Sliced and diced

For argument's sake, let us assume that this from the BBC is actually a good interpretation of what actually happened, and the whole thing is not false conclusions drawn on the basis of a carefully manipulated series of PR events. Maybe Zawahari was a fictitious character whom the Yanks photo-shopped into existence so that they could later claim credit for eliminating him with a non-existent weapon, what do we know?

The Zawahiri strike, he added, "sounds like a model application" of the [assassination] process. "It sounds like they were very careful and deliberate in this instance to find him in a location and at a time when they could hit just him and not harm any other person," Prof Banks said.

In the case of the Zawahiri strike, it has been suggested, but not confirmed, that the US also used a relatively unknown version of the Hellfire - the R9X - which deploys six blades to slice through targets using its kinetic energy.

In 2017, another al-Qaeda leader and one of Zawahiri's deputies, Abu Khayr al-Masri, was reportedly killed with an R9X Hellfire in Syria. Photos of his vehicle taken after the strike showed that the missile had cut a hole in the roof and shredded its occupants, but without signs of an explosion or any further destruction to the vehicle.

Here is a picture of said vehicle, from The Daily Mail, so that seems like a reasonable conclusion based on scanty evidence:
Anyway, returning to the story:

"... His family protested his innocence and said they were distraught. His wife was reported to be in pieces. Funnily enough, so was he."

But apart from that, how was the birthday party?

At least 40 people are killed and 60 more injured in suicide bomb attack on gathering to mark the Prophet Mohammad's birthday in Afghanistan

Well, Duh

From the BBC

Afghan government forces have lost control of the centre of the town of Sangin in Helmand province after days of fierce fighting, reports suggest.

Officials told the BBC that the Taliban controlled the local government building and police station.

The Taliban say their fighters have seized the entire district and that their flag is flying over Sangin.

Yet another example of the West treating the rest of the world like the West. We continue to treat countries that are not industrialised, where the incentives are to grab land as though they are industrialised (where the incentives are to make a cheaper computer or handbag).

Someone out there might connect these two histories:

Invade Afghanistan
Install weak government
Protect government
Leave Afghanistan
Strong militia takes part of the country a few years later

and

Invade Iraq
Install weak government
Protect government
Leave Iraq
Strong militia takes part of the country a few years later

The only solution to places like Afghanistan is to find a way to industrialise them. That's what gives you democracy, human rights and so forth.

Peace Talks

If you Google the phrase, you get, for example, the following list of combatants/opponents:

Israel v Fatah/Hamas

Afghanistan v Pakistan/Taliban

Colombia v FARC

Ukraine v Russian separatists

Now, we now that these talks are doomed to failure, as the parties will never agree with each other.

But what we ought to try at least, is invite all eight parties to Geneva and choose random pairs to hold talks (like the World Cup draw).

So the Israeli negotiating team ends up sitting down with FARC; Russian separatists go face to face with Colombia; Ukraine meets up with Fatah/Hamas, and so on.

They can have a gay old chat with each other, have a good moan about respective grievances and problems, their aims and goals but will agree they have no actual differences.

So FARC agrees that it will not try to overthrow the Israeli state and Israel agrees that it will not interfere in the Central American drug trafficking and kidnapping business etc, they sign a mutual non-agression and free trade pact and become best mates.

After the first round, lots are drawn again until every team has negotiated with six other teams, each time shaking hands and getting on famously.

In the final round, a few days later once everybody is nice and relaxed and in a conciliatory mood, negotiating teams sit down with their original opponents.

With a bit of luck, in the final round, they'll be so caught up in the mood that they will actually kiss, compromise and make up.

"Afghanistan 'will mirror Iraq', UK Army officer says"

From the BBC:

The most senior British Army officer in Afghanistan says he believes that country will follow Iraq into sectarian conflict when international troops withdraw by the end of the year.

Lt Gen John Lorimer told BBC Radio 5 live the circumstances in Iraq and Afghanistan were "pretty similar".

Iraqi forces are currently battling jihadist-led Islamist rebels. The former head of the UK military, Lord Richards, has also warned the fighting could be repeated in Afghanistan.

'Helpful comparison'

Lt Gen Lorimer, who is the deputy head of the Nato-led mission, is in his last week of service in Afghanistan.

He said he was not confident the country would be secure as international troops withdraw, saying the Afghan national security forces were well equipped, but as poorly trained to deal with the threat of insurgents as were Iraqi forces.

"I think the comparison between Iraq and Afghanistan is a particularly helpful one", he said, "The circumstances are quite similar, the context is similar, I think the important thing about this next mission is that the international troops who were here to train, advise and assess the Afghan national security forces...the Afghans want the international community to leave."

Lt Gen Lorimer said the Afghan forces had been "pretty disappointing" in maintaining security in the run-up to the country's elections. He added: "There are still gaps in their capabilities, they aren't working on them, they have not recognised what they are, and the international community is not helping them fill those gaps."

That community has committed $4bn (£2.4bn) a year for security in Afghanistan until 2017 and $4bn a year for development to underpin future security and stability, meaning that the resurgent Taliban will have ready access to weapons and ammunition when the Nato-led mission ends and the Afghan security forces promptly abandon their posts.

Sesame Street: Homelamb (Homeland Parody)

"Military Cross for 'cool' soldier"

From the BBC:

A soldier who "kept cool under fierce fire" as he led a 200m charge across open ground in Afghanistan wearing Ray Bans has been awarded the Military Cross.

Capt Mike Dobbin, 28, of the Grenadier Guards, is among 118 people recognised in the latest military honours. He led his soldiers to out-chill the enemy against the odds on four occasions.

Capt Dobbin, from Reigate, Surrey, led the attack while rolling a cigarette with one hand and in the face of machine gun fire just metres away.

In another incident, deep in enemy territory, part of the platoon found themselves seven metres away from four attractive young Afghan women and too afraid to make the first move. Capt Dobbin sauntered across and actually managed to get phone numbers from two of them.

His citation hails his "repeated hipness at pivotal moments" saying his "elegance in the face of hot and dusty weather inspired his men to read Kerouac books when the odds were most against them. He never once flinched from danger and introduced the rest of his platoon to the music of Miles Davis."

"The 'leftover' girls: Afghanistan defines official age for females being left on the shelf as 13"

From The Daily Mail:

Afghanistan has upset its young female population by labelling those who have not been married off by the time they are 12 as 'left over girls'.

The Islamic government ordered its All-Afghanistan Women's Federation to use the derogatory term in several stinging articles about the growing number of uneducated, urban and single females aged 13 or over who have 'failed' to find a husband and are now  deemed 'undesirable'.

'Pretty girls do not need a lot of education to be married into a rich and powerful family. But girls with an average or ugly appearance will find it difficult and will probably be sold to slave traders,' reads one article titled 'Leftover Women Do Not Deserve Our Sympathy'...

The conservative country is going under rapid changes with more girls shunning the tradition of being forcibly married and raising a family early. But the government wants to shame them into marrying young to counter the growing and serious gender imbalance among the of 35 million population.

Selective abortions means far more males are born than females - 1,392 boys to 100 girls. The government is also worried that hordes of unmarried men roaming the country could spark social havoc.

Americans use secret super weapon against Welsh village by mistake.

The idiots. The place is called Tal-y-bont.

It would have been far cheaper just to buy the heroin...

From The Daily Mail:

The West is losing the heroin war in Afghanistan – ten years after Tony Blair pledged that wiping out the drug was one of the main reasons for invading the country. Despite spending £18 billion (1) and a conflict which has so far cost the lives of almost 400 British troops, production of the class-A drug by Afghan farmers rose between 2001 and 2011 from just 185 tons to a staggering 5,800 tons... (2)

Some 15 per cent of Afghanistan’s Gross National Product now comes from drug-related exports – a business worth up to £1.6 billion each year, it was claimed.(3)

1) I can't be bothered looking up how much the USA has spent; the total is probably ten times that, call it £180 billion over ten years or something.

2) The apparent increase is misleading, all that happened is that production has gone back up to its pre-Taliban levels.

3) Wot? All that fuss, all those deaths, not to mention £18 billion quid a year down the toilet, just to get our hands on/prevent other people getting their hands on drugs which we could have bought for £1.6 billion a year (plus a bit more because increased demand increases the price, so what)? Whether we'd re-sell it (to put our domestic drug dealers out of business as well) or just chuck it in the Indian Ocean is a separate debate.

Furthermore, buying up the drugs would have been a splendid way of preventing the Taliban getting into power in the first place - it would have pitted the financial interests of yer average Afghan farmer against them, they'd have preferred to stick with the easy Western cash.

Great missed headline opportunities of our time

War Cheryl

There are people we know we've tortured. We also know there are people we haven't tortured. But there are also people we didn't know we'd tortured.

Life Copies Art

There was much kerfuffle in Islamic countries after those Danish cartoons were published.

Hey ho, it turns out that they weren't so far fetched after all.

NIMBYs Of The Week

Spotted by Joseph Takagi in The Augusta Chronicle:

An Evans neighborhood association has blocked a group that was prepared to build a home free of charge for a local veteran who was injured in Afghanistan. The homebuilding group, Homes for Our Troops, says Knob Hill Property Owners Association approved the home's design June 2 but reversed its decision in a later meeting....

Homes for Our Troops worked for four months with the Knob Hill Property Owners Association to get the design approved, according to John Gonsalves, [HfoT's] founder. But at an association meeting, members said the 2,700-square-foot home was too small and neighbors thought it would bring property values down, Gonsalves said. A cease-and-desist order was issued as the site was being prepared last week.

"We've done everything they've asked. For them to do this at the last minute is very disturbing," he said. "I don't think there's a community in America that shouldn't embrace this family after what they've sacrificed. No one deserves it more."

But owners association member Tom Rogers said Homes for Our Troops did not do everything asked of it. The group did not have written approval from the association's architectural review board, but negotiated through e-mail only.

"What's important to understand is the family already lives here. They're a great family. We have no qualms with them," Rogers said. "The problem is, that street down there has 5,000-square-foot homes all the way up and down the street there. ... It just doesn't fit. That's the whole issue."

Gonsalves said his team checked association documents, which do recommend that at least 2,700-square-foot houses be built, but Rogers said homeowners in that section built much larger homes.

"We want to protect our homes that we worked hard to achieve, and we want everyone to be treated equally," Rogers said. "These people will have to go through the same process as everyone else did."

Brian Haw

Didn't make it.

Terrible shame, he's the sort of person who makes me proud to be British.

Get Well Soon

"Navy Seal ‘to be punished’ over hostage"

Stupid bloody animal!

+++ Americans test new miracle weapon in Afghanistan +++

The Metro assists with the cover up.

They were only obeying orders!

From The Metro:

A man protesting against plans by a US pastor to burn copies of the Koran has been shot dead outside a NATO base in Afghanistan. A large crowd were hurling stones at the base run by German soldiers in the district of Badakhshan when troops inside opened fire,according to a local official. Several others were said to have been wounded by gunshots...

Moving swifly on:

Earlier Pastor Terry Jones had agreed to cancel the book-burning after he claimed he was promised that a proposed mosque in New York would be moved away from Ground Zero - the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

But later outside his church in Gainesville, Florida, Mr Jones insisted he was "lied to" after Imam Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, and the leader of the New York mosque said there was no deal of this nature. The iman said there was only an agreement for him and Mr Jones to travel to New York tomorrow to meet him.

The words "trust" and "throw" spring to mind. Part of me thinks that the best way to combat Islam might be simply to ridicule it, constantly and mercilessly (but in a strictly non-violent fashion, of course).

Let's open up gay bars and pork butchers opposite every mosque. Let's have more bingo halls called Mecca. Let's end NHS treatment of birth defects caused by inbreeding. Let's put pictures of pigs or pet dogs on our coins and notes. Let's ban the burka - except on topless beaches. Let's regularly publish insulting cartoons of "The Prophet". Let's introduce a Beard Tax and start refering to polygamists as 'adulterers'.

And last but not least, let's have our Foreign Secretary invite the amabassadors from India, Israel, Russia, Sudan, East Timor*, Thailand (and any other countries from The Bloody Borders Of Islam) to a ceremonial lighting of a chain of beacons fuelled by korans.

The possibilities are endless.

*That's probably not a country, but hey.

Wierd

From The Metro:

Mr Cameron also said Turkey's support for action in Afghanistan would help earn it a place in the EU (1). 'When I think about what Turkey has done to defend Europe as a Nato ally, and what Turkey is doing today in Afghanistan, it makes me angry that your progress towards EU membership can be frustrated in the way it has been,' he added.

Pointing to economic growth of 11 per cent this year and a population of 72 million, he said allowing Turkey into the EU would be great for British trade (2).

1) What on earth does Afgh have to do with anything? There are plenty of non-EU countries who have sent troops to Afgh - primarily the USA, but also Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Azerbaijan and Singapore - does this mean that they ought to be invited to join the EU? In any event, it is entirely up to the Turkish government whether they think it is in their national interest to get involved, and if they'd rather not get involved, then that's between them and NATO.

2) And what's stopping the UK from having free trade with Turkey? I can only assume it's the EU, ergo it would be a lot quicker and simpler for the UK to leave the EU and sign a bilateral free trade treaty with Turkey, job done.

PS, Gaza is not a prison camp.