Messages In This Digest (13 Messages)
- 1.
- La guerra del Pentágono en la Península Arábiga From: Rick Rozoff
- 2.
- Afghanistan: World's Lengthiest War Has Just Begun From: Rick Rozoff
- 3.
- Ex-Dutch Shell CEO: World Will Always Need NATO's Power From: Rick Rozoff
- 4.
- New U.S. Defense Bill Boosts Aegis Interceptor Missile System From: Rick Rozoff
- 5.
- NATO Tells Members Not To Cut Military Spending Amid Crisis From: Rick Rozoff
- 6.
- Over Two Million U.S. Troops Deployed To Afghanistan, Iraq From: Rick Rozoff
- 7.
- Eastern Partnership: West Mulls 'Dniester Euro-Region' In Ex-USSR From: Rick Rozoff
- 8.
- 'Counter-Terrorism': U.S. Penetrates Moldovan Internal Security From: Rick Rozoff
- 9.
- Afghan War: NATO Taps Bulgaria For More Troops From: Rick Rozoff
- 10.
- Afghanistan: U.S.-NATO 2009 Death Toll Nears 500 From: Rick Rozoff
- 11.
- Kosovo: NATO To Transfer Thousands Of Troops To Afghanistan, Iraq From: Rick Rozoff
- 12.
- Raytheon Awarded Contract For NATO SeaSparrow Missile From: Rick Rozoff
- 13.
- Ratings At 3.8%, U.S. Client Wants NATO In, Russian Fleet Out From: Rick Rozoff
Messages
- 1.
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La guerra del Pentágono en la Península Arábiga
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:31 am (PST)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/706
Stop NATO
December 18, 2009
La guerra del Pentágono en la Península Arábiga
Rick Rozoff
Traducido del inglés para Rebelión por Germán Leyens
http://rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=97234
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Yemen se convertirá en el campo de batalla para una guerra por encargo entre EE.UU. y Arabia Saudí – cuyas relaciones de Estado a Estado son de las más fuertes y más durables de toda la era posterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial – por una parte e Irán por la otra.
Tal vez sea imposible determinar el momento exacto en el cual un sediciente guerrero santo apoyado por EE.UU. – entrenado para perpetrar actos de terrorismo urbano y derribar aviones comerciales – deja de ser un combatiente por la libertad y se convierte en terrorista. Pero una suposición segura es que eso ocurre cuando ya no es útil para Washington. Un terrorista que sirve los intereses de EE.UU. es un combatiente por la libertad; un combatiente por la libertad que no los sirve es un terrorista.
Los yemeníes son los últimos en aprender la ley de la selva del Pentágono y la Casa Blanca. Junto con Irán y Afganistán, que el especialista en contrainsurgencia Stanley McChrystal utilizó para perfeccionar sus técnicas, Yemen se une a las filas de otras naciones en las que el Pentágono está involucrado en ese tipo de guerra, llena de masacres de civiles y otras formas del llamado daño colateral: Colombia, Mali, Pakistán, Las Filipinas, Somalia y Uganda.
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BBC News informó el 14 de diciembre de que 70 civiles murieron cuando aviones bombardearon un mercado en la aldea Bani Maan en el norte de Yemen.
Las fuerzas armadas de la nación reivindicaron la responsabilidad del mortífero ataque, pero un sitio en Internet de los rebeldes huzíes contra quienes iba dirigido ostensiblemente el ataque declaró que "aviones saudíes cometieron una masacre contra los residentes inocentes de Bani Maan." [1]
El régimen saudí entró al conflicto armado entre los (epónimos) huzíes y el gobierno yemení por cuenta de este último a finales de noviembre y desde entonces ha sido acusado de lanzar ataques dentro de Yemen con tanques y aviones. Incluso antes del último bombardeo numerosos yemeníes han muerto y miles han sido desplazados por los combates. Arabia Saudí también ha sido acusada de utilizar bombas de fósforo.
Además, el grupo rebelde conocido como Jóvenes Creyentes, basado en la comunidad musulmán chií de Yemen que representa un 30% de la población del país de 23 millones, afirmó el 14 de diciembre que "aviones caza jet de EE.UU. han atacado la provincia Sa'ada de Yemen" y que "aviones caza jet de EE.UU. han lanzado 28 ataques contra la provincia noroccidental de Sa'ada." [2]
La edición del día anterior del Daily Telegraph informó sobre discusiones con funcionarios militares de EE.UU. que declararon que "por temor a que Yemen se esté convirtiendo en un Estado fallido, EE.UU. ha enviado ahora una pequeña cantidad de equipos de fuerzas especiales para mejorar el entrenamiento del ejército de Yemen como reacción ante la amenaza."
Cita a un funcionario anónimo del Pentágono, diciendo: "Yemen se está convirtiendo en una base de reserva para las actividades de al-Qaeda en Pakistán y Afganistán." [3]
La invocación del espectro de al Qaeda es, sin embargo, un señuelo. Los rebeldes en el norte de la nación son chiíes y no suníes, mucho menos todavía suníes wahabíes del tipo saudí, y como tales no están vinculados a ningún grupo o grupos que puedan clasificarse de al Qaeda, sino que es más probable que constituyan un objetivo de estos últimos.
Al servicio de los propósitos estadounidenses en la región, la prensa británica y estadounidense se ha estado refiriendo últimamente a Yemen como la "patria ancestral" de Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden procede de una destacada familia multimillonaria árabe saudí, pero como su padre nació en lo que es ahora la República de Yemen hace más de un siglo, los medios occidentales están explotando un insignificante accidente histórico para sugerir un papel activo de Osama bin Laden en esa nación y para establecer un tenue vínculo entre la guerra surasiática en Afganistán y Pakistán y la intervención armada saudí y estadounidense en un conflicto civil en Yemen.
En 2002, el Pentágono despachó unos 100 soldados, según algunas informaciones fuerzas especiales de Boinas Verdes, a Yemen para entrenar a los militares del país. En ese caso, por haber sucedido dos años después del atentado suicida contra el destructor de la Armada USS Cole en el puerto meridional yemení de Adén, atribuido a al Qaeda, y acompañado por ataques de drones contra sus dirigentes, Washington justificó sus acciones como represalias por ese incidente, así como por los ataques en la ciudad de Nueva York y en Washington, D.C. el año anterior.
El contexto actual es diferente y una guerra de contrainsurgencia respaldada por EE.UU. en Yemen no tendrá nada que ver con el combate contra supuestas amenazas de al Qaeda, sino formará de hecho parte integral de la estrategia de expandir la guerra afgana a círculos concéntricos cada vez más amplios incluyendo a Asia del Sur y Central, el Cáucaso y el Golfo Pérsico, el Sudeste Asiático y el Golfo de Adén, el Cuerno de África y Arabia. La ansiosamente esperada partida del presidente George W. Bush podrá haber llevado al fin de la guerra global oficial contra el terror, a la que se refieren ahora como operaciones de contingencias en ultramar, pero nada ha cambiado excepto el nombre.
El 13 de diciembre el máximo comandante del Comando Central del Pentágono a cargo de las guerras en Afganistán, Iraq y Pakistán, el general David Petraeus, dijo a la red de televisión Al Arabya que "EE.UU. apoya la seguridad de Yemen en el contexto de la cooperación militar suministrada por EE.UU. a sus aliados en la región" y "subrayó que barcos estadounidenses en las aguas territoriales de Yemen [están allí] no sólo para controlar sino para impedir las filtraciones de armas a los rebeldes houthi." [4]
Habrá que recordarlo la próxima vez que se utilice el embuste al Qaeda/bin Laden para justificar la expansión de la participación militar de EE.UU. en Arabia.
El Yemen Post del 13 de diciembre escribió que la oficina houthi de medios "acusó a EE.UU. de participación en la guerra contra los huzíes" y publicó fotografías de lo que fue identificado como aviones estadounidenses "involucrados en operaciones de bombardeo en la provincia Sa'ada en el norte de Yemen."
La fuente estimó que ha habido veinte bombardeos estadounidenses coordinados con vigilancia satelital. [5]
La prensa occidental nuevamente encabeza la vinculación de los huzíes, cuyos antecedentes religiosos de chiismo zaidí son bastante diferentes de la versión iraní, con siniestras maquinaciones imputadas a Teherán. Ni siquiera funcionarios del gobierno de EE.UU. han pretendido hasta hoy que haya evidencia de que Irán apoye, y muchos menos de que arme, a los rebeldes yemeníes. Eso cambiará si el guión se desarrolla según los precedentes, como lo indica el comentario de Petraeus antes mencionado, y Washington se hace eco de la afirmación del gobierno yemení de que Irán está armando a sus hermanos chiíes en Yemen, tal como lo acusan de hacerlo en el Líbano.
Yemen se convertirá en el campo de batalla para una guerra por encargo entre EE.UU. y Arabia Saudí – cuyas relaciones de Estado a Estado son de las más fuertes y más durables de toda la era posterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial – por una parte e Irán por la otra.
En un editorial de hace cinco días Tehran Times acusó de imprudencia a todas las partes en el conflicto yemení –el gobierno, los rebeldes y Arabia Saudí– y emitió una advertencia: "La historia proporciona un buen ejemplo. Arabia Saudí financió grupos extremistas en Afganistán y todavía, veinte años después de la retirada del ejército soviético del país, las llamas de la guerra en Afganistán están agobiando a los aliados de Arabia Saudí."
"Y un escenario semejante está emergiendo en Yemen." [6]
La comparación entre Yemen y Afganistán aludía en particular a Riad, en el segundo caso de trabajo en equipo con EE.UU., en la exportación de wahabismo basado en Arabia Saudí para expandir su influencia política.
Arabia Saudí intenta impulsar su propia versión de extremismo en Yemen como lo hizo anteriormente en Afganistán y Pakistán y lo hace actualmente en Iraq. Lejos de que EE.UU. y sus aliados occidentales expresen alguna objeción, los saudíes y las otras monarquías del Golfo Pérsico estarán a la vanguardia en lo que se calcula como compras de armas de Occidente por 100.000 millones de dólares durante los próximos cinco años. "El núcleo de esta orgía de compras de armas será indudablemente el paquete de sistemas de armas estadounidenses por 20.000 millones de dólares durante 10 años por los seis Estados del Consejo de Cooperación del Golfo – Arabia Saudí, los E.A.U., Kuwait, Omán, Qatar y Bahrain." [7] Arabia Saudí también está armada con aviones de guerra británicos y franceses de última tecnología así como con sistemas de defensa de misiles de EE.UU.
Lo que el comentario iraní arriba mencionado advirtió respecto a las "llamas de la guerra" en Afganistán es perfectamente confirmado por la Evaluación Inicial del Comandante del 30 de agosto de 2009 emitida por el máximo comandante militar estadounidense y de la OTAN en Afganistán, general Stanley McChrystal, y publicada con las modificaciones exigidas por el Pentágono en el Washington Post del 21 de septiembre. El documento de 66 páginas sirvió de base al anuncio del presidente Barack Obama del 1 de diciembre de que enviará 33.000 soldados estadounidenses más a Afganistán.
En su informe, McChrystal declaró: "Los principales grupos insurgentes en orden de su amenaza para la misión son: Quetta Shura Taliban (05T), la Red Haqqani (HQN), y Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (HiG)."
Los dos últimos llevan el nombre de sus fundadores y actuales dirigentes, Jalaluddin Haqqanni y Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, los muyahidines preferidos de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia de EE.UU. en los años ochenta, cuando el director adjunto de la Agencia (de 1986 a 1989) era Robert Gates, actual secretario de defensa de EE.UU. a cargo de proseguir la guerra en Afganistán. Y en Yemen.
En su libro de 1996 From the Shadows, alardeó de que "la CIA tuvo importantes éxitos en la acción clandestina. Tal vez el más importante de todos fue Afganistán, donde la CIA, con su administración, canalizó miles de millones de dólares en suministros y armas a los muyahidines…" [8]
El New York Times divulgó en 2008 los siguientes detalles:
"En los años ochenta, Jalaluddin Haqqani fue desarrollado como un recurso 'unilateral' de la CIA y recibió decenas de miles de dólares en efectivo por su trabajo en la lucha contra el Ejército Soviético en Afganistán, según un informe en 'The Bin Ladens,' un libro reciente de Steve Coll. En esos días, Haqqani ayudó y protegió a Osama bin Laden, quien estaba formando su propia milicia para combatir a las fuerzas soviéticas, escribió Coll." [9] Coll es también el autor del libro de 2001 Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001.
El colega de Haqqani, Hekmatyar, "recibió millones de dólares de la CIA a través de la ISI (Inteligencia Inter-Servicios de Pakistán). Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin recibió parte del mayor apoyo de Pakistán y Arabia Saudí, y trabajó con miles de muyahidines extranjeros que fueron a Afganistán." [10]
En mayo pasado el (en grado sumo) proestadounidense presidente de Pakistán, Asif Ali Zardari, dijo a la cadena estadounidense NBC news que los talibanes forman "parte de nuestro pasado y de vuestro pasado, y la ISI y la CIA los crearon juntas… (Los talibanes) son (un) monstruo creado por todos nosotros…" [11]
El 11 de septiembre de 2001 había sólo tres naciones en el mundo que reconocían el régimen talibán en Afganistán: Pakistán, Arabia Saudí y los Emiratos Árabes Unidos. El presidente de EE.UU., George W. Bush, inmediatamente individualizó para posibles represalias a siete Estados que supuestamente apoyaban el terrorismo: Cuba, Irán, Iraq, Libia, Corea del Norte, Sudán y Siria. Sólo Sudán, que expulsó a Osama bin Laden en 1996, tenía alguna conexión concebible con al Qaeda. De los diecinueve acusados del secuestro de los aviones del 11 de septiembre, quince procedían de Arabia Saudí, dos de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, uno de Egipto y uno de Líbano.
Pakistán y Arabia Saudí siguen siendo aliados políticos y militares altamente valorados de EE.UU. y los Emiratos Árabes Unidos tienen tropas sirviendo bajo comando de la OTAN en Afganistán.
Tal vez sea imposible determinar el momento exacto en el cual un sedicente guerrero santo apoyado por EE.UU. –entrenado para perpetrar actos de terrorismo urbano y derribar aviones comerciales– deja de ser un combatiente por la libertad y se convierte en terrorista. Pero una suposición segura es que ocurre cuando ya no es útil para Washington. Un terrorista que sirve los intereses de EE.UU. es un combatiente por la libertad; un combatiente por la libertad que no los sirve es un terrorista.
Durante decenios el Congreso Nacional Africano de Nelson Mandela y la Organización para la Liberación de Palestina estuvieron en cabeza de la lista de grupos terroristas del Departamento de Estado de EE.UU. Apenas terminó la Guerra Fría Mandela y Arafat (y Gerry Adams de Sinn Fein) fueron invitados a la Casa Blanca. El primero compartió el Premio Nobel de la Paz en 1993 y el segundo en 1994.
Si un hipotético sedicente yihadista partió de Arabia Saudí o Egipto en los años ochenta hacia Pakistán para luchar contra el gobierno afgano y su aliado soviético, era un combatiente por la libertad a los ojos de EE.UU. Si luego iba a Líbano era terrorista. A comienzos de los años noventa, si llegaba a Bosnia volvía a ser un combatiente por la libertad, pero si se presentaba en la Franja de Gaza o en Cisjordania era terrorista. En el Norte del Cáucaso ruso era un combatiente por la libertad vuelto a nacer, pero si volvió a Afganistán después de 2001 era terrorista.
Según cómo sopla el viento en Washington, un separatista baluchi armado en Pakistán o un cachemirí en India es un combatiente por la libertad o un terrorista.
Al contrario, en 1998 el enviado especial de EE.UU. a los Balcanes, Robert Gelbard, describió al Ejército por la Liberación de Kosovo (ELK) que luchaba contra el gobierno de Yugoslavia como organización terrorista: "Conozco a un terrorista cuando lo veo y estos hombres son terroristas." [12]
En el siguiente mes de febrero la secretaria de Estado de EE.UU., Madeleine Albright, llevó a cinco miembros del ELK, incluido su jefe Hashim Thaci, a Rambouillet, Francia para presentar un ultimátum a Yugoslavia a sabiendas de que sería rechazado y llevaría a la guerra. Al año siguiente acompañó a Thaci a un tour personal del edificio de Naciones Unidas y al Departamento de Estado y lo invitó a la convención presidencial del Partido Demócrata en Los Ángeles.
Este 1 de noviembre, Thaci, ahora primer ministro de un pseudo-Estado reconocido por sólo 63 de las 192 naciones del mundo, recibió al ex presidente Bill Clinton de EE.UU. para la ceremonia inaugural de una estatua en honor de los crímenes de este último. Y de su vanidad.
Washington apoyó a separatistas armados en Eritrea desde mediados de los años setenta hasta 1991 en su guerra contra el gobierno etíope.
Actualmente EE.UU. arma a Somalia y Djibouti para la guerra contra Eritrea independiente. El Pentágono tiene su primera base militar permanente en África en Djibouti, donde estaciona a 2.000 soldados y desde donde realiza vigilancia con drones sobre Somalia. Y Yemen.
En palabras del personaje de Balzac, Vautrin: "«No hay principios, sólo hay eventos; no hay leyes, sólo circunstancias.»
Los yemeníes son los últimos en aprender la ley de la selva del Pentágono y la Casa Blanca. Junto con Irán y Afganistán, que el especialista en contrainsurgencia Stanley McChrystal utilizó para perfeccionar sus técnicas, Yemen se une a las filas de otras naciones en las que el Pentágono está involucrado en ese tipo de guerra, llena de masacres de civiles y otras formas del llamado daño colateral: Colombia, Mali, Pakistán, Las Filipinas, Somalia y Uganda.
Notas
1) BBC News, December 14, 2009
2) Press TV, December 14, 2009
3) Daily Telegraph, December 13, 2009
4) Yemen Post, December 13, 2009
5) Ibid.
6) Tehran Times, December 10, 2009
7) United Press International, August 25, 2009
8) BBC News, December 1, 2008
9) New York Times, September 9, 2008
10) Wikipedia.
11) Press Trust of India, May 11, 2009
12) BBC News, June 28, 1998
- 2.
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Afghanistan: World's Lengthiest War Has Just Begun
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 3:55 pm (PST)
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/afghanistan-worlds-lengthiest-war-has-just-begun
Stop NATO
December 18, 2009
Afghanistan: World's Lengthiest War Has Just Begun
Rick Rozoff
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The higher number of Defense Department contractors, 160,000, added to over 100,000 troops - with the likely prospect of both numbers climbing yet more - will result in over a quarter of a million U.S. personnel serving under the Pentagon and NATO. The latter has 42,000 non-U.S. troops fighting under its command currently and pledges of 8,000 more to date, with thousands in addition to be conscripted after the London conference on Afghanistan next month. Approximately 35,000 U.S. soldiers are also assigned to NATO's ISAF and if the 33,000 new American troops are similarly deployed the North Atlantic bloc will have over 120,000 forces fighting a land war in Asia. Along with a Pakistani army of 700,000 active duty troops fighting on the other side of the border and an Afghan army of 100,000 soldiers, there will soon be well over a million military personnel engaged in a war with a few hundred al-Qaeda and a few thousand Taliban forces.
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Despite U.S. President Barack Obama's pledge in his December 1 address at the West Point Military Academy that deploying 30,000 more of his nation's troops to Afghanistan would be coupled with "a goal of starting to withdraw forces from the country in July 2011," everything else he has said and all the facts on the ground suggest that the war will continue into the indefinite future.
At a press conference a week before the West Point troop surge announcement he said "it is my intention to finish the job," and in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on December 10 he affirmed: "We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes."
History establishes that it is easier to deploy to than to withdraw from an active war zone.
The White House has already increased U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan from 32,000 at the beginning of the year to over twice that amount - 68,000 - currently, with the first contingent of even more reinforcements arriving this week. The 30,000 additional troops headed to the war front and the 3,000 more support forces pledged by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will push American military personnel in Afghanistan to over 100,000.
That number, likely to be increased yet further and accompanied by a veritable invasion of private military contractors and State Department operatives, will be augmented by over 10,000 more non-U.S. troops serving under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), bringing combined American and NATO regular military forces to well over 150,000 and total Western personnel to over 300,000 with an estimated surge of as many as 56,000 new U.S. contractors. With the addition of assorted security, intelligence, private contracting and other military camp followers from NATO nations, the figure could top a third of a million.
An occupation and warfighting force of those dimensions is not designed for a limited mission or a short stay.
In fact on December 6 U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones (former top military commander for NATO in Europe) gave the lie to the 2011 withdrawal anodyne in an interview with CNN when he brashly asserted "We have strategic interests in South Asia that should not be measured in terms of finite times. We're going to be in the region for a long time."
Jones also emphasized the extension of the war in space as well as time by stating American reinforcements and redeployments would concentrate on eastern and southern Afghanistan to "eliminate the safe havens" inside Pakistan, a nation with a population of 175 million and nuclear weapons.
His claims, more authoritative than those of the president he serves, were echoed by Pentagon chief Robert Gates. Earlier this week it was reported that "In a visit to the war zone last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Afghanistan's senior military officials that while the U.S. looks forward to the day when the Afghans can take control of their country, the United States would have a large number of forces in Afghanistan for some time beyond July 2011."
Gates in his own words: "This is a relationship forged in blood. We will see it [through] to the end." [1]
To demonstrate the scale of the U.S. and NATO intensification of the war in Afghanistan - so urgent, evidently, that it is being qualitatively escalated during the Christmas season - in addition to Gates's visit to the Afghan war front, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, new German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor Zu Guttenberg and other top Western military and political leaders have recently traveled to Afghanistan to inspect their respective nations' military forces stationed there.
On December 16 the first of the latest 30,000 U.S. troops committed to the war and the 16,000 that have received deployment orders since Obama's December 1 speech, 1,500 Marines, arrived in the nation, prompting Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell to crow "The surge has begun in earnest." [2]
The Washington Post ran a feature on December 16 based on a report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) - "which provides background information to members of Congress on a bipartisan basis" - in which the CRS stated "it expects an additional 26,000 to 56,000 contractors to be sent to Afghanistan. That would bring the number of contractors in the country to anywhere from 130,000 to 160,000."
In addition, that already astronomical figure "could increase further if the new [administration] strategy includes a more robust construction and nation building effort." The report also remarked that as of a year ago contractors accounted for 69 percent of Defense Department personnel in Afghanistan and as such "represented the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by the Defense Department in any conflict in the history of the United States." [3]
The higher number of Defense Department contractors, 160,000, added to over 100,000 troops - with the likely prospect of both numbers climbing yet more - will result in over a quarter of a million U.S. personnel serving under the Pentagon and NATO. The latter has 42,000 non-U.S. troops fighting under its command currently and pledges of 8,000 more to date, with thousands in addition to be conscripted after the London conference on Afghanistan next month. Approximately 35,000 U.S. soldiers are also assigned to NATO's ISAF and if the 33,000 new American troops are similarly deployed the North Atlantic bloc will have over 120,000 forces fighting a land war in Asia. Along with a Pakistani army of 700,000 active duty troops fighting on the other side of the border and an Afghan army of 100,000 soldiers, there will soon be well over a million military personnel engaged in a war with a few hundred al-Qaeda and a few thousand Taliban forces.
Washington's Afghan surge is not limited to uniformed personnel. The Wall Street Journal reported that "The White House hopes to have 1,000 State Department, Treasury and Department of Agriculture personnel in Afghanistan by next month, up from 300 a year ago."
The newspaper revealed that a former psychiatric hospital in the state of Indiana is currently "the staging ground for one of the biggest deployments of U.S. civilians since the Vietnam War." Non-Pentagon government officials en route to Afghanistan "are often paired with members of the Indiana National Guard, who are preparing for their own deployment in Afghanistan.
"Trainees spend a week on a make-believe forward operating base in the forest, where they go through military operations with the National Guard as if they were already deployed in Afghanistan. The civilian recruits learn to perform their own security functions." [4]
The dramatic escalation of the war is also not limited to increases in personnel. The U.S. Defense Department recently announced that it was expanding the deployment of Stealth warplanes and high-altitude, long-endurance Reaper "hunter-killer" drones which are equipped with fifteen times more deadly missiles than its Predator predecessor. "[T]he Air Force is looking toward developing unmanned, long-range surveillance aircraft that also can carry warheads so they can be used during combat." [5]
The U.S. Air Force's latest stealth reconnaissance drone, dubbed "the Beast of Kandahar," resembles "the much larger, swept-wing B-2 Stealth bomber, and officials confirmed this month that the military has begun using the classified, unarmed drone in Afghanistan." [6]
The skies over Afghanistan are crisscrossed by U.S. and NATO surveillance aircraft, bombers and helicopter gunships to such a degree that for Afghans to even leave their homes means to risk their lives. Three Afghans were killed and one wounded on December 17 in Kandahar province when NATO attack helicopters obliterated their minibus.
Matters are no less deadly on the Pakistani side of the border. The day before the Afghan attack, the U.S. launched ten missiles from five drones in the second of two assaults, "an unusually intense bombardment," [7] into North Waziristan, killing at least twenty people, identified as always as Taliban and al-Qaeda targets.
A Los Angeles Times feature on December 13 revealed that "Senior US officials are pushing to expand CIA drone strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region.
"After confirmation that the CIA has been operating drone strikes in Pakistani territory, a new report says the US is seeking to expand the attacks into the country's cities."
The report added that "CIA spokesman George Little quoted spy agency Director Leon Panetta as saying that US has been launching the attacks from secret airfields in Pakistan and Afghanistan." [8]
The U.S. is not alone in ratcheting up the longest and largest war in the world.
On December 13 U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus said "The number of European NATO troops in Afghanistan should swell beyond the 8,000 troops already promised...." [9]
The Pentagon is dispatching 4,000 101st Airborne paratroopers to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan in addition to a parachute battalion from the 82nd Airborne to join an American Stryker brigade and NATO ally Canada's forces there. The deployments are part of a plan to "flood areas close to Afghanistan's second largest city with Canadian and U.S. troops" and to "assist Canadian Forces to create a security noose around Kandahar City." [10]
Reuters recently reported that "Germany plans to send up to 2,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan in response to requests from the United States and other NATO partners," citing the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung which wrote "the United States and NATO members had already received signals to this effect." [11] Germany currently has 4,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan, the third largest contingent after the U.S. and Britain. The 4,500 figure is the maximum number permitted by the nation's parliament, but will soon be exceeded in another reversal of the nation's post-World War II limits on waging wars abroad.
Agence France-Presse reported that "NATO hopes to send two tactical groups, up to 3,000 troops, to north Afghanistan under German command," according to German General Karl-Heinz Lather, the chief of staff of NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, who said "From a military point of view, the allied headquarters in Europe thinks it necessary to send two tactical groups into this zone." [12]
Herve Morin, the defense minister of France, which has 3,300 troops under NATO command in Afghanistan, announced that he may deploy "medium-sized supplementary troops" after the January 28 conference on Afghanistan in London. [13] 800 French Legionnaires are at the moment engaged in a fierce combat operation along with American counterparts east of the Afghan capital.
The top NATO military commander in Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, was in Poland earlier this week to "to discuss the Alliance's ISAF mission in Afghanistan" [14] and to recruit more Polish troops for the war. Warsaw has already pledged to raise its force level to nearly 3,000 troops as it recently signed a status of forces agreement to base U.S. missiles and troops, the first foreign soldiers on its soil since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact eighteen years ago.
The Czech Republic "is for the first time in history sending its own helicopter unit to Afghanistan."
"Czech soldiers and three upgraded Mi-171S transport helicopters will be...sent to the Sarana base in the southeast of the country to serve the needs of the NATO forces in the ISAF mission....The unit underwent comprehensive training for one and half a years, for instance in the Alps mountains and in desert areas in Israel and Texas....Czech soldiers will be first trained by their U.S. colleagues." [15]
Spain has announced its will send more than 500 additional soldiers to Afghanistan, joining NATO and NATO partner states like Italy (1,000), Georgia (1,000), Britain, Hungary, Slovakia, Colombia, South Korea, Mongolia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Armenia in committing new forces. Troops from five continents with Australia included.
Not only full NATO member states but Partnership for Peace nations are being strong-armed to provide more troops. Finland and Sweden, both of which have increased their troop strength in northern Afghanistan in recent months, have been involved in their first combat operations since World War II in the first case and in almost 200 years in the second. Troops from both nations were engaged in the latest of a series of firefights on December 13.
The Bundeswehr will soon train the first contingent of troops from former Soviet republic and current Collective Security Treaty Organization member Armenia in Germany for action in Afghanistan.
The defense minister of nominally neutral Austria, Norbert Darabos, said that the U.S. and Britain were bullying his nation to send more troops to Afghanistan, bemoaning the fact that "America's pressure on Austria is relatively intense, sometimes it is a little bit improper" and asserting that "Austria is a sovereign country [which] will not give in to the pressure." [16]
What Darabos may be concerned about in part is the rising rate of NATO casualties in Afghanistan. During the past few days two Dutch troops were injured, one critically, in a roadside bomb attack in Uruzgan province.
An Estonian soldier was killed in a similar incident in Helmand province, bringing the country's casualties to four killed and 23 wounded this year.
Two more British soldiers were killed this week, raising United Kingdom deaths to 239, 102 this year.
Nearly 500 Western soldiers have been killed so far this year, 305 of them American, compared to 155 U.S. military personnel lost during all of last year.
Undaunted, on December 16 the U.S. House of Representatives - by a vote of 395 to 34 - "passed a massive military spending bill to defray annual expenses, fund operations in Afghanistan, and pay for the troop withdrawal from Iraq."
The $636.3 billion package, "which does not include monies for President Barack Obama's recently announced decision to send 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan," allots "80 million to acquire more unmanned Predator drones, a key tool in the US air war in Afghanistan and Pakistan....With little public debate in the United States, the pace of the drone bombing raids has steadily increased, starting last year during ex-president George W. Bush's final months in office and now under Obama's tenure." [17]
In approving the Pentagon's request, the American Congress endorsed "$130 billion to cover the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq" excluding an "estimated $30 billion that will be needed to fund President Barack Obama's recent decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan."
The bill also authorized the funding of "new Air Force global strike programs - including work on new manned and unmanned systems - Army brigade combat team modernization, a Navy attack submarine, and the Navy's new Carrier Long-Range Strike system....Analysts called the decision a victory for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has lobbied the White House for more funding.
"The Obama administration will add $100 billion to the Pentagon's 2011-15 base budget plan to cover the rising cost of personnel and pressing modernization needs...." [18]
Militarism is a psychopathology and war can be an addiction.
Analyst Andrei Grozin of the Central Asia Department of the Institute of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] Countries in Russia averred an opinion of his own on why the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan and acquired military bases in Central Asia and why they will be loath to leave.
"[I]t's important for Americans to coordinate the efforts of various structures, which are interested in, on the one hand, reducing traditional Russian influence on the authorities and society and preventing China from strengthening its influence, on the other hand...."
The same source's comments were paraphrased: "One of the apparent geopolitical interests of the US in the region is to establish control over energy resources and pipelines that transport oil and gas to Central and Western Europe through Russia and also to China and Iran." [19]
The prolongation and unprecedented expansion of the world's lengthiest war, now in its ninth and on January 1 to enter its tenth calendar year, are by no means limited to alleged concerns over al-Qaeda, evil and opium poppies.
....
Previous articles on Afghanistan:
U.S., NATO War In Afghanistan: Antecedents And Precedents
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/u-s-nato-war-in-afghanistan-antecedents-and-precedents
Christmas 2009: U.S., NATO To Expand New Millennium's Longest War
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/christmas-2009-u-s-nato-to-expand-new-millenniums-longest-war
ABC Of West's Global Military Network: Afghanistan, Baltics, Caucasus
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/abc-of-wests-global-military-network-afghanistan-baltics-caucasus
Afghanistan: West's 21st Century War Risks Regional Conflagration
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/afghanistan-wests-21st-century-war-risks-regional-conflagration
U.S., NATO Poised For Most Massive War In Afghanistan's History
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/u-s-nato-poised-for-most-massive-war-in-afghanistans-history
Broader Strategy: West's Afghan War Targets Russia, China, Iran
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/broader-strategy-wests-afghan-war-targets-russia-china-iran
Following Afghan Election, NATO Intensifies Deployments, Carnage
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/following-afghan-election-nato-intensifies-deployments-carnage
U.S. Marines In The Caucasus As West Widens Afghan War
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/u-s-marines-in-the-caucasus-as-west-widens-afghan-war
Afghan War: NATO Builds History's First Global Army
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/afghan-war-nato-builds-historys-first-global-army
Afghan War: NATO Trains Finland, Sweden For Conflict With Russia
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/afghan-war-nato-trains-finland-sweden-for-conflict-with-russia
West's Afghan War And Drive Into Caspian Sea Basin
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/wests-afghan-war-and-drive-into-caspian-sea-basin
Afghanistan: U.S., NATO Wage World's Largest, Longest War
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/afghanistan-u-s-nato-wage-worlds-largest-longest-war
Notes:
1) Associated Press, December 14, 2009
2) Associated Press, December 16, 2009
3) Washington Post, December 16, 2009
4) Wall Street Journal, December 18, 2009
5) Associated Press, December 16, 2009
6) Ibid
7) Trend News Agency, December 18, 2009
8) Press TV, December 14, 2009
9) Trend News Agency, December 13, 2009
10) Canwest News Service, December 17, 2009
11) Reuters, December 16, 2009
12) Agence France-Presse, December 15, 2009
13) Xinhua News Agency, December 17, 2009
14) Polish Radio, December 14, 2009
15) Czech News Agency, December 14, 2009
16) Trend News Agency, December 18, 2009
17) Agence France-Presse, December 17, 2009
18) Defense News, December 11, 2009
19) Voice of Russia, December 16, 2009
===========================
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- 3.
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Ex-Dutch Shell CEO: World Will Always Need NATO's Power
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:09 pm (PST)
http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2441336.ece/Former_Shell_CEO_helps_shape_Natos_future
NRC Handelsblad
December 18, 2009
Former Shell CEO helps shape Nato's future
-Nato wanted him for his experience in business and particularly in planning strategies. "Besides, energy is becoming an increasingly important issue," Van der Veer says.
-Today, the talk at Nato headquarters in Brussels is about energy supply and climate change and questions such as: what will Nato do if computer systems in one of its member states are paralysed?
-"I see it as a task, not a test. Nato will still exist after Afghanistan. No matter how things end there. Unfortunately the world is such that the need for power, for deterrence, will continue."
Nato has set up an expert group to contribute to its Strategic Concept, which will be updated next year. Jeroen van der Veer, the recently retired CEO of Shell, was the odd pick for vice chair. "Nato will still be here after we leave Afghanistan," he told NRC Handelsblad.By Petra de Koning in Brussels
When he left oil giant Shell last summer, after five years as its CEO, Jeroen van der Veer knew as much about Nato as the average newspaper reader, he admits. So his nomination as the Dutch candidate for membership of an expert panel formed to help draft the new Nato's Strategic Concept, the fundamentals of the military alliance, came as a surprise, even to him.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary general of the Nato, had made it clear he wanted a diverse panel, rather than one comprised solely of diplomatic heavyweights, former ministers and professors. Dutch foreign ministry officials knew this and proposed a candidate with such an impressive track record in international business, Rasmussen made him the vice chairman of the committee, second to Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state.
In his first interview in his new job, Van der Veer says he did wonder if he would be able to "contribute" enough. He even told Rasmussen as much. But Nato wanted him for his experience in business and particularly in planning strategies. "Besides, energy is becoming an increasingly important issue," Van der Veer says.
Your experience in doing business with Russia must have helped? You negotiated contracts with Putin worth billions of euros.
"Yes, I have dealt with Russia extensively. To make complex deals you have to analyse the way the other party thinks and what its aims are. The secretary general wants a revised relationship with Russia. To come up with a strategy for this, you have to know what their rationale is and what their expectations are."
What do you tell the other members of the committee? What is the reasoning in Russia and what does that mean for Nato?
"I can't get into that. But I am not the only member who has experience with Russia." Italian Giancarlo Aragona and Hans-Friedrich von Ploet from Germany, both members of the committee, were ambassadors in Russia.
The foreign minister has supplied Van der Veer with an assistant and gave him a file of reading material. The Nato documents were "ponderous", he says, and "thick with subordinate clauses and full of footnotes".
The reason Nato is revising its strategic concept is that the world has changed since its current strategy was devised in 1999. Back then terrorism was considered a 'risk' rather than a 'threat'. Today, the talk at Nato headquarters in Brussels is about energy supply and climate change and questions such as: what will Nato do if computer systems in one of its member states are paralysed?
Albright, Van der Veer and the rest of the group attend meetings on these subjects to find answers to these strategic questions. They plan to visit Russia in early 2010 as well as all Nato capitals.
"It is far from certain," Van der Veer says. "That there is a role for Nato on all these topics. You have to consider: should Nato play a part and, if so, should Nato go at it alone? But keep in mind we are advising the secretary general. He is the one who writes the strategy."
Another reason for Nato to reposition its strategy is it now has 28 members, 9 more than in 1999. "If you want to make a decision with 28 parties at the table, one will always object," Van der Veer says.
Nato currently rules by consensus. Is the committee interfering in the decision making process?
"We can advise whatever we want. When it comes to strategy two things are important: what do you want and what means do you have to achieve that? There are all kinds of consensus. If you have reached consensus at the highest level, you should not go over the process again in the execution."
Van der Veer suggests another reason for Nato's imperative for a new strategy: it needs the support of the public. "In Europe Nato has public support from 60 to 70 percent of the population. That is substantial, but these ratings are lower in the US. That is a concern. We see support for international organisations foundering across the board. For me a good strategy is doing the right things at the right price. You should be able to explain what Nato does in an elevator pitch, in less than a minute."
This assumption has sparked debate at Nato headquarters. Rasmussen wants the strategy to be clear and concise, but Nato countries all have different stakes and wishes.
How long will the group's advice be?
"We talked about it and I can't say anything about it now. Realise it has to be explained on television. I want people to know after three sentences: this is what Nato stands for, and I support that. Nato asks for sacrifices. Human lives."
A document that short would be revolutionary for Nato?
"Yes, but part of our challenge is to get the support of the public. I want a text that is straightforward."
And the entire committee agrees on that?
"I am using all my Dutch down-to-earthness to push for it. If you say something brief and clear, it has a bigger impact. Complexity doesn't justify an illegible document."
What will a strategic concept mean if Nato fails in Afghanistan? Won't that be the end of its credibility?
"Afghanistan is complex. There are no guarantees our efforts will be successful. You can argue about whether Afghanistan is a test or a task for Nato."
Do you think it it will make or break Nato?
"I see it as a task, not a test. Nato will still exist after Afghanistan. No matter how things end there. Unfortunately the world is such that the need for power, for deterrence, will continue."
===========================
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- 4.
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New U.S. Defense Bill Boosts Aegis Interceptor Missile System
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:26 pm (PST)
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1261131318102040.xml&coll=1
Huntsville Times
December 18, 2009
Bill boosts missile defense
By Shelby G. Spires
A defense spending bill headed for the U.S. Senate increases money for Huntsville missile defense programs, gives extra pay for troops, and allocates money for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The $686 billion spending bill, passed by the House of Representatives Wednesday on a vote of 395-34, allocates $128 billion for the wars, and gives a 3.4 percent pay increase to troops.
It also increases money to some missile defense programs, including the U.S. Navy sea-based Aegis destroyer, which is managed and partly developed in Huntsville.
===========================
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- 5.
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NATO Tells Members Not To Cut Military Spending Amid Crisis
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:46 pm (PST)
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4426123&c=EUR&s=TOP
Defense News
December 18, 2009
NATO Official: Hold Line on Defense Spending
-Hoon said it was a mistake to say, as some countries are, that expeditionary forces are a luxury and that the focus should be on territorial defense.
Véronique Roger-Lacan, Deputy Director of the French Defense Ministry's Delegation for Strategic Affairs, argued for a "strong streamlining of NATO's command structure so that Europe can, in parallel, emerge as a true defense power."
BRUSSELS: A NATO official urged alliance countries to keep defense spending up in the face of domestic pressure.
"The macro challenge is to ensure that the crisis in defense spending does not become a structured state of affairs," said Peter Flory, Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment....
Flory, who spoke here at a Security and Defence Agenda event on NATO and the credit crunch, said he would be happy if more countries spent 2 percent of their GDP on defense, as NATO asks.
....
Flory said multinational efforts were one solution that could help countries buy costly technologies. However, he cautioned that they are "not a panacea" because they are often the programs to be cut when push comes to shove.
Britain's former Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, who is a member of the group of experts on NATO's Strategic Concept, also said there was too much duplication and inefficiency in the EU and would like to see more common funding and rationalization. Rather than big countries providing an "A to Z of capabilities," Hoon said, he wants to see more niche capabilities being developed across Europe, including by smaller countries.
"The European Defence Agency could have a significant role to play in identifying capabilities and finding solutions," he said.
Hoon said it was a mistake to say, as some countries are, that expeditionary forces are a luxury and that the focus should be on territorial defense.
Véronique Roger-Lacan, Deputy Director of the French Defense Ministry's Delegation for Strategic Affairs, argued for a "strong streamlining of NATO's command structure so that Europe can, in parallel, emerge as a true defense power."
===========================
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- 6.
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Over Two Million U.S. Troops Deployed To Afghanistan, Iraq
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:52 pm (PST)
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/army_deployments_121809w/
Army Times
December 18, 2009
A million soldiers deployed since 9/11
By Michelle Tan
Eight years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, American troops have deployed almost 3.3 million times to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Defense Department data.
The numbers, as of October 2009, show that more than 2 million men and women have shouldered those deployments, with 793,000 of them deploying more than once.
Here's a look at how the numbers break down, by service.
Army
More than 1 million soldiers have deployed since the beginning of the wars. These 1 million soldiers have completed 1.5 million deployment events; 352,700 deploying more than once.
In October, 172,800 soldiers were deployed to the war zones.
Navy
More than 367,900 sailors have deployed since the beginning of the wars; 147,200 deploying more than once. In all, the sailors have logged 595,700 deployments.
In October, 30,000 sailors were deployed.
Marine Corps
More than 251,800 Marines have deployed since the start of the wars, completing 392,900 tours. More than 106,400 have deployed more than once.
In October, 20,900 Marines were deployed.
Air Force
More than 389,900 airmen have deployed since 2001, 185,500 going more than once. In all, airmen have completed 771,400 deployment events.
In October, 31,500 airmen were deployed.
Coast Guard
More than 4,370 Coast Guardsmen have deployed since 2001, 650 deploying more than once. The Coast Guard has 5,333 deployments on file, and in October, 438 were deployed.
===========================
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- 7.
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Eastern Partnership: West Mulls 'Dniester Euro-Region' In Ex-USSR
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:58 pm (PST)
http://www.interfax.com.ua/eng/main/28098/
Interfax Ukraine
December 18, 2009
Ukrainian, Moldovan foreign ministers address EU over creation of Dniester Euro-Region
Ukrainian and Moldovan Foreign Ministers Petro Poroshenko and Iurie Leanca have signed a joint statement to the European Union regarding the use of the financial mechanisms of the EU's Eastern Partnership initiative in order to create the Dniester Euro-Region.
The statement was signed during Poroshenko's working visit to Moldova on Thursday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service reported on Friday.
The sides said that integration with the EU is a key foreign political priority for Ukraine and Moldova.
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- 8.
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'Counter-Terrorism': U.S. Penetrates Moldovan Internal Security
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:02 pm (PST)
http://www.moldpres.md/news/default.asp?Lang=en&ID=123965
Moldpress
December 18, 2009
US Government gives equipment to Moldovan interior ministry
-This is the second donation by the US Government to the Moldovan Interior Ministry over the last three months.
Chisinau: The US Government has provided the Interior Ministry (MAI) with special equipment to combat terrorism within a project of support for the Moldovan police, especially the technical and crime-related subdivisions.
The equipment including a specialised Chevrolet vehicle, an ME EOD8 Bomb Suit for sappers and a TM 500C telescope manipulator, which is meant for manipulating and defusing explosive devices, was conveyed by US Ambassador to Moldova Asif J. Chaudhry during a working meeting with Interior Minister Victor Catan.
The American diplomat reiterated the US Government's willingness to further promote joint projects of technical and material assistance for police subdivisions, to train law enforcers in line with international standards, as well as to exchange experts, including in sappers.
For his part, Victor Catan thanked the USA for the technical support given to the Moldovan police. He said that the police will continue to be a reliable partner, which will do its best to combat crime and ensure the fundamental human rights and freedoms.
This is the second donation by the US Government to the Moldovan Interior Ministry over the last three months. In October 2009, the American embassy in Chisinau donated two vehicles to the department for preventing and combating human trafficking of the Prosecutor General's Office.
===========================
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- 9.
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Afghan War: NATO Taps Bulgaria For More Troops
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:05 pm (PST)
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n203825
Focus News Agency
December 18, 2009
It will be clear January how Bulgaria will take part in Afghanistan mission: defense minister
Galina Dimova
Sofia: It will become clear January 2010 how Bulgaria will continue taking part in the mission in Afghanistan, Defense Minister Nikolay Mladenov told journalists, a FOCUS News Agency reporter informs.
According to the defense minister there is a possibility that the Bulgarian contingent in Kandahar will be increased in number between 20 and 30 people at the beginning of 2010.
There is also a possibility of the contingent to be increased by another 70 people by the end of 2010.
The option of all Bulgarian troops in Afghanistan to be joined together remains, Mladenov said. However, this cannot happen immediately, but according to the minister in 2010 the country will have the opportunity to consolidate our contingent there.
===========================
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- 10.
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Afghanistan: U.S.-NATO 2009 Death Toll Nears 500
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:47 am (PST)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ixy1aRgKDIw7dz7fvZpETd0MkIDw
Agence France-Presse
December 19, 2009
Bomb attack kills US soldier in Afghanistan: NATO
KABUL: A bomb attack has killed another US soldier in southern Afghanistan, pushing the death toll of foreign troops to close to 500 during the war this year, NATO said Saturday.
The American was killed on Friday "as a result of an IED strike in southern Afghanistan," NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement, referring to an improvised explosive device.
IEDs, which are cheap and easy to make and difficult to detect, account for a growing number of troop deaths in Afghanistan, as the war against Taliban-led insurgents escalates.
So far this year 496 foreign troops have died in the country, according to an AFP count based on a tally kept by the independent website icasualties. Of those deaths, 306 were American.
US President Barack Obama has ordered an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, and NATO countries have pledged around 7,000 more.
They are expected to deploy by mid- to late-2010 and analysts say more foreign troops will inevitably mean more deaths.
There are currently more than 100,000 foreign troops battling a resurgent Taliban under US and NATO command.
===========================
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- 11.
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Kosovo: NATO To Transfer Thousands Of Troops To Afghanistan, Iraq
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:50 am (PST)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jMpYBJgeBFMnNO9scuG1m6k6v8oQD9CKG1TO7
Associated Press
December 16, 2009
NATO to cut troop levels in Kosovo
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
BELGRADE, Serbia: Despite opposition from Serbia, NATO's commander for Southeast Europe said the alliance will cut down its force in Kosovo by some 4,500 troops in January for possible use in hotspots like Afghanistan or Iraq.
Adm. Mark Fitzgerald said Wednesday NATO will keep 10,000 troops in Kosovo which proclaimed independence from Serbia last year. He said there could be further reductions.
Fitzgerald said the pullout is because NATO assessed the security situation in the region as improved.
"NATO looked at the security situation and said we are satisfied and we will look at further reductions depending on the situation," Fitzgerald told reporters in Belgrade.
Pro-Western Serbian government officials have expressed fears that the reduced NATO presence would not be enough to protect minority Kosovo Serbs from retaliatory attacks by majority Albanians.
NATO has been gradually decreasing its military contingent in Kosovo since a brief [78 days] air war against Serbia in 1999 when it deployed 50,000 troops....
Fitzgerald aid that Kosovo's police force alongside 2,500 European Union police and justice workers will gradually take over from NATO.
"More significantly, we have 28 bases in Kosovo and we are looking to trim that down to 18 bases by January and February," Fitzgerald said. "By freeing up some troops there, they will be available for other missions."
He also praised NATO's relations with Serbia's military.
"We had no incidents or concerns with the Serbian military in ten years," Fitzgerald said, adding that Serbian soldiers could join foreign peacekeeping missions, like in Lebanon, in the near future.
===========================
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- 12.
-
Raytheon Awarded Contract For NATO SeaSparrow Missile
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:56 am (PST)
http://www.azstarnet.com/business/321976
Arizona Daily Star
December 19, 2009
Raytheon to get $201M for SeaSparrow work
Tucson, Arizona: Raytheon Missile Systems has won a $201 million modification to a previously awarded contract for 241 Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles and 47 shipping containers for a consortium of NATO nations by August 2010, the Defense Department said Friday.
The Evolved SeaSparrow is used to protect ships from air and surface threats, including supersonic, maneuvering anti-ship missiles.
About 45 percent of the work will be performed in Tucson, with the rest done at other Raytheon facilities and in participating NATO nations.
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- 13.
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Ratings At 3.8%, U.S. Client Wants NATO In, Russian Fleet Out
Posted by: "Rick Rozoff" rwrozoff@yahoo.com rwrozoff
Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:59 am (PST)
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/55506/
Interfax Ukraine
December 19, 2009
Ukrainian president insisting on Ukraine's joining NATO, withdrawal of Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol
Kyiv: Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has again said that it is necessary for Ukraine to join NATO and withdraw Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol.
The head of state gave his views at the Forum of Ukrainian Nationalists held in Kyiv on Saturday.
Yuschenko said that no one as a candidate to the Ukrainian president, apart from him, speaks about the necessity of Ukraine's joining NATO.
"This is the basis for our policy, the same as the withdrawal of the Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol," the president said.
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