Posts Tagged ‘Afghanistan’
After revealing the U.S.’ frequent attacks on Pakistan, Obama addressed citizens in an hour-long video chat on Google+ on Monday.
While this is not surprising to all, it has outraged some including Amnesty International.
Pakistan has claimed that these attacks are illegal and Obama defends them stating that they are aimed to protect U.S. citizens and projects abroad.
The number of civilians killed is being debated. The President reassured in his speech that the number is few.
The Commander in Chief is facing a stiff compromise between military safety and transparency at home. Can he strike a good balance between the two?
Image from the New York Times
Three wonderful women honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.
Will you still have the right to vote in 2012?
Sesame Street takes on childhood hunger.
Ten years later: the war in Afghanistan.
One way to tell if Washington is listening to Occupy Wall Street.
Doubting the death penalty: Troy Davis set to die for a crime he may not have committed.
Going after Google? GOP candidate takes aim at internet giant.
An assassination in Afghanistan: Country’s former president killed in bombing.
Image from The Washington Post
One last welcome: President Obama greets bodies of those killed in Afghanistan crash.
Bouncing back! Stocks skyrocket after rough start.
Super senators? Three Democrats headed to new “Super Congress.”
Not hiring: Teen unemployment is at 20%!
And, England is on fire.
Withdrawal symptoms: Obama’s announcement to reduce US troops Afghanistan get mixed reviews.
Speaking of mixed news: Oil is down… unemployment is up.
Gender blender: birth certificates might get sex-change operation.
Shakira tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An “uncontacted” Amazon tribe is found in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
And Saudi women want to drive … Big Shots in Europe and Arabia are on board.
Image from CBS News
Ready to quit? FDA releases new, gruesome cigarette warning labels.
Close to extinction: World’s oceans are in worse condition than anyone previously thought.
The fallout continues! Two more Gingrich aides leave floundering campaign.
Bringing ‘em home: President Obama set to announce outline for Afghanistan troop withdrawal.
With Terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden vanquished, some are suggesting the US and NATO wind down their 10 year engagement in Afghanistan. The cartoon above sheds light on that question. (cartoon by KAL)
Thanks to Reuters
Hollywood will not likely be making a movie about this historic prison escape.
The “audacity of the operation” as the Telegraph’s Jeremy Kelly put it, has boosted the Taliban’s rap sheet and has made them even more infamous.
Their daring and unthinkable escape from prison via a 320 meter long tunnel is awe inspiring, despite the negative implications of the situation. Amongst the whopping 514 escapees were 106 commanders who are expected to resume militant activities.
The master-plan of this operation goes something like this.
1) Kandahar, Afghanistan: 5 months of building a 1,050 foot tunnel to the main prison from the south side.
THE UNIMAGINABLE FEAT – “bypassing government checkpoints, watch towers and concrete barriers topped with razor wire”
2) At 11:00 pm, prisoners started to crawl out through the tunnel in a period of 4 & 1/2 hours until 3:30 am.
AN INSIDE JOB? - probably, considering the prison guards ONLY noticed the escape 4 hours after the operation, the tunnel was dug using “modern technology,” and
no one knows who unlocked the cells besides speculation about duplicated keys.
It seems line a rather simple, well coordinated plan, that makes NATO and the Afghan government look even weaker than during the 2008 Taliban attack on the the prison where over 1000 prisoners escaped. The ingenuity of this Great Escape sets it apart from an earlier escape attempt 3 years ago which featured the bombing the prison entrance.
This prison break may have just made it to the top ten most amazing escapes in history including
10. Maze Prison Escape (1983)
9. Alfred Hines (1960s)
8. The Texas Seven (2000)
7. Alfred Wetzler (1944)
6. Slowomir Rawicz (1941)
5. Escape From Alcatraz (1962)
4. Libby Prison Escape (1964)
3. Pascal Payet (2001)
2. The Great Escape (1943)
1. Colditz Escape (WWII)
Thanks to Wikicommons.
Since the chaos in Libya broke out it is easy to forget America’s still in up to its (name a body part) in another little place: the nation of Afghanistan.
This July, the US is handing over defense of parts of the nation fully to the Afghan government. Must mean things are going great right?
Not quite….
Reports are showing that the Taliban and even worse, Al Qaeda, is finding safe havens within Afghanistan as US troops left obscure valleys.
As David Axe reports from near the Pakistan border while accompanying an Army patrol
After three years without any coalition contact, the area has become an overt Taliban stronghold…
…With local Afghan troops still badly inexperienced and the surge of U.S. troops slated to end this summer, this border could quickly fall back into neglect.
So, okay, maybe the periphery of the nation is unstable but most of the country is fine right?
Well, as we reported earlier, stability is fleeting as the burning of Korans in the US triggered riots across Afghanistan.
Expert and resident of Afghanistan Tim Lynch suspects that these riots may have not been spontaneous as for the Talib.an
the Koran burning provided the perfect opportunity for an organization with motive, money and organization to whip a large crowd out of control.
Further aggravating the situation is America’s fraying relationship with Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai. Years of insufficient funding, shifting strategies, and perceived coldness from Washington, Ahmed Rashid reports, has Karzai feeling
that he no longer trusted the United States, its representatives, or their advice.
This is a big problem Rashid notes as
the road out of the conflict runs through a close U.S.-Karzai relationship, whether either of them likes it or not, and today that relationship is imperiled to a degree that it never has been before.
Long story short don’t expect the ending of the Afghan conflict to be quick or clean. We’ve been there almost ten years and we’re suspecting we’ll be reporting on this conflict long into the future.
Thanks to Wikicommons.
Beginning of the hand off. Seven areas of Afghanistan to be protected by Afghan National forces without foreign support in July.
Maybe Hillary should have tried this? Guatemala’s President and First Lady to divorce so she CAN legally run for president!
Singles need not apply. Job discrimination is illegal unless your a pastor?
Thanks to Wikicommons.
The UN sanctioned no fly zone has met little resistance from Colonel Qaddafi’s forces. In fact mechanical failures have downed more US planes than Libyan loyalist forces.
However, that doesn’t mean our newest air war (and its Commander in Chief) isn’t under fire.
While the rebels in Libya may be celebrating, American reaction is much cooler with a majority not supporting involvement. Congress is also questioning whether whether President Obama could act without their official support.
Voicing this worry, Andrew Sullivan fears that involvement in Libya, like Iraq, is driven by a perfect storm of
the neocons who want to see the US military deployed across the globe in the defense of freedom and the liberal interventionists who believe that the US should intervene whenever atrocities are occurring. What these two groups have in common is an unrelenting focus on the reason for intervention along with indifference to the vast array of unintended consequences their moralism could lead us into.
It is this specter of Iraq and Afghanistan that is driving much of the opposition to Libya: America is already at war with two Middle Eastern nations do we think we’ll suddenly find success in a third?
Over at Democracy in America, M.S. thinks this won’t be like our other two desert escapades as
Things are different in Libya in great measure because Egypt, Tunisia and their Arab League fellows don’t want to see Muammar Qaddafi win; they’ve never much liked the guy, even before the revolt, and they don’t want to have an unstable, post-civil-war pariah state in North Africa.
…the fact that they’re spontaneously committing to the intervention, that the regional attitude is friendly towards a popular revolt to overthrow Mr Qaddafi and towards UN-approved intervention to protect that revolt, makes a huge difference.
Of course even if the climate is more favorable to positive results that doesn’t mean things will turn out the way we want them to. Using the US air war over Kosovo as an example Peter Beinart notes that by only having forces in the air we have little control on end results and
If we’re lucky, the Libyan rebels will soon be a much more powerful force, and if we’re really lucky, they’ll be a powerful force capable of unifying Libya behind a reasonably humane regime. But the latter will be mostly out of our hands.
So what is the take away? Libya could end up like Afghanistan, or it could not. The rebels could form a peaceful democracy, or they could not. President Obama could go down as humanitarian, or he could not. Thusly, in conclusion we’re as in the dark as you are.
The War In Afghanistan, remember that?
The New York Times has an article on how the US strategy has shifted.
There has been a concerted attempt to move away from the conventional style of warfare, occupying/securing major cities, key valleys, and roads, to fanning out across the sparse county.
“Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the United States military has settled into a campaign for scattered villages and bits of terrain that few people beyond their immediate environs have heard of.”
The fighting is slow, with soldiers moving from village to village in an attempt to root out Taliban insurgents.
“Officially, Mr. Obama’s Afghan buildup shows signs of success, demonstrating both American military capabilities and the revival of a campaign that had been neglected for years. But in the rank and file, there has been little triumphalism as the administration’s plan has crested.
With the spring thaw approaching, officers and enlisted troops alike say they anticipate another bloody year. And as so-called surge units complete their tours, to be replaced by fresh battalions, many soldiers, now seasoned with Afghan experience, express doubts about the prospects of the larger campaign.”
There is little certainty whether or not the strategy is working, but what does seem to be sure is that as time drags on the forces on the ground are losing patience and faith in the War.
March is National Umbrella Month! Get your schedule in order with this super cute 3D umbrella calendar.
Trouble in the Ivory Coast.
Sorry’s not good enough for Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai.
A little cash never hurt anybody? US questions Iran’s cash donations to Afghani government.
Do as I say, not as I do. NYC Mayor Bloomberg supports two term restriction AFTER he has started his THIRD term.
Does it ever get easier for Haiti? Cholera epidemic expected to grow in Haiti and possibly expand to the Dominican Republic.
A Fighting chance? Courts order US military to accept gay applicants…for now.
Nations defense HQ under attack? Shots fired into the Pentagon, minimal damage and no injuries reported.
Hopes for an end in Afghanistan? Taliban and Afghan government leaders discuss peace with NATO approval.
