CHENEY AT BAY
Bush's key men face grilling on torture and death squads
Former vice-president Dick Cheney could be forced to testify to Congress over allegations that a secret hit squad was set up on his orders, as Democrats press for inquiries into the conduct of the 'war on terror'. Paul Harris reports from New York
"The moves reveal a long-awaited desire by elements of the Obama administration and Democrat-controlled Congress to examine alleged abuses of power by Bush officials. They also raise the prospect of a bitter political fight with Republicans, who are likely to portray any attempt to investigate leading Bushites as a witch-hunt.
The inquiries also seem to go against the wishes of some in the White House, including Barack Obama. The president has said he does not want to be distracted by the past and instead intends to focus on economic recovery and healthcare reform. "The White House is more in the mood for going forward on the issues, such as healthcare, by which they want to define their presidency," said Gary Schmitt, a former intelligence official under Ronald Reagan and a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute."
Simon Wiesenthal Center
"Simon Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Nazi death camps, dedicated his life to documenting the crimes of the Holocaust and to hunting down the perpetrators still at large. "When history looks back," Wiesenthal explained, "I want people to know the Nazis weren’t able to kill millions of people and get away with it." His work stands as a reminder and a warning for future generations."
Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal
Principle Vl
The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under; international law:
1. Crimes against peace:
1. Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
2. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Pasadena Defence
“Would you rather fight them here or in Pasadena?” Maybe we could beat them in Pasadena.
Michael Herr
Dispatches
Mr Brown held talks yesterday with President Obama and Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of the Defence Staff, about the latest developments. He said: "We cannot allow southern Afghanistan and the border areas to remain lawless places sheltering terrorism and the drugs trade."
He added: "There is a chain of terror running from the mountains and plains of southern Afghanistan and Pakistan to the towns and streets of Britain. People in Britain today are safer because of the courageous sacrifice of British soldiers"
The feared invasion of Pasadena by victorious Vietnamese communist hordes has not come to pass. And yet Gordon Brown feebly tried to resurrect it in his tortured (let's bring that word into daylight) explanation of the British involvement in Afghanistan.
We’re fighting in Afghanistan to protect ourselves in London. Then again, the Brits were already in Afghanistan for the July 7, 2005, tube bombings, so the only coherent explanation then would be that either the tube bombings would have been much worse if the British had not been in Afghanistan, and/or not enough British troops were in Afghanistan at the time to prevent them.
This kind of thinking dies hard, and is impervious to contrary evidence. Take the insane statement in the Globe and Mail by Lord Robertson of Whatever:
“Every member state in NATO — and there were 19 of them at that time — agreed that we had to do it, but that it was a big and challenging operation. The choice before us, and every democratic state, was simple and stark: either we go to Afghanistan, or Afghanistan comes to us.”
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, The Globe and Mail, December 11, 2007
The logical possibilities that Afghanistan might come to us because we went to Afghanistan, or that Pakistan might now come to us, or indeed Saudi Arabia might come to us, as it already has come to New York, seem to be unspeakable and unthinkable. Given what happened on 9/11, an invasion and occupation of Saudi Arabia would seem to be in the cards, using the same logic.
The contrary argument seems to get very little air time, and the British opposition, which has a job to do, seems more obsessed with the quality and quantity of British equipment than interested in asking hard questions, and gives off vibrations of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
The Pasadena Defence, like the Nuremberg Defence, isn't.
Michael Herr
Dispatches
Mr Brown held talks yesterday with President Obama and Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of the Defence Staff, about the latest developments. He said: "We cannot allow southern Afghanistan and the border areas to remain lawless places sheltering terrorism and the drugs trade."
He added: "There is a chain of terror running from the mountains and plains of southern Afghanistan and Pakistan to the towns and streets of Britain. People in Britain today are safer because of the courageous sacrifice of British soldiers"
The feared invasion of Pasadena by victorious Vietnamese communist hordes has not come to pass. And yet Gordon Brown feebly tried to resurrect it in his tortured (let's bring that word into daylight) explanation of the British involvement in Afghanistan.
We’re fighting in Afghanistan to protect ourselves in London. Then again, the Brits were already in Afghanistan for the July 7, 2005, tube bombings, so the only coherent explanation then would be that either the tube bombings would have been much worse if the British had not been in Afghanistan, and/or not enough British troops were in Afghanistan at the time to prevent them.
This kind of thinking dies hard, and is impervious to contrary evidence. Take the insane statement in the Globe and Mail by Lord Robertson of Whatever:
“Every member state in NATO — and there were 19 of them at that time — agreed that we had to do it, but that it was a big and challenging operation. The choice before us, and every democratic state, was simple and stark: either we go to Afghanistan, or Afghanistan comes to us.”
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, The Globe and Mail, December 11, 2007
The logical possibilities that Afghanistan might come to us because we went to Afghanistan, or that Pakistan might now come to us, or indeed Saudi Arabia might come to us, as it already has come to New York, seem to be unspeakable and unthinkable. Given what happened on 9/11, an invasion and occupation of Saudi Arabia would seem to be in the cards, using the same logic.
The contrary argument seems to get very little air time, and the British opposition, which has a job to do, seems more obsessed with the quality and quantity of British equipment than interested in asking hard questions, and gives off vibrations of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
The Pasadena Defence, like the Nuremberg Defence, isn't.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Now and Then in Panjawaii
NOW
CTV.ca News Staff
Updated: Thu. Jul. 16 2009 4:13 PM ET
Another Canadian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, making July the deadliest month ever for coalition troops in the country.
Pte. Sebastien Courcy died Thursday during a counterinsurgency mission in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province.
Reporting from the Canadian base at Kandahar, Dene Moore of the Canadian Press told CTV News Channel the circumstances surrounding Courcy's death were unusual.
"He fell from his position, it was a high position on a cliff. He fell and was killed," Moore said, "there were no other soldiers injured."
It is not clear whether Courcy was involved in a firefight at the time.
Courcy, 26, was a member of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal 22e Regiment, also known as the Van Doos.
Courcy was described as a "fine soldier" by his commander Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance.
THEN
CTV.ca News Staff
Updated: Sun. Sep. 17 2006 11:54 PM ET
A top NATO general says the alliance's massive, two-week-long anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan has been "successfully completed."
Lieut.-Gen. David Richards, head of the 20,000 NATO-led force, hailed Operation Medusa in the insurgent stronghold of southern Afghanistan as a "significant success.''
Reconstruction and development efforts will soon begin in three southern areas, said Richards, after coalition forces drove insurgents from their positions.
"The ability of the Taliban to stay and fight in groups is finished," said Asadullah Khalid, Kandahar province's governor. "The enemy has been crushed."
NATO launched Operation Medusa on Sept. 2 with the aim of clearing out Taliban fighters from a Panjwaii district near Kandahar. NATO said its troops killed 512 Taliban and captured another 136.
For the people who lived there, the victory comes at a cost.
"The bombing and the fighting destroyed our mosque, our homes and our vineyards," said one farmer. "The Taliban are gone, but so is most everything else."
Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian NATO commander in southern Afghanistan, said: "There has been battlefield damage largely because of where the Taliban went. We will go back out there and we will help rebuild that."
No damage estimate has been calculated yet, nor has a timeline been set out for rebuilding.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Buck Turgidson* Does Calgary
*Sorry for previous tpyo. Sigh. I can be my own worst editor.
Reminiscent of the famous climactic scene in the classic movie Dr. Strangelove, Canadian General Walt Natynczyk (right) rides a torpedo at the Armed Forces display at the Stampede in Calgary on July 3, 2009. At left is U.S. General David Petraeus, commander of central command. Natynczyk is the Canadian chief of defense staff.
Photograph by: Grant Black, Calgary Herald
Afghanistan allies meet in Calgary
Generals "compare notes" on war in Afghanistan
By Stephane Massinon, Calgary Herald July 4, 2009
And now we hear that that Good Ole Boy of the Military Industrial Complex, General Dynamics, has landed a multibillion dollar contract for new armour, the armour sounding very much like the stuff Thyssen was going to build at Bear Head but didn't, adjacent to the riding of Elmer MacKay, subsequently the riding of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney who took cash in envelopes for a "watching brief" for Thyssen, the watching and the money apparently now stopped, and the new armour, announced by the son of Elmer MacKay, Peter MacKay, who also represents the same riding in Nova Scotia, who worked for Thyssen once upon a time, will cost $5 billion that we don't have, and will produce nothing of consequence for the future of Canada, never mind Afghanistan where we now have very expensive tanks that aren't doing anything.
There should be a revolution, people. This government, Stephen Harper's grotesque acting out of his turgid little world, a world without science, art, industry, innovation, law, or parliamentary democracy, but with lots of punishment, secrecy, and brute force, is a disgrace.
This government does not need to be defeated; it needs to be demolished.
Reminiscent of the famous climactic scene in the classic movie Dr. Strangelove, Canadian General Walt Natynczyk (right) rides a torpedo at the Armed Forces display at the Stampede in Calgary on July 3, 2009. At left is U.S. General David Petraeus, commander of central command. Natynczyk is the Canadian chief of defense staff.
Photograph by: Grant Black, Calgary Herald
Afghanistan allies meet in Calgary
Generals "compare notes" on war in Afghanistan
By Stephane Massinon, Calgary Herald July 4, 2009
And now we hear that that Good Ole Boy of the Military Industrial Complex, General Dynamics, has landed a multibillion dollar contract for new armour, the armour sounding very much like the stuff Thyssen was going to build at Bear Head but didn't, adjacent to the riding of Elmer MacKay, subsequently the riding of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney who took cash in envelopes for a "watching brief" for Thyssen, the watching and the money apparently now stopped, and the new armour, announced by the son of Elmer MacKay, Peter MacKay, who also represents the same riding in Nova Scotia, who worked for Thyssen once upon a time, will cost $5 billion that we don't have, and will produce nothing of consequence for the future of Canada, never mind Afghanistan where we now have very expensive tanks that aren't doing anything.
There should be a revolution, people. This government, Stephen Harper's grotesque acting out of his turgid little world, a world without science, art, industry, innovation, law, or parliamentary democracy, but with lots of punishment, secrecy, and brute force, is a disgrace.
This government does not need to be defeated; it needs to be demolished.
Monday, July 6, 2009
...while there's still time.
“What we should do,” said George...
“...is fuck off,” said a voice, which was not that of an officer. “ We should fuck off while there's still time.”
"The advice was so sensible, and the owner of the voice so experienced in these matters, that it remained only to put it into practice.”
Eric Newby
Love and War in the Apennines
Canada should remove itself from the grasp of its delusional southern neighbour, while there's still time. True, we can't leave the continent, but we can tell the truth and resist the madness.
Madness is the current Marine invasion of Helmand, which will end, according to its commander, “never.” And then there's crazy talk about building a wall between Pakistan and Afghanistan, an idea hideously similar in imagination to the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China,The Great Firewall of China, the West Bank Wall, and all other futile efforts to separate people who by any sane standard should be together, crazy talk that reminds me of various efforts to build a wall across the DMZ in Vietnam, and some thought to erecting a giant orbiting mirror to reflect the sun onto Vietnam so as to “deny” the Viet Cong the night. I didn't make that up, it was in Time magazine, Friday, January 13, 1967, to be exact.
The American military appears to have some institutional personality disorder marked by a rigid belief that all problems can be solved by American force, particularly overwhelming military force, a belief impervious to repeated disastrous experiences. We could call it the Curtis LeMay Delusional Airpower Disorder, the conviction that bombing will work for any given problem, and if it doesn't, the conclusion is not that bombing isn't the answer, but rather that the bombing was inadequate. And now we can have non-stop bombing, by creepy drones run from the creepy Creach Air Force Base, at zero risk to American air crew.
While all this is going on, Dr. Doom is once more laying it on the line about the future economy. He was right last time, so why wouldn't he be right this time? We're not talking horse-racing here, we're talking about somebody calling the future from a position of evidence, reason, and history.
Also, he's talking about the Chinese, always an interesting story since they seem to be lending the USA money to finance its aimless land war in Asia.
“As I discussed a few weeks ago in a New York Times op-ed the Chinese are flexing their muscles on the question of the global reserve currency system dominated by the dollar.
“With the revision of the SDR basket (so far including only dollar, euro, yen and pound) coming to the table next year it is clear that the Chinese will push for including the renminbi in the new SDR basket. And senior Brazilian policy sources suggest in private that, if the RMB is included in the SDR, so should the Brazilian Real as there is already a much deeper bond market for Real debt and as - unlike China - Brazil has a more liberalized capital account. And the Russians are now openly pushing for commodity currencies - the Canadian and Australian dollar but also the Ruble - to be included in the SDR basket. And the BRICs are on record pushing for the IMF to issue SDR denominated debt.”
And as I understand it, the annual American military budget is almost exactly the annual government deficit.
So let's imagine how this works, the Chinese taking the long view and the Americans taking the ostrich view. The SDR becomes the new world reserve currency (I found out, as a civilian who has access to the Web, that SDR means “Special Drawing Rights”, and that the SDR has an exchange rate with US dollars, calculated daily). As that happens, the Chinese stop buying US dollars, and inflation hits the US as expected. The dollar starts to drop relentlessly against the SDR. The USA finds it can no longer afford to keep 800 military bases overseas, since their expenditures are in SDR. They have to consider selling assets, like the new US$ 1 billion embassy in Islamabad they haven't built yet. The only buyer for such a monstrosity would be the Chinese, who, funnily enough, would want to pay in US dollars, of which they have a considerable store, becoming less valuable by the day, and so are able to pay for a building they lent the Americans money to build, at a price considerably below cost, and the Americans still owe them money! You've got to like this. If you're Chinese.
But meanwhile, back in the immediate future, the Americans have to pull their troops home, home being where they can support them, but at this point there is no more need for so many soldiers, and so quite a few are pensioned off at rates that don't keep up with the now rampant inflation. Civil disorder becomes a problem, and Canada gets nervous, having food, water, and natural resources, not to mention a “civil assistance pact” that would allow for American soldiers, of which there is now a surplus, on Canadian soil. At that point also, we have to wonder about an American coup, which may be happening in slow motion anyway, American military policy being weirdly separate from anything Obama can make a case for. Restless American soldiers can be sent to save Canada from terrorism, supported by drones that were once patrolling the Manitoba/North Dakota border looking for illegal immigrants and terrorists, but are now armed and can identify insurrection from 30,000 feet. The Alberta/Saskatchewan oil fields are “secured”.
This is a very unpleasant picture I'm painting, and I know it's not just me that's worrying. Perhaps Canadians should talk about it.
While there's still time.
“...is fuck off,” said a voice, which was not that of an officer. “ We should fuck off while there's still time.”
"The advice was so sensible, and the owner of the voice so experienced in these matters, that it remained only to put it into practice.”
Eric Newby
Love and War in the Apennines
Canada should remove itself from the grasp of its delusional southern neighbour, while there's still time. True, we can't leave the continent, but we can tell the truth and resist the madness.
Madness is the current Marine invasion of Helmand, which will end, according to its commander, “never.” And then there's crazy talk about building a wall between Pakistan and Afghanistan, an idea hideously similar in imagination to the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China,The Great Firewall of China, the West Bank Wall, and all other futile efforts to separate people who by any sane standard should be together, crazy talk that reminds me of various efforts to build a wall across the DMZ in Vietnam, and some thought to erecting a giant orbiting mirror to reflect the sun onto Vietnam so as to “deny” the Viet Cong the night. I didn't make that up, it was in Time magazine, Friday, January 13, 1967, to be exact.
The American military appears to have some institutional personality disorder marked by a rigid belief that all problems can be solved by American force, particularly overwhelming military force, a belief impervious to repeated disastrous experiences. We could call it the Curtis LeMay Delusional Airpower Disorder, the conviction that bombing will work for any given problem, and if it doesn't, the conclusion is not that bombing isn't the answer, but rather that the bombing was inadequate. And now we can have non-stop bombing, by creepy drones run from the creepy Creach Air Force Base, at zero risk to American air crew.
While all this is going on, Dr. Doom is once more laying it on the line about the future economy. He was right last time, so why wouldn't he be right this time? We're not talking horse-racing here, we're talking about somebody calling the future from a position of evidence, reason, and history.
Also, he's talking about the Chinese, always an interesting story since they seem to be lending the USA money to finance its aimless land war in Asia.
“As I discussed a few weeks ago in a New York Times op-ed the Chinese are flexing their muscles on the question of the global reserve currency system dominated by the dollar.
“With the revision of the SDR basket (so far including only dollar, euro, yen and pound) coming to the table next year it is clear that the Chinese will push for including the renminbi in the new SDR basket. And senior Brazilian policy sources suggest in private that, if the RMB is included in the SDR, so should the Brazilian Real as there is already a much deeper bond market for Real debt and as - unlike China - Brazil has a more liberalized capital account. And the Russians are now openly pushing for commodity currencies - the Canadian and Australian dollar but also the Ruble - to be included in the SDR basket. And the BRICs are on record pushing for the IMF to issue SDR denominated debt.”
And as I understand it, the annual American military budget is almost exactly the annual government deficit.
So let's imagine how this works, the Chinese taking the long view and the Americans taking the ostrich view. The SDR becomes the new world reserve currency (I found out, as a civilian who has access to the Web, that SDR means “Special Drawing Rights”, and that the SDR has an exchange rate with US dollars, calculated daily). As that happens, the Chinese stop buying US dollars, and inflation hits the US as expected. The dollar starts to drop relentlessly against the SDR. The USA finds it can no longer afford to keep 800 military bases overseas, since their expenditures are in SDR. They have to consider selling assets, like the new US$ 1 billion embassy in Islamabad they haven't built yet. The only buyer for such a monstrosity would be the Chinese, who, funnily enough, would want to pay in US dollars, of which they have a considerable store, becoming less valuable by the day, and so are able to pay for a building they lent the Americans money to build, at a price considerably below cost, and the Americans still owe them money! You've got to like this. If you're Chinese.
But meanwhile, back in the immediate future, the Americans have to pull their troops home, home being where they can support them, but at this point there is no more need for so many soldiers, and so quite a few are pensioned off at rates that don't keep up with the now rampant inflation. Civil disorder becomes a problem, and Canada gets nervous, having food, water, and natural resources, not to mention a “civil assistance pact” that would allow for American soldiers, of which there is now a surplus, on Canadian soil. At that point also, we have to wonder about an American coup, which may be happening in slow motion anyway, American military policy being weirdly separate from anything Obama can make a case for. Restless American soldiers can be sent to save Canada from terrorism, supported by drones that were once patrolling the Manitoba/North Dakota border looking for illegal immigrants and terrorists, but are now armed and can identify insurrection from 30,000 feet. The Alberta/Saskatchewan oil fields are “secured”.
This is a very unpleasant picture I'm painting, and I know it's not just me that's worrying. Perhaps Canadians should talk about it.
While there's still time.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Obama's War
"He was – there is no kinder or gentler word for it – a fool."
David Halberstam
The Best and the Brightest
David Halberstam
The Best and the Brightest
The stupidest operation since Khe Sanh
“And as the first Marine briefings on Khe Sanh took place in Marine headquarters at Danang or Dong Ha, the name Dien Bien Phu insinuated itself like some tasteless ghost hawking bad news.”
Michael Herr
Dispatches
U.S. Marines begin massive Afghan assault
The Globe and Mail
Thursday, July 2
“Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed deep into Taliban territory in an Afghan river valley today, launching the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency.
"The Marines say Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, will be decisive and is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, the heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest opium poppy producing region.”
…
“We're going to seize the population from the Taliban and never let them go,” Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Christian Cabaniss told his troops before they set out in armoured convoys."
FACTBOX: Five facts about Afghanistan's Helmand province
Thu Jul 2, 2009 6:50am EDT
(Reuters) - Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed deep into Taliban territory in opium poppy-producing areas of the Helmand River valley on Thursday at the start of a major new offensive Washington hopes will turn the tide of the war in Afghanistan.
Following are five facts about Helmand province.
* Helmand is Afghanistan's largest province, about 60,000 sq km (23,000 miles), making it slightly smaller than the Republic of Ireland. The U.S. Marines join some 9,000 British troops who have been working under Taskforce Helmand since 2006 and are based near the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. [The population of Helmand Province is about 740,000, and the total number of troops from NATO, ISAF -- let's face it, nobody knows who's in charge -- is less than 20,000.]
Canadian, Dutch and other NATO troops have been fighting alongside the British troops in Helmand but U.S. military commanders have described the combat situation in the past year as a stalemate. Existing force levels have not been able to cope with the size and difficulty of the terrain, which includes wide deserts in the south and mountains in the north. In May, the deputy commander of NATO-led forces in the south warned of "a bloody summer ahead."
* Helmand's population is mainly made up of ethnic Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group who have also traditionally been the country's power brokers. It borders Pakistan to its south, Kandahar province to its east and Nimroz province to the west, all mainly Pashtun provinces and heavily influenced by the Taliban. Provincial officials estimate that four out of Helmand's 13 districts are under Taliban control.
* Helmand produces more than half of the opium cultivated in Afghanistan, the source of about 90 percent of the global supply, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In 2008 more than 103,000 hectares of poppy were cultivated. The drug crop is closely tied to the insurgency and the Taliban are mainly funded by the opium trade. [Who says? Last I heard, significant funding for the Taliban, however defined, is from Saudi Arabia, which is not a democracy.]
But NATO forces in Afghanistan are not permitted to engage in crop eradication, a policy which limited British tactics in crippling the insurgency. Britain, the United States and other NATO allies have started a number of civilian programmes to offer farmers alternative crops to opium, such as wheat, but Helmand remains Afghanistan's biggest poppy-producing province.
* Helmand is mostly desert, with agricultural fields cultivating opium poppy and food crops, concentrated around the Helmand River, Afghanistan's longest and which cuts through the center of the province.
Most of the province's population is clustered around the river in north and central Helmand, where British and U.S. troops are also mainly deployed.
* U.S. troops have been deployed to Helmand before to bolster British efforts. In late 2006, months after arriving in the district of Musa Qala, British troops were forced to pull out because of daily Taliban attacks that at times reached their perimeter defenses.
The Taliban seized the town in February 2007 and set up a shadow administration. But 10 months later thousands of British and U.S. troops launched an offensive around the district, paving the way for Afghan soldiers to capture the town.
(Sources: British Ministry of Defense, International Security Assistance Force, Reuters reports, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.* Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.
Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
*So sue me.
Michael Herr
Dispatches
U.S. Marines begin massive Afghan assault
The Globe and Mail
Thursday, July 2
“Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed deep into Taliban territory in an Afghan river valley today, launching the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency.
"The Marines say Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, will be decisive and is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, the heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest opium poppy producing region.”
…
“We're going to seize the population from the Taliban and never let them go,” Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Christian Cabaniss told his troops before they set out in armoured convoys."
FACTBOX: Five facts about Afghanistan's Helmand province
Thu Jul 2, 2009 6:50am EDT
(Reuters) - Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed deep into Taliban territory in opium poppy-producing areas of the Helmand River valley on Thursday at the start of a major new offensive Washington hopes will turn the tide of the war in Afghanistan.
Following are five facts about Helmand province.
* Helmand is Afghanistan's largest province, about 60,000 sq km (23,000 miles), making it slightly smaller than the Republic of Ireland. The U.S. Marines join some 9,000 British troops who have been working under Taskforce Helmand since 2006 and are based near the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. [The population of Helmand Province is about 740,000, and the total number of troops from NATO, ISAF -- let's face it, nobody knows who's in charge -- is less than 20,000.]
Canadian, Dutch and other NATO troops have been fighting alongside the British troops in Helmand but U.S. military commanders have described the combat situation in the past year as a stalemate. Existing force levels have not been able to cope with the size and difficulty of the terrain, which includes wide deserts in the south and mountains in the north. In May, the deputy commander of NATO-led forces in the south warned of "a bloody summer ahead."
* Helmand's population is mainly made up of ethnic Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group who have also traditionally been the country's power brokers. It borders Pakistan to its south, Kandahar province to its east and Nimroz province to the west, all mainly Pashtun provinces and heavily influenced by the Taliban. Provincial officials estimate that four out of Helmand's 13 districts are under Taliban control.
* Helmand produces more than half of the opium cultivated in Afghanistan, the source of about 90 percent of the global supply, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In 2008 more than 103,000 hectares of poppy were cultivated. The drug crop is closely tied to the insurgency and the Taliban are mainly funded by the opium trade. [Who says? Last I heard, significant funding for the Taliban, however defined, is from Saudi Arabia, which is not a democracy.]
But NATO forces in Afghanistan are not permitted to engage in crop eradication, a policy which limited British tactics in crippling the insurgency. Britain, the United States and other NATO allies have started a number of civilian programmes to offer farmers alternative crops to opium, such as wheat, but Helmand remains Afghanistan's biggest poppy-producing province.
* Helmand is mostly desert, with agricultural fields cultivating opium poppy and food crops, concentrated around the Helmand River, Afghanistan's longest and which cuts through the center of the province.
Most of the province's population is clustered around the river in north and central Helmand, where British and U.S. troops are also mainly deployed.
* U.S. troops have been deployed to Helmand before to bolster British efforts. In late 2006, months after arriving in the district of Musa Qala, British troops were forced to pull out because of daily Taliban attacks that at times reached their perimeter defenses.
The Taliban seized the town in February 2007 and set up a shadow administration. But 10 months later thousands of British and U.S. troops launched an offensive around the district, paving the way for Afghan soldiers to capture the town.
(Sources: British Ministry of Defense, International Security Assistance Force, Reuters reports, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.* Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.
Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
*So sue me.
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