Splattered along a new road in Afghanistan. KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 28 — A NATO airstrike killed 14 laborers working for an Afghan road construction company that had been contracted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build a road in the mountainous province of Nuristan in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The strike occurred late Monday night in the Norgram district of Nuristan when the Afghan workers of Amerifa Road Construction Company were sleeping in tents after a day’s work. “Fourteen of our mechanics and laborers were killed as they were asleep in their tents,” said Nurullah Jalali, the … Continue reading Hearts and Minds

War profiteering come first. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. spending on aid work in Afghanistan is only a fraction of what the American military spends, and too much of the aid money pays the high salaries of expatriate employees, an international aid agency said Tuesday. [snip] Though the government aid arm U.S. Agency for International Development has spent more than $4.4 billion in Afghanistan since 2002, the British-based aid agency Oxfam said that figure is dwarfed by U.S. military spending here — some $35 billion in 2007 alone. “As in Iraq, too much aid is absorbed by profits of companies … Continue reading Fucking Up The “Good War”

Odds are Chimpy will continue to repeat his“Koizumi an’ I talk about the peace” story despitethis development. Japan’s Defense Ministry ordered home its naval ships from the Indian Ocean today, ending for now a six-year mission in support of the war in Afghanistan that raised the nation’s military presence overseas but has recently drawn increasing criticism domestically. A destroyer and supply ship that had been refueling warships for the United States and other nations were recalled at 3 p.m. as a special law authorizing the mission was due to expire at midnight. The government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was … Continue reading What Coalition?

Heckuva job, Chimpy! Afghanistan produced dramatically more opium in 2006, increasing its yield by roughly 49 percent from a year earlier and pushing global opium production to a new record high, a U.N. report said Tuesday. Opium production in Afghanistan increased from 4,100 metric tons in 2005 to 6,100 metric tons in 2006, according to the 2007 World Drug Report released by the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Opium is the main ingredient for heroin. In 2006, Afghanistan accounted for 92 percent of global illicit opium production, up from 70 percent in 2000 and 52 percent a … Continue reading Poppies, Poppies [waves wand menacingly]

More from Dan Froomkin: Bob Roberts and Ryan Parry write in Britain’s Daily Mirror: “Tony Blair feared George Bush would ‘nuke the s**t’ out of Afghanistan in revenge for 9/11, a sensational documentary will claim this week. “Giving the inside story on the war, former British ambassador to the US Chris Meyer reveals: ‘Blair’s real concern was that there would be quote unquote ‘a kneejerk reaction’ by the Americans. . . . they would go thundering off and nuke the s**t out of the place without thinking straight.’ . . . “In Channel 4’s candid two-part documentary The Rise and … Continue reading Poodle Explained

The lovely and talented Pervez Musharraf. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he would not allow two former premiers who are also his main political rivals to return to Pakistan to take part in upcoming elections, according to a report Friday. The announcement seems likely to deepen Pakistan’s political crisis, in which the military leader faces accusations of authoritarianism as well as a growing challenge from Islamic extremists. Musharraf was asked during an interview with the private Aaj television channel about the aspirations of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to return from exile to lead their parties in parliamentary elections, due … Continue reading Out Partner In Democracy And Moderation

One, maybe two US soldiers killed in Pakistan. Militants opened fire Monday on a convoy carrying U.S. and Pakistani military officials near the Afghan frontier, killing one American and one Pakistani soldier, the Pakistani army spokesman said. At least two Americans and two Pakistani soldiers and were wounded. Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said “miscreants” — usually a byword used by Pakistani officials to describe Islamic militants — fired at the convoy carrying military officials who attended a meeting in the northwestern town of Teri Mangal. [snip] Rahmatullah Rahmat, governor of the Afghan border province of Paktia, said that he, U.S. … Continue reading Spillover

I don’t think our friends in Afghanistan will tolerate this kind of shit much longer. Airstrikes called in by U.S. Special Forces soldiers fighting with insurgents in southern Afghanistan killed at least 21 civilians, officials said Wednesday. One coalition soldier was also killed. Helmand provincial Gov. Assadullah Wafa said Taliban fighters sought shelter in villagers’ homes during the fighting in the Sangin district Tuesday evening, and that subsequent airstrikes killed 21 civilians, including several women and children. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly said more must be done to prevent civilian casualties during military operations. He warned last week, after … Continue reading Running Out Of Patience

I don’t think the Bush Assministration planned for this. Afghanistan’s government should hold direct talks with the resurgent Taliban and other opposition forces, the Afghan senate said in a formal vote on Tuesday, in a bid to end the rising bloodshed in the country. The senate, the upper house of the Afghan parliament, also urged Western troops in the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces to halt the hunt for Taliban fighters and other militants. The motion comes at a time of rising public discontent with the government of President Hamid Karzai over civilian casualties at the hands of Western troops, … Continue reading Trouble In The Client State

Afghan soldiers are fragging our troops. Two American soldiers working as mentors to Afghan troops have been shot dead and two others wounded. U-S officials say the gunman was an Afghan soldier. Just what the hell were they doing there, anyway. The shooter was posted outside a prison being revamped to house Afghans transferred from Guantanamo Bay. [snip] The revamp is supposed to improve security at the jail, which is infamous among Afghans for tales of torture and appalling conditions dating back to communist rule in the 1970s. Since the U-S-led invasion in 2001 that topped the Taliban, hundreds of … Continue reading Meanwhile, In America’s Other Little War

Why does this keep happening? Regional officials said Wednesday that 51 villagers, some of them women and children, were killed in recent fighting in western Afghanistan. The U.S.-led coalition said it had no reports of civilian deaths. [snip] Afghan President Hamid Karzai repeated his demands that more be done to prevent civilian casualties during military operations, saying he has been meeting regularly with officials of coalition and NATO forces trying to solve the problem. “The intention is very good in these operations to fight terrorism. Sometimes mistakes have been made as well, but five years on, it is very difficult … Continue reading Hearts, Minds, Etc.

The United States of America becomes the first country in the history of the world to charge a child with war crimes. The U.S. military has charged a 20-year-old Canadian held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a suspected terrorist with murder and other crimes, the Pentagon announced. Omar Ahmed Khadr, captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan when he was 15, was formally charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying, according to the Pentagon’s announcement on Tuesday. The charge of murder stems from a gunfight during which he threw a … Continue reading The War On Children

In Afghanistan… Q What do you think the symbolism is there for the — for whoever carried this out? They said publicly that this was aimed at you. What does that — THE VICE PRESIDENT: Who said that? Q The Taliban — THE VICE PRESIDENT: I hadn’t heard that. Q It was a Taliban spokesman quoted, saying that the attack was trying to get you. Q What we’re quoting them as saying is that they took responsibility for it, and they said they were aware that you were there. THE VICE PRESIDENT: I hadn’t heard that. Continue reading Cheney Shits A Brick

I agree with Karzai’s cabinet, spraying Afghanistan’s poppy fields with herbicide is likely to poison the groundwater, kill wildlife, damage other crops, and sicken people. But somehow I don’t think that’s why he made this decision. Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided against a Colombia-style program to spray this country’s heroin-producing poppies after the Cabinet worried herbicide would hurt legitimate crops, animals and humans, officials said Thursday. The decision, reportedly made Sunday, dashes U.S. hopes for mounting a campaign using ground sprayers to poison poppy plants to help combat Afghanistan’s opium trade after a record crop … Continue reading Poppies