News and Stuff (Sept 22th 2008)

• Exiled: War Nerd – Islamablog: Day 3.
• AlJazeera: Taliban denies role in hotel attack.
• AlJazeera: Blast kills Pakistani soldiers.
• Telegraph: French troops ‘ran out of ammunition’ in Afghanistan – Did France lost 10 soldiers in Afghanistan a month ago because the troops were ill equipped?
• AlJazeera: France to bolster Afghan mission.

Another War Nerd Article About the Blast in Islamabad

War Nerd Islamablog: Day 2.

This is a start of a small series of articles covering the blast.

"Here’s the deal: I’m going to blog this Islamabad blast every day for a while, try to talk honestly about how to sift through the crap to try to figure out what’s really going on."

Yesterday he started the series.

News and Stuff (Sept 21th 2008)

• Was it an attack on US Marines? – And there is the first conspiracy theory about the attack: Days before the attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad yesterday there were US Marines seen carrying metal boxes into the building.
• Nigerian Rebells call ceasefire – yesterday they claimed that they hit a major oil pipeline, a week ago they called for a new war and now they call for a ceasefire. Sources claim that they are afraid of Nigerian Army action against their bases.

News and Stuff (September 21th 2008).

• Satellite images cast doubt on success of Iraq surge – do satellite images indicate the extent of the genocide in Iraq?
• Russia, China, Germany reject US evidence of Iran’s covert nuke program.
• Mauritanian soldiers found dead – the soldiers were abducted and killed. As usual "Al Qaida" is blamed. Over a month ago there was a military coup in Mauritania.
• Pipe hit claim in Delta ‘oil war’ – "Nigeria’s main militant group says it has blown up a major oil pipeline owned by Shell in the oil-rich Niger Delta." They vowed a new war a few days ago.
• Terror attack in Pakistan against the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad – The War Nerd has already written an article about it.

War Nerd: The Islamabad Marriott: Rooms Available

New War Nerd Article.

News and Stuff (Sept 14th 2008)

• Tehran Times: Pakistan army ordered to hit back at U.S. forces.
• News.com.au: Russian submarines to test-fire missiles in Pacific.
• Al Jazeera: Nigeria rebels declare ‘oil war’ .
• BBC: Nigeria militants warn of oil war.
• Al Jazeera: Sudan army ‘threatens Darfur truce’.

News and Stuff (Sept 11th 2008)

• RIAN: Russian Army’s weaknesses exposed during war in Georgia – longer article explaining problems the Russian Army faced during the war in Georgia.
• Danger Room: Joint Chiefs: We’re Losing in Afghanistan
• Al Jazeera: ‘Scores killed’ in Pakistan raids – this time it was a raid conducted by the Pakistani army. So they shot a few villagers and claimed this were Talibs, I guess. They would never hurt their pals. Remember the Taliban was founded by the Pakistani Military Secret Service ISI.
• Al Jazeera: Japan to end Iraq deployment

Leaders of Al Qaida Killed in Pakistan.

Al Jazeera reports that three leaders of "Al Qaida" were killed in Pakistan by an air strike on Monday. A drone allegedly fired a rocket on a compound and thus killed 25 people including the leaders. Several people were wounded including the sister-in-law of Jallaluddin Haqqani, a Taliban leader. The attacked compound is next to a Madras found by Haqqani. He was the defence minister of the Taliban during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

Three days ago a new president was "elected" in Pakistan after the former president Musharraf was forced to resign. A few days earlier the US conducted a ground attack inside Pakistan.

US Ground Attack Inside Pakistan

US troops conducted a ground attack inside Pakistan‘s region South Waziristan. This is a new step in the war against the Taliban. While the Taliban uses the tribal areas in Pakistan as a safe heaven to support their fight against the NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani army failed in several attempts to dislocate them (But you should note that the Taliban has very good connections to the Pakistani intelligence and military services). The US uses Drones to attack and observe Taliban movements in the area. But a ground attack is a new step.

There are reports of 15 dead Pakistanis. The incident probably will increase Anti-US feelings in Pakistan since this is a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty. There are rumours that similar actions could follow. From a military standpoint attacking the tribal areas is a necessary step. But it might result in a further escalation of the war and could even further destabilises the Pakistan government.

Update: There is a Wikipedia article about the raid.

Pakistan’s Gun Markets

As I said in my Article about the Afghan Army to be equipped with M16s the tribal areas in Pakistan have a big weapon industry consisting of small workshops with kids building weapons with their bare hands. (Just imagine all those child labour protesters going to some shack in Pakistan complaining to a bearded Pushtun about his work policies).

I found this video on youtube: In this documentary a reporter goes into the tribal areas – which is a pretty dangerous thing if you know what they do to reporters and foreigners they don’t like – and takes a look at a weapon bazaar in a Pakistani town. The guys running the market and the workshops are Pashtuns as the Taliban in Afghanistan. His travel guide notes that "The people of this area believe, 'Many sons and a lot of guns.'" The perfect ingredients for War.

Funny that the deaf and dumb guy actually fakes the Chinese: "Made As China". So does anybody wonders why they were able to defeat so many great Armies?