Afghanistan War Weekly: August 15, 2010

Flooding in Pakistan will further destabilize its already fragile government and civil society, with potentially major effects on the war in Afghanistan. According to this evening’s news, the floods affect more than 20 million people, with more rain on the way. About one-third to the country is covered by water. In the south of Pakistan, the Indus “River” is 20 miles wide. Articles linked below describe the growing anger of Pakistan citizens re: their government’s total failure to cope. Pledges for assistance have been weak; the US, for example, promises $75 million, equivalent to about one hour of the 2011 Pentagon budget. Bizarrely, spokesmen for both governments reassure us that neither US nor Pakistan helicopters will be diverted from warfare to flood relief. Today US rockets killed a dozen people in North Waziristan, the first drone strikes since the flooding began. For wall-to-wall coverage of these events, check out Aljazeera/English via www.livestation.com.

This week General Petraeus and his team launched a political offensive against the July 2011 date for the start of a “drawdown” of US forces in Afghanistan. The July 2011 date was announced as part of a package deal when President Obama authorized a “surge” of 30,000 US troops last December. The wording was always pretty slippery (the drawdown will begin in July 2011), but now even this weak light at the end of the tunnel is flickering. Arguments over deadlines, etc. may be the focus of congressional debate about the war this fall. In addition to arguing that the war is wrong, illegitimate, immoral, etc., war managers’ demands that they be allowed more time for “victory” suggest that we argue that the war is lost and extra time won’t change this.

As The Nation editorial pasted in below states very well, the war is lost. Measured against any of the war aims of the Bush or Obama administrations, nothing has been achieved or will be achieved by continuing the war. True, al-Qaeda has close to zero presence in Afghanistan, but that is more a change of address than a military victory. Otherwise, what do we have? The Taliban (and armed adjuncts) have not and will not be “defeated.” No army capable of defending itself is being “trained.” “Stability” has not and will not be achieved. “Democracy” will not issue from this war, nor will the women’s rights (or any other rights) be guaranteed. The choice facing the war planners now is not whether the war can somehow be salvaged, but how long a losing war will/can be sustained. .

I would appreciate receiving suggestions about good articles to link here, and also comments (pro & con) that would help to make this newsweekly better. My email is fbrodhead@aol.com. This “issue” and some previous editions of the Afghanistan War Weekly are posted on the websites of United for Peace and Justice (www.unitedforpeace.org) and War is a Crime (www.afterdowningstreet.org/aww).

----Frank Brodhead, Concerned Families of Westchester (NY)

FEATURED ESSAY

Getting Out of Afghanistan

From the Nation – Editorial [July 29, 2010]

---- Eight months after President Obama announced his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and to expand the counterinsurgency war there, we have seen enough—enough to know that the strategy cannot work, and enough to understand that the costs of continuing the war far outstrip any conceivable benefits. This conclusion was more than buttressed by the WikiLeaks release of 92,000 classified military documents, which reveal that the Pentagon has repeatedly overestimated its ability to control events; that the Taliban have much broader support, including the active assistance of the Pakistani intelligence services, than has been portrayed; and that the Afghan army and police, whose training is the centerpiece of our eventual exit strategy, are even more distrusted by the Afghan people than has been reported. Virtually everything in the war logs confirms that this is a conflict we should not be waging. http://www.thenation.com/article/38031/getting-out-afghanistan

THE WAR IN WASHINGTON

The Coming Military Offensive Against the July 2011 Timetable

By David Dayen, FireDogLake [August 12, 2010]

---- The military has put together a game plan, set up their strategy and deployed their troops into the field. They are ready to storm with full-spectrum pressure to achieve their objective. Military officials say the counterinsurgency strategy needs time to work. I’m not talking about winning the war in Afghanistan, whatever that means these days. I’m talking about winning the war on the end of the war in Afghanistan [1].The July 2011 transition date was the necessary concession by the military commanders in exchange for getting a larger commitment of forces in December of last year. It wasn’t something to be thrown over because “we need to give the counter-insurgency some time.” In December 2009, David Petraeus said affirmatively that the military would be able to hand over operations to the Afghan National Army, and if they couldn’t, they should leave. That was the agreement. That was the deal. Petraeus is already breaking it. And it’s because the war hasn’t gone well. Petraeus hopes to scrounge up whatever progress he can find to justify staying longer. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/12-8

See also: Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper and David E. Sanger, “U.S. Military Seeks Slower Pace to Wrap Up Afghan Role,” New York Times [August 11, 2010] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/world/asia/12policy.html?ref=eric_schmitt

WikiLeaks and War Crimes

Jeremy Scahill, The Nation [August 12, 2010]

---- There was a brief moment when it seemed the contents of the WikiLeaks documents would spark an inquiry into what they say about the war and the way the United States is conducting it. "However illegally these documents came to light, they raise serious questions about the reality of America's policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan," said Senator John Kerry, chair of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, on the day the documents were revealed. "Those policies are at a critical stage, and these documents may very well underscore the stakes and make the calibrations needed to get the policy right more urgent." But two days later, the official meme about WikiLeaks was in full swing: the leaks had endangered American lives. Kerry swiftly changed his tune. "I think it's important not to over-hype or get excessively excited about the meaning of those documents," Kerry said at a hearing on Afghanistan.

But what if what Daniel Ellsberg says about the leaker being a heroic whistleblower is true? What if, like Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Manning really was motivated by conscience to leak documents he believed the American people and the world deserved to see? http://www.thenation.com/print/article/154000/wikileaks-and-war-crimes

Army Report: AWOLs Up 234%

By Aaron Glantz, Huffingotn Post [August 12, 2010]

---- Tucked into this massive Army report on suicide is an interesting fact: Since 2004, the number of soldiers going AWOL, deserting, and "missing movement" -- that is failing to deploy when they're supposed to -- has gone up a shocking 234 percent. The Army includes this fact on page 92 of the 350 page document, in a section on misdemeanor crimes -- alongside motor vehicle violations, substance abuse, and other crimes -- which collectively have been rising at the rate of more than 5,000 a year for the last five years. "Good order and discipline are on the decline," the report says. Alternatively, one could say that after seven years of war in Iraq and nearly a decade in Afghanistan, American soldiers are increasingly unwilling to risk their lives for unpopular wars with an unclear path to victory. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-glantz/army-report-awols-up-234_b_68...

Serial Denial on Iraq and Afghanistan

By Gareth Porter, Counterpunch [August 10, 2010]

---- Two months ago, I wrote that the Obama administration and the U.S. command in Afghanistan faced an “Iraq 2006 moment” in the second half of 2010 – a collapse of domestic political support for a failed war paralleling the political crisis in Bush’s Iraq War in 2006. Now comes Republican Congressman Frank Wolf to make that parallel with 2006 eerily precise. Wolf published a letter to President Obama last week calling for the immediate establishment of an “Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group”. It would be the son of the Iraq Study Group. Wolf is the Congressman who authored the legislation in 2005 creating the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group to come up with fresh ideas for that failing war. The Wolf proposal came nearly a year after American public had turned against the war decisively in January 2005, when support for the war fell to 39 percent. The U.S. public had withdrawn its support because it had become obvious that the war was a failure. By 2006 it had become apparent even to the political elite that the war was failing and that something had to be done. But for war supporters like Wolf, the idea was not to find a way out of a criminally stupid war but to tweak the war strategy so that the administration could rebuild public support for it. … Now we have the same nightmare of a stupid war that the political class can’t bring itself to end. So now Wolf proposes the same kind of bipartisan study group that he says helped rebuild support for the Iraq war to come up with “fresh strategies” for the war in Afghanistan.

http://counterpunch.org/porter08102010.html

Soldiers Expose Deployment of Unprepared Troops

By Clare Bayard, Counterpunch [August 10, 2010]

---- Army Reserve members facing imminent deployment to Afghanistan are publicly charging that their company is not properly trained or mentally fit for battle. Several members of the Indiana-based 656th Transportation Company, which is due to activate August 22nd, are requesting a Congressional inquiry into the unit’s lack of readiness. Alejandro Villatoro, a sergeant in the company, is amongst those coming forward. Sergeant Villatoro says, “The main reason I am doing this is that I want people to know the lack of training and education our soldiers been receiving, and the focus on the mission is just not adequate to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. All I am asking is more time to reevaluate the training and mental health of these soldiers before sending them into war.” At risk to themselves, these soldiers are going public with firsthand experiences of failures in military training, mental healthcare, and leadership, which many veterans charge are problems endemic to the military. This comes as the Afghanistan War falls under increased scrutiny in the wake of the Wikileaked “War Logs” information. “I ask soldiers: what do you hope, do you really think this last push will end this war? A lot of them say no, because they know they're not there to help the Afghan people.” says Sgt. Villatoro. Private A says “No, absolutely not. There's no reason we're even there. I'm going overseas to fight people where I have no idea that they did anything wrong. We're not even fighting al-Qaeda, we're just over there picking a fight, driving around and seeing who shoots at us, then shooting them. I don't even understand the reason we're over there.” http://counterpunch.org/bayard08102010.html

Time Magazine and Afghan Women
Afghan Women Have Already Been Abandoned

By Ann Jones, The Nation [August 12, 2010]

---- I know Bibi Aisha, the young Afghan woman pictured on the August 9 cover of Time, and I rejoice that her mutilated nose and ears are going to be surgically repaired. But the logic of those who use Aisha's story to convince us that the US military must stay in Afghanistan escapes me. … I heard Aisha's story from her a few weeks before the image of her face was displayed all over the world. She told me that her father-in-law caught up with her after she ran away, and took a knife to her on his own; village elders later approved, but the Taliban didn't figure at all in this account. The Time story, however, attributes Aisha's mutilation to a husband under orders of a Talib commander, thereby transforming a personal story, similar to those of countless women in Afghanistan today, into a portent of things to come for all women if the Taliban return to power. …What's taking place in Afghanistan is commonly depicted, as it is on the Time cover, as a battle of the forces of freedom, democracy and women's rights (that is, the United States and the Karzai government) against the demon Taliban. But the real struggle is between progressive Afghan women and men, many of them young, and a phalanx of regressive forces. For the United States, the problem is this: the regressive forces militating against women's rights and a democratic future for Afghanistan are headed by the demon Taliban, to be sure, but they also include the fundamentalist (and fundamentally misogynist) Karzai government, and us.http://www.thenation.com/article/154020/afghan-women-have-already-been-abandoned

See also: Yana Kunichoff and Mike Ludwig, “Between the Bomb and the Burqa,” t r u t h o u t [August 9, 2010] http://www.truth-out.org/between-bomb-and-burqa62110; and Robert Dreyfuss, “Women, the Talilban, and That “Time” Cover,” The Nation [August 9, 2010] http://www.thenation.com/print/blog/153951/women-taliban-and-time-cover

USEFUL FACTS ABOUT THE WAR
US Casualties

Sixty-six US soldiers were killed in July, the highest monthly total since the war began. Twelve US soldiers and 12 soldiers from other Coalition countries have been killed so far in August. This brings the total US deaths in Afghanistan to 1,226, and the total Coalition deaths to 2,002. The number of US soldiers wounded in June 2010 (the last month for which information is available) was 517, bringing the total since the war began in 2001 to 6,773. To learn more go to www.icasualties.org.

The Cost of the War

According to the website www.costofwar.com, expenditures on the Afghanistan war have reached $324 billion, and the total for both wars is $1.066 trillion. For a useful resource on the costs of war, go to “Bring Our War $$ Home” at www.bringourwardollarshome.org/index.html

Public opinion on the war in Afghanistan

Linked below are the two most recent polls about US public opinion. A useful website that lists and links the major public opinion polls about the war is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_public_opinion_on_the_war_in_...

---- A new NBC/Wall Street Journal Survey shows a public growing increasingly pessimistic about the Obama Administration’s handling of a number of issues, including a major rise in opposition to the Afghan War. Confidence is now plummeting, with 68% saying they feel “less confidence” about whether the war will reach a successful conclusion. Perhaps even more importantly, for the first time yet, the poll shows, the American public generally disapproves of the president’s handling of the Afghan War. The 44%-45% opposition was a stark drop in popularity of the war from five months ago, when they generally approved 53%-35%. The poll further showed an extremely pessimistic attitude on Afghanistan, with only 10% of Americans having a positive attitude compared to 58% having a negative attitude. Only Pakistan fared worse in the poll, with a 4%-61% result. Jason Ditz, “Poll Shows Rising Public Opposition to Afghan War, Antiwar.com [August 12, 2010] http://news.antiwar.com/2010/08/12/poll-shows-rising-public-opposition-t...

---- ABC Poll for July 16, 2010. Support for the war in Afghanistan has hit a new low and President Obama's approval rating for handling it has declined sharply since spring  results that portend trouble for the administration as the violence there grows. With Obama's surge under way – and casualties rising – the number of Americans who say the war in Afghanistan has been worth fighting has declined from 52 percent in December to 43 percent now. And his approval rating for handling it, 56 percent in April, is down to 45 percent. Potentially complicating matters, the public by 51-37 percent opposes a negotiated settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban that would allow Taliban members to hold government offices if they agreed to stop fighting. That kind of deal commands far higher support in Afghanistan itself – 65 percent in an ABC News/BBC/ARD poll there in December. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-loses-ground-afghanistan-wars-inten...

---- According to survey released on 16th July by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) think-tank, 68 percent of Afghans say NATO forces do not protect them, as 75 percent believe foreigners disrespect their religion and traditions. http://zakiraah.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/afghans-dont-want-foreign-troop...

THE WAR IN KABUL

Unrest Is Undermining Hopes for Afghan Vote

By Allisa J. Rubin, New York Times [August 12, 2010]

---- Worsening insurgent violence in many parts of the country is raising concern about Afghanistan’s ability to hold a fair parliamentary election in little more than a month, a crucial test of President Hamid Karzai’s ability to deliver security and a legitimate government. After last year’s troubled presidential election, both the government and its foreign supporters are under intense pressure to hold a credible vote for Parliament, scheduled for Sept. 18. Last time, insecurity, inadequate monitoring and rampant fraud led to a drawn-out dispute that soured relations between Mr. Karzai and his Western backers so badly that they have yet to recover the trust lost on both sides. As American commanders look toward a deadline to begin withdrawing troops next year, they would like the election to show that the government is capable of standing on its own. But already Western diplomats and observers are lowering expectations for the election, while Afghans are increasingly disillusioned and fatalistic about the prospects for democracy. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/world/asia/12karzai.html?_r=2&hp=&page...

Pentagon plays down Karzai plan to dissolve security firms

From Agence France Press [August 10, 2010]

---- The Pentagon Tuesday played down Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's announced plans to dissolve all private security firms in Afghanistan, saying the issue was under discussion. Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer said earlier in Kabul that the Afghan president will soon set a deadline for dissolving the private security firms, calling it "a serious program that the government of Afghanistan will execute." An estimated 40,000 people work in Afghanistan's flourishing security sector, with Afghan and international firms providing security services to the international forces, the Pentagon, the UN mission, aid and non-governmental organizations, and the western media. But Afghans criticize the private security forces as overbearing and abusive, notably on the country's roads. Karzai has often complained that they duplicate the work of the Afghan security forces, and divert resources needed to train the army and police. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100810/pl_afp/afghanistanunrestsecurityus

TRAINING THE AFGHAN ARMED FORCES

In Mission With Afghan Police, Issues of Trust

By James Dao, Ne York Times [August 11, 2010]

---- In small groups and to themselves, soldiers from the First Battalion, 87th Infantry, quietly fretted. Were those villages really friendly, as the Afghan police claimed? Were those roads really free of mines? What would happen if a police officer tipped off insurgent fighters to the platoon’s movements? In their first weeks in Afghanistan, the soldiers of the 1-87 would have to settle for something approaching faith. The Afghan National Police have long been considered the weakest rung of the Afghan security forces, often lacking proper training, equipment, commitment and ethics, American commanders say. More important, American commanders worry that some police officers — whether willingly or under duress — conspire with insurgents. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/world/asia/11battalion.html?pagewanted...

Showcase Afghan Army Mission Turns Into Debacle

By Rod Nordland, New York Times [August 13, 2010]

— An ambitious military operation that Afghan officials had expected to be a sign of their growing military capacity instead turned into an embarrassment, with Taliban fighters battering an Afghan battalion in a remote eastern area until NATO sent in French and American rescue teams. The fighting has continued so intensely for the past week that the Red Cross has been unable to reach the battlefield to remove the dead and wounded. The operation, east of Kabul, was extraordinary in that it was not coordinated in advance with NATO forces and did not at first include coalition forces or air support. The Afghans called for help after 10 of their soldiers were killed and perhaps twice as many captured at the opening of the operation nine days ago. …The battalion’s Third Company — 100 men — took particularly heavy casualties, the official said, although he did not have a number. He said many of the company were killed, captured or missing, and as of Wednesday at least, the status of the rest of the battalion remained unclear. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/world/asia/13afghan.html?_r=1&src=me&r...

See also: Martha Raddatz, “Afghan National Army Reaches Benchmark, but Are They Fit for Duty?” ABC News [August 12, 2010] http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/war-afghanistan-afghan-national-arm... and Dion Nissenbaum, ”US soldiers’ mission shows Afghan war’s uncertainties,” McClatchy Newspapers [August 13, 2010] http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/13/99170/us-soldiers-mission-shows-af...

THE WAR ON THE GROUND

U.S. Supersizes Afghan Mega-Base as Withdrawal Date Looms

By Spencer Ackerman, Wired [August 9, 2010]

---- Anyone who thinks the United States is really going to withdraw from Afghanistan in July 2011 needs to come to this giant air base an hour away from Kabul. There’s construction everywhere. It’s exactly what you wouldn’t expect from a transient presence. Step off a C-17 cargo plane, as I did very early Friday morning, and you see a flight line packed with planes. When I was last here two years ago, helicopters crowded the runways and fixed-wing aircraft were –- well, if not rare, still a notable sight. Today you’ve got C-17s, Predators, F-16s, F-15s, MC-12 passenger planes … I didn’t see any of the C-130 cargo craft, but they’re here somewhere. …Two years ago there were about 18,000 troops and contractors living here. Now that figure is north of 30,000, all for a logistics hub and command post that the United States didn’t ever imagine possessing before 9/11. In 2011, the U.S. military probably won’t be thinking about turning over the keys to a new, huge base. It’ll be thinking about how it can finish up the construction contracts it signed months ago -– if not some it’s yet to ink. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/u-s-afghan-mega-base/#ixzz0whVwhfs4

Taliban takes hold in once-peaceful northern Afghanistan

By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post [August 15, 2010]
[FB – To better visualize the growing presence of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, a researcher has used WikiLeaks data to plot maps of “incidents” for each year from 2004 to 2009. The map shows a fairly steady level of conflict in the Pashtun south and east, but a growing level of Taliban conflict in the non-Pashtun north.]

---- In the past year, security in northern Afghanistan has deteriorated rapidly as insurgents have seized new territory in provinces such as Kunduz and Baghlan, and even infiltrated the scenic mountain oasis of Badakhshan. Each new northern base is becoming a hive of activity, with fighters rotating in and out, daily planning meetings and announcements at the mosque. For the first time this year, the U.S. military sent 3,000 troops to the north, based in Kunduz. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/14/AR201008.... For more about the WikiLeaks map, see Noah Shachtman, “Open Source Tools Turn WikiLeaks Into Illustrated Afghan Meltdown,” Wired http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/open-source-wikileaked-docs-illu...

THE KANDAHAR OFFENSIVE
US military sees heavier fighting in fall

By Anne Gearan, Associated Press [August 12, 2010]

---- The United States expects heavy fighting around the key Afghan city of Kandahar through this fall, one Pentagon official said Wednesday, dimming hopes for big gains in the war ahead of U.S. elections and a White House review of its war strategy. Several NATO nations are also taking stock of their military commitments in Afghanistan, and the course of the war will be a major topic for leaders of the alliance at a summit in October. Kandahar is considered a make-or-break test of the allied war strategy, which calls for protecting major population centers and building support for the Afghan central government…. The military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to outline coming operations, said commanders expect prolonged fighting in several volatile districts surrounding Kandahar. An Afghan battalion will do what the military calls "clearing" operations alongside U.S. and some Canadian forces ringing the city, the official said. That means chasing insurgents out of populated areas, fighting those that remain and closing down sources of insurgent weapons or supplies. Special operations forces, many with a mandate to hunt and kill specific insurgents, will play a major role, the official said. Inside the city, a gradual increase of Afghan police will be coupled with expansion of electricity, the official said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iqyaFh_efr-brDq0rMLF1h...

See also: Reuters, “U.S. Braces For Kandahar Fight,” [August 2010]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/08/12/world/international-us-afghani...

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

Afghanistan: In search of the true civilian toll

By Jean MacKenzie and Aziz Ahmad Shafe, GlobalPost [Canada] [August 9, 2010]
---- The issue of civilian casualties has once again assumed center stage in Afghanistan. The number of civilian war deaths rose 6 percent [2] in the first seven months of 2010 when compared to the same period last year, according to reports released over the weekend. The more than 75,000 [WikiLeaks] documents already published have given new information about some of the worst incidents of civilian deaths in the nearly nine-year war, and Afghans are feeling that their concerns are finally receiving world attention. One such incident, say Afghans, was in Rigi, a village in the Sangin district of Helmand province. On July 23, residents there reported that a cruise missile hit a large family compound, killing as many as 52 civilians. NATO officials deny the strike. A press release issued on July 26 by the press office of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), emphasized that there had been no military operations in Rigi on the specified date. Given the conflicting reports from Sangin, it was almost impossible to establish what actually occurred without first-hand information. Aziz Ahmad Shafe, an Afghan cameraman for the BBC, traveled to the area to interview victims. Here is his own account of the trip: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/afghanistan/100806/civilian-death-tol...

The Price of an Afghan Life: Compensation for Bombing Victims

By Jochen-Martin Gutsch, Der Spiegle [August 10, 2010]

---- It's a hot Tuesday afternoon in Kunduz, more than eight months after the German-ordered deadly bombing of two hijacked trucks that had become stuck in a riverbed. Karim Popal, who is sitting cross-legged on the floor, tells his listeners that Germany intends to pay €4,000 (about $5,280) for each civilian killed in the Sept. 4, 2009 incident. "Four thousand euros in compensation," says Popal, looking at the group. The room smells of carpet, men, feet and the dust from the street seeping in through the window.

Popal, who unlike his listeners is wearing socks, is surrounded by 15 men in Afghan traditional clothing. They are village elders from Chahar Dara, the district surrounding Kunduz. Most of them are Popal's clients. "Four thousand euros is very little," says one man in the group. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,710963,00.html

Afghans blame civilian deaths on U.S. despite spike from insurgent violence

By David Nakamura, Washington Post [August 14, 2010]

---- During the first six months of the year, 1,271 Afghan civilians had been killed in an increasingly violent war. On Tuesday, Hafizullah Azizi, a handsome 22-year-old who financially supported his mother and five younger siblings, was added to the list. Azizi is representative of an alarming spike in civilian deaths, up 21 percent this year largely because of an increase in insurgent violence, according to a U.N. report this week. (Add 1,997 injured, and the spike in overall civilian casualties is 31 percent.) Although NATO forces have largely made good on the pledge last year from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal to decrease civilian casualties caused by their actions, the Taliban have ramped up their aggression, killing 920 civilians this year through suicide bombings, targeted assassinations and improvised explosive devices. U.S. and NATO officials have used the figures to denounce the Taliban to win popular support for an increased presence that aims to clear out Taliban strongholds this fall. But ordinary Afghans have largely rejected this good guy-bad guy narrative and continue blaming the civilian deaths on the international forces, said experts who have studied the issue. "What we found was that regardless of the region, province, education level or political views, in many cases Afghans blamed international forces as much as the insurgents for the increase," said Erica Gaston, a human rights lawyer focusing on civilian casualties for the Open Society Institute who recently interviewed 250 Afghans. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/13/AR201008...

See also: Mike Ludwig, “Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan: Beyond the Body Count,” t r u t h o u t [August 11, 2010] http://www.truth-out.org/civilian-casualties-afghanistan-reach-all-time-... AlJazeera, (Video) “Civilian deaths spark Afghan unrest,” [August 12, 2010] – 3 minutes http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish#p/u/2/Gz59cJw8m5E; Dexter Filkins, “NATO Strike Cited in Afghan Civilian Deaths,” New York Times [August 15, 2010] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/asia/15afghan.html?ref=world; and Amir Shah, “Claims of Afghan Civilian Deaths Spark Protest,” Associated Press [August 12, 2010]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/12-3

PAKISTAN/INDIA AND THE AFGHANISTAN WAR

Pakistan and the Taliban: What They've Been Up to is No Secret

By Tariq Ali, Counterpunch [August 12, 2010]

---- All sides know full well what the Pakistan army has been doing with various Taliban factions since Afghanistan was occupied nearly nine years ago. Three years ago a US intelligence agent was shot dead by a Pakistani soldier at such talks – as reported in the Pakistani press. A source close to the Pakistani military told me last year in Islamabad that US intelligence agents were present at recent talks between the ISI and the insurgents. No reason for anybody to be surprised. The cause, too, is clear. The war cannot be won. It's hardly a secret that Pakistan never totally abandoned the Taliban after 9/11. How could they? It was Islamabad that had organised the Taliban's retreat from Kabul so that the US and its allies could take the country without a fight. The Pakistani generals advised their Afghan friends to bide their time. http://counterpunch.org/tariq08122010.html

(Video) Riz Khan - India's growing aspirations

From AlJazeeraEnglish [August 11, 2010] – 20 minutes

---- India is quickly establishing itself as a global economic powerhouse. Despite its growing financial clout, why is India not as powerful a political force in the world today?

http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish#p/u/28/9yH9yma5zKI

The Floods and their Impact
Pakistan floods: an emergency for the West

By Ahmed Rashid, The Telegraph [UK] [August 12, 2010]

---- Pakistan's floods have not just devastated the lives of millions of people, they now present an unparalleled national security challenge for the country, the region and the international community. Lest anyone under-estimate the scale of the disaster, all four of Pakistan's wars with India combined did not cause such damage. It has become clear this week that, unless major aid is forthcoming immediately and international diplomatic effort is applied to improving Pakistan's relations with India, social and ethnic tensions will rise and there will be food riots. Large parts of the country that are now cut off will be taken over by the Pakistani Taliban and affiliated extremist groups, and governance will collapse. The risk is that Pakistan will become what many have long predicted – a failed state with nuclear weapons, although we are a long way off from that yet. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/7941820/Pakistan...

Floods in Pakistan's south take huge toll on farmers

By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times [August 13, 2010]

---- The floods that claimed more than 1,600 lives and wrecked infrastructure in the country's mountainous northwest have now flowed south to the flatlands and wreaked havoc on agriculture, the backbone of the Pakistani economy. On Friday, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told reporters in Latvia that the floods may have caused $1 billion in crop damage. The United Nations estimates that flooding has destroyed 1.4 million acres of crops in Punjab province, Pakistan's agricultural heartland. In many places, whole farming villages have been wiped off the map. Those assessments paint a gloomy picture for Pakistan, a vital U.S. ally in the effort to combat Islamic militancy and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan. The country already suffers from electricity shortages, attacks by militant groups and entrenched political disputes. Pakistan touts its nuclear arsenal and nurtures a budding middle class, but remains largely an agrarian society in which the work is shouldered by millions of poor farmers. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-breadbasket...

Pakistan flood response prompts rising anti-government resentment

Saeed Shah, The Guardian [UK] [August 13, ,2010]

---- Pakistan's government faces the threat of social unrest or even military takeover after its shambolic response to the floods that have devastated the country, leaving 1,600 people dead and 2 million homeless, say analysts. Fears that Asif Ali Zardari, the president, could be overthrown – possibly through an intervention by the army – have grown as the government's failure to adequately tackle the crisis has fuelled long-held grievances. "The powers that be, that is the military and bureaucratic establishment, are mulling the formation of a national government, with or without the PPP [the ruling Pakistan People's party]," said Najam Sethi, editor of the weekly Friday Times. "I know this is definitely being discussed. There is a perception in the army that you need good governance to get out of the economic crisis and there is no good governance." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/13/pakistan-flood-response-anti...

See Also: Reuters, “Pakistan Says Won't Divert Forces From Militant Fight,” [August 13, 2010] http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/08/13/world/international-uk-pakista... Democracy Now! (Video) “Fatima Bhutto: Pakistan’s Devastating Floods Are President Zardari’s Katrina,” [August 9, 2010] http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/9/fatima_bhutto_pakistans_devastating...

David Batty and Saeed Shah, “Impact of Pakistan floods as bad as 1947 partition, says prime minister,” Tweet this The Guardian [UK] [August 14, 2010]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/14/pakistan-flooding-disaster-p...

The Independence Movement in Kashmir

Kashmir in Turmoil

By Akhila Raman, Znet [August 09, 2010]

---- Kashmir Valley has been in turmoil over the past two months with tens of thousands taking to the streets in protest against killings of civilians by the Indian State which is seen as an occupying power by many of the people in Kashmir valley. Since the recent unrest started, at least 32 civilians have been killed and several hundreds injured, many of them due to Indian security forces firing into the unarmed crowd of civilian protestors. This review article examines the recent unrest and the historical roots of the present turmoil and argues that there is a genuine freedom struggle going on against the repressive Indian State by the Kashmiris who are alienated equally with India, Pakistan and the militants and whose grievances have their historical roots in the events of 1947. http://www.zcommunications.org/kashmir-in-turmoil-by-akhila-raman

Huge protest after police kill 4 in Indian Kashmir

Aijaz Hussain, Associated Press [August 13, 2010]
---- Tens of thousands of Kashmiris staged angry street demonstrations Friday after government forces killed four people and injured 31 others during the latest unrest against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region. In Srinagar, authorities did not impose a curfew on Friday after a key separatist leader and cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, warned of total defiance if worshippers were stopped from praying at the Jamia Masjid, the city's main mosque. The mosque has remained out of bounds for people on Fridays for the past six weeks to avoid protests. Tens of thousands of people marched through the winding streets of downtown Srinagar on Friday and offered prayers at the mosque. They chanted "Go India! Go back" and "We want freedom." Scores of people on motorbikes waved green flags. http://wire.antiwar.com/2010/08/13/huge-protest-after-police-kill-4-in-i...

Phone Cameras Fuel Kashmir’s ‘Intifada’

By Robert Mackey, New York Times [August 13, 2010]

---- India faces “an intifada-like popular revolt against the Indian military presence,” in which images of stone-throwing youth are celebrated on Facebook pages and in YouTube videos. As was the case in Iran, short video clips of protests by Kashmir’s mainly Muslim population and clashes with Indian security forces, often shot on cellphones and passed from device to device or posted on the Web, have been used by activists to document their own struggle and to inspire more resistance. http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/phone-cameras-fuel-kashmirs-...

See also: Hanna Ingber Win, “Social media has come to Kashmir,” Global Post [Canada] [August 14, 2010] http://www.globalpost.com/print/5577079; As noted in the Mackay article above, “Stone in My Hand,” by Everlast (a nice young man from Valley Stream,NY), has become a Kashmir youth anthem. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80SyE997smc&feature=player_embedded