US troops killed, 13 wounded in fight in eastern Afghanistan

[Scurrilous]

Source: Associated Press

"Two US soldiers were killed and 13 wounded Friday in a major clash in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan, while fighting in the south was reported to have killed up to 50 suspected militants and dozens of civilians, officials said.

An American AH-64 Apache attack helicopter supporting the evacuation of wounded troops in the east made what NATO's International Security Assistance force labeled a "controlled landing" after possible engine failure." (AP)



Read more: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3430698,00.html

[dollie300]

1. We are fighting ther "over there" so they can kill us "over there."

Anybody out there besides me wish this pitiful administration had not INVADED Iraq?

[David__77]

4. I wish they had not invaded Afghanistan or Iraq.

Neither country should be occupied. It's a shameful and immoral thing.

[Posteritatis]

2. Afghanistan's getting ugly lately

One of my friends' brothers just arrived home from there; he was wounded serving with the Canadian forces. (Not seriously, thank goodness, but enough to get him out of the army and back home.)

I'm still kinda boggled that Canadian forces over there have taken more losses than the British by now. Then again, our guys are stationed in Kandahar... oy.

[Skittles]

5. yes

I peruse AnySoldier.com daily and it seems to me the surge was not only in Iraq

[TheBaldyMan]

6. Continuing a long military tradition of Canucks being used as cannon fodder.

:grr: pisses me off something awful :grr:

[stillcool]

3. wonder how those ...

pipelines are working out?

this article is from 2002...I think

Afghanistan plans gas pipeline
The pipeline is Afghanistan's biggest foreign investment project
Afghanistan hopes to strike a deal later this month to build a $2bn pipeline through the country to take gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reconstructing

Afghanistan plans to build a road linking Turkmenistan with Pakistan parallel to the pipeline, to supply nearby villages with gas, and also to pump Afghan gas for export, Mr Razim said.

The government would also earn transit fees from the export of gas and oil and hoped to take over ownership of the pipeline after 30 years, he said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been surveying routes for transferring local gas from northern Afghan areas to Kabul, and to iron ore mines at the Haji Gak pass further west.

"ADB will announce its conclusion soon," Mr Razim said.

The pipeline is expected to be built with funds from donor countries for the reconstruction of Afghanistan as well as ADB loans, he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1984459.stm

Pipelines

The principal energy resources in the Caspian Region are to be found in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. All three states are essentially landlocked, the Caspian sea being an inland sea with no connection to the oceans. As a result, a major aspect of the international competition over the exploitation of these resources is the struggle over which route to take to the sea and the global market. There are a number of options, each with their own advocates and each reflecting rival agendas.

The Northern Route (via Russia): The Northern route would consist of an upgrading of the existing Kazak and Russian pipeline systems, plus a new one linking Baku in Azerbaijan with the Russian port of Novorossisk on the Black Sea. Obviously this is the option favoured by the Russian rulers, as it maintains their dominance of Central Asia and provides a source of revenue to them.

The Southern Route (via Iran): From a purely practical point of view this is the most sensible option, with the shortest distance as it is able to plug into the Iranian pipeline system and it provides access to the growing South Asian market. Opposed by the United States, both because of that state's hostility to Iran and because it doesn't represent a diversification of energy sources - which is a U.S. goal we will be returning to. Nonetheless this is the only one of the new routes which is actually up and running.

The Eastern Route (via China): The longest and most expensive route but favoured by the Chinese government, and being developed by them, it also allows them to exploit the resources in their western provinces.

The Western Route (via Turkey): This is favoured by Turkey, the United States and Israel. There are three options here; firstly a pipeline to the port of Suspa in Georgia and then through the Bosporus straits to Europe. The Turkish claim is that the straits will not be able to handle the increased amount of shipping and propose instead a pipeline from Azerbaijan to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. The high costs of this proposal have promoted an alternative American plan to bypass the Bosporus straits with a pipeline going through Bulgaria and Greece.

The South Eastern Route (via Afghanistan): This is the reason why in years past Taliban hierarchs popped up in Texas and other unlikely places. It has been argued that this proposal was a reason behind both Osama Bin Laden's war on the U.S. and the U.S. action in Afghanistan. With the fall of the Taliban this route has again entered the running. Note that it avoids Iran while delivering to the South Asian market, which is much more promising than the European one.

Readers, not even with long memories, will notice the amount of armed conflicts which have been found along these routes in recent years. Russia, China and Turkey have been engaged in suppressing revolt along their favoured routes, as well as of course the American intervention in Afghanistan, and the Afghan civil war prior to that.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion

Just as within Afghanistan rival warlords compete for control over road tolls, smuggling, and heroin production, so to on a world level is the same process at work, on a larger scale. State power is the representative of economic power, and rival states carve up resources and markets in perpetual competition, in doing so representing the long term collective interests of their national ruling class (rather than short term interests of individual corporations).

While the buying of influence and individuals moving from political office to the corporate boardroom (and back again) may show us aspects of this process at work it is not it's source. Rather the source is the division of society into classes, with a ruling class based on control over production. The state is the mechanism by which the ruling class advances it's interests both at home and overseas. At home against it's subjects, overseas against rival rulers.

It has been amply shown how imperialist competition fuelled the Northern Alliance-Taliban war, and this is true of the earlier Afghan conflicts also (14). The Afghanistan situation then is not one of a "failed state" but one of successful states (Russia, Iran, Pakistan, the United States) and rather being an aberration is the by-product of the competition between hierarchies intrinsic to the world capitalist system.http://struggle.ws/issues/war/afghan/pamwt/wt2/pipelines.html

[saigon68]

7. "Freedom is on the March" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[Eugene]

8. Three NATO soldiers killed in Afghan clashes

Source: Reuters

Three NATO soldiers killed in Afghan clashes
28 Jul 2007 06:19:37 GMT
Source: Reuters

KABUL, July 28 (Reuters) - Three NATO troops and an Afghan
soldier have been killed in two separate clashes with insurgents
in Afghanistan, the alliance said.

The identities of the NATO soldiers were not given.

Two of the NATO soldiers and the Afghan were killed on Friday
in an area of eastern Nuristan province in a clash with Taliban
rebels. Thirteen NATO soldiers were wounded in that incident.

The third NATO soldier was killed in another encounter in the
south of the country, also on Friday. The alliance did not say
if there were any casualties among the insurgents.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL199431.htm

[Eugene]

9. UK soldier dies in rocket attack

Source: BBC News

Last Updated: Saturday, 28 July 2007, 09:54 GMT 10:54 UK

UK soldier dies in rocket attack

A British soldier from 14 Signals Regiment has been killed in
southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The soldier - a communications specialist - died in a rocket
attack while providing support to operations in Helmand province
on Friday.

The soldier's next of kin have been informed and have requested
a period of grace before his name is released.

The death brings the number of UK military fatalities since 2001
to 67.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6920366.stm