Cultural Policing in Iran
Posted on 09. Jul, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
This week saw an international outcry over Iran’s plans to stone Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to death for committing adultery. While authorities ultimately backed down to international pressure, Ashtiani’s future remains unclear. The mother of two may still die by hanging or beheading.
Learn more about what’s happening in Iran and the Green Movement’s ongoing fight for freedom in this episode of The Week in Green.
http://www.vimeo.com/13214317
Leaving Sangin
Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
The announcement that British forces will hand over control of Sangin to American troops has stirred some very powerful emotions. Despite military and Government insistence that the move is a logical redeployment, the decision has nevertheless provoked charges that the British military failed in Sangin and is running away.
First, let’s separate the military brass from the brave soldiers doing the hard graft on the ground. The British produce the finest soldiers in the world. I have no doubt our forces could hang on in Sangin indefinitely, as the Paras proved in 2006 during the opening phase of Britain’s woefully undermanned and infamously underequipped deployment to Helmand. Sadly, the number of boots on the ground was never increased sufficiently to allow British forces to dominate their area of operations; hence why they have managed to ‘hang on’ rather than turn the situation around.
They'll Take the Aid...
If anyone has failed in Sangin it is Britain’s military and political leaders. They never should have sent our forces to Helmand in the first place, let alone in such unrealistic numbers. As mentioned in previous posts, NATO troops aren’t fighting an insurgency in Afghanistan; they’ve taken sides in a long term civil war. The Brits never had a hope in hell of ‘winning hearts and minds’ in Sangin because the local Pashtoon population believe NATO forces and the Afghan National Army for that matter, are allied with the former warlords of the Northern Alliance – the historic enemies of the Pashtoon. Furthermore, British troops in Sangin were also unwittingly thrust into the centre of more localized rivalries between tribes and drugs lords; a scenario which has unfortunately played out in many other areas of Afghanistan as well.
In the last few months, the British media has started analyzing the Afghan quagmire with an increasingly wary eye. The late awakening is understandable, given that for years the FCO has been feeding journalists a steady diet of ‘good news’ stories about ‘flourishing markets’, health clinics, and school openings in Sangin. The Pashtoon aren’t going to turn down a health clinic, even one provided by the allies of their mortal enemies. They’ll grab the aid money with one hand…but hold a dagger in the other.
The Americans will deploy to Sangin in greater numbers than the British. They’ll likely be better equipped and supported as well. I doubt however that these advantages will make their mission more successful. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: more troops equals more causalities in Afghanistan. That’s the tragic reality of entering a conflict on one side of a civil war.
I’m over-the-moon that British forces are withdrawing from Sangin and redeploying to an area more conducive to their current force strength. There is absolutely no shame in that. It’s a sensible move. Of course, it would be an even better move if British forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan all together.
Bob Shepherd is an ex-SAS soldier and bestselling author of The Circuit. His debut novel The Infidel will be published August 5th by Simon & Schuster UK. To read more posts by him, please visit www.bobshepherdauthor.com.
GULF REPORT: Sea Turtles Burning
Posted on 07. Jul, 2010 by admin in Energy Security, Environment, Uncategorized
One of the many animal groups endangered by the old spill in the Gulf of Mexico is sea turtles. Carole Allen, Gulf Office Director at the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, speaks here about how BP has been handling the renewed threat to sea turtles.
Police This
Posted on 02. Jul, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
This week in Iran saw opposition leaders asking what happened to the honor of the police, reduced to plainclothes beatings at rallies. Meanwhile, civilians took matters into their own hands when they decided the “morality police” went too far. The latest from the Week in Green:
http://blip.tv/file/3831641
It’s On! (Or is it?)
Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by admin in Economy, Environment, Uncategorized, War on Terror
Ending a month-long constitutional stalemate, Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned today after just over a year in office.
Addressing the nation, 57-year-old Prime Minister Nepal said, “It is already too late to table the annual policies, program and budget in the Legislature-Parliament. Despite having a clear majority in the House, I decided to tender my resignation, with the hope that peace process and constituent making process will be completed, as it would not be right to keep the nation at indecision and confusion in situation like this.”
And there has been a lot of confusion. Four weeks ago, the three major political parties agreed that they could not agree on a new constitution. Instead, they extended the process for another year, and in the meantime hammered out a three-point agreement. The prime minister’s resignation was key for the Maoists.
The other parties are demanding the dissolution of Maoist’s sister organization Young Communist League, which has been charged with violating law and human rights, as well as demand that Maoists return property seized during the conflict. The major disagreement between the Maoists and the other parties is about the issue of the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army.
Because of the political deadlock, the discussion on major issues such as army integration, the structure of the government: presidential form or prime minister as the chief executive; questions about the numbers of states under federation and the judiciary system; and whether it will be independent or under parliament, is disrupted. Whoever leads will not have an easy time to get consensus on these issues.
–Rajneesh Bhandari
Iran: The Battle for the Universities
Posted on 29. Jun, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
Week 54 saw more protests as Iran’s government moved to put hardliners in charge of universities. The latest “Week in Review” from weekingreen.org:
Hey, What’s With You, Guy?
Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
Our occasional series on your public servants….
We turn today to Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who is making headlines now thanks to his floor speech about a diabolical terrorist plot to (follow this one): infiltrate the US with pregnant women, whose babies would then be born here, making them American citizens, “and then they would turn back where they could be raised and coddled as future terrorists…And then one day, twenty, thirty years down the road, they can be sent in to help destroy our way of life.”
Gohmert cites a retired FBI agent as his source.
Gohmert, who’s been in Congress since 2005, also has compared the $20 billion BP fund to (what else) Hitler, suggested that President Obama would condone the stabbing of TSA workers, said that a hate crimes bill would lead to rampant bestiality, and lashed out at skimpily-dressed Miss USA contestants as “an absolute breakdown in morality and when you lose morality you get economic chaos.” And that’s just this year.
In 2006, the non-profit Sunlight Organization which advocates better transparency in government reported that Gohmert’s campaign committee paid his wife $53,261 to serve as the campaign’s assistant manager in 2005-2006.
For all this, and the floor speech below, we have to ask: hey, what’s with you, guy?
Green Movement Marches On
Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
We are very excited here to kick off an intriguing program every week, straight from the streets of Iran. “The Week in Review,” is produced by The Week in Green with original reporting and footage sent from cell phones and other social media.
Week 53 checks in with the push for democracy one year after the Iranian presidential election resulted in widespread protests. Is the desire still there? Check out for yourself. You’ll know within a few seconds.
A Civil War – Not an Insurgency
Posted on 24. Jun, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
It’s a grim milestone that with good leadership could have been avoided. This week a Royal Marine wounded in Helmund Province became the 300th British soldier to die as a result of operations in Afghanistan. The tragic death has caused many Brits to pause and reflect, not only on the sacrifices made by our brave men and woman in uniform but on the broader issue of what our country can realistically achieve in Afghanistan.
Anticipating the flood of public doubt surrounding Britain’s continued involvement, the new coalition government responded to this terrible landmark by once again linking Afghanistan to national security. ‘We are paying a high price for keeping our country safe,’ said Prime Minister David Cameron. ‘We are there because the Afghans are not yet ready to keep their own country safe and to keep terrorists and terrorist training camps out of their country.’ This, as regular readers of my posts will know, is a bogus argument in my view. If anything, Britain’s military presence in Afghanistan has compromised national security by fanning the flames of home grown terrorism. As for making the world a safer place; I’ve said since 2001 that Britain and its allies would do better to tackle al-Qaeda at its source by hitting select targets in Pakistan (al-Qaeda’s primary breeding ground) and Saudi Arabia (al-Qaeda’s financial centre). Going after terrorists one by one in Afghanistan is tantamount to swatting mosquitoes to eradicate malaria.
Can he be won over?
Those who support ‘staying the course’ in Afghanistan believe the coalition can eventually succeed in its mission to bring security and stability to the country. This misperception is not surprising given that for years now, the public has been told that Britain and its allies are waging a counter-insurgency campaign. Indeed I have been sucked into calling the conflict an insurgency. I apologize for doing so and I’d like to be perfectly clear now: Britain is not fighting counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. We have taken sides in a festering 30-year civil war. This distinction is crucial for understanding the limits of what can be achieved there. A foreign force can win a counter-insurgency by getting the people in its area of operations on side. By contrast, British and US forces operating in Pashtoon dominated Southern and Eastern Afghanistan have no chance of winning over the local population because the coalition has allied itself with the former commanders of the Northern Alliance – the mortal enemies of the Pashtoon.
Having worked for six years as a security advisor in Afghanistan, I’ve had contact with locals ranging from humble villagers to cunning warlords. When pressed, they have all come to the same dire conclusion. It doesn’t’ matter when the coalition withdraws from Afghanistan, the end result will be the same; brutal, all-out civil war. Bear in mind too that it’s not just the coalition that have taken sides in the Afghan conflict. India, Pakistan and China all have a presence in the country whether through proxies or exploiting the country’s vast mineral wealth. Russia and Iran are also working behind-the-scenes to secure their interests. That’s five regional powers – all with nuclear weapons or close to it, vying to assert their will in Afghanistan. No matter how you look at it, Afghanistan is a quagmire that defies military solutions.
It’s entirely possible to support our troops in Afghanistan and be against the war. Britain’s armed forces deserve to be honoured for their service and sacrifice. The fact that they were able to hold out in Helmand for years despite being woefully undermanned and ill-equipped is testament to their skill and prowess. They could fight on in Afghanistan indefinitely if that’s what this country asks of them. But make no mistake: achieving Afghan stability is a mission no foreign army, no matter how professional, can accomplish.
Bob Shepherd is an ex-SAS soldier and bestselling author of The Circuit. His debut novel The Infidel will be published August 5th by Simon & Schuster UK. To read more posts by him, please visit www.bobshepherdauthor.com.
Turning the Page on Print
Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by admin in Economy, Uncategorized
Book sales have been falling and publishing houses going out of business, but the outlook for the publishing industry isn’t all dim. Check out the latest episode of Around the Planet to find out why.
http://www.vimeo.com/12767897