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Thursday, May 25, 2006 |
The Military Balance 2006 has just been published and contains an essay about 'complex irregular warfare: the privatisation of force'.
Iraq: "It is doubtful that a collective sense of Iraqi nationalism can survive in a context of increasing sectarian violence and the continuing security vacuum. This means national politics, conducted in the parliament and around the Green Zone, will be dominated by an escalating use of divisive sectarian rhetoric and zero-sum calculations. At a local level the population's lives will remain dependent on ad hoc local organisations to supply some modicum of security and predictability. It is in situations like these that sectarian and criminal militias tend to thrive.
The collapse of the Iraqi state and the rise of sectarian politics has caused a great deal of anxiety amongst the neighbouring states. This has triggered unilateral interventions, as governments try to forward state interests and regional rivalries by supporting proxy organisations within Iraq. The danger is clear: an increase in instability, violence and radical Islamism. The alternative would be a
larger role for overt, coordinated, multilateral intervention, involving the key regional powers, to stabilise the situation."
Afghanistan: "The UK is currently in overall command of the NATO force and provides the Task Force charged with operations in one of the most unstable provinces - Helmand. Amongst other security challenges to reconstruction, the cultivation of poppy is widespread in Helmand, and the other southern provinces, but there are no easy solutions to the problem. Initiatives vary from the short-term option of crop eradication, to licensing or crop replacement. All of these options carry high risks to international forces as they will come into direct confrontation with the local population and the Taliban for whom poppy is a major source of revenue.
A further complication is that in-country heroin production is increasing as illicit pre-cursor chemicals, necessary for production, find their way across porous borders."
Until now all efforts by the US, UK and NATO forces have been counterproductive. A solution is as far-off as ever.
1:23:23 PM 
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The New Colossus
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
Watch the Fiore animation.
What has happened to America?
The FBI is raiding Capitol Hill. The top GOP brass resembles more the Mob than a political party. The president thinks he is the emperor of a world empire and spies on all Americans. A person who is untrustworthy is unlikely to trust others.
CenterForConstitutionalRights: "Congress must go beyond censure and consider impeachment.
Recent calls for a censure resolution show that some senators finally realize that President Bush is out of control. But a censure resolution will not: Remove a single wiretap from American phones; End the Iraq War; Halt U.S. Torture; or stop President Bush's reckless abuse of power."
"Every day that passes brings revelations of more egregious abuses of power and more outrageous lies told to the American people."
Impeach Bush.
11:54:09 AM
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If one looks at the pictures of combat support hospitals one realises how obscene war is. It's a degradation of civilisation.
KhaleejTimes: "President Hamid Karzai will summon the top commander of US forces in Afghanistan for an explanation of civilian deaths during a coalition air and ground attack in the south, his office said on Tuesday."
CommonDreams: "Army National Guard Specialist Katherine Jashinski received a bad conduct discharge today and was sentenced to 120 days confinement after pleading guilty to the charge of 'refusal to obey a legal order'. She was acquitted of the more serious charge of 'missing movement by design'. With 53 days already served (on Fort Benning), and 20 days off for good behavior, Ms Jashinski has 47 days of confinement remaining.
On November 17, 2005, Jashinski made a public statement of conscientious objection on the eve of her scheduled deployment to Afghanistan. Eighteen months after filing, the Army denied her application for a discharge. She was then court-martialed for refusing to train with weapons."
Ms Jashinski is a brave person and a real patriot, which cannot be said of George W. Bush who went AWOL during his military service because he was a coward and incompetent drunk.
BringItOn!: "As a part of a larger, National protest - or 'War on War', A number of bloggers are buying up all supplies of little green plastic army folk and labeling them for deployment this Friday."
'Peacekeeping' in Afghanistan is a farce.
TheTyee: "Afghanistan's complexity and lethal tribal politics have been marketed to the public by government and media as a selfless crusade to defeat the 'terrorist' Taliban, implant democracy, and liberate Afghan women. Afghanistan is part of the world-wide struggle against terrorism, we are told.
The mission is not intended to ever end because its purpose was and is to ensure the US permanent access to Mideast oil and Afghani land for pipelines. But end it will - just as every other colonial occupation of Afghanistan has ended - when the occupiers tire of bleeding."
Afghan women were liberated by the Soviets years ago. To oust the Russians the US then supported and armed the Taliban who set the clock back again. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are illegal and an obscenity.
11:28:31 AM
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