Please answer before clicking on the link.

quote:

---

It is with great sadness that Canadians learned of the death of Cpl Michael Starker of the 15 Field Ambulance Regiment. ...

Cpl Starker was a courageous soldier fighting for the values of freedom in a country that had lost them for too long. I know his fellow Canadians across this country are proud of his contribution to both Afghanistan and Canada.

---

Source.

[ 08 May 2008: Message edited by: unionist ]

quote:

---

Cpl Starker was a courageous soldier fighting for the values of freedom in a country that had lost them for too long.

---

U.S. operation sparks Afghan unrest

quote:

---

The east Afghan region of Nangahar has seen violent protests after US forces raided a house, killing three people, arresting nine and seizing arms. ...

Protesters blocking the main road to Pakistan carried the bodies of the three men killed.

Police who came to break up the five-hour demonstration say they shot into the air as a warning but the head of Nangahar provincial council says they fired into the crowd, killing two people and injuring a number of others.

---

quote:

---

Nearly one-third, $14 billion, would go to security while much of the rest would be directed toward reviving the decrepit agricultural sector, Ishaq Nadiri, senior economic adviser to President Hamid Karzai, told reporters late Tuesday.

---

quote:

---

A United Nations rights official alleged today that foreign intelligence agents were acting with impunity in Afghanistan and have taken part in secret raids that have killed civilians.

UN envoy Philip Alston said he was aware of at least three such recent raids in the country’s south and east. He said no one was taking responsibility for the killings.

He did not name a particular country, but mentioned one raid in January, in which two Afghan brothers are suspected of having been killed, that was conducted by Afghans and personnel from a U.S. special forces base in Kandahar.

He said Afghan government officials have said the victims had no connection to Taliban insurgents.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for heavily armed internationals accompanied by heavily armed Afghan forces to be wandering around conducting dangerous raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking responsibility for them,” Alston told reporters.

Alston is a special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions. He has spent 12 days traveling Afghanistan.

He said foreign intelligence agencies were operating with apparent “impunity” in certain provinces. He said such secret operations were “absolutely unacceptable.”

---

quote:

---

"Underestimation of the Afghan nation, the belief that we have superiority over Afghans and that they are inferior and they cannot be trusted to run affairs in this country." ...

"A lack of knowledge of the social and ethnic structure of this country; a lack of sufficient understanding of traditions and religion."

Not only that, but he says the country's new patrons are making their own new mistakes as well.

"Nato soldiers and officers alienate themselves from Afghans - they are not in touch in an everyday manner. They communicate with them from the barrels of guns in their bullet-proof Humvees." ...

In Helmand province British forces in Kajaki are fighting from positions originally built by the Soviets.

There are wrecks of armoured vehicles rusting in irrigation ditches in the same places they are now fighting the Taleban.

They are fighting over the same patches of land.

"We didn't bother to collect the wrecks of our burned tanks and other vehicles but you do - you are more resourceful perhaps, or maybe you have fewer losses," the ambassador said.

"But if things continue going the wrong way, as they are now, come back in two years and you will find plenty of your own wrecks."

---

4 Canadian soldiers wounded in Afghanistan

quote:

---

Four Canadian soldiers were wounded and a teenage Afghan boy was killed Saturday in a suicide bomb attack on a military convoy in Kandahar City, Afghan officials said.

The soldiers were taken by helicopter to Kandahar Airfield for treatment. Officials told CBC News they were in fair condition and were expected to resume their duties soon.

The boy who died was on the roadside when the blast occurred. Two other boys at the scene were wounded.

---

quote:

---

About 30 Taleban fighters have been killed in a joint Nato operation in the western province of Farah, Afghan military officials say.

The large operation was initially led by the Afghan National Army (ANA).

At a later stage, Nato warplanes were called in to bomb a compound said to house Taleban fighters.

---

Kill, kill, kill

quote:

---

Luckhurst said the key to disrupting these cells is to target not just the bomb planters, but the people who plan, organize and finance the networks.

---

Translation: Kill anybody.

quote:

---

Military officials said there were no Canadian casualties as soldiers fought suspected Taliban militants all week, storming their hideouts and killing an unspecified number of them, as part of a larger NATO push in southern Afghanistan to target the networks that build and plant roadside bombs and booby traps.

---

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Canadian and Afghan forces appear to have scored a modest victory in an operation west of Kandahar this week, killing a mid-level Taliban commander and a handful of militant foot soldiers.

Afghan police identified the dead insurgent leader on Saturday as Mullah Tohr Agha, a group commander in the volatile Zhari district.

"We are quite satisfied," Gen. Sayed Agha Saqib, the provincial police chief of Kandahar said at news conference in the provincial capital, where some of the captured fighters were paraded out for the media.

Agha was killed in an air strike Friday on a compound near Pashmul, Saqib said.

His elimination is important to the effort to bring stability to the restive region because Agha's cell was apparently involved in planting roadside bombs, burning schools and a co-ordinated campaign of assassination attempts on local government officials.

Operation Rolling Thunder

quote:

---

Operation Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained U.S. 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from 2 March 1965 until 1 November 1968, during the Vietnam War.

---

quote:

---

"We just move forward. It was a successful operation. We don't measure success by body counts, but should we happen to eliminate commanders while doing so, that is a success."

---

quote:

---

Luckhurst cautioned that such victories are short-lived because there is an ample supply of fighters willing to step up and take charge.

---

The war on tots is not a game
that’s played to pass the time,
It is a war of all that’s good,
which we are, versus them!
We went to war
when tots attacked…oh now
you shake your head!
If facts are truth, you can’t deny
try deny it to the dead!

We were attacked on 911
well covered by your tv
The Fox on CNNBC did well,
shaking that cash cow tree…!
(But there, you see, they go again,
shaking the old cap-stand!
Since few are against the War on Tots
allow us a little laugh…!)

Our fighting men, so brave so few
Go everywhere for peace
Making free a world at war
but some yet try appease!

We must support the war on tots
If we’re going to stay on top
And as nits make lice, otherwise
Lousy wars cost way too much!

The proof is in the bible …
a mighty army on the move
Confronts a bunch of dirty tots
when one of ours steps forward!

Goliath was so strong, extreme
faced boy David, but look who won!
The War on Tots is ours to lose
A lesson finally learned!

Wars aren’t right, but must be fought
who attacked on 911?
Lihop, Mihop, a few other questions
will be answered, not that it matters?
(But let’s address the conspiracies
the theororist’s global whining,
if they were true, then why are so few
up in arms, and protest marching!)

Bleeding hearts assume all tots
prefer splashing pools to firefights,
But Goliath fell, he lost the war
- IED or a slingshot stone
- took unfair advantage of the game
And the size of the fallen mighty!

Our needs are mighty, and never ending
Blair Bush Harper, military spending,
around the world they confront resentment
Political Correctness ties their hands
(while enabling the other!) who must
then be dealt aggression…

We strike hard at nests of vipers
Shock and Awe and bloody diapers
war’s not for the Faint of Heart
The wars on tots we DID NOT start!

CNNBC the Fox
reports the truths we paid and bought
Though liberals try hide that truth
(about the War on the Terrible Twos)
The media soothes, no news, good news!
Up is ‘down’ in a world gone belly up…

George Santayana

http://tinyurl.com/5ftt5h

quote:

---

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Sayed Shah commands a lonely Afghan police checkpoint on the road to Kandahar and in his pocket he carries a laminated card of appreciation from U.S. Special Forces for his help in hunting down straggling Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in 2001. Even though it's written in Pashto, he has trouble reading it entirely. "I know a little of what it says," he says with slightly wounded pride.

Canadian development officials in Ottawa are considering the idea of funding a literacy program specifically aimed at Afghan Uniformed Police in Kandahar - a proposal that would bring 340 officers up to a Grade 4 level of reading and writing.

Shah is among the approximately 80 per cent of Afghan Uniformed Police officers in Kandahar who are illiterate. The figure is based on an informal survey of eight police sub-stations, or precincts, in the city by Canadian police mentors last May.

---

Regarding Canada's extension of Paul Martin's aggressive combat mission in formerly U.S.-controlled Kandahar to prop up a U.S. stooge in Kabul, le quote:

quote:

---

"It is very sad that some of us[24 MP's] voted with them," (Toronto Star, October 11, 2006)

---

A gun registry! That's what they need in Afghanistan

[ 03 June 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

---

The few locals still living in Pashmul, the scene of this “liberation” campaign by the kuffar Canadians, either fled by foot or cowered in their dugouts before the fighting started. Most are poor farmers. Scores of locals, the “enemy”, were killed by the brave Canucks, who, just to clinch their “success”, called on US military air support to drop several bombs, including Hellfire missiles. Several dozen “enemy” were destroyed. Only one Afghan government soldier was hurt when he accidentally shot himself in the foot. No Canadians were even injured. Major Grubb acknowledged the operation isn’t a “permanent result” because the Taliban seem to have an unlimited supply of fighters willing to battle for Pashmul.

....
In a recent report which notably reflects the implicit horror of what the occupiers are doing, the Globe and Mail’s Doug Saunders describes a scene in Naray, on the northeast border with Pakistan, where 200 trigger-happy US Army soldiers huddle in tents, sheltering themselves from regular rocket attacks. He was greeted by a certain Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Kolenda, a clean-cut, steel-eyed officer in the 173rd Airborne, who introduced him to one of the key battlefield tactics of the new American military — the two-hour PowerPoint presentation. “The heart of the matter here, as we see it, is a socio-economic dislocation,” Kolenda told him, before quoting from Sir George Scott Robertson’s 1900 manual Kaffirs of the Hindu Kush and explaining in detail the anthropology and tribal politics of this region, including some new research he had commissioned from American Human Terrain Specialists.

“There’s been an atomisation of society here — the elders lost control over their people, and a new elite of fighters came in to fill the vacuum, so what we need to do out here is to re-empower the traditional leadership structures. As you approach the possibility of self-sufficient development, then you reach what I’ll call the developmental asymptote, which is the point we’re striving to reach.” Hardly the sort of talk he had expected from an infantry brigade known for its ruthlessness. Here at the headwaters of the river, he felt he had encountered some “latter-day Colonel Kurtzes, losing themselves in Cartesian twists of logic amid all the mud and dust.”

....
Despite the insistence by the occupiers that they can outlast the resistance, there is a constant string of reports indicating the Taliban are continuing to increase their strength, taking control of the regional centre Ghaszani in central Afghanistan last week, though reports were quick to add that occupation forces rushed in to retake the village. There have been reports of Taliban fighters moving into several other rural districts north and east of Kabul. The Taliban is seen by many in the districts surrounding the capital as a credible alternative to the weak US-backed government.

Kabul itself is the constant scene of bombings. Sunday, a remote-controlled bomb blew up a mini-bus shuttling National Army personnel to the Ministry of Defence, killing a woman and wounding five others, including three army personnel. Three days earlier a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of international soldiers in eastern Kabul, killing three civilians.

---

Fallen B.C. soldier remembered

quote:

---

A soldier from the Okanagan who died Saturday after falling into a well while on a joint night patrol mentoring Afghan soldiers was remembered by his commanding general and other top officers of Task Force Kandahar as a hero.

---

quote:

---

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) will demand of all political parties in our Parliament to take steps immediately to end the military occupation in Afghanistan and to implement the disengagement of Canadian forces and to bring home our Canadian soldiers from the illegal war in Afghanistan.

The CLC will assist affiliates to educate and mobilize their membership to oppose the Canadian military intervention in Afghanistan.

The CLC will continue to work with partners in the Canadian Peace Alliance to educate Canadians about the war.

The CLC will build solidarity with Afghani workers, social justice and women's organizations.

Because Canadians have a proud history of committing our Armed Forces to the role of peacekeepers dating back to the end of World War 2.

Because there are no clear objectives, accomplishments or benefits for Canadians in this war in which dozens of young Canadians and hundreds of innocent Afghan citizens are being killed.

Because our young soldiers are dying in a war in Afghanistan in the role of invading army with no mandate from Canadian citizens.

Because the Harper government's military intervention in Afghanistan is not contributing to establishing peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Because the Canadian government's military campaign is based on supporting American political, economic and military interests rather than on contributing to establishing peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Because the Canadian government's military campaign is based on supporting American political, economic and military interests rather than on contributing to peace in the region.

Because the actions of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization occupation is increasing the violence in Afghanistan.

Because the massive amounts of money spent on the military in Afghanistan would best be used for funding health care, education, job creation and social services.

Because the labour movement has always been at the center of any struggle for peace and justice.

---

More about this

[ 15 June 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

quote:

---

Hundreds of Taliban fighters took over several villages in southern Afghanistan on Monday just outside the region's largest city, and NATO and Afghan forces were redeploying to meet the threat, officials said.

Mohammad Farooq, the government leader in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, said around 500 Taliban fighters had moved into his district and taken over several villages.

Arghandab lies just north of Kandahar city – the Taliban's former stronghold – and a tribal leader from the region warned that the militants could use the cover from Arghandab's grape and pomegranate orchards to mount an attack on the provincial capital itself.

"All of Arghandab is made of orchards. The militants can easily hide and easily fight," said Haji Ikramullah Khan.

"It's quite close to Kandahar," Khan added. "During the Russian war, the Russians didn't even occupy Arghandab, because when they fought here they suffered big casualties."
….

NATO spokesman Mark Laity said NATO and Afghan military officials were redeploying troops to the region to "meet any potential threats."

---

quote:

---

The fears were palpable among NATO forces.

Some employees of the international troops refused to leave their homes today out of concern for their safety and did not come into work. One Canadian soldier bluntly assessed the situation:

“Shit’s hitting the fan,” he said. “They want to take the city. They want to make a statement.”

---

LOL.

quote:

---

Taliban fighters swarmed the doorstep of Afghanistan’s second-largest city today, bombing small bridges and scattering landmines to keep Canadian and international troops at bay.

The president of the Kandahar provincial council and brother of President Hamid Karzai said the rebels claimed a handful of villages and were rumoured to be seeking a bigger target: Kandahar city.

---

quote:

---

KABUL, Afghanistan - Foreign intelligence agents are leading secret, deadly raids on suspected insurgents in Afghanistan and shirking responsibility when innocent civilians are killed, a U.N. official alleged Thursday.Philip Alston, a special investigator for the U.N. Human Rights Council, referred to three such recent raids in the country's south and east.While he didn't specifically mention any intelligence agencies, he appeared to imply American involvement. U.S. military officials declined to comment on the allegations

---

quote:

---

The prime minister says a deadly prison break in Afghanistan last week is a reminder of just how dangerous the Taliban can be in that war-torn country.

---

Uh-huh.

quote:

---

Defence Minister Peter MacKay called the prison break very serious...

---

quote:

---

Canadians could be target in feared Taliban attack

the Taliban appeared to prepare for a full-scale attack on Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said the Canadian military is among the feared targets.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, president of the Kandahar provincial council, told CBC News that intelligence gathered suggests that Canada's provincial reconstruction team could come under attack.

Karzai, who is the brother of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, said the Afghan governor's palace, the Afghan police headquarters and his own home are also targets.

"But keep in mind that Canadian Forces themselves have not confirmed any of this," the CBC's Paul Hunter said, reporting from Kandahar Airfield.

Heavily armed Taliban fighters appeared to be mobilizing on Tuesday, bombing bridges and planting landmines in the villages in the Arghandab region, about 15 kilometres northwest of Kandahar.

---

The Canadian Forces' 2,500 soldiers were already primarily based in Kandahar.

quote:

---

NATO and Afghan forces have deployed troops to seal off the area to drive the militants from the district, which has an estimated population of 150,000.

NATO troops have dropped leaflets by air warning people to leave the district, fleeing villagers said.

FULL CONTROL
Haji Agha Lalai, a member of Kandahar's provincial council, said 300 families had left and more were leaving their homes.

...Ahmadi said the Taliban were in full control of Arghandab district where there were about 500 militants, including a large number of those who escaped from a prison in Kandahar.

---

The flareup comes despite the presence of more than 60,000 foreign forces under the command of the U.S. military and NATO, as well as about 150,000 Afghan forces.

Right, so it seems, we are expected to believe that 500 Taliban are going to take on 210k worth of NATO and Afghan military personal, and the US Air Force and takeover Kandahar?

Do they want a reason to level the area? Seems like retaliation for the prison destruction to me.

h/t NS

[ 17 June 2008: Message edited by: remind ]

quote:

---

NATO troops have dropped leaflets by air warning people to leave the district, fleeing villagers said.

---

Somebody over there didn't get the memo. This thread was well titled in it's first incarnation, and remains so in it's IVth.

(edited because if I can't spell Taliban properly, I probably shouldn't be posting here.)

[ 17 June 2008: Message edited by: oldgoat ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by oldgoat:
I was just trying to remember how long ago it was that the NATO leadership announced, with Hillier a strong voice in the chorus, that the major Taliban leaders had been eleminated, and the remainder scattered in disarray. Merely a mopping up operation, and the battle for hearts and minds close to won!

---

The first claims of the Taliban's final demise came in December of 2001, of course, when they were declared a 'spent force,' and the easy victory was already being cited as a model for a future cakewalk in Iraq.

More recently, we heard in February of this year from Jack Granatstein that the Taliban were capable of delivering mere 'pinpricks':

quote:

---

Militarily, the Taliban cannot stand and fight (as it tried to do in 2006). Yes, it can use IEDs and suicide bombers, but those are pinpricks, however costly in lives, that smack of military desperation.

---

quote:

---

So what are we to make of the observation that there are nests of Taliban everywhere? Does that mean Canadian and NATO troops are not winning?

In fact, it means exactly the opposite.

Canada and NATO are winning in Afghanistan because the insurgents can not mass in large numbers and fight NATO troops as they had in the past when they lost horribly.

“The Taliban cannot put a force of 100 together,” explained LaRoche. “We’re talking 10, 15, 20 people, which is the maximum we’ve seen. Their commanders are section-sized commanders.

---

Uncritically quoting UNAMA official Chris Alexander, DiManno reported that Taliban communication networks had been penetrated and that the insurgency had plateaued:

quote:

---

"What Taliban commanders learned last year – when several key leaders were killed – is that NATO, the Afghan forces, and in particular the National Directorate of Security (the Afghan intelligence agency) has penetrated their communication network, the lifeline of command-and-control, and infiltrated their ranks, just as the Taliban and their sympathizers had successfully co-opted the Ministry of the Interior at a senior level and some vectors of the military.

"Even their high-profile guys can't trust their own entourages, can't use a cellphone or any other kind of communication . . . it's too risky. And they have to communicate."

From where Alexander sits – a perspective admittedly not shared by many outside the country, and assuredly not by most civilians in the volatile south – the insurgency has plateaued. It's particularly reckless and a sign of desperation to turn that insurgency on Kabul.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by oldgoat:
I was just trying to remember how long ago it was that the NATO leadership announced, with Hillier a strong voice in the chorus, that the major Taliban leaders had been eleminated, and the remainder scattered in disarray. Merely a mopping up operation, and the battle for hearts and minds close to won!

Somebody over there didn't get the memo. This thread was well titled in it's first incarnation, and remains so in it's IVth.

---

As recently as May 8th, your comment triggered a memory of the article I read in my last months Legion Magazine, and I found it on line:

quote:

---

While he believes there is slow and steady progress in Afghanistan, he says there is “not enough development visible” and that while the Taliban have been diminished, they are still a lethal fighting force.

Despite this, he is confident that the bulk of the fighting is over, and that in the near future, after February 2009, Canada will be able to devote a larger proportion of its forces to training Afghan soldiers and police, mainly using the Operational Mentor Liaison Teams (OMLTs) which are Canadian soldiers embedded inside Afghan army and police units.

---

And he reaffirmed they, the Afghan military, "still" need training!

Corporate profits are rising due to the Canadian military's involvement in the war in Afghanistan -

quote:

---

Corporations such as GM Canada, Bombardier, Bell Helicopter, SNC-Lavalin, CAE Electronics, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Canadian Marconi, and Colt Canada are only a few of the Canadian based military suppliers profiting from the war in Afghanistan.

---

And, as unionist points out, the "development money" is a farce -

quote:

---

The Canadian development industry also profits from the war and occupation. The one billion dollars Canada has "pledged" to spend on development in Afghanistan, from 2001 to 2011, pales in comparison to the 7.2 billion dollars already spent on the military mission. Nonetheless, a billion dollars is a significant sum. However, most development spending returns to Canada as salaries and expenses. Manufacturers as well as service providers such as construction contractors and airlines profit significantly from the development industry -- while the little development spending that actually does reach Afghanistan benefits few Afghans.

When our research group toured five Afghan provinces in 2007, we were appalled by the miserable conditions most Afghans must live in. Even in the safest areas of the country, where there is no excuse for the occupying forces failure to reconstruct essential infrastructure, many Afghans do not have even the barest essentials of clean water and adequate sanitation. In Kabul, where the international forces have occupied the city since 2001, less than 29 percent of the people have access to clean drinking water, according to reports by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.

---

This corporate well being is happening on the backs of Afghans, who are not being helped and who are suffering terribly as the war and occupation rages on.

I feel certain that the Afghans would be rejecting Taliban overtures if money was being spent to actually make life better there. Peacekeeping and reconstruction and development are the keystones for that, and Canada should return to it's former status as the worlds greatest peacekeepers.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Noah_Scape:
Corporate profits are rising due to the Canadian military's involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by sgm:
Time for a re-think.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:
"Hundreds" of "Taliban" killed, and only two (2) Afghan puppet forces. They are either delusional liars or ruthless mass murderers. In this particular case, I'll go with option #1. The only question is, how many non-combattants did they butcher this time round.

---

Well, they have reported 56 "Taliban" were killed now. So does that mean 100's of civilians?

The area has 150k worth of civilians, so one can only imagine, as we will not get the truth, of how many were actually killed and whose homes were destroyed by the air strikes.

quote:

---

So does that mean 100's of civilians?

---

quote:

---

(OTTAWA) – A new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) raises serious questions about the impact of a proposed trans-Afghanistan natural gas pipeline on the role of Canadian Forces in that war-torn country.

A Pipeline Through a Troubled Land: Afghanistan, Canada and the New Great Energy Game documents the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, which will transport natural gas 1,680 kilometres from southeast Turkmenistan through southern Afghanistan, to Pakistan and India.

The report, written by international energy economist and former lead economist of PetroCanada John Foster, describes the U.S.-backed pipeline as turning Afghanistan into “an energy bridge” between Central and South Asia.

“The U.S. is our ally and it clearly asserts the geopolitical importance of the region. But the quest for 'energy security' risks drawing Canada unwittingly into a new Great Energy Game," said Foster.

---

quote:

---

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny - chairman of the Senate's national security and defence committee - said Canada has similar interests in the global energy market as the United States, and should not shy away from supporting U.S. geopolitical objectives. "I don't think we would be serving Canadian interests if we were ignoring American interests," he said.

---

quote:

---

Military officials did not reveal their nationalities, but CBC News has been told that no Canadians were among the casualties.

---

quote:

---

In a country without banks, opium is the standard way to get a loan.

You borrow opium and pay back with opium.

While Juma Khan was growing poppies, he could pay off the interest on the debt, although never the capital.

The ban means he is having to grow low-value wheat.

This year, he will not even be able to feed his family.

And because he is landless, his only asset is his female children.

He has already exchanged two daughters for debt and now the youngest has wiped off a further £1,000 ($2,000) worth, a huge amount of money in rural Afghanistan.

---

quote:

---

BRITISH troops have used missiles in Afghanistan which suck the air out of human targets, shred their internal organs and crush their bodies, according to a leading British newspaper.

The Hellfire missiles, also known as vacuum bombs, are condemned by human rights groups as "brutal".

---

When an Afghani (alaways a "Taliban") places a roadside bomb or goes so far as to sacrifice themselves in a suicide attack, these are acts of cowardice and, if successful, lead to columns of print about ur brave soldiers.

On top of this, every Afghani who dies is a "Taliban", unless proven otherwise.

Nato said today they need 6000 more troops or the "war" cannot be won by 2010. A 10% increase now to assist in the killing.

quote:

---

Three Canadian soldiers were injured Saturday afternoon after the armoured vehicle they were riding in rolled over in Kandahar City, the military said.

One soldier, who suffered serious injuries, was flown by helicopter to the hospital at Kandahar Airfield. Two other soldiers were treated for minor injuries.

The three, whose names aren't being disclosed, were in an RG-31 armoured vehicle when the crash occurred at about 5:30 p.m. local time. The circumstances are unclear.

---

DEATH TO AMERICA! shout hundreds of Afghan protestors

quote:

---

The latest deaths came after officials in eastern Afghanistan said a civilian man and his young son had been killed in fighting overnight between US-led troops and militants in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar Province.

A local official said it was not clear who killed them. The coalition said it could not confirm any civilian deaths.

But a group of 200-300 locals demonstrated, blaming US forces. They shouted "death to America" and called for foreigners to leave the area as well as for compensation to be paid after the deaths of the civilians.

---

All Canadians should listen carefully to and support these demands of the Aghan people.

[ 23 June 2008: Message edited by: unionist ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:
More news covered up by cowardly Canadian media:

DEATH TO AMERICA! shout hundreds of Afghan protestors

---

Taliban skim $100 million from Afghan opium trade: UN

quote:

---

The Taliban in Afghanistan made more than $100 million in 2007 from imposing taxes and providing protection to the country’s huge opium trade, the United Nations anti-narcotics chief said Tuesday.

---

So, where did the other $900 million go????? You have to go right to the end of the story:

quote:

---

"Last year, Afghanistan produced about 8,000 tonnes of opium," he said, "The world in the past few years has consumed about 4,000 tonnes... This leaves a surplus. It is stored somewhere and not with the farmers."

It is not known whether these stockpiles are held by traffickers, corrupt Afghan officials and politicians, or the Taliban themselves, but they represent hundreds of millions of dollars, Costa said, raising fears that even more money could be spent on fighting NATO and Afghan troops.

---

Ah - so it might be Karzai and his thugs. Or it might be the Taliban - but wait! Check the middle of the story:

quote:

---

In the last years of Taliban rule in the country, the extremist militia had all but wiped out opium production, calling it un-Islamic and punishing drug dealers. But poppy farming has surged since then and Afghan militants are using money from the drugs trade to fight NATO troops in the country, officials say. ...

U.S. troops in the south of the country are now instructed not to interfere with poppy crops, according to a report this week by the Associated Press from Helmand province, one of the prime sources of Afghan opium.

"Poppy fields in Afghanistan are [like] the cornfields of Ohio," U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Jerry Stover told an AP reporter embedded with his platoon in Helmand. "When we got here, they were asking us if it’s OK to grow poppy, and we said, ‘Yeah, just don’t use an AK-47 [assault rifle].’"

---

quote:

---

KABUL, Afghanistan — The number of civilians killed in fighting between insurgents and security forces in Afghanistan has soared by two-thirds in the first half of this year, to almost 700 people, a senior UN official said Sunday.

[snip]

“Most of those casualties are caused by the insurgents, who seem to have no regard for civilian life, but there are also still significant numbers caused by the international military forces,” he said.

Mr. Holmes said UN figures show that 698 civilians have died as a result of the fighting in the first half of this year. That compares to 430 in the first six months of 2007, a rise of 62 per cent.

Militants caused 422 of the recorded civilian casualties, while government or foreign troops killed 255 people, according to the U.N. numbers. The cause of 21 other deaths was unclear.

---

The invaders have deep regard for civilian life, you know, so when they kill them it's not nearly as bad as if they're killed by those who have no such regard.

But wait a sec - did the "Taliban" actually kill anyone? The report just says they "caused 422 of the recorded civilian casualties, while government or foreign troops killed 255 people". Hmmm - how did they "cause" those deaths? By cynically using civilians as "human shields" and thus "causing" them to be killed by U.S. air strikes?

quote:

---

Correspondents say it was also the second month in a row in which casualties exceeded those in Iraq.

Military statements throughout June show that at least 45 foreign troops died as a result of war or accidents.

---

quote:

---

Deh Bala district governor Hamisha Gul told AFP news agency that 22 people had been killed in the strike - 19 of them women and children - and several more wounded.

He said the information had come from police and other officials investigating the incident in the remote area of Nangarhar province.

A man at a hospital in Jalalabad told AP news agency that the group was a wedding party on its way to the groom's house.

"They stopped in a narrow location for rest. The plane came and bombed the area," he said.

"There were between 80 to 90 people altogether. We have carried six of the injured to this hospital, and more might be coming. The exact number of casualties is not clear."

---

The U.S. military denied it was a wedding party and said there were no women or children present.

quote:

---

Pte. Colin William Wilmot died after a bomb exploded while he was on overnight foot patrol with troops from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in the Panjwaii district.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:
87th Canadian soldier killed

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Boom Boom:
When do they start to take the hint and get out?

---

The same time they got the hint in South-East Asia - when they are militarily defeated and when they no longer feel secure on the home front. Military defeat is pretty much a given, with the Taliban said to control as much as 70% of the countryside.

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:

On the home front, unfortunately, you have characters like Obama

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by RationalThought:

Calling the first African-American presidential candidate who has a real chance or being elected a 'character' is despicable. You should be ashamed of yourself.

---

I am ashamed of myself - for spending 12 seconds answering your provocation.

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:

I'm quite sure Afghan orphans and other bereaved family members will feel consoled in the knowledge that their loved ones have been butchered by an "African-American" president who considered it was more vital to U.S. interests to murder them than to murder Iraqis.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Michelle:
RationalThought, once again, you need to start addressing other people here with more respect.

---

That respect ends when they call Obama a 'character'. It's as offensive as calling him 'boy'.

I'm just about at the point where I'm going to suspend your posting ability for a week so you can read the forums for a bit and get a feel for what is acceptable and what isn't.

I'd prefer not to do that, so please, maybe step back, take a deep breath, and think before posting.

[ 07 July 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]

Blast outside Indian embassy kills 40

quote:

---

A suicide car bomb detonated outside the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan's capital Monday, ripping through the building and killing 40 people. ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing and said it was carried out by militants trying to rupture the friendship between Afghanistan and India.

The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, hinted that the attack was carried out with help from Pakistan's intelligence service, saying "terrorists have carried out this attack in co-ordination and consultation with some of the active intelligence circles in the region."

---

Meanwhile, back on the home front:

quote:

---

... Obama has emphasized a foreign policy that hinges on defeating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The whole reason why Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq in 2002, as he said back then, is that he said it would be a dangerous diversion from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, and the people who hit us on 9-11," [Obama foreign policy advisor Susan] Rice said in a Wednesday interview with Politico. "And it has exactly the effect that he predicted and feared.”

---

[ 07 July 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by RationalThought:

Calling the first African-American presidential candidate who has a real chance or being elected a 'character' is despicable. You should be ashamed of yourself.

---

That's just another benefit of Operations Enduring Freedom - which. BTW, Canada is an integral part of.

quote:

---

Nangarhar province government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told AFP that 27 civilians -- most of them women and children -- were killed in air strikes that hit a wedding party Sunday. The dead included the bride, he said.

"We are sure if the bombing of civilians does not stop, it will provoke violence and the foreign forces will be responsible."

---

bombs away

The US-led coalition rejected the claim, and apparently said they'd bomb anyone who disagreed with their conclusions.

Edited to add: OK, the last bit was BS. But it might as well be true, judging by the obscene indifference to human life displayed by the US and other forces of occupation in Afghanistan.

[ 07 July 2008: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

quote:

---

But the US-led coalition rejected the allegations but said it was investigating. "We have no information beyond what we have been saying, that they were combatants," Captain Christian Patterson told AFP.

---

quote:

---

Nine British troops have been injured in a "friendly fire" incident in Helmand, Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

A UK Apache helicopter opened fire on troops from 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment on Wednesday after they were "mistaken for the enemy".

One seriously injured soldier was sent back to the UK while two others remain stable at the Camp Bastion base.

---

U.S. suffers heavy Afghan losses

quote:

---

Nine US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, in one of the biggest losses of life in a single incident since operations there began in 2001.

The troops died when insurgents attacked a military outpost in the north-eastern province of Kunar, close to the border with Pakistan.

---

quote:

---

Collateral Ceremonial Damage: The Wedding Crashers
A Short Till-Death-Do-Us-Part History of Bush's Wars
By Tom Engelhardt

It was a tribal affair. Against a picture-perfect sunset, before a beige-colored cross and an altar made of the very Texas limestone that was also used to build her family's "ranch," veil-less in an Oscar de la Renta gown, the 26 year-old bride said her vows. More than 200 members of her extended family and friends were on hand, as well as the 14 women in her "house party," who were dressed "in seven different styles of knee-length dresses in seven different colors that match[ed] the palette of… wildflowers -- blues, greens, lavenders and pinky reds." Afterwards, in a white tent set in a grove of trees and illuminated by strings of lights, the father of the bride, George W. Bush, danced with his daughter to the strains of "You Are So Beautiful." The media was kept at arm's length and the vows were private, but! undoubtedly they included the phrase "till death do us part."

That was early May of this year. Less than two months later, halfway across the world, another tribal affair was underway. The age of the bride involved is unknown to us, as is her name. No reporters were clamoring to get to her section of the mountainous backcountry of Afghanistan near the Pakistani border. We know almost nothing about her circumstances, except that she was on her way to a nearby village, evidently early in the morning, among a party 70-90 strong, mostly women, "escorting the bride to meet her groom as local tradition dictates."

It was then that the American plane (or planes) arrived, ensuring that she would never say her vows. "They stopped in a narrow location for rest," said one witness about her house party, according to the BBC. "The plane came and bombed the area." The district governor, Haji Amishah Gul, told the British Times, "So far there are 27 people, including women and children, who have been buried. Another 10 have been wounded. The attack happened at 6.30AM. Just two of the dead are men, the rest are women and children. The bride is among the dead."

U.S. military spokespeople flatly denied the story. They claimed that Taliban insurgents had been "clearly identified" among the group. "[T]his may just be normal, typical militant propaganda," said 1st Lieutenant Nathan Perry. Despite accounts of the wounded, including women and children, being brought to a local hospital, Captain Christian Patterson, coalition media officer, insisted: "It was not a wedding party, there were no women or children present. We have no reports of civilian casualties." The members of an Afghan inquiry, appointed by President Hamid Karzai, later found that, in all, 47 civilians had died, including 39 women and children, and nine others were wounded.

Here's another American take on what happened: "The US military has denied allegations that its forces… killed dozens of people celebrating a marriage… 'We took hostile fire and we returned fire,' said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations… He said there were no indications that the victims of the attack were part of a wedding party."

---

Smith more or less calls Natynczyk, the new defence staff chief, a liar.

quote:

---

In response to reports on that 2004 slaughter, Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, asked the following question: "How many people go to the middle of the desert... to hold a wedding 80 miles from the nearest civilization?" And, in an email responding to questions from a New York Times reporter, General Kimmitt later offered what was, by U.S. military standards, little short of an admission: "Could there have been a celebration of some type going on?... Certainly. Bad guys have celebrations. Could this have been a meeting among the foreign fighters and smugglers? That is a possibility. Could it have involved entertainment? Sure. However, a wedding party in a remote section of the desert along one of the rat lines, held in the early morning hours strains credulity."

---

quote:

---

Nato forces say two Taleban commanders were killed in Herat province. One of them is a leading tribal elder.

Local tribal elders claim dozens of people, including civilians, also died in the American attack. ...

They said a high-profile tribal leader had died and houses had been destroyed.

There were also unconfirmed reports of demonstrations in the Zerkoh valley, a fiercely independent tribal area where US forces have clashed with local fighters before. ...

[NATO] confirmed a significant number of insurgents had been killed, including Haji Nasrullah Khan, who they described as a Taleban leader.

He is an important tribal elder and last year when US forces were accused of killing civilians in the same area, President Karzai sat alongside him at a shura, or public meeting, and passed on his condolences for those killed or injured. ...

The different accounts and the complexities of Afghan tribal structures show how confusing the line is between those considered insurgents or Taleban and powerful local leaders ...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:
My prediction is that they will be crushed faster than the Soviets were.

---

Pakistani and western news agencies predicted the PDPA would fall to international mercenaries within a few months after the Soviets pulled out.

It took Islamic Gladios over two years to take Kabul. Men and women volunteers of the PDPA trounced well armed and western-backed mujahideen at Jalalabad. Finally, rockets rained down on Kabul, and millions fled the country. And NATO countries turned their backs on it all.

[ 17 July 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:
They met their just reward, as will Canada, the sooner the better.

---

And all those Pakistani, Saudi, Iranian and Tajik and Turkish Gladios helped Afghan warlords celebrate with several year-long fireworks and by raping Aghan women as millions fled the country. It was a good time for militant Islam, CIA, Saudis, ISI, Brits, Chinese etc.But it wasn't an outbreak of people's democracy by any means. Ahmed Shah Massood, "the lion of Panjsir", turned tables on the CIA and declared war on the Taliban in 1992, and switched sides to SCO after U.S. amaassador suggested he simply surrender to the Taliban and realizing his western backers during the proxy war are lower than pond scum.

Truth About Talibanization of Pakistan and Afghanistan of the 1980's

Gladio – Death Plan For Democracy

I don't think Pakistanis or Afghans deserved what they got, unionist. I don't think it helps anyone to romanticize the Taliban. They have no common cause with ANC, Cuban, NVA, or Sandinista revolutionaries except that their task is to encourage foreign imperialists to exit their country. Lahore news journalist Ahmed Khaled explains in polite language what a ruthless bunch of bastards were propped up by the CIA, Saudi princes, Brits, Pakistani dictator General Zia, and ongoing today with a U.S.-backed dictatorship in Pakistan.

If the Soviets were to have passed $3-$6 billion in weapons and aid to FMLN in El Salvador in the 1980's, there would have been hell to pay.

[ 17 July 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]

Cpl. James Hayward Arnal was killed yesterday near Kandahar by another roadside bomb explosion.

quote:

---

Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan lauded him as a fearless fighter who had left a lucrative career in information technology to join the army.

"Clearly, he was a dedicated soldier with a very promising career ahead of him," said Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, Canada's commander in Afghanistan.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:
Fidel, you really have to distinguish between foreign invaders (Brits, Soviets, U.S., Canada) and civil wars. The latter are none of our affair. Our job is to get out of Afghanistan, not to cheer on one faction of Afghans over another, no matter how tempting that may be. Once you can justify that, you can justify armed aggression and intervention - which is what the Soviets did. They met their just reward, as will Canada, the sooner the better.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by M. Spector:
I guess you would have been neutral in the Spanish Civil War.

---

No I wouldn't:

1. The elected government of the Spanish people was under attack by a coalition of foreign fascist invaders.

2. The Spanish people requested and welcomed foreign solidarity.

I'm not "neutral" in Afghanistan. I have posted thousands of times (in case you haven't noticed) wishing and cheering for the defeat of the invaders. I did so actually before most others here did (in late 2005), and took some heat for that. I still do, in fact.

As for supporting some faction of Afghans over another? No thanks. That's up to the Afghans themselves, free of foreign interference. I support any Afghans who are fighting the Canadians, U.S., NATO, and their puppet Karzai.

quote:

---

Originally posted by M. Spector:
No, I supported (critically) the POUMist-led united front against the Franco fascists (retroactively, of course). I had no trouble supporting one faction of Spanish citizens over another.

---

I don't know what POUMist is, and I certainly would have opposed any "Spanish citizens" who were fighting with Franco's fascists.

My view of Afghanistan is not based on any great scholarly understanding, but it seems to me that any Afghan who is fighting against the invaders and the puppet regime is on the same side as I am.

That doesn't mean I support Islam or misogyny or feudalism or whatever else might be running rampant in that part of the world. It does, however, mean that I look very much askance at any Canadian who thinks that "helping Afghan women" or "opposing fundamentalists" etc. is a worthy cause for Canadians to take up - today.

[ 19 July 2008: Message edited by: unionist ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by unionist:
As for supporting some faction of Afghans over another? No thanks. That's up to the Afghans themselves, free of foreign interference.

---

I agree that Canadian troops have no purpose in Afghanistan other than to serve U.S. imperialist ambitions, and on the opposite side of the planet no less.

But to be clear in my own opinion of what happened, the Soviets didn't invade Afghanistan in 1979, in order to receive any just deserts from Islamic Gladio mercenaries, many who were from "out of country" and armed to the eye teeth far better than NVA or FMLN could have hoped for from the Soviets then.

The Soviets were invited to Afghanistan, if only by one faction, Parchams, of the ruling PDPA government at the time. Jimmy Carter's advisor on foreign affairs, Zbignew Brzezinski, admitted as much. NATO had no such invitation. NATO does not belong in Asia.

quote:

---

Panjwai district, where Corporal Arnal was working before his death, has seen pro-government forces recently pushing into Taliban strongholds. On the same evening of the explosion that killed him, locals reported air strikes that killed an elderly man and a woman near the village of Zala Khan, about 10 kilometres south of Kandahar's city limits.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Fidel:
The Soviets were invited to Afghanistan, if only by one faction, Parchams, of the ruling PDPA government at the time. Jimmy Carter's advisor on foreign affairs, Zbignew Brzezinski, admitted as much. NATO had no such invitation.

---