Night light in neighborhoods populated primarily by embattled Sunni residents declined dramatically just before the February 2007 surge and never returned, suggesting that ethnic cleansing by rival Shiites may have been largely responsible for the decrease in violence for which the U.S. military has claimed credit, the team reports in a new study based on publicly available satellite imagery.
More Political News
10/15/2008
Study Of Satellite Imagery Casts Doubt On Surge's Success In Baghdad
10/08/2008
Pakistan and the US on Brink of War?
As the United States steps up border raids into Pakistan, troops from both countries have commenced a deadly game of brinkmanship. Although aimed at asserting each other's military presence along the Pakistan-Afghan border, the skirmishes risk outright hostilities.
U.S. strikes in Pakistan are nothing new. Washington has conducted unilateral missile strikes since soon after its invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. American pilotless surveillance planes have been flying over the restive border with near impunity for much of the same time.
From Air to Ground
But the tone of the U.S. presence changed this year. In July, President George W. Bush approved covert ground raids into suspected militant hideouts in the Waziristan region of Pakistan, much of which is a Taliban stronghold. Militants use the region as a sanctuary from which to strike foreign and Afghan troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Thus far, U.S. forces attempted at least three ground assaults. The only confirmed ground invasion of Pakistan, on Sept. 3, led to the deaths of around 20 civilians, including women and children. No militant leaders were believed captured or killed in the raid.
This ground assault led to unprecedented rhetoric from Pakistan condemning the United States. Even Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, normally quite evasive with the media, said that the army would defend Pakistan's territory. The Pakistani government summoned the U.S. ambassador to the foreign office and blocked NATO supplies vital to the multinational force's continued operation in Afghanistan.
Pakistan averted two other attempted ground raids when its border forces fired warning shots at U.S. helicopters ferrying commandos into Waziristan. On the most recent occasion, Pakistan and U.S. troops exchanged fire for five minutes. Pakistan's government later claimed that its army fired flares, not bullets, at the helicopters, but this explanation did not sound very convincing.
Ostensibly, Washington fears that Waziristan – and other tribal regions – could become a staging area for further attacks on the United States if the Pakistani army doesn't root out pro-Taliban forces. But Washington doubts whether Islamabad is capable of doing the job.
More broadly, U.S. policy in the region is increasingly shaped by its failure to establish unequivocal dominance in Iraq. With the War on Terror overshadowing U.S. foreign policy for the foreseeable future, the next U.S. president will have to deliver victory in some form to a skeptical public. That is the ultimate legacy of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and the Bush administration.
The Next Target
That victory will most likely not come out of the violence and political mess of Iraq. Although the Bush administration and both presidential candidates support a significant, continued military presence in Iraq, the United States has accepted that it can't control the entire country by direct military force. It may have had some success in marginalizing al-Qaeda in Iraq – after initially spurring its growth – but it has also been forced to accept Shia domination of domestic politics.
Iran was seriously mooted as the next frontline and even now experiences tremendous diplomatic pressure from Washington. But it's difficult for the United States to promote the Shia state as the next front in the War on Terror, however much Israel or its lobby in the United States may favor this path. Iran doesn't pose an immediate threat, nor would it afford a quick and easy military campaign. Rather, war with Iran would almost certainly lead to a severe disruption of global energy supplies and the world economy.
Pakistan, in comparison, is an irresistible target. The United States claims to have evidence that the government supports jihadists that wage war against the United States and NATO in Afghanistan. Even a limited, covert war, directed at militants, not Pakistan's army, is arguably the easiest sell the United States has ever had to make since the 1990 war with Iraq. The only factor preventing all-out conflict is Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
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[Source: AntiWar.com
Tuesday: 2 US Soldiers, 14 Iraqis Killed; 20 Iraqis Wounded
Excerpt: Updated at 7:45 p.m. EDT, Oct. 7, 2008At least 14 Iraqis were killed and 20 more were wounded. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate incidents as well. Meanwhile, Turkey continued to pound northern Iraq with air strikes. Also, Iraq has now formally approved the provincial elections law, while U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte visited the country on a diplomatic mission.
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10/07/2008
Russia Defense Watch: Biggest bomber test
Russia is moving back to hair-trigger alert testing for its strategic nuclear bombers and cruise missiles for the first time since the closing years of the Cold War. The Russian air force announced Thursday that its Tupolev Tu-160 White Swan -- NATO designation Blackjack -- and venerable Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H nuclear bombers would carry out what it described as "training flights" while equipped with "full combat payloads and live fire all cruise missiles on board for the first time in over two decades," RIA Novosti reported Thursday.
The ambitious exercises will last seven days from Oct. 6-12 and will take place across Russia's northern regions within the framework of the Stability-2008 exercises being carried out with the former Soviet republic of Belarus, the report said.
RIA Novosti said the purpose of the exercises was to check out "strategic deployment of the armed forces, including the nuclear triad, to counter potential threats near the Russian border."
"During these exercises, for the first time in many years, the crews of Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95MS Bear-H strategic bombers will fly missions carrying the maximum combat payload and fire all the cruise missiles on board," Lt. Col. Vladimir Drik said, according to the report.
Read More - War Insider
7/12/2008
Ron Paul-Iranians Tested Missiles AFTER Israel had WAR GAMES!
Ron Paul-Iranians Tested Missiles AFTER Israel had WAR GAMES!
July 10, 2008 C-SPAN
A blockade is any effort to prevent supplies, troops, information or aid from reaching an opposing force. Blockades are the cornerstone to nearly all military cam...
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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Ron Paul Revoloution]
Kucinich to Present Impeachment Case to House Judiciary Committee
Democratic leaders have agreed to give Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich a day before the House Judiciary Committee to make his case that President Bush ought to be impeached for allegedly lying to Congress in order to get approval to invade Iraq.Kucinich, D-Ohio, has introduced three impeachment resolutions one against Bush (HRes 1258) and two [...]
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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Ron Paul Revolution]
7/04/2008
4th of July Message (& who Im voting for in November) by Christine Smith
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liber...
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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Ron Paul Revolution]
5/27/2008
Who do you think was one of the Bush Administrations key players on the economy?
Behind the Rise in Prices: The Plan to Torpedo the DollarBy Danny Schechter Who do you think was one of the Bush Administration’s key players on the economy? If you say Paulson or Bernanke, you might be half right. But there’s another no-name lurking around in the background who tends to [...]
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[Source: War On You
5/22/2008
Pakistani Daily: George W Bush Authorized 911 Attacks Says Government Insider
Could this kind of scenario actually take place someday? Not impossible if Stanley Hilton turns out to be correct.
This kind of article is not going to be touched by corporate media in this country, even if Moses came down from Mt Sinai with it etched ...
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[Source: Ron Paul forum
5/16/2008
Washington D.C. Police to be Armed With AR-15 Rifles This Summer
Metropolitan Police Department officials said yesterday patrol officers will be issued assault rifles by the summer, after policies on their use are released this month.The Washington Times reported Wednesday that the department is arming the officers with the rifles as part of a national trend to protect them from criminals with increasingly powerful weapons.Assistant Chief [...]
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5/07/2008
The Trilateral Commission, John, Hillary, Obama, and the NWO of Feudalism
Global Elite Gather in D.C. By James P. Tucker Jr. The Trilateral Commissionone of the three most powerful globalist groups in the worldheld closed-door meetings right here in Washington, D.C. from April 25 to 28. True to form, those members of the media who knew about the meetingor were themselves participants in the proceedingsrefused [...]
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[Source: War On You
5/05/2008
The Bushs Family Bad Latin American Real Estate Investment
Back in late 2006, it was widely reported in the Latin American media that President Bush, or perhaps his old man, had bought a 100,000-acre farm in a remote area of Paraguay.What struck people at the time was the choice of country. Paraguay, of course, has gained a certain Club Med status among the world’s [...]
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[Source: War On You
5/03/2008
VIDEO U.S. Marines Invade Manhattan, New York?
Is this a staged protest or military conditioning?Possible Military Training1. The Pentagon conditioning people to get use to military presence.2. Possible Training exercise but what do you think they are training for? Martial Law? Terrorist Attack?3. Why are cops standing there when this ‘protest’ is occurring?Possible Protest1. Theres no visible officers or elder soldiers.2. [...]
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[Source: War On You
Hundreds killed by US strikes in Sadr City
Pepe Escobar: New strategy to fight resistance--Wall-in a section of the city and bomb it
Jesse Ventura Terrorist Are Winning!
Jesse Ventura debate. Makes some interesting points.The terrorist are winning!
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[Source: War On You
4/26/2008
Illegal Internal Immigration Checkpoint
So the Fourth Amendment teaches us, that the guilty sometimes go free than the citizens be subject to easy arrest. — William O. Douglas (1898-1980), Henry v. United States, 1959**************************************** ****Man held at a internal immigration checkpoint until he says “I am a US Citizen”. This was on northbound SR85, between Ajo and Gila Bend.“I [...]
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[Source: War On You -
Judicial Watch Calls on FEC to Investigate McCain Presidential Fundraising
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a formal complaint, dated April 22, 2008, with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) related to a fundraising luncheon held at Londons Spencer House to benefit Senator John McCains presidential campaign. The venue for the event was apparently [...]
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[Source: War On You
4/23/2008
McCain Supports North American Integration, League of Democracies
McCain Supports North American Integration, League of Democracies“Ours can be the first completely democratic hemisphere, where trade is free across all borders, where the rule of law and the power of free markets advance the security and prosperity of all.”Republican Presidential candidate John McCain has openly declared his supportive stance [...]
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[Source: War On You -
