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BBC MUNDO RADIO
by Yan Liang, Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Nine years have passed since the ouster of Taliban regime by U.S.-led coalition in late 2001, but the war on terror in Afghanistan could take more time than they expected.
On Oct. 7, 2001, "Operation Enduring Freedom" kicked off with the aim to topple Taliban regime for harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who is alleged the architect of Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
The Taliban regime was toppled easily but Bin Laden and the Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar are still at large. Furthermore, a stiff resistance by Taliban militants has forced a surge in U.S. and allied troops.
Taliban has repeatedly rejected peace talks with the U.S.- backed government before the foreign troops end their occupation.
Last December, U.S. President Barack Obama announced to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to bring down the Taliban momentum and set July 2011 as the date to begin withdrawing forces from Afghanistan. But Obama admitted that the strategy had made slow progress in curbing the growing insurgency during a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Dec. 3.
Obama also told U.S. troops in the Bagram Air Base north of the capital Kabul that the U.S. forces were suffering more casualties in Afghanistan where 467 soldiers have been killed so far this year, the deadliest year in the past nine years.
Support for the war in Afghanistan is waning in the U.S. and other troop-contributing countries as the death toll continues to rise.
The number of foreign troops killed since the 2001 invasion has risen to 2,253 including 1,424 Americans, according to iCasualties a website monitoring NATO-led forces casualties in Afghanistan.
A total of 683 foreign troops have been killed so far this year, compared with 521 in 2009.
Obama replaced General Stanley McChrystal with Iraq war veteran General David Petraeus as top commander of over 140,000-strong NATO-led forces in July as the former mocked the Obama administration.
Observers believe, however, that increase in troops and replacement of the top commander would not help to annihilate Taliban and associated militants in Afghanistan unless their sanctuaries are smashed in neighboring Pakistan.
In addition to strengthening ground offensive to rid Taliban of their stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the United States has dramatically intensified drone attacks inPakistan's semi- autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, seen as safe haven of militants.
But the security situation has not improved significantly as Taliban insurgency extended from restive southern to relatively calm northern and eastern Afghanistan.
"It is difficult to win a war when you are unable to locate the enemy's command and control center," Waheed Mujda, political analyst at the Afghan Research Center for Strategy Studies, told Xinhua.
"Since the root of militancy is beyond Afghan borders, the war can not win unless the Taliban sanctuaries and their financial resources are choked outside Afghan," said Mujda, an official of the former Taliban regime and expert on al-Qaeda network.
"A lasting peace would not return to Afghanistan unless the legitimate interests of all stakeholders in the game are guaranteed," said Waqef Hakimi, a veteran of war against the occupation of former Soviet Union.
"In fact, a proxy war among rival powers is going on in Afghanistan. Iran is opposed to the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. India and Pakistan are also vying for their interest in Afghanistan," Mujda maintained.
"Parallel to mounting pressure on Taliban, the U.S. and its allies should focus on ensuring good governance, improving living conditions by creating jobs and Afghanize the war on terror by properly equipping Afghan security forces to win local support," Hakimi told Xinhua.
The Nato-led forces have ignored Afghan culture to raid houses at night and indiscriminately kill civilians, which has proved counterproductive and enabled Taliban to recruit new fighters constantly from victims' families to avenge, Hakimi said.
According to observers,the war on terror would continue for years to come until and unless the U.S.-led troops drastically change the strategy to win the hearts and minds of Afghans which is definitely a challenging mission.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said after meeting Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Dec. 7 that he was "convinced" that the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan was working, and that the goal of pulling American troops out of major combat role by 2014 could be met.
But General David Petraeus has said he might advise President Obama to delay the exit plan because of slow progress on the battle field, not to mention the tough mission of training enough Afghan national army and police to take full responsibility for defending on their own.
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13 Dec 2010 1:31 AM By Ramzy Baroud
WikiLeaks indicts and vindicates U.S. dplomats
The WikiLeaks vs. the US government saga started in July, when 77,000 secret US documents directly relating to Afghanistan were made available to major media organizations. Many of us shook our heads with a mixture of disgust and vindication. We had long been aware of the brutality of the war, and the corruption of its benefactors. Now we finally had written, uncontested proof.
The Afghanistan War Logs were revealing and damning. They were filed by soldiers and commanders in the field. Despite the largeness of their size, they constituted a decipherable narrative, a sorry story to told and discussed.
The Iraq War Diaries also resembled an unmitigated disaster for US war plans. 391,832 classified military documents were published on October 22, revealing the extent of the calamitous invasion, occupation and 'state building' underway in Iraq.
The value of these finds - representing the largest leak in history - was unmatched. It effectively brought to an end the illusion that all was well in Mesopotamia. As with the Afghanistan documents, these files too constituted a narrative, albeit an extremely long and disturbing one. The fact that 15,000 Iraqi deaths are now officially included in the Iraqi death count is in itself a remarkable achievement.
The leaks regarding Afghanistan and Iraq were related. The much touted 'success' of the surge in Iraq under former US President George W. Bush is being repeated in Afghanistan under current President Barack Obama. The same haughtiness, language, and even strategies are now being duplicated. Thanks to the logs and diaries, now we know we are being fed half-truths. We can see through the dodgy numbers, the fabricated estimations, the flashy and dishonest language of politicians and leaders. Never again should anyone claim a lack of knowledge of civilian casualties, detainee abuse, corruption, and very shifty war goals.
On November 28, the State Department was faced with another leak and embarrassment. 250,000 US diplomatic cables were released, divulging everything from the US' belittling judgments of the supposedly poor fighting abilities of British soldiers in Helmand to the unwelcomed camaraderie between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, from Qatar's alleged "(hesitance) to act against known terrorists" to Hezbollah's alleged attainment of new and sophisticated weapons through Syria.
Much of what has been disclosed was known, expected or realized through a simple exercise of deductive reasoning. In the case of Russia, cables, many of which were disclosed to the New York Times and four other major international news outlets, merely demonstrated the limited access enjoyed by US diplomats in that country. This left them reliant mostly on third party accounts, and their own personal interpretations. Their messages, at times, read like unsophisticated blogs, conceited and overly judgmental, if not overly personal.
In the case of Turkey, which seems to be the center of American diplomacy, 7,981 leaked documents reflected a predictable hatred and paranoia towards a country spreading its wings as a regional power - in a region already claimed by both Israel and the United States. According to reports, the comments were almost all negative. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reportedly described as an "autocratic Islamist" who surrounds himself with an "iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors." Ahmet Davutoglu, the foreign minister, is described as "extremely dangerous," with neo-Ottoman ambitions.
While there were numerous insulting comments about the leaders of almost all the countries discussed in the cables, some revelations were particularly suspicious. For one, it seems strange that Israel, a nuclear-power with ongoing military adventures was spared much of the embarrassment. Iran's nuclear program-related documents were bewildering, as they comprised the only case with a consistent and consequential narrative. This was embraced by the Israeli Jerusalem Post, which described the findings as vindicating to Israel (because the leaks alleged that the desire to eliminate Iran's nuclear program was also shared by others in the region). The timing of this revelation seems suspicious, in light of Iran's scheduled nuclear talks in Geneva, and the increasingly warming of relations between Iran and various Arab countries. It seems as if someone, or some entity, wants to enliven the conflict with Iran, and spread it throughout the Middle East.
There was also allegation, made by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas was informed in advance of the deadly war unleashed on the impoverished Gaza Strip, which killed and wounded thousands. Even if someone chooses to trust a source like Barak, there are still no surprises here. Palestinian officials in Ramallah openly coordinate 'security' and other issues with their Israeli counterparts at a time that Gaza continues to face the harshness of siege. The Palestinian Authority's unflattering conduct requires no leaks.
The Turkish mainstream daily Aksam dubbed the leaks "The September 11 of Diplomacy". And like September 11, the leaks will likely reverberate in their impact on the international stage for years to come. There is no question that the embarrassing disclosures would make every world government thinks twice before sharing any new intelligence with US officials. The US officials will think twice before choosing their words.
But that aside, it must be stated that some US diplomats - unlike the top politicians in Washington - seem to in fact hold themselves accountable to the declared policy of their government. Their repeated emphasis on democracy, corruption, and so on in their private messages indicate that they are genuinely focused on these issues, despite the fact that they serve a largely frivolous and propagandist role in the overall policy of the US government.
Finally, one must admit that, unlike the Afghanistan and Iraq leaks, the latest revelations were of hardly any service to the cause of justice and global peace. They simply showed the inner workings of US diplomacy, with all of its good points, flaws, limits and shortcomings. Despite their high number, the documents raised many questions, but actually answered few. They only confirmed existing beliefs, ranging from the widespread corruption in Afghanistan to Berlusconi's "frequent late nights and penchant for partying." But since more are coming, one can only wait and see...
German Troops Welcomed in France as a Symbol of Cooperation
The 291st battalion of the German infantry and part of the French-German Brigade was welcomed last Friday at a military base in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France. The flag of the 291st Battalion was passed on by the chief of the German army, Lt.Gen. Werner Freers, during a ceremony held at the Josephine Pavilion of the Orangerie nearby Strasbourg, according to a press release.
The French-German brigade was initiated in 1987 by French President Francois Mitterand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The special mobile unit is used for European defense and has been deployed on international missions. The more than 5,000 soldiers have been stationed in Germany since the brigade started operations in 1989.
The brigade has also been the spearhead of Eurocorps, an EU military force, since 1993. “From Bosnia to Kosovo to the Congo and Afghanistan, the French and Germans are fighting side by side in multinational operations led by NATO or the European Union since the mid-90s,” said Gen. Martin Klotz, commander of the 2nd armored brigade co-located at Illkirch-Graffenstaden and military governor of Strasbourg.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke of the “deepening relationship” and friendship with its former German foe, during the 2009 Munich Security Conference. The friendship “isn’t demonstrated by France putting soldiers in Germany, but by France being honored to have German soldiers on the territory of the French Republic,” Sarkozy said, and the first soldiers arrived in April.
Sarkozy attributed the military hospitality as a symbol of good intentions between the neighboring countries. “It is yet another sign of the depth of our relations and the will to permanently establish the friendship between the German and the French people,” he said, during a press conference on Friday at a German-French Minister Council held in Freiburg, Germany.
“The fact that we now, after what Germany has caused by Nazism and World War II, at the beginning of the 21st century can say ‘German soldiers are welcome in France’ is a great gesture,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a press conference with Sarkozy.
French Minister of Defense Alain Juppe said allowing the German battalion in France is a sign of cooperation between the two countries. "France and Germany have managed to overcome their rivalries to build a serene relationship and a common destiny... to build together a future of peace on our continent,” Juppe said during the flag ceremony in Strasbourg, according to the communiqué of the French Ministry of Defense.
The location of the discussions also carries its own significance. Numerous disputes and wars between France and Germany took place in the area of Alsace Lorraine throughout history. Both countries took claim over the area that is rich with iron ore and coal.
The 291st battalion is equipped with the most “advanced personal equipment and weapons” and is preparing for deployment to Afghanistan and Kosovo in 2011.
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