These are the archives for the week ending 9th November 2007
Britain prepares for longer stay in Afghanistan
Britain has begun preparing to extend its military deployment in Afghanistan until 2010, the defence secretary said Wednesday.
Defence Secretary Des Browne announced a temporary brigade headquarters was being set up to command British forces in Afghanistan from October 2009, when the current British commitment ends, to April 2010.
British brigades are deployed to Afghanistan for six months at a time and spend two years planning and training before their deployment, making it necessary to act now, the defence ministry said.
The Canadian Press, 7/11/07
US-Pakistan Military Cooperation Unaffected by Martial Law
A senior U.S. military officer says there has so far not been any impact on U.S.-Pakistani military cooperation, since the declaration of a State of Emergency in Pakistan on Saturday.
Lieutenant General Carter Ham says the cooperation with Pakistani forces along the country's border with Afghanistan has not been affected by the political turmoil in Pakistan.
"From an operational standpoint, the commanders on the ground are not reporting yet any noticeable difference in the relationship, in the communication that they have with their Pakistani counterparts on the other side of the border," he said.
The U.S. government is reviewing its aid to Pakistan in the wake of the emergency declaration, including military aid and sales. But senior officials say they are taking into account the importance of Pakistan's help with the fighting in Afghanistan, and the broader war on terrorism.
Voice of America, 8/11/07
Armed forces 'running on empty'
The Armed Forces are "running on empty", overstretched by the long-running operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report on the state of the military.
"The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have seriously diminished the ability of the Armed Forces to meet future challenges," the think-tank Demos said.
With such pressures affecting the Forces, the current situation was "unsustainable - financially, organisationally, operationally and in terms of military-society relations".
"British Armed Forces need a sustained period of time - perhaps a decade - to recover from the intensity of operations undertaken since 2000," Demos said, although acknowledging that this was unlikely "in such a turbulent world".
The Times, 5/11/07
US unable to challenge Saudi support for terrorism
King Abdullah was surprised during his two-day state visit to Britain last week by the barrage of criticism directed at the Saudi kingdom. Officials were in "considerable shock", one former British diplomat said. As a key ally of the West, the king had every reason to expect a warm welcome.
Yet wealthy Saudis remain the chief financiers of worldwide terror networks. "If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," said Stuart Levey, the US Treasury official in charge of tracking terror financing. According to Levey, not one person identified by America or the United Nations as a terrorist financier has been prosecuted by Saudi authorities.
Extremist clerics provide a stream of recruits to some of the world's nastiest trouble spots. An analysis by NBC News suggested that the Saudis make up 55% of foreign fighters in Iraq. They are also among the most uncompromising and militant.
"The urban legend is that George Bush and Dick Cheney are close to the Saudis because of oil and their past ties with them, but they're pretty disillusioned with them," said Stephen Schwartz, of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism in Washington. "The problem is that the Saudis have been part of American policy for so long that it's not easy to work out a solution."
Sunday Times,4/11/07
US policy created crisis between Turkey and Kurds
The increasingly dangerous crisis stemming from attacks on Turkey by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels based in northern Iraq is yet another by-product of the United States' fatally flawed polices in the Middle East.
For one thing, shortly after overthrowing Saddam Hussein's government in 2003, the Americans disbanded the Iraqi Army, the one institution that might have prevented the vacuum that has allowed all sorts of armed groups - Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish - to gain power and influence.
For another, they have looked the other way as the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq has undermined national cohesion by going it alone on a variety of issues.
In addition, as part of the Bush administration's policy of destabilizing and provoking Iran, Washington has helped to arm the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK), a Kurdish rebel group with close ties to the PKK but whose primary battleground is the Islamic Republic. With the PKK facing few checks on its behavior and having easy access to plenty of PEJAK's arms, an intensification of attacks on Turkey was almost inevitable.
Daily Star, Lebanon, 6/11/05
Martial law in Pakistan disappoints US
The barbed wire that stretches across Islamabad's Constitution Avenue is as impenetrable as the despondency of western officials in Pakistan.
For the last eight months diplomats have watched in dismay as the position of President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the war on terror, has weakened dangerously. So embroiled has the army chief become in domestic politics, diplomats complain, that it has become difficult to make him focus on the overriding US priorities: securing the porous border with Afghanistan and purging Pakistan's lightly governed tribal areas of militants sympathetic to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The imposition of what in effect amounts to martial law has dashed the ability of Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, to continue claiming progress towards a "stable transition to democracy" in Pakistan. Although the Pentagon on Sunday made clear that close Pakistan-US military relations would continue, the US State Department is plainly disappointed.
Financial Times, 4/11/07
Arming to confront China
Arms manufacturers are making record profits from the war on terrorism and unprecedented spending on weapons programs. The massive earnings have drawn condemnation from Australian defence experts, who say expensive weapons such as jet fighters, warships and satellites are not the way to combat terrorism.
The world's biggest arms maker, Lockheed Martin in the US, maker of fighter jets including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which Australia is buying, announced last week it had increased third-quarter profits by 22 per cent to $11.1 billion. Northrop Grumman, maker of aircraft carriers, submarines and bombers, increased profits 62 per cent to $489 million. At General Dynamics, maker of the Abrams tank, which Australia has just bought, profits climbed 24 per cent to $544 million. Britain's BAE said its profits were up 27 per cent to £657 million ($1.23 billion).
Hugh White, professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, said the big-ticket weapons were designed to contain China, not combat terrorism.
"They don't admit to it. They sell it to the people as a response to terrorism, but that is not what they are doing," Professor White said. Professor White said Australia's multibillion-dollar defence purchases such as the Abrams tanks, warships, and Globemaster transport planes would be part of any US military operation in the Middle East or against China.
Sydney Morning Herald, 4/11/07
2007 toll nears highest for US in Iraq
With just under two months left in the year, 2007 is on course to be the deadliest year on record for American forces in Iraq, despite a recent sharp drop in U.S. deaths.
At least 847 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year - the second-highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to Associated Press figures. In 2004, the bloodiest year of the war for the U.S. so far, 850 American troops died.
Associated Press, 4/11/07
Iraq posting 'a death sentence'
If the situation in Iraq is improving, as Bush and Cheney insist, why are US diplomats likening forced postings in Iraq to "a potential death sentence"?
In a contentious hour-long "town hall meeting" last week, US diplomats faced off with State Department officials about a recent order that requires them to serve in the Baghad embassy and outlying areas.
"It's one thing if someone believes in what's going on over there and volunteers, but it's another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment," Jack Croddy, a Foreign Service veteran of many postings and a former political advisor with NATO forces, said. "I'm sorry, but basically that's a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or seriously wounded?"
His remarks were greeted with loud and sustained applause from the 300 diplomats at the meeting. "Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now," Croddy said.
The Nation, 4/11/07
Iraq and US cancel Russian oil contract
Guided by American legal advisers, the Iraqi government has canceled a controversial development contract with the Russian company Lukoil for a vast oil field in Iraq's southern desert, freeing it up for potential international investment in the future.
The field, West Qurna, has estimated reserves of 11 billion barrels, the equivalent of the worldwide proven oil reserves of Exxon Mobil, America's largest oil company. Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister, said in an interview that the field would be opened to new bidders, perhaps as early as next year.
The contract, which had been signed and later canceled by the Saddam Hussein government, had been in legal limbo since the American invasion. The contract presented a quandary for the United States, which has been accused by some critics of invading Iraq for its oil. As a cornerstone of its foreign policy, the United States has argued vigorously for countries to honor petroleum contracts. In that light, condoning the cancellation of the Lukoil contract could be seen in some quarters as evidence of a double standard.
New York Times, 4/11/07
War drums over Iran
The drums of war are beating. In America, talk of a strike against Iran grows louder. In Israel, hardliners claim Tehran is close to getting the bomb. In Bahrain, host to the US Fifth Fleet, the state's foreign minister imagines doomsday. 'We don't want to wake up and see our skies dark, our sirens blaring,' he says.
Last summer, the prospect of attack was negligible. Now a leading London risk analyst puts the likelihood at 30 per cent, and others think that estimate conservative. A security specialist at Chatham House tells me he 'cannot imagine George W Bush not doing something' if he thinks Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear weapon.
This is not about some distant tomorrow. If Bush launches an offensive, he is likely to act early next year, before the US presidential election campaign begins. The opening salvos of the Third World War could be fired within months.
Observer, 4/11/07
Britain's right to detain challenged
The fate of more than 60 Iraqis being held by British forces is in the balance after hearings this week before the law lords of potentially huge significance for the conduct of future international military operations abroad.
The little-noticed hearings were brought by lawyers acting for Hilal al-Jedda, who has dual British-Iraqi nationality and is one of 62 individuals detained indefinitely by British troops in Basra.British military commanders say he is a security risk.
Mr Jedda has been held without trial for 3 years despite the European human rights convention, which states that all those held must be brought before a court to be tried or released. The British courts recently ruled that the convention covers British forces operating abroad in situations over which they have control.
The government argues that he can be held indefinitely, along with the other detainees, because British troops in southern Iraq are part of a UN-backed international force and therefore operate under a UN security council mandate and are not covered by European human rights law.
Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers, said "The US and UK are manipulating international law through the security counci lto their own ends. The domestic law consequences are startling. My client is subjected to indefinite executive detention and his habeas corpus right displaced by a decision of the security council sitting in New York."
The law lords' ruling is expected before Christmas.
Guardian 3/1//07
Rice: No compromise in Lebanon
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday warned against diplomatic moves to solve Lebanon's serious political crisis by compromising with the country's pro-Syrian opposition.
"I think there is a lot of talk right now about compromise," she told journalists on a plane taking her to Ankara for talks with Turkish leaders on Kurdish rebels.
"There are a lot of discussions going on. That is fine," she added. "But any candidate for president or any president needs to be committed to Lebanon's sovereignty and independence, needs to be committed to resolutions that Lebanon has signed on to ... and needs to be committed to carrying on the tribunal."
Rice was referring to the international UN-backed tribunal that was set up to prosecute those behind the murder of Rafiq Hariri, a five-time prime minister who was killed along with 22 others in a massive Beirut explosion in February 2005.
Middle East Online, 2/11/07
Iraq deaths rise in October
The number of Iraqis killed in insurgent and sectarian attacks rose in October, according to government figures obtained on Thursday, in a blow to a nine-month-old US troop surge policy.
At least 887 Iraqis were killed last month, compared to 840 in September, according to the data compiled by the interior, defence and health ministries. As in previous months, the dead were overwhelmingly civilians, with 758 reported killed against 116 policemen and 13 soldiers.
The October death toll remained sharply down on the August figure of 1,770 but the increase on September dented boasts from both US and Iraqi leaders that the crackdown on insurgent and militia violence was leading to a significant fall in casualties.
AFP, 1/11/07
Potential for failure in Afghanistan
One of Britain's most outspoken military officers issued stark warnings about the potential for failure in Afghanistan at a forum hosted by the Canadian high commission Thursday.
Lt.-Gen. David Richards, who commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from May, 2006 to February, 2007, said he remains optimistic that western allies will ultimately stabilize the war-ravaged country and keep it out of Taliban hands.
But Mr. Richards said the military's poppy eradication campaign could backfire, NATO's efforts in the country lack focus, and there aren't nearly enough boots on the ground in Afghanistan's incendiary southern region, where Canadian, U.S., British and Dutch forces are concentrated.
While he didn't single out Canada, Mr. Richards also expressed fear that weakening public support for the mission will lessen NATO's resolve to see out the conflict.
National Post, Canada, 1/11/07
US in Middle East for decades
Conflict in the Middle East is going to continue for many years, the former top U.S. commander in the region said yesterday.
Retired four-star Gen. John Abizaid, who headed the U.S. Central Command until last spring, cited four broad strategic issues that will keep Americans in the Mideast for a long time: the rise of Sunni extremism, exemplified by such groups as al-Qaida; burgeoning Shiite extremism, epitomized by Iran; the "continuing, corrosive nature" of the Arab-Israeli schism; and the world economy's dependency on Mideast oil.
"I'm not saying this is a war for oil, but I am saying that oil ... fuels an awful lot of the geopolitical moves that political powers may have there," he said. "And it is absolutely essential that we in the United States of America figure out how, in the long-run, to lessen our dependency on foreign energy."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/11/07