US official: Uzbeks allow transit to Afghanistan

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) — A U.S. military official says Uzbekistan will allow non-lethal U.S. military cargo heading to Afghanistan to transit through the country.

Rear Admiral Mark Harnitchek says some of the goods will transported onward through Tajikistan, which also shares a border with Afghanistan.

He said Friday that the deal was reached during a meeting with Tajik officials.

(snip)

Washington is struggling to guarantee alternate routes for supplies headed to Afghanistan as militants step up attacks on convoys traveling through Pakistan, the primary U.S. supply route.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hI25KkLw_z0Yht-xsrYf6ivJ-TKAD96F7PA81

[bemildred]

1. Obama, Osama and Medvedev

---

Moscow to the rescue

The 1,600-kilometer Karachi-Khyber-Kabul supply line envisioned by the US and NATO is for all practical purposes dead - thanks to the hit-and-run guerrilla tactics of neo-Taliban in the Pakistani tribal areas, and not Osama and his al-Qaeda ghosts.

Last week, Obama's Afghanistan/Pakistan envoy Richard Holbrooke was duly welcomed in Kabul - the day before he arrived - with a group of suicide bombers and gunmen raising hell in the Justice and Education ministries, killing 26 and wounding 57 and paralyzing the capital. This came after Kyrgyzstan had given Washington a six-month notice to pack up and leave the Manas air base contiguous to Bishkek's civilian airport. Yet more evidence that Central Asia now listens primarily to Moscow, not Washington.

What was not reported was how General David "Iraq surge" Petraeus - a man who calculates his each and every move in terms of ideal positioning for a 2012 presidential run - had rings run around him by those wily Russians. Petraeus told Obama in person on January 21, the day after the inauguration, that the US supply lines in Central Asia were totally secure. Obviously, he forgot to factor in a subsequent regional charm offensive by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, which established exactly the opposite.

In the end, transit salvation for the US and NATO is indeed coming from no one else but Russia - but on Moscow's terms: this means Russia possibly using its own military planes to airlift the supplies. A deceptively charming Medvedev has been on the record identifying "very positive signs" in the new US-Russia chess match. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been on the record saying transit of US and NATO non-military supplies through Russia begins in effect only a few days after the 20th anniversary of the Soviets leaving Kabul.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KB20Ag01.html

[leftchick]

2. good luck with that

what a waste of blood and money.


<snip>

America and NATO are "certainly losing their minds," by increasing their troop presence, "while we almost blocked the supply routes coming via Pakistan, and have already sent about 1,000 Taliban to cut new supply routes from the north into Kabul, via central Asia and Russia," he said.

The former minister said Western governments and media were constantly painting the militant movement in Afghanistan as a group of terrorists from other countries, but he argued it was almost entirely a homegrown insurgency.

"We don't have more than three to four hundred volunteers, but all of them are under our command, not al Qaeda," he said.

"The history of Afghanistan will never take a full U-turn, and we are not used to being defeated by foreigners. For a hundred years, Afghanistan has remained a graveyard for foreigners. There's no way for it to suddenly become a land of victory for the U.S. It never can happen, and history won't be changed in this century either."


http://wcco.com/politics/taliban.afghanistan.united.2.938801.html

[bemildred]

3. It boggles the mind what they are doing.

They have not got the political intestinal fortitude to just withdraw, so we get more fatuous military games. It's going to be an ugly Spring in Afghanistan.

[leftchick]

4. it isn't just political

I am sure that Caspian Pipeline is still in play.


:hi:

[dipsydoodle]

5. That thought that deal was already in place .

But apparently not so. It's actually conditional on non military goods - not just non lethal ones.

From yesterday :
2. Karshi-Khanabad airbase: US forces were ordered out in 2005. Uzbekistan may agree to allow it to be used for non-military transports http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7901071.stm