You ready to feed your kids to the never-ending war machine, readers?
"Iraq "surge" designers issue Afghan surge plan"
"Related
The Neocons: An Illustrated Progression
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From
February 3, 2008
THE conservative Washington think tank that devised the “surge” of US forces in Iraq has come up with a plan to send 12,000 more American troops into southern Afghanistan.
A panel of more than 20 experts convened by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has also urged the administration to get tough with Pakistan.
The US should threaten to attack Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in lawless areas on the border with Afghanistan if the Pakistan military did not deal with them itself, the panel concluded.
The AEI’s “Afghanistan Planning Group”, set up at the request of US officials, spent last weekend putting together preliminary proposals that centre on a surge of US troops in the south.
Senior officials have been briefed on the proposals in the past few days, according to one source. He refused to discuss whether it was the Pentagon or the White House that had asked for the report.
But he pointed out that Robert Gates, the defence secretary, had lobbied hard for extra troops, sending a sharply worded letter to all Nato member countries last week asking for several thousand more.
Gates provoked anger last month with an attack on countries operating in southern Afghanistan that were not deploying enough troops and “don’t know how to do counter-insurgency operations”.
Although other US think tanks have compiled reports on Afghanistan, the AEI’s proposals are significant because they are closest to White House thinking. The institute can also claim success for its proposals for the surge of 25,000 troops in Iraq. Many of the experts who sat on the Iraq panel took part in the Afghan group.
An Afghanistan surge is seen as the only way of ensuring that elections due in April and May next year can go ahead without Taliban intimidation leading to a boycott.
US pressure for more European troops will continue at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Lithuania this week. But the AEI concludes it is time to accept that the Europeans will not deliver. German troops in the north are not even allowed to patrol at night.
The Afghanistan group said America should send three extra US brigades up to 12,000 men into the south. The US has already said it will soon send in an additional 3,200 US marines, some to back up British troops in the southern province of Helmand.
The government will announce this week that British paratroopers will be sent to Afghanistan next month to replace troops there now, but it has no plans to raise numbers above the current 7,800."
Makes the troops feel just great about themselves!
"Air Strike Kills 7 Civilians in Afghanistan"
"Reuters North American News Service
Feb 04, 2008 06:43 EST
HERAT, Afghanistan, Feb 4 (Reuters) - An air strike targeting a Taliban commander has killed seven civilians from one family in southwestern Afghanistan, provincial officials said on Monday.
That's Bush "liberation" -- the destruction and slaughter of families!!!!
The issue of civilian casualties is highly sensitive in Afghanistan, as it saps support for the government and the presence of foreign troops.
Afghan leaders have repeatedly called on international forces to exercise more care when choosing targets.
The air strike took place in the Bakwa district of Farah province late on Sunday and killed one woman, two children and four men, officials said.
"Mullah Malang, a Taliban commander in the district, was the target, but he was not among the casualties," provincial police chief General Khialbaz Sherzai said.
A provincial official, who declined to be named, said the civilians killed were family members of the Taliban commander.
Then that makes it o.k., right?
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said none of its aircraft were involved in any air strikes in Farah, and the separate U.S.-led coalition said it was still checking the reports.
Why can't they just own up to it once?!
Just once?
A total of 1,977 civilians were killed in 2007 in fighting in Afghanistan, including nearly 240 who lost their lives in air strikes by foreign troops, according to Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a body that monitors security for non-governmental organisations.
Meanwhile, Afghan forces killed nearly 10 Taliban fighters during a sweep in the Deh Rawood district of Uruzgan province on Sunday, provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said. The operation, led by Afghan police, was still going on, he said.
Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Two U.S. non-governmental studies last week said that without new international efforts to win the war and develop the economy, Afghanistan could once again become a failed state and terrorist haven.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit London this week to discuss strategy on Afghanistan."
