Wherever they go, violence accompanies

U.S.-led West undermines peace plan: supports terror, despots; sows chaos, conflict

Editing, ending comment 
By Carolyn Bennett

Prominent Iranian political analyst Mohyeddin Sajedi recounted to Press TV that former UN Secretary-general “Kofi Annan’s plan for resolving the Syrian crisis started on April 10 and a ceasefire was enforced two days later”; and while Russia and Iran spoke out for the plan, Western forces and coerced allies lined up against it, all the while claiming they were for peace.

The plan’s failure, Sajedi said, “would mean civil war in Syria for which [U.S.-allies] Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are already prepared. Ankara provides political and field support for the opposition while Riyadh and Doha provide them with financial support and arms; [and Jordan teeters] under pressure to become a way for financial aid and weapons to reach the Syrian opposition.”

In his criticism of countries feigning support then obstructing Annan’s peace plan, the Speaker of the Iranian Shura Council, Ali Larijani, said “countries which gathered and presented Annan’s plan are now talking about its failure despite the fact that Annan has not yet fully begun the mission.” Larijani called “for giving the UN Special Envoy the space to accomplish his mission.” He warned “countries which have not experienced any war not to wage a war in Syria because … they will play with ‘gunpowder.’”

Peace plan support in Syrian Diaspora

Reported in the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), there are members of the Syrian community in Russia celebrating Syria’s 66th anniversary of Independence and stressing “solidarity with their homeland in the face of hostile conspiracies.” Alexander Biryukov, representative of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, said Western Countries and the U.S. in particular are trying “to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs in the name of democracy and protection of human rights” but the Russian people and the Syrian people “support the plan of the UN Special Envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, and hope that the Syrian people will come out of the crisis under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad.”  Mustafa al-Turk spoke for the Syrian community in Russia, stressing “the need for unity to defend the homeland and confront the campaign launched against Syria.” The head of the International Relations Department at the Russian Writers Union reportedly said he hoped “the international monitors will not be similar to those who called themselves ‘friends of Syria’ but rather they should represent all spectrums of international public opinion to be able to contribute in stabilizing the situation in Syria.” 

Consequences of U.S. war on terror: 
TERROR

“Dirty tricks” charged against the West

Western diplomats including Britain’s UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant have launched a “dirty trick” to influence the world’s public opinion as far as the Syrian conflict is concerned. Reported in British media, “Sheila Lyall Grant, wife of Britain’s UN Ambassador and Huberta von Voss-Wittig, wife of Germany’s UN Ambassador Peter Wittig have created (or commissioned) a video clip posted on the YouTube that “[targets] Syria’s first lady with the online appeal to ‘stop your husband’ in what they called the ‘yearlong bid to quash a popular uprising that has left thousands dead.’”  

U.S. CIA drone

Though the video’s creators might have “wanted to psychologically influence the Syrian first lady and her relatives, they and their backers failed to refer to armed terror gangs that have killed or injured thousands of Syrian armed forces and hundreds of civilians in the more than one-year-old crisis in which the same western countries have helped to inflict damages on the Arab country…  

“Analysts believe western diplomats have resorted to this dirty trick game out of despair after they failed to defeat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”

On Sunday, UN Envoy Kofi Annan said, according to press reports, the UN Security Council Resolution on deploying 300 observers to monitor the ceasefire in Syria is “‘a pivotal moment in the stabilization of the country.’”

Syria in brief

Bounded on the north by Turkey, the east and southeast by Iraq, the south by Jordan, the southwest by Lebanon and Israel, situated on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea in southwestern Asia is Syria. Its independence gained in 1946, its capital Damascus situated on the Barada River in an oasis at the foot of Mount Qasiyun. The area of Syria includes territory in the Golan Heights, which has been since 1967 occupied by Israel.

Its people

The majority of Syrians are Muslim. Sunni Muslims account for about three-fourths of the Muslim population (in the majority everywhere in the country except in the southern Al-Suwaydāʾ muḥāfaẓah, governorate, and the Latakia governorate in the north). The next largest are Alawites (a Shiite subsect), living mostly in the Latakia governorate or in the governorates of Ḥimṣ and Ḥamah. Most of the country’s Druze population lives in Al-Suwayda governorate and the rest in Damascus. The Syrian people evolve from Greek and Roman ethnic influence and Semitic peoples of Arabia and Mesopotamia—Aramaeans, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Canaanites; later Turks as Greeks and Romans before them influenced political and economic structures.

Its governance

Flag of Syria

In 1970 Syria came under the authoritarian rule of President Ḥafiz al-Assad, whose foremost goals included achieving national security and domestic stability and recovering the Syrian territory lost to Israel in 1967. Assad committed his country to an enormous arms buildup, which put severe strains on the national budget, leaving little for development. After Assad’s death in 2000, his son, Bashar al-Assad, became president.

Its resources

Petroleum became Syria’s leading natural resource and chief export after 1974; production peaked in the mid-1990s before beginning a steady decline. Natural gas was discovered at the field of Jbessa in 1940 and since that time natural gas production in Syria has expanded to form an important energy export. Some of the country’s oil-fired power stations have been converted to run on natural gas, freeing more Syrian petroleum for export. [William L. Ochsenwald: Professor of History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg; David Dean Commins; Professor of History, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Syria (2011) Encyclopedia Britannica]

West’s

Far more than their share for far too long  evidence

Celebrations of the British queen’s Diamond Jubilee began on February 6, 2012, and will rise to a feverishly lavish peak in June. The United Kingdom’s longest-living monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is celebrating the 60th of this reign (1952- ) — almost as long as Syria’s independence..

Britain’s monarch

This expensive monarch’s “private wealth is said to be estimated at £1.15 billion”  and only in 1993 did the queen begin paying taxes. On the monarch’s Golden Jubilee (2002), the queen and her husband increased more than their share by spending 12 months travelling around the world and attending self congratulatory celebrations.

As the British people continue struggling (as do many countries of the British Commonwealth) with great financial problems (Britain’s unemployment rate hit a 17-year high of 8.4 percent), the monarch continues to spend lavishly at the people’s expense. The 60th anniversary celebrations include a seven-mile flotilla of 1,000 boats along the Thames. [“UK queen’s Diamond Jubilee underway,” February 5, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225109.html]

People, large numbers of them, majorities of people in the world suffer greatly when a few people take more — far more — than their share. And “charity,” the handout mission of those who feel themselves “superior,” does not and will never rectify this depraved, manufactured state of disparity. Only common sense and conscience and collective action will change this congenitally flawed ethos.  

More Sources and notes

“West conspiring to cause Annan plan to fail in Syria,” April 13, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236024.htmlquent contributor to Press TV.

Mohyeddin Sajedi

A prominent Iranian political analyst, Mohyeddin Sajedi writes extensively on Middle East issues and serves as Middle East expert at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran. A former director of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) branches in Beirut and Damascus, Sajedi is a frequent contributor to Press TV.

“Annan: Observer Mission Work Should Help Create Conditions to Launching Much-needed Political Process in Syria,” April 23, 2012, http://www.sana.sy/eng/22/2012/04/23/414222.htm

“Larijani: Countries Seeking to Stoke Crisis in Syria Will Be Engulfed by Its Fire,” April 22, 2012, http://www.sana.sy/eng/22/2012/04/22/414161.htm

“Syrian Community in Russia Stress Solidarity with Homeland,” April 22, 2012, http://www.sana.sy/eng/22/2012/04/22/414205.htm

“West adopts dirty trick to defeat Syria,” April 18, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/236926.html

“322 People from Hama and Its Countryside Involved in Recent Events Turn Themselves In,”

 April 22, 2012, http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/04/22/414296.htm

HAMA, (SANA) – 322 citizens from Hama, and its countryside, who were involved in recent events and didn’t shed any blood on Sunday turned themselves in and surrendered their weapons to the authorities. The authorities released these citizens to resume their normal lives after they pledged not to repeat their offenses, bringing the total number of people who turned themselves in recently to 773, with 248 turning themselves in on Friday in Hama. [ H. Sabbagh]

SANA

Established in 1965 and linked to the Ministry of Information headquartered in Damascus, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) is the national official news agency in Syria. “The Agency provides full coverage of local, Arab and international events based on balanced, objective approach” http://www.sana.sy/eng/article/27.htm

MONARCHIES, despotic allies

Monarchy: undivided rule or absolute sovereignty by a single person; a government having a hereditary chief of state with life tenure and powers varying from nominal to absolute

Currently, according to Wikipedia, “44 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state, 16 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. All European monarchies are constitutional — with the exception of the Vatican City; but sovereigns in the smaller states exercise greater political influence than in the larger.

“The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia and Morocco ‘reign but do not rule’ although there is considerable variation in the amount of authority they wield.

“Although they reign under constitutions, the monarchs of Brunei, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Swaziland appear to continue to exercise more political influence than any other single source of authority in their nations, either by constitutional mandate or by tradition.”

Britannica notes, “By the early 21st century, examples of traditional monarchies were largely limited to the Arab world. These included the six oil-rich states, located along the Persian Gulf—Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman—as well as Jordan and Morocco.”

One despot (monarch) to another

“The UK Queen has invited one of the world’s most tyrannical rulers, the King of Bahrain, to her Diamond Jubilee banquet despite widespread criticism of his repressive regime,” Press TV reported in early April.

“The Bahraini regime is accused of using brutal force and torture to crush the protests in that country, which saw more than 50 civilians killed and thousands arrested. Bahrain royal family has direct control of the police, army and security services.

It is believed the elderly King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, declined the invitation but is sending the crown prince in his place. The Saudi Arabian royal family has also been criticized for human-rights abuses, as has another invitee, the King of Swaziland, Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarchy.” [“UK Queen invites Bahraini king to Jubilee banquet,” April 8, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/235154.html]

Images

Down with the crown: http://www.yalibnan.com/2011/03/20/nasrallah-praises-protesters-in-me-except-syria-iran/

http://asiansecurityblog.wordpress.com/category/international-relations-theory/

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/as.htm

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/entertainment/09-Mar-2012/queen-elizabeth-kicks-off-diamond-jubilee-tour



http://www.bu.edu/globalbeat/index041805.html

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Seven days in blood

U.S. foreign and domestic force, fatalities, occupation
Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

HOMELAND USA

U.S. soldiers
Free Speech Radio News last week reported a 25 percent increase in suicides in the United States military. “Military suicides continue to reach record levels. According to the Defense Department, 343 soldiers, Army civilians, and family members committed suicide in 2010,” a 25 percent rise compared with 2009 figures.

Detroit shooting
A shooter walked into a Detroit police station Sunday and opened fire wounding Sgt. Carrie Schulz, Commander Brian Davis, Sgt. Ray Saati and Officer David Anderson. The shooter was then shot dead. According to the Detroit Free Press, “Sunday’s shooting was not the first time a gunman has attacked Detroit police on their own turf.”

St. Petersburg shootings
Two police officers died and a U.S. Marshal suffered wounds today during a shootout with a man in St. Petersburg, Florida. Miami today buried two Miami-Dade County police officers shot and killed last week by a “fugitive murder suspect” [also killed].

U.S. detainees
The American Civil Liberties Union has released new documents showing widespread abuse and unjustified homicide of detainees at U.S.-run jails in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The records show autopsy reports revealing that many detainees who had died “from interrogation” had “injuries to their bodies.… In at least one case a person was frozen to death when he was held naked outside (Afghanistan is a cold place) and cold water was put on him.”

One hundred and ninety (190) detainee deaths have been detailed in the records. The recently available information results from an ACLU lawsuit against the U.S. military under the Freedom of Information Act.

SOUTHWEST ASIA – MIDDLE EAST

AFGHANISTAN
Two Taliban leaders died Friday in eastern Afghanistan. “The international military alliance” is reported saying “its forces killed the Taliban shadow administrator for Nangarhar province’s Hisarak district in a strike last Friday [and] a Taliban operative in Logar province’s Pul-e-Alam district in a strike on Sunday.

NATO had previously announced the strike but said they were unsure if Maulawi Anwar had been killed; about the Sunday’s killing, the coalition said the man killed, Abdul Bari, helped Taliban leaders get weapons and vehicles.

AFGHANISTAN
Twenty civilians died (among them six women, 13 children) Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded in southeastern Afghanistan. These deaths bring the four-day total to 28 Afghan civilians killed in three roadside bombings.

Three days before the Wednesday bombings, nine civilians (including six women, two men and a child) died when a roadside bomb exploded in northern Afghanistan. These civilians had been travelling to a wedding on a road often used by foreign forces. “Afghan officials say that last year 2,043 civilians died as a result of Taliban attacks and military operations targeting the fighters.”

PAKISTAN
“Thousands of people have rallied in northwestern Pakistan to protest ongoing U.S. drone attacks that killed scores of civilians. On Sunday, demonstrators in the city of Peshawar blocked a main road and held a vigil to mourn drone attack victims. According to Agence France-Presse, U.S. drone attacks doubled in the North Waziristan region last year, with over 100 drone strikes killing more than 670 people. At least 13 people were killed in three recent attacks.”

PAKISTAN
Two “suspected foreign fighters” died in U.S. drone strikes on Sunday in northwestern Pakistan. “Sunday’s attack came several hours after a drone fired two missiles at a vehicle and a house in Doga Mada Khel village, located near North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah, killing at least five armed fighters. A similar strike killed at least three people in North Waziristan on January 12. A string of attacks killed at least 15 people and destroyed a Taliban compound on January 1.

A tally conducted by the AFP news agency shows “the covert campaign doubled missile attacks in the tribal area last year. “More than 100 drone strikes killed over 670 people in 2010 compared with 45 strikes that killed 420 in 2009.”

IRAQ
Twelve people died and 150 suffered wounds Monday when car bombs exploded near Iraq’s shrine city of Karbala. Pilgrims were involved in religious rituals. A home-made bomb killed Brigadier General Thamer Hassan Saleh who worked for services linked to the office of Iraq’s prime ministers.

Also on Monday two anti-Qaeda militiamen in the northern city of Kirkuk and a military officer in Baghdad died and a military officer and two guards, an intelligence official and eight civilians suffered wounds when shooters open fire or roadside bombs exploded.

The past week saw “a surge of violence in Iraq… which included suicide bombs, blasts killing around 130 people and wounding scores more.” In the whole of December, Agence France Presse reports, “a total of 151 people were killed.”

U.S.-led WAR DEAD

Casualty sites reporting January 24, 2011

(accurate totals unknown)

• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 207]

Wounded 32,965-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: January 17, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

• Iraq Body Count (civilian deaths from violence) figures:

‘We don’t do body counts’— General Tommy Franks

Documented civilian deaths from violence

99,393 – 108,514

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

• ICasualties figures:

IRAQ: 4,436 U.S.; 4,754 Coalition

AFGHANISTAN: 1,466 U.S.; 2,308 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Sources and notes

“4 Detroit police officers shot, gunman dead in ‘horrifying’ attack” (also “Detroit police ID gunman who shot four officers”), January 24, 2011, http://www.freep.com/article/20110124/NEWS05/101240382/4-Detroit-police-officers-shot-gunman-dead-in-horrifying-attack
http://www.freep.com/article/20110124/NEWS01/110124019/1318/Detroit-police-ID-gunman-who-shot-four-officers

“Two police killed in St. Petersburg, Florida, ST. PETERSBURG, Florida” (Reuters), January 22, 2011, http://newas.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110124/us_nm/us_florida_shooting_3

“U.S. interrogators on killing spree” (Interview with Paul Wolf, Human rights and international lawyer in Washington), January 23, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/161603.html

“NATO: 2 Taliban leaders killed in east Afghanistan,” KABUL, Afghanistan January 24, 2011,
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20110123/twl-as-afghanistan-38359fb.html

“Afghan civilians killed in blast — an improvised explosive device explodes as a rickshaw passes over it, killing women and children,” January 19, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/20111199305332564.html
4436 179 139 4754

“Thousands Protest U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan,” Democracy Now January 24, 2011,
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/24/headlines

“‘US drone strikes’ claim lives — The attacks are the first since Friday’s protest rally in Pakistan condemning civilian deaths in U.S. drone strikes, January 24, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/201112335951391718.html

“Triple attacks on Shiite pilgrims in Iraq kill 12” (KARBALA, Iraq, AFP), January 24, 2011, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20110124/twl-iraq-unrest-575b600.html

“Thousands demonstrate against U.S. drone strikes,” PESHAWAR (Xinhua) Tehran Times, January 22, 2011, http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=234534

“Death toll in Iraq bombing rises to 56 — Ayatollah Sistani criticizes Iraqi security forces”
(BAGHDAD, AP, http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=234520



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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Seven days — U.S. to YEMEN

News from U.S. wars compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

Blood keeps on flowing

USA — Arizona
Though shot in the brain at point-blank range, she survives yet her condition remains critical. U.S. Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords is reported from University Medical Center in Tucson to have been “removed from a ventilator and is breathing on her own through a tube inserted into her windpipe.”

AFGHANISTAN
Foreign troops estimated at 140,000, two-thirds of them United States
Violence is at its worst since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government. Violence is spreading rapidly in previously peaceful areas like the north. Civilian and military casualties are at record levels.

Six women, two men and the child died today when a roadside bomb exploded in northern Afghanistan. The people were travelling to a wedding. “It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blast.”

At least eight Afghan security personnel died and 27 suffered wounds Wednesday when a suicide bomb on a motorbike exploded near the parliament building in Kabul. Three police officers died last week when a suicide bomb exploded in a southern Kandahar province. Earlier this month at least 16 civilians and a police commander died when an attack occurred in a public bathhouse in the Spin Boldak area near the Pakistan border.

“The attacks come after the end of the bloodiest year of a war that has now dragged on for more than nine years.” United Nations reports say 2,412 civilians died and 3,803 suffered wounds between January and October of 2010, which amounts to a 20 percent increase over 2009.

ADDENDUM to my January 14 blog entry 
“An insidious phenomenon”
From Democracy Now Headlines Wednesday, January 12, 2011 http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/12/headlines#8“Study: U.S.-Led Military Operations Cause $100 million in Damages in Afghan Province — “StudyA new Afghan government study shows U.S.-led military operations have caused more than $100 million in damages to homes and fruit crops in southern Kandahar province. Tens of thousands of troops have launched a series of offensives in Kandahar over the past year. In a statement, Afghan presidential adviser Mohammad Sadiq said the so-called ‘Hope’ military operation ‘has inflicted severe damage to the people.’”

PAKISTAN
Three thousand U.S. and NATO supply trucks (on average) operate in Pakistan on any given day. Three years ago, 80 percent of non-lethal supplies moved through Pakistan; last year that figure dropped to 40 percent [U.S. embassy in Islamabad]

Fourteen vehicles were set fire Saturday while at a roadside restaurant in southwestern Pakistan. The tankers were carrying fuel for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Three police officers died and five suffered wounds Thursday when a remote-controlled bomb destroyed a vehicle carrying police and paramilitary forces in the Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Another officer died the same day and four suffered wounds when a bomb struck a checkpoint operated by tribal police in Bara, a town near the northwestern city of Peshawar, Pakistan. On Wednesday, 17 people died and 13 people suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded at the Miryan town police station in Bannu.

North Waziristan for two years has been the site of “scores of U.S. drone-missile attacks targeting suspected Taliban fighters.”

IRAN
U.S.-led world powers “want Tehran to stop uranium enrichment, which they suspect is aimed at making weapons. Iran says its nuclear activities are entirely for peaceful purposes. The dispute will be at the center of talks between Tehran and six world powers (Britain, China, France, the Russian Federation, the United States and Germany) scheduled this week in Istanbul, Turkey.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran on Saturday opened two of its atomic sites to foreign diplomats. Among them were representatives of some member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA is the UN atomic watchdog. Today foreign diplomats are touring a plant where Iran is “enriching uranium in defiance of UN sanctions, a day after Tehran declared it will push ahead with the controversial work ‘very strongly.’”

Wire services and the Netherlands press note that such visits to Iran’s atomic sites are infrequent. “The last trip Tehran arranged for members of the IAEA was in February 2007.”

Participating in Sunday’s tour are “representatives of the Non-Aligned Movement troika, the Group of 77, the Arab League, Syria, Venezuela and Oman….” The European Union, Russia and China “snubbed” the event. “Iran did not invite the United States, Britain, France and Germany.”

IRAQ
Two U.S. soldiers (and a trainee) died and one suffered wounds Saturday at a U.S. base in the northern city of Mosul. The shootings occurred at a training center in which U.S. forces were conducting a training exercise. After U.S. soldiers were shot, U.S. soldiers conducting the training session shot the shooter. “The account of the shooting differed slightly [between] U.S. and Iraqi sources.”Another U.S. soldier died Saturday in “an unrelated military operation in central Iraq.”

Independent website www.icasualties.org reports, “The death toll was the highest in a single day for American forces since July 2, 2010, when three soldiers died in separate ‘non-hostile’ incidents.”

An estimated 50,000 troops remain stationed in Iraq. A majority of U.S. troops are “confined to bases where they help train Iraqi security forces.”

MIDDLE EAST - PALESTINE
Israeli military radio reported Sunday “A massive new construction project in a district of annexed East Jerusalem where there are already Jewish settlements is about to be authorized, with 1,400 homes planned.”

“Two South African groups have launched a move to get an arrest warrant issued against the chairperson of Israel’s Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, during [her] visit to the country next week.”

The Media Review Network (MRN) and the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) allege, according to Haaretz.com, quoting Channel 10 [and South African media], “Livni committed war crimes in her role in Israel’s three-week war on Gaza in late 2008-2009. Livni was then foreign minister in the government of Ehud Olmert.”

A British court in December of 2009 reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Livni on similar charges but later withdrew it after discovering she was not in the country. Livni had been scheduled to travel to London for an event organized by the Jewish National Fund, followed by meetings with British government officials; but she cancelled the trip two weeks before the event. Israeli media said she called off the visit for fear of being arrested.

YEMEN
U.S. Secretary of State visited last week.

Three soldiers died and another suffered wounds Saturday (January 8) when local tribesmen (six of them suffered wounds) attacked an army check post. Residents in the southern province of Lahaj had opened fire on the army post because they were unhappy with the government’s decision to deploy troops in the area.

Also on that Saturday, eight soldiers suffered wounds in the city of Lawdar when their vehicle came under attack. Nine soldiers died on Friday the 7th. The U.S. President condemned Saturday’s attacks by “suspected al Qaeda” on Yemeni soldiers and offered U.S. support in another war.

Casualty sites reporting January 16, 2011

(accurate totals unknown)
U.S.-led WAR DEAD

Anti-war dot com

Latest update on this site: January 16, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 207]

Wounded 32,963-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Iraq Body Count

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

 (Documented civilian deaths from violence) figures:

99,357 – 108,475

ICasualties

http://icasualties.org/oif/

 figures:

IRAQ: 4,435 U.S., 4,753 Coalition

AFGHANISTAN: 1,460 U.S., 2,299 Coalition

Sources and notes
“Wounded U.S. lawmaker breathing without ventilator” (© ANP/AFP), January 16, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/wounded-us-lawmaker-breathing-without-ventilator
“Nine killed by Afghan bomb en route to wedding” (© ANP/AFP), January 16, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/nine-killed-afghan-bomb-en-route-wedding
“Deaths in Afghan roadside blast — A car carrying nine people, including a child, destroyed by bomb that killed all its occupants in country’s northeast,” January 16, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/201111611526976374.html
“Suicide blast kills Afghan officers — Bomber on a motorbike struck a minibus full of intelligence officials, killing at least eight and wounding nearly 30.” January 12, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/2011112524854151.html
“NATO lorries torched in Pakistan — Pakistani Taliban target tankers supplying conflict across the border in Afghanistan,” January 15, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/201111517248680630.html
“Police targeted in Pakistan blasts — four officers dead in two attacks in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region, a day after deaths of 17 people in bombing, January 13, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/20111139533784926.html
“Foreign envoys to tour Iran uranium plant” (© ANP/AFP), January 16, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/iran-opens-enrichment-plant-foreign-envoys
“Iraqi soldier shoots dead U.S. troops — Two US troops killed and one injured after man opens fire during training exercise at a base in Mosul, January 15, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011115175756791495.html
“Massive new settlement project in E. Jerusalem: radio” (© ANP/AFP), January 16, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/israel-eyes-huge-east-jerusalem-settlement-project
“S Africa groups seek Livni arrest — Pro-Palestinian groups seek arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel’s Kadima party, for alleged war crimes,” January 16, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/20111164466517708.html
“Yemen separatists kill soldiers — Southern secessionists in Lahaj kill at least three in an attack on army checkpoint, the latest in a wave of violence,” January 9, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011196914838812.html


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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

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U.S. foreign policy unchanged, mum on Kashmir/India conflict

Time to change the way the world thinks
About war

About weapons

About putting soldiers on the ground

— World-renowned of India: author and global justice activist Arundhati Roy —

From Democracy Now's interviews with Arundhati Roy
Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir
Foreign model and presence

“Democracies are linked to dictatorships and military occupations and so on. … Some of the main military occupations in the world today are actually administered by democracies: Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir. …

“Expanding the war [in Afghanistan] is not going to end that war or create any kind of just peace in that region. It is, in fact, going to exacerbate the situation. Draw Pakistan into it; and when Pakistan is drawn into it, so will be India, and so on. So it goes.…

“The situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir is very volatile and these are nuclear powers…

“The media was spoiling for war — the media, the elite and the urban middle class were spoiling for war. They were just pushing for a war with Pakistan. … It is very troubling to live in a place where the media has actually no accountability.”

India and Kashmir

News of what they call ‘encounter killings’ come in almost a few every day. Nonviolent protest has been put down, violently. Things are going to go back to a previous era of some kind of militant violence there — the heart of India being sort of hollowed out by this civil war and this assault on its poor.

• Most militarized zone in the world

“Since the 1990s … at the same time that the war in Afghanistan, the American one, its jihad in Afghanistan, India realigned itself and became … what it is now, sort of completely aligned with the United States. The whole problem in Kashmir, the militant armed struggle for independence — there was always a struggle for independence.

“The Kashmiris, Jammu and Kashmir, used to be an independent kingdom at the time of partition…

“It is not independence. It’s not ever been really a part of India — which is why it’s ridiculous for the Indian government to keep saying it’s an integral part of India — but that armed struggle claimed the lives of 68,000 people. India today has 500,000 troops operating in that little valley. It is the highest, most militarized zone in the world.”

• Threshold of genocide

Societies are prepared for genocide and … it’s like part of free trade, … genocides acknowledged and denied and prosecuted — all depend on world trade, and always have done… I worry that a country like India, that is poised on the threshold of progress, could also be poised on the threshold of genocide.

“… Here in India, there is the smell of fascism in the air. Earlier it was a kind of an anti-Muslim religious fascism; now we have a secular government, and it’s a kind of right-wing ruthlessness.… People openly say: ‘you know, every country that has progressed and is developed — whether Europe or America or China or Russia — [has] a cruel past. It’s time that India stepped up to the plate and realized that there are some people that are holding back this kind of progress and we need to be ruthless and move in, as Israel did recently in Gaza, as Sri Lanka has recently done with its hundreds of thousands of Tamils in concentration camps; so why not India. Why not just do away with the poor.’”

REGARDING ENDLESS DESTRUCTION, UNWINNABLE WARS
Lessons to Washington

“There’s an almost full-fledged war going on. … Several wars are going on in India. There’s Kashmir going up in flames and there’s what’s happening in the northeast. … The richest country in the world— America — has attacked and made war on the poorest countries and [has not been] able to win those wars.

“You couldn’t win Vietnam. You couldn’t win Afghanistan. Couldn’t win Iraq. Cannot win Kashmir.

“[U.S. President Obama] has expanded the war in Afghanistan and moved it into Pakistan… Right when 9/11 happened, I remember writing, ‘you forced them to raise the Taliban in their midst, and now you want them to garrote the pit they grew in their own backyard. It’s going to lead to civil war.’ You didn’t need to be a genius to figure that out.

“America has interfered with Pakistan from the beginning and Pakistan is paying a terrible price. …

[America] has destroyed Afghanistan. It has destroyed Pakistan. It has destroyed Iraq. It will destroy India — because India doesn’t have the spine.

“Whatever [U.S. President Barack Obama] is doing within America is a separate thing, but his foreign policy is not all that different from [that of his predecessor] George W. Bush. If they start a war in Iran, they won’t win — these wars cannot be won.

“It’s about time somebody realized that and decided to change the way the world thinks about war and thinks about weapons and thinks about putting soldiers on the ground.”


Sources


“Author Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama from New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak.” September 28, 2009,
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/28/author_arundhati_roy_on_conflicts_and


Acclaimed Indian Author Arundhati Roy Faces Arrest for Questioning India’s Claim on Kashmir,
October 27, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/27/acclaimed_indian_author_arundhati_roy_faces
ARUNDHATI ROY


Acclaimed Indian Author Arundhati Roy on Obama’s Wars, Poverty and India’s Maoist Rebels, November 8, 2010,
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/8/acclaimed_indian_author_arundhati_roy


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Bennett's books available at New York independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY] Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY] Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY] Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530] The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]

U.S.’s bloody, lawless march across Arabia

Amnesty International, news sources
Edited excerpts by Carolyn Bennett

“It is particularly worrying that states such as Saudi Arabia and the USA are directly or indirectly aiding the Yemeni government in a downward spiral away from previously improving human rights record,” Amnesty reported today.

“An extremely worrying trend has developed where the Yemeni authorities, under pressure from the USA and others to fight al-Qa’ida [al-Qaeda], and Saudi Arabia to deal with the Huthis, have been citing national security as a pretext to deal with opposition and stifle all criticism.”

The number of death sentences passed in trials of people accused of having links to al-Qa’ida [al-Qaeda], or to the Huthi armed group has noticeably increased. In 2009, at least 34 people accused of links to Huthi armed groups were sentenced to death.

The security forces have killed at least 113 people since 2009 in operations the government says target ‘terrorists.’ Attacks have become more frequent since December 2009 with security forces in some cases making no attempt to detain suspects before killing them.

At least 41 people were killed, 21 of them children and 14 of them women, on December 17, 2009, when their settlement in al-Ma’jalah area in the southern district of Abyan was hit by missiles.

“All measures taken in the name of countering terrorism or other security challenges in Yemen must have at its heart the protection of human rights.”

“The Yemeni authorities have a duty to ensure public safety and to bring to justice those engaged in attacks that deliberately target members of the public, but when doing so they must abide by international law. … Enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment, and extrajudicial executions are never permissible, and the Yemeni authorities must immediately cease these violations.”


Reports from Yemen today
Yemeni officials were reported saying Yemen’s army has killed 12 anti-government fighters and retaken control of a southern town after several days of fighting. The reports late yesterday said the army had begun its assault on the town of Loder after a Friday ambush left 11 soldiers dead.

Sources and notes

Yemen abandons human rights in the name of countering terrorism” (quoted Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa Programme), © Amnesty International, the Yemeni security forces have killed at least 113 people since 2009, © ASSOCIATED PRESS, August 25, 2010, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/yemen-abandons-human-rights-name-countering-terrorism-2010-08-24


“Yemen kills ‘al-Qaeda fighters,’” August 25, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/2010825132359773721.html

Geopolitical implications
[U. S. in Middle East and S/Central Asia, Horn of Africa region)


YEMEN
Yemen (officially Republic of Yemen, Arabic Al-Yaman or Al-Jumhūrīyah al-Yamanīyah) is situated at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.


Most of Yemen’s northern frontier with Saudi Arabia traverses the great desert of the peninsula and remains without demarcation, as does the eastern frontier with Oman. In the west and the south, Yemen is bounded by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, respectively.


Its territory includes a number of islands including the Kamaran group located in the Red Sea near Al-Ḥudaydah; Perim (Barīm) in the Bab el-Mandeb, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from Africa; the most important and largest island, Socotra (Suqutrā), located in the Arabian Sea nearly 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) east of Aden; and The Brothers, small islets near Socotra.


The present Yemen came into being in May 1990, when the former Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen, merged with the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, also called South Yemen [Britannica notes].


ARABIA
Arabic (“Island of the Arabs”) is a peninsular region together with offshore islands located in the extreme southwestern corner of Asia.


The Arabian Peninsula is bounded by the Red Sea on the west and southwest, the Gulf of Aden on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south and southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf (also called the Arabian Gulf) on the northeast. Geographically the peninsula and the Syrian Desert merge in the north with no clear line of demarcation, but the northern boundaries of Saudi Arabia and of Kuwait are generally taken as marking the limit of Arabia there.

The peninsula’s total area is about 1,000,000 square miles (2,590,000 square kilometers). The length, bordering the Red Sea, is approximately 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) and the maximum breadth, from Yemen to Oman, 1,300 miles.

The largest political division is Saudi Arabia followed, in order of size, by Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain.


The island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, about 200 miles southeast of the mainland, has strong ethnographic links to Arabia; politically it is part of Yemen [Britannica notes].

U.S. ‘mangoes’ diplomacy, Iran wants freedom from big-power domination

Re-reporting, compilation, editing, minor comment by Carolyn Bennett

PAKISTAN
U.S. secretary of State Hillary Clinton today in Pakistan promised [mango trade] “massive aid” for that country and proposed building relations with this “wavering anti-terror ally.” The U.S. plan delivered by Clinton reportedly includes water dam projects in the areas of Gomal Zam, Satpara and Baluchistan; renovation of three hospitals in Karachi, Lahore and Jacobabad; and programs devoted to agriculture, training of farmers in dairy production and increasing production and export of mangoes.

Meanwhile, seriously, in
GENEVA
Former Iranian chief disarmament negotiator now speaker of Iran’s parliament said today “The current prevailing structure of power has not only been unable to secure international peace and security, but has also led to the emergence of such new phenomena as terrorism in a very dangerous and organized framework. No doubt this inability is due to the double standards and unilateral policies exercised by the big powers, including the USA,” Ali Larijani said. He was speaking to an audience that included U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

The U.N. Security Council [China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States] imposed new sanctions on Iran in June over its nuclear program. Russia and China supported U.S. proposals aimed at putting increased pressure on Tehran. Western powers believe Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is only for peaceful purposes.

IRAQ
Mosul
Four foreigners died and five Iraqi civilians suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded into an armored vehicle and a British security company’s convoy in northern Iraq on Monday. Everyone inside the vehicle died.

AFGHANISTAN
Kabul
Six Afghan police officers and two U.S. troops died and four others suffered wounds today when roadside bombs exploded in southern Afghanistan. The troops were traveling south by vehicle to Kandahar.

June was the deadliest month for U.S. and international forces. One hundred and three military personnel have died including 60 Americans. This month so far in Afghanistan 57 NATO troops have died including today’s deaths among them 42 from the United States.

Sources - Wire reports
“Attack on British security firm in Iraq kills 4,” July 19, 2010,
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100719/twl-oukwd-uk-iraq-violence-britons-13abf6c.html
“Road bombs kill 6 Afghan policemen, 2 US troops,” July 19, 2010,
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20100719/twl-as-afghanistan-2nd-ld-writethru-38359fb.html
“U.S. to announce aid package to Pakistan,” July 18, 2010, http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100718/twl-us-to-announce-aid-package-to-pakist-2802f3e.html; http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100718/twl-us-to-announce-aid-package-to-pakist-2802f3e.html
“Iran calls for world body free of big power control,” July 19, 2010, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100719/twl-oukwd-uk-iran-larijani-13abf6c.html
“U.S. announces new Pakistan aid,” July 19, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/2010719449787390.html

The United Nations Security Council is composed of five permanent members: China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The current ten non-permanent members (with year of terms’ end) are: Austria (2010), Japan (2010), Turkey (2010), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011), Lebanon (2011),  Uganda (2010), Brazil (2011),  Mexico (2010), Gabon (2011),  Nigeria (2011) [http://www.un.org/sc/members.asp].

U.S. AFPAK-IRAQ bleeding SUNDAY

Clinton in Islamabad, Pakistan, full court theater heading into Tuesday’s international donors’ conference in neighboring Kabul, Afghanistan
Re-reporting, compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett
Sunday July 18

IRAQ
Worsening in governing void
More than 40 people have died and 40 more suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded today in western Baghdad. The incident occurred as government-backed Sahwa fighters gathered, lined up outside a military base in the Sunni district of Radwaniya, to collect their pay. Near the Iraq’s border with Syria in the far western town Qaim, another suicide bomb exploded. Backed by the United States since 2006, Sahwa militia (or “Awakening movements”) in Iraq reportedly have been fighting al-Qaeda.

AFGHANISTAN
Worsens daily
Escalation in the war on Afghanistan has taken enormous tolls on the Afghan people ─ and (as in Iraq) the war as weighted most heavily on the children. More than a thousand civilians have died this year alone in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Rights Monitor say recent statistics show more than 1,000 civilians died in the first six months of 2010, with over half of them dying in suicide attacks and roadside bombings. Among those killed and injured were children.


Last month was the deadliest for international troops in this nearly nine-year-old war. One hundred and three international troops including 60 Americans have died. This month (July) 54 have died of which 39 were from the United States.

• Kandahar

Taliban fighters today freed 14 inmates from a jail in western Afghanistan after staging a daring prison break. In November 2009, 13 prisoners escaped from the same prison via a tunnel. In June that year, more than 1,000 Taliban inmates escaped from Sarpoza prison in Kandahar city after an exploded suicide bomb blew open the front gates and destroyed prison walls.


Sunday’s prison break comes two days before Afghanistan is scheduled to host a major international donors’ conference to be attended by scores of foreign ministers including U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

• Kabul

Three people died and some 30 suffered wounds today when a suicide bomb exploded in central Kabul where on Tuesday more than 70 international representatives including some 40 foreign ministers are expected to meet in conference and hear the Afghan government’s plan to take over security of its country.


Afghan president Hamid Karzai is reportedly getting ready to announce an official timetable for foreign troops to leave his country. At the international donors’ conference on Tuesday in Kabul, the Afghan government is expected also to present a long-term development strategy in exchange for more aid pledges for Afghanistan; and more control over the spending of international aid.

“Despite the high-profile spin in Washington and Kabul about progress made in Afghanistan, the Afghan people have only witnessed and suffered an intensifying armed conflict over the past six months. Contrary to President Barrack Obama’s promise that the deployment of additional 30,000 US forces to the country would ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat’ Taliban insurgents and their al-Qaeda allies in the region, the insurgency has become more resilient, multi-structured and deadly. Information and figures received, verified and analyzed by Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) show about 1,074 civilian people were killed and over 1,500 were injured in armed violence and security incidents from 1 January to 30 June 2010. This shows a slight increase in the number of civilian deaths compared to the same period last year when 1,059 deaths were recorded,” writes ARM [Afghanistan Rights Monitor] Mid-Year Report Civilian Casualties of Conflict, January-June 2010 Kabul, Afghanistan, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2010.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/NROI-87A9PB-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf

PAKISTAN
Neighbors against neighbors
The U.S. Secretary of State is in Pakistan today and Monday reportedly promising hundreds of millions to that country and pressing its government to escalate war against [its people] armed groups in the country’s northwest ─ particularly the so-called ‘Haqqani network’ ─ supposedly the deadliest group operating in Afghanistan whose fighters often take sanctuary in Pakistan. Reports say Clinton also will press Pakistan on ‘reconciliation’ talks between anti-government fighters and the Afghan government.

Sources and notes
KABUL [Persian Kābol] is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan ─ its cultural and economic center ─ lying along the Kābul River (elevation about 5,900 feet, 1,800 meters) in the east-central part of the country. Roads connect Kabul with most other areas of Afghanistan; to the north with Uzbekistan, to the east with Pakistan [Britannica].

“Suicide bombers target Iraq militia,” July 18, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/20107181483330423.html
“Afghanistan violence soars” (Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports), July 18, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/2010716135511780796.html
“Taliban stage daring jail break,” July 18, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/20107187115691869.html
Karzai ‘sets withdrawal timeline.’ July 18, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/2010718131825950716.html
“Clinton in Pakistan for talks,” July 18, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/201071842649336595.html

Same policy produces same results

U.S. in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam; domestic neglect
Excerpted and edited from ANSWER by Carolyn Bennett

U.S. taxpayers experiencing devastating cuts in state and local budgets, layoffs of municipal workers, soaring tuition hikes in public colleges—all because of budget shortfalls—will see billions of their tax dollars go to fund the occupation of Afghanistan and pay the salaries of poor Afghans so they can shoot other poor Afghans.

This has been a classic divide-and-conquer tactic employed in foreign lands by colonial occupiers:  attempting to break up resistance united against their invasion and occupation.

The Obama administration and military brass have taken a page from the murderous Nixon-Kissinger policy announced in 1969, the ‘Vietnamization’ plan. There had been a rising tide of anti-war sentiment within the U.S. and Nixon and the Pentagon wanted the Vietnamese to kill each other in greater numbers as a way of diminishing U.S. war dead. Millions of Vietnamese died during that war. Fifty-eight thousand U.S. military personnel died. This U.S. strategy created a tsunami in human suffering and failed to alter the outcome. Vietnamese were and Afghans are unwilling to live under foreign occupation.

Al Jazeera [AFP] reporting
AFPAK South/Central Asia

July 17
Eighteen people (estimated) died today in northwest Pakistan when people armed with assault rifles opened fire on a convoy of passenger buses. The buses were passing through the village of Char Khel in the Kurram tribal agency. In the past few years, violence in Kurram has escalated. The buses in today's incident had been travelling from the border town of Parachinar to Peshawar, the main city in northwest Pakistan [“Deadly ambush in northwest Pakistan,” July 17, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/201071752053757115.html].

July 14
Twelve NATO troops (estimated) died in a 48-hour period in southern Afghanistan. Four U.S. soldiers died when a bomb exploded in southern Afghanistan. Three died Tuesday along with five civilians and an Afghan police officer when a suicide bomb exploded at an Afghan police compound in Kandahar. Three other NATO troops died when an Afghan soldier, reportedly a ‘Taliban sympathizer,’ opened fire in Helmand province [“Five US soldiers die in Afghanistan,” July 14, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/2010714123346449802.html]


Sources
“‘Petraeus promotes civil war in Afghanistan’ ─ Statement from Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition,” Friday, July 16, 2010, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, http://www.answercoalition.org/ ; info@internationalanswer.org; National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948; Boston: 857-334-5084; New York City: 212-694-8720; Los Angeles: 213-251-1025; San Francisco: 415-821-6545; Chicago: 773-463-0311

Southwest Asia U.S. wars’ war dead

Re-reported, compiled, edited by Carolyn Bennett

AFPAK

Northwest Pakistan
One hundred and two (estimated) people have died in double suicide bombings in northwest Pakistan. The death toll on Friday had stood at 62 people, but Saturday’s reports made the attack the deadliest since an October 2009 car bomb destroyed a market in the northwestern city of Peshawar that left 125 people dead. In recent months, “Pakistan has been hit by a wave of deadly attacks. Last week at least 42 people died in an attack on Pakistan’s most important Sufi shrine in the eastern city of Lahore.”

Afghanistan’s Kandahar
Seven (estimate) civilians and seven NATO forces died this week in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and elsewhere in the country. Cars were blazing, windows shattered; seven people suffered wounds in Saturday’s blast from explosives strapped to a parked motorcycle in Kandahar’s commercial center. The five NATO forces’ deaths happened in three separate attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan. A sixth soldier reportedly died in an accidental explosion. All the reported dead were Americans.

NATO forces issued a statement on Saturday admitting its troops on Thursday had “‘accidently’ killed six [Afghan] civilians while battling Taliban fighters [in Paktia province south of Kabul] earlier in the week.” Saturday’s admission of killing civilians came the day after another NATO confession to “accidentally” killing “five Afghan soldiers in a botched airstrike” on the Andar district of Ghazni province “where the Afghan soldiers were launching a pre-dawn ambush against fighters.”

Hundreds of Afghan protesters took to the streets on Saturday chanting slogans against foreign forces and against Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai after U.S. troops killed two civilians and arrested three others during a Wednesday pre-dawn raid on the outskirts of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Corruption in war
Afghans paid nearly $1 billion in bribes last year. Since 2006, corruption has become far more widespread. Corruption appears to be worst in Afghanistan’s justice and security agencies. Ten percent of Afghans reported paying bribes to obtain court decisions or police protection. Many of those bribes were expensive and nearly half of them cost more than 2,500 Afghanis ($55).

Thirty-eight percent of Afghans reported effect of police corruption [AFP]. Forty-two per cent said the interior ministry was the most corrupt in Afghanistan, 32 per cent said the justice ministry was most corrupt. The findings come from a study conducted by Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA), a Kabul-based NGO, based on interviews with 6,500 people in all but two (Paktika and Nuristan) of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

Integrity Watch Afghanistan’s similar survey in 2007 found the total cost of bribes was $466 million, less than half the level recorded in 2009. A January 2010 report released by the United Nations found that Afghans paid $2.5 billion in bribes in 2009 and that 59 per cent of Afghans think corruption is the biggest problem facing the country.

How many (est.) in two-theater

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD?

Casualty sites reporting

July 11, 2010 (accurate totals unknown)

• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 184]

Wounded 31,874-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides 18 a day

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

• Iraq Body Count figures

96,933 – 105,688

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,412 U.S., 4,730 Coalition

AFGHANISTAN: 1,171 U.S., 1,920 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Sources and notes
“Pakistan death toll soars above 100,” July 10, 2010,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/20107954021715355.html
“Deadly blast rocks Kandahar city,” July 10, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/2010710103937406855.html
“Study says Afghan graft worsening” (Gregg Carlstrom), July 08, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/201078124118415689.html