ASADABAD, Afghanistan: Emotional Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday urged international troops to “stop their operations in our land”, his strongest salvo yet in a row over mistaken civilian killings.
Karzai's comments came after a week in which a relative of his was killed in a raid by foreign forces and he rejected an apology by the US commander of troops General David Petraeus for the deaths of nine children in a NATO strike.
“I would like to ask NATO and the US with honour and humbleness and not with arrogance to stop their operations in our land,” Karzai said, visiting the dead children's relatives in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan.
Here’s the thing: the House Republicans are going after their version of unsightly pimples on the body politic — the programs they and their billionaire sponsors find ideologically unpalatable — without seriously considering where our money really flows. We at TomDispatch thought we might lend a hand to Congress’s deliberations this week by offering something new: the first real figure on what American taxpayers actually pay for the Pentagon, the U.S. military, homeland security, our distant wars, the care of veterans, intelligence, and every other aspect of our national security and war state.
. . . . . . .
$1.2 Trillion: The Real U.S. National Security Budget No One Wants You to Know About
What if you went to a restaurant and found it rather pricey? Still, you ordered your meal and, when done, picked up the check only to discover that it was almost twice the menu price.
The number of private security contractors employed by the Department of Defense in Afghanistan has reached a new record high, according to DoD statistics in a recently updated report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service.
The Obama administration could end up in a very dicey situation if/when the Arab Revolt spreads to Saudi Arabia. The House of Saud is likely to crack down on demonstrators with a very heavy hand. Oil prices could explode, and Israel would go bonkers. The Wall Street Journal just issued a detailed report describing how the Obama Administration is wavering in its support for democracy demonstrators, urging patience, and hoping the protesters work will with existing monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, etc.) as well as Yemen for gradual reforms (Libya excepted, of course) … the curious euphemism for the emerging desperation to stiffen the three pillars* of our crumbling Middle East policy is “regime alteration.”
The attached essay by veteran middle east correspondent Robert Fisk puts the theory of regime alteration into a moral and economic perspective.
* The three pillars of our ME foreign policy are –
Uncritical support for and protection of Israel.
Protection of Saudi Arabia (and the Persian Gulf Arab states) in return for Saudi assurance of stable oil flows.
Recycling of petrodollars via weapons sales (to countries at peace with Israel, like Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc.) and banking/investment houses.
(Note: Over these years, these pillars have been supported also by efforts to limit Soviet and Iranian influence in the Middle East and N. Africa.)
By Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent
Independent, Saturday, 5 March 2011
Saudi Arabia was yesterday drafting up to 10,000 security personnel into its north-eastern Shia Muslim provinces, clogging the highways into Dammam and other cities with busloads of troops in fear of next week's “day of rage” by what is now called the “Hunayn Revolution”.
Saudi Arabia's worst nightmare – the arrival of the new Arab awakening of rebellion and insurrection in the kingdom – is now casting its long shadow over the House of Saud. Provoked by the Shia majority uprising in the neighbouring Sunni-dominated island of Bahrain, where protesters are calling for the overthrow of the ruling al-Khalifa family, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is widely reported to have told the Bahraini authorities that if they do not crush their Shia revolt, his own forces will. Read more….
Phi Beta Iota: The Obama Administration means well, but it operates in a moral & intellectual vacuum. In combination, its bailing out of Wall Street and destitution of the middle class (while poverty doubled), its loss of integrity in not ending the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, its continued tolerance of out-of-control security and intelligence bureaucracies, and now its clear intent to join the UK in putting still more forces in the middle of what is rightfully a legitimate revolt of, by, and for the Arab people, represent the last death rattle of Empire.
Background: According to an Afghan friend, the author of this piece was sacked from her job at IWPR, by the British, because she insisted on publishing an unpleasant truth in an article. Now she works free-lance and she’s free to publish exactly what she sees and hears. CS
A desperate longing for order in the midst of today’s chaos is making many Afghan nostalgic for a simpler time.
Jean MacKenzie, GlobalPost, 5 March 2011
“I hate this country,” said my taxi driver. “Any other country is better. I like Pakistan, I would move to Iran. Afghanistan is just not a good place.”
This categorical announcement in the midst of a bright, sunny Saturday morning was prompted by a rather nasty traffic jam. Cars were lined up to get into the swanky new Gulbahar shopping center, blocking two lanes of a busy road. It did not help that the entrance to the parking garage – the first one I have seen in Afghanistan – had room for only one car at a time. There was a brawny 4X4 trying to get out, a scrappy Toyota trying to get in; neither was willing to give way, so roughly a dozen drivers were blowing their horns and ruining my otherwise benign mood.
I made some noncommittal comment about poor Afghanistan being the war playground for the region, but my driver, let’s call him Ahmed, was having none of it.
“It’s not the English, or the Soviets, or the Americans,” he insisted. “It’s the people. They love to fight. They are dishonest. Everyone, from Karzai right on down to the smallest child.”
Anti-government protests also took place in Oman and Djibouti.
In Afghanistan, the standoff continued between President Hamid Karzai and the opposition over the flawed September parliamentary election. A controversial special tribunal set up by Karzai – which the opposition condemns as unconstitutional – has started recounting votes in several provinces. With concerns growing over renewed tension if the tribunal reverses results, CrisisWatch identifies Afghanistan as a conflict risk alert for March. The political crisis came amid an upsurge of insurgent violence across the country.
US admiration for its soldiers may be deep and widespread, but interest in what they are doing is shallow and fleeting
article
by Gary Younge
Published on Monday, January 31, 2011 by The Guardian
Most of the stories told about Benjamin Moore, 23, at his funeral started in a bar and ended in a laugh. Invited to testify about his life from the pews, friend, relative, colleague and neighbour alike described a boisterous, gregarious, energetic young man they'd known in the small New Jersey town of Bordentown since he was born. “I'll love him 'til I go,” his granny said. “If I could go today and bring him back, I would.”
Grown men choked on their memories, under the gaze of swollen, reddened eyes, as they remembered a “snot-nosed kid” and a fidget who'd become a volunteer firefighter before enlisting in the military. Shortly before Benjamin left for Afghanistan, he sent a message to his cousin that began: “I'm about to go into another country where they hate me for everything I stand for.” Now he was back in a flag-draped box, killed by roadside bomb with two other soldiers in Ghazni province.
