THE US, THE UN AND IRAQ, ELEVENTH THREAD

We are making so little progress in Iraq that it justifies us staying there as long as necessary for the Iraqis to succeed in defending themselves without our help.

Two of those article were about suicide bombs in pakistan and Afghanistan; illustrating the fruitlessness of staying in one country fighting so called AQ while in other countries AQ is growing and getting stronger. We will not win this fight with Muslim extremist with only the military no matter how long we stay in Iraq or how many bombs we drop. For every Muslim/extremist we kill more just pop up in their place. We need to get the heart of the problems that ordinary Muslims have which causes them to turn to the extremist or else the US is going to be fighting Muslims forever. They are not going to just throw up their hands and crawl on their knees in humbleness even if we keep killing them for a hundred years. They need to be able to save face and have a reason to stop fighting.

ican wrote :

Quote:

We are making so little progress in Iraq that it justifies us staying there as long as necessary for the Iraqis to succeed in defending themselves without our help.

plese , somebody wake me up !
is that what ican really wrote : "We are making so little progress in Iraq " or am i having a nightmare ?
hbg

Pakistan A 'Hotbed' For Terror

Lawless tribal belt is al-Qaeda training ground

Peter Goodspeed, National Post
Published: Friday, February 15, 2008


For centuries the wild Pakistani tribal area -- stretching 1,000 kilometres along the Afghan border -- has been lawless, violent and remote. Now, it is rapidly becoming a central front in the U.S.-led war on terror.

The harsh mountainous territory, which Pakistan doesn't control and is off limits to U.S. troops, has become a breeding ground for jihad and the chief training centre for al-Qaeda.

Just days before Pakistanis vote in a crucial election, their country is being threatened by a new generation of radicalized Islamist insurgents who have allied themselves with international terrorists.

Fighters in the tribal areas have been blamed for carrying out more than 60 suicide attacks in Pakistan in the last year, including the Dec. 27 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. But fears are growing another high-profile attack could ignite the sort of chaos Islamic radicals thrive on.

But as al-Qaeda and the Taliban dispatch suicide bombers from the tribal belt to attack Pakistani security personnel and politicians, there are increasing indications Pakistan has become a safe haven for al-Qaeda and the ideological heartland for Islamist terrorists worldwide.

According to top U.S. security officials, South Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan, is the new headquarters for al-Qaeda's global operations and forms the centre of a web of terror plots and assassination attempts that reaches into Europe and the United States.


In testimony before Congress last week, retired admiral Michael McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, stressed al-Qaeda has "regenerated its core operational capabilities needed to conduct attacks."

"Al-Qaeda has been able to retain a safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) that provides the organization many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale," he said.

"The FATA serves as a staging area for al-Qaeda's attacks in support of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as a location for training new terrorist operatives, for attacks in Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States.
"The next attack on the United States will most likely be launched by al-Qaeda operating in the 'under-governed regions' of Pakistan," he added

Judging from online videos and local reports from Pakistan, a study published yesterday in the CTC Sentinel, a publication of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, estimates "al-Qaeda is running as many as 29 training camps in the [FATA] region that are less elaborate than those found in Afghanistan in the 1990s."

But those camps funnel new recruits or "Lions of Islam" into the fight against NATO forces, including Canadians, in Afghanistan, and train potential terrorists from overseas to launch attacks.

Unlike the large military-style camps al-Qaeda used in Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks, the new training in Pakistan's tribal areas is being done in small groups and is specially tailored to prepare Western recruits for attacks.

On Monday, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that officials in Germany's federal police believe four men in their 20s are being trained in Pakistan to conduct terror attacks in Germany.

Also on Monday, David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, while encouraging NATO to redouble its efforts in Afghanistan, noted that 70% of all terrorist incidents in Britain had their origins in Pakistan.

In the last six months, Danish, German and Spanish officials have all broken up alleged terror plots that are linked to Waziristan.

Last month in Barcelona, police claimed to have broken up a plot to attack Spain's transit system and in four neighbouring countries.

"In my opinion, the jihadi threat from Pakistan is the biggest emerging threat we are facing in Europe," said Judge Baltasar Garzon, Spain's top anti-terrorism magistrate.

"Pakistan is an ideological and training hotbed for jihadists, and they are being exported here."

Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

revel wrote:

Two of those article were about suicide bombs in pakistan and Afghanistan; illustrating the fruitlessness of staying in one country fighting so called AQ while in other countries AQ is growing and getting stronger. We will not win this fight with Muslim extremist with only the military no matter how long we stay in Iraq or how many bombs we drop. For every Muslim/extremist we kill more just pop up in their place. We need to get the heart of the problems that ordinary Muslims have which causes them to turn to the extremist or else the US is going to be fighting Muslims forever. They are not going to just throw up their hands and crawl on their knees in humbleness even if we keep killing them for a hundred years. They need to be able to save face and have a reason to stop fighting.

It is simple really for AQ to save face and have a reason to stop fighting. All AQ has to do is cease killing Iraqi and Afghanistani moderate Muslims and concentrate on killing Americans instead. Then moderate Muslims of both countries will begin to publically demand that we Americans leave. We will in fact leave then, because we will no longer have any reason to stay and risk being killed. The moderate Muslims will under those circumstances be able to defend themselves without our help, and we, to avoid further casualties of our own, will be eager to leave ASAP.

So why hasn't AQ adopted that change in tactics? The reason is really obvious. The AQ mass murder moderate Muslims for reasons other than saving face or driving out we Americans. AQ mass murderers moderate Muslims, because it is AQ's objective to conquer and rule the Moderate Muslims anyway they think they can. If we were to leave before AQ is exterminated in Iraq and Afghanistan, the AQ in Pakistan would pour into Afghanistan and Iraq, join with the AQ in those countries, and complete their self-imposed objective of conquering and ruling the populations of those countries.

The primary evidence--besides all the AQ declarations that state their objective is first conquering the middle east--is the AQ effort to conquer Pakistan even though the American military is not in Pakistan.

A classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) contends that the war in Iraq has increased Islamic radicalism, and has made the terror threat around the world worse. Based on information from US government officials who had seen the document and spoke on condition of anyonymity, The New York Times reports that the NIE document, titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," says the war plays a much more direct role in the spread of Islamic radicalism around the world than has previously been indicated by the White House, or in a recent report by the US House intelligence committee.

Additionally, I think it obvious that once AQ conquers Afghanistan and Iraq, it will then turn its attention to conquering Pakistan.

In testimony before Congress last week, retired admiral Michael McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, stressed al-Qaeda has "regenerated its core operational capabilities needed to conduct attacks."

"Al-Qaeda has been able to retain a safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) that provides the organization many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale," he said.

06 October 2004

Afghans Will Not Be Subject to Taliban, Says Armitage

Deputy Secretary tells German television warlords are weakening

The United States has dedicated itself to the proposition that the Afghan people will never again suffer under the rule of the Taliban, and is building up the country's police and military to help prevent that possibility, said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

In his October 6 interview with ARD German Public Television, Armitage said the ultimate goal is to allow Afghans to take charge of their own security.

"We've taken the lead in training the Afghan National Army. We've got about 12,000 of them trained now. We're going to accelerate that. We've got 30,000 policemen trained," he said.

The deputy secretary also said that power is becoming more concentrated in the central government in Kabul, as opposed to Afghan warlords, thanks to the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program (DDR) led by the United Nations and Japan.

The pace of DDR "has really picked up of late," he said. "Ismail Khan has been defanged, if you will, and much of his heavy equipment is in cantonment right now," Armitage said, and noted the same is true of General Dostum and Attah Mohammed, a powerful regional leader. "So I think we're well on the way," he summarized.

Armitage added that whoever wins the October 9 presidential election "will be empowered by the people of Afghanistan to take further measures against warlords.

He also acknowledged that the United States and the United Kingdom need to "step up our efforts" against narcotics production in the country, which he said is hurting everyone in the world. He also said the Afghan government needs to be very much involved in the solution to the problem.

Turning to Iran's nuclear program, Armitage said the Bush administration has supported the efforts of European Union leaders to "try to the bring the Iranians to a more common sense position. "

"We'll be looking for the November [International Atomic Energy Agency] board meeting, and unless Iran is able to be transparent and clear and live up to her obligations, then we'll want to move to the Security Council," he said.

Following is the transcript of Armitage's interview with ARD:

(begin transcript)


U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release
October 6, 2004
2004/1078

Dozens die in latest Afghan bomb

A bomb blast in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 35 civilians. Many people were injured, including three Nato soldiers, officials say.
The blast, apparently targeting Canadian troops in a Nato convoy, took place in Spin Boldak town in Kandahar province, near the Pakistani border.

A bomber in Kandahar city on Sunday killed more than 100 people - the country's bloodiest attack since 2001.

Nato troops in Afghanistan have been battling a resurgent Taleban militia.

Fifteen international troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them from the US.

Some 40,000 soldiers from Nato countries are deployed in the country, where their tasks include aiding reconstruction, tackling opium cultivation and battling the Taleban.

Taleban blamed

Monday's attack in Spin Boldak targeted a convoy of Canadian troops serving under Nato.


According to Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar province, three Canadian troops were hurt in the attack.

"The suicide attacker detonated near a Canadian military convoy," the governor of Kandahar province, Asadullah Khalid, said.

He said 35 civilians were killed and 27 civilians were hurt.


The bomb also badly damaged a military vehicle and set fire to several shops in the area, a local police official said.

The nearby border had been closed, as part of a series of security measures for Pakistani elections on Monday.

According to the Associated Press news agency, the crossing was briefly opened to take some of those hurt in the blast to a hospital in the Pakistani town of Chaman nearby.



Earlier on Monday, funerals were held in Kandahar for the victims of Sunday's suicide attack.

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MAJOR TALEBAN ATTACKS

29 Dec 2007: 16 policemen killed in Kandahar
6 Nov 2007: At least 70 die in attack on sugar factory in Baghlan province
29 Sep 2007: At least 30 soldiers killed in bus attack in Kabul
16 Jan 2006: At least 24 people killed in two attacks in Kandahar

Weeping relatives buried the dead, many of them in graves dug next to each other.

Sunday's bombing - believed to be the bloodiest since the overthrow of the Taleban in 2001 - hit a crowd watching a dogfight near the city.

The dead included a local police chief who also led a tribal militia opposed to the Taleban.

Officials blamed the Islamist Taleban guerrillas but they have denied responsibility.

Spreading influence

The Taleban claim to have influence across most of the country and have extended their area of control from their traditional heartland in the south.

They have a significant presence around Kandahar from where they carry out suicide attacks and roadside bomb blasts.

The militants are also known to operate freely in Wardak province, neighbouring the capital Kabul.

Last year, violence in Afghanistan reached its highest levels since the Taleban were forced from power in 2001, analysts say.

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just listening to a CBC reporter from afghanistan , he said that this year has already started with some bloody attacks by the taleban .
hbg

Last November, a suicide bombing in the northern Baghlan province killed 79 people - mostly school pupils - in what was until then the bloodiest bombing since the Taleban were ousted in 2001.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7250501.stm

Published: 2008/02/18 12:29:15 GMT

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It does not matter the reason why militant Muslims kill civillians. My point was that if we get at the source of the problems; then less moderate muslims would become militant Muslims who kill civillians. The number of terrorist has grown instead of decreased since the trouble of Gitmo and the unjustified invasion of Iraq and the actions of our military in the Iraqi prisons and the contractors in Iraq.

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Ican; I am through talking to you about AQ; you ignore reports which don't back up your rheteric therefore it is a waste of time trying to reason with you.
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Let's see: ican = FOX news and other biased GOP rags, while revel = government sources, NYT, Washington Post, BBC, and some of the most prolific writers of our times.