We are turning the tide against Taliban in Afghanistan, says Gordon Brown (click title to entry - thank you)
Prime minister opens international conference on Afghanistan with speech announcing creation of international fund to finance a national reconciliation programme.
Thursday 28 January 2010 11.32 GMT
Gordon Brown is known to be disfavored politically in the UK, but, I sincerely doubt this is political grandstanding. He, as well as most of the European leaders, realize NATO has to succeed in Afghanistan. This summit marks a change in tone in relationship between Europe and Afghanistan.
...Brown said that the international community would back plans for insurgents to be offered "a way back into mainstream life", provided they renounced violence and cut their links with al-Qaida.
But he delivered this message to al-Qaida: "We will defeat you. Not just on the battlefield, but in the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan – and in any and every country where you seek refuge."
Brown said that more than 8,000 extra Nato troops had been committed to Afghanistan since the US president, Barack Obama, announced a surge in US forces in the country last year....
As General McCrystal pushes the Taliban from its perch, they seek normally safe targets to carry out their violence.
Gunmen in the Pakistani city of Karachi have attacked vehicles taking supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The lorries had been attacked with guns and grenades on a main highway on the outskirts of Karachi, a police official told the Associated Press news agency.
Suspected militants frequently target Nato supply vehicles travelling through north-western Pakistan.
Correspondents say such attacks have been rare in the south, but Taliban influence in Karachi could be rising.
Nato supplies arrive at Karachi's port, from where they are transported to Afghanistan either via the Peshawar or the Quetta regions.
On 28 December, dozens of people were killed when a bomb targeted a Shia Muslim march in Karachi...
After the surge of troops going to Afghanistan to support NATO's efforts to reorganize, the USA will be deploying out of Afghanistan starting July 2011. I strongly feel that is the only and best path for the USA. It will provide NATO a 'stop gap' to begin a new effort and protect from further attacks to its citizens. I hope President Karzai makes the most of cleaning up his country during that time and provides venues of change for his citizens.
End of discussion on Afghanistan. Both, NATO and Afghanistan have support in their efforts to clean up the streets there, but, this can't go on forever and certainly not into the next decade.
Homeland Security needs to do its job optimally and secure the borders of the USA, which it was supposed to be doing for the past eight years. There are additional monies to this agency as well as the State Department, so what can be accomplished should be able to be accomplished.
By Amir Shah (CP) – 2 hours ago
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO troops in a convoy killed an Afghan cleric as he was driving Thursday in Kabul, officials and witnesses said, prompting a protest outside a U.S. military base.
Police and witnesses said mosque preacher Mohammad Yunus, 36, was shot to death with his young son in the vehicle as he approached a main road from a side street.
NATO reported only that foreign forces had killed a civilian in an incident involving a convoy, saying the circumstances surrounding the death were being jointly investigated with Afghan officials.
The cleric was hit by four bullets and died on the way to the hospital, according to his son-in-law, Abdul Qadir, adding the family had taken the body to the province of Logar for burial. Yunus had two wives and 10 children, Abdul-Qadir said.
A shopkeeper who witnessed the shooting said the convoy was composed of American armoured vehicles and was travelling on the main road in the direction of Jalalabad. A gunner in the first vehicle opened fire as Yunus began to pull onto the same road, the 25-year-old shopkeeper said, identifying himself only as Aymal....
January 28, 2010 - 9:24AM
AAP
The federal opposition will urge the government to make a plea for clemency if a former Australian soldier loses his death penalty appeal in Afghanistan.
Robert William Langdon, 38, has been convicted over the killing of an Afghan security guard in May last year.
Langdon, understood to have served as a Townsville-based infantryman, was employed by the US-based contractor Four Horsemen International as a security contractor at the time.
The government is providing Langdon with consular support and will seek to intervene in the case in line with its policy on any Australian citizen convicted of a capital offence.
The opposition is backing the government's action so far but wants it to go further if Langdon's appeal fails.
"We would hope the Australian government would support a plea of clemency for Mr Langdon," foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop told ABC Television on Thursday....
