5 Troops Killed in Afghanistan;
US in Jalrez Valley
A US soldier from Wisconsin was announced killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday (he died on Tuesday).
Three British soldiers were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in the southern Pushtun Helmand Province, and another died in hospital from wounds earlier received in Helman. The death bring the toll among the multi-national forces since Friday to 11. Last Friday, guerrillas killed 3 US soldiers in Uruzgan Province with a roadside bomb.
Thom Shanker notes:
'the Joint IED Defeat Organization, tallied 3,611 incidents of improvised explosives in Afghanistan in 2008, a 50 percent increase from 2007. The number of U.S. and allied deaths from roadside bombs more than doubled, to 176 in 2008 from 75 in 2007. Even more Afghan civilians were killed.
In Iraq, there were more than 9,000 IED attacks last year, but that was far below 2006, when they reached 2,500 a month. Today, insurgents in Iraq are planting fewer IEDs, and only one in nine produces an American casualty.
In Afghanistan, where as many as one in three bombs kills or wounds someone, American officers say they hope a combination of technology, intelligence, armor and training can help them drive down the casualty rate.'
The British are involved in a 'bizarre mini-civil war' insofar as some of the guerrillas being fought by the British army are UK citizens who speak with "west Midlands" accents. The British Muslim community is extremely upset about the British military role in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are about a million and a half Muslims in the UK, in a population of about 61 million.
200 US troops and 200 Afghan troops (along with their French trainers) pushed into the Jalrez Valley south of the capital of Kabul on Wednesday, seeking Taliban strongholds. They don't appear actually to have found anything, and only succeeded in annoying the local population. Locals did say that their view of the US would improve if Washington spent money on civilian development such as roads.
On Tuesday, some 30 persons died in political violence in Afghanistan.
Erica Gaston, who recently spent a year in Afghanistan, explains that US accidental killing of civilians has created a huge public relations problem.
Uzbekistan will allow NATO to ship non-military supplies for its troops in Afghanistan through Uzbek territory. (The supply chain will start at Lithuania and bring goods by train down to near the Friendship Bridge linking Uzbekistan to Afghanistan). But since the Khyber Pass route in Pakistan is increasingly problematic, I wonder how the US and NATO will ship in the military supplies.
Aljazeera English reports on the diverse groups that are grouped in the US mind under the rubric 'Taliban.'
End/ (Not Continued)
posted by Juan Cole @ 2/26/2009 12:37:00 AM
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5 Comments:
The British are involved in a 'bizarre mini-civil war' insofar as some of the guerrillas being fought by the British army are UK citizens who speak with "west Midlands" accents.
There's some political point being made behind this release. It's not new that there are a few British Asians in Afghanistan. But this story is really lacking in details. So it must be intended simply to rouse anti-Islamic sentiment in Britain. The British government, for example, trying to justify "anti-terror" legislation, though it is uniquely intended against Muslims. Or some journalist who happened to hear a British soldier say that, and thought he could get a good wow out of Islamophobic feeling (which is certainly strong in the UK, absolute downright racism, but that is thought to be OK if it is against Islam).
1. This could easily be a covert US Military operation, as the US Military has funded Salafi Muslim groups many times before to meet their own objectives.
2. Allahu Aalim (God knows best) if this group is on Truth and free from corruption but we will suspect they are on truth.
3. The biggest lie comes from the US military representative who claims the US is there to protect Afghans when it is there to exploit and conquer Afghanistan
4. Salafi Jihadis have been fighting to establish Islamic states for 1400 years and it began with the first battle the Holy Prophet engaged in (may the peace and blessings be upon him)
5. If you asked any modern historian "what is the worst place for an Imperial power to invade?" they would probably tell you "Afghanistan / Pakistan" 99% of the time.
6. Let them have Shariah and the Islamic state. The majority of people want that. If you let this area thrive with Shariah I guarantee within 10-15 years women will have their schools and people will be able to watch clean movies and films. :)
~Drew An Zhu Ahmad Marshall
I seem to remember that not all railways in Central Asia use the same gauge.
I remember reading a feasibility study on oil and freight shipment from St Petersburg to Bandar Abbas and Karachi needed five axle changes along the way.
The changover points are excellent choke points to interrupt supplies.
>Erica Gaston, who recently
>spent a year in
>Afghanistan, explains that
>US accidental killing of
>civilians has created a
>huge public relations
>campaign.
My heart bleeds for the United States and Nato.
These braindead Western journalists. Nothing matters but the impact of their imperial adventures on the interests of the West. The Afghans might be more concerned with the human tragedy here.
Just to say I agree with Alex on the 'Civil War' report.
This report is based on anonymous sources, and comes from a newspaper group (the Daily Mail/London Evening Standard) that has become well known for presenting the existence of British Muslims as a threat to national cultural survival, or as a 'third column', frequently using dubious and exaggerated 'evidence'.
I would recommend extreme caution when using stories about Muslims from such a source. The 'anonymous sources' might even be anti-Muslim activists pretending to be Army officers. This paper wouldn't ask questions if the story was right...
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