Obama, traveling as part of an official congressional delegation, landed in the Afghan capital on Saturday morning under tight security amid a surge of Taliban activity in recent weeks. After a briefing at Bagram air base, he flew by helicopter to the northeastern city of Jalalabad in Nangahar province, where he met with U.S. soldiers and local leaders. From there, according to a U.S.-based aide, Obama set out by helicopter for a look at parts of eastern Afghanistan before returning to Kabul for a dinner with senior Afghan officials.
The presumptive Democratic nominee shied away from public comments as his trip began, belying the intense interest in the trip and its political ramifications. McCain used his new weekly radio address on Saturday to attack Obama’s foreign policy credentials and judgment. But as McCain sparred with his rival, the Illinois senator received an unexpected boost from Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki, who told the German magazine Der Spiegel that he looked favorably on Obama’s call for a 16-month timetable for withdrawing most U.S. forces from Iraq.
In a speech last week, Obama said that troops should be drawn down in Iraq and two additional combat brigades deployed in Afghanistan, a war he said the U.S. couldn’t afford to lose.
His visit to Afghanistan comes at a time of sharply deteriorating security across the country. Suicide bombings are an everyday occurrence, and the number of foreign troops killed last month was the highest since the start of the war.
The presumptive Democratic nominee and senator from Illinois is part of an official congressional delegation that includes Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.). The lawmakers made a brief visit to Jalalabad airfield in eastern Afghanistan, greeting American troops from their respective home states.
At Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, Obama and the others met with senior military officials and got a briefing from the commander of American forces in eastern Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser. The decision to have the delegation meet with Schloesser probably reflected growing U.S. concern over infiltration of fighters from tribal lands on the Pakistani side of the frontier, which borders Afghanistan’s eastern provinces.
US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan Saturday at the start of a major international tour that will also include Iraq, his office and the Afghan foreign ministry said.
Obama’s office said the senator would visit some of the 36,000 US soldiers in Afghanistan as part of an international effort to defeat a growing extremist insurgency.
“He will meet President (Hamid) Karzai and they will discuss issues of mutual interest,” added foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen, confirming Obama’s arrival to AFP.
The Illinois senator has been outspoken about the need to do more to help Afghanistan as violence linked to the insurgency has worsened with some of the deadliest attacks in recent weeks.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what the situation on the ground is,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told reporters before leaving the United States.
“I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of, you know, what … their biggest concerns are. And I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they’ve been doing.”
So the Taliban are alive and well and still oppressing women and exercising their brand of religious fanaticism over entire regions whenever and wherever they can. How do we know that? First, via the BBC, we learn that the Taliban have set up Islamic courts in the North-Western area of Pakistan they control,
“The top spokesman for the Pakistani Taleban Movement (PTM), Maulvi Omar, has told the BBC Urdu service that permanent Taleban courts were already functioning in Bajaur district, Mohmand’s northern neighbour.
“About 20 local religious scholars issue dozens of judgements each day in Bajaur, where we have the most organised judicial system in place,” he said. (…)
In addition the PTM also runs a vast network of mobile courts in the rest of the Fata areas, he said.
The cases range from land transactions and loan disputes to family matters.
All this is embarrassing for the Pakistani government, especially because the Taleban have in the past carried out cruel punishments against people accused of moral turpitude, crime or spying.
Earlier this month, two Afghan nationals accused of spying for the US were publicly killed on the orders of a Taleban court in Bajaur.
Last month, a court in Orakzai ordered the public killing of half a dozen alleged bandits.
And in March, the Taleban killed a couple after they were allegedly found guilty of adultery by a court in Mohmand.”
Here is the Monday, July 14th, 2008 edition of interesting reads from around the world.
A Deadly Day in Afghanistan
Nine US soldiers and several militants were killed after rebels stormed a remote outpost in Afghanistan in one of the deadliest attacks on international forces in years. Another 15 US soldiers were wounded. It was the deadliest day for US troops in Afghanistan in over three years. A video report from the Associated Press:
Fighting in Sri Lanka Intensifies
Fighting along the front lines in northern Sri Lanka killed 31 Tamil Tigers on Sunday as the civil war between the rebels and government forces continued to escalate. Over the weekend, at least 60 rebel were killed. Reports from the International Herald Tribune and Reuters India.
Sarkozy’s Club Med
President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday sought to shift Europe’s strategic focus towards the Middle East, north Africa and the Balkans, hosting 42 heads of state and government at a summit in Paris to launch a new Mediterranean Union. Initially concentrated on infrastructure and energy projects such as making north Africa a hub for solar power, Sarkozy’s grand initiative is acutely political, claiming a pole position for France in European foreign policy-making after years of drift and seeking to redirect policy from the east of Europe to the south. From the UK Guardian. I am often perplexed by Sarkozy and I am cautious on this initiative but the Financial Times does note that Sarkozy managed to get Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Syrian President Assad to sit down in the same room, though Assad did leave the room for Olmert’s speech. And then there is this:
After meeting Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, on the sidelines of the Paris summit, Mr Olmert declared: “It seems to me that we have never been as close to the possibility of reaching an accord as we are today.”
In concrete terms, however, the most striking outcome of the weekend’s diplomatic activity appeared to be the announcement that Syria would open an embassy in Beirut and Lebanon an embassy in Damascus for the first time since Lebanese independence in 1943.
Such a step would imply Syrian acceptance of the sovereignty of Lebanon, a state where Damascus has always sought to exert influence and where Syrian troops were stationed for almost 30 years after 1976.
“We can say that Lebanon has moved from being a zone of turbulence, a war zone, to a more pacified zone where the Lebanese, and only the Lebanese, have the right to determine their own future,” Mr Assad said after talks on Saturday with Michel Suleiman, Lebanon’s president.
Since taking power in 2000, Mr Assad has on several occasions dangled the prospect of diplomatic recognition of Lebanon. If there is a difference this time, it may rest in Mr Sarkozy’s statement on Saturday that he intends to visit Syria in September – a gesture that the French leader could withdraw, if by then Mr Assad has not fulfilled his promise to open an embassy in Lebanon.
I still don’t fully trust Sarkozy but this is an achievement that is worth underscoring and I congratulate him on his success.
Seoul Demands Investigation of Shooting Death of Tourist in the DPRK
Last week’s shooting death of a female South Korean tourist who wandered off a resort and into a military installation is raising question. Apparently, tourists have wandered off before and none had been shot. The government yesterday urged North Korea to allow in South Korean investigators to learn the details of the killing of a South Korean tourist at the Mount Geumgang resort. The Unification Ministry also demanded the North take “responsible measures” to prevent a recurrence of the shooting death, which it said “cannot be justified under any circumstances.” More details from the Korea Herald.
An Update on Malaysia
The Asia Sentinel looks at Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s decision to step down in 2010 in favour of his deputy Najib Tun Razak, who is scandal-riddled. All in all, it has been a topsy turvy year in Kuala Lumpur.
Thailand’s Temple Row
A dispute Khmer temple along the Thai-Cambodian border has become a major issue in Thai politics. More from the Straits Times.
Iran Executes Six In Public Reuters reports that Iran has executed six people in public in the northeastern city of Sabzevar, state radio said on Monday, the second report of a public execution in the Islamic Republic in less than a week. Iranian radio reported the execution but did not offer details. Execution is by hanging in Iran. In Saudi Arabia, beheadings still occur. Amnesty International in April listed Iran as the world’s second most prolific executioner last year, with at least 317 people put to death, trailing only China which carried out 470 death sentences.
We are trying to fight the war in Afghanistan on the cheap and it is costing us plenty. If these tactics of fighting a war from the air continue, we will lose the war in Afghanistan. This is, frankly, genocide. We are killing innocent civilians because we lack the political will and the moral fiber to commit to a war that requires the investment of more resources and more troops. It also requires rebuilding Afghanistan. Building roads, schools, clinics, creating opportunities for the people of Afghanistan.
A US air strike killed 47 civilians, including 39 women and children, as they were travelling to a wedding in Afghanistan, an official inquiry found today. The bride was among the dead.
Another nine people were wounded in Sunday’s attack, the head of the Afghan government investigation, Burhanullah Shinwari, said.
Fighter aircraft attacked a group of militants near the village of Kacu in the eastern Nuristan province, but one missile went off course and hit the wedding party, said the provincial police chief spokesman, Ghafor Khan.
The US military initially denied any civilians had been killed.
Lieutenant Rumi Nielson-Green, a spokeswoman for the US-led coalition, told AFP today the military regretted the loss of any civilian life and was investigating the incident.
The US is facing similar charges over strikes two days earlier in another border area of Afghanistan.
The nine-member inquiry team appointed by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to look into the wedding party incident found only civilians had been killed in the attack.
“We found that 47 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the air strikes and another nine were wounded,” said Shinwari, who is also the deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s senate.
“They were all civilians and had no links with the Taliban or al-Qaida.”
Around 10 people were missing and believed to be still under rubble, he said. The inquiry team were shown the bloodied clothes of women and children in a visit to the scene.
The Red Cross said 250 people had been killed or wounded in five days of military action and militant attacks in the past week.
The toll included the US-led air strikes and a suicide blast outside the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday that killed more than 40 people, including two Indian envoys.
The UN said last month that nearly 700 Afghan civilians had lost their lives this year - about two-thirds in militant attacks and about 255 in military operations.
Karzai has pleaded repeatedly for western troops to take care not to harm civilians, and in December wept during a speech lamenting civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces.
We need boots on the ground, not surgical airstrikes that are anything but surgical. How many families were wiped out in this attack? Afghan lives have to matter just as much as our own.
Here is the Thursday, July 10th, 2008 edition of events and interesting reads from around the world. It was sadly a very violent day around the world with attacks in Georgia, Turkey and Darfur plus continuing violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe. It appears the world is on the verge of a great upheaval. It is quite worrisome.
The Return of Al-Qaeda
It appears that the attack on the US Consulate in Istanbul may have been the work of Al-Qaeda. Stories from the International Herald Tribune and the BBC.
Attacks on UN Troops in Darfur
It is clear that either the government in Khartoum is complicit with the militias operating in Darfur or it does not care. My sense is the former. Reports from Al Jazeera and the Washington Post.
UK Troops Unhappy
Nearly half of British troops regularly consider quitting the army and navy because of plummeting morale, poor equipment and low pay, a Ministry of Defence survey of more than 24,000 military personnel has found in a report from the UK Guardian.
French Nuclear Leak and the US Prepares to Build More Nuclear Plants
Two stories from Germany’s Der Spiegel on the nuclear power industry. The first is on a French Nuclear Leak at the Tricastin nuclear plant.
Following Tuesday’s accidental leak of over 30,000 liters (7,925 gallons) of a solution containing uranium in southern France, nuclear safety agencies are minimizing the possible danger. But emergency bans put on water use in the area by local authorities have worried residents and environmental organizations at a time when much of Europe is re-embracing nuclear power as way to slow global warming.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has proposed building 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030 with a longer term goal of 55 more. His Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, is also in favor of more atomic energy. Is the US experiencing a nuclear power renaissance?
I don’t like nuclear but I don’t see an alternative. Even so nuclear is a stop-gap measure anyway. It is likely that we have either peaked uranium or will do so soon. Still a little goes a long way. It also lasts a long time and that’s the problem with nuclear. All that radioactive waste. No easy answers when it comes to nuclear but very hard questions.
An Indian Perspective on the Bombing in Kabul
India and Pakistan have vied for influence in Afghanistan for decades. In the 1990s, with the Pakistan-backed Taliban in power, Islamabad’s influence peaked. Then in a reversal of fortune, India, which backed the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance during the years the Taliban were in power, saw its fortunes improve in Kabul, even as Islamabad’s influence touched a nadir. I personally suspect Pakistan’s ISI assisted elements of the Taliban. Pakistan is a problem that has to be tackled and there no easy answers. The ISI is a government within a government. The perspective from Sudha Ramachandran in the Asia Times.
The Russian Rouble
There is no doubt that Russia is on the rise.
Introducing Dmitry Medvedev
The Russian President’s comments at the G-8 Summit.
Was Eduardo Frei Murdered?
Eduardo Frei was Chile’s President prior to Allende. A court forensics expert said Wednesday that former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva was assassinated in January 1982 after a simple hernia operation during the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet. The statement by Carmen Cerda, the chief of the forensics team investigating the case, confirmed longtime suspicions that Frei Montalva, who was Chile’s elected president from 1964 to 1970, had died of foul play at age 71. Medical officials had said that infection related to the surgery was the cause of death. The full story from the Miami Herald.
Here is the Monday, July 7th, 2008 edition of interesting reads and events from around the world.
The United Arab Emirates Forgives Iraq’s Debt
The United Arab Emirates has cancelled almost $7 billion of debt including interest and arrears payments owed by Baghdad, becoming the first Gulf Arab country to forgive all of Iraq’s debt. It’s a wonderful move and other countries should follow suit. It’s time to rebuild Iraq. The full story in the International Herald Tribune.
Car Bomb in Kabul
Afghan officials say a suicide car bomber has killed at least seven people in an attack outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Details in the BBC and the UK Telegraph.
South African Plan for Zimbabwe
South African President Thabo Mbeki has presented a plan to Zimbabwe’s political leaders that would allow Robert Mugabe to remain as a titular head of state. More from Johannesburg’s Mail and Guardian. Under the plan, Mugagbw would be President of Zimbabwe in name only and real power would rest with the opposition MDC. In other news from Zimbabwe, the Los Angeles Times reports that Mugagbe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has some 900 camps for political dissidents where women are treated as “sex slaves.” Mugagbe must go.
The Uptick in Japanese Capital Punishment
Japan’s justice minister, dubbed the “grim reaper” for ordering a record number of executions, has defended the death penalty as “civilised” but said he loses sleep over signing the orders. I oppose the death penalty. Systemic genocide might be my only exception and even then I am not so sure. In Japan, 13 people have been hanged since Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama took office last August, a record high for the period. Japan lifted a de facto moratorium on executions in 1993. More from Agence France Presse.
Correa in Ecuador Commutes the Sentences of 1,200 Drug Couriers
President Rafael Correa of Ecuador has communted the sentences of some 1,200 mulas, or drug couriers. Under the pardon, prisoners (largely young poor women) who have served at least a year of their sentence and were carrying under 2 kilos of drugs (in their stomachs) are eligible for the pardon. It is estimated that approximately 1,200 prisoners in Ecuadorian jails will thus have their sentences commuted. It is a fair plan. The drug trade has many victims especially amongst the poor in Latin America. More in Spanish from Noticias 24. If you have never seen the award-winning Colombian movie, Maria, llena eres de gracia (Mary, Full of Grace), you should rent it. It covers the plight of these women called mulas or mules. The lead actress, Catalina Sandino Moreno, received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of young Colombian mula.
German Finance Minister Opines on Sarkozy’s EU Presidency
The French presidency of the European Union will be an exercise in “crisis management”, according to Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, in particular with rocketing oil prices and the rejection of the Lisbon treaty by Irish voters.
The undiplomatic assessment echoes analysts’ expectations that France’s presidency, which began last week, will be short on new projects and instead have to focus on salvaging Lisbon and seeking answers to the global energy shortage.
“I think the French presidency will be very much influenced by the current challenges. As far as I know they understand themselves that they are sitting in the chair more in terms of crisis management,” Mr Steinbrück told the Financial Times in an interview.
Cristina Fernández de Kitchner Wins Round 1
Argentina’s lower house of congress has approved a controversial package of export taxes on grain which prompted widespread strikes and food shortages earlier in the year. The measures were passed by 129 votes to 122 on Saturday after 18 hours of heated debate. Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kitchner decreed a more than 10%, sliding-scale increase in export taxes on soy, corn and other grains on March 11 setting off a widespread revolt against her government and her popularity level drop to 20%. The measures now go before the Argentine Senate. More from Al Jazeera.
Bertha Becomes First Hurricane of the Atlantic Season
Tropical storm Bertha has strengthened to become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. As of 5 am EDT Monday, Hurricane Bertha was about 845 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands.
Here is the Friday, June 27th, 2008 edition of interesting reads and events from around the world.
UN 2008 Report on the Narcotics Trade
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published its annual report on the world’s narcotic trade. Most alarmingly, Afghan opium poppy cultivation grew 17% last year, continuing a six-year expansion of the country’s drug trade and increasing its share of global opium production to more than 92%, according to the report. Afghanistan also increased its marijuana production. Still, it is the opium poppy that is most worrisome as the Taliban use the profits from that trade to finance its insurgency. In Colombia, coca cultivation rose by 27% in 2007, though coca leaf and cocaine production were concentrated in just 10 of the country’s 195 municipalities again in areas tied to the FARC insurgency. More from Reuters.
“Flabbergasted” NASA Scientists
“Flabbergasted” NASA scientists said on Thursday that Martian soil appeared to contain the requirements to support life, although more work would be needed to prove it. The full report in Reuters.
Gazprom Pushing Natural Gas for Cars in Europe Deutsche Welle reports that the Russian energy giant Gazprom wants to set up a network of service stations across Europe for cars fuelled by natural gas. Gazprom controls a quarter of the world’s gas reserves.
North Korea Destroys Its Cooling Tower at Its Main Atomic Reactor
North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program Friday, blasting apart the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs. More on this story from the Associated Press:
Thai PM Sunaravej Survives No Confidence Vote
Thailand’s prime minister and seven of his Cabinet ministers held off a parliamentary challenge Friday as street protesters demanded the coalition government’s resignation. The BBC has the full report.
High gas prices, home foreclosures may be squeezing people in the United States and Europe (in major parts of the Global South, feeling the big time crunch is a chronic condition), but not everybody is hurting. According to the BBC, there are now more global millionaires:
“The number of people worth more than US$1m (£507,000) rose to 10.1 million in 2007, a wealth survey suggests. Despite the growing credit crisis, there were 600,000 more members of the global millionaires’ club than there were a year earlier. Their combined wealth also rose, by 9.4% to $40.7 trillion, according to Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini. The fast-growing economies of India, China and Brazil saw the biggest rises in the number of wealthy individuals. The number worth more than $30m increased by 8.8%, while their total wealth grew by 14.5%.”
How do these lucky few spend their money? According to the Guardian,
“They spend 16% of their money on “luxury collectibles” including cars, boats and private jets, another 16% on art-underpinning the booming global art market, 14% of their money on luxury travel and another 14% on jewellery, gems and watches. They spend 5% on sporting investments, buying up teams and race horses.”
Two good pieces on Al Qaeda landed in my Newsreader this week and they both point in the same direction, albeit in different terms. The first one is from Tony Karon who questions the current relevance of Al Qaeda as the big post-9/11 bogeyman. For Karon, Al Qaeda is irrelevant and always was. In this respect, Al Qaeda is comparable to Trotsky… Huh? How does the comparison apply?
“Al-Qaeda is irrelevant, and yet U.S. hegemony in the Middle East is facing an unprecedented challenge from Islamist-nationalist groups. To understand the link between al-Qaeda’s weakness and the greatly expanded strength of groups such as Hamas, Hizballah, the Muslim Brotherhood and, of course, Iran, over the past seven years, it’s worth turning to the 20th century precedent: Leon Trotsky and his followers vs. the larger, nationally-focused parties of the left in the mid 20th century.
Trotsky rejected pragmatism and compromise by nationally-based leftist movements and insisted, instead, that they subordinate their specific national interests and objectives to the fantasy of “world revolution.” And as a result, long before his murder by Stalin, he found himself holed up in Mexico City, manically firing off communiques denouncing all compromise, and being largely ignored by the more substantial parties of the left world-wide. He had become an irrelevant chatterbox, caught up in a frenzy of his own rhetoric while world events simply passed him by. The same can be said of Bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri — it is not al-Qaeda, but the likes of Iran, Hamas, Hizballah, and the Muslim Brotherhood that represent the future of the nationalist-Islamist challenge to Western power in the Middle East.”
What makes Al Qaeda seemingly powerful are two factors: the one mentioned by Karon, that is, the fact that the United States treats Al Qaeda as this omnipresent threat of global proportion and reacts to every action as if it were the beginnings of a terrorist apocalypse. The second one, which I think is relevant here and contributes to the first, is that fact that Al Qaeda, being a non-state group, articulates itself opportunistically to nation-based movements (Algeria, Philippines, Indonesia, or Iraq). (more…)
