Afghanistan’s China Card
Published on Tom Dispatch, by Dilip Hiro, March 31, 2015.
In June 2014, as he was preparing to send 300 U.S. military advisers back to Iraq, President Obama hailed the American counterterror campaign in Yemen — Special Operations advisers (and CIA operatives) on the ground, drones in the air — as a “model” for what he hoped to do against the Islamic State. In September, as Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post wrote, President Obama “cited his Yemen strategy as a template for confronting jihadist threats in other places, including Iraq and Syria.” He was still making reference to its “success” this January when discussing what had become Iraq War 3.0.
Last week, however, with al-Qaeda militants taking a nearby town, Washington withdrew its final 100 Special Operations advisers in Yemen from a southern air base where U.S. drones had been stationed and halted all military operations in the country. By then, the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, the capital, had been shuttered for a month. Meanwhile $500 million in U.S. weaponry had reportedly gone missing in that country and might be in the hands of almost anyone, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the local branch of the terror franchise. That group had only grown stronger under years of American drone strikes. … //
… On this subject and the associated contest between Pakistan and India for influence in Afghanistan, Hiro, whom Jeremy Scahill has called “the quintessential non-aligned journalist… the master chronicler of some of history’s most epic battles,” knows a thing or two. His monumental new book, The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan, is the first definitive history of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. With a desperate Obama administration struggling over just how many U.S. military personnel to leave in Afghanistan for how endlessly and fruitlessly long, it makes sense to put Washington’s perspective aside for a moment and try to get a bead on what’s really happening in South Asia and Afghanistan through a different lens. Tom
The Great Game in Afghanistan (Twenty-First-Century Update) And the U.S. Is Losing Out: … //
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Links:
Changement de régime, dans Mediapart.fr/blogs, par JEAN-JACQUES BIRGÉ, le 1er avril 2015;
Why Syriza’s Pledge To Tax Greece’s Rich Could Backfire, on Worldcrunch, by Jean-Baptiste Naudet, March 31, 2015; ATHENS — In her beautiful Athens offices, billionaire Gianna Angelopoulos nurses a large cigar and calls it like she sees it on the promise of the radical-left Syriza party to levy new taxes to avoid the country going bankrup …;
Nuclear deal with Iran reached on all key aspects – Lavrov, on Russia Today RT, March 31, 2015;
Geopolitical Tremors: America, Nuclear Talks and the New Middle East, on Spiegel Online International, by Nicola Abé, Dieter Bednarz, Erich Follath and Holger Stark, March 31, 2014: The US is rethinking its approach to the Middle East and has even found commonalities with erstwhile archenemy Iran. Meanwhile, relations with traditional American allies, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, are cooling. A nuclear deal could further the shift. Barack Obama wanted to do everything differently than his predecessor, also in the realm of foreign policy. He wanted to bring an end to America’s role as global police officer and to lead from the background rather than pursue one-sided dominance. His vision was that of becoming a moderator of international politics and finding allies for new coalitions …;
Federal Credit Programs and the Birth of Lemon Socialism, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, March 31, 2015;
Coup de tonnerre à gauche, François Hollande consulte Pierre Larrouturou, dans Mediapart.fr/blogs, par Michel Jo, le 31 mars 2015;
Lecture: How can a state guarantee dignity? on BIEN, par Joerg Drescher, March 31, 2015;
Le monstrueux typhon Maysak vu depuis l’ISS, dans Science et Avenir.fr, par Erwan Lecomte, le 31 mars 2015: Le typhon de catégorie 5 a été photographié par l’astronaute italienne Samantha Cristoforetti … avançant vers les Philippines;
web-statistics March 2015 for all blogs running under world-citizenship.org, per March 31, 2015;
Did Marco Rubio and Mike Lee Have a Secret Plan to Help the Poor? on Bloomberg, by Richard Rubin, March 30, 2015;
New housing plan for needy women, on Daily News, by MOHAMMED AL A ALI, March 30, 2015;
Free tax preparation available for qualifying residents, on News Courrier, March 30, 2015;
Report from the UBI-Europe Conference of March 2015 – MARIBOR, SLOVENIA, on BIEN, by Karl Widerquist, March 30, 2015;
The Geopolitics Behind the War in Yemen, The Start of a New Front against Iran, on Global Research.ca (source: Strategic Culture Foundation), by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, March 29, 2015;
NEW YORK, NY, April 3, 2015: General Assembly on Immaterial Digital Labor and Universal Basic Income, on Basic Income Earth Nework BIEN, by Karl Widerquist, March 29;
Retirement isn’t all about the money, on IOL.co.za, by Bruce Cameron, March 28, 2015;
Un monde numérique invisible, très puissant, est en train de naître, dans Le Télégramme, par Gilles Babinet, le 28 mars 2015;
Don Cayo: A backdoor income tax increase? Guess who’s to blame, on Vancouver Sun, by DON CAYO, March 27, 2015;
L’Ontario dévoile sa liste dorée (sunshine list), dans LaPresse.ca, par JEAN-FRANÇOIS DUGAS, le 27 mars 2015;
La France prisonnière d’une classe politique obsédée par 2017, dans atlantico.fr, par Michel Garibal, le 27 mars 2015: La France est toujours le mauvais élève de l’Europe, la preuve avec cette nouvelle hausse du chômage en février. La raison est simple : les partis ont déjà la tête à la prochaine élection présidentielle;
Fragen und Diskussion zu den Themen Geld, Staat, Korruption, Alternativen, am 22. Juni 2013, 97.40 min, von Smilie2607 am 11. Juli 2013 hochgeladen: mit Prof. Hankel, Andreas Popp, Oliver Janich, Jürgen Elsässer, Abdullah Seymour, Andreas Rieger u.a.;
Am Vorabend der Inflation Prof. Wilhelm Hankel Warum der Euro scheitern wird, 66 min, von ProfDrSchweinstaiger am 16. März 2013 auf YouTube hochgeladen … in voller Länge.