up against harsh reality. . .
Bobbitt’s aunt says his thoughts of helping Afghans had long since shifted to hope of survival.
"I’m pretty sure he would have come home, given the chance," she told the Globe and Mail. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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| fork wrote: | "He went to help, but he didn't find what he expected"
| Quote: | Christian Bobbitt went to Afghanistan determined to help civilians, but an aunt says it wasn’t long before the young soldier’s idealism ran up against harsh reality. . .
Bobbitt’s aunt says his thoughts of helping Afghans had long since shifted to hope of survival.
"I’m pretty sure he would have come home, given the chance," she told the Globe and Mail. |
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But... but... we wanna make sure he didn't die in vain. Right? Let's get a few hundred more killed to prove it! Right?
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Legless_Marine wrote: | | I got banned off of freedominion for attempting to enlighten someone who was regurgitating the false claim about Ahmadinejad wanting to "wipe israel off the map". |
I got banned at Connie's -- the unfit mother fornicating unChristian -- website for maintaining that the bible was merely a book full of self-contradictory lies.
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The Evil Twin
Stoned Immaculate
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| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 5:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I got banned off of freedominion for attempting to enlighten someone who was regurgitating the false claim about Ahmadinejad wanting to "wipe israel off the map". |
| Quote: | | I got banned at Connie's -- the unfit mother fornicating unChristian -- website for maintaining that the bible was merely a book full of self-contradictory lies. |
That either quote got you two banned should not be a surprise. That site is NOT conservative in any sense of the traditional Canadian meanings. In real life there have always been conservatives who have questioned the current alliance with Zionism as being strategically stupid (since it hurts relations with Muslim nations) and being CONTRARY TO conservative principles (seizure of private property, collective punishment for individual acts of resistance, and getting addicted to foreign aid don't sound very "conservative" to me).
Freak Dominion is first and foremost a Christian-Zionist site which believes that the Jeebus H. Christ will return once the "Jews have returned to Zion". Any nation which even hints at resisting this "prophecy" (Iran, the Palestinians, Hezbollah, Syria) is "evil" and must be crushed. So there can be absolutely no questioning of Israel, any hint of sympathy for the Arab position or the literal fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. All other conservative positions are open to debate but not Christian Dominionism or Christian Zionism. It's likely that even conservatives like Eric Margolis, Pat Buchanan or Ron Paul would get turfed off Freak Dominion for questioning the alliance with Israel.
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Maestro
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| Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 5:38 am Post subject: |
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Stumbled across this interesting article:
Who is funding the Afghanistan Taliban?
| Quote: | It is the open secret no one wants to talk about, the unwelcome truth that most prefer to hide. In Afghanistan, one of the richest sources of Taliban funding is the foreign assistance coming into the country.
...Up until quite recently, most experts thought that drug money accounted for the bulk of Taliban funding...Now administration officials have launched a search for Taliban sponsors. Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told a press conference in Islamabad last month that drugs accounted for less of a share of Taliban coffers than was previously thought.
“In the past there was a kind of feeling that the money all came from drugs in Afghanistan,” said Holbrooke, according to media reports. “That is simply not true.”
...One Afghan contractor, speaking privately, told friends of one project he was overseeing in the volatile south. The province cannot be mentioned, nor the particular project.
“I was building a bridge,” he said, one evening over drinks. “The local Taliban commander called and said ‘don’t build a bridge there, we’ll have to blow it up.’ I asked him to let me finish the bridge, collect the money — then they could blow it up whenever they wanted. We agreed, and I completed my project.”
In the south, no contract can be implemented without the Taliban taking a cut, sometimes at various steps along the way.
...It all adds up, of course. But all things are relative: if the Taliban are able to raise and spend say $1 billion per year — the outside limit of what anyone has been able to predict — that accounts for what the United States is now spending on 10 days of the war to defeat them. |
The unanswered question is, if the drug money is not going to the Taliban, where is it going? Talk about questions no one wants to ask.
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Rufus Polson
Purple Library Guy
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| Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 6:11 am Post subject: |
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Sounds like they're also collecting taxes in areas they control. Although of course terminology differs depending on what side you're on:
| Quote: | But in areas under Taliban control, the insurgents are extorting funds from the people as well.
. . .
“We have to give them two kilos of poppy paste per jerib during the harvest; then we have to give them ushr (an Islamic tax, amounting to one-tenth of the harvest) from our wheat. Then they insisted on zakat (an Islamic tithe). Now they have come up with something else: 12,000 Pakistani rupee (approximately $150) per household. |
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Hephaestion
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Rufus Polson
Purple Library Guy
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| Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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Huh. If this Abdullah guy wins because he has the support of the north and the majority Pashtuns in the south didn't vote much, that's gonna strengthen the insurgency even further.
. . . Abdullah Abdullah, the warlord so nice they named him twice . . . |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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Afghanistan: vodka "butt shots," group fondling, other pastimes of defense contractors guarding US embassy
| Quote: | Despite grotestque bacchanals that would make a True Blood maenad blush, some crazy, sadistic sickos guarding the US embassy in Kabul got their 5-year, 189 million dollar contract renewed for another year. The company involved: ArmorGroup North America (a subsidiary of Wackenhut, which is in turn owned by the security behemoth G4S). Your tax dollars at work, folks. Snip from Mother Jones article by Daniel Schulman:
| Quote: | Guards have come to POGO with allegations and photographic evidence that some supervisors and guards are engaging in near-weekly deviant hazing and humiliation of subordinates. Witnesses report that the highest levels of AGNA management in Kabul are aware of and have personally observed--or even engaged in--these activities, but have done nothing to stop them. Indeed, management has condoned this misconduct, declining to take disciplinary action against those responsible and allowing two of the worst offending supervisors to resign and allegedly move on to work on other U.S. contracts. The lewd and deviant behavior of approximately 30 supervisors and guards has resulted in complete distrust of leadership and a breakdown of the chain of command, compromising security.
Numerous emails, photographs, and videos portray a Lord of the Flies environment. One email from a current guard describes scenes in which guards and supervisors are "peeing on people, eating potato chips out of [buttock] cracks, vodka shots out of [buttock] cracks (there is video of that one), broken doors after drnken [sic] brawls, threats and intimidation from those leaders participating in this activity...." Photograph after photograph shows guards--including supervisors--at parties in various stages of nudity, sometimes fondling each other. These parties take place just a few yards from the housing of other supervisors. |
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TS.
Delicious schadenfreude
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:21 pm Post subject: |
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The person who wrote that seems to have something of an axe to grind. Words like "deviant" should not be used lightly, if they must be used at all.
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:37 am Post subject: |
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Canada to stage mock Afghan attack in Washington
| Quote: | The mock village, complete with a small souk and peopled by nearly a dozen Afghan actors, will be created in the courtyard of the Canadian embassy, halfway between the Capitol and the White House. A handful of Canadian soldiers and, Col. Martin hopes, U.S. Marines will arrive to “see the village leader” just as the IED blows up, “critically injuring” at least one Afghan, who will get immediate first aid from a Canadian medic.
[...]
“If this works the way I want it to, more Americans will know what Canada is doing in Afghanistan,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Martin, a military attaché at the Canadian embassy. “Unfortunately there are still a lot of Americans … who don't know about how great the Canadian commitment is,” |
Oh. My. Effing. Gawd   
I agree with Simon:
| Quote: | ... whether you support the war or not, when the American media get a hold of this one they'll be laughing at us all the way from Choogabooga to Uzbekistan.
And that's if things go right. If the sound of explosions echoing through the city doesn't cause mass panic. Or passing motorists don't see men running around dressed like Bin Laden, stop their cars, and open fire on the "terrorists."
[...]
... what bothers me almost as much as this cringing display of our national inferiority complex, or the waste of money, is how tacky it's going to look. So in the interest of saving some face I'd like to suggest a few ways to make this exercise a little more realistic.
(1) Bring in a bunch of real Afghan police officers, so they can stop traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue and demand money from the drivers.
(2) Fly over a real warlord so he can set up a scary but educational exhibit with the skulls of his enemies. While offering handy tips on how to grow opium...and how to beat your wife wives. |
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anne cameron
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| Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 3:59 pm Post subject: |
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Believe me, western men need no lessons in how to beat their wives. Unschooled, untutored, and working only with primal instinct, they manage to kill or cripple one woman every few minutes in NA.
But for the rest of it, yeah. Sillybuggers, they're busy playing sillybuggers.
I don't know who the sophomoric twit was who thought this one up, but Porky should never have given his okay.
Now if they want to hold a real TV event...launch a "mock" attack on the hill in Ottawa, charge in, grab and kidnap our not so noble leader and a few members of his cabinet, then lug'em off to some secluded site in the Laurentians, say, or, failing that , a convenient alley...dump a few buckets of water on'em to make believe they're being waterboarded, maybe pull a fingernail or two, then eff off and let them find their own way back.
Keeping in mind how anti-brutality everyone on this board is, you'll notice I've declined the use of sexual torture, utter humiliation and the eating of dog shit. Because I'm such a kind and gentle old woman, y'see. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| anne cameron wrote: | | I don't know who the sophomoric twit was who thought this one up, but Porky should never have given his okay. |
I told Simon, this is the type of "subtlety" we've come to expect from the likes of Jason Kenny, John Baird, Pierre Poilievre and, yes, Stephen Harper. Not to mention General "Scumbags" Hiller.
| Quote: | | Now if they want to hold a real TV event... |
I also told Simon that in that list of things we should do to make the whole exercise seem more authentic, he forgot to mention throwing Afghani queers (and women fleeing abusive husbands) in prison -- 'coz we're busy doing that over there, too:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/WarOnTerrorism/2006/02/27/1465239...
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The Evil Twin
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| Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 7:39 am Post subject: |
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Robert Scheer compares Obama with another war mongering President with an ambitious domestic agenda (health care reform now, the "Great Society" then). I've said this before and I'll say it again, if Obama doesn't get out of Afghanistan (or "Afpak" as the US media has labelled both Afghanistan and Pakistan), it will destroy his Presidency as well as tear apart the Dems:
| Quote: | Obama's Quagmire Looks a Lot like Vietnam
By Robert Scheer, Truthdig. Posted September 11, 2009.
The way he's headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency.
True, he doesn't seem a bit like Lyndon Johnson, but the way he's headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency. LBJ also had a progressive agenda in mind, beginning with his war on poverty, but it was soon overwhelmed by the cost and divisiveness engendered by a meaningless, and seemingly endless, war in Vietnam.
Meaningless is the right term for the Afghanistan war, too, because our bloody attempt to conquer this foreign land has nothing to do with its stated purpose of enhancing our national security. Just as the government of Vietnam was never a puppet of communist China or the Soviet Union, the Taliban is not a surrogate for al Qaeda. Involved in both instances was an American intrusion into a civil war whose passions and parameters we never fully have grasped and will always fail to control militarily.
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Those recruits included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9-11 attack, and financier Osama bin Laden, who met in Afghanistan as part of a force that Ronald Reagan glorified as "freedom fighters." As blowback from that bizarre, mismanaged CIA intervention, the Taliban came to power and formed a temporary alliance with the better-financed foreign Arab fighters still on the scene.
There is no serious evidence that the Taliban instigated the 9-11 attacks or even knew about them in advance. Taliban members were not agents of al Qaeda; on the contrary, the only three governments that financed and diplomatically recognized the Taliban - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan - all were targets of bin Laden's group.
To insist that the Taliban be vanquished militarily as a prerequisite for thwarting al Qaeda is a denial of the international fluidity of that terrorist movement. Al Qaeda, according to U.S. intelligence sources, has operated effectively in countries as disparate as Somalia, Indonesia, England and Pakistan, to name just a few. What is required to stymie such a movement is effective police and intelligence work, as opposed to deploying vast conventional military forces in the hope of finding, or creating, a conventional war to win. This last wan hope is what the effort in Afghanistan - in the last two months at its most costly point in terms of American deaths - is all about: marshaling enormous firepower to fight shadows.
The Taliban is a traditional guerrilla force that can easily elude conventional armies. Once again the generals on the ground are insisting that a desperate situation can be turned around if only more troops are committed, as Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal did in a report leaked this week. Even with U.S. forces being increased to 68,000 as part of an 110,000-strong allied army, the general states, "The situation in Afghanistan is serious." In the same sentence, however, he goes on to say that "success is achievable."
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I was reporting from Vietnam when that buildup began, and then as now there was an optimism not supported by the facts on the ground. Then as now there were references to elections and supporting local politicians to win the hearts and minds of people we were bombing. Then as now the local leaders on our side turned out to be hopelessly corrupt, a condition easily exploited by those we term the enemy.
Those who favor an escalation of the Afghanistan war ought to own up to its likely costs. If 110,000 troops have failed, will we need the half million committed at one point to Vietnam, which had a far less intractable terrain? And can you have that increase in forces without reinstituting the draft?
It is time for Democrats to remember that it was their party that brought America its most disastrous overseas adventure and to act forthrightly to pull their chosen president back from the abyss before it is too late.
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http://www.alternet.org/world/142565/obama%27s_quagmire_looks_a_lot...
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"Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it." - Stevie J. Harpoon |
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The Evil Twin
Stoned Immaculate
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 2979
Location: Toronto
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| Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 7:54 am Post subject: |
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Measuring a war gone to hell:
| Quote: | Here may be the single strangest fact of our American world: that at least three administrations -- Ronald Reagan's, George W. Bush's, and now Barack Obama's -- drew the U.S. "defense" perimeter at the Hindu Kush; that is, in the rugged, mountainous lands of Afghanistan. Put another way, while Americans argue feverishly and angrily over what kind of money, if any, to put into health care, or decaying infrastructure, or other key places of need, until recently just about no one in the mainstream raised a peep about the fact that, for nearly eight years (not to say much of the last three decades), we've been pouring billions of dollars, American military know-how, and American lives into a black hole in Afghanistan that is, at least in significant part, of our own creation.
Imagine for a moment, as you read this essay, what might have happened if Americans had decided to sink the same sort of money -- $228 billion and rising fast -- the same "civilian surges," the same planning, thought, and effort (but not the same staggering ineffectiveness) into reclaiming New Orleans or Detroit, or into planning an American future here at home. Imagine, for a moment, when you read about the multi-millions going into further construction at Bagram Air Base, or to the mercenary company that provides "Lord of the Flies" hire-a-gun guards for American diplomats in massive super-embassies, or about the half-a-billion dollars sunk into a corrupt and fraudulent Afghan election, what a similar investment in our own country might have meant.
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Costs
Annual funding for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2002: $20.8 billion.
Annual funding for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2009: $60.2 billion.
Total funds for U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, 2002-2009: $228.2 billion.
War-fighting funds requested by the Obama administration for 2010: $68 billion (a figure which will, for the first time since 2003, exceed funds requested for Iraq).
Funds recently requested by U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry for non-military spending in Afghanistan, 2010: $2.5 billion.
Funds spent since 2001 on Afghan "reconstruction": $38 billion ("more than half of it on training and equipping Afghan security forces").
Percentage of U.S. funding in Afghanistan that has gone for military purposes: Nearly 90%.
Estimated U.S. funds needed to support and upgrade Afghan forces for the next decade: $4 billion a year ("with a like sum for development") according to former Assistant Secretary of Defense Bing West. (According to the Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon, "It's a reasonable guess that for 20 years, we essentially will have to fund half the Afghan budget.")
Afghan gross national product: $23 billion ("the size of Boise" Idaho's, writes columnist George Will) -- about $3 billion of it from opium production.
Annual budget of the Afghan government: $600 million.
Maintenance cost for the force of 450,000 Afghan soldiers and police U.S. generals dream of creating: approximately 500% of the Afghan budget.
Amount spent on police "mentoring and training" since 2001: $10 billion.
Percentage of the more than 400 Afghan National Police units "still incapable of running their operations independently": 75% (2008 figures).
Cost of the latest upgrade of Bagram Air Base (an old Soviet base that has become the largest American base in Afghanistan): $220 million.
Cost of a single recent Pentagon contract to DynCorp International Inc. and Fluor Corporation "to build and support U.S. military bases throughout Afghanistan": up to $15 billion.
War-Fighting
Number of American troops killed in Afghanistan, 2001: 12.
Number of American troops killed in Afghanistan, 2009 (through September 7th): 186
Total number of coalition (NATO and American) deaths in 2009 thus far: 311, making this the deadliest year for those forces since the war began.
Number of Lithuanian troops killed in Afghanistan: 1
Two worst months of the Afghan War in terms of coalition deaths: July (71) and August (74) 2009.
U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, 2002: 5,200.
Expected U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, December 2009: 68,000.
Percentage rise in Taliban attacks on coalition forces using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in 2009 (compared to the same period in 2008): 114%.
Rise in Coalition deaths from IED attacks in July 2009 (compared to July 2008): six-fold.
Percentage increase in overall Taliban attacks in the first five months of 2009 (compared to the same period in 2008): 59%.
Number of U.S. regional command centers in Afghanistan: 4 (at Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Bagram).
Number of U.S. prisons and holding centers: approximately 36 "overcrowded and often violent sites" with 15,000 detainees.
Number of U.S. bases: at least 74 in northern Afghanistan alone, with more being built. (The total number of U.S. bases in Afghanistan seems not to be available.)
Estimated cost per troop of maintaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan when compared to Iraq: 30% higher.
Number of gallons of fuel per day used by the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan: 800,000.
Cost of a single gallon of gas delivered to the Afghan war zone on long, cumbersome, and dangerously embattled supply lines: Up to $100.
Number of gallons of fuel used to keep Marine tents cool in the Afghan summer and warm in winter: 448,000 gallons.
Number of troops from Georgia (not the U.S. state, but the country) being prepared by U.S. Marine trainers to be dispatched to Afghanistan to fight in spring 2010: 750.
Number of Colombian commandos to be sent to Afghanistan: Unknown, but Colombian commandos, trained by U.S. Special Forces and financed by the U.S. government, are reportedly to be dispatched there to fight alongside U.S. troops. (Note that both Georgia and Colombia are dependent on U.S. aid and support. Note also that neither the Georgians nor the Colombians would assumedly be bound by the sort of restrictive fighting rules that limit the actions of some NATO forces in Afghanistan.)
Percentage of American spy planes and unmanned aerial vehicles now devoted to Afghanistan: 66% (33% are in Iraq).
Number of American bombs dropped in Afghanistan in the first six months of 2009: 2,011 (a fall of 24% from the previous year, thanks evidently to a directive from U.S. commanding general in Afghanistan, Stanley A. McChrystal, limiting air attacks when civilians might be present).
Number of Afghan civilian deaths recorded by the U.N. January-July 2009: 1,013, a rise of 24% from the same period in 2008. (Unfortunately, Afghan deaths are generally covered sparingly, on an incident by incident basis, as in the deaths of an Afghan family traveling to a wedding party in August, assumedly due to a Taliban-planted IED, or the recent controversial U.S. bombing of two stolen oil tankers in Kunduz Province in which many civilians seem to have died. Anything like the total number of Afghans killed in these years remains unknown, but what numbers we have are undoubtedly undercounts.)
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Full article:
http://www.alternet.org/world/142521/afghanistan_by_the_numbers%3A_...
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