World-News

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/06/27

"We're F**cking Losing This Thing"
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/06/28-1

--------

In case Americans care: Afghanistan war “will not miss a beat”

Libertarian Minds
by Steven Handel

06/26/10

It’s hard to imagine that the recent change in personnel will have much effect on our current efforts in Afghanistan. Apparently — to Obama — this is a good thing. After announcing McChrystal’s resignation Obama insisted that ‘The strategy hasn’t changed,’ and ‘we will not miss a beat.’ Yippee. But perhaps missing a beat — or rather ending this old American interventionist song-and-dance for good — is exactly what the United States should do...

http://tinyurl.com/34ug6gy



Obama vs. the US Army

Human Events
by Patrick J. Buchanan

06/24/10

In confiding to Rolling Stone their unflattering opinions of the military acumen of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones, Dick Holbrooke and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staff were guilty of colossal stupidity. And President Obama had cause to cashier them. Yet his decision to fire McChrystal may prove both unwise and costly. For McChrystal, unlike Gen. MacArthur, never challenged the war policy — he is carrying it out — and Barack Obama is no Harry Truman...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=3766



Why do we care about countries we’ll never go to?

The New Republic
by Adam Kirsch

06/24/10

An obscure but unsilenceable instinct makes us always want to be on the right side. This instinct is the beginning of morality in foreign policy, but it can also be the beginning of moralizing, which obscures and distorts reality. Recently, the Guardian website devoted its top headline to an ‘exclusive’ about the publication of a scholarly book documenting that Israel, thirty-five years ago, discussed sharing nuclear technology with South Africa, but didn’t. The news value was practically nil, but the story fed into the current English conception of Israeli wickedness — it confirmed the reader’s sense that he was rooting for (or against) the right side in the Middle East...

http://tinyurl.com/2uk3nvv



What, me McWorry?

AntiWar.Com
by Jeff Huber

It’s obvious from information above and below the radar that Petraeus has been hiding in the background behind his phony laurels for the past year or so, hoping to let his little buddies McChrystal and Ray ‘Desert Ox’ Odierno take the falls for the Bananastans and Iraq. That’s been Petraeus’ standard operating procedure throughout his meteoric career: take charge of a situation, slap a band-aid on whatever troubles exist, let the underlying problems fester, and then bail out in time for the disaster to erupt on his successor’s watch. He played this stratagem three times in Iraq...

http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2010/06/28/what-me-mcworry/



Petraeus holds Obama hostage

The American Conservative
by Patrick J. Buchanan

06/28/10

By firing a fighting general, beloved of his troops, Obama just took upon himself full responsibility for the McChrystal Plan. The general is off the hook. As of now, the plan is not succeeding. And given the inability of Kabul to deliver the ‘government in a box’ to Marja, after Marines supposedly de-Talibanized the town, the McChrystal Plan is failing. The Battle of Kandahar has not yet begun, though the June D-Day has come and gone. Should we be in this same bloody stalemate in December, Obama will be blamed for having fired his field commander who devised his battle plan, and was carrying it out, over some stupid insults from staff officers to some counterculture magazine. More critically, Obama just made himself hostage to a savvy general who is said to dream of one day holding Obama’s office...

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/06/28/petraeus-holds-obama-hostage/



Endless occupation?

Future of Freedom Foundation
by Sheldon Richman

06/28/10

So Gen. Stanley McChrystal is out and Gen. David Petraeus is back at the helm in Afghanistan. I don’t like hackneyed phrases, but if this isn’t rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, what is it? America’s occupation of Afghanistan has no end in sight. The July 2011 date for the beginning of withdrawal is something that even President Obama doesn’t want to talk about. It is clearer than ever that the date was a crumb thrown to the American people so they wouldn’t grumble when Obama announced the troop buildup last year...

http://www.fff.org/comment/com1006h.asp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

McChrystal's Bleak Outlook

By Jonathan Owen and Brian Brady

President Obama lost patience with Runaway General's failed strategy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25827.htm



Why Petraeus Won't Salvage This War

By Gareth Porter

Pro-war Republicans, led by John McCain, are hoping that Petraeus will now insist that the July 2011 time frame be eliminated, creating an open-ended commitment to a high and perhaps even rising level of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25834.htm

--------

The Pentagon's Threat to the Republic

Melvin A. Goodman, Truthout: "The New York Times' David Brooks minimized General Stanley McChrystal's remarks in Rolling Stone magazine as 'kvetching.' For the Times' Maureen Dowd, McChrystal and his 'smart-aleck aides' were merely engaging in 'towel-snapping' jocularity. The Washington Post editorial board noted that Afghan President Hamid Karzai called McChrystal the 'best commander of the war,' and concluded that the general should be retained as the Afghan commander."

http://www.truth-out.org/the-pentagons-threat-republic60849



Afghan War Lumbers On; Representatives Push for Withdrawal

Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "The United States invaded Afghanistan nine years ago to topple the Taliban and weed out terrorists, but the world's richest military has failed to pacify a network of scrappy militants who continue to provoke chaos and bloodshed as the war lumbers on."

http://www.truth-out.org/the-afghan-quagmire-and-push-withdrawal60935



Summer in Iraq

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "Afghanistan has been getting all the ink lately, and for good reason. General Stanley McChrystal's act of self-immolation by way of Rolling Stone magazine kicked off a genuine no-bones-about-it constitutional crisis over civilian control of the military, until President Obama sacked him at pretty close to the speed of light."

http://www.truth-out.org/summer-iraq60901



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Joe+Biden
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=McCain
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Petraeus
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Karzai
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Pentagon
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=foreign+policy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=endless+occupation
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Patrick+J.+Buchanan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Adam+Kirsch
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Jonathan+Owen
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Brian+Brady
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Gareth+Porter
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Melvin+A.+Goodman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/huber
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Sheldon+Richman
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Ludwig
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=William+Rivers+Pitt

By Ray McGovern

Is President Barack Obama so dense that he could not see why Gen. Stanley McChrystal might actually have wanted to be fired - and rescued from the current March of Folly in Afghanistan, a mess much of his own making?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25814.htm



'Kill TV' and Dark Arts of Special Ops Led McChrystal to the Edge

By Kim Sengupta

From watching 'Kill TV' to leading undercover night raids, the two-star general was on a brutal, bleak journey.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25811.htm



Using the McChrystal Moment to Raise a Forbidden Question

By Prof. David Ray Griffin

Since the founding of the United Nations in 1945, international law with regard to war has been defined by the UN Charter. Measured by this standard, the US-led war in Afghanistan has been illegal from the outset.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25821.htm



Change... What change?

Obama: No hasty Afghan exit

A day after replacing the top American general in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama said Thursday that U.S. troops could remain in significant numbers in the country well after his withdrawal timeline begins next summer.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=6B5CF867-18FE-70B2-A8724CDE0E204425



US Gen. fired for 'grim' war assessment

US General Stanley McChrystal issued a very critical assessment of the war in Afghanistan just days before he was relieved of his command, a report says.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=132289&sectionid=3510203


From Information Clearing House

--------

Corporate Media Miss the Point (Again) on Afghanistan 'Mess'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/25-7

McChrystal’s Gone, Policy the Same
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/06/27

The Land Where Theories of Warfare Go to Die Obama, Petraeus, and the Cult of COIN in Afghanistan
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/28-0

--------

Colonialism, Obama-style

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

Everyone is shocked — shocked! — that the indiscretions of Gen. Stanley McChrystal failed to provoke a general reevaluation of our course in Afghanistan, rather than merely a review of who’s in charge of it. I find this shocking. After all, as I recall, Obama ran on ramping up the war on the Afghan front, and even threatened to invade Pakistan, two campaign promises he has kept. Furthermore, he is committed to prosecuting the war in Afghanistan and now Pakistan on a scale that even the nuttiest neocons never dared suggest, a ‘nation-building’ project that is nothing less than the construction of a US colony, or satrapy, from scratch...

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/06/27/colonialism-obama-style/



McChrystal flap sign of war’s loss

Freedom Politics
by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.

06/27/10

The comments and subsequent sacking of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal expose a larger problem than a general who showed poor judgment. The Afghanistan war, which is now President Barack Obama’s war, is a colossal failure. It is, at this point and under this president and his philosophy, simply unwinnable, or, what the Pentagon would term, ‘mission failure’...

http://tinyurl.com/29trbjb


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/topics/Pakistan/
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=what+change
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Petraeus
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=neocons
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=colonialism
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=warfare
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=night+raids
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=corporate+media
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Ray+McGovern
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kim+Sengupta
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Ray+Griffin
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Rosie+DiManno
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=raimondo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Thomas+J.+Lucente
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Dreyfuss

US-Präsident Obama entlässt renitenten General McCrystal, will aber alles bei verfahrener Afghanistan-Strategie beim Alten lassen.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/32/32846/1.html



In Afghanistan steigt der Drogenkonsum drastisch an

Nach einem Bericht der UN-Drogenbehörde nehmen 8 Prozent der Erwachsenen Drogen zu sich.

http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/8/147882



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=McCrystal
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Pentagon

By Tom Hayden

President Obama may have saved his reputation as commander-in-chief by firing Stanley McChrystal today, but he deepened his Afghan quagmire by choosing David Petraeus as the replacement.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25803.htm



Offically FUBAR

By Cindy Sheehan

"If Americans pulled back and started paying attention to this war, it would become even less popular," a senior adviser to head of NATO ops in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal (via Rolling Stone).

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25810.htm



Requiem for the Antiwar Movement

By Cindy Sheehan

This article and these observations are going to piss some people off-but oh well. You will be angry with me, even though I am not the one who is ordering more war, paying for more war, torturing people and imprisoning them without due process, destroying the economy and the environment, blah, blah, blah.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25970.htm



June deadliest month for NATO troops since Afghan war and occupation began

At least 79 NATO troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month, surpassing the previous record reached last August, when 76 troops were killed, according to a tally by icasualties.org.

http://tinyurl.com/2778s2u


From Information Clearing House

--------

Afghanistan Strategy Undermined by McChrystal
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/06/24-0

--------

McChrystal Past, Present and Future?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski251.html

--------

Germans question involvement in Afghanistan

Los Angeles Times

06/25/10

Omid Nouripour’s effort to keep German troops in Afghanistan is an uphill battle, and he knows it. Not only must the Berlin lawmaker fight his country’s aversion to an increasingly bloody war once billed as a peacekeeping effort, but he must buck his own Green Party’s antiwar platform...

http://tinyurl.com/2brabql



Let McChrystal bring the troops home

Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G. Hornberger

06/24/10

We really shouldn’t let the furor over President Obama’s firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal cause us to lose focus on three important points regarding Afghanistan: The U.S. government should never have invaded and occupied the country in the first place, it should have exited the country years ago, and continuing the occupation for any period of time whatsoever is the height of immorality and folly...

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-06-24.asp



Now what?

Slate
by Fred Kaplan

06/24/10

McChrystal is out, Petraeus is in. Civilian authority is reasserted, with no real compromise to the military mission. Good news, masterfully played. Now what? Or, to put it more crudely, so what?

http://www.slate.com/id/2258098/



The mythology surrounding Petraeus’s surge in Iraq will keep us trapped in Afghanistan

AlterNet
by Joshua Holland

06/30/10

The United States is stalled in a hopeless conflict in Afghanistan in large part because its foreign policy establishment, aided by an often-vacuous media, has come to believe its own spin about General David Petraeus’ ’success’ turning around the occupation in Iraq. The fact that Iraq remains a shattered country with an active insurgency seven years after the United States invaded — and that any improvement in security was due to developments on the ground that were unique to the country — hasn’t shaken their faith. That the Iraq surge was a success is almost a universally held belief, despite ample evidence to the contrary. That belief lends unearned weight to Petraeus’ counter-insurgency doctrine, known as COIN...

http://tinyurl.com/2c47qz7


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=McChrystal
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Petraeus
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=foreign+policy
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=insurgency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Omid+Nouripour
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Hayden
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/kwiatkowski
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Jacob+G.+Hornberger
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fred+Kaplan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Joshua+Holland

Washington Post

06/21/10

Wikileaks.org plans to release as soon as this week documents related to a U.S. airstrike that killed Afghan civilians last year and plans to release combat footage of the incident this summer, the founder of the whistleblower site said in an interview Monday. Julian Assange said the documents pertain to an attack near the Afghan village of Garani, which killed scores of civilians in May 2009. In April, Wikileaks released video footage of a U.S. Apache helicopter attack in Iraq that killed several civilians, including two employees of the Reuters news service...

http://tinyurl.com/25cn7bo



Wanted by the CIA: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

Belfast Telegraph [Ireland]

07/19/10

“There are not many journalists who, when you ask them if they are being followed by the CIA, say ‘We have surveillance events from time to time.’ Actually it’s not a question I’ve ever asked before, and Julian Assange does not call himself a journalist. But the answer is typical of this 41-year-old former computer-hacker: cryptic, dispassionate, and faintly self-important. As the founder of Wikileaks, Assange has become the pin-up of web-age investigative journalists. The US has wanted him for questioning since March, after he posed a video showing an American helicopter attack that left several Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists dead. Understandably, he now avoids the US, and keeps his movements secret, though it’s thought he operates out of Sweden and is spending time in Iceland, where a change in the law is creating a libel-free haven for journalists. But if the CIA spooks wanted him that badly, couldn’t they have turned up, as a hundred adoring student journalists did, to hear him talk at the Centre for Investigative Journalism 10 days ago?

http://tinyurl.com/27nx8ag


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

WikiLeaks Founder Drops 'Mass Spying' Hint

By Andrew Fowler

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has given his strongest indication yet about the next big leak from his whistleblower organisation.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25806.htm



Hail To The Whistleblowers

By James Denselow

Whistleblowers like those at WikiLeaks make huge sacrifices and are a vital last resort to check the powers of government.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25798.htm



Wikileaks: A Publisher Of Last Resort "privatized censorship"

Video

Wikileaks editor interview on censorship.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25799.htm



Police official says: NATO Force Kill 8 Civilians

An Afghan police official said on Monday that eight civilians were killed in a NATO raid in the southern province of Kandahar, but the alliance claimed the victims were Taliban fighters.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article490284.ece



US attack kills three Afghan civilians

The civilians were killed in a US attack in the northeastern Afghan province of Kunar on Tuesday.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=132629&sectionid=351020403



NATO airstrike accidentally kills 5 Afghan troops

NATO mistakenly killed five of its Afghan army allies in an airstrike Wednesday while they were attacking insurgents in the country's east, officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100707/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan


From Information Clearing House



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Kunar
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Garani
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=NATO+raid
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=airstrike
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=insurgents
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=civilian+deaths
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Central+Intelligence+Agency
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Wikileaks
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Julian+Assange
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=spying
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=censorship
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Andrew+Fowler
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Denselow

Ben Gilbert, GlobalPost: "These are some of the first casualties of an 'offensive' in southern Afghanistan that the military has suddenly grown reluctant to call an 'offensive.' It has begun quietly, with the U.S.-led NATO force here seemingly confused about whether the operation is about bringing 'governance' to Kandahar or clearing areas of insurgents. What is clear is that the slow trickle of wounded and the dead back to America has started. Fifty-three NATO troops have died so far this month if the pace continues, it will be the deadliest month since the Afghan war began."

http://www.truth-out.org/first-signs-strain-kandahar-offensive60588



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Kandahar
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=casualties

A UN report released yesterday painted a grim picture of the security situation in Afghanistan, saying roadside bombings and assassinations have soared in the first four months of the year amid ramped up military operations in the Taliban-dominated south.

http://tinyurl.com/2f68deq



Blackwater Firm Gets $120M U.S. Gov't Contract

The State Department has awarded a part of what was formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide a contract worth more than $120 million for providing security services in Afghanistan.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20008238-10391695.html



U.S. Tax Dollars Fueling Afghan Insurgency

By Lara Logan

Billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are fuelling corruption in Afghanistan and funding the insurgency, according to a six-month investigation by the House subcommittee on National Security and Foreign affairs.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25787.htm


From Information Clearing House



http://sharenews.twoday.net/topics/Afghanistan/
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=insurgency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=assassin
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lara+Logan

By Pat Buchanan

It is simply not credible that the United States and its NATO allies, some of whom - like the Dutch - are pulling out, can prevail in this war in 12 months so America can begin coming home, as Obama has promised, unless Obama is willing to write Afghanistan off.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25761.htm



U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan

By David Sirota

Many probably wondered how this information was being presented as "news" in 2010. As Mother Jones magazine's James Ridgeway said after recalling past public accounts of the ore deposits, "This 'discovery' in fact is ancient history tracing back to the times of Marco Polo."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25768.htm

--------

War for Resources: From Slander to Clarion Call

David Sirota, Truthout: "Reading this week's New York Times headline - 'U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan' - many probably wondered how this information was being presented as 'news' in 2010. After all, humanity has long been aware of the country's vast natural resources. As Mother Jones magazine's James Ridgeway said after recalling past public accounts of the ore deposits, 'This "discovery" in fact is ancient history tracing back to the times of Marco Polo.'"

http://www.truth-out.org/david-sirota-war-resources-from-slander-clarion-call60549

--------

Afghanistan a mineral treasure trove
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/870.html

--------

Are Claims of Afghan Mineral Wealth a PR Trick?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/afghan-mineral-wealth-pr-trick.html



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=mineral
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=war+for+resources
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pat+Buchanan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Ridgeway
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=David+Sirota

Poland's Defense Minister Bodan Klich has called for the withdrawal of polish troops from Afghanistan before 2013, demanding that Afghan forces shoulder the responsibility.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=130654&sectionid=351020403


From Information Clearing House



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan

By James Petras

Outside of the central districts of a few cities and the military fortresses, the Afghan national resistance forces, in all of their complex local, regional and national alliances, are in control, of territory, people and administration.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25742.htm



From Kabul to Kingston

By Richard Drayton

Army tactics in Jamaica resemble those used in Afghanistan - and it's no mere coincidence.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25732.htm



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Petras
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Richard+Drayton