As of 1pm, the BBC were still running a piece recorded about twelve hours ago on McChrystal’s sacking. It included the observation that the military strategy was not plainly succeeding, given the 76 NATO dead in June alone.
Keep up. That was twelve hours ago. It is now 83 dead, including 4 more Brits.
That does not mention the 412 Nato wounded in June alone as well.
When will they stop this madness?
“‘General Betray Us’ is brilliant.”
No, it’s not. It was played within five minutes. And moveon.org did a commercial based on those syllables.
William Dalrymple’s article is excellent, as always. Thank you for the link, ‘somebody’. You are, indeed, somebody!
Thanks for the Dalrymple piece, yes.
“A bull who brings his own china shop”. What a glorious description.
Further to my assumption that the Nato forces and respective Governments fighting in Afghanistan are not interested in enabling Afghanistan to help itself.
Here is a report from a coal mine which clearly shows that our aims are to pontificate about moral issues and establishing a security agenda that will enable us to control the Governmet of Afghanmistan in future, not make it independently self sufficient and train its people into abstracting their own riches.
The miners are lacking timber and electrical mechanical tools, they are abstracting coal with pickaxe and shovel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/10413183.stm
The madness goes on.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia_pacific/10423780.stm
‘US drone’ kills four in Pakistan border area
Page last updated at 14:55 GMT, Saturday, 26 June 2010 15:55 UK
E-mail this to a friendPrintable version There have been frequent drone attacks in Pakistan’s border area A US missile strike has killed four suspected militants in Pakistan’s tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials say.
They said the missile, fired by an unmanned drone, had destroyed a house near Miranshah in North Waziristan.
The house had been used by the group of regional Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a security official told the BBC.
He said two more militants had been injured in the attack.
*The US does not generally confirm missile attacks by drones.
* No I bet it doesn’t.
aa
Two Spitfires and a Lancaster flew over just a few minutes ago. A poignant reminder of the time when we were under attack and likely to be occupied ourselves. Made me think.
You have to admire Maya Evans for fighting for this and he tenacity.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/92034
Victory for anti-torture activist
Friday 25 June 2010 by Paddy McGuffin
An anti-war campaigner has won a key High Court victory over the government in her bid to end British involvement in the torture cells of Afghanistan.
Maya Evans brought the case against the state for its role in handing over Taliban suspects to the country’s infamous National Directorate of Security (NDS) in alleged violation of international law.
Ms Evans accused members of the Afghan security service of “practising torture and ill-treatment with impunity.”
Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Cranston, sitting in London, said Ms Evans had won “a partial victory,” but it was far from complete as she had not succeeded in her attempt to stop all transfers being made.
Ms Evans’s lawyers told the High Court that detainees handed over to the NDS had suffered beatings, electrocution, sleep deprivation and stress positions and undergone whipping with rubber cables.
a~
She is famous for being the first person arrested and convicted under the new SOCPA legislation in 2005. Her crime – she had rung a bell in Whitehall at the Cenotaph and with another person had read out the names of the dead in Iraq.
“‘General Betray Us’ is brilliant.”
‘No, it’s not. It was played within five minutes. And moveon.org did a commercial based on those syllables.’
Yeah, I remember that moveon.org commercial – it was all the rage in the UK.
For Pete’s sake, Larry, try and be nice. You’ll like it, honestly you will.
Another terrible lingering death like the one that Craig reported on June 21st. but instead of 8 days, this latest casualty took 14 days to die.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10426424.stm
Ghastly.
Cameron, Clegg, Hague and Fox should be forced to sit in turn at the bedsides in Selly Oak for the duration of these agonising deaths.
Posted by: ingo at June 24, 2010 6:27 PM
Posted by: Tony at June 24, 2010 6:51 PM
On Friday, I wrote quite a long post re the above clarifying what I was trying to say. Unfortunately, as re my comment and Craig’s response below, it got dumped apparently irrecoverably in the bit-bucket.
Craig said that if you get a message saying that your post is awaiting moderation and will appear later – it won’t. He does not have moderation turned on. If you see this page your message has not been saved and will be lost.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/06/the_445pm_link_16.html#comments
A short version of what I said was:
– I wasn’t claiming to speak for Tibetan and Uyghurs; only expressing my understanding of what I believe the majority view of those two communities is.
– I wasn’t comparing China and the U.S., only making observations about China. In no way was I intending what I wrote as an apologetic for U.S. actions, which I think have been appalling. I agree with what you were saying about the U.S.
– What I was trying to pointing out was that China’s human rights record is rather worse than you seemed to be suggesting. (But perhaps I misunderstood your intent.)
Just a few remarks;
Firstly thank you Craig, lots of really good info here on your site.
This thing about the ‘Afghan National Army’ being largely Uzbeks and Tajiks. Its almost as if someone ‘wanted’ to create a permanent civil war in Afghanistan, bydividing the country after ‘we’ leave.
There was this group called the ‘Northern Alliance’ a lomng time ago, until its leader Massoud was assassinated. That was largely Uzbeks and Tajiksd wasn’t it? Are ‘they’ trying to recreate it within the Afghan Army to act as a counterweight to the Pashtun influence?
Also, if the Taliban want to control and/or reduce the heroin crop eventually, but ‘we’ don’t, will the Afghan Army be an instrument for that, in keeping the heroin going if the Taliban want to destroy it? After all it does go through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan doesn’t it?
finally, it seems to me that there are only 2 winners in this conflict; the warlords/druglords, and the Russiansd…
I suspect that the Russians may have some part in all this. They have majort influnce in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. I reckon they must have left something behind when they got out in 1989. The US/NATO being stuck in Afghan/Iraq for so long has enabled them to reestablish temselves in the FSU.
I’m sure they are helping Iran to establish itself in Iraq. And it is said they have links to al-Qaeda through rthe FSB.
When ‘we’ leave Afghanistan it will be the Iranians, Russians, Pakistanis, chinese and Indians who will be maneuovering over the spoils. You can forget about extracting mineral wealth until this enormously complex pot has sorted itself out, if ever…
(Sorry about typos; poor eyesight)