#2
Terrorising the residents of Kabul has been a standard feature of Afghan civil wars for at least 30 years.
Kabul is in a very different situation to Baghdad. It doesn't surprise me the strategy is working.
Afghanistan is just a distraction from the real issues of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Israel, etc.
The Left supports the Afghan war, because it is seen as the 'good' war, with UN and Euro support. The fact it is unwinnable in any reasonable timeframe doesn't enter into their calculation. If you want a rerun of Vietnam, here it is.
#3
In Iraq we have won. In Afghanistan we will continue to demonstrate that if we don't own it, we nonetheless can make it a place where jihadis go to die. A Darwinian space, if you will, until the Afghan Army is ready to take over. Question for those who know: between the East Point officers' school and training the new army units, how is the Afghan Army coming on?
#4
It really doesn't matter how they're coming along. Logistics is everything for a combatant force. These guys will be a conventional force and they will be conventionally supplied. Now through Pakistan. But they're surrounded by enemies, Iran and the Stans, including Pakistan. And all the other stans are surrounded on the other side by Russia. That's why we can't deal directly with the Paks.
#7
The AP just declared victory in Iraq. NY Times is now saying Mookie's weakening. And now, David Petraeus is turning attention to Afghanistan. I'd say the Talibunnies have the weaker hand. The key, as always, will be the Pak border region. This is yet another Copperhead article from a dying medium.
#8
Afghanistan matters because it is another place the Jihadists can *claim* they defeated us.
Not a lot of people have mentioned it but I think a big factor in our success in Iraq is the Democrats idiotic statements about pulling out. I think it reminded a lot of Iraqi's that the US is not 100% trustworthy and they better step up. A similar thing has to happen in Afghanistan lest they take the Vietnamese attitude of not wanting to get involved too deeply in their own civil war.
If we can't find a Pashtun tribe willing to side with us and control the country then we find an Uzbek or Tajik, set up one of our bastards, smash the drugs and slip into the the shadows.
If that is made somewhat clear a Pashtun, or even better Karzai and company will start working to step up their own game.
#9
And how is the "Baghdad Strategy" currently doing in Baghdad?
The murder rate in Baghdad is 0.6/day per million inhabitants. This makes Baghdad as save as Atlanta and safer than the following US cities:
Detroit
Baltimore
New Orleans
St. Louis
D.C.
Cincinatti
Philadelphia
Buffalo
Kansas City
Does anyone want to declare these cities a Quagmire?
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/27/2008 15:14 Comments ||
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#10
Cincinnati and Buffalo? Since I hail from both, I must be a murderous thug twice over. ;-) Good perspective, Frozen Al.
And a very good point about the Democratic threats, rjschwarz. Let's not tell them, 'k?
#13
Every heroin dealer and supplier in the world has a vested interest in keeping things in Afghanistan and the tribal region of Pakistan just the way they are. We are talking hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars at risk. The war there is ultimately about protecting the world's heroin supply.
KABUL - NATO countries have agreed to send more troops to the volatile south of Afghanistan, Canada's foreign minister said on Saturday, and another 200 Canadian troops could also be deployed. Canada has some 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them stationed in the southern province of Kandahar where they have suffered one of the worst casualty rates fighting a resilient Taleban insurgency.
"We've been talking with our NATO allies and in fact we do now have commitments to increase the number of troops particularly in the Kandahar region," Canadian Foreign Minister David Emerson told a news conference in Kabul. "We're really more comforted that the troop support is being increased in an appropriate way," he said.
In 2006, Canadian troops took over operations in Kandahar, the Taleban's former de-facto capital. Faced with some of the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan, Canada has criticised other countries for refusing to send troops to the south, where the insurgency is strongest.
Asked if Canada was going to increase its own contingent in Afghanistan, Emerson said it could send some 200 soldiers. "Canada does have 2,500 troops here in Afghanistan and that number could expand to 2,700 as more equipment arrives," he said. "We are really talking about a significant increase in the contribution from other countries and that contribution has been forthcoming," he said.
Emerson, on his first trip to Afghanistan since taking office in May, said he had visited "his team" in Kandahar and Kabul to ensure they were well organised. Asked if more troops were the only solution in Afghanistan, Emerson said there needed to be a more "complete reconciliation". "But it is going to take some military capacity and military activity to get Afghanistan to the point where a more comprehensive, a more permanent solution can take effect," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 00:00 ||
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And they're going to get to Afghanistan how, exactly?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/27/2008 0:36 Comments ||
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#2
Charter flights.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 1:12 Comments ||
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How lovely that the Canadians have managed to prise a number committment from their European allies. Any news on whether these new troops will be allowed by their governments to actually do anything useful, or when they will land in-country?
#7
On charter flights: I meant no disrespect. The USAF uses them as well; seems there's never enough airlift capacity where and when you want it.
NATO countries frequently use charters to move their people in and out of theater. I don't have a problem with it. Note the SALIS consortium in the referenced article that the Euros use to get airlift capacity when needed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 12:05 Comments ||
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#8
Afghanistan is going to be a problem as long as there's not a direct logistical link to a seacoast, or friendly neighbors. The only way Pakistan is going to be friendly is if they control Afghanistan. The northern Stans and Iran don't necessarily want to be friendly, either. The best option is to give Afghanistan a seacoast - at the expense of pakistan, which is a failed state, and a failed idea. Get rid of Pakistan, divide its territory between Afghanistan and India, and most of the crap in South Asia stops. It's NOT going to stop until pakistan is gone. The sooner the better.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2008 13:54 Comments ||
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Sudan on Friday threatened to expel peacekeepers from Darfur if President Omar al-Bashir is indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). "We are telling the world that with the indictment of our president we can't be responsible for the well-being of foreign forces in Darfur," Bashir's adviser, Bona Malual, told reporters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. "After that we may ask them to withdraw from our territory," he added.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accuses Bashir of personally instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and the use of rape to commit genocide.
Last week, Moreno-Ocampo asked ICC judges to issue a warrant for Bashir's arrest. If granted, which could take several months, it would be the first issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state. "We reject this indictment totally," Malual said. "We will not submit our president to any kind of questioning or answering to a body Sudan is not part of."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Thursday portrayed himself as a man of peace, during a tour of the Darfur region where he is accused of carrying out genocide.
Mr. Bashir addressed thousands of supporters during an outdoor rally in the town of El-Geneina in the western part of Darfur. He vowed to work for peace and the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees.
President Bashir told the crowd that Sudan does not need anyone to show the country how to achieve peace.
On July 14, the International Criminal Court indicted President Bashir on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Darfur. Speaking at a rally in northern Darfur Wednesday, Mr. Bashir dismissed the ICC charges as an attempt to discredit his government.
Many world leaders have expressed concern that the indictment could lead to further violence and instability in the already troubled country.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Colombian rebels have rejected the government's proposal for asylum abroad for jailed guerrillas freed in any potential prisoner swap.
Rebel commander Ivan Marquez said in an interview published on Saturday on a website that the government's offer of asylum in France or elsewhere was an insult to guerrilla dignity.
The offer was made earlier this year before Colombia's military lured FARC rebels into freeing their most prized hostages, dual French national Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans. French officials have said they would accept guerrillas who renounce violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:01 ||
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an insult to guerrilla dignity.
Such a skilled man. I never could have said that with a straight face.
(Xinhua) -- Carlos Garcia, leader of Colombia's major ruling party, was arrested Friday for alleged ties with far-right paramilitary groups, the chief prosecutor's office said. Garcia, president of the National Unity Party holding the most seats in the Senate, was arrested in the city of Santa Marta.
A major ally of President Alvaro Uribe, Garcia has been making efforts to conduct a referendum that will allow Uribe to run for a third consecutive term in 2010.
Garcia was accused of having contacts with the United Self-defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), whose arrested leaders confessed their relations with Garcia. But he has vehemently denied allegations of ties with paramilitary groups, which prosecutors say occurred in his home province of Tolima in 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:01 ||
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The leftists strike back in retribution for the FARC's recent string of defeats.
Italy declared a nationwide state of emergency over the arrival of immigrants on Friday as Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing government pushes forward with its crackdown on illegal immigration.
Parliament said in a statement that the state of emergency which gives police and local authorities additional powers to tackle the influx, was extended to the entire country to combat the "persistent and exceptional" arrival of illegal immigrants. It did not give further details. The state of emergency was earlier in effect only for the southern provinces of Sicily, Puglia and Calabria.
Italy's long shoreline and proximity to Africa make it a popular entry point into Europe for thousands of Africans who make hazardous journeys in flimsy boats each year. The move by Berlusconi's government, which won an April election promising a hard line on illegal immigration that it blames for crime, was immediately attacked by the opposition.
"This way it ends up only increasing the worries and insecurities of people, exactly the opposite of what should be done," Democratic Party politician Marco Minniti said. The head of Medicins Sans Frontieres in Italy told the Ansa news agency that migrant arrivals on the southern island of Lampedusa in the first seven months of the year were up 30 percent from a year ago but were stable compared to prior years. Berlusconi earlier this week won parliamentary approval for a new package of reforms to tackle the issue of illegal immigration.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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#3
and then who is going to support Italy's reverse population pyramid
Posted by: Climble Dark Lord of the Heathen Rus3773 ||
07/27/2008 8:12 Comments ||
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#4
Just a reminder: illegal immigration to the US from Mexico and south, has raised the percentage of Hispanics - increasingly unassimilated - in New Mexico, to over 40% of the population of that state. The Italian disloyalist problem doesn't even come close to that.
#6
Hey, Silvio! When you're done in Italy you wanna come to the US?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/27/2008 9:06 Comments ||
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Zoid, where do you get your figures from. New Mexico has always had a high percentage of Hispanics. Heck, it was originally all Hispanic and Indian. The Hispanic population of New Mexico has always been high because that is where the bulk of the population was when America acquire whole southwest in the Mexican-American War. The Anglo migration into the state didn't really get going till the railroads showed in the late 19th Century. New Mexico generally isn't a squatting spot for illegals because there few jobs for the unskilled locals already [other than murder, rape, assault, etc]. The illegals generally are passing through as quickly as possible on to better and more lucrative opportunities, as demonstrated by the number of crammed van routinely stopped or rolled over on I-40.
#9
and then who is going to support Italy's reverse population pyramid
How about legal immigrants and people who don't come to their country to collect welfare and commit crimes? How about people who stand in line and pay the fees and follow the rules? And when they have enough and dont need any more, you're shit outa luck. You arent born with a god given right to enter Italy. Just like you don't have the right to jump the fence in Arizona.
#10
Procopius2k: you are truly intelligent, erudite and spot correct on New Mexico.
The problem is here in Arizona. I live in Tucson and half the town (southern half) speaks little or no English. No matter - all the store signs are in Spanish too. AZTLAN here we come...
AHMADABAD, India - An obscure Islamic group claimed responsibility for a series of synchronized explosions that killed at least 45 people in western India, warning of "the terror of Death" in an e-mail sent to several television stations minutes before the blasts.
Another unexploded bomb was found and defused early Sunday, said the city's police commissioner, O.P. Mathur. He said police had detained 30 people.
"In the name of Allah the Indian Mujahideen strike again! Do whatever you can, within 5 minutes from now, feel the terror of Death!" said an e-mail from the group sent to several Indian television stations minutes before the blasts began.
The e-mail's subject line said "Await 5 minutes for the revenge of Gujarat," an apparent reference to 2002 riots in the western state which left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. The historic city of Ahmadabad was the scene of much of the 2002 violence.
Saturday's e-mail, sent from a Yahoo account and written in English, was made available to AP by CNN-IBN, one of the TV stations that received the warning.
State government spokesman Jaynarayan Vyas said 45 people were killed and 161 wounded when at least 16 bombs went off Saturday evening in several crowded neighborhoods. The attack came a day after seven smaller blasts killed two people in the southern technology hub of Bangalore.
Investigators in Surat, a city about 160 miles south of Ahmadabad, found a car carrying detonators and a liquid that police suspect may be ammonium nitrate, a chemical often used in explosive devices, city police Chief R.M.S. Brar told reporters.
Cities around the country were put on alert and security was stepped up at markets, hospitals, airports and train stations.
The e-mail was sent by a group calling itself Indian Mujahedeen which was unknown before May, when it said it was behind a series of bombings in Jaipur, also in western India, that killed 61 people.
In its e-mail, the group did not mention the bombings in Bangalore and it was not clear if the attacks were connected.
"An e-mail was received by many news organizations. We are inquiring into that. We haven't traced it yet," city police Chief A.N. Roy said.
The Saturday bombs went off in two separate spates. The first, near a busy market, left some of the dead sprawled beside stands piled high with fruit, next to twisted bicycles. The second group of blasts went off near a hospital.
The side of a bus was blown off and its windows shattered, while another vehicle was engulfed in flames. Most of the blasts took place in the narrow lanes of the older part of Ahmadabad, which is tightly packed with homes and small businesses. Bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the areas.
Distraught relatives of the victims crowded the city's hospitals. One of the wounded was a 6-year-old boy whose father was killed in the blasts. He lay in a hospital bed with his arms covered in bandages and wounds on his face.
Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat state where Ahmadabad is located, called the blasts "a crime against humanity." He said the bombings appeared to have been masterminded by a group or groups who "are using a similar modus operandi all over the country."
India has been hit repeatedly by bombings in recent years. Nearly all have been blamed on Islamic militants who allegedly want to provoke violence between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority, although officials rarely offer hard evidence implicating a specific group.
The perpetrators also rarely claim responsibility a fact that raised doubts about the Indian Mujahedeen when it took credit in May for attacking Jaipur.
Fears that an attack could spark religious riots are real in India, which has seen sporadic violence between Hindus and Muslims since independence from Britain in 1947.
Those fears were amplified by the recent history of the 2002 religious riots. The violence was triggered by a fire that killed 60 passengers on a train packed with Hindu pilgrims. Hindu extremists blamed the deaths on Muslims and rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods, although the cause of the blaze remains unclear.
Ahmadabad is also known for the elegant architecture of its mosques and mausoleums, a rich blend of Muslim and Hindu styles. It was founded in the 15th century and served as a sultanate, fortified in 1487 with a wall six miles in circumference.
ISLAMABAD: The decision to place the IB and ISI under civilian control will be of great detriment to the countrys defence establishment, former ISI chief Hameed Gul said on Saturday. He told Daily Times that the ISI had a strategic role and should not be placed under the Interior Division. It is acceptable to some extent to place the IB under the Interior Division, but the ISI is the countrys first line of defence, he added
Posted by: john frum ||
07/27/2008 12:11 ||
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This is just smoke. As Old Spook notes in the other thread, it's a sham, and as Nimble notes, it's just a reason to order new stationery. Move the offices around, change the name plaques and the drapes, and otherwise things remain just as they are.
Gul's protect is just for the rubes in public. No doubt he'll convince Obama.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 12:28 Comments ||
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In 2006, the Pak government told the courts that the defense ministry did not have operational control over the ISI.
The interior ministry is unlikely to have any more oversight.
The ministry of defence exercises only administrative control over Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) and it does not have any operational control or jurisdiction to enforce the courts direction on these agencies, an official of the ministry informed the Sindh High Court on Tuesday.
The court was hearing six petitions against illegal detention of people belonging to political and religious organisations.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/27/2008 12:38 Comments ||
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The Taliban were created by the Pak interior ministry, over the objections of the ISI at that time.
Now everyone can be a big happy family...
Posted by: john frum ||
07/27/2008 12:40 Comments ||
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Pakistan accused India of violating the truce on the Line of Control on Saturday and said the "unprovoked" firing by Indian troops had forced it to retaliate.
Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said the firing from the Indian side began at about 10 a.m. "They were the first to fire and engaged our forward post at Battal [in Hajira sector]." He said Pakistani troops retaliated. Once the firing ceased, the Pakistani side lodged a protest with the Indian side, and asked for a flag meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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In a move with potentially far-reaching implications, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), accused by Afghanistan and India for masterminding terrorist attacks against them, has been placed under the control of a civilian authority in the government.
An official press release on Saturday said both the ISI and Intelligence Bureau have been placed under the control of Pakistan's Interior Ministry "with immediate effect."
Often referred to as "a State within a State," the ISI functioned until now as a part of the Pakistan military. Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj is the current director-general of ISI.
The IB was under the Cabinet Division headed by the Prime Minister. "In terms of Rule 3(3) of the Rules of Business, 1973, the Prime Minister has approved the placement of Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence under the administrative, financial and operational control of the Interior Division with immediate effect according to a memorandum issued by the Cabinet Division," it stated.
The development came as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani headed to the United States for a meeting with President George Bush on Monday.
The Indian National Security Adviser, M.K. Narayan, who also held the ISI responsible for the Kabul attack, said the agency "must be destroyed".
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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#1
The ISI is a completely rogue agency, this is a facade.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is expected to meet with top U.S. officials in Washington this week, including President George Bush. His visit comes during new tensions among Afghan, Pakistani and U.S. officials over how to counter a growing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad.
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan launch new offensives each summer when warm weather eases travel and clears passes in the country's rugged mountains. But the summer of 2008 has been particularly violent, with a 40 percent increase in attacks in eastern Afghanistan over the previous year.
Just across the border in Pakistan, Taliban militants have expanded their territory and now control large parts of the country's remote tribal areas. Officials in northwestern Pakistan say Taliban influence is spreading out from the tribal regions into larger towns.
U.S. and Afghan officials say countering the Taliban in Afghanistan will require depriving insurgents of their strongholds in Pakistan's tribal areas. Afghan President Hamid Karzai says militants who use those bases to launch attacks across the border are his country's most serious threat. "The fight against terrorism is not in Afghanistan and we will not be secure and safe unless Afghanistan and the international community address the question of sanctuaries in Pakistan and the terrorist training camps there," he said."
But Afghan and Pakistani officials not only argue over what to do about the Taliban sanctuaries, but also who is to blame for the militants' growth. In the past month, officials from both countries have accused their counterparts of supporting Taliban factions. Afghan officials even directly accused Pakistan's military and intelligence services of participating in the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul. Pakistan rejected the allegations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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The Pakistani people will not welcome allied forces in the Tribal Areas, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said. Talking to a British TV channel, he said that there was no need for allied forces' action in the Tribal Areas. The foreign minister said that the Pakistani forces were capable enough of dealing with militancy and that the situation would not improve if allied forces launched an attack on the Tribal Areas. He said that Pakistan did not receive any positive response from Afghanistan over its suggestions on how to deal with terrorism, adding that the allied forces should perform their responsibilities effectively in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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#1
Japan and Germany didn't particularly welcome the US with open arms, either. They also didn't have a whole he$$ of a lot to say about it. If Pakistan doesn't do what's necessary to effectively gain sovereignty over the tribal areas, they will either be conquered or turned into glass. There are no other choices.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/27/2008 20:29 Comments ||
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NEW DELHI: The Indian defence establishment is concerned by the United States decision to divert $230 million in aid to Pakistan from counter-terrorism programmes to upgrading its F-16 fighter jets. Acquisition of new airborne capabilities by Pakistan is definitely a matter of concern for India since its always primarily directed at us. If the US thinks Pakistan will only use its upgraded F-16s for counter-terrorism operations, it is sadly mistaken, Times of India quoted a top Indian defence official as saying on condition of anonymity.
Has a Pakistani F-16 ever flown over Waziristan?
Indias Western Air Command (WAC) chief Air Marshal PK Barbora, in turn, said, Every country does what it thinks is needed for its defence requirements. The question is what is going to be given to Pakistan with the F-16 upgrade programme.
The Bush administration says Pakistans F-16s will be upgraded with advanced targeting, precision-guided munitions and radar systems to improve their capability to attack terrorist targets along the volatile Afghan border.
Not that they'll ever fly there ...
This upgrade programme of 30 of the original 40 F-16s acquired by Pakistan between 1983 and 1987 comes after Washington also agreed to sell Islamabad 18 to 25 new F-16 variants armed with a wide array of advanced missiles. Moreover, Pakistan will begin inducting the first lot of the planned 250 JF-17 Thunder fighters from China by the end of 2008. We obviously have to keep a close watch on this. Fighters are weapons of war, not counter-terrorism, said another Indian officer.
But even as the Indian Air Force (IAF) grapples with a steady downturn in the number of fighter squadrons - down to just 32 from the sanctioned strength of 39.5 - it is not too worried at the developments. We have our own plans of new acquisitions and upgrades of existing fleets to boost our defence preparedness, said Barbora, whose command is primarily responsible for guarding the skies on the entire western front.
Sources said plans for faster induction of 230 Sukhoi-30MKIs contracted from Russia in deals worth around $8.5 billion are currently under way. They said for instance, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd was working towards completing its licensed production of 140 Sukhois by 2013-14 instead of 2017-18 as previously planned. Sources said India planned to upgrade 125 MiG-21 Bisons and around 100 MiG-27s and Jaguars with new weapons and avionics packages. They said India had also signed a $964 million deal with Russia to refit its 63 MiG-29s, adding that a similar deal was in the pipeline with France for IAFs 51 Mirage-2000s.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 00:00 ||
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You know, I really gotta wonder about this move. Why arm the pakis when we are likely going to have to shoot them down within a few years?
LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Abdul Hameed Dogar has given his approval for the restoration of 14 sacked judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and Sindh High Court (SHC) and sent a list of these 14 judges to President Pervez Musharraf, a private television channel reported on Saturday.
According to Aaj TV, eight of the 14 judges to be restored are from the SHC while six are from the LHC.
Former Supreme Court (SC) Bar Association president Muneer A Malik told the channel that the government was not sincere in restoring the sacked judges, adding that the restoration of the 14 judges in question was the SCs decision, and not the governments.
Also on Saturday, the SC registrar expressed ignorance about any move to restore sacked judges of the provincial high courts, while Law Secretary Agha Rafiq Ahmad Khan said he had no knowledge at all of the restoration, according to Geo News. According to the channel, SC Bar Association President Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said the sacked judges restoration through a simple notice would mean that the government had admitted the November 3, 2007, actions to be unconstitutional, adding that if the reinstatement required taking of a fresh oath, the judges would be considered to have been restored under the Provisional Constitution Order, the channel said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 00:00 ||
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Kirkuk is an essential part of Iraqi Kurdistan. While Kirkuk's demography has been in flux in recent decades, this is largely a result of ethnic cleansing campaigns implemented by Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime. Free from Baathist restrictions, many Kurdish refugees have returned to their homes in the city and its immediate environs. While many diplomats and analysts may be tempted to delay decisions about the final status of Kirkukwhether it should remain as it is or join Iraq's Kurdistan Regionany delay could be counterproductive to the goals of peace and stability. The tens of thousands of Kurds killed by Saddam have no right of return.
Ethnic Cleansing
The Baathists sough to implement their Arab nationalism by force. In June 1963, the short-lived Baathist regime of Ali Saleh al-Sa'adi destroyed thirteen Kurdish villages around Kirkuk and expelled the population of another thirty-four Kurdish villages in the Dubz district near Kirkuk, replacing them with Arabs from central and southern Iraq.
After the Baath party consolidated power in 1963, the National Guard (al-Haras al-Qawmi), recruited Arab Baathists and Turkomans who systematically attacked ethnic Kurds. Between 1963 and 1988, the Baathist regime destroyed 779 Kurdish villages in the Kirkuk regionrazing 493 primary schools, 598 mosques, and 40 medical clinics.[10] In order to prevent the return of the Kurds, they burned farms and orchards, confiscated cattle, blew up wells, and obliterated cemeteries. In all, this ethnic cleansing campaign forced 37,726 Kurdish families out of their villages. Given the average rural Kurdish family size of between five and seven people, this policy forced over 200,000 Kurds to flee the region. The Kurds were not the regime's only victims. During the Iran-Iraq war, the central government destroyed about ten Shiite Turkoman villages south of Kirkuk.
The Iraqi government also compelled urban Kurds to leave Kirkuk. It transferred oil company employees, civil servants, and teachers to southern and central Iraq. The Baathist government renamed streets and schools in Arabic and forced businesses to adopt Arab names. Kurds could only sell real estate to Arabs; non-Arabs could not purchase property in the city. The government allocated thousands of new residential units for Arabs only. Ethnic cleansing intensified after the 1991 Kuwait war when the Republican Guards crushed a short-lived uprising. In 1996, the regime passed an "identity law" to force Kurds and other non-Arabs to register as Arab. The government expelled from the region anyone who refused. In 1997, the Iraqi government demolished Kirkuk's historic citadel with its mosques and ancient church. Human Rights Watch estimated that between 1991 and 2003, the Iraqi government expelled between 120,000 and 200,000 non-Arabs from Kirkuk and its environs.[11]
In September 1999, the U.S. State Department reported that the Iraqi government had displaced approximately 900,000 citizens throughout Iraq. The report continued to describe how "[l]ocal officials in the south have ordered the arrest of any official or citizen who provides employment, food, or shelter to newly arriving Kurds."[12]
A New Beginning for Kirkuk?
In April 2003, coalition forces and the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga liberated Kirkuk from Baathist control. Many victims of Saddam's ethnic cleansing campaign sought to return to the region, only to be prevented by U.S. authorities. Many remain in tent-city limbo. Article 58 of the March 8, 2004 Transitional Administrative Law[13] sought to settle disputes in Kirkuk by means of an Iraqi Property Claims Commission and "other relevant bodies." In practice, however, successive Iraqi governments have done little, creating suspicion among many Iraqi Kurds as to the central government's intentions. The uncertainty over Kirkuk's status has impeded local development and sidelined the issue of refugee resettlement.
Article 140 of the new Iraqi constitution has adopted Article 58 of the Transitional Administrative Law, which necessitates the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk by which the legislature meant the assistance of the return of internally displaced people and their reclamation of seized property. Arabs installed in the region should be helped to return to southern and central Iraq, should they so desire. The four subdistricts of Kifri, Chemchemal, Kalar, and Tuz-Khurmatu annexed to neighboring governorates by the regime in 1976 should be returned to the governorate of Kirkuk. Article 140 also states that a local census must be organized and a referendum held to decide the future of the province. The set deadline for the implementation of this article is December 2007. However, if Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki does not implement the article within the allocated time, ethnic and sectarian unrest could explode in Kirkuk, the effects rippling throughout Iraq.
A report by the International Crisis Group proposes that the Iraqi government invite the U.N. Security Council "to appoint an envoy to start negotiations to designate the Kirkuk governorate as a stand-alone, federal region for an interim period" and recommends postponing the constitutionally-mandated referendum because of the threat that it could further exacerbate an already uncertain security situation.[14]
There is no need for another envoy. With many Arab League nations and Turkey opposed to the expansion of Kurdish self-rule, a U.N. envoy would not have the confidence of most of Kirkuk's residents. Nor should outside organizations, however well-meaning, delay implementation of Article 140. A wide swath of Iraqi society accepted the constitution after extensive consultation. And, on August 9, the Iraqi government nominated a high committee chaired by the Minister of Justice to implement Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution without delay.
Until the December 2007 referendum, which the U.N. has the expertise to organize, it will be impossible to know whether local residents wish Kirkuk to be absorbed into the Kurdistan Regional Government. Many Kurds do, but others are afraid of being pushed aside by established patronage networks and political machines imposed from outside the city.
Rather than destabilize the region, formal resolution of the dispute over Kirkuk's status should calm the city. Various ethnic and sectarian communities coexisted peacefully in Kirkuk until Abdul-Karim Qasim's 1958 coup d'état. The central government in Baghdad rather than local politics fueled most subsequent conflicts. Any census is sure to confirm the majority status of Kurds inside Kirkuk. They will demand the right to have their voice heard through the ballot box. But Kurdish empowerment through the democratic process need not mean disenfranchisement for the local Arabs and Turkoman communities. There is no reason why the various communities within Kirkuk cannot coexist peacefully again.
The New York Times reporting good news from Iraq? They must figure this will help the Obamasiah.
BAGHDAD -- The militia that was once the biggest defender of poor Shiites in Iraq, the Mahdi Army, has been profoundly weakened in a number of neighborhoods across Baghdad, in an important, if tentative, milestone for stability in Iraq.
It is a remarkable change from years past, when the militia, led by the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, controlled a broad swath of Baghdad, including local governments and police forces. But its use of extortion and violence began alienating much of the Shiite population to the point that many quietly supported American military sweeps against the group.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki struck another blow this spring, when he led a military operation against it in Baghdad and in several southern cities.
The shift, if it holds, would solidify a transfer of power from Mr. Sadr, who had lorded his once broad political support over the government, to Mr. Maliki, who is increasingly seen as a true national leader. It is part of a general decline in violence that is resonating in American as well as Iraqi politics: Senator John McCain argues that the advances in Iraq would have been impossible without the increase in American troops known as the surge, while Senator Barack Obama, who opposed the increase, says the security improvements should allow a faster withdrawal of combat troops.
The Mahdi Army's decline also means that the Iraqi state, all but impotent in the early years of the war, has begun to act the part, taking over delivery of some services and control of some neighborhoods.
"The Iraqi government broke their branches and took down their tree," said Abu Amjad, a civil servant who lives in the northern Baghdad district of Sadr City, once seen as an unbreachable stronghold for the group.
The change is showing up in the lives of ordinary people. The price of cooking gas is less than a fifth of what it was when the militia controlled local gas stations, and kerosene for heating has also become much less expensive. In interviews, 17 Iraqis, including municipal officials, gas station workers and residents, described a pattern in which the militia's control over the local economy and public services had ebbed. Merchants say they no longer have to pay protection money to militiamen. In some cases, employees with allegiances to the militia have been fired or transferred. Despite the militia's weakened state, none of the Iraqis interviewed agreed to have their full names published for fear of retribution.
In a further sign of weakness, Shiite tribes in several neighborhoods are asking for compensation from militia members' families for past wrongs.
The changes are not irreversible. The security gains are in the hands of unseasoned Iraqi soldiers at checkpoints spread throughout Baghdad's neighborhoods. And local government officials have barely begun to take hold of service distribution networks, potentially leaving a window for the militia to reassert itself.
The militia's roots are still in the ground, Abu Amjad said, and "given any chance, they will grow again."
At the peak of the militia's control last summer, it was involved at all levels of the local economy, taking money from gas stations, private minibus services, electric switching stations, food and clothing markets, ice factories, and even collecting rent from squatters in houses whose owners had been displaced. The four main gas stations in Sadr City were handing over a total of about $13,000 a day, according to a member of the local council.
"It's almost like the old Mafia criminal days in the United States," said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Talley, an Army engineer rebuilding Sadr City's main market.
Um Hussein, a mother of 10 in Sadr City, the largest Shiite district in the capital and one of the poorest, said her family's fuel bill had dropped so far that she could afford to buy one of her daughters a pair of earrings with the savings. Others interviewed listed simpler purchases that had now become possible: tomatoes, laundry detergent, gasoline.
One young man said that even though his house was right across from a distribution center that sold cooking gas, he was not allowed to buy it there at state prices, but instead was forced to wait for a militia-affiliated distributor who sold it at higher prices. "We had to get our share of the cooking gas from Mahdi Army people," Um Hussein said. "Now, everything is available. We are free to buy what we want."
Before, the Mahdi Army controlled the 12 trucks that made daily deliveries of cooking gas canisters for the district, because the leader of the Sadr City district council, who was affiliated with the militia, was the one who handled the trucks' documents. "We had no idea when they were coming or where they were going," the council member said, referring to the trucks.
Those who questioned the militia's authority were dealt with harshly. A gas station worker from Kadhimiya recalled a man in his 60s being beaten badly for refusing to pay the inflated gas price last year. The Sadr City council member described his relationship with the militia by touching his hand to his face.
"I was kissing them here, here and here," he said pointing to his right cheek, his left cheek and then his forehead.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
07/27/2008 10:03 ||
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Two "flying pigs" pics needed, one for the AP story, and one for this one.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/27/2008 12:03 Comments ||
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#2
Of course, didn't Obama just get back from fixing Iraq? Damn he is good. /sarcasm
#3
The AP reports good news from Iraq because it is there for everybody to see and they cannot propagandate it under the rug any more.
NOTE: They never admit that they were wrong. They will never do that. They are still ideologically driven lefties, and they consider the facts a minor setback in their true believer minds. A skirmish lost, as it were.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/27/2008 17:11 Comments ||
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#4
Kitchener, I presume! Good job old boy! Have a good chuckle from the grave...
The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said Saturday that the "revolutionary stream" - as former Gaza Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan's supporters are called - were responsible for the blast on Gaza's beach Friday night that left five Hamas men and a 4-year-old girl dead.
The blast occurred at about 8:30 P.M. at the Khalil cafe, a known meeting place for Hamas men. It was followed by the toughest crackdown against Fatah in recent months.
The dead are Sarin a-Safadi, the 4-year-old; Nihad Masbakh, considered the head of the military wing of Hamas in the Shajaiyeh district of Gaza City; Iyad al-Hayeh, a nephew of one of Hamas' leaders in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayeh (whose son was also seriously injured in the blast); Nidal al-Mbayid and Osama al-Khalu. The identity of the fifth Hamas man is unknown.
More than 20 Palestinians were injured, mostly passers-by.
The explosive charge was set off under a car belonging to one of the Hamas men, which was parked outside the coffee shop.
Sources in Hamas said the Palestinian Authority television in Ramallah broadcast pictures of the car hit in the Gaza blast accompanied by joyful music.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh convened an emergency government meeting on Saturday, after which he issued a statement blaming Fatah for the bombing. The statement called on the Gaza authorities to find the people involved in "the horrible crime yesterday."
"Those guilty will be subject to justice in order to be an example for anyone who might think to shed the Palestinian blood," the statement read. If convicted, the perpetrators could face the death penalty.
Earlier Saturday, Hamas security forces arrested dozens of Fatah supporters, hurled grenades at the home of one Fatah leader and set up checkpoints across Gaza in a crackdown on the rival faction.
A Gaza-based human rights group reported Hamas security officials arrested at least 160 Fatah loyalists, and some 40 institutions connected to the group were raided. Fatah leaders said more than 200 of its people were rounded up, including its top leader in Gaza, Ahmad Nasser.
Fatah leaders denied involvement in the explosion, and an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the consequent crackdown was reducing prospects for eventual reconciliation between the rival groups.
If Hamas was in fact targeted, it would be the deadliest such attack since the Islamic militants ousted Fatah-allied security forces from Gaza in a violent takeover more than a year ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived here Saturday evening from the Jordanian capital of Amman for talks with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak on the Palestinian issue.
The two leaders are expected to discuss efforts exerted to push ahead the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, the Egyptian state MENA news agency reported.
The Palestinians and Israel resumed peace talks during a U.S.-sponsored peace conference last November, with an aim to clinch a peace agreement before the end of this year.
However, no tangible progress has been made so far in the negotiations which would pave the way for a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel.
Abbas and Mubarak will also tackle Egypt's mediation to maintain a truce in and around the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip between Hamas-led Palestinian groups and Israel.
On June 19, the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect in Gaza. But the indirect talks between Hamas and Israel on a possible prisoner swap and the opening of Gaza crossings have made little progress.
On July 16, Hamas made an announcement to halt the talks with Israel on the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit until Israel and Egypt open the closed Gaza border crossings.
Hamas accuses Israel of not properly lifting the sanctions on the Hamas-controlled Gaza despite Palestinian commitment to the ceasefire which succeeded in restoring sort of calm in and around the Palestinian enclave.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:01 ||
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DAMASCUS - Israel and Syria are to continue their indirect peace negotiations this coming week in Istanbul, it was announced Saturday in Damascus. This fourth round of negotiations is to cover how the two formal enemy states can move on from the phase of indirect talks with Turkish intermediation to direct talks, Syrian government officials said.
The negotiations began in May after a seven-year freeze in the Israeli-Syrian peace process. Syria is demanding a complete withdrawal from the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Israel for its part wants Syria to end its support of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and radical Palestinian groups.
So Israel gives back the Golan (something) and Syria promises to make nice with the Hezbies (nothing). Same old game.
Turkish diplomats have been playing the role of political letter carriers, delivering messages back and forth between the two sides. The two sides negotiating teams have not yet sat at the same table together, with Syria rejecting direct talks at this stage.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2008 00:00 ||
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A blast that took place a week ago near Tehran wrecked a convoy of Revolutionary Guard Corps vehicles that was carrying arms to Hezbollah, according to a report Friday in the British daily The Telegraph. According to the report, the blast killed several people.
The Revolutionary Guards imposed a news blackout was imposed and opened an investigation into he possibility that the blast was the result of sabotage. The explosion took place in the Tehran suburb of Khavarshahar near a Revolutionary Guards munitions warehouse.
The Telegraph said Western officials had received reports that the munitions were bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Although the blast was clearly heard throughout Tehran, the Revolutionary Guard imposed a complete ban on reports of the incident, and the Iranian media have so far not released any information about it. The Iranian government has also not issued an official statement regarding the blast.
Jerusalem has also not officially responded to the incident. The Prime Minister's Bureau said it was unfamiliar with the incident and therefore did not want to comment.
Sources in Israel say there has been a significant rise in the movement of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah in recent months, especially via Syria, and that the smuggling is a source of great concern to security and government leaders. According to a senior Israeli government official, "The weapons smuggling has reached such a level that a new policy should be formulated."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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opened an investigation into he possibility that the blast was the result of sabotage
Democratic Gathering leader Walid Jumblat urged feuding factions in Tripoli to halt acts of violence and resort to wisdom, saying factional violence "only serves foreign agendas."
Jumblat, in remarks published by the daily As Safir, said repercussions of such factional clashes would save no side, warning against re-launching fanatic movements similar to Shaker al-Abssi's Fatah al-Islam. He recalled that the Sunnis and Alawites have a joint history of struggle in defense of Lebanon and its Arab belonging.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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MP Ahmad Fatfat blamed the ongoing clashes in Tripoli on Hizbullah-trained factions and urged the army and security forces to "carry out their duty" against combatants on both sides of the confrontation line.
Fatfat, in an interview with the Mustaqbal daily, said "the army has to be firm and decisive, especially that it has the names of feuding leaders from both sides, from Bab al-Tabbaneh and from Baal Mohsen. They appear on Television screens holding press conferences despite that they are wanted by law. This is not acceptable." He warned that the population in Tripoli is arming up and "the logic of auto security is prevailing."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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Hizbullah has countered efforts by majority representatives to refer the topic of its resistance to national dialogue by proposing a similar handling of the international tribunal. The pan-Arab daily al-Hayat said Hizbullah's representative to the ministerial committee drafting the new cabinet's policy statement Mohammed Fneish, made the proposal during a lengthy meeting on Friday.
Majority representatives protested against the Hizbullah proposal, noting that agreement was reached during national dialogue in 2006 on the international tribunal that would try suspects in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes. However, Hizbullah sources said Fneish believes that the court was accepted "in principle. However, details require further discussion to guarantee that the tribunal wouldn't be biased and politicized."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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Shiite spiritual authority Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah on Friday criticized those who doubt legality of the resistance weapons.
He said national dialogue should focus on how to take part "in the agenda to defend Lebanon, not to drop the major strategic card that was always available in the interest of the homeland and the nation."
Fadlallah made the remarks in his Friday sermon. "As long as all (factions) agree that Israel is an enemy ... why do we persist with raising questions about the resistance weapons?" Fadlallah asked.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2008 00:02 ||
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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.
KABUL - NATO countries have agreed to send more troops to the volatile south of Afghanistan, Canada's foreign minister said on Saturday, and another 200 Canadian troops could also be deployed. Canada has some 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them stationed in the southern province of Kandahar where they have suffered one of the worst casualty rates fighting a resilient Taleban insurgency.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Thursday portrayed himself as a man of peace, during a tour of the Darfur region where he is accused of carrying out genocide.
The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said Saturday that the "revolutionary stream" - as former Gaza Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan's supporters are called - were responsible for the blast on Gaza's beach Friday night that left five Hamas men and a 4-year-old girl dead. 
DAMASCUS - Israel and Syria are to continue their indirect peace negotiations this coming week in Istanbul, it was announced Saturday in Damascus. This fourth round of negotiations is to cover how the two formal enemy states can move on from the phase of indirect talks with Turkish intermediation to direct talks, Syrian government officials said.
A blast that took place a week ago near Tehran wrecked a convoy of Revolutionary Guard Corps vehicles that was carrying arms to Hezbollah, according to a report Friday in the British daily The Telegraph. According to the report, the blast killed several people. 
Democratic Gathering leader Walid Jumblat urged feuding factions in Tripoli to halt acts of violence and resort to wisdom, saying factional violence "only serves foreign agendas." 
MP Ahmad Fatfat blamed the ongoing clashes in Tripoli on Hizbullah-trained factions and urged the army and security forces to "carry out their duty" against combatants on both sides of the confrontation line.
Shiite spiritual authority Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah on Friday criticized those who doubt legality of the resistance weapons.
