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  thabet 12:08 pm on February 8, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), collateral damage (76), counterterrorism (35), foreign policy (237), international law (143), military, rule of law (79), united kingdom (732), war on terror (45)

  A killer above the law?

  The UK use of drones to kill “high-value targets” in Afghanistan should have come as no surprise. British troops are fighting in some of the most dangerous and rugged parts of Afghanistan, and drones have great attractions. They are a relatively cheap way of killing people in areas that are otherwise largely inaccessible. The lives of British troops are not put at risk. Remote pilots carry out an apparently clinical operation, with none of the gore and messiness of military combat.

  Nor is it surprising that the Ministry of Defence responds to the news with bland assurances that every effort is made to ensure that drones are used in compliance with the laws of war. There are “no reports” of civilian casualties, the ministry adds. If taken at face value, these are heartening assurances. But they also illustrate the heart of the problem: the use of killer drones is shrouded in secrecy, and the accountability mechanisms that apply to regular warfare are simply absent.

   

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  johnpi 5:14 pm on October 22, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Guinea (5), military, military coups (3), military takeover (3)

  In Guinea, military government uses sexual violence to turn Muslim community against itself.

  Women of all ages were targets — students, professionals, market women, opposition activists, mothers and, apparently, grandmothers. Some wore pants; others, traditional boubous, the colorful long gowns that Guineans favor. The troops allegedly used guns, bayonets, knives and other weapons to rip these garments off.
  ….

  Such assaults on women have become part of the arsenal of despotic leaders trying to suppress civil unrest and democratic protest. Women are the backbone of society, and Guinea’s is a conservative, majority Muslim society. Sexual attacks on women are a way to force their husbands, partners and families to reject them — thus turning the community against itself.

  The increasing practice of sexual violence in this context reflects its success as a tool of repression.

  I’ve blogged previously about military governments here.

   
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  johnpi 10:16 pm on October 12, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Guinea (5), military, military coups (3), military takeover (3)

  A Guinea soldier who participated in the military attack on a September 28th opposition rally that ended in mass rape of women participants and a massacre describes the situation in the military. The Guinea population is 85 percent Muslim.

  Notice his regrets about participating in a coup to help the military seize power, an always interesting topic when considering movements in Islam.

  There has been lots of talk about the mess in the army. Could you tell us about this mess? How is the BATA functioning, nowadays, where you are? Have there been recruitments lately? Are there militias within the BATA?

  Yes, I confirm that there are militias within the BATA. People have arrived. There are even militiamen who came from Liberia, who are currently incorporated within the Guinean army, in the BATA, with no military education, no training whatsoever. They are really murderers who are currently being recruited. Honestly, I am a soldier, but I am afraid for this country. It was not in this spirit that we seized power. We seized power to guarantee the integrity of our country, to really make our country into a great democracy. But that is not what is happening now in the Guinean army. It is truly sickening, we are scared, honestly. Even us, the military, we are scared. Currently, there are more than 600 persons incorporated in the army, elements who came out of the forest, elements who came from Liberia. We even fear retribution.

   
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  thabet 7:09 am on October 11, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), military, united states (577)

  American soldiers ‘lose heart’ in Afghanistan:

  American soldiers serving in Afghanistan are depressed and deeply disillusioned, according to the chaplains of two US battalions that have spent nine months on the front line in the war against the Taleban.

  [...]

  The men are frustrated by the lack of obvious purpose or progress. “The soldiers’ biggest question is: what can we do to make this war stop. Catch one person? Assault one objective? Soldiers want definite answers, other than to stop the Taleban, because that almost seems impossible. It’s hard to catch someone you can’t see,” said Specialist [Raquime] Mercer.

   
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  thabet 10:56 pm on September 15, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghan elections (7), Afghan Taliban (41), afghanistan (396), corruption (32), foreign policy (237), geopolitics (119), military, NATO (40), occupation (49), politics (765), taliban (260), united kingdom (732), united states (577)

  Not particularly good news from Afghanistan over the last few days….

  (More …)

   
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  thabet 2:01 am on September 14, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: international relations (189), military, oil watch (33), russia (44), Venezuela (5)

  The Russians and the Venezuelans are becoming quite friendly.

   
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  thabet 1:35 am on September 14, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: international relations (189), libya (21), military, sas (2), united kingdom (732)

  Now that he’s our best friend…

  Elite UK troops [the SAS] have apparently been working with Colonel Gaddafi’s regime for the last six months, despite Tripoli arming the IRA in the past.

  The article makes efforts to link the above to the SNP’s decision to release Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi. That doesn’t make sense: the SAS isn’t controlled by the Scottish government. (If you want a political rationale behind the release, think Scottish independence.)

   
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  thabet 5:52 am on September 9, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: armies, art (28), business (19), corportations, military, private military contractors (10), state (101)

  In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, you have to navigate Solid Snake through a world where private military contractors outnumber government armies.

  Life (slowly) imitating art, which in turn is imitating life, and so on.

   
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  thabet 3:49 am on September 6, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: aerial bombardment (20), afghanistan (396), collateral damage (76), military, NATO (40), taliban (260), united states (577)

  Reports say up to 150 villagers, including insurgents, may have been killed in Friday’s NATO-led airstrike.

   
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  thabet 7:03 am on September 5, 2009 | 12 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: aerial bombardment (20), collateral damage (76), fallujah, international law (143), Iraq (195), military, united states (577), weapons

  Sky News has a very distressing report (and distressing images) on babies being born in Fallujah with defects that are linked to the use of white phosphorus and/or depleted uranium in the city by US and Iraqi forces in 2004.

  I wonder which ‘international courts’ and ‘world forums’ these people can turn to?

   
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  thabet 7:43 am on August 13, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: empire (37), military, united states (577)

  American Empire:

  With 190,000 troops, 115,000 civilian employees, and more than 26,000 buildings and structures peppered across 46 countries and territories, “the global reach of the US military today is unprecedented and unparalleled,” writes [Professor Catherine] Lutz [in The New Statesman], who is also author of The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle against US Military Posts (New York University Press, 2009). “While the bases are, literally speaking, barracks and weapons depots, staging areas for war-making and ship repairs, complete with golf courses and basketball courts,” Lutz explains, “they are also political claims, spoils of war, arms sale showrooms and toxic industrial sites.”

   
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  thabet 6:51 am on July 22, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), British Muslims (42), foreign policy (237), military, violence (161)

  Shaaz Mahboob, of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, wrote a letter to the Indy, the full version which appeared on Pickled Politics, which was highly critical of the attitude of British Muslim organisations toward the war in Afghanistan:
  

  Although many British Muslims objected and criticised the manner in which a small group of Islamic extremists in Luton hurled abuses towards the returning soldiers from Iraq, they apparently did so fearing a backlash from the rest of the British public, not for their love and respect for the British soldiers.

  Such lack of compassion on part of British Muslims for our Army which retains immense respect in the eyes of ordinary British people, is disheartening and needs to be highlighted at every forum. This is especially relevant since British Muslims and their respective organisations claim to be equal citizens of the country yet when it comes to wars against barbaric regimes and forces such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, who happen to be Muslims, their shift in allegiance on the basis of their religion becomes distinctly clear and disturbing.

  Does anyone know if Shaaz Mahboob attended the parade in Wootton Bassett?

  (Also, someone should email Mahboob with details of the mosque in Peterborough which invited RAF servicemen.)

   
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  thabet 4:01 am on July 7, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), military, ministry of defence (2), propaganda (47), united kingdom (732)

  British feel-good propaganda exposed in Afghanistan:

  It was just the sort of good news the British military in Helmand needed. Soldiers engaged in Operation Panther’s Claw, the huge assault against insurgent strongholds last week, had discovered a record-breaking haul of more than 1.3 tonnes of poppy seeds, destined to become part of the opium crop that generates $400m (£243m) a year for the Taliban.

  Ministry of Defence officials more used to dealing with negative stories about the British operation in southern Afghanistan swung into action to extract the maximum benefit from this unexpected PR coup.

  [...]

  “They are definitely poppy seeds,” [Major Rupert Whitelegge, the commander of the company in charge of the area,] said emphatically.

  Except they weren’t. Analysis of a sample carried out by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Kabul for the Guardian has revealed that the soldiers had captured nothing more than a giant pile of mung beans, a staple pulse eaten in curries across Afghanistan.

   
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  thabet 9:08 am on July 6, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), foreign policy (237), military, united kingdom (732)

  Two more British soldiers die in the unwinnable war.

   
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  thabet 12:40 am on July 5, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: armed forces day, military, politics (765), united kingdom (732), violence (161)

  Anthony Barnett discusses the need for Armed Forces Day (otherwise known as Glorification Of Violence By Political Miscreants Day).

  A reader sums it up nicely:

  I refuse to have my nationality defined in terms of dubious, and possibly illegal military actions, both past and present. There are many aspects of our cultural heritage that are worth celibrating [sic], but an Armed Forces Day isn’t one of them.

   
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  thabet 1:38 am on June 27, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), language (95), military, united kingdom (732), violence (161)

  Rather than try to win their hearts and minds, it seems we’ve decided just to blow them to smithereens:

  Despite the limited success of the effort to engage the residents, the mood back at the base was buoyant after the expected stiff resistance to their presence in the village failed to materialise. Small arms fire on the compound the British had taken over allowed the men to strip off and swim in the canal behind the building.

  Part of the reason was the dropping from a B1 bomber of a 500lb bomb on to a compound from which there had been day-long fire.

  “We had no choice,” said Major Rupert Whitelegge . “Every time he would fire a shot to initiate an attack, he would drop down behind his enormous 3ft-thick wall. We just couldn’t get through and so we dropped the bomb. It’s been very quiet today, strangely.”

   
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  thabet 1:28 am on June 13, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: constitution (6), history (133), Islam (243), law (91), military, Pakistan (569), politics (765), religion (365)

  Manan Ahmad (Sepoy) continues a trend started by Ali Eteraz: locating Pakistan’s problems in its gradual constitutional (d)evolution and militarisation.

   
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  thabet 1:57 pm on May 17, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), collateral damage (76), donland rumsfeld, human rights (381), military, united states (577)

  Human rights update from Afghanistan (The Good War):

  Troops from the US Marines Corps’ Special Operations Command, or MarSOC, were responsible for calling in air strikes in Bala Boluk, in Farah, last week – believed to have killed more than 140 men, women and children – as well as two other incidents in 2007 and 2008. News of MarSOC’s involvement in the three incidents comes just days after a Special Forces expert, Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal, was named to take over as the top commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan. His surprise appointment has prompted speculation that commando counterinsurgency missions will increase in the battle to beat the Taliban.

  MarSOC was created three years ago on the express orders of Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary at the time, despite opposition from within the Marine Corps and the wider Special Forces community. An article in the Marine Corps Times described the MarSOC troops as “cowboys” who brought shame on the corps.

   
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  thabet 12:08 am on May 10, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: aerial bombardment (20), afghanistan (396), military, united states (577)

  A record number of bombs were dropped on Afghanistan during April, according to the Navy Times.

  (Via Lenin’s Tomb.)

   
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  thabet 7:30 am on May 9, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), military, religion (365), united states (577)

  Some US soldiers have been accused of trying to convert Afghans to Christianity.

  Doesn’t really do much to counter claims the US is on a crusade…

   
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  thabet 11:37 pm on May 7, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: aerial bombardment (20), foreign policy (237), military, propaganda (47), united states (577)

  
  (Peter Brooks in The Times.)

   
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  thabet 12:22 am on May 3, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), military, united kingdom (732)

  The Afghan village in Norfolk.

   
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  thabet 8:05 am on April 25, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: military, musharraf (5), Pakistan (569), taliban (260)

  This sort of news report can only add to the view (possibly conspiracy theory) that Pakistan’s military has a hand in helping these Taliban militants stage what look like an advance on the country’s capital.

   
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  plimfix 3:58 am on April 25, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), American Anthropological Association, Iraq (195), military, US (7)

  Radio 4 broadcast featuring Mark Whitaker, who reports from Washington DC on the policy of the United States army to embed anthropologists and other social scientists with combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ethnography with a 9mm, or teaching soldiers how to respond in a culturally appropriate manner, thus reducing the need for lethal force?

   
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  thabet 3:59 am on April 24, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Hegemony of human rights discourse (32), Hegemony of human rights discourse watch (29), human rights (381), military, Pakistan (569)

  Pakistan’s military state:

  [T]hree prominent political activists of Balochistan province have been found partially decomposed in vats of chemicals.

  [T]hree farmers have been murdered and 27 others injured by a military-sponsored gang, after a violent land dispute in the Kulyana villages, Okara district, Punjab. The peasants were chasing a group of armed men who had abducted a field worker and were threatening to grab 50 acres of agricultural land, when three of them were shot dead. The main perpetrator is reportedly being protected by the Pakistan army in a military hospital.

   
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  thabet 8:06 am on April 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Iraq (195), military, murder (28), united states (577), war crimes (111)

  A US army soldier has been found guilty of murdering four Iraqis who were blindfolded and bound up.

   
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  thabet 6:11 am on April 20, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: afghanistan (396), army (8), france (71), military, politics (765)

  Talking of Western powers in Afghanistan, I recently managed to catch the BBC documentary Our World: Les Liaisons Dangereuses on France’s involvement in the country, which has come under scrutiny inside France on numerous occasions.

  The documentary was a bit of a puff piece on French troops, but it was nonetheless interesting to see and hear a view other than one espoused by the Americans or the British.

  The documentary makers asked a soldier his views of France’s role inside Afghanistan. I thought this was silly; what do they expect a soldier to say on camera other than parrot the line of his political masters? Of course, the French soldier thought he was fighting a ‘good war’, as this is the view of his President. And if his President thought it was a bad war, and French troops needed to be pulled out, the soldier would have said the same.

   
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  johnpi 2:42 pm on April 7, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: gender (16), kuwait (14), military, patriarchy (8), women's rights (32)

  Male officers in the Kuwaiti army have expressed embarrassment at having to salute female superiors as the interior ministry denied rumors it was considering offering monetary compensation to female officers in return for not demanding to be saluted by male officers.

   
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  thabet 1:40 am on March 21, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: democracy (84), foreign policy (237), international relations (189), military, Pakistan (569), politics (765), united states (577)

  The US makes sure to meet the real power in Pakistani politics.

   
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  thabet 8:04 am on March 15, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: media (407), military, muslims (347), united kingdom (732)

  Compare and contrast the wide media coverage over the handful of freaks in Luton shouting abuse at returning soldiers, to the limited media coverage about a Peterborough mosque opening its doors to returning RAF servicemen.

  (Note, I don’t agree with the actions of Peterborough mosque. I don’t buy into this sort of tabloid jingoism.)