“Anti-Americanism is deeply rooted in the country and, if anything, it seems to be growing. Many ─ possibly a majority ─ of Pakistanis believe the USA is actually leading a war against the Muslim world in the name of an anti-terror campaign.
“For many Pakistani soldiers, the Taliban are not the enemy, but rather, fellow countrymen. …
“In order to create a wide alliance of democratic and moderate powers against the extremists, it has to be clear that the fight against terror is not being led by foreign powers, and that such a fight is being led in accordance with the rule of law” [Thomas Baerthlein].
The U.S. government, however, ignored rational thought, spurned nonviolent, diplomatic engagement; heated up and bore down in violence against peoples of the Middle East, Horn of Africa and Gulf of Aden, and South/Central Asia regions.
AF/PAK/INDIA
May 19, 2010AFGHANISTAN
Seven Taliban fighters have died and nine NATO troops wounded in an assault on Bagram air base, one of the biggest military bases in Afghanistan housing mainly U.S. troops and a detention center where al-Qaeda-linked fighters and ‘terror’ suspects are held, a place widely publicized in the past few years as a center where detainees are tortured. Today’s attack involved “rockets, small arms and grenades.”
Yesterday 24 people died among them six foreign troops, five American, one Canadian, when a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO-led military convoy during rush hour in Kabul.
Two hundred and two (202) NATO soldiers have died making January to mid-May the deadliest period in the U.S.’s Afghan war. Five hundred and twenty troops (520) died in 2009, averaging one or two daily, “the deadliest year so far for the U.S.-led foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime.”
Today’s attack follows the Taliban’s announced spring offensive against the Afghan government and foreign forces in Afghanistan in response to NATO’s plans for a military campaign on the group’s southern stronghold of Kandahar.
May 17, 2010
A prominent Muslim religious leader Rahman Gul had been pushing for peace in Afghanistan. On Monday he, his brother and a relative died. These deaths in eastern Afghanistan resulted from assassinations.
Chief religious leader in his district and member of a religious leaders’ council for eastern Afghanistan, Rahman Gul in recent days had been stressing the importance of ‘peace and stability’ across Afghanistan. The deaths of Gul and his relatives are part of a series of killings targeting Afghan government figures and others aligned with international forces. This month Afghanistan has seen a reported 27 NATO-troop deaths including 16 U.S. soldiers. Many of these deaths have occurred “in the south where NATO forces are moving in as part of a stepped-up security operation in Kandahar.”
May 19, 2010
PAKISTAN
In fighting that began today, 28 Pakistani Taliban fighters and 2 Pakistani soldiers have died in clashes with the Pakistani military in the northwestern tribal region of Orakzai. Taliban fighters had attacked a security checkpoint in the densely forested Dobbari area in Orakzai. Violence has risen in Orakzai since the army drove the Taliban from its strongholds in South Waziristan, Swat and Bajaur. Yesterday 12 people died including three police officers after a roadside bomb exploded in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan. Taliban fighters have carried out a wave of bomb attacks, killing hundreds of people, mainly in the northwest.
May 17, 2010
INDIA
Thirty-five people including 24 civilians and 11 police officers died on Monday in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state when a landmine exploded under a bus in the center of the country. Twenty-nine more people among them police officers suffered wounds. Thousands of people have died in the 40-year Maoist insurgency described by the Indian government as the country’s gravest internal security threat. Senior Maoist figures have said they will talk only if the government puts an end to the national offensive against them.
IRAN/IRAQ
May 19, 2010IRAN
A U.S. attempt to push for further sanctions against Iran will not work, says Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s vice-president and head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization. The action will moreover “serve to ‘invalidate’ Western powers.
“‘[Western countries] invalidate themselves in the view of public opinion by issuing sanctions… [W]ise people among them [would] avoid doing such irrational actions,’ Salehi said. ‘They feel that for the first time in the world, developing countries are able to defend their rights in the world arena without resorting to the major powers and that is very hard for them.’”
Countering the U.S. and allies claim that Iran wants highly enriched uranium to make atomic weapons [as has Israel and Pakistan and India, the U.S. and others], Tehran claims its nuclear program “is simply designed to meet its civilian energy needs.”
According to the U.S. Secretary of State, members of the UN Security Council have agreed on a package (resolution) of strong new sanctions to impose on Iran over its disputed nuclear program. The draft resolution includes elements of an incentive package for Iran to cooperate with nuclear inspectors and international demands and touches upon Iran’s finance and shipping industry, the Revolutionary Guards, and contains a blanket ban on Iran’s importing any conventional arms. This draft resolution, which does not preclude further discussions with Iran, has not yet been adopted.
May 14, 2010
IRAQ
Twenty five people died on Friday in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar near the city of Mosul when suicide bombers exploded. Dozens of people had died in July and October. In March 2007, 152 people died when truck bombs targeted markets in the town. The latest bombing incidents are part of a series of coordinated attacks carried out on Monday in 10 cities. One hundred and nineteen (119) people died in that incident.
May 22, 2010, update IRAQ - Violence rises, election results not yet certified
Ten to 20 people have died. Thirty suffered injuries today after a car loaded with explosives detonated. Shops and cars were also damaged. According to news reports, the area of this latest incident, Diyala province, stretching from eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border has been, since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, “a stronghold for al-Qaeda militants and other insurgent groups despite repeated U.S. and Iraqi military operations” [“Car bomb attack kills 10, wounds 30 in Iraq’s,” May 22, 2010 Diyalahttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-05/22/c_13309020.htm]
U.S. PROXIED occupied TERRITORIES
May 14, 2010
U.S. president Barack Obama has asked the Congress for $205 million to help Israel speed up construction of a new short-range anti-missile defense system. What has been called the ‘Iron Dome’ project is designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells from the Gaza Strip and neighboring Lebanon.
U.S. military aid to Israel in 2009, according to the State Department, totaled $2.55 billion. New funds will raise that amount in 2012 to $3 billion. For the years 2013 to 2018, the total annually will amount to $3.15 billion.
May 17, 2010
Hundreds of international activists protesting Israel’s siege on Gaza will be aboard eight vessels carrying 5,000 tons of reconstruction materials, school supplies and medical equipment to Gaza. Representatives from six organizations said on Monday that they were determined to enter the area regardless to pressure from Israel. A high-level Israeli official has warned the Israeli government will stop the flotilla of cargo ships and passenger boats activists are planning to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.
Israel says its blockade aims to prevent the political movement that has controlled Gaza since 2007 from acquiring weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes. The majority of Gaza’s 1.5 million people suffer impoverished living conditions.
GULF OF ADEN/HORN OF AFRICA REGION
May 16, 2010YEMEN
Two soldiers died and five others suffered wounds after suspected separatist fighters reportedly ambushed a convoy in the Radfan district of southern Lahj province. Yemen’s president was in the convoy. Several soldiers, separatist gunmen and bystanders have died in recent escalating tension in the south. The government is struggling to stabilize a fractious country.
U.S. WAR ON TERROR
May 19, 2010Targeting, assassinating own
The White House confirmed in last month that U.S. President Barack Obama had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency “to assassinate cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.”
In a 10-minute audiotape posted Sunday on the Internet, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, head of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) ─ speaking of al-Qaeda’s ‘religious duty’ to protect U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki accused of recruiting for al-Qaeda ─ vowed to protect the cleric accused U.S. government of terrorism. “He also threatened attacks against the United States if al-Awlaki was harmed.”
Though the CIA and U.S. military maintain lists of alleged terrorists subject to capture or killing, “it is extremely rare for American citizens to be added to these lists.” The cleric’s family has sought to have his name removed from the list and offered a guarantee that al-Awlaki would stop issuing anti-American messages.
Casualty sites reporting
May 19, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 169 dead; 31,790-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [May 8 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/Sources and notes
• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 96,264 – 104,997, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,397 U.S, 4,715 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,080 U.S., 1,777 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/
Opinion “The War on Terror Can’t be Won by Military Might Alone, September 22, 2008, Thomas Baerthlein, deputy head of the South Asia service at Deutsche Welle, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3662078,00.html
“Taliban attack Afghan air base,” May 19, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/201051922930146436.html
“Afghan religious leader killed,” May 17, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/201051743554977652.html
“India bus blast ‘kills dozens,’” May 17, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/2010517125439433390.html
“Iran dismisses UN sanctions push,” May 19, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201051913252230903.html
“UN discusses sanctions deal,” May 19, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/2010518151434418587.html
“Obama urges funds for Israeli shield,” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/201051412713367443.html
“Israel warns against Gaza flotilla,” May 17, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/05/2010517155117976235.html
“Blast hits Iraq football match,” May 14, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/2010514161932327374.html
“Deadly attack on Yemeni convoy,” May 16, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/2010515172110455185.html
“Pakistani military battles Taliban,” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/2010519792870554.html
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