"On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the United States could send more troops to Afghanistan this year than had been initially planned"
And we are just hearing about it on a SLOW SATURDAY? Feel a DRAFT, kids?
Also see: Obama's First Afghanistan Operation
Obama's Operation Silent Sword
"Bombs kill British soldier, 11 civilians in Afghanistan; NATO’s toll for this month increases to 48" by Robert H. Reid, Associated Press | July 18, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - Bombs killed a dozen people, including a British soldier and five children, in southern Afghanistan, authorities said yesterday, as US and British officials consider sending more troops to combat the growing Taliban insurgency.
The five children were among 11 people who died yesterday when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in the Spin Boldak district of southern Kandahar Province near the Pakistan border, according to police General Saifullah Hakim. The victims, all members of an extended family, were traveling to a local Muslim religious shrine for Friday prayer services, Hakim said.
Oh, this ABSOLUTELY REEKS of a false-flag operation! I simply DO NOT BELIEVE MUSLIMS would do that to other Muslims -- and I'm sure as hell not believing a Jewsih source on it.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, and Hakim blamed the Islamic militants who plant bombs along roads in the area to target Afghan and foreign troops for the blast. “Innocent civilians are dying as a result,’’ he said.
Any AIR RAIDS lately?
In London, the British Ministry of Defense announced that a British soldier was killed Thursday when a bomb exploded near a foot patrol in Gereshk, an industrial city of Helmand Province where fighting has been raging this month. The soldier’s death brings to 48 the number of NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan in July - the deadliest month for the international force since the war began in 2001....
But the rising casualty tolls have prompted US and British officials to consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to bolster security, especially around the Aug. 20 presidential election. The chief of the British Army, General Richard Dannatt, said there was a case to be made for “a short-term uplift’’ in troop numbers until Afghan forces are properly trained and deployed - which he said could take 12 to 18 more months.
We've BEEN THERE for EIGHT YEARS ALREADY!!! It is TIME to LEAVE!!!
He told BBC Radio that scaling down troop levels after the Afghan election would be the “wrong thing to do.’’
I've been hearing this shit for YEARS and I AM TIRED OF IT!!!!
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the United States could send more troops to Afghanistan this year than had been initially planned, although any increase would not be significant. The Obama administration had wanted to wait until the end of the year to decide whether to send more troops.
The new commander of US and NATO forces, General Stanley McChrystal, is nearing the end of a 60-day review of troop requirements in Afghanistan and will forward his recommendations to Washington.
--more--"Meanwhile, this is the CRAP we have been fed for the last week.
"Secretary defends role in Afghanistan" by The World Today | July 12, 2009
LONDON - Foreign Secretary David Miliband defended Britain’s role in Afghanistan yesterday after fighting claimed eight soldiers’ lives in 24 hours. The deaths pushed Britain’s overall toll in Afghanistan to 184 - five more than the total number of British deaths in the Iraq war. Miliband told the BBC that it is essential to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming an “incubator for terrorism’’ that serves as a launching pad for attacks on the West (AP)."
I'm so sick of the s*** lies!
"Obama orders US to investigate deaths of Taliban POWs; Witnesses say up to 2,000 suffocated" by Associated Press | July 13, 2009
Try 8,000!
See: Slow Saturday Special: AmeriKa's Mass Grave in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON - President Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate reports that US allies were responsible for the deaths of as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war during the opening days of the war in Afghanistan.
If we don't torture 'em we kill 'em, huh?
Obama told CNN in an interview that aired yesterday that he doesn’t know how the US-allied Northern Alliance behaved in November 2001, but he wants a full accounting before deciding how to move forward.
Then WATCH THIS: Afghan Massacre - The Convoy of Death
“I think that, you know, there are responsibilities that all nations have even in war,’’ Obama said during an interview at the end of a six-day trip to Russia, Italy, and Ghana. “And if it appears that our conduct in some way supported violations of the laws of war, then I think that, you know, we have to know about that.’’
We ALREADY KNOW! We need WAR CRIMES CHARGES, guy!
The president’s comments seem to reverse officials’ statements from Friday, when they said they had no grounds to investigate the 2001 deaths of Taliban prisoners of war who human rights groups allege were killed by US-backed forces.
And you know what? I haven't heard a word since!
Reacting to the interview, Physicians for Human Rights hailed Obama’s decision. “President Obama is right to say that US and Afghan violations of the laws of war must be investigated,’’ said Nathaniel Raymond, a Physicians for Human Rights researcher. “If the Obama administration finds that criminal wrongdoing occurred in this case, those responsible - whether American or Afghan officials - must be prosecuted.’’
We KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!
They loaded those poor souls into cargo holds, sealed them up, and suffocated them. The ones that survived wee led to mass graves and shot!
But Obama’s direction, discussed as he toured a former slave castle on Ghana’s coast, does not guarantee action. “We’ll probably make a decision in terms of how to approach it once we have all the facts gathered up,’’ Obama said.
He ain't gonna do nothing!
The mass deaths were brought up anew Friday in a report by The New York Times....
Pffft!
US officials said Friday they did not have legal grounds to investigate the deaths because only foreigners were involved and the alleged killings occurred in a foreign country.
What BULL! What ABSOLUTE BULL!
Then you better SPRING all those AFRICAN DUDES at the HAGUE!!!!!
And WE go to WAR to LIBERATE such people, so WTF? ILLEGAL WARS, huh??
Witnesses have alleged that forces with the US-allied Northern Alliance placed the prisoners in sealed cargo containers over the two-day voyage to Sheberghan Prison, suffocating them and then burying them en masse, using bulldozers to move the bodies, according to the State Department report. Some Northern Alliance soldiers have said that some of their troops opened fire on the containers, killing those within.....
--more--"Of course, that story fades as we get an endless barrage of "terrorist suiciders" on a daily basis.
"Afghan bomb blast kills 2 Marines" by Associated Press | July 13, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - A bomb blast killed two US Marines in Afghanistan’s dangerous south, where thousands of American troops are deployed in a massive operation to oust Taliban fighters from the country’s opium poppy region, officials said yesterday.
Yeah, except: "U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer."
Some 4,000 Marines moved into Helmand Province this month, the largest Marine operation in Afghanistan since the 2001 US invasion. They have met little head-on resistance but remain vulnerable to guerrilla tactics like roadside and suicide bomb blasts.
“These terrorist attacks are hard to prevent, can be carried out by a few individuals, and do not require a military force capable of confronting the Marines,’’ said Arturo Munoz, an expert on the tribal environment in Helmand Province with the Washington-based Rand Corporation.
“I would expect the Taliban to avoid pitched battles with the Marines in order to avoid a large number of casualties,’’ he said. “This does not mean they will avoid violence.’’
The two Marines were killed Saturday in Helmand. Military officials did not release other details. The military initially reported four Marines had died but later corrected the figure, saying the deaths were mistakenly double-counted. The American casualties come after eight British deaths in Helmand in a 24-hour period ending Friday.
--more--"
Then we get the front-page propaganda:
"Shifting Afghan loyalties test US bid for permanent gains" by Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | July 14, 2009
WARDAK PROVINCE, Afghanistan - During the day, US soldiers and their Afghan allies set up checkpoints here along Highway One, halting traffic for hours to search for explosives and evidence of Taliban connections.
But at night, those checkpoints disappear, and the Taliban erect their own roadblocks, illustrating how the struggle over Afghanistan’s future is not so much a pitched battle as a grinding tug-of-war.
As thousands of Marines begin offensives to retake battle-scarred southern provinces, the conflict with the greatest long-term importance for the war is taking place here, just half an hour’s drive south of Kabul.
Wardak is a place the US military already considers under its control. Yet, every day in this province of fertile valleys and apple orchards, a half-million Afghans must choose between casting their lot with the US troops, who return to their bases at night, or the Taliban, who hail from nearby villages and rule over vast, remote areas.
Please see: Taliban Taking Back Afghanistan
The perilous choices facing Wardak villagers show the challenge of making permanent gains in Afghanistan, and presents a major test of a new US Army stabilization program aimed at clearing an area of Taliban fighters, holding it securely, and then arming and training local men to ward off the Taliban themselves.
So far, results of the new “guardian’’ program have been mixed, as the dueling checkpoints on Highway One demonstrate. Residents, in a series of nearly two dozen interviews, say the reason in part is conflicting loyalties, and fear of what will happen when the United States eventually pulls out.
I don't think we are ever leaving because we never do, but....
Still, US military officials see the program as a possible “game changer’’ in Afghanistan.
What the hell are YOU guys SMOKING over there?
Civilian deaths in Wardak have dropped by 27 percent, according to NATO figures. If a 60-day review by the new US and NATO commander, General Stanley McChrystal, concludes it is a success, it could be replicated around the country....
The military claims civilian deaths are down? Pfffffftttt!
In March, US special forces asked village elders to volunteer their young men for a protection force that will act under the Afghan Ministry of the Interior with backup from the Afghan national police, the Afghan Army, and US soldiers. Similar to payments made to a tribal militia in Iraq that helped quell the Sunni insurgency, the guardian program in Wardak pays about $125 a month, an attractive salary for the untrained and unemployed.
Where is MY CHECK? Of course, we don't PAY PEOPLE OFF like those nasty "Taliban." Our dough is clean, right?
People in Jalrez cautiously embraced the program. At least 193 residents have undergone a three-week training and been given an AK-47. As a reward, USAID funding has flowed to Jalrez to build irrigation canals, a clinic, and to repair the local mosque.
So when are you guys going to start fixing America?
Jalrez residents agree that security has improved and that most of the Taliban have fled.
“They are not in power anymore,’’ said Abdullah Qadir, 45, interviewed at Wardak bus station in Kabul. “The villages close to the road are controlled by the guardians.’’
But in Sayedabad, residents have been more resistant to the program, out of fear of reprisals or sympathy with the Taliban, who some say deliver a less corrupt, more Islamic form of government. Less than 60 recruits have undergone the training so far. The guardians were slated to be deployed in Sayedabad after a ceremony yesterday.
Some say US troops, who once focused on disarming warlords, are now creating a new threat by arming inexperienced men who live in places where their Afghan supervisors don’t dare go.
As they TRY to TAKE OUR GUNS AWAY here!!!
Roshanak Wardak, a member of Parliament from Sayedabad, calls the program very dangerous.
“They want to give arms to those boys which don’t have arms,’’ she said. “Who will guarantee that these boys will not join Taliban? How is it possible that one [guardian] will kill his cousin who is a Talib? It is impossible. . . . Since several months, they are trying to make these groups, but people refuse to join.’’
GOOD! Do NOT kill your BROTHER!!!
Even in Jalrez, where residents cite significant security gains, they also complain bitterly about the roadblocks and the Afghan Army, who took over a girls’ school as their base and used its desks for firewood.
Oh, so it is the AFGHAN ARMY BURNING DOWN GIRLS' SCHOOLS, 'eh?
The increase in US troops carries its own dangers, residents said. Several gave detailed descriptions of Americans mistakenly shooting innocent people in recent weeks, including a nomad who was tending sheep, a man who was riding a bicycle, and two farmers who were watering their fields.
That is MURDER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Captain Rebecca Lykins, a public affairs officer for the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan, who is working with the US special forces in Wardak, said her team was not aware of any such incidents. Lieutenant General David Barno, who commanded coalition troops in Afghanistan in 2003, said the pilot program is still being studied, but there is a general consensus that something like it is needed.
“People are becoming keenly aware that Afghanistan is 50 percent larger and has about 4 million more people than Iraq,’’ he said. “There are going to have to be a lot of security forces.’’
Ooooh, I just felt that cold draft again.
But by far the biggest criticism among residents was that the guardians are too weak to fight the Taliban on their own if the Americans leave. In Sayedabad, the Taliban control almost the entire district, residents said. A security guard who asked that his name not be used, who has four daughters, laments that their school was closed by the Taliban about a month ago. US troops, Afghan police, and the guardians don’t have the power to reopen them, he said.
Even if they did they would just burn it for firewood.
Most people in Wardak are simply waiting to see which side wins. “Who knows who is good and who is bad?’’ one Jalrez man said. “Time will show the result.’’
I do.
--more--"
And let's stick with the propaganda:
"Afghan marriage law still oppressive, activists say; Proposed revisions faulted as offering too little change" by Heidi Vogt, Associated Press | July 14, 2009
Afghan Shi’ite women marched in April to protest a law that, among other things, said they need their husbands’ permission to leave the house and must be ready for sex every four days. (Musadeq Sadeq/ Associated Press)
KABUL - Activists yesterday rejected proposed revisions to Afghanistan’s marriage law, calling the new version just as oppressive as the original, which critics say legalized marital rape.
President Hamid Karzai signed the law in March but quickly suspended enforcement after governments around the world condemned it. Though the law applied only to minority Shi’ites, critics saw it as a return to Taliban-style oppression of women by a government that was supposed to be promoting democracy and human rights.....
Whatever. See: How I Came to Love the Veil
--more--"You know, readers, I simply NO LONGER BELIEVE the AmeriKan jewsmedia because I THINK the TALIBAN LOVE THEIR WOMEN and CHILDREN jut like we do! I've seen them wailing over their dead women and children, and am tired of the Jewish war propaganda!
Wanna support a women's group in Afghanistan?
Support the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).
This article was a WEB ONLY special:
"Helicopter reported shot down in Afghanistan" by Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press Writer | July 14, 2009
KABUL --A civilian helicopter ferrying humanitarian aid was shot down in a southern Afghan province where fighting with the Taliban is raging, killing all six Ukrainian crew members and a child on the ground, officials said. Two U.S. Marines and an Italian soldier died in the latest clashes.
Yeah, and the Blackwater assassins in Fallujah were cooks.
The transport helicopter crashed in flames Tuesday in the Sangin district of Helmand province, the center of Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation where thousands of Marines are conducting their biggest offensive since the hardline Islamic movement was ousted from power in 2001.
NATO officials in Kabul said the cause of the crash was under investigation and gave no further details. But the civil aviation authority of the former Soviet republic of Moldova said a rocket or a missile struck the Mi-26 helicopter, owned by the Moldovan air charter company Pecotox-Airi and carrying six Ukrainians. The helicopter was ferrying humanitarian aid when the crash took place, the Moldovans said in a statement.
The Taliban posted a statement on its Web site claiming the helicopter was brought down "by anti-aircraft fire" with 37 British soldiers on board. Moldovan and British authorities said no British troops were on the helicopter. Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Helmand governor, said a 6-year-old child on the ground was also killed.
The crash occurred about a mile from a British base military base, according to Fazel Haq, a senior local official. The helicopter exploded in a ball of flames, generating smoke that could be seen over a wide area. Last week, two Canadian soldiers and one British trooper were killed in a helicopter crash in Zabul province. Officials said that crash did not appear a result of hostile fire.
Afghanistan's harsh mountainous terrain, the lack of roads and the heavy use by the Taliban of roadside bombs have prompted international military forces to rely heavily on helicopters for transportation and supply missions. A shortage of military helicopters has forced some NATO nations to contract with private companies.
This wasn't any "humanitarian" mission, readers?
The FUCKING NEWSPAPER and GOVERNMENTS are LYING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!
The two American Marines were killed Monday in a "hostile incident" in Helmand, according to U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias. She released no further details....
One Italian soldier was killed and three were wounded Tuesday when a roadside bomb struck their convoy about 30 miles north of the city of Farah in western Afghanistan, the Italian Defense Ministry announced. Italy has about 2,800 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in Kabul and the west of the country.
U.S. commanders are trying to turn the tide of the Taliban-led insurgency, which has transformed much of southern and eastern Afghanistan into no-go zones for Afghan authorities.
British forces, meanwhile, are facing a tough fight in another area of Helmand. Britain's 9,000-strong force has lost a record 15 soldiers this month -- including eight in a 24-hour period, prompting a national debate over whether the conflict is still winnable. The British Ministry of Defense announced Tuesday it was sending another 140 soldiers to Afghanistan from a British base in Cyprus to bolster the war effort.
--more--"Now COMPARE THAT with the report I get the next day in my paper (a brief)!
"11 die in helicopter crash in Afghanistan" by Los Angeles Times | July 15, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - Military officials said yesterday that six foreign contractors and four Western service members, including two US Marines, were killed in what is fast becoming one of the most lethal months for coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The contractors died when their helicopter, hired by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, crashed early yesterday in volatile Helmand province. The provincial governor said an Afghan child on the ground and all those aboard the aircraft were killed.
Military officials also reported the deaths Monday of two Marines in Helmand, where the biggest US-led military operation since the fall of the Taliban movement in 2001 is underway. An Italian soldier was killed yesterday in a roadside bombing in Farah province in the west of Afghanistan, the Italian military said. Another Western soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in the east of Afghanistan, where most of the foreign troops are American. The soldier’s nationality was not immediately released.
With the latest military deaths, July might prove the bloodiest month for foreign troops since the Afghan conflict began nearly eight years ago....
Yeah, I know all this, now WHO SHOT DOWN the CHOPPER?
News agency reports said the downed helicopter was operated by a Moldovan contractor and that all those aboard were Ukrainian. The Taliban claimed through a spokesman to have shot down the chopper, but such a claim is routinely put forth when any coalition aircraft crashes....
Oh, I guess Taliban are only to be believed when they claim suicide missions, huh?
And how about that CLEAN-UP of the SHOOTDOWN, huh? What SHIT PAPERS!!!!
--more--"
Well, after that little experience can you EVER TRUST the CENSORING and OBFUSCATING Boston Globe ever again? Nope!
"Taliban threaten to kill US soldier" by Associated Press | July 17, 2009
WTF? He's been gone for three weeks and ALL OF A SUDDEN..... STINK!!!
KABUL - Local Taliban commanders threatened yesterday to kill a captured American soldier unless the US military stops operations in two districts of southeastern Afghanistan.
Yeah, but they always put forth claims like that!
Also yesterday, Canadian authorities announced that a Canadian soldier was killed southwest of Kandahar, bringing to 47 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this month. That makes July the deadliest month of the war for foreign troops.
The Taliban claimed last week to be holding the American soldier, whom the US military earlier described as possibly being in enemy hands. Abdullah Jalali, a spokesman for Taliban commander Mawlavi Sangin, told the Associated Press in a telephone interview yesterday that the soldier was healthy.
Yeah, they are probably treating him well -- whoever has him!
He said the soldier would be killed unless the US stops air strikes in Ghazni Province’s Giro district and Paktika Province’s Khoshamand district. Jalali did not explain why the Taliban chose those areas....
Sounds like a FAIR DEAL to ME!!!
The US military has said the soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on June 30 and was “believed captured.’’
Really?
"The Taliban claim about holding a US soldier came six days after a soldier was noticed to be missing. His body armor and weapon were found on the base. Two US defense sources have said the soldier “just walked off’’ with three Afghans after he finished working. They had no explanation about why he left."
Did he GO NATIVE and JOIN the RESISTANCE?
The Taliban claimed on their website on July 6 that they were holding the soldier.
Oh, that claim is just accepted without question, huh, MSM? Pffffffttt!
--more--"
You know, I was wondering: what about ALL the INNOCENTS we have in the BAGRAM TORTURE CHAMBER, huh?
KABUL --A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet crashed early Saturday in central Afghanistan, killing the two crew members, the U.S. military said.
Another SHOOTDOWN?
Also Saturday, a suicide driver blew up his explosive-laden vehicle next to an Afghan army convoy in Zabul province, killing three soldiers and wounding three others, Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.
A statement by the Air Force Central Command said the crash was not due to hostile fire, and a board of officers would be convened to determine the cause. Names of the crew members were not released. Their deaths bring to 50 the number of international service members killed in Afghanistan in July -- already the deadliest month of the war for NATO forces.
No fighter jets have crashed in Afghanistan in years. Militants are able to shoot down helicopters with rockets, but are not known to have the anti-aircraft weaponry necessary to bring down a high-flying jet. The U.S. statement did not say where the crash happened. But Afghan authorities said the plane went down in the Nawur district of Ghazni province in central Afghanistan -- a peaceful area populated by the ethnic Hazara minority.
Mohammed Qasim Naziri, the deputy district chief, said the crash site was between two villages in a desert surrounded by mountains about 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of the town of Nawur. He said local people notified police of the crash but by the time authorities reached the site U.S. troops had surrounded the area and barred Afghan authorities from approaching the wreckage.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Air Force said F-15Es and B-1B bombers dropped numerous guided bombs on Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on Friday. U.S. Air Force A-10s and F-15Es also bombed and strafed insurgents Friday in Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan, the Air Force statement said.
Then I'M GLAD the fuckers "crashed!"
STOP DROPPING BOMBS on those people because 9/11 was an INSIDE JOB!!!
In Nangarhar province, a gunfight broke out Friday between Taliban fighters and local civilians after militants fired at an Afghan army officer who had come to visit his relatives, local official Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said. Abdulzai said three militants and two civilians were killed and one civilian was missing. Eleven militants were captured, eight of them Pakistanis, and were handed over to police in Jalalabad on Saturday, he said.
So says the government and papers. Where's that salt shaker?
Let's end on a positive note, huh?
Afghan children play football in a street in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, July 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Just like ANY OTHER KIDS!!!
