Monthly Archives: December 2011

Libya after freedom

12 Monday Dec 2011

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With the airstrikes over and the hated dictator dead, what does Libya now look like?

Two recent broadcasts offer a clue – on Sunday’s RussiaToday, a report carried the concerns of ordinary citizens wondering where their next meal would come.

Libyans under Colonel Gaddafi had the highest living standards in Africa and despite what was said of him, the colonel did look after his people, now if RussiaToday are to be believed they have been left to fend for themselves.

Of course, the state-run broadcaster did run a similar line with the ousting of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, problem with this claim was that Egypt had not prospered under his iron-grip.

What is harder to dismiss is the admission by a member by the National Transitional Council of Libya, immediately after the capture of Saif-ul-Islam that the son of the fallen dictator could not be transferred to Tripoli because the capital was “of course” over-run by gangs of armed men.

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391 British Soldiers and counting..

09 Friday Dec 2011

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Yesterday, the Ministry of Defence announced the passing of another British soldier in the death trap that is Helmand Province.

If the bloodshed continues at its current rate,  the figure will by the end of the year reach the grim milestone of 400.

Even though the people of  Wootton Basset have made sure that the repatriations are not forgotten, there is a danger that this death and the ones leading up to the four hundredth may pass almost without notice, such is the depressing familiarity of news of each new life lost. That they are doing their duty, is without doubt, however, what those of us in ‘civi-street’ appear not to be asking is why the need – what is Britain doing deploying the second biggest contingent of troops to a war where her contribution is symbollic, just as it was in Iraq, where British soldiers openly said that this was ‘America’s show.’

And just as importantly, how much longer will it last and when will it all stop.

Until such hard questions are asked, we will continue to be passive observers, as the sad news is brought to the family of another fallen soldier.

And through our silence we will be as culpable in their deaths as those who said nothing during the carnage of the first and second world wars.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16100110

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The Downed Drone

08 Thursday Dec 2011

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Iranian-owned PressTV has just broadcast the first pictures of the drone that it says was American and had violated her airspace.

At first sight, the downed drone which apparently passes with out detection by any radar system looks like something from a bad B-movie.

The drone had been used to monitor Osama bin Laden’s phonecalls, before he was assassinated.

And no doubt countries like Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen will be interested in taking a good look at this advanced stealth pilotless drone that has caused such carnage in their lands.

The Americans are reported to have said that they doubt whether the Iranians will be able to make much use of the sophisticated technology which they say is beyond their capabilities.

The use of drones has become a disturbing new trend in this war.

In a sense the first use of new technology for the purposes of state assassination came during Russia’s own war on terrorism, when the Chechen leader Dhokhar Dudayev was killed by a precision guided missile after making a mobile phone call.

It was disturbing then, and remains so with every new strike launched from an airbase in a foreign land.

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And here’s the news on two recent elections…

07 Wednesday Dec 2011

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The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the main force in Egyptian politics after the first round of the country’s first ever free elections.

The results mean that the military which has been in power since overthrowing the British appointed monarch in the fifties may be finally releasing its hold on power.

The large turn out indicates that many Egyptians think so.

As democracy appears to be winning in one part of the world it is failing in another, namely that of Russia, where Vladmir Putin’s United Russia party won the parliamentary elections with a scaled back majority.

State-run RussiaToday was trying to put a positive spin on the results which are seen as a test of Putin’s popularity ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

However, an angry crowd in Moscow – some of whom were attacked by Russian police – were clearly not impressed by reports of widespread vote rigging and a clampdown on any independent monitoring.

Despite a heavy police presence today, people were still out to voice their anger.

On the surface, there is a gulf between both elections.

However, a closer look at the outcomes reveal that perhaps the choices of the people are not that different though.

Egyptians have followed the lead in Tunisia and Iraq, by voting for Islamists.

Could Russians vent their frustrations through a return to Communism – the emergence of the Communist Party during the parlimentary elections suggests so.

Either way, this appears to be a victory for reactionaries, not progressives.

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Afghan Conference

05 Monday Dec 2011

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So, ten years after the first conference on the future of Afghanistan, Bonn plays host to the second.

Ten years ago, having ousted the Taliban the international community promised to create stability and a modern state.

Nothing like this has happened.

Instead, by overthrowing the status quo – and thus bringing to an end a period of safety and stability, if at times painful and controversial – they have plunged a country destroyed by the Soviet Union into the abyss.

Afghanistan is the centre for the world’s opium production – something the Taliban had actually stopped –  and the women actually fared better under the students of the madrassas, because they were not attacked.

When The US-led alliance took over Afghanistan they simply put back into power, the very warlords that had tore the country apart after the Soviet Union had left.

The takeover was bloody – remember the siege of the medieval fortress at Qal-i-Jhang – and ill-thought out.

Having left the country to get on with it, America simply moved on to its next target – Iraq, and arguably if that war had gone to plan would have invaded Iran.

There was a period when the international community could have succeeded – by 2005 though it was too late and the insurgency had gained momentum.

The Taliban have never been against rebuilding their country and if Isaf had spent more time and money doing that instead of behaving like a occupying, colonial power, perhaps we would be looking at a healthy stable country.

Instead, the Bonn conference is going to achieve little except rubberstamp Nato’s defeat, especially since the emerging power of the region will not even be there, namely that of Pakistan.

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Nato has “15 days of supplies left” to sustain Afghan war

04 Sunday Dec 2011

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America and her Nato allies have fifteen days of supplies left to sustain her war effort, Pakistan’s former spy chief claimed in an interview broadcast on RussiaToday.

Hamid Gul, who was previously the head of the ISI, said Nato had “shot iself in the foot” after an airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

As a “professional soldier” he knew that the control of the supplyline was key and now was the time for Pakistan to “stand firm”, and offer to help in an orderly withdrawal of the American troops from Afghanistan.

America was “lieing” when it said that it could create an alternative supply line, and if countries such as Tajikistan were to help they would have to deal with the “spill over” of an irregular war.

With the closure of the Shamsi air base for drone strikes, any “secret understanding” between the two countries was no longer there and would mean a huge decrease in the scale of those strikes.

With Pakistan holding the cards, he argued that she would lay down four conditions.

* India does not become the new “proxy power”, something he said that would be a disaster for all the regional powers, “especially China”

*Pakistan should accepted into the nuclear club, in the same way as India.

*To settle the Kashmir issue, according to the wishes of her people

*A scaling down of the highly militarisied American embassy in Kabul.

After that, Pakistan should only open the supply line to ensure a orderly withdrawal.

However, he claimed whilst mosr Americans wanted a withdrawal,  there were too many interests – political, corporate and narcotic – that did not want this to happen.

http://rt.com/news/usa-pakistan-gul-conflict-983/

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Clashes on Kosovo-Serb border

01 Thursday Dec 2011

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For several weeks now, RussiaToday have covered tensions on the border between the Serbs of Kosovo and Nato troops, the Kfor, who are there to ensure that there is not a repeat of previous horrors.

The Serbs want to join the European Union, whilst Kosovo’s declaration of independence has been met with predictable hostility from Belgrade and a lukewarm response from the Islamic world.

That the minority Serbs are treated appalingly in this tiny nation of ethnic Albanians is without a shadow of doubt.

The trouble is those very Serbs still don’t think they have done anything wrong.

When I was in Pristina some fives years after Nato’s intervention in 1999 to prevent ethnic cleansing of Albanian Kosovars, the scars of that time were everywhere.

At the top of the main hill running into the capital, a Serb Orthodox Church had been erected to symbolise the triumph of the Cross over the Crescent. It is still shiny and new even though the grass around it visuably demonstrated that it would not be in use any time soon.

Young Albanians – they are very young and very beautiful – went about their daily lives, even though many carried horrific stories.

One student at the American University told me that the Serbs had come to his village and taken his father away during the conflict.

He still didn’t know what had happened to him.

And it was commonplace to hear the story of Srebrenica, for the Albanians had taken to the hills fearing that fate awaited them as the European nations pondered about what they would do about Kosovo, just as they had done during the Yugoslav wars.

There is a statue in centre of Pristina of a warrior who had given his life for his people and killed many Serbs, as one Albanian told me.

No one seemed to care about this man much, in fact most Albanians give the impression that they just want to get on with life free of any conflicts.

Perhaps it’s time the Serbs started to do the same, they could begin by forgetting about that Battle on the Field of Blackbirds in 1389.

http://rt.com/news/kosovo-standoff-serbia-eu-529/

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