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POPSKarzai offers Mullah Omar security for peace talks This could be a great opportunity to get out of Afghanistan. If Omar agrees then all the US has to do is disagree and agree with Karzai's choice that we leave. First of all, Karzai would get some benefit by showing he is not a puppet of the US. Likely the benefit to him would be short lived without western support. The US would be able to disagree to the plan of providing security for talks with terrorists, thereby maintaining our long held position on that matter. In addition we would be respecting the wishes of the Afghan government by withdrawing, thereby showing respect for international law. And we could best of all withdraw our troops The longer we stay in Afghanistan the more people get killed, the more resources get used, the more money (we don't have) get's spent. And the more terrorist wannabes and people who hate us are created.
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POPSThe Case for U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan So if aerial bombardments and occupations give legitimacy to those very fundamentalists who Afghans would remove from power, what does the real war on fundamentalism look like? And it's not just that the Afghan population believes that the Taliban resistance is legitimate; that resistance is legitimate under international law. No less important a document than the United Nations charter gives the Taliban and other Afghans the right to legitimate self-defense against U.S. aggression. Instead of scaling up an already disastrous war, the United States should change it's course The whole article is worth a read.
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POPSAfghanistan: The Promise and the Reality
I have now spent several days in Afghanistan as an unembedded journalist, travelling around freely without an armed or military escort. Yes, it’s risky and at times nerve-wracking but if I want to find out what is really happening on the ground I’m not going to get it hiding in some hotel compound or army barracks being briefed by an army spokesman who knows even less than me. So far I’ve spoken to men and women from all backgrounds, cultures and Islamic ideologies and without exception they’re hacked off with the American presence. All the goodwill I saw after the fall of the Taliban has been squandered by the military presence of the US as well as the British (no one really distinguishes between the two) and it is crystal clear they have overstayed their welcome. The Taliban are in control of large swathes of the country and are now bordering on Kabul having already carried out several raids on the capital where Afghan leader Hamid Karzai is under virtual siege. Sinc
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POPSAfghan president Karzai demands US end civilian casulties "Our demand is that there will be no civilian casualties in Afghanistan. We cannot win the fight against terrorism with airstrikes," Karzai said. "This is my first demand of the new president of the United States - to put an end to civilian casualties."
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POPSSenior Taliban Commander Reported Killed In US Strike A long-time Taliban leader killed . . . . confirmation pending Omar was born in the town South Waziristan. Like many Taliban leaders, he earned his stripes by battling against the Soviet Red Army in Bagram and Kabul, Afghanistan during the 1980s. He was wounded several times but continued to return to the fight. After the Soviets withdrawal, Omar left Afghanistan as the Afghan warlords battled for power. He returned after Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, took power in 1996. Haji Omar forged close links with Mullah Omar while serving as one of his senior lieutenants. He lived in Kandahar and took an Afghan wife. After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Omar fled to his base in South Waziristan. From there he carved out his enclave and worked to build the Pakistani Taliban as a formidable fighting force. His fighters cross the border to fight US and allied forces in Afghanistan.
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POPSPakistani security forces said to secure Loisam area Tribal sources said the militants from Loisam used to easily travel to Nawagai Tehsil on one side and Nawapass in Charmang on the border with Afghanistan on the other side and similarly to Mamond via Bhai Cheena and Banda. Similarly, the militants were using it as an easy route to the adjoining Mohmand Agency via Ambar and Sarlara areas.Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for Baitullah Mahsud-led banned TTP, had once remarked that they would die but never allow Loisam to fall to the troops.
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POPSUS airstrike kills 9 Afghan soldiers at checkpoint n the last month, uniformed Afghan police officers have twice opened fire on U.S. troops, killing two soldiers. The police officers were killed by U.S. soldiers returning fire, but the incidents raised fears that insurgents have infiltrated Afghanistan's security forces as a cover to launch attacks. In the country's southern Uruzgan province, a two-day battle that ended early Wednesday killed 35 Taliban fighters and three Afghan police, said Juma Gul Himat, Uruzgan's provincial police chief.
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POPSJohn McCain Forgets about Afghanistan . . . Again More of the same is happening yet McCain pays no mind (0.00 / 0) Defections hit Afghan forces After fighting the Taliban for the past seven years, many working for the Afghan security forces are now switching sides. Sulieman Ameri and his 16 men were until a month ago serving the Afghan government as police patrolling the border with Iran. Now they answer to the Taliban and their goal is to drive all foreign troops out of Afghanistan.
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POPSFrom "War on Terror" to "War of Terror" This war in Afghanistan's not about avenging the 9-11 attacks or preventing new ones. It's about killing local fighters, who fight to rid Afghanistan of unwelcome foreigners from Christian-majority countries. What began as a "War on Terror" has long since become a War of Terror. The Canadians and Europeans have long since tired of it. So have the American people, despite the failure of the corporate media to expose the Big Lies that Cheney and Bush continue to promote in order to justify their Terror War. Seven years down the road, there's no end in sight. No hope except for the "fool's hope" that public opinion in the imperialist countries, plus the inevitable resistance of the Afghans to foreign control, plus the military judgement that the war is not winnable will bring this "good war" to an end. The whole article is worth reading. Clip Song
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POPSThe Savagery of a Surge That Failed He didn't scream. Instead, the sight induced a sort of catatonia; he picked up the head, cradled it in his arms, and started walking aimlessly. He carried on like this for days, until tribal elders pried the head from his hands and convinced him to deal with his loss more constructively. He decided he would get revenge by becoming a suicide bomber and inflicting a loss on some American family as painful as the one he had just suffered. The Taliban are as uninterested in social services and human rights as the Karzai government or the international forces, but they know how to turn a world of poverty, insecurity, and death from laser-guided missiles to their advantage. Washington spends about $100 million a day on this war - close to $36 billion a year - but only five cents of every dollar goes towards aid. From this paltry sum, "a staggering 40% has returned to donor countries in corporate profits and salaries".
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POPSAfghanistan Conflict Rapidly Worsening What a mess. Nato troops given new mandate to attack heroin drug barons in Afghanistan NATO accused of sheltering Afghan heroin trade Karzai's brother denies links to drug trade Nato happy to ignore explosion in Afghan opium output, says Russia
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POPSTaleban On Top of USA & UK in Propaganda A War is lost if Propaganda of Loser wins hearts of Populace. Taleban uses Mobile phone technology and has won. Britain and USA awake too late. Underestimating is a habit with both 'uk & usa'.
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POPSThe Surge That Failed Read the rest to find out why I'm not going to vote for Obama, who wants to continue this war! This is obscene and unconscionable!
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POPSAfghanistan Unwinnable? Ask the Russians about winning a war in Afghanistan. It reminds me of the Mony Python sketch - "Not much fun in Stalingrad?" Existing strategies probably don't allow "victory" because of our myopia on drugs and the hearts and minds of the populace.
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POPSA Better Strategy on Opium in Afghanistan The statistics are bleak and we are pursuing typically myopic policies in Afghanistan. Hitchens (whose writing I think is superb) makes a great case for a different approach. "in the short term, hard-pressed Afghan farmers should be allowed to sell their opium to the government rather than only to the many criminal elements that continue to infest it or to the Taliban. We don't have to smoke the stuff once we have purchased it: It can be burned or thrown away or perhaps more profitably used to manufacture the painkillers of which the United States currently suffers a shortage. (As it is, we allow Turkey to cultivate opium poppy fields for precisely this purpose.)"
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POPSTaliban severs ties with al Qaeda - seeks peace No matter how CNN spins this - we have slaughtered the Taliban until their forces and leadership are depleted, and they have lost the will to fight. This is what is known as victory. It is the same sort of victory we are experiencing in Iraq. The democrats and the mainstream media are so unfamiliar with the concept of "victory" they can't recognize it. It is the kind of victory liberal democrats would never achieve, because it takes courage, foresight, and patient fortitude - - all qualities they lack. I believe only President Bush was capable of taking the war to the enemy, and seeing it through. History will be very good to him.
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POPSWomen Test Limits "Now, women are taking courses run by nongovernmental organizations, getting educated and learning ways to improve their family incomes. Most important, the women have won over the men, she said. “Their minds have changed,” Najiba said. “They want to share decisions, not too far, but they want to give us some share.”
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POPSAfghan president Karzai calls for peace with Taliban Our correspondent says that many Afghan and western officials believe that the insurgency cannot be defeated militarily and that a political accommodation must be reached, but there has been fierce disagreements between Western countries and the Afghan government as to how this process should proceed. Correspondents say that earlier attempts to negotiate with the Taleban have been beset by difficulties, especially when foreign powers have been involved.
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POPSTaliban in secret peace talks with Afghan government Last week, the French Prime Minister, Franois Fillon, referred indirectly to the talks during a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan. “We must explore ways of separating the international Jihadists from those who are acting more for nationalist or tribal motives. Efforts in this direction are being led by Sunni countries such as Saudi Arabia,î he said. Late last year Karzai said he would welcome the chance to speak directly to Hikmatyar and to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban’s leader and one of the most wanted men in the world, promising that if the Taliban demanded a ìdepartment in this or in that ministry or a position as deputy ministerî in exchange for ending violence, he would give them the posts. Previously, Taliban spokesmen have said that only the departure of foreign troops, the institution of a fiercely rigorous interpretation of Sharia law and a share of government would be acceptable to them as the basis for any deal.
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POPSAnother Terrorist Hijack Plot Foiled You won't see this in our biased mainstream media - reminding us it is very much a dangerous world and ZerObama is not up to the job of Commander in Chief. He may talk the talk, but when it boils down to military action, this Hussein ZerObama isn't about to engage his fellow muslims. Beware this Trojan Horse.
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