Afghanistan

NOVANEWS  by David Swanson   The Senate just voted against the Afghanistan war.  Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly. THE GOOD The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted by voice vote to pass an amendment that concludes thus: “Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 1) the President of the United States should expedite the transition of the responsibility for military and security operations to the Government of Afghanistan; 2) the President shall devise a plan based on inputs from military commanders, the diplomatic missions in the region, and appropriate members of the cabinet, along with the consultation of Congress, for expediting the drawdown of U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan and accelerating the transfer of security authority to Afghan authorities prior to December ...

NOVANEWS  by Asif Haroon Raja When Barak Hussein Obama took over the reins of power in January 2009, war on terror conceived by George W. Bush Junior and his team of neo-cons in October 2001 had reached the age of seven years and three months. Obama made a u-turn on his promise of bringing a change and continued with the policy of his predecessor of using force as the singular option to control terrorism and extremism. At the very outset, he formulated Af-Pak policy in which Afghanistan and Pakistan border region was marked as single battle zone under single command based in Kabul. It envisaged NATO conducting hot pursuits inside FATA whenever the situation warranted. In order to wrest the initiative from militant forces, Obama transferred Gen McChrystal from Baghdad to Kabul and also ord...

NOVANEWS  by crescentandcross in Uncategorized    ed note–wish I could say that I am shocked or surprised, but the fact is that this is a case of “same stuff/different day’. Ok, a bunch of Jewish-trained hooligans beat a sheep to death, consider then the MILLIONS of innocent people these people have murdered, the MILLIONS  of innocent people whose lives have been destroyed, and the MILLIONS more awaiting a similar fate in Iran and elsewhere. The truly maddening and mind-boggling thing is that Judaism and its political counterpart–Zionism–the virus that has spawned this brutality, still sits there, awaiting humanity’s diagnosis as a pathology of the heart, mind and soul, but even after this video ‘going viral’ barely a few will come to embrace this reality. God help us all ...

NOVANEWS  Anti-Pashtun efforts have forced them to fight for their right Pashto and Pashtuns: In the Light of Linguistic Perspective By Prof.  Mojawer Ahmad Zyar Pashto is the language of Pashtuns. Pashtuns (Afghans) are the biggest majority ethno-linguistic tribe and the most long living residents of Afghanistan. The name of the country is links with the name of largest majority, the Pashtuns.  From the point of view of history and geography Pashtuns belong to northeastern areas likePamir and Balkh. The grandpas of Pashtuns were named as Sakas, Kasyan and Sakan, and the Pashto itself were the grandson of Saki language. Other current Saki languages belong to Saka origins like: Osety (Caucasia) and 12 or 13 other Pamiri languages are considered close sisters. Sakas are considered the f...

  BBC commitment to impartiality questioned  in its coverage of Afghanistan  By Hanan Habibzai    This article analysis the work of three media organizations relating to their coverage of the same  event in Afghanistan. On 10th February 2011 Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman from the Afghan  National Security Directorate, gave a press conference to the world’s media claiming the  government had arrested two men suspected of carrying out a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed  eight people.  The BBC Pashto Service report of the conference, compared to coverage of the same event by the  USA’s Washington Post and an Afghan online news agency Pajhwok calls into question the BBC’s  impartiality when reporting on Afghan affairs. The BBC is renowned for its relatively strong  commitment to impartial,...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross in Uncategorized    CNN An Army staff sergeant accused of leading a rogue “kill squad” charged with murdering three Afghan civilians took the stand Friday during his court martial and denied carrying out the killings. Yet he admitted to cutting off body parts as part of what prosecutors called a gruesome practice of keeping battlefield “trophies.” Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs’ surprise testimony came a week after his court martial began. It is the first time Gibbs has publicly presented his version of what happened with the platoon he led from the Army’s 5th Stryker Brigade. He is the highest-ranking soldier charged in what prosecutors say was a rogue “kill squad” that allegedly targeted Afghan civilians and made it look like they’d been insurgents. Gibbs has pl...

NOVANEWS   So what does this really mean? Private security firms, both local and foreign, will make increasingly high profits: A fully fledged Afghan national security force, including army and police, will cost about $5 billion a year after international combat forces pull out in 2014, the Afghanistan defence minister told reporters on Tuesday. The price tag estimated by Abdul Rahim Wardak was more than three times the Afghan government’s domestic revenue in 2010, and about a third of the country’s gross domestic product. “At the present level of security environment we are facing, it will be about $5 billion a year,” Wardak told journalists at the heavily guarded ministry, where a display of the Afghan army’s foreign supplied weaponry and equipment, from socks to helicopters...

NOVANEWS by Lisa Davis and David Swanson Stop the War Coalition The Children of Afghanistan: an analysis of children’s rights. Report by Lisa Davis Download… Lisa Davis Afghanistan has been engaged with more than 30 years of war with thousands of civilians killed or injured since 2001. It is under these conditions that children are at extreme risk of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect. The children of Afghanistan are growing up in one of the least developed countries in the world. Six percent of babies die at birth and 25 percent before their 5th birthday. Conflict and political violence force millions of children and their families to flee their homes and as a result displaced families spend years in situations of uncertainty and insecurity. Girls face multiple gender discriminatio...

NOVANEWS by Asif Haroon Raja Civil war in Afghanistan is raging since 1976. It saw relative calm and stability during brief spell of Taliban rule, but peace was snatched away by USA and the country was again pushed into the inferno. Ongoing war lit in October 2001 is continuing and has become the longest war in its history. One of the most impecunious countries of the world is being continuously trampled under the boots of US-NATO forces for over a decade without any respite and this gruesome process is likely to continue for some more time. Having failed to subdue Afghan resistance forces despite applying excessive force and dirty tricks, occupation forces are now at the verge of throwing in their towel and departing. Concluding that military option alone will lead nowhere; of late the U...

NOVANEWS by Robert L. Hanafin In my latest issue of The Veteran Magazine (September-October 2011), from Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), is an excellent series of articles focused on PTSD. This focus spans everything from: A PTSD Preface by Dr. Thomas C. Hall, Chair of VVA’s PTSD and Substance Abuse Committee PTSD from the Beginning by Dr. Tom Berger. Executive Director of VVA’s Veterans Health Council The Paradox of PTSD by Retired Army Col. CharlesW. Hoge, a medical doctor, directed the U.S. military’s top research program on the mental health and neurological effects of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2002-09 A wife’s view of PTSD How to file a VA Claim for PTSD Since their coverage of PTSD is so long, I will post this series in several parts beginning with PTSD...