Imperialist Empire News: Afghanistan

[Moses]

March 16:


US general hails Afghan security

Top US general Richard Myers has described the security situation in Afghanistan as "exceptionally good".

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was speaking during a visit to the capital, Kabul.

But his remarks came only a few hours after six people, including a US soldier, were killed by land mines.

Afghanistan is littered with land mines, the legacy of more than a quarter of a century of war.

The US has 17,000 troops in the country fighting insurgents of the Taleban, whose regime fell in late 2001.

"Security is very good throughout the country, exceptionally good," Gen Myers said after meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US commanders in Kabul.

Gen Myers said the Taleban were "essentially in disarray" and could weaken further if a low-key initiative aimed at attracting "non-criminal Taleban" took off.

Threat

But the general's assessment did not include the ever-present threat from land mines.

One US soldier was killed and four wounded when a military patrol drove over a land mine near the US base in the western Afghan town of Shindand.

US spokesman Maj Steve Wollman said a vehicle carrying Afghan civilians - apparently curious to watch the American rescue operation - struck another mine nearby, killing five people and injuring six.

Meanwhile, one Afghan soldier died on Tuesday when he hit a mine during a search for bodies from last month's crashed airliner, officials said on Wednesday.

Mines and unexploded ordnance litter Afghanistan and move around in the spring because of melting snow and heavy rainfall, say correspondents.

Upbeat

But irrespective of such hurdles, Gen Myers was upbeat during his brief meeting with the media at Kabul airport.

He said the US was considering establishing long-term bases in Afghanistan as part of its "global basing construct" - a strategy aimed at establishing US security presence across the world.

But he has yet to advise US President George W Bush on having a permanent US military base in Afghanistan, he said.

"But clearly we have developed good relationships and good partnerships in this part of the world, not only in Afghanistan," Gen Myers said with reference to existing US bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Afghan government says it wants a "strategic partnership" with the US, but has so far said nothing about permanent US military bases in the country.

The US troops are the main component of the international coalition force in Afghanistan.

Their focus is searching for members of al-Qaeda and fighting the Taleban-led insurgency that still affects much of the south and east.

---

Story from BBC NEWS:
news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4355571.stm

Published: 2005/03/16 19:13:02 GMT

© BBC MMV

[Moses]

March 17:

Afghan election postponed; Rice vows long-term U.S. support

The Associated Press
Thursday, March 17, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan Afghan parliamentary elections will be held in September, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday, confirming that logistical troubles have postponed a vote supposed to complete the country’s transition to democracy.

Karzai announced the widely expected delay during U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s first visit to Afghanistan, and insisted that security was improving, despite a bomb attack which killed five civilians far to the south.

The parliamentary vote was slated for May but the United Nations and the Afghan electoral commission have been grappling with problems including a lack of census data and how to register thousands of returning refugees.

‘‘The preparations are going on and now they told us, the commission chairman, that the elections will be held in September,’’ Karzai said at a news conference with Rice at his Kabul palace. ‘‘The Afghan people are waiting very eagerly to send their members to parliament.’’

Observers have long said the election, initially scheduled along with a presidential ballot last year, would be put off because of the huge task of organizing it. The election is also supposed to produce district and provincial assemblies.

Afghanistan adopted a new constitution early in 2004 and successfully held the presidential vote in October, despite worries over violence. The parliament vote is seen as the next step in the country’s democratic re-birth after a quarter-century of conflict.

Rice said the United States would support Afghanistan as it prepares for the vote and called its re-emergence from years of war an inspiration to the world.

The country’s booming illegal narcotics industry was a ‘‘serious problem,’’ Rice said, though one which both she and Karzai said was being tackled with a U.S.-backed crackdown on opium poppy farmers and smugglers and millions in aid to promote alternative crops.

‘‘We will stand by the Afghan people as they go through the next stage in their democratic development, the parliamentary elections that will take place this fall. We look forward to continuing to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan,’’ she said.

She said the United States made a mistake by losing its focus on Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

The country plunged into years of civil war after the withdrawal, allowing the hardline Taliban to take power and turn the country into a safe haven for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network.

‘‘We have a long-term commitment to this country,’’ said Rice, who was making her first visit to Afghanistan.

‘‘We learned the hard way what it meant to not have a long-term commitment,’’ she said. ‘‘After the Soviet Union left I think it is well understood that we did not remain committed, and I said to the president earlier that in many ways Sept. 11 was a joint tragedy of the Afghan and American people out of that period.’’

Al-Qaida is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that killed thousands and led to the U.S.-backed war in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and the global war on terrorism.

Rice called Afghanistan a ‘‘great ally,’’ and said the nation’s turnaround is one of the world’s greatest stories. ‘‘This country was once a source of terrorism. It is now a steadfast fighter against terrorism,’’ Rice said.

Rice pledged Washington’s continued support for Afghan democracy and reconstruction, but made no public mention of whether Washington would support permanent American bases in the country.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a visit to the country on Wednesday that no decision had been reached on whether to seek permanent bases on Afghan soil. In addition to the war on terror, the nation is perfectly situated, with potential trouble-spot Iran to the west.

Earlier Thursday, Rice shook hands with U.S. troops at their headquarters in Kabul and thanked them for helping to liberate Afghanistan.

Some 17,000 U.S. forces continue to battle Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the tribal belt between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden may be sheltering.

Commanders insist the militants are waning, but also warn of an upturn in violence as the harsh Afghan winter fades.

Police blamed Taliban rebels for Thursday’s attack in downtown Kandahar, which killed at least five people and wounded 32 others. The blast hit a taxi carrying women and children, a roadside restaurant and other bystanders.

American and Romanian forces cordoned off the area around the blast in a busy commercial district crowded with shops and restaurants. The shoes and turbans of the wounded were scattered on the bloodstained street, along with the wreckage of the taxi, a motorized rickshaw and two motorbikes.

A purported Taliban spokesman denied responsibility, pointing the finger instead at militia commanders disgruntled at a U.N. disarmament drive.

Afghanistan is Rice’s third stop on a six-nation Asian trip. She arrived in Kabul from Pakistan. She visited India earlier, and will travel to Japan, South Korea and China.

---

Copyright © 2005 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

 

[karpomrx]

One of the main tactical failures of U.S. troops since WWII is their reluctance to get out of their vehicles. This applies to areas where there is a road net, not the island fighting in the Pacific.
General Stillwell writing a report of the war games of 1940, wrote that the slowness of infantry in getting deployed from convoys was a major problem that must be addressed.
In Afghanistan the number of troops deployed makes it all but impossible to clear and secure the transport net. There is not sufficient strength to clear the roads and keep them under continuous security. The result is a wealth of ambush targets being offered to any one with an explosive device.
In purely militrary terms, this is a signal of failure. In human terms, it is one more criminal act by the leadership, in that one should not go into harms way without taking the most basic security and intelligence precautions.
Tactical failure at the top guarantees a failure of morale, and a loss of troop strength which cannot be justified, save by glib lies and slogans.
Funeral orations may make for good press, but they make for poor soldiers.

[Moses]

Tactical failure at the top guarantees a failure of morale, and a loss of troop strength which cannot be justified, save by glib lies and slogans.

There has been a complete abandonment of ensuring tactical competence, much less strength-- I know it occurred particularly during the Reagan era-- tactical considerations were scrapped in favor of high-tech weapons-- like the billions wasted on Star Wars.

Do you know they don't even have tactical fixed wing aircraft any more? Despite Vietnam, they kept developing helicopters (which had a high failure rate) and denied the Army the right to possess fixed-wing tactical aircraft. But they spend hundreds of billions on star wars, which was a complete waste of money. And yet the GOP claims to be strong on defense. They kept saying there would be no more wars on the ground, and yet they kept getting us into them.

They knew that our army had no tactical ability when they got us into Iraq.

And the performance of the Army and its leadership has been very very discouraging.

Their use of computer games for training-- there's no thinking, no understanding -- just the ability to shoot civilians.

I really think that the Republicans should be exposed as not strong on defense at all-- just willing to squander the taxpayer's money on defense contractors.