May 31, 2017
The appalling bomb blast (click here) in Kabul yesterday emphasised how fragile Afghanistan’s search for peace has become. The country has settled into an uneasy equilibrium that the insurgents find easy to disturb far too often, and the army is unable to take the fight to the remote valleys where the government’s authority does not run. The Afghan army has some major internal issues as it wrestles with high casualties and a steady stream of desertions as individual soldiers make their own decisions on their future. Their morale is low as they have been worn down by the long grind of years of military struggle against insurgents that seems to continue without end as the Taliban and its allies still control over a third of Afghan territory....
Afghanistan's History of War (click here) The West has never successfully won a war in Afghanistan. Neither has Russia. China has the most accepted approach in exploiting rare minerals. It would seem as though everyone is in agreement about making money.
I have no idea if the deaths of four BBC journalists has anything to do with the bombing in Great Britain that saw its military deployed in the streets, but, Daesh is desiring an invasion of sorts into Europe. If Afghanistan is seen as a greater threat it will relieve the pressure on entering Europe.
NATO has tow threats, that of Daesh in Europe, primarily where nuclear capacity is available and Russia that does not want to end the border wars with Ukraine. Both demand attention and there is little time for increasing a war footprint in Afghanistan. The Afghan military has had plenty of time to establish a worthy military.
If there is to be an escalation of any military presence, I would think it would be Libya. Drones perhaps.
...Britain's domestic security agency of MI5 is currently tackling 500 terror investigations and watching some 3,000 suspects. Putting one person under surveillance is expensive, requiring as many as 30 officers. That type of surveillance also requires a high threshold of suspicion that a suspect could turn to violence. British security officials say at least five terror plots in Britain have been thwarted in the past two months, although they have not released details of the plots....
The Brits are busy. I hardly think a further deployment into Afghanistan is wise. The Taliban are not allies of Daesh. Quite the opposite. There are however mixed reviews about the two groups.
April 26, 2017
By Shadi Khan Saif
Kabul, Afghanistan
Nearly 100 Taliban and pro-Daesh militants (click here) have been killed in fighting in northern Afghanistan, police said Wednesday.
Sporadic fighting in the Darzab district of Jowzjan province is ongoing, Rahmatullah Turkistani, a spokesman for the Afghan National Police, told Anadolu Agency.
He said a total of 91 militants had been killed in clashes over the kidnapping of drug smugglers who were to pay the Taliban as part of an opium deal.
“The clashes erupted when group of armed Taliban attacked Daesh militants [to secure] the release of three drug smugglers who came here to pay 10 million afghanis [$14,780] to the Taliban for a deal,” Turkistani said.
Raza Ghafori, a spokesman for the provincial administration, confirmed the casualties and said the Taliban had borne the brunt of the losses....
Ethnic cleansing has never been a priority for the Taliban as it is Daesh. 77
September 10, 2015
The Afghan Taliban (click here) has condemned the killing of 13 people belonging to the minority community as a plot to “breed fault lines.” The statement seems to be an apparent dig targeted at Daesh (the Islamic State), as the Syria and Iraq based group struggles to gain a foothold in the South Asian country partly because of the absence of a deeply sectarian environment.
A few days ago, gunmen killed 13 Hazaras after dragging them from their vehicles in the relatively calm northern Balkh province -- in a rare attack as attacks targeting minority groups are not characteristic of violence in Afghanistan....
In my opinion, the attack on Kabul is a method to open still yet more war fronts and reduce presence elsewhere.
Trump abandoning NATO is simply opening the door to Daesh in The West and forcing a similar scenario to European outcomes during the rise of Hitler. The EU needs to assess it's alliance and seek others such as the Post Soviet states to join an alliance. Ukraine has very stealthy military men and women. They know everything there is about nuclear weapons and a great deal about Russia. With Ukraine as an ally Europe should have no worries. Sincerely.
France is capable of defending the EU from nuclear attack and even initiate if necessary. If France seeks intelligence about Russian nuclear capacity and design, the experts in Ukraine are fantastic allies. Ukraine and it's experts deserve the protection of the current NATO.
Ukraine is proceeding with it's future unafraid. Europe should be interested in recent proceedings. The judicial decision makes the 'stake' for Putin's political party "on the ropes." It seems as though Russia has more problems than having an entertainer compete on a Ukraine stage.
May 31, 2017
Moscow (Sputnik) — It adds that Kiev (click here) had also opened enforcement proceedings in the amount of $6.9 billion and a $632.6-million execution fee.
"On May 12, 2017, Gazprom received through the Gazprom representative office in Kiev the decisions of the Department of State Executive Service of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on… the arrest of Gaztransit shares belonging to Gazprom," the report states.
In mid-May, the Ukrainian supreme economic court dismissed the appeal of Russian energy giant Gazprom which demanded a reversal of the decision of lower courts on enforced recovery of around $6.4 billion in fines in favor of Ukraine....
Imagine that, Gazprom a monopoly. Ukraine's former Soviet state is more than interesting to most who view the border war as a breach by so called Russian rebels of signed agreements.
...This week, (click here) Russia and Ukraine's years-long legal row over gas prices and delivery terms took a new turn, with Naftogaz chief commercial officer Yuri Vitrenko revealing that Gazprom may claim up to $80 billion from Kiev at arbitration hearings in Stockholm. The Russian energy company initially sued Naftogaz in 2014, making the claim that Kiev had not paid for supplies it had received in 2013 and 2014, and switching the country to a prepayment scheme. Ukraine responded with a counter-suit, demanding a retroactive revision of prices, and that Gazprom compensate Naftogaz for sums it allegedly overpaid....
