The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (May '08)

[geo]

Afghan army units ready for bigger security role: commander

The Globe and Mail
MURRAY BREWSTER
The Canadian Press
May 15, 2008
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN

Canada's painfully patient strategy of letting the fledgling Afghan army take the lead in the field is paying dividends and could soon expand to include more troops and territory, said the outgoing commander of Canadian troops in the region.

Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche said the development of Afghan National Army units has come along quicker than he expected during his 10-month tour.

Although a long way from being the equal of a western fighting force, Afghan army troops are now in charge of “the most difficult piece of ground in southern Afghanistan,” Brig.-Gen. Laroche said in an interview before handing over command to Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson on Wednesday.

One Afghan army battalion, or kandak, has been responsible for security in the Zhari district west of Kandahar since January.

“What we have seen the past four months is remarkable,” Brig.-Gen. Laroche said. “They are taking the initiative. They are very proactive.” At this rate, Brig.-Gen. Laroche said, another battalion of roughly 650 Afghan soldiers could be ready by the fall to take over in Panjwaii district — another Taliban hotbed where much Canadian blood has been spilled.

The current Canadian battle group, mostly troops from 3rd Battalion Princess Patricias' Canadian Light Infantry, has increasingly played a support role to Afghans who have planned and executed their own successful operations against militants. Canadian troops seeing the most action belong to the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams that train the Afghans.

The strategy has seen a levelling off of Canadian casualties in recent months, taking much of the political heat off Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government.

Coming out of last month's NATO summit in Bucharest, Harper said he believed the riding death toll among soldiers was what troubled Canadians the most about the Afghan mission.

Since becoming involved in Afghanistan in 2002, 83 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed. The latest, Cpl. Michael Starker, 36, a Calgary medic, died in an ambush near Pashmul, in Zhari district.

Brig.-Gen. Laroche and his Afghan counterpart, Brig.-Gen. Gul Aqa Naibi, have asked separately that the Afghan defence ministry in Kabul consider sending more units to Kandahar as soon as they equipped.

Brig.-Gen. Naibi has formally requested two additional battalions within the last week.

The pace at which the Afghan army would be ready to take the lead in the field became a huge political issue in Canada last year.

Former defence minister Gordon O'Connor said he believed it would happen by February of this year, but Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier gave a more cautious estimate that was seen as contradicting his boss.

The Taliban were swept from power by the U.S. invasion in 2001 following the attacks of Sept. 11. But they have maintained a stubborn insurgency in various parts of the country, challenging the authority of the Kabul government.

The Afghan army has been a work in progress. The plan is to raise 70,000 government troops by the end of 2008, but the Afghan defence minister has suggested as many as 200,000 would needed for long-term security.

The emergence of the 1st Brigade of the Afghan 205 Corps as a disciplined, lethal unit under Canadian mentoring counts as one of Brig.-Gen. Laroche's most prized accomplishments during his time in Afghanistan.

Col. Abdul Bashir, commander of the brigade, said he is hopeful his request for more troops will be granted.

“If I get two more kandaks (battalions) I will provide security for (the) whole province,” Col. Bashir said Wednesday.

Brig.-Gen. Laroche, who made his pitch for more Afghan troops in Kandahar through his superiors, tried to temper expectations by saying he wasn't sure the request would be answered soon.

The increasing ability of the Brig.-Gen. Naibi's units as well as the presence of 3,200 U.S. marines, who have been fighting pitched battles with Taliban militants in neighbouring Helmand province, will allow the new Canadian commander to concentrate on reconstruction.

Parliament voted to extend Canada's military presence in Kandahar until 2011 as long as the focus shifted away from combat.

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The importance of roads in Afghanistan

Reuters.uk, UK
By Luke Baker
Fri May 16, 2008
KHOST, Afghanistan

Spend 30 minutes talking to a U.S. military officer in Afghanistan and chances are he or she will mention one factor as crucial to the stability of the country: roads.

Geographically challenging, with vast desert plains to the south and soaring mountains in the Hindu Kush to the north and east, Afghanistan is remarkably devoid of proper roads given its size and a population approaching 30 million.

There are just 34,000 km (21,000 miles) of useable roadway in the country, of which less than a quarter is paved, according to the CIA World Factbook. By comparison, there are about 10 million km of paved roads in the United States.

Better roads are essential not only for the economy -- so that farmers and merchants can get produce to markets more easily and importers can bring vital foodstuffs into the landlocked country -- but also for security, since police and the army can get more quickly to remote, unstable areas.

Paved roads also make it much harder for the Taliban to plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) -- nearly 750 of which detonated across Afghanistan last year, causing hundreds of deaths. Planting them on pot-holed, dirt tracks is easy.

"I can't tell you how important roads are," said Colonel Pete Johnson, the commander of U.S. forces in southeast Afghanistan, where development lags central and northern areas and paved roads are minimal.

"If we pave roads, there's almost an automatic shift of IEDs to other areas because it makes it so much more difficult for the enemy to emplace them ... Roads here mean security," he told Reuters in an interview last week.

About the only people more insistent than the Americans about the importance of roads are the Afghans themselves, fed up with vehicle-destroying 12-hour journeys to the next major city when a paved road might get them there in under three.

And yet, six years after the United States overthrew the Taliban, comparatively little appears to have been done to improve the network, especially considering how much money has been thrown at it and how important everyone agrees it is.

JOB CREATION

Since 2002, USAID, the organisation through which the U.S. government channels the vast majority of its aid to Afghanistan, has spent $1 billion building 1,700 km of new paved road. Security, "capacity building" and overheads have accounted for nearly a quarter of the cost, according to a USAID official.

The construction works out at $580,000 per km, and with at least two of USAID's upcoming projects the cost will approach $1 million per km, according to the group's own figures. By comparison, the U.S. army corps of engineers budgets $250,000 per km for building paved roads.

Part of the reason for the high price tag is the cost of security, but also the tiered nature of the projects -- USAID subcontracts a major foreign company to do the work, which subcontracts part of it, often to an Indian or Turkish company, which subcontracts local Afghan labour to dig and lay the road.

The contract-awarding process takes time, as does design and planning. The longer the delays, the longer Afghans, around 70 percent of whom are unemployed, remain out of work.

A programme on Afghan TV jokes about the poor quality of the new roads, but then points out that perhaps foreign contractors do it on purpose -- if the roads need mending soon after they are built, more Afghans will end up with jobs.

The latest, much-awaited project is to build a 101 km road from Khost, in southeastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, to Gardez, a city southeast of Kabul, where the road will meet up with the already-paved Kabul-Gardez road.

The project is crucial because Khost, often isolated in winter, will become a key transit point for imports from Pakistan, and occasional exports from Afghanistan, greatly shortening the journey time for international trade.

The $98 million project, due for completion in October 2009, was due to kick off this month. But Louis Berger, the American company subcontracted by USAID to do the work, did not turn up to a meeting with local Afghan officials to inaugurate the road because it did not have sufficient notice to plan security.

USAID said the meeting was rescheduled and took place on May 11. Work has still not begun, but Afghans in the area, many of whom are prepared to work for as little as $3 a day, are excited about the prospect of long-term employment.

"The contractor is currently mobilising equipment and resources to the site," a USAID official said of the project.

 

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Young Boy Detonates Bomb, Injures Two Cdn. Troops In Afghanistan

CityNews - Home
Murray Brewster
The Canadian Press
Friday May 16, 2008 

A boy possibly as young as 10 was used in a suicide-bomb attack against a joint Canadian and Afghan army patrol in Afghanistan on Friday.

Two Canadian soldiers and two Afghan soldiers were wounded in the attack about 40 kilometres from Kandahar city, the military said.

The boy, described by witnesses as around 10 years old, walked up to the army patrol.

"He is believed to have been wearing a suicide vest," said Capt. Amber Bineau, a spokeswoman for the Canadian army battle group in Kandahar.

She condemned the attack and described it as a "last ditch-attempt" by militants to disrupt the progress of Afghan and NATO forces in establishing security in the country.

"These types of attacks demonstrate a weakness in the insurgency and do not impede the resolve of those who work to make Kandahar province a safe and stable environment," Bineau said in a statement.

The Canadian military released no further information on the nature of the attack, but Afghan police officials speculated that the bomb carried by the child might have been remotely activated.

If true, it would represent a disturbing turn in the Taliban's campaign of suicide bombings which has been going on for more than two years.

Earlier this year in Iraq, two mentally handicapped women strapped with remote-control explosives were believed used as unwitting suicide bombers. The blasts, 20 minutes apart, killed 73 people in Baghdad in February. U.S. officials said it was the work of the extremist group, al-Qaida in Iraq.

Bineau said the two Canadians wounded in Friday's attack were evacuated by helicopter to Kandahar Airfield and able to "walk into the medical facility on their own."

The names of wounded Canadians are normally not released, but Bineau said the two soldiers would notify their families.

The four soldiers were on patrol around 10 a.m. local time in the village of Nalgham, in Zhari district, when the bomber struck.

The attack came just over a week after a Canadian soldier was killed while on foot patrol in the Pashmul region outside Kandahar City.

Cpl. Michael Starker, a Calgary paramedic, was shot and killed May 6. His funeral was in Calgary on Friday. Another Canadian was injured in the incident but is expected to recover.

Friday's blast was the second suicide bombing this week in Afghanistan.

An attacker, disguised as a woman and wearing a burka, blew himself up Wednesday outside a police station in the small southwestern province of Farah. That blast killed 12 people and wounded 27 others.

Provincial Gov. Rohul Amin said the bomber was a woman. But the Taliban, which claimed responsibility, identified the attacker as a man named Mullah Khalid who was wearing the burka as a disguise.

The explosion occurred in Dialaram, a small town on the main road running through the west and south of the country.

Amin said five police officers, including a district police chief, and seven civilians were among the dead. He said the wounded included at least 11 policemen.

The bomber reportedly approached on foot and detonated the explosives on the busy street where police were inspecting vehicles.

Insurgents launched an estimated 140 suicide bombings last year, when more than 8,000 people, mostly militants, died in insurgency-related violence. At least 1,200 people have died so far this year.

 

[geo]

Taliban gearing up for spring offensive

Globe and Mail, Canada
KATHERINE O'NEILL
From Monday's Globe and Mail
May 18, 2008
ZHARI DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN

Sapper Marc Carignan had just walked inside the compound, when a large explosion erupted near the main door, spraying jagged metal shrapnel several hundred metres and leaving a crater the size of a small car.

Several Canadian and Afghan soldiers were already inside the large mud building, which locals had told them was a possible Taliban hideout. Less than 10 minutes later, another explosion occurred, this time inside the compound, and filled the blue sky again with billowing black smoke.

“That place was a mousetrap,” Sapper Carignan, a 23-year-old Edmonton-based combat engineer, said shortly after all the soldiers climbed a wall to escape the attack on Saturday morning. His face and uniform were covered in mud and dust.

Sapper Carignan was the only person injured; he temporarily lost hearing in his right ear.

It was the second close call for the Canadian military in recent days, and another sign that Taliban insurgents are readying for an expected spring offensive using every weapon they can get their hands on.

Unlike roadside bombs, which have been one of the most popular tools used by the Taliban, Saturday's attack required substantial planning and effort. The majority of the 83 Canadian soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since 2002 were killed in roadside bomb attacks.

“I haven't seen anything like that before,” the warrant officer in charge of Saturday's operation said.

The veteran Shiloh, Man.-based soldier, who was also inside the compound when the blasts occurred, didn't want his name used for fear news of the incident would upset his family.

After the attack, soldiers searched the abandoned compound on the north bank of the Arghandab River southwest of Kandahar and found dozens of improvised explosive devices, including mortars, which failed to detonate. Those explosives, which were wired together by a single strand of copper wire and activated by command denotation, were sequenced to blow up so the soldiers would be trapped inside and killed. They didn't detonate because of faulty wiring.

“That place was rigged to kill everybody,” said Warrant Officer Chuck Côté, who was also inside the compound when blasts occurred.

A wire was found leading 600 metres away from the compound, which was surrounded by poppy and grape fields, to a wall, where the person who detonated the explosives initiated the attack.

Four locals, including a teenage boy, were briefly held and questioned by Afghan soldiers, but were released on Saturday due to lack of evidence, even though one had traces of explosive residue on his hands.

An Afghan army sergeant, who participated in Saturday's operation, said there wasn't enough to arrest and detain anybody.

“Everybody in Afghanistan has an AK-47 in their home. Explosive materials are all around us,” he said.

The operation had been patrolling areas in the Panjwai and Zhari districts before the attack occurred. The soldiers were on foot.

Security in the two districts is currently so poor, there are some military outposts that are being resupplied by helicopter drops instead of vehicle convoys. Even senior district leaders from the area don't live here because it's too dangerous, although they attend a weekly council meeting on Thursdays in Bazar-e-Panjwai, a small village about 40 kilometres from Kandahar.

Warrant Officer Devin Ramos, who is in charge of one of the small military outposts, said soldiers are “constantly” trying to win the support of locals.

“They want us down here,” he said.

However, he added that many residents are afraid of the Taliban, and will sometimes stay silent about possible attacks or even assist them, for fear of reprisals against them or their families.

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Australian troops confront tall poppies of Afghanistan

The Age, Australia
Brendan Nicholson
May 19, 2008

THE scene is surreal: an Australian soldier meets a curious child in an Afghan field awash with pink and white opium poppies.

It's a glorious burst of life in the otherwise bleak and lunar landscape of southern Afghanistan, and signals death on the streets of Western cities.

With the arrival of summer and the so-called "fighting season", the snows are gone and the mountain areas around the Chora Valley, in Oruzgan Province, are dusty brown and rocky, with not a tree or a blade of grass in sight.

Then, over one of the endless sharp ridgelines lies a valley startling green with trees and irrigated crops and hectares of the ubiquitous poppies that have turned Afghanistan into the supplier of 93% of the world's heroin.

The sweet scent is so strong that Australian helicopter pilots blasting through these valleys in their giant Chinooks 20 metres above the ground say it's like flying into a flower shop.

Some of the proceeds of the poppy crop are being used by the Taliban to finance its insurgency and to pay local farmers to join its war on coalition forces.

Despite recent casualties, Australian troops are continuing their aggressive push into parts of southern Afghanistan, including the Chora Valley, that have been dominated by the Taliban for the past six years. While there is considerable pessimism internationally and among Australian commentators about the likelihood of success in Afghanistan, Australia's Defence Force chief, Angus Houston, said he found the Australian soldiers' success in their areas uplifting.

Air Chief Marshal Houston told The Age that several things were working in the Australians' favour.

He said they were prepared to patrol on foot, and made a point of walking into villages for talks with tribal leaders.

Their success at winning over the local people in areas they had made secure had galvanised allies previously inclined to stay "behind the wire" to go on the offensive.

In the Chora Valley, Afghan and Dutch soldiers were manning the small, rugged bases built by Australian army engineers during the bitterly cold months of the northern winter.

Seventy Australians in Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams, known more quaintly as "Omelettes", are about to take on a similar role in these outlying bases when the Labor Government's new policy of embedding experienced troops with Afghan units comes into operation in the next month.

Air Chief Marshal Houston said the mentors would see the Afghan battalions, or Kandaks, through the early stages when they would be at their most brittle and vulnerable.

The Australians say they and the Afghan troops and police they are working with are increasingly being warned by local civilians about Taliban and al-Qaeda ambushes and the locations of bombs.

Air Chief Marshal Houston said the tribespeople were sick of seeing their families killed, and wanted peace and jobs.

After setting up the forward bases, the Australian engineers will help build a basic infrastructure, with bazaars and schools.

"We need to be more involved in improving governance and putting an end to the narco-economy," he said. That would be done by providing security and encouraging economic development to demonstrate to the local people that they could make a good living other than by cultivating poppies for the insurgents and criminal warlords.

Brendan Nicholson is defence correspondent. He went to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq with Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston.

Murder-suicide gunman had stress disorder

Arizona Republic, AZ
Astrid Galvan 
May. 18, 2008

The man who killed his brother and then turned the gun on himself after a 130-mile vehicle pursuit Wednesday on Interstate 8 near Stanfield was a U.S. Marine who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, his wife said.

Sgt. Travis N. Twiggs, 36, had served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kellee Twiggs, his wife of almost nine years, said he was a great father and husband who had served his country proudly.

"He was one hell of a Marine," said Kellee, who said she last talked to her husband two weeks ago.

She said her husband was placed on several different medications after he developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

"That's not what he needed," she said. "He needed help."

Lt. Brian P. Donnelly, a spokesman at the Quantico, Va., base where Twiggs was stationed, said the Marine Corps is committed to providing full medical, psychological and social support to Marines with combat-related injuries.

"Our leaders are trained to be alert for signs of PTSD in their Marines and to provide a supportive climate in which Marines can feel comfortable seeking help," he said.

"This incident is highly regrettable, and our thoughts are with Staff Sgt. Twiggs' family as they attempt to deal with this tragic event."

A recent report by the Washington Post said that almost 20 percent of troops who return from Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.

Only about half of those sought treatment, according to the report.

Twiggs wrote about his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder in "PTSD: The War Within," which was published in the January issue of Marine Corps Gazette.

He said he began to notice changes in himself after returning from his second tour. He was irritable, paranoid and couldn't sleep, he wrote.

On his third tour, two Marine comrades were killed. From then on, his life spiraled downward, he wrote.

Still, he went back for a fourth tour.

"When I arrived back in the States, it was as though I had never left," he wrote. "All my symptoms were back, and now I was in the process of destroying my family."

He was twice admitted to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

Kellee, who lives in Stafford, Va., said the marriage suffered and almost ended in divorce, but that in the past few months, she and her husband were working to save it.

The couple had two daughters.

Their youngest, 4-year-old America, was named after Twiggs' cause.

When Kellee last spoke to her husband two weeks ago, he told her he was driving to Louisiana to visit his grandparents.

But somehow he ended up in Arizona with his brother, 38-year-old Willard "Will" Twiggs.

The brothers were suspects in a Monday carjacking at the Grand Canyon and were involved in a vehicle pursuit Wednesday involving four agencies that ended in the murder-suicide.

Kellee said she had only good things to say about the man she knew most of her life.

"He was just such a wonderful man and he could make you laugh," she said.

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Clegg concern over 'old' army kit

BBC News, UK
Sunday, 18 May 2008

Nick Clegg has said he is concerned the British army in Afghanistan has "old kit" and suffers equipment shortages.

The Lib Dem leader, who is on his first visit to the country, also said there were "big issues" over soldiers' pay.

Earlier, he said failure in Afghanistan would be "devastating" and the Nato mission was "hanging in the balance".

The Ministry of Defence has said it is spending £6bn a year on new equipment and insists there are huge improvements in its standard and supply.

Mr Clegg spent two days visiting British troops and holding talks with Afghan leaders.

"I've seen some of the kit they've had to deal with," he said.

"Some of it's great, but frankly some of it's old ... some of the vehicles don't have enough spare parts, some of it's very hot and... there are big issues surrounding whether we're paying, particularly some of the junior starting soldiers, enough.

"I think there's been some improvements about some long-standing issues surrounding accommodation for soldiers' families back home, but we need to go further still.

"I think we owe all the men and women here a huge debt of gratitude because we sometimes forget that the cost of failure would be catastrophic for Britain as a whole."

Mr Clegg had warned earlier in his visit that without lasting peace and stability Afghanistan could revert to a "pariah state".

'Greater unity'

"The consequences of failure would be devastating," he said.

"Afghanistan is the most important conflict of our generation," he said.

"If we fail to secure lasting peace and stability, Afghanistan will revert to a pariah state, feeding the international drugs trade and offering a haven for terrorism that will threaten global security for the conceivable future.

"Yet the success of our mission in Afghanistan hangs in the balance. International efforts have not yet delivered the stability and security that the people of Afghanistan deserve."

Mr Clegg said the international community needed to demonstrate "greater unity in the way aid and reconstruction support is provided".

There were also crucial questions over how many UK troops should be on the ground, how to tackle the opium trade, and how to engage with neighbouring states, he added.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman pointed out that Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, commander of British forces in Helmand, Afghanistan, had previously gone on the record to the troops felt "extremely well supported" and soldiers were "much better equipped" than in 2006.

He was speaking as his 16 Air Assault Brigade took over from 52 Infantry Brigade last month.

He added: "I doubt whether the British army has ever put a brigade into the field as well equipped as 16 Brigade and it continues to improve with each deployment.

"The next brigade will probably be even better equipped."

 

[GAP]

Articles found May 19, 2008

Tanks vs. mountains
New Canadian commander in Afghanistan has to decide how armour works best in difficult terrain
By PETER WORTHINGTON, TORONTO SUN
Article Link
 
The incoming commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, in an interview with The Canadian Press, outlined what he thought would be a change of direction for Canada's role in that country.

Brig.-Gen. Dennis Thomp son is the former commander of the 2nd Canadian Mechanized Brigade, based at Petawawa. It's likely he has ideas on how our tanks in Afghanistan should be used -- one of the on-going (and largely unanswered) questions about heavy armour in that theatre.

Thompson's first priority is a prospective change of emphasis for our 2,500 soldiers -- hopefully switching from a security and combat role to one of development and reconstruction in support of increasing civilian authority. Of course, this implies close co-operation with an effective Afghan National Army (ANA), which the Canadians have been helping train for five years.

That's positive, but at the moment probably it's more good intentions than hard reality.

As Canada's former ambassador to Afghanistan, Chris Alexander (now special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Afghan politics and security) has said, before full reconstruction can start, there must be security. In Kandahar, that in large measure hinges on Canadian soldiers being, well, Canadian soldiers.

What Alexander says is that it's all very well to talk of reconstruction and development -- which Canadian soldiers have been doing since the first contingent arrived in 2002 -- but until the Taliban have been dissuaded from violence, then peace and reconstruction don't have much of a chance.

In other words, Canadian troops will continue doing soldier stuff beyond the wire, as well as encouraging reconstruction. But don't expect too much until the enemy is further intimidated, defeated or kicked out. And that depends on how effective the ANA is.

Thompson knows this but makes it clear that politically it's desirable to stress the peace and aid aspects, and not the necessity of violence and combat, because that's what Canadians (and politicians) want to hear.

As it is, there've been complaints about CIDA, Canada's main foreign aid agency, which has a lousy record in places where disaster has hit. Just ask the soldiers in Afghanistan. Just ask soldiers of the Disaster Assistance and Response Team (DART), who brought fresh water and medical aid to victims in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami.
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Canadian FM to visit Croatia for talks on Afghanistan 
19 May 2008 | 00:03 | FOCUS News Agency
  Article Link

Ottawa. Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier will travel to Zagreb Monday to discuss security issues and Croatia's involvement in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, a statement from his office said, AFP reported.
"Canada fully supports the democratic transformation of Croatia. With continued prosperity, bilateral trade and investment will grow," he said.
He noted Croatia's invitation to join the NATO military alliance and its deployment of 200 troops to Afghanistan, saying these "illustrate the cooperation" between the two countries. Canada has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.
During the same trip, Bernier will also visit Italy for talks with his counterpart there on Afghanistan, climate change and Canada-EU economic ties, and will also have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.
End of article

Education for Kandahar students growing, despite Taliban threats
Ryan Cormier, Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, May 18
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Despite Taliban intimidation, midnight arsons and a serious lack of teachers, education in Kandahar Province is edging forward.

Fifty new schools have opened this year, mostly in the capital of Kandahar City. It is a fact that Muhammad Anwar, provincial director of education, states with justifiable pride.

There have been many challenges.
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Canadian soldiers launch donation drive for Kandahar school
Last Updated: Saturday, May 17, 2008
Article Link

A group of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan is appealing to military families back home to add some basic school supplies to their care packages.

The soldiers are trying to help out a school in Kandahar whose students are the children of soldiers in the new Afghan national army.

The students and their families live in an old Soviet-era barracks, bombed by the U.S. military during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

Canadian soldiers who mentor their Afghan counterparts came up with the idea to help the school.

Maj. Rev. Jim Short, who is helping organize the donation drive, said the Afghan people have captured his heart.

"No matter how you feel about what religion you come from, or your political perspective, I think we all believe education is really important for the future of this country," he said.

He's asking the families of Canada's 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan add some school supplies to care packages they send to Kandahar. There are already some shipments ready to be mailed off in Canada, and the soldiers hope to deliver the school supplies later this summer
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Diggers launch strike on Taliban in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province
Mark Dodd | May 20, 2008
Article Link

AUSTRALIAN and coalition forces have launched a major strike against Taliban insurgents in the violence-prone Baluchi Pass of Afghanistan's southern Oruzgan province.

The push is part of a series of operations - among the biggest since the spring thaw - involving combat engineers, infantry, cavalry and support troops.

The Defence Department in Canberra would not say when the operation began or how many troops were involved, citing operational security requirements.

The lawless Baluchi region is where Australian commando Luke Worsley was killed during an anti-Taliban operation last November.

A Defence Department spokesman said the operation's purpose was to evict Taliban extremists, restore vital infrastructure and establish a safe environment for Afghan people living there.

A composite force of Australian troops - part of a joint Dutch and coalition operation - had moved into the Baluchi region, said Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Yeaman, commanding officer of the Tarin Kowt-based 4th Reconstruction Task Force.

"This is an area of huge tactical and strategic significance for the Taliban extremists," Colonel Yeaman said in a statement released yesterday.
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Photos Show Marine's Narrow Escape From Death in Afghanistan
Monday, May 19, 2008
Article Link
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356574,00.html#

Dramatic photos show a Marine's narrow escape from death Sunday while facing insurgent gunfire in Afghanistan.

The Marine, part of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), was exchanging gunfire with Taliban fighters near Garmser in Afghanistan's Helmand Province when a Reuters photographer captured the soldier's very close call.

Click here to see the dramatic photo sequence of the Marine under fire.

A series of six photos show the Marine, wearing a T-shirt and fatigues but no combat helmet, ducking as insurgent gunfire tears through the top of a mud wall he's using for cover. Remarkably, the Marine escaped the gunfight without injury.

“The insurgents are finding that every time they engage with the Marines, they lose,” Col. Peter Petronzio, commander of the 24th MEU, said in a statement issued May 10. “The Marines are gaining ground every day and securing more of the routes through the district. The support we have received from our allied partners has contributed to our many successes thus far.”
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Militants occupy MP's house in Pakistani tribal area: witnesses
Article Link

KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) — An armed group of pro-Taliban militants occupied a lawmaker's house in a Pakistan tribal area Sunday, taking his relatives and servants hostage, witnesses and officials said.

Shaukatullah Khan was out of town when up to 40 armed militants stormed his house in the restive Bajaur tribal district that borders Afghanistan.

"The Taliban are demanding that Shaukatullah Khan hands over his land and a hill from where marble is extracted," a local tribesman told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The militants said Khan had made lot of money and it was the property of local tribes, the man added.

Local officials said they were not yet aware of the militants' demands, but had sent a jirga or a peace committee of tribal elders to negotiate the hostages' release.

It was not immediately clear how many people had been taken hostage.

Witnesses said that situation was tense in the area and tribal security forces had blocked a main road linking Bajaur with Peshawar
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Afghanistan: Student Says Death Verdict Followed Torture To Coerce Confession
Article Link

KABUL/PRAGUE -- An Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Islam has rejected the charges and told an appeals court in Kabul that he was tortured into a confession.


"As a human being, a Muslim, and a descendant of the family of the Prophet Muhammad, I will never allow myself to insult my ancestor or my religion," Kambakhsh told the court, according to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan. "These are things of which I have been unfairly accused. This accusation is unlawful and I don't know why they did this to me."

The hearing was adjourned until May 25 to allow 24-year-old Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh to consult with an attorney and prepare a written defense.

Kambakhsh was condemned to death by a court in Balkh Province in January at a summary trial for blasphemy at which he had no legal representation.

He had been detained in October and spent months in a cell for suspected "national security" threats and then a local jail before his case was transferred to the capital, Kabul.
More on link

 

[MarkOttawa]

Pentagon announces Iraq, Afghanistan troop deployments
AP, May 19
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=116&sid=1406488

...
As part of the announcement, The Pentagon alerted four National Guard Army brigades, or about 14,000 troops, to begin preparing for deployments to Iraq beginning next spring, and one National Guard Army brigade, with about 3,100 soldiers, to prepare to deploy to Afghanistan in the spring of 2010...

As part of the announcement, The Pentagon alerted four National Guard Army brigades, or about 14,000 troops, to begin preparing for deployments to Iraq beginning next spring, and one National Guard Army brigade, with about 3,100 soldiers, to prepare to deploy to Afghanistan in the spring of 2010...

The unit told to prepare for deployment to Afghanistan was the 86th Brigade Combat Team from the Vermont National Guard [emphasis added]. There are currently 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, including 15,000 serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, and 18,000 in the U.S.-led effort to train the Afghan Army and conduct counterinsurgency operations.

German Special Forces in Afghanistan Let Taliban Commander Escape
Spiegel Online, May 19
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,554033,00.html

German special forces had an important Taliban commander in their sights in Afghanistan. But he escaped -- because the Germans were not authorized to use lethal force. The German government's hands-tied approach to the war is causing friction with its NATO allies...

Germany's KSK special forces have been charged with capturing the terrorist, in cooperation with the Afghan secret service organization NDS and the Afghan army. The German elite soldiers were able to uncover the Taliban commander's location. They spent weeks studying his behavior and habits: when he left his house and with whom, how many men he had around him and what weapons they carried, the color of his turban and what vehicles he drove.

At the end of March, they decided to act to seize the commander. Under the protection of darkness, the KSK, together with Afghan forces, advanced toward their target. Wearing black and equipped with night-vision goggles, the team came within just a few hundred meters of their target before they were discovered by Taliban forces.

The dangerous terrorist escaped. It would, however, have been possible for the Germans to kill him -- but the KSK were not authorized to do so...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found May 20, 2008

Soldiers sickened by Taliban tactic of using children as suicide bombers
Article Link

ARGHANDAB DISTRICT, Afghanistan — Not much comes as a shock to soldiers, but even for men who may have seen it all, the suicide bombing involving a young Afghan boy has taken the already bitter war in this country to a whole new level of savagery.

It was the utter cruelty of the attack Friday that wounded two Canadians and took life of an Afghan soldier on patrol in Zhari district that has made if even the most weather-beaten, battle-hardended faces blanche.

Afghan police initially placed his age at between 10 and 12 years, but over the weekend one official in the troubled district said the child may have been 13-years-old.

What investigators were trying to determine as they sifted through the evidence over the weekend was if the boy's bomb vest was remotely activated by a militant somewhere nearby, timed to go off - or whether the child flipped the switch himself.

There was speculation that since the child approached the troops with his hands raised, the timing of the attack was not up to him.

"It's cowardice," snarled Sapper Chris Greenaway, 21, a member of the 1st Combat Engineering Regiment based in Edmonton.

"To recruit children is pure and utter cowardice."
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Canadians play up common cultural grounds with Afghans
Ryan Cormier, Canwest News Service  Published: Monday, May 19, 2008
Article Link

SHAH WALI KOT, Afghanistan -- Canadian soldiers are striving to find common ground with Afghans along cultural lines as the Taliban begin to launch attacks that shatter those same boundaries.

Troops in C-Company adhere to the concept of ‘nang aow namoos,' which has no literal translation, but is based on dignity, honour and family.

Maj. Stacy Grubb, commanding officer of the Shilo, Man.-based company, wouldn't have it any other way.

"So much about Afghanistan is about the culture and how people live," he said. "We can't go around with the mindset of terrorist-killers when our centre of gravity is the everyday people."

He tells his soldiers to look for their own values in Afghans and use it to their advantage.

Honour is a strong concept among the Afghans, and Grubb believes helping one local can have a "multiplier effect" among an entire family.
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Canada beefing up bomb task force
David ********, Canwest News Service  Published: Monday, May 19, 2008
Article Link

The Canadian military plans to ramp up its campaign this summer to track down and deal with Taliban bomb-makers and their improvised explosive devices.

Canadian special forces and members of an ultrasecret electronic eavesdropping team are currently involved in efforts to eliminate the bomb-makers, whose devices, known as IEDs, have claimed the lives of the majority of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

But, they will be getting more support in their campaign from a recently created counter-IED task force.

That battle against IEDs is shifting its focus from dealing with only the explosive devices to putting more efforts on "attacking the network" responsible for financing, creating and planting the bombs, says Col. Omer Lavoie, head of the task force.

Those efforts involve combat operations, winning the support of the Afghan population and making better use of forensic information to track down the bomb makers and their supporters.
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Soldiers strive to find common ground
Cultural links emphasized by soldiers in trying to win Afghan support
RYAN CORMIER, Canwest News Service Published: 5 hours ago
Article Link

Canadian soldiers are striving to find common ground with Afghans along cultural lines as the Taliban forces begin to launch attacks that shatter those same boundaries.

Troops in C-Company adhere to the concept of "nang aow namoos," which has no literal translation, but is based on dignity, honour and family.

Major Stacy Grubb, commanding officer of the Shilo, Man.-based company, wouldn't have it any other way.

"So much about Afghanistan is about the culture and how people live," he said. "We can't go around with the mindset of terrorist-killers when our centre of gravity is the everyday people."

He tells his soldiers to look for their own values in Afghans and use it to their advantage.

Honour is a strong concept among the Afghans, and Grubb believes helping one local can have a "multiplier effect" among an entire family. "Everyone here is like everyone else, they want to provide for their families," Grubb said from the forward operating base he commands. "We take the good things like that, which we have in common, show the soldiers and work on that."
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2 NATO soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two NATO soldiers were killed in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the alliance said.

"One soldier was killed by enemy hostile action and another was killed in an improvised explosive device blast while supporting an Afghan National Police operation," the statement said.

NATO did not disclose the nationalities of the dead soldiers but Britain's Ministry of Defence said a British soldier had been killed on patrol in the Musa Qala area of Helmand province.

American, British and Afghan troops pushed Taliban fighters out of Musa Qala late last year. Militants had overrun it in early 2007 and held it for 10 months.

The death brings to 96 the number of British personnel who have died in Afghanistan since 2001.

Southern Afghanistan is the centre of the Taliban-led insurgency. More than 1,200 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press.
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Rebels hide among families to enter Afghanistan: ISAF
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — Insurgents are crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan, where attacks have spiked in recent weeks, hidden among hundreds of families that make the trip daily, the NATO force here said Monday.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is using a range of intelligence and surveillance systems to detect the rebels to thwart attacks along the eastern frontier, an ISAF spokesman told AFP.

"There is already a good ISAF presence along the border," General Carlos Branco told AFP, adding that the number of troops may have increased but this was not a dramatic rise or necessarily related to the steady increase in rebel activity.

"The border in Regional Command East is crossed daily by families whose members live in both sides," Branco said, referring to several eastern provinces where the insurgency is intense.

"The insurgents use these movements to disguise their activities and intentions.

"But to track their activity, ISAF has a wide range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems available." he added.
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[MarkOttawa]

Seesaw Afghan war strains ties among allies
International Herald Tribune, May 20, by Carlotta Gall
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/20/asia/taliban.php

KHAKREZ, Afghanistan: Last autumn, groups of Taliban fighters swarmed into every village in this district in southern Afghanistan. U.S. forces arrived to sweep them out in January, people here say. By April, the Taliban were back, surrounding the district center in a show of force that froze villagers in their tracks. Then the insurgents melted away again.

Khakrez, two hours north of the city of Kandahar, is just one corner of a complex war in Afghanistan. But the seesaw nature of the fight here speaks to the larger problems facing NATO and U.S. forces seven years into a conflict that shows few signs of winding down.

Increasingly, the question before the allies is how much longer it will take in crucial provinces, like Kandahar, to lock in tentative gains and bring real security and strong government to Afghans. An equally important question is whether that can be done before the war wears down relations within the U.S.-led alliance, and between the alliance and the Afghan people.

"No one claims this is going to be a year of full stabilization or even declining violence, let alone an end to the conflict," said Christopher Alexander, deputy special representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

But, he added, "there is a different picture in different places," which makes it extremely difficult to gauge progress in the war and has helped generate diverging views of the conflict among Afghan officials and their U.S. and NATO allies...

"This is the time to do something, to move against them," said Hajji Agha Lalai, who runs the Kandahar branch of the Afghan peace and reconciliation commission, which seeks to persuade members of the Taliban to give up fighting. "But I don't know what they are doing," he said of NATO forces.

That sense of frustration extends to U.S. and NATO officials watching the war from Western capitals, who complain that two years after a Taliban surge, NATO members are struggling to keep up their commitments and fashion a unified approach to the war.

The U.S. military, already stretched by maintaining 140,000 troops in Iraq, just sent 3,000 marines to Afghanistan, most of them to bolster NATO forces in the south.

Increasingly, NATO allies, who are under growing pressure to bring troops home, are balking at sending soldiers to reinforce the 65,000 foreign troops - 34,000 of them American - already in the country. Senior Bush administration officials say they may send an additional 7,000 U.S. troops next year to fill the gap [emphasis added].

The strains come after the war's bloodiest year. The fighting killed more than 8,000 people in 2007, among them 1,500 civilians, according to the United Nations. The majority of those killed, about 5,000, were insurgents, it says [emphasis added].

The number of insurgent attacks has risen sharply in the past two years, and NATO officials are already reporting an increase in cross-border attacks in the eastern provinces bordering Pakistan's tribal regions. Some U.S. officials interpret that as a sign that the insurgency is expanding...

Large parts of the north and center of the country are peaceful, they point out. Especially in the eastern provinces, where U.S. forces doubled their strength two years ago, more districts are stable, and the fighting has narrowed to smaller pockets, an assessment with which the United Nations concurs.

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Major General Jeffrey Schloesser, said that while he expected an increase in violent incidents in 2008, the momentum had shifted to the Afghan forces, which were developing well. "Time is no longer on the side of the insurgent," he said recently.

A growing number of Taliban fighters, in fact, are sending signals that they want to lay down their arms, Afghan government officials say. The UN mission in Afghanistan says it, too, has had more Taliban members knocking on its doors, asking what guarantees they can expect from the government and international organizations if they come over to the government.

Those in contact with the government include senior members of the former Taliban government and even the renegade mujahedeen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who also controls several militant commanders fighting American troops, a senior Afghan official said...

Brigadier General Harm de Jonge, the Dutch deputy commander of the NATO force in southern Afghanistan, said that many local Taliban leaders had been killed over the past year - something Afghan elders and villagers confirmed - and that the effect was apparent.

"You see a kind of fragmentation, a dissynchronization of the Taliban," he said. "There is a lack of logistics in some areas."

Besides taking the fight to the Taliban, a major part of the NATO mission is training and developing the Afghan Army. The Afghans now have four of their own brigades in the south, in each of the most troubled provinces - Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan and Zabul - and are leading their own operations in two of them, de Jonge said...

General de Jonge said the military plan for the south was a "step by step approach," concentrating on the most populated areas first, installing local governments and giving district governors the security and support. Development projects are an important element to show the people that something concrete is being done for them [emphasis added], he said. "We must show to the people in the fields that the government is improving their basic needs," he said.

But the people plead above all for a strong hand. "If the government is strong enough, the Taliban cannot come here," said one farmer, Ismatullah, who uses only one name. "If the government is weak, the people will not support it."

NATO'S eyes over Afghanistan
Flight International, May 19
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/05/19/223780/natos-eyes-over-afghanistan.html

While the Eurofighter is now delivering its first air defence duties for Germany, the nation's air force is already fully supporting the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"We have been asked by NATO to fulfil a reconnaissance requirement, and we do this right now with our [Panavia] Tornado aircraft," says German air force chief of staff Lt Gen Klaus-Peter Stieglitz, referring to a six-aircraft deployment at Mazar e-Sharif since April 2007.

"The mandate for this commitment goes until mid-October. Then we will have to see how the NATO requirement would or could be extended, how the [German] government will decide, and whether parliament will allow us to go beyond this mandate." However, he notes: "We are prepared from a Luftwaffe point of view to stay longer."

But asked whether the air force could stage strike missions, Stieglitz says "There is no requirement right now to go beyond reconnaissance [emphasis added]."

The German air force also has eight C160 Transall transports permanently stationed at Termez air base in Uzbekistan. "But our plan is by August to deploy these aircraft also into Mazar e-Sharif," where they will join several German army Sikorsky CH-53 transport helicopters already at the base, says Stieglitz.

"This will be the largest transport commitment for ISAF within Afghanistan," he notes. "We are providing more than half of the airlift capability: that is the Luftwaffe commitment [emphasis added]."

Germany's Transalls will be replaced by 60 Airbus Military A400Ms, with its first due in the autumn of 2010.

A six-month A400M programme delay announced by EADS last year had no impact on German plans, but Stieglitz says of the possibility of a further six-month slippage: "We are standing by for further developments on how the aircraft will be delivered. If it's plus six months then we could basically live with this kind of delay [emphasis added]. It's no big deal for the Luftwaffe yet."

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found May 21, 2008

Two NATO soldiers, 'Arab fighters' killed in Afghanistan
Article Link

KABUL (AFP) — Two NATO soldiers were killed in a blast in Afghanistan, the alliance force said Wednesday, as an Afghan official reported that six Arabs were among more than a dozen rebels killed in battle.

The International Security Assistance Force announced late Tuesday that the explosion in the central province of Ghazni had killed one soldier and an interpreter. It said Wednesday a second soldier had died from wounds.

The 40-nation force did not say what had caused the explosion, or give the nationalities of the soldiers involved.

An ambush in the eastern province of Paktika meanwhile wounded two other ISAF soldiers, a spokesman told AFP, without giving details.

Nearly 60 international soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, most of them in hostile action.

Scores of extremist insurgents have also been killed but international forces do not issue death tolls from military action.

A deputy provincial governor said about 14 were killed in a new battle overnight in Zabul province, on the southern border of Ghazni
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Bomb attack on German army thwarted in Afghanistan
Published: 21 May 08 13:31 CET Online: http://www.thelocal.de/12007/
Article Link

Afghan security forces stopped a vehicle stuffed with explosives last week before it could be detonated in an attack on German soldiers in northern Afghanistan, German officials said on Wednesday.

Pilot strike delays flights in Germany (21 May 08)
Ex-Guantanamo inmate gets halfhearted hearing from Congress (21 May 08)
China warns Germany over Dalai Lama visit (20 May 08)
Two men, a Pakistani and a Tajik, were arrested for planning the attack after their vehicle was stopped last Thursday in Auraq, a suburb near the town of Masar-i-sharif, the main base of Germany's 3,200 troops in Afghanistan. The car was packed with 220 kilogrammes (485 pounds) to 300 kilogrammes of explosives, according to the German Defence Ministry.

According to German television channel N24 the two men have confessed and have been sentenced to be hanged. Citing unnamed sources within the Afghan intelligence service, the report said the men planned the strike in connection with terror organization Al Qaida.
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New commander can get things done in Afghanistan
Published Wednesday May 21st, 2008
Article Link

Canadian Forces Base Gagetown continues to help develop leaders capable of meeting the demand of the new world reality.

Proof can be found by looking at the commander appointed earlier this month for the Afghanistan mission.

Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson took over the task from Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche on May 14 following a small ceremony at Kandahar Airfield.

Among those on-hand for the changeover was Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, commander of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM).

Thompson, in the mid-1990s, was the commander of Golf Company, The Second Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment (2RCR) at Gagetown.

As part of Operation Alliance, he led Golf Company soldiers into Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of NATO's Implementation Force (IFOR) in the early days of the Dayton Peace Accord, which ended fighting in that region. Golf Company was under command of the Queen's Royal Hussar's Brigade Group from Great Britain.
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The Macleans.ca Interview: Fatima Gailani
The head of Afghanistan's Red Crescent Society says Canadian soldiers should stay in Afghanistan—and stick to soldiering
Paul Wells | May 20, 2008 | 4:37 pm EST
Article Link

Fatima Gailani has been the president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society since 2004. Her father Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani led the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, one of the main mujahedeen organizations that resisted the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. After her return to Afghanistan from exile in London, she was a delegate to the Afghan Loya Jirga, which helped write a new constitution for the country. Ms. Gailani spoke to Maclean's senior columnist Paul Wells last week in Ottawa.

Q: I was in Afghanistan for a week in October and many people there talked of the difficulty of coordinating military and NGO efforts, the fact that many of the NGOs don't talk to soldiers for reasons of neutrality, and that coordination is a huge problem. Do you share that perception? Is it getting better or worse?

A: Well, whether it is easy or difficult for NGOs to cooperate or coordinate with the soldiers is one thing. But the job of a national society (like the Red Cross or Red Crescent) in a country, especially a country with conflicts, is a unique role. It has to be 100 per cent neutral. It has to be 100 per cent trusted by the insurgency to allow our more than 40,000 volunteers to operate in different areas. The access the Afghan Red Crescent Society has is unique. They play a role that no one else could take over because they come from the community; they know the problems of the community, they are known and trusted by the community—both sides. So it is easier to work through them, and also we must not jeopardize their lives and their safety by doing and acting in a way which is not the job of a national society.
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Valcartier troops home safe and soundSource: CBC News
Posted: 05/20/08 11:22AM Filed Under: Canada
Article Link

A contingent of soldiers from Quebec's Valcartier military base returned home from Afghanistan feeling "proud" after nine months of duty in Kandahar, their commander said.

A military plane carrying 130 Canadian Forces soldiers touched down at the Jean-Lesage International Airport in Quebec City Monday night, bringing home the remaining members of the mission that included 2,300 Valcartier soldiers under the command of Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche.

The soldiers served in the fourth rotation of Joint Task Force Afghanistan, a mission which aims to increase security and aid in reconstruction efforts.

They accomplished what they set out to do, despite the long road ahead for Afghanistan's future stability, Laroche said.
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Rae disagrees with Dion on Afghanistan
Canwest News Service Published: Tuesday, May 20
Article Link

OTTAWA - Despite past rhetoric to the contrary by his own party leader, Liberal International Affairs critic Bob Rae says Canada never had an option to "cut and run" from Afghanistan.

Rae offered that assessment in a recent speech to a gathering of international diplomats in Ottawa, in which he presented his views on Canada's foreign policy.

Though Rae had harsh words for how the Conservative government has handled relations with China, and for the continuing funding shortfall to Canada's diplomatic corps at Foreign Affairs, he struck a non-partisan tone on Afghanistan.

Barely two months on Parliament Hill, Rae's remarks underscored how he has attempted to rise above the partisan political rancour and set a statesmanlike tone for his new job as the official Opposition's shadow foreign minister.

"The real question is, we can't actually leave. We made a commitment until 2011. We signed the Afghan Compact. We're members of the NATO alliance. It's not simply open for us to say . . . that we're going simply to cut and run," Rae told the symposium, sponsored by Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, and held Friday at the Ottawa residence of the Austrian ambassador.

Rae's remarks also highlighted the differences within the Liberal party over the Afghanistan mission. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion had initially wanted Canada to serve notice to NATO that it would withdraw its 2,500 troops from Kandahar by February 2009.

But after a bipartisan effort from Liberals and Conservatives, the two parties agreed on a motion in mid-March that has now extended the mission to 2011.
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Taliban crank up recruiting drive for young men in Afghan villages
Article Link

MIAN JUY, Afghanistan — Taliban recruiters have begun showing up over the last few weeks in the tiny villages that dot the desert landscape, heralding the start of the fighting season in this war-weary part of the world.

The militants are looking for fresh volunteers or conscripts in what has become an annual ritual - one that Canadian troops are trying to thwart by their presence, and with common-sense arguments.

Now that the poppy harvest is largely complete and the Taliban are flush with cash to assemble their mercenary army, they're turning their guns and bombs on international troops in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

In the last two days, NATO forces have suffered at least three combat deaths with an equal number of injuries as insurgents step up their attacks and roadside bombings. None of the casualties so far this week have involved Canadian troops.

The western alliance's principal base in the region, Kandahar Airfield, was hit three out of four nights recently with wildly erratic 107-mm rockets. There have been short, brutal firefights between militants and NATO troops in the northern parts of Kandahar province.

Last week, the war took a particularly brutal turn with the Taliban's use of a child to deliver a suicide bomb that injured two Canadian soldiers and killed an Afghan trooper.

Capt. Jeffrey Tebo has been to meetings, or shuras, with community elders where dozens of young, fighting-age males are standing at the back room sizing him up carefully.
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[MarkOttawa]

Abductions, thefts in Khyber Pass threaten supplies for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan
AP, May 21
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/21/asia/AS-GEN-Pakistan-Khyber-Chaos.php

KHYBER AGENCY, Pakistan: Thieves, feuding tribesmen and Taliban militants are creating chaos along the main Pakistan-Afghanistan highway, threatening a vital supply line for U.S. and NATO forces.

Abductions and arson attacks on the hundreds of cargo trucks plying the switchback road through the Khyber Pass have become commonplace this year. Many of the trucks carry fuel and other material for foreign troops based in Afghanistan.

U.S. and NATO officials play down their losses in these arid mountains of northwestern Pakistan — even though the local arms bazaar offers U.S.-made assault rifles and Beretta pistols, and the alliance is negotiating to open routes through other countries.

The most high-profile victim of the lawlessness has been Tariq Azizuddin, Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan. The 56-year-old was snatched from his Mercedes limousine three months ago while driving toward the border. He wasn't freed until Saturday. Pakistan's government denied it was part of a prisoner swap with militants...

Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, who heads an association of Pakistani customs agents helping traders move goods through the customs post at Torkham, claimed the average number of trucks has dropped to 250 a day from 500 early this year, before violence escalated.

Abdul Ghani, a commander of Afghan border guards, said there had been only a "small drop," however. He had no number.

Fuel tankers have especially become a target for militants seeking to disrupt supplies to NATO and the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan...

Most material for foreign troops in Afghanistan arrives by ship at Pakistan's port of Karachi in unmarked shipping containers, then hauled by South Asia's colorfully decorated "jingle" trucks to places like Bagram Air Base, north of the Afghan capital, Kabul [emphasis added].

NATO and U.S. officials won't say whether the trucks carry weapons and ammunition as well as food, fuel and other supplies. They suggest that theft — not a disruption campaign by militant groups — is the main problem.

The coalition has "no indication of a pattern by the enemy to attack our supplies," said a coalition spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green.

Yet NATO is trying to reduce its dependence on the route by negotiating with Russia and other nations to let it truck "non-lethal" supplies to Afghanistan through Central Asia [emphasis added]...

Miliband backs tribal talks to halt Taliban
The Guardian, May 21
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/21/davidmiliband.foreignpolicy

David Miliband will today argue there is "no military solution" to the spread of extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas, and back the pursuit of political reconciliation in both countries.

In a speech the foreign secretary is due to deliver in Washington, a draft of which has been obtained by the Guardian, he will say that Pakistan and Afghanistan "top the list of UK foreign policy priorities", and both represent fragile democracies facing huge challenges.

He will underline Britain's commitment to pursuing parallel military and political strategies in Helmand province's Gereshk valley, where 8,000 British troops are fighting the Taliban. More controversially from Washington's point of view, Miliband will also offer British support for negotiations between Pakistan's new civilian government and Pashtun leaders in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). The region bordering Afghanistan has become a haven for Afghan and Pakistani militants, as well as al-Qaida elements...

US urges Pakistan to nab Taliban chief, in test of anti-terror zeal
AFP, May 21
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080521/wl_sthasia_afp/uspakistanattacks

The United States asked Pakistan to arrest and bring to justice a Taliban militant commander Islamabad was negotiating with to underline its commitment to the "war on terror."

The commander, Baitullah Mehsud, who has been accused by the CIA of masterminding the assassination in December of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, has been negotiating with the new Pakistan coalition government.

The government, led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has pledged to completely overhaul Islamabad's counter terrorism pursuit after defeating US-backed President Pervez Musharraf's political allies in February elections.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a congressional hearing Tuesday that Washington was concerned over the negotiations with the Taliban, whom US and NATO troops are fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.

He said Washington had repeatedly cautioned Islamabad about the talks despite a pledge from Gilani's government not to give "free space" to the extremist group using remote tribal areas as safe haven to attack Afghanistan.

Asked by a lawmaker how Washington would gauge any counter terrorism success notched by Pakistan, Negroponte said "one of the metrics" was a lessening of cross border attacks into Afghanistan.

"Another would be if you saw the government operating effectively against some of these militant extremists, like for example bringing Baitullah Mehsud, the head of this extremist group in South Waziristan, capturing him and bringing him to justice, which is what should happen to him," Negroponte said.

The United States, he said, was concerned there were "elements" in the Pakistan government pushing for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban, ousted from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces after the September 11, 2001 attacks...

'What's Important Is to Kill the Germans'
Spiegel Online, May 21
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,554545,00.html

Taliban commander Qabir Bashir Haqqani is threatening the Germans in Afghanistan. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, the representative of the radical Islamists says they will ramp up deadly suicide attacks against Germans and other "invaders" in the northern part of the country...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What exactly are you planning?

Haqqani: We are going to banish the Germans to their bases more and more. If they leave their bases, we will be waiting for them with improvised explosive devices (IED) and fedayeen (suicide bombers) on every road. Because of its historical jihad background and its fundamentally anti-Western and anti-American sentiment, Kunduz is an important place for the Taliban movement...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What exactly are you planning?

Haqqani: We are going to banish the Germans to their bases more and more. If they leave their bases, we will be waiting for them with improvised explosive devices (IED) and fedayeen (suicide bombers) on every road. Because of its historical jihad background and its fundamentally anti-Western and anti-American sentiment, Kunduz is an important place for the Taliban movement...

Mark
Ottawa 

 

[geo]

Woman 'hangs herself' after row with husband
Written by www.quqnoos.com
Tuesday, 20 May 2008 

Women who allegedly killed herself accused of 'misusing human rights'

A 23-year-old pregnant mother of two has hung herself after fighting with her husband about the arrival of guests at their home, the head of Laghman’s council of women said.

The young woman allegedly killed herself yesterday (Monday) at 10 am, after a fight broke out in their family home in the province of Laghman.

The victim’s mother said her daughter’s husband killed her, but the husband denies the charges.

The Head of Laghman’s Women’s Council, Shirin Taj, blamed the wife for killing herself, saying: “Women misuse their freedom and their human rights, and commit such actions in small issues like this.”



Iconic hotel survives Afghanistan's bitter history

Reuters - World News
By Luke Baker
Tue May 20, 2008
KABUL

On the western edge of Kabul, in the saddle between two hills, stands a flaking monument to what the city once aspired to be -- a cosmopolitan destination drawing chic travelers from the world over.

For nearly 40 years the InterContinental Hotel Kabul, with commanding views over the bustling city and north towards the snow-capped Hindu Kush, has survived as a landmark of the Afghanistan that might have been. And for all that time Shir Ahmad Stanikzai has been there, watching history come and go.

From champagne-fuelled parties and bikini-clad women by the pool in the 1970s, to the Soviet invasion, the chaos of the civil war, the rise and fall of the Taliban and the arrival of U.S. troops, Stanikzai has seen it all.

"It was so beautiful once," he said with a smile, sitting in the almost-empty lobby, the furnishings little changed since the day the hotel opened in 1969, the clocks behind reception giving the time in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Moscow.

"There were jewelry shops with diamonds and gold, a travel agency, the Pamir restaurant on the top floor. The nightclub was always full," he said wistfully, recalling better, earlier days. "We used to have big New Year celebrations in the ballroom."

Stanikzai began working at the hotel as a waiter in 1969, when he was just 16, shortly after finishing school. He steadily worked his way up to head waiter, then restaurant manager, food and beverage manager and now assistant general manager.

The heyday, he says, was the 1970s, when wealthy Europeans would come to Afghanistan and make the InterContinental their base, taking trips to visit the Buddhas of Bamiyan, the mountains of the north or ancient cities like Jalalabad.

The pool was always crowded with men and women swimming together, shouts of "mine" could be heard from the tennis courts and most evenings brought well-dressed couples down to the Nuristan cocktail lounge for pre-dinner drinks. Indian royalty, ousted presidents and foreign ambassadors were two a penny.

It was a gilded era that barely outlasted the decade

GROW YOUR BEARD

Dramatic change came with the Soviet invasion of late 1979, when tens of thousands of foreign troops poured into the country after a series of failed coups, plots and bloody revolts.

Following the invasion, the InterContinental Group dropped Kabul from its chain, although the hotel proudly retains the name.

The Soviet military ended up using the hotel as an officers' quarters and the flow of international travelers quickly dried up. The resort remained busy, Stanikzai recalls, but with swaggering Soviet commanders, not frolicking guests.

"They drank a lot of vodka," Stanikzai said, laughing. "But the hotel still made money. They paid their bills."

Ten years later the Russians left and a new era began, with bearded Afghan warlords battling furiously for supremacy after overthrowing Mohammad Najibullah's communist regime.

"That time was very, very bad," says Stanikzai, recalling how one set of mujahideen fighters once held an area of Kabul to the west of the hotel and another faction, led by Ahmad Shah Masood, held the hotel and much of the rest of the city.

"There were bullets flying, rockets flying, and we were in the middle. Our front office manager was killed right there," he said, pointing towards the reception desk. "I think 15 or 16 of our staff were killed in that time."

The rise of the warlords brought an end to alcohol-fuelled parties and cocktail hours, and the hotel steadily fell on harder and harder times. With the Taliban's conquest of Kabul in 1996, an already dire situation took a turn for the worse.

Stanikzai, a dapper man in a smart suit with a trimmed moustache and neat grey hair, had to grow a long beard and wear traditional Afghan dress of flowing trousers and shirt.

"I had a beard down to here," he said, gesturing to the middle of his chest. "I had to wear a turban."

Taliban rule was a rigid, parsimonious time. A few foreign journalists came, but mostly the hotel was empty. One memorable episode was when some of Osama bin Laden's acolytes ordered the pool sealed off so they could swim alone for a day.

When U.S. and Afghan forces came and drove the Taliban out in late 2001, the first thing Stanikzai did was shave his beard. Trade picked up as more journalists, diplomats and adventurers came. A Dubai company invested and the hotel was done up.

Recently the government took ownership and more improvements are promised. Another five-star hotel has opened in central Kabul, offering stiff competition as the InterConinental's once-bright star fades. But Stanikzai is not going anywhere.

"I love my hotel and I love my job," he says simply. "I will keep working here as long as the management will have me."

(Editing by Megan Goldin)

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND MAY 22

US: Dutch, British to extend Afghanistan commands
AP, May 21
http://www3.whdh.com/news/articles/national/BO78968/

WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department said Wednesday it has shelved a plan to take greater control in parts of Afghanistan where NATO is in charge after the Dutch and British agreed to extend their commands.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the Netherlands and Britain will stay in control in southern Afghanistan for a full year, rather than in months, as the military alliance fights a stubborn Taliban insurgency.

The European allies agreed to the new arrangement in recent conversations with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Morrell said.

"I think we're trying to create a situation in which ... by the command serving longer, there'll be greater stability and continuity to our operations" in southern Afghanistan, Morrell said. The U.S. raised the idea and allies signed on, he said.

The U.S. has complained that changing commands every nine months and rotating troops even more frequently do not provide the necessary continuity for an effective fight against the insurgency, particularly in Afghanistan's volatile south.

In recent months, the Pentagon suggested giving the U.S. military more authority in those areas now under NATO command. U.S. control is now limited to eastern Afghanistan...

Asked if the new agreement ends discussion that one country -- likely the U.S. -- take charge of operations in the south, Morrell said it addresses the issue there for at least the next two and a half years.

A NATO official said Wednesday that while the U.S. floated the idea of controlling the south, the Pentagon did not press hard for the plan. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not involved in the Pentagon's announcement, said there were no real disputes over the plan...

Morrell dismissed the suggestion that the new agreement for longer European commands was a compromise. But, he added, "We work with allies in (southern Afghanistan) and throughout the country, and we take their considerations into account."

One unresolved issue, Morrell said, is that two U.S. commanders will continue to control troops in Afghanistan. U.S. Central Command is responsible for operations in Afghanistan, but Gen. John Craddock is the head of U.S. European Command and is NATO's top military commander.

The agreement also does not extend the tours of allied troops serving in Afghanistan [emphasis added]. Morrell said the allies will likely still serve three- to six-month tours -- a practice that U.S. commanders have suggested can be disruptive.

Under the new agreement, the Canadians, who now control the south, will leave in November and the Dutch will assume command. In November 2009 the British would take over, and the U.S. is on tap to take command of the region in November 2010 [emphasis added]...

DoD News Briefing with Press Secretary Geoff Morrell from the Pentagon
US DoD, May 21
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4232

...
Q    But it doesn't get to what General McNeill and General Craddock are talking about, which is getting one nation in charge and remaining in charge, as you have in the North and in other areas. 

        MR. MORRELL: Well, General McNeill and General Craddock are certainly entitled to their opinions in this. But we work with allies in RC South and throughout the country. And we take their considerations into account. 

        Yeah. 

            Q    But this does mean or -- does this mean that for at least the first two years of General Petraeus's expected tenure at CENTCOM, that he won't have command of this key region of Afghanistan, that that will be under EUCOM-NATO-ISAF, or NATO-ISAF? [emphasis added]

        MR. MORRELL: I think it is as I've just explained it. It -- for the next two and a half years, the Canadians, the Dutch and the British will share command of RC South and that the latter two nations, the Dutch and the Brits -- and the British, will have that command for a year instead of nine months. And they will be followed in that command by the United States. That's all I can share with you on that... [emphasis added]

NATO Southern Afghanistan Command Agreement Not Final
VOA, May 22
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-22-voa38.cfm

The Pentagon says the agreement on command of NATO operations in southern Afghanistan, which it announced Wednesday, is not finalized. But officials still hope the plan will be approved. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell says he was "too emphatic" when he announced the agreement Wednesday. He had said the United States reached agreement with the Netherlands and Britain for those countries to each command the southern Afghanistan effort for a year, starting in November when Canada ends its rotation.

On Thursday, he told reporters it is not "a done deal." Rather, Morrell says Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his British and Dutch counterparts have agreed on the plan, but "it still needs to be approved by the Dutch and British governments," and by the NATO alliance [emphasis added]. He said he does not see any reason for the plan not to be approved...

...the United States will not be in command in the key area until more than two years into the expected tenure of General David Petraeus as the head of U.S. Central Command. The command oversees all U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, except for the part of the Afghan operation that is run by NATO. Some analysts had hoped General Petraeus might be given more authority in Afghanistan, in order to apply the counterinsurgency experience he gained as commander in Iraq...

A war of money as well as bullets
The Americans are learning the tricks of the Great Game quicker than the British, who invented it. But a weak and corrupt Afghan government is hobbling them
The Economist, May 21
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11402695&fsrc=nwlptwfree

...events at Charbaran were important in one respect: in a counter-insurgency strategy that is summed up by the catchphrase “clear-hold-build”, Afghan security forces, backed up by American power, are showing that they can hold areas cleared by the Americans. In a war that has often gone from bad to worse, this is good news for NATO...

General Dan McNeill, the American commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), notes that his mission is seriously “under-resourced”. Yet he suggests that the Afghan army and police will become strong enough by 2011 to take the lead in most areas, allowing NATO to start reducing its forces and to take more of an advisory and support role—providing, for example, embedded advisers who can organise air support and medical evacuations.

The Afghan army is the most respected institution in the country. Western trainers say that, in contrast with Iraqi forces, Afghan soldiers have little fear of closing with the enemy; if anything, the problem is holding them back so that Western aircraft can have a clear shot at insurgents. Thanks to a beefed-up training programme, paid for largely by America, the Afghan army has grown to more than 50,000 troops; it has started conducting large-scale operations alone and is building up an air force. By 2010 it is due to expand to 80,000 men. The often corrupt Afghan police are being retrained en masse.

Nobody thinks these forces, even at full strength, will be anywhere near large enough. Afghanistan, though bigger than Iraq geographically and with a roughly comparable population, has less than a third as many security forces employed, whether Western or indigenous. Still, Afghan forces are due to take charge of the capital, Kabul, in the coming months. In Nangarhar province, the gateway to Pakistan, where al-Qaeda had several camps in Taliban times, the Afghan army and police are doing most of the security work in Jalalabad and other main towns, while American forces try to secure the borders...

American commanders feel Nangarhar is ripe for investment in roads, airports and electricity generation. Their confidence contrasts sharply with the pleas for help from the embattled Canadians in Kandahar and the defensiveness of the British in Helmand [emphasis added]. Perhaps the most striking evidence of the pacification of Jalalabad is the sight of American Humvees waiting patiently at traffic lights.

Green fields, and purple

Detailed data on security are hard to come by in Afghanistan. Even the UN declines formally to release its “accessibility map”, which these days depicts a country in two halves: a relatively quiet north and west and a restive south and east where, with few exceptions, the risk to humanitarian workers is deemed to be either “high” or “extreme”.

Few dispute that the American-controlled east of the country is faring better than the south [emphasis added], where other NATO allies are in charge. Although America accounts for more than half the foreign forces in Afghanistan (divided roughly evenly between ISAF and its own counter-terrorist mission, Operation Enduring Freedom), it has suffered fewer deaths than its allies this year.

The differences between the east and the south are most apparent from the military helicopters that skim the treetops at breakneck speed. This year the fields in Nangarhar and Kunar are green with wheat. Helmand and Kandahar, though, show the pink and purple patchwork of illegal opium poppies. Insecure areas provide the most fertile ground for poppies, and southern Afghanistan is the most insecure. The opium and heroin trade, in turn, finances the insurgency and corrupts the government.

Since Europeans cannot or will not commit more troops against the Taliban, the war effort in the south shows signs of being re-Americanised. Last year saw a mini-surge, with an extra American brigade deployed to Afghanistan when five more were sent to Iraq. This year an additional marine expeditionary unit—a 2,400-strong force with more air power than the whole 7,500-strong British task-force—has been deployed to the south for seven months to disrupt arms- and drugs-smuggling routes in Taliban strongholds.

There is talk of sending two more American brigades, about 7,000 soldiers, and of placing the southern region under permanent American command. This might improve things. At present, each national command has different priorities and allied units are rotated every six months, compared with 15 for the Americans (to be reduced to 12 months later this year). General McNeill, who took over as ISAF commander in February last year, says he is “on my fourth commander in the north, the second in the east, the third in the capital, the third in the south and the third in the west.” The military effort, he says, needs more consistency...

There are underlying reasons why the south is more troublesome than the east: its tribal structures are weaker, making it harder for elders to make deals stick; it is more remote from Kabul and the main trade routes; the population is less educated and more xenophobic; and it is the ideological heartland of the Taliban. That said, a growing number of British officers grudgingly recognise that America is learning the lessons of irregular warfare, drawn mainly from British colonial experience, better than the modern British army.

After much trial and error, the allies more or less agree on the tenets of counter-insurgency. The objective is not so much to kill the enemy as to protect the population and extend the authority of the Afghan government; development, dialogue, amnesties and reconciliation are important tools for weakening the insurgents...

...The Americans, say the British, have the advantage of time and resources: they have been in the east ever since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, whereas the British only got to Helmand in 2006. More important, the Americans have more forces at their disposal. They have been able to deploy right up to the border with Pakistan, whereas the British and Canadians are more thinly spread and have surrendered the southern frontier, and much of the countryside as well, to the insurgents [emphasis added].

America's slush fund

Probably the most striking difference between the Americans and the British is in their use of money. Britain channels most of its economic aid through the government in Kabul in the hope of building up the bureaucracy there, whereas America finances private contractors to carry out big projects, such as road construction and power stations.

For American commanders, “money is bullets.” They have at their disposal a slush fund, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, known as the Commander's Emergency Response Programme (CERP)...

In Kunar province, one of the most turbulent in the American sector, valleys that last year proved deadly to American forces are being pacified. Troops will clear an area of insurgents and seek to stabilise it by bringing in a new road in consultation with village elders, who are expected to do their bit to keep bad elements out. Sometimes a new school will be set up in a hostile village as the precursor to the arrival of American and Afghan government forces.

Roads are especially favoured [emphasis added], because they allow remote villages to sell their produce and enable Afghan forces to move quickly to trouble spots. The recent opening of a new road linking the Pech valley to the provincial capital, Asadabad, resulted in a quadrupling of live births in the town's hospital as villagers were able to get medical help. The Americans unashamedly outbid the insurgents: if the rebels pay $5 a day for a fighter, the Americans will offer $5.50 a day for road labourers. “Where the road ends the insurgents begin,” says one American officer...

...The Americans are more deeply committed to winning in Afghanistan—militarily, economically and in terms of mental effort—than any of their allies [emphasis added]. They have rewritten their counter-insurgency doctrine, and incorporated all manner of civilian functions—anthropologists, political scientists and agricultural experts—into their ranks. By serving the longest tours, Americans learn faster. Their soldiers may yet end up paying the cost in terms of mental health. But for the moment America sees itself at war, while Britain is still engaged in an optional operation.
The enemy within

The most serious problem in Afghanistan, however, will not be solved by new military tactics or command structures. It is the weakness of the Afghan government. Corruption is rampant, from the lowly airport security guard demanding bribes from foreign travellers to government officials who occupy gaudy houses known as “narcotechture”...

Allied soldiers will continue to fight, build roads and host meetings with tribal elders in the hope of isolating the insurgents. But in the longer term, unless the Kabul government can be made to work more effectively, their efforts and sacrifices may be in vain. As Ibn Qutayba put it a millennium ago, there can be no lasting government without “justice and good administration”. Even American money and power will struggle to achieve that.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[geo]

Soviets vs US in Afghanistan

Who is the enemy?
Australia.TO, Australia
By Eric Walberg
Wednesday May 21, 2008

The US is not only repeating all the Soviets’ mistakes in Afghanistan, it is showing remarkable creativity in the horrors department, says Eric Walberg in the first of a two-part series

Twenty years ago this week the Soviet Union began its withdrawal from Afghanistan, eight and a half years after it was invited by the desperate People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which had degenerated into intra-party squabbling and was beset by Islamic rebels massively financed by the United States. The straw that broke the Soviets’ back was when the US began providing Stinger missiles to Osama bin Laden and his friends.

Now, after eight years of US/NATO occupation, the parallels — and differences — between the two occupation are many and stark, as confirmed by the current Russian ambassador to Afghanistan , Zamir Kabulov.

“There is no mistake made by the Soviet Union that was not repeated by the international community here in Afghanistan ,” Kabulov said. “Underestimation of the Afghan nation, the belief that we have superiority over Afghans, that they are inferior and cannot be trusted to run affairs in this country. A lack of knowledge of the social and ethnic structure of this country; a lack of sufficient understanding of traditions and religion.”

Not only that, but the country’s new patrons are making lots of new mistakes as well. “NATO soldiers and officers alienate themselves from Afghans — they are not in touch in an everyday manner. They communicate with them from the barrels of guns in their bullet-proof Humvees.” As a career diplomat who was posted to Afghanistan in 1977, he sees some divine justice in the US ’s current predicament. “But I am even more satisfied by not having Russian soldiers among ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] because I don’t want them to suffer the same results.”

Kabulov explains that things are even harder now than they were in the 1980s. “The structures of government then were very much there and our task was very much to support and to win loyalty — if you will, hearts and minds — but we had a working administration.” These are long gone, though, ironically, in Helmand province and elsewhere, NATO forces are fighting from military posts originally built by the Soviets.

At least the Soviets were invited in, if only by one faction — Parcham, by far the most benign one — of the ruling PDPA. The US merely issued an ultimatum to the ruling Taliban to hand over their own erstwhile ally, Osama bin Laden, knowing full well no devout Muslim would turn a guest over to the enemy. The offer of the Taliban to send him to a neutral third country until proof of his masterminding of 9/11 was made was dismissed out of hand, and US and eventually NATO forces proceeded to illegally invade and depose the legitimate government, launching a merciless air attack, using depleted uranium “bunker busting” bombs, that makes the horrors of Vietnam and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan pale in comparison.

Another difference is that the US managed to con the world into supporting its invasion, while when the Soviet troops arrived in 1979, the US was already arming Islamic rebels with the most advanced military hardware, as Under-Secretary of Defense Slocumbe said at the time, “sucking the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire.” President Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski made a point of maintaining the flow of arms, even after Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev made it clear the troops would be withdrawn, intending to use this golden opportunity to stick the knife as deep as possible into the now unravelling Soviet Union . On this basis alone, the current invasion should be miles ahead of where the Soviets were after eight years. But no. Yet another contrast is that while the Soviets were providing massive aid, effectively dragging Afghanistan into the 20th century with universal education, equal rights for women, safe drinking water — the standard communist fare — the US/NATO strategy has been mostly to fight the remnants of the Taliban, with aid well down the list. As for the quality of the aid, while Soviet teachers and engineers earned not much more than locals, and were generally selected for their idealism, Western-backed aid is channelled almost exclusively through foreign NGOs, with Western professionals earning the bulk of the money and living in conditions that locals can only dream of, causing well-earned resentment.

It should be noted that from the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 till the US invasion in 2001, Afghanistan was mostly forgotten, with no Western programme of reconstruction. Russia , of course, had been bankrupt by then and there was nothing to be expected from it either. Ahmed Shah Ahmadzai, a mujahideen leader and prime minister in exile during the 1990s, admits the mujahideen failed in the years following the Soviet withdrawal. He is now an opponent of the government who stood against President Hamid Karzai in the last election. “To my opinion the ground situation is no different because the Soviets were imposing their Communist regime on us. The present forces — they are imposing their so-called democracy on us. They were wrong then and the present NATO forces are doing wrong now by killing innocent people — men, women and children.”

Given the huge advantages over the Soviet experience, and given the possibility to learn from Soviet mistakes, there really is no excuse for the current tragedy unfolding with no end in sight. But then, in carrying out their invasion of Iraq , the Americans apparently learned nothing from the British invasion of the 1920s, repeating to the letter all the horrors the Brits inflicted on the Iraqis. Is it possible the chaos and murder is intentional? While the Taliban were no sweethearts, they did completely disarm the nation and wipe out the production of opium. Similarly, while Saddam Hussein would hardly be one’s favourite uncle, he presided over a stable welfare state where its many ethnic groups were at least not blowing each other up. In contrast, the US has destroyed the state structures in both countries, and made both into arms dumps. It has managed to turn the peoples of both countries against each other, with the likely prospect of civil war and disintegration into various malleable statelets.

All in keeping with Israeli plans first published in 1982 as “A Strategy for Israel”, a plan to ensure its “security” (read: expansion) with the Middle East a patchwork of small ethnically-based states which it could keep in order.

One brilliant innovation by the US , with Israel ’s Haganah and Irgun as possible inspirations, is the use of private mercenaries to carry out murder and espionage that the NATO troops can’t do because of their “concern” for international law. This policy is already well known to Iraqis in the guise of Blackwater. Special investigator for the UN Human Rights Council Philip Alston referred to three such recent raids in south and east Afghanistan during a visit last week, clearly alluding to US intelligence agencies, though he didn’t dare state this publicly. Alston said the raids were part of a wider problem of unlawful killings of civilians and lack of accountability in Afghanistan . In one incident, two brothers were killed by troops operating out of an American Special Forces base in Kandahar . Another group, known as Shaheen, operates out of Nangahar, in eastern Afghanistan , where US forces are in charge. “Essentially, they are companies of Afghans but with a handful, at most, of international people directing them. I’m not aware that they fall under any command.”

A Western official close to the investigation said the secret units are known as Campaign Forces, from the time when American Special Forces and CIA spies recruited Afghan troops to help overthrow the Taliban during the US-led invasion in 2001. “The brightest, smartest guys in these militias were kept on,” the official said. “They were trained and rearmed and they are still being used. The level of complacency in response to these killings is staggeringly high,” he said.

Yet another innovation — the most frightening of all — is the role of the US in allowing, perhaps even facilitating, the huge increase in opium production, which, as already mentioned, was wiped out by the Taliban, which will be discussed in Part II.

It is very hard to exaggerate the extent of the abyss that is Afghanistan under US/NATO occupation or to conceive of an honourable exit for the occupiers. Mercenaries, opium and who-knows-what, in a script written in Israel ’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly. You can reach him at www.geocities.com/walberg2002/     

Bush apologises for Koran shooting

Written by www.quqnoos.com
Wednesday, 21 May 2008 

US president promises to put soldier who shot holy book on trial

THE US President has apologised for an American soldier who shot bullets into a copy of the holy Koran in Iraq, according to the Iraqi government.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's office said Mr Bush had promised to send the accused American sniper to trial.

Yesterday (Tuesday), the members of the Upper House stormed out in protest at what they called the soldier’s blasphemous actions and they demanded the government condemn the shooting.

The soldier was sent home by the US military after Iraqi police found a copy of the holy book riddled with bullets at a shooting range.

The White House has yet to comment on Bush’s reported apology.



Public criticism of Afghan authorities counter-productive: NATO spokesman

National Post - Ottawa Citizen
Mike Blanchfield
Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, May 21, 2008
OTTAWA

Criticizing Afghanistan over government corruption is best done behind closed doors, says NATO's chief spokesman.

"We shouldn't be shy as an international community of pressing the Afghans to make improvements when it comes to corruption and governance," James Appathurai said Wednesday in an interview, during a break in a series of meetings with Canadian government officials.

"Obviously it's more effective when you speak behind closed doors. If we have to say things in public, also that is done, in respectful terms."

Although he wouldn't comment on the recent gaffe by Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who publicly called for the firing of the governor of Kandahar over corruption and was later forced to retract the comment, Appathurai said it does NATO "no good to be seen to be undermining" the Afghan government with public lectures.

"You don't want to love them to death," he added. "You have to be frank amongst friends. Just saying everything is OK is not helping them."

Appathurai also said more work must be done to train Afghan police to catch up to the progress being made to train the Afghan army.

By October, the goal of a fully trained Afghan National Army of 80,000 personnel should have been met, but the task of training a similar number of Afghan police lags behind, he said.

Appathurai denied the major international push by NATO members and their partners in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is all part of an exit strategy to get NATO and western troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible.

"There's a big difference between transition and exit," he said.

"Nobody is talking about packing up and going home altogether. It is not exit strategy."

Canada voted in March to extend its deployment of 2,500 troops in Kandahar by two years to 2011. Canada is hopeful that enough Afghan army and police personnel will be trained by then to allow a full withdrawal of its soldiers at that time.

Canada's continued involvement in the NATO-led mission was conditional on the alliance finding an additional 1,000 troops to partner with the Canadian Forces in southern Afghanistan.

That happened at last month's NATO leaders' summit in Romania when France offered to send a battalion of troops to eastern Afghanistan, the American zone of control, so that more U.S. resources could be freed up to partner with Canada in Kandahar province.

Appathurai said the French force, about 800 troops in all, should be fully deployed to the eastern region no later than September.

About 2,000 U.S. marines are scheduled to remain in the south until their seven-month mission ends in November.

Appathurai said the U.S. commitment to follow through on bolstering its troop numbers is steadfast and that Canada would get its American partner in Afghanistan.

The change in the U.S. presidency that comes into effect in January 2009 will not affect that, he added.

"There's a clear bipartisan consensus that the mission needs to be reinforced," he said.

"The Americans are carrying this mission on their backs. The Americans are playing a disproportionate role for the sheer numbers of the forces that they have there."

The U.S. has already deployed more than 30,000 troops to Afghanistan under the NATO-led ISAF mission, as well as its separate command under Operation Enduring Freedom.

 

[GAP]

Articles found May 23, 2008

NATO wary of Iranian arms sneaking into Afghanistan
Mike Blanchfield ,  Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, May 22
Article Link

OTTAWA - Weapons from Iran have turned up in Afghanistan in "significant quantities" over the last two years, which NATO says is causing it great concern.

That means Afghanistan, and the western troops including Canada's 2,500-strong contingent in Kandahar charged with protecting the country, are feeling the squeeze on two frontiers.

Last week, NATO sounded the alarm over Afghanistan's southern neighbour Pakistan for providing "safe havens" for the Taliban through deals struck with the Pakistani government.
More on link

Afghan army convoy attacked in Kandahar city; witnesses say one dead.
Article Link

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A remote-control bomb exploded next to a passing Afghan National Army convoy Thursday, killing one soldiers and wounding another, witnesses and a spokesman for the Afghan military said.

No Canadians were involved in the incident, said the military spokesman, Abdul Qaum.

Witnesses said the bomb was planted in the seat of a bicycle parked alongside the road and exploded as the convoy was passing.

The attack took place on a busy thoroughfare, where there have been many attacks. Local residents said people are fed up with what they see as the government's inability to deal with the situation.

"I was scared when I heard the explosion," said Nasir Ahmad

"This location is mostly being hit by suicide and roadside bombs. I don't know why the government does not pay attention to this problem and many families have left the vicinity. We don't feel safe here."
More on link

Manley concerned Afghan panel recommendations not being met
Last Updated: Thursday, May 22, 2008 | 11:50 PM ET CBC News
Article Link

The chair of the panel that examined Canada's mission in Afghanistan told CBC News in an exclusive interview that he is concerned the federal government may not be acting on key recommendations more than four months after his report was tabled.

In its final report presented in January, the panel headed by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government for being too close-mouthed in its communications strategy for the Afghan mission.

The panel also said the effectiveness of Canada's military and civilian activities in Afghanistan and the progress of Afghan security and government must be tracked.

But in an interview with the CBC senior correspondent Brian Stewart that aired Thursday, Manley said the Canadian government has not helped public understanding of the mission or of the many complex issues surrounding it.

"It certainly concerns me if we are not getting the information out to Canadians," said Manley, who, along with the other members of the panel, visited Afghanistan for 10 days in November.
More on link

Time to stand up for what we believe
How can the Canadian government say it wants to ban cluster bombs while it also promotes a provision that would allow it to participate with the U.S. in their use?
JODY WILLIAMS Special to Globe and Mail Update May 22, 2008 at 11:13 PM EDT
Article Link

Dublin, Ireland — At the current 12-day conference to negotiate an international treaty banning cluster munitions, diplomats and observers alike are wondering what has happened to Canada's independence.

The same country that launched the "Ottawa process" resulting in the historic 1997 Mine Ban Treaty now appears to be doing dirty work for the United States to weaken the cluster munitions treaty.

As with land mines, the United States is no friend of the effort to ban cluster munitions launched in February, 2007, in Oslo. But it was openly and actively involved in the Ottawa process until walking out of treaty negotiations on the last day, unable to force acceptance of a "negotiating package" that would have gutted that treaty. This time around, Washington is opting for intense, relentless pressure behind the scenes.
More on link

US: Dutch, British to extend Afghanistan commands
By LOLITA C. BALDOR 
Article Link

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department said Wednesday it has shelved a plan to take greater control in parts of Afghanistan where NATO is in charge after the Dutch and British agreed to extend their commands.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the Netherlands and Britain will stay in control in southern Afghanistan for a full year, rather than in months, as the military alliance fights a stubborn Taliban insurgency.

The European allies agreed to the new arrangement in recent conversations with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Morrell said.

"I think we're trying to create a situation in which ... by the command serving longer, there'll be greater stability and continuity to our operations" in southern Afghanistan, Morrell said. The U.S. raised the idea and allies signed on, he said.

The U.S. has complained that changing commands every nine months and rotating troops even more frequently do not provide the necessary continuity for an effective fight against the insurgency, particularly in Afghanistan's volatile south.

In recent months, the Pentagon suggested giving the U.S. military more authority in those areas now under NATO command. U.S. control is now limited to eastern Afghanistan.
More on link

Suicide bomb kills five in eastern Afghanistan
Fri May 23, 2008 3:12am EDT 
Article Link

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suspected Taliban suicide bomber killed one child and four Afghan soldiers in an attack targeting an army convoy on Friday, a provincial governor's spokesman said.

Taliban insurgents carried out more than 140 suicide bombings in 2007 and have vowed to step up such attacks this year. Some 95 percent of those killed by the Taliban are civilians, a United Nations special rapporteur said last week.

Five others, including four Afghan soldiers, were wounded in the latest attack, which came in the eastern province of Khost, bordering Pakistan, the spokesman Khaiber Pashtun said.

Taliban militants often target Afghan and international security forces in their campaign to topple the pro-Western Afghan government and drive foreign troops out of the country.
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[MarkOttawa]

Afghan troops ready for bulk of fight: U.S. general
Reuters, May 22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/22/AR2008052201869.html

The Afghan army could by early next year be leading [emphasis added] the vast majority of military operations against enemy insurgents in the country, the U.S. soldier in charge of training them said on Thursday.

Major General Robert W. Cone said Afghan authorities aimed to have 80,000 trained personnel ready by early 2009, compared to just over 57,000 now, as part of an effort to share more of the burden of fighting with NATO countries.

Asked what that meant for Afghan forces' ability to lead operations against Taliban and other insurgents, Cone told a news conference at NATO headquarters:

"I would say leadership certainly of most operations and probably, depending on their readiness, tending towards virtually all operations.

"That will lift a significant amount of the burden from ISAF forces," he said of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which commanders currently say numbers around 50,000.

Cone, who leads the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A)
http://www.cstc-a.com/
training effort, said Afghan troops had led around half of 180 joint operations with international forces in the early months of this year.

However, Afghan forces remain short of aircraft, and Cone acknowledged it could be another five years before they could conduct all their own air operations.

"The hardest part is the dropping of bombs from the air. That will require significant training and we are thinking 2013 is when the Afghans will be capable of doing that [emphasis added]," he said...

Eastern Afghanistan now a hotter zone for U.S. troops
Officials worry increased attacks are the fallout of peace deals with militants in Pakistan
Chicago Tribune, May 22
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-afghan-pakistan_barkermay23,0,5151247.story

KABUL, Afghanistan — The number of attacks on U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan has increased significantly in April and May, causing many here to worry that local peace deals with militants in neighboring Pakistan are allowing them to regroup and focus on fighting across the border in Afghanistan.

Officials with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that attacks in eastern Afghanistan in the past three or four weeks have jumped to about 100 a week from 60 a week in March [emphasis added].

This was "a very significant increase" in attacks, which include everything from minor indirect fire to suicide attacks, one ISAF official said last week.

ISAF has about 51,000 troops in Afghanistan, but the U.S. military commands the troops in the eastern region, which borders Pakistan's tribal areas, the remote and mostly lawless border region where Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants have found shelter for years. Any increase in attacks in eastern Afghanistan would therefore be against U.S. forces...

The ISAF official said the lack of Pakistani pressure on the militants in recent weeks — particularly by the military — has taken the heat off of them in the tribal areas as the truce talks are pursued.

At a congressional hearing in Washington this week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte brought the U.S. doubts into the open when he told lawmakers that the Bush administration is concerned about the possible deals between the tribal militants and the Pakistani government that took office after parliamentary elections in February...

NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters in Brussels last week that attacks in Afghanistan were up 50 percent in April from last year. That number is not considered to be as significant as the jump between March and April. That is because attacks are up 25 percent nationwide over past year, probably because there are more international troops in Afghanistan [emphasis added].

The alliance planned to talk to Pakistani authorities about militant safe havens, Appathurai said. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is expected to travel to Islamabad before the end of the month for talks...

In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai welcomed the new government's efforts to reach peace with militants, as long as any deals did not hurt Afghanistan. But many Afghan officials are extremely upset about the truces and blame Pakistan for trading peace there at Afghanistan's expense.

"The Pakistani government is negotiating to prevent militants from attacking in Pakistan," said Noorulhaq Olomi, a parliament member who runs the committee on defense and territorial affairs. "But who is asking them to stop attacking here?"

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found May 26, 2008

Supply and unreal demands
Canada's flawed plan to buy spy planes could create an Israeli presence in Afghanistan
By GREG WESTON
Article Link

Today's tour of the federal funny farm takes us (yet again) to the Department of National Defence, this time coming to the aid of our troops in Afghanistan with rented Israeli spy planes. Really.

Four months ago, Stephen Harper said the government had ordered a fleet of unmanned surveillance aircraft to help reduce the amount of time our troops have to spend travelling heavily landmined roads of Kandahar.

In fact, the prime minister said in January, the government "has had them on order for some time."

Or not. Truth is, the government still hasn't ordered the planes, the bidding to supply them having closed only this past week.

Sources in the defence industry say the requirements for supplying the unmanned drones are so onerous that most of the world's suppliers politely said thanks, but no thanks.

That left only two companies in the running -- both Israeli.

The concept of Canada's deploying Israeli spy planes to watch over a Muslim country we are occupying definitely risks some indigestion in diplomatic, if not military, circles.

But the planes may be only part of a much larger Israeli presence joining our Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

Government documents stipulate that the winning supplier will also have to provide the crews needed to maintain the drones at the Canadian base in Afghanistan, prepare the craft for flight, and actually remote-pilot the planes through all takeoffs and landings.
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Pakistan ceasefire doesn't mean respite in Afghanistan, Taliban warns
Last Updated: Saturday, May 24, 2008 | 11:19 PM ET CBC News
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The ceasefire between some Taliban fighters in Pakistan and the country's government won't bring peace to nearby Afghanistan, a Taliban leader said Saturday.

Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban leader in Pakistan, said he wants to end the fighting with Pakistani government forces but will continue to battle Western troops in Afghanistan, where about 2,500 Canadian soldiers are part of the NATO force.

NATO commander Gen. John Craddock is concerned that the ceasefire will aid the Taliban because they will be able to use Pakistan as a base to launch attacks in Afghanistan, U.S. National Public Radio reported.

"If the safe haven is not taken away," Craddock said, "whenever the insurgents are under duress, then they can leave, reconstitute and come back at the time of their choosing."

The ceasefire followed a change in government in Pakistan earlier this year. The new government has been seeking to end the fierce battles along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Mehsud told reporters at a Taliban base that the holy war against the Western forces would continue.
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US coalition soldier killed in Afghanistan
By NOOR KHAN
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber hit a Canadian military convoy in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing one boy, while a U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed in an operation in the west, officials said.

The bomber struck the Canadian convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, said police officer Abdul Karim.

One military vehicle appeared to be damaged, according to an AP reporter at the scene of the attack. One boy was killed, and two other boys were wounded, he said.

Capt. Fraser Clark, a spokesman for Canadian troops in Kandahar, said three soldiers were wounded and were sent for treatment at the military airfield.

Separately, a U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed during an operation in the western Farah province, the coalition said in a statement. It did not provide any further information.
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Taliban rocket attack interrupts Canadian entertainment show in Kandahar.
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Hundreds of NATO soldiers got a dash of Canadian music and humour Friday night before a Taliban rocket attack forced a troupe of entertainers to temporarily douse the lights at Kandahar Airfield.

The music and jokes had been flying for about an hour when the first explosion and siren forced everyone to scurry for nearby bunkers.

No one was hurt.

Kandahar Airfield, the main base for Canadian and alliance troops in southern Afghanistan, has been hit routinely over the last few weeks with wildly erratic 107 mm rocket fire intended to harass NATO forces.

The show was interrupted for about an hour before performers retook the stage and carried on.

One of the headline acts was East Coast blues rocker Matt Minglewood, who has spent the last couple of days mixing and chatting with the troops.

It is the guitarist's second trip to entertain soldiers in the war-torn country, and he said earlier Friday that a lot has changed in almost four years.
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Blaming enemy wearing thin as Afghanistan spin
By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Mon. May 26 - 6:08 AM
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WHENEVER a nation is at war, it is very easy to polarize public opinion based upon the simplified premise of "us" versus "them." Soldiers simply follow orders, while the political and military leadership puts forward talking points to justify the military intervention.

A large percentage of the media eagerly parrots the government lines, and the Canadian public is more than content to be placated by the official reassurances that our cause is just. This makes for a relatively easy sales job, as we all believe that we are inherently good people.

Therefore, if strange foreigners attack our soldiers with suicidal fanaticism, it is very easy to convince ourselves that our enemy is evil incarnate. When NATO artillery or airstrikes cause the deaths of innocent women and children, naturally, we blame the dastardly insurgents for using their own families as human shields.

However, in the fall of 2006, following the successful conclusion of Operation Medusa, our soldiers walked among the throng of Afghan refugees returning to the Panjwai district. When a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a bicycle bomb in the midst of that crowd — killing and injuring soldiers and civilians alike — we heaped the blame for the collateral damage into the coffin of the Taliban attackers. When our soldiers shot and killed an unarmed 10-year-old boy at the scene of an IED ambush, we said the Taliban bore full responsibility because they had created such an insecure environment that our troops had little recourse but to shoot first and take no chances.

Last week’s attack on Canadian soldiers involving another 10-year-old
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Soldier comes home to ruin
Identity-theft victim while overseas
MAX HARROLD, The Gazette
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His forearm tattoo brands him as a "soldier/protector," but even an eight-month tour of duty in Afghanistan left Tyler Patnode still a kid at heart, too trusting for his own good.

When he returned home to LaSalle in February, the 22-year-old army gunner was blindsided by identity theft, a danger to anyone who travels and leaves their personal information vulnerable to misuse.

A boyhood friend with access to Patnode's chequebook betrayed him, he says.
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Canadian soldiers benefit from U.S. car discount
Updated Wed. May. 21 2008 1:14 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Canadian soldiers are reaping the benefits of a U.S. military incentive program that offers cars at a discounted price to military personnel.

Capt. Patrick Hannan took advantage of the discounted rate extended to Canadian soldiers overseas and bought a brand new "supped-up" -- fully loaded -- Vista Blue Mustang.

Hannan became a car enthusiast while serving as an artillery targeting specialist in Afghanistan. Before completing his tour, Hannan purchased a shiny new hot rod with the help of the Exchange New Car Sales Program (ENCS).

The program was created in the 1960s to ensure members of the Armed Forces stationed overseas for at least 30 days could purchase American-built cars, trucks and motorcycles conveniently and at good value.

American and Canadian soldiers can purchase a new vehicle at the preferred rate from their station abroad and pick it up when they rotate home.

A Canadian veteran can head south of the border to collect their car and drive it back, said the program manager in Afghanistan, Arthur Smith.
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Female soldiers at the forefront when dealing with Afghan women
Ryan Cormier ,  Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, May 25, 2008
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Female soldiers are finding an unwritten - but not unwanted - responsibility waiting for them in Afghanistan.

In many rural villages in Kandahar province, the only females who can meet local women wear the Canadian flag on their uniform. Large areas are too dangerous for anyone but a soldier to walk into.

Many Afghan women aren't allowed to speak with, or even see, men they aren't related to. The punishment for bringing such dishonour to their family can be death.
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Estonian soldier dies in accident in Afghanistan while unloading equipment
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TALLINN, Estonia — Estonia's military says one of its soldiers has died in southern Afghanistan after being injured while unloading equipment from a truck.

The military said today that 30-year-old Sgt. Maj Ivar Brok died in a military hospital in Kandahar overnight after a spare wheel of a heavy armoured vehicle rolled over him at the British Camp Bastion.

Brok is the third Estonian soldier to die in Afghanistan since the small Baltic country joined the NATO-led coalition in 2003.
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Afghanistan's Indian soaps provoke culture debate
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KABUL (AFP) — "I'm not the father," Mehir Verani exclaims, accusing his virtuous wife Tulsi of having their son with another man.

Shocked, the beautiful woman throws her husband a tearful glance.

The music peaks ... and an episode of the most popular soap opera in Afghanistan ends, millions of viewers left hanging on for the next instalment in a tale many have followed since it first aired four years ago.

"I think this is another conspiracy against Tulsi," 50-year-old car-part salesman Noor Agha says of the Indian drama dubbed into Farsi. "I'm desperate to see how she will cope with it this time."

But just as Tulsi's honour was thrown into doubt, albeit only briefly, so has been the fate of the serial of the same name.

Islamic mullahs, backed by elements in the government, want it and others banned.

They say the serials and the hot topics they deal with -- such as Tulsi's alleged infidelity -- are corrupting Afghans as they emerge from the strict conservatism of the Taliban regime which banned television and movies.
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Afghanistan, Chinese company sign multi-billion-dollar copper mine deal
05.25.08, 2:52 PM ET
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KABUL (Thomson Financial) - The Afghan government and a Chinese state company on Sunday signed a multi-billion-dollar deal for the exploration of a copper deposit said to be one of the largest in the world.

Mines Minster Ibrahim Adel signed the agreement -- the largest foreign investment in Afghanistan -- with representatives of the Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), a state-owned metal producer and contractor

'After signing the contract, MCC will start exploring the mine. This was the last step,' ministry spokesman Khoghman Ulumi told Agence France-Presse. He could not say when work on the mine would begin.

Afghanistan in November selected MCC from nine international bidders for a 30-year lease to develop the Aynak mine 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Kabul.
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[GAP]

Articles found May 27, 2008

Tories need to assure allies after Bernier: experts
Updated Mon. May. 26 2008 9:47 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
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Canada will need to move quickly to reassure allies that no sensitive information was leaked in the wake of the Maxime Bernier affair, according to experts on international relations.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced late Monday evening that he had accepted the foreign affairs minister's resignation after Bernier told him about a possible security breach. Harper did not offer many details.

But The Canadian Press reported Bernier may have left classified documents related to April's NATO summit in Bucharest at an ex-girlfriend's home.

"I hope (Harper) has made a phone call to (U.S.) President (George) Bush already to explain what he's doing to ensure that any of this information will not undermine our allies' interest," University of British Columbia political scientist Michael Byers told CTV Newsnet.

"Whether this will stick to Canadian politics, I don't know. But it certainly sticks to Canada's reputation abroad and our ability to make this happen," he said.
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At isolated outpost, the relative luxury of Kandahar is a world away
KATHERINE O'NEILL From Tuesday's Globe and Mail May 27, 2008 at 4:37 AM EDT
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PANJWAI DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN — Warrant Officer Devin Ramos had flashbacks to Vietnam movies the first time he was dropped off by a helicopter at one of the tiny outposts the Canadian military has scattered throughout the Panjwai district.

"It reminded me of a little fort bristling with machine guns and wire," he said.

The 34-year-old Edmonton-based soldier with the 3rd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry has spent the bulk of his tour since he arrived in February stationed at outposts, and recently headed up the one in Zangabad.

The station, which is officially named Platoon House Boyes, opened late last year in an effort to hold ground in the hotly contested and turbulent Panjwai district and help train Afghan police. It is named in honour of Sergeant Jason Boyes who was killed in March after stepping on an explosive device a few hundred metres from the station.
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Intelligence soldiers in Afghanistan since start of mission: commander
Mon May 26, 6:40 PM
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The Canadian military has had intelligence soldiers operating in Afghanistan for as long as it has been in the country, Canada's commander in Afghanistan told CBC News on Monday.

The comments by Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson came on the same day CBC News first reported the Canadian Forces have established a special intelligence unit to gather information on overseas missions in places like Afghanistan.

CBC obtained military documents that show the Canadian Forces are spending about $27 million over the next three years to purchase equipment for the new unit, which is actively recruiting soldiers.

Although many details about the unit are considered classified and are not being released to the public, documents show the focus of the group is "human intelligence."

Members of the unit, known as the Human Intelligence Company (HUMINT), are trained in collecting and analyzing information gathered from the wide variety of human contacts, or sources, they encounter on missions.

Thompson said military intelligence specialists are currently operating in Kandahar province, but he would not comment on the new unit.
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Pakistan says no cross-border attacks
Mon May 26, 2008 11:12am EDT By Kamran Haider
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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan is determined to stop militants crossing its border to fight Western troops in Afghanistan and is activating tribal leaders to squeeze out the militants, a government official said on Monday.

Pakistan's new civilian government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is pursuing talks with militants to end a wave of violence that has raised concern about prospects for the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

But that has raised alarm among Pakistan's allies, especially those with troops in Afghanistan, who fear pacts on the Pakistani side of the border only help militants focus efforts on attacks across in Afghanistan.

NATO's force in Afghanistan said this week the peace talks the new Pakistani government had launched had led to an increase in attacks in Afghanistan.
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Italy says plans to make Afghan force more flexible
ReutersPublished: May 26, 2008
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BRUSSELS: Italy said on Monday it planned to improve the ability of its 2,400-strong contingent in Afghanistan to react rapidly to outbreaks of fighting, including redistributing some of its troops there.

Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told reporters at an EU meeting in Brussels that Italy would also reduce the size of its contingent by 250 to 300.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini later insisted the cut would be in the Italian presence in the capital Kabul, not in its main contingent in the west, and stressed that the aim was not to lower the overall size of the Italian force.

"We are not talking about the number of troops ... We are talking about deploying them in a more flexible way," he told reporters at the same meeting.

Frattini said Italy planned to improve its contingent's ability to react quickly to requests from NATO to operate outside its main base in west Afghanistan, but did not plan to move its troops anywhere else permanently.
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US uses bullets ill-suited for new ways of war
By RICHARD LARDNER 
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WASHINGTON (AP) — As Sgt. Joe Higgins patrolled the streets of Saba al-Bor, a tough town north of Baghdad, he was armed with bullets that had a lot more firepower than those of his 4th Infantry Division buddies.

As an Army sniper, Higgins was one of the select few toting an M14. The long-barreled rifle, an imposing weapon built for wars long past, spits out bullets larger and more deadly than the rounds that fit into the M4 carbines and M16 rifles that most soldiers carry.

"Having a heavy cartridge in an urban environment like that was definitely a good choice," says Higgins, who did two tours in Iraq and left the service last year. "It just has more stopping power."

Strange as it sounds, nearly seven years into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, bullets are a controversial subject for the U.S.

The smaller, steel-penetrating M855 rounds continue to be a weak spot in the American arsenal. They are not lethal enough to bring down an enemy decisively, and that puts troops at risk, according to Associated Press interviews.

Designed decades ago to puncture a Soviet soldier's helmet hundreds of yards away, the M855 rounds are being used for very different targets in Iraq and Afghanistan. Much of today's fighting takes place in close quarters; narrow streets, stairways and rooftops are today's battlefield. Legions of armor-clad Russians marching through the Fulda Gap in Germany have given way to insurgents and terrorists who hit and run.

Fired at short range, the M855 round is prone to pass through a body like a needle through fabric. That does not mean being shot is a pain-free experience. But unless the bullet strikes a vital organ or the spine, the adrenaline-fueled enemy may have the strength to keep on fighting and even live to fight another day.

In 2006, the Army asked a private research organization to survey 2,600 soldiers who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly one-fifth of those who used the M4 and M16 rifles wanted larger caliber bullets.
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Fears for patrol vehicles as blast kills serviceman in Afghanistan
May 27, 2008 Michael Evans, Defence Editor
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A British serviceman has been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday.

He was killed when his Viking vehicle was caught in a blast north of Sangin, Helmand province. His next of kin have been informed. Two other soldiers were injured and taken to Camp Bastion, the main British base, for medical treatment.

The death brings the number of British personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 97.

The attack adds to growing concerns over the vulnerability of British patrol vehicles to hidden devices.

The underside of armoured vehicles deployed in Helmand has proven to be highly susceptible to mines buried by the Taleban, and the Ministry of Defence is preparing to add extra armour to key vehicles. The relatively new Viking armoured troop-carrying vehicle – which was built for the Royal Marines for use in Norway but is now being used across desert routes in northern Helmand – has proven to be vulnerable to the mines, which are suspected of being supplied from Iran. Five Vikings have been destroyed by mines.

Although the Viking is well armoured on its sides, the mines have penetrated the armour underneath, placing the driver at greatest risk. The Army faced the same risk in the case of Warrior armoured vehicles in Iraq, which, for similar reasons, were found to be vulnerable to mines. An extra layer of armour had to be fitted to the belly of the Warriors. MoD sources said that similar steps were being taken to improve the armour on the Vikings.
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Australian troops 'scorned' for low-risk missions: officer
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SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian infantry soldiers are ashamed of their low-risk missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and are scorned by troops of other nations, two officers have charged in comments published Tuesday.

"The restrictions and policies enforced on infantrymen in Iraq have resulted in the widespread perception that our army is plagued by institutional cowardice," Major Jim Hammett wrote in the Australian Army Journal.

Australia contributed troops to both the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq but their roles have been limited, with no soldiers killed in combat.

In Afghanistan five Australian soldiers, mainly special forces commandos, have been killed since 2002.

Australia had received "significant political kudos" for its support of coalition operations in both countries but this was not reflected among troops on the battlefields, Hammett said in the official journal.

"Australia's contributions to both Iraq and Afghanistan have been derided and scorned by soldiers and officers alike from other nations who are more vigorously engaged in combat operations," he wrote in the latest edition of the journal.

"The restrictions placed on deployed elements as a result of force protection and national policies have, at times, made infantrymen ashamed of wearing their Australian uniform."

In a separate article, Captain Greg Colton said infantry troops were increasingly frustrated because special forces appeared to be favoured for offensive operations.
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Canadian quietly writes humanitarian law into Afghan security contracts
Andrew Mayeda ,  Canwest News Service
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OTTAWA - The Canadian military has quietly revised its contracts with private-security providers in Afghanistan to ensure they obey international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on civilians.

Canada employs Western private-security firms and Afghan contractors to guard government officials and visiting VIPs, as well as military installations in Kandahar province where the bulk of Canada's soldiers are based. The military insists such private contractors do not engage in "offensive operations."

But contracts obtained by Canwest News Service under the Access to Information Act show the military has added provisions requiring contractors to spare civilians and submit to weapons inspections to ensure they are not carrying arms that violate international law.
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[Greymatters]

An interesting story about the problems with respecting local culture:

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=19010

Letters from Iraq: From 'Charlie' to 'Haji'
Following target practice with the Koran, US military commanders fear inflamed anti-American sentiment as the pattern of disrespect continues.

"Keith was reacting to the latest incident that US military commanders here fear may inflame the anti-American sentiment in Iraq: A soldier from Keith's own 4-64 armor battalion of the Fourth Brigade, Third Infantry Division, used the Koran for target practice this month in the predominantly Sunni Baghdad suburb of Radwaniyah.

The shooting of Islam's holy book was the latest publicized illustration of US forces' disregard of Iraqi, and Muslim, culture. The most infamous episode of disrespect during the five-year war saw US soldiers torture Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison."

 

[MarkOttawa]

Optimism Grows as Marines Push Against Taliban
NY Times, May 27, by Carlotta Gall
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/world/middleeast/27afghan.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

GARMSER, Afghanistan — For two years British troops staked out a presence in this small district center in southern Afghanistan and fended off attacks from the Taliban. The constant firefights left it a ghost town, its bazaar broken and empty but for one baker, its houses and orchards reduced to rubble and weeds.

The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit patrolled the southern Afghanistan village of Hazarjoft on May 21. The unit is planning to move on in the next few weeks.

But it took the Marines, specifically the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, about 96 hours to clear out the Taliban in a fierce battle in the past month and push them back about 6 miles.

It was their first major combat operation since landing in March, and it stood in stark contrast to the events of a year earlier, when a Marine unit was removed in disgrace within weeks of arriving because its members shot and killed 19 civilians after a suicide bombing attack.

This time, the performance of the latest unit of marines, here in Afghanistan for seven months to help bolster NATO forces, will be under particular scrutiny. The NATO-led campaign against the Taliban has not only come under increasing pressure for its slow progress in curbing the insurgency, but it has also been widely criticized for the high numbers of civilian casualties in the fighting.

The marines’ drive against the Taliban in this large farming region is certainly not finished, and the Taliban have often been pushed out of areas in Afghanistan only to return in force later. But for the British forces and Afghan residents here, the result of the recent operation has been palpable...

After a month in the region, the marines have secured only half of a roughly six-square-mile area south of Garmser. Taliban forces operating out of two villages are still attacking the southern flank of the marines and are even creeping up to fire at British positions on the edge of the town.

But the bigger test will come in the next few weeks as the marines move on and the Afghans, supported by the British, take over [emphasis added]. The concern here is that the Taliban will try to blend in among the returning villagers and orchestrate attacks...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found May 30, 2008

Taliban captures district in central Afghanistan 
www.chinaview.cn  2008-05-30 16:28:06 
  Article Link

    KABUL, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants in an overnight action captured Rashedan, a district in Ghazni province, an Afghan official said Friday.

    Local witnesses said a group of Taliban militants came into the district Thursday night and controlled the district compound and the whole district without fighting.

    Khan Mohmmad Mujahed, provincial police chief, confirmed with Xinhua that the district is now with the insurgents.

    Zabihullah Mujahed, a purported spokesman for the Taliban, which is fighting the Afghan government and international troops since being ousted from power in 2001, said Taliban fighters after one-hour fighting with government force controlled the district and captured the district chief and some policemen.

    Taliban insurgents usually used blast bombings and overnight ambushes to attack their targets, and currently the militant outfit is said to have control over several districts in southern Afghanistan.   
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U.S. commander in Afghanistan faults Pakistan for not pressing militants
By Carlotta Gall Friday, May 30, 2008
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KABUL: The departing American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill, has raised concerns that Pakistan has not followed through on promises to tackle militancy on its side of the border, and in recent months has even stopped its cooperation with NATO and Afghan counterparts on border issues.

McNeill said Thursday that Pakistan's failure to act against militants in its tribal areas and its decision to hold talks with the militants without putting pressure on them had led to an increase in attacks against U.S. and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan.

"We have not seen the actions that we had expected late last year; we have seen a different approach," he said before a news briefing in Kabul. "That is different from what most of us thought last year we were going to get."

Militancy rose last year in Pakistan, where officials indicated that tougher measures against the insurgents were planned. Instead, the government has sued for peace, a policy tried in 2005 and 2006 that led directly to a rise in attacks across the border, as is happening now.

"Over time, when there has been dialogue, or peace deals, the incidents have gone up," McNeill told journalists in Kabul and others in Brussels via videoconference. "What you see right now is the effects of no pressure on the extremists and insurgents on the other side of the border."
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FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, May 30
Fri May 30, 2008 4:01am EDT
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May 30 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0800 GMT on Friday:

KHOST - A suicide car bomber blew himself up alongside a convoy of military engineers in the eastern province of Khost on Friday, the U.S. military said. No soldiers were wounded and no equipment was damaged in the incident, it said.

FARAH - A soldier from U.S.-led coalition forces was killed in the western province of Farah on Thursday, the U.S. military said in a statement on Friday.

FARAH - U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants with small arms fire and air strikes after coming under fire from a house in the western province of Farah on Wednesday, the U.S. military said on Friday.

GHAZNI - U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants and detained 16 during search operations in Ghazni province, south of Kabul on Thursday, the U.S. military said on Friday.

HELMAND - Afghan security forces and U.S.-led coalition troops killed several militants near Sangin in the southern province of Helmand on Thursday after coming under fire, the U.S. military said on Friday. (Compiled by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Valerie Lee)
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Canadian troops can't be held liable if U.S. uses banned munitions
May 30, 2008 Tim Harper Washington Bureau
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WASHINGTON–By agreeing to a historic treaty banning cluster munitions, Ottawa has broken from the United States and won crucial legal safeguards for its troops fighting alongside Americans in Afghanistan.

The treaty, expected to be formalized in Dublin today, is being hailed by human rights campaigners, although – like the Ottawa treaty on land mines 11 years ago – the U.S. leads a number of military powers which remain outside its terms.

But using the land-mine treaty as its template, human rights advocates believe the Dublin accord, which is to be officially signed by 111 nations in Norway in early December, will "stigmatize" those countries which still use the munitions.

The treaty – and Canada's support of it – nearly foundered over an arcane military term known as "interoperability," a real concern for countries like Canada whose military operations are so closely intertwined with those of the Americans.

Early wording of the treaty would have criminalized the actions of soldiers from countries who signed the treaty, should they have been unwittingly involved in operations with an ally still using cluster bombs.
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Canadian officials urged to focus on job-creation projects
By The Canadian Press - For Business Edge Published: 05/30/2008 - Vol. 8, No. 11
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The adage that "idle are the devil's workshop" may date to the 12th century, but it has a particularly poignant ring today in southern Afghanistan as the annual poppy harvest winds down and NATO forces brace for a possible spike in violence.

Village leaders and power brokers throughout Kandahar province are pleading with the Canadian military and development officials to focus more money and attention on massive make-work projects.

Such jobs, usually back-breaking construction work, would serve to keep chronically under-employed or jobless Afghan males of fighting age - between 18 and 25 - from falling into the clutches of Taliban recruiters.

"I would like to see the Canadians to mostly focus on the projects (where) they can create jobs," said Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the provincial council in Kandahar and half brother to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
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Focus on terrorists, not Taliban, Afghan elders urge Canadians
Doug Schmidt ,  Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, May 29
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DAND DISTRICT, Afghanistan - Openly vowing to destroy the Taliban is probably not the diplomatically correct route to take to win over the people of Dand, a rural collection of mud-walled villages south of Kandahar City where even the district police chief complains that some police road checkpoints are populated by "criminals."

Be careful who you label the bad guys, a group of Canadian visitors was advised during a visit with district elders this week.

"The Taliban are our local people. We speak their language, we can work with them," said one village leader during a meeting between local elders and a delegation from the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) that Canada operates from a base inside Kandahar City.
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[MarkOttawa]

Already besieged by Bernier affair, Tories come under attack for Italian gaffe
Wrongly saying Italy was prepared to lift caveat on combat in Afghanistan 'just stupid': Ignatieff
Ottawa Citizen, May 30
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=40356508-8b62-42c4-8a03-ce8095bcae15&sponsor=

The Conservatives continued to come under fire yesterday over their conduct of foreign affairs, not only for the Maxime Bernier controversy, but also because the government had to backtrack after saying Italy was ending restrictions that keep its troops out of heavy combat in Afghanistan.

The Italians were only considering withdrawing the caveats after a visit by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

As Mr. Harper was about to depart Rome for London yesterday morning, his press secretary, Carolyn Stewart-Olsen, told reporters travelling with the prime minister that Italy had announced it would lift restrictions which prevent its soldiers from getting into combat in Afghanistan. That turned out to be premature.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi released a statement after Mr. Harper left, saying his country was considering changing the rules of deployment for Italy's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan "in a spirit of solidarity with its allies."

The Conservative government has been criticized over its poor handling of the Bernier affair and his removal from cabinet earlier this week, but it was the confusion aboard the prime minister's plane that sparked objections in the House of Commons yesterday.

"The prime minister meets the premier of Italy on a really big deal ... He comes out and says Berlusconi's going to lift the caveat. Just one problem with that. Berlusconi said no such thing. That's not competent. That's not serious. That's more than embarrassing. That's really stupid," said Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff...

Who needs the Germans?
Whether Berlin's 3,500 troops stay or leave `makes no difference to us,' says one senior Afghan official

Toronto Star, May 30
http://www.thestar.com/News/Columnist/article/433890

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, afghanistan–Mohammad Zahir Wahdat, a man who clearly does not like having his monologues interrupted, pulls a pout at the mention of Germans.

"What they choose to do with their troops in Afghanistan is their own decision, not ours," he sniffs.

But since the subject has been raised – repeatedly and obstinately by a visiting reporter grown weary of propaganda puffery over endless refills of tea – Wahdat finally addresses the topic of the International Security Assistance Force.

"For the issue of security, we don't need them any more. We solve all our problems by ourselves. When was the last time you heard that insurgents have been caught by ISAF in Balkh? It doesn't happen.

"We're the ones who catch them: Afghan forces, Afghan intelligence. And usually before they commit any harmful acts."

Wahdat is the deputy governor of Balkh, one of Afghanistan's three most prosperous provinces.

A powerful individual, likely to succeed Mohammed Atta as governor, Wahdat sounds ambivalent, at best, about the Teutonic military presence here.

"If the Germans leave, I cannot say if there would be more stability or less. It's best you ask the coalition authorities about the effectiveness of the Germans in the north. I think they should stay to help us more in the field of reconstruction. But if they do leave, it really makes no difference to us.

Germany is the lead nation in Regional Command North, with overall NATO responsibility in nine provinces. Although Sweden actually runs the Mazar-i-Sharif Provincial Reconstruction Team, the Germans operate two other PRTs – in Kunduz and Feyzabad.

Beyond that, it's hard to tell, really, what they've been doing with their 3,500 troops, stationed north of Afghanistan's volatile divide, although German non-governmental aid groups are certainly active in the region.

Canada has long tried to convince Berlin that German forces should be rotated to the south, where combat boots are urgently needed on the ground. The answer has always been a firm No...

Germany – which also had the lead assignment for training Afghan National Police, a notable failure – announced last month that it is supporting the construction of 33 new police stations across the north, would double (to 120) its police instructors if the European police mission does the same, and is planning to bolster its Afghanistan commitment with a 250-member quick-reaction force.

The country's Afghan involvement will be back before German parliament in October [emphasis added]...

But the purportedly worsening security situation in the north, what's ostensibly keeping the Germans here, has been overstated [emphasis added], he maintains.

"Of course, the insurgents are trying to destabilize us. The enemy has not forgotten this area.

"Occasionally, they still try to do some bad things with suicide bombers and attacks. Fortunately, we are always catching them. We rarely use the power of the international forces for issues of security."..

Why NATO Troops Can't Deliver Peace in Afghanistan
Spiegel Online, May 29 (very long article)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,556304,00.html

Forty nations are embroiled in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Anyone who travels through the country with Western troops soon realizes that NATO forces would have to be increased tenfold for peace to be even a remote possibility.

Thirteen days before the next attempt on his life, Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrives at a cabinet meeting, surrounded by a swarm of bodyguards. He holds his shirt collar shut against the rainy cold in Kabul. It's a Monday in mid-April -- and while there may be some good news this morning, most of it is bad. The Canadians want Karzai to dismiss the governor of Kandahar, the United Nations contingent is missing 50,000 tons of food and the Kazakh ambassador is promising money for a hospital in Bamyan. A suicide bomber has blown himself up in Helmand, the Norwegian defense minister is visiting Kabul and the opium harvest has begun in southern Afghanistan. A cabinet meeting is about to begin in the presidential palace...

Karzai picks up the receiver, and when he speaks everyone in the room can hear him. "What? Pakistani troops have crossed the border? Where exactly? They're shooting with rockets? There is fighting?" The news descends on Karzai's mood like a hammer. He hangs up the phone, wipes his hand across his bald head and says: "I handed the students at the university their diplomas yesterday. That was a very good day."

Good days are in short supply in Afghanistan, a country at war -- or involved in several wars, to be exact. There is constant fighting on many fronts, hard and soft. The newspapers, and there are many of them in Kabul now, serve up pages of chaotic images every day. Their reports are about bombs and drinking water, holy warriors and wheat prices, NATO air attacks and schoolbooks, kidnapped children, refugees and bandits.

Almost seven years have passed since the overthrow of the Taliban regime, and in those seven years half of the world has tried to bring a better future and, most of all, peace to this new country, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. As part of the NATO military operation known as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), 40 nations have 60,000 soldiers deployed in the country. There are 26 United Nations organizations in Afghanistan, and hundreds of private and government agencies are pumping money, materials and know-how into the country's 34 provinces. But anyone seeking success stories or asking about failures will encounter reports that do not seem to be coming from the same country.

According to the speeches and statements Western military officials, diplomats and politicians are constantly churning out, the security situation has improved substantially, the military successes are obvious and the Taliban are as good as defeated. But peace and Afghanistan, say the Afghanis when speaking to a domestic audience, are still two incompatible words.

Last year, 1,469 bombs exploded along Afghan roads, a number almost five times as high as in 2004. There were 8,950 armed attacks on troops and civilian support personnel, 10 times more than only three years earlier. One hundred and thirty suicide bombers blew themselves up in 2007. There were three suicide bombings in 2004.

There is no peace anywhere in Afghanistan, not even in the north [emphasis added] (more...), which officials repeatedly insist has been pacified...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,554545,00.html

IG Is Named To Scrutinize Afghan Efforts
Washington Post, May 30
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052903679.html

The White House named a special inspector general to search for possible fraud and abuse in the funding of Afghanistan's reconstruction yesterday, three months after a congressional deadline for the appointment.

Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Fields was appointed to head the office, which is modeled on a similar congressionally mandated effort in Iraq. Although the war in Afghanistan is overshadowed by the larger and much more expensive U.S. effort in Iraq, reconstruction and development assistance there has totaled nearly $23 billion.

Establishment of the office was included in the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, approved in January, which directed the White House to fill the job within 30 days.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who sponsored the measure in the Senate, said yesterday that there is "too little oversight" of money spent in Afghanistan...

Mark
Ottawa