The Khyber Pass is a lifeline for NATO trucks to the allied forces in Afghanistan and the news this week reflected exactly the extent this road has proved to create a war zone all by itself.
by , Correspondent
January 30, 2013
Clashes (click here) between rival militant groups in the tribal region next to the Afghanistan border has reportedly claimed more than 70 lives since fighting broke out last week. The area lies near the Khyber Pass, a main route for NATO supply trucks to Afghanistan, making it pivotal to the US war effort there and to Pakistan's revenues....
Hakimullah Mehsud is a legendary Taliban leader. He was believed to be killed by a US drone twice before, but, the assessment was proved wrong. This time the US is stating he is actually dead. This guy used a Toyota pick up and an AK47 to defeat the USA at the Khyber Pass. He and his band merry men. It's fascinating to realize 12 years after bin Laden used USA infrastructure to attack the civilians these goons are still succeeding in disrupting any USA war with basically rag-tag infrastructure. I shake my head to realize how completely vulnerable the troops are to local militias.
But, at any rate, Mr. Mehsud is stated to be dead this time and the Taliban is seeking revenge. That is something new?
2 November 2013 Last updated at 05:39 ET
Hakimullah Mehsud: Pakistan forces on alert after death (click here)
A spokesman told the BBC all security measures were now being taken.
Pakistan media say Mehsud's funeral has taken place at an unknown location in the tribal area of North Waziristan.
A Pakistan government minister said the drone strike had destroyed attempts to hold peace talks with the militants.
Mehsud was killed along with four other people - including two of his bodyguards - when four missiles struck their vehicle in the north-western region of North Waziristan, a senior Taliban official told the BBC.
The Taliban's ruling council met on Saturday to choose a new leader. Unconfirmed reports say regional commander Khan Said Sajna has been elected to the top job.
As well as Mehsud, the previous Pakistan Taliban leader was killed in a drone strike, in 2009...
The USA and allies in Afghanistan could go on like this forever, because the warlords are the ones running the show, not the USA.
The other warlord is Pakistan itself.
By Brian Sapper
On Wednesday, President Obama met the
prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, to discuss relations between
the two countries. The meeting came at a time when there is sharp
criticism for both the U.S. providing Pakistan with more than $1.6
billion in aid, and the ongoing drone campaign in the region. It is the
latter issue that Prime Minister Sharif has been especially critical of.
However, those expecting any major development on either of these
issues will likely be disappointed. The U.S. is in a position where it
would be more beneficial in the short term to continue aid, while
Pakistan is almost dependent on it.
The U.S.' military and economic aid has long been the subject of controversy. Politicians like Senator Rand Paul have pushed for cutting all aid to Pakistan, claiming that the country is not a true ally. More alarming, there have been numerous accusations that the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's main intelligence agency, is secretly providing support to insurgent groups in Afghanistan, including the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.
The claims that Pakistan is potentially working with the insurgency behind the U.S. back are still up for debate; most of the accusations are still based off of hearsay and secondary sources rather than any concrete evidence. Still, it can't be denied that relations between the two countries have become increasingly strained within the past couple years. Tensions have flared up due to incidents such as the closing of the Khyber Pass supply route in 2010, the U.S.' raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbotabad in 2011, and especially the continuous drone strikes in Pakistan. U.S. drone strikes are so hated in Pakistan that the cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan gained a significant amount of local support and international attention for his demands to halt all the drone strikes....
Pakistan states it holds the drone strikes in ridicule while at the same time sells it's air space for drone flights. I love the part in this continuing drama that states the USA is best to carry out these strikes now while Pakistan is financially dependent on the USA. When was Pakistan not?
Look, this entire mess the USA is now entrenched in is a non-winnable war. There is not going to be an end to all this mischief. The USA has to spend it's monies on it's own Homeland Infrastructure and forget this stuff. Send over a flight once in awhile to burn the poppy fields to cut off the financial wealth to al Qaeda and the Taliban, but, this war is going nowhere very fast.
Then there is this. A drone to end all other drones. Lockheed Martin is creating drones that can destroy other drones because the science is no longer secret. I mean it is so much not secret I sometimes wonder if the strikes in Pakistan are actually those of the USA.
The U.S.' military and economic aid has long been the subject of controversy. Politicians like Senator Rand Paul have pushed for cutting all aid to Pakistan, claiming that the country is not a true ally. More alarming, there have been numerous accusations that the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's main intelligence agency, is secretly providing support to insurgent groups in Afghanistan, including the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.
The claims that Pakistan is potentially working with the insurgency behind the U.S. back are still up for debate; most of the accusations are still based off of hearsay and secondary sources rather than any concrete evidence. Still, it can't be denied that relations between the two countries have become increasingly strained within the past couple years. Tensions have flared up due to incidents such as the closing of the Khyber Pass supply route in 2010, the U.S.' raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbotabad in 2011, and especially the continuous drone strikes in Pakistan. U.S. drone strikes are so hated in Pakistan that the cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan gained a significant amount of local support and international attention for his demands to halt all the drone strikes....
Pakistan states it holds the drone strikes in ridicule while at the same time sells it's air space for drone flights. I love the part in this continuing drama that states the USA is best to carry out these strikes now while Pakistan is financially dependent on the USA. When was Pakistan not?
Look, this entire mess the USA is now entrenched in is a non-winnable war. There is not going to be an end to all this mischief. The USA has to spend it's monies on it's own Homeland Infrastructure and forget this stuff. Send over a flight once in awhile to burn the poppy fields to cut off the financial wealth to al Qaeda and the Taliban, but, this war is going nowhere very fast.
Published time: November 02, 2013 04:19
Aircraft experts and military aficionados have cause to rejoice now that Lockheed Martin has debuted the SR-72 unmanned spy plane, the long-awaited successor to the SR-71 Blackbird and potentially the first hypersonic craft to enter service.
Plans for the SR-72 drone were first unveiled Friday in an Aviation Week article which revealed that Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works advanced development program has drafted plans for a plane that could fly as fast as Mach 6 - twice the speed of the Blackbird.
The SR-72 would have the ability to gather intelligence, conduct surveillance and reconnaissance, and launch combat strikes at an unprecedented speed. The plane is designed to fill what is considered in military circles to be a gap in capabilities between the spy satellites orbiting Earth and the manned and unmanned technology meant to replace the SR-71.
The original Blackbird, which was introduced in 1966 and served until 1999, was primarily used by the US Air Force and NASA to collect intelligence through the Cold War. Along with flying at speeds fast enough to outrun a surface-to-air missile, the Blackbird also avoided enemy radar by flying at low altitudes. A total of 32 aircraft were built and, although 12 were lost to accidents, not a single one was lost to enemy combat....
This is accurate reporting. This is the Lockheed Martin website (click here).
There is 5280 feet in a mile. So this is about 14 miles above the Earth. Mount Everest is about 6 miles high.
The hypersonic weapon is stated to be able to:
Key Features (click here)
Low observable shaping
Dual mode ramjet for efficient, long range hypersonic cruise
Lightweight, compact design
The USA is spending huge amounts of money when their own enemies are riding around in Toyota pick up trucks and winning.
No clue.
Russia is not an enemy. Russia and China are forced to 'deal with' the USA's weapons race, but, they are not the enemy. We are not at war with Russia and China, we are at war with the militias living and thriving in the mountains of Pakistan.
These weapons will never be used, unless, the tensions THEY CREATE gets out of control. These weapon systems are not necessary and cause more problems than they solve.
The reason the USA is spending huge amounts of money on the military is because "We are at war." These military projects' that can be defeated by Chinese Computer Hackers and Third World Militias. So, the idea the USA is a Superpower is a lie. The USA is as vulnerable as any First World Nation. We need to stop this and return to a peaceful existence on a planet where the petroleum industry is obsolete and USA interests demand fair pricing for the Disney Land In Moscow yet to be built.
So long as the USA is willing to pay countries for war, it will be at war and the enemies will continue to be spawned out of the sheer need to survive the weapon systems of the USA. We need to stop this.
November 01, 2013
....Maliki, 63, (click here) prime minister since 2006, is in Washington seeking more weapons as bombings and suicide attacks in Iraq have killed more than 5,000 people this year, the most since 2009, according to the United Nations. He’s asking for additional assistance amid criticism from some U.S. lawmakers that Iraq’s government is fueling violence by failing to bridge differences among sectarian groups....
When the USA was in Iraq we were the henchmen for the central government. The civil war is still blazing because the central government is working against the people. If the central government continues to be at war with it's own people, what good is arming them? The people of Iraq do not want a central government. The USA again is creating Saddam Hussein with a different name.What was that about nation building? Want to remind me one more time why the USA does this, exactly.
Oh yeah, that's right, this time it is different.
