Malalai Joya was 27-years-old when she became the youngest person elected to the new Afghan Parliament.

She’s now suspended from Parliament for criticizing other MPs and accusing many of being warlords and criminals. She calls Afghanistan’s democracy a farce and says her country’s liberation is a lie. She has written a book called A Woman Among Warlords. Malalai Joya was in Toronto.

Meaning:
Something which is owed that is ruthlessly required to be paid back.
Reap what one sows: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head." In modern terms; what goes around comes around, aka you get what you deserve.

Not finished with the first part yet but here are some observations.....

US takes over USSR base in Afghanistan (reminds me of the song "Walking in your Footsteps" - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x33v1y_the-police-walking-in-your-foo... )

Guy at 2:11 in a helicopter reminds me of that scene in "Full Metal Jacket" - "just don't lead them as much!"

American lives are worth a lot. So when Americans get killed, it’s a big story. There are lots of editorials. Congressmen call for investigations. We want to find out what happened, why it happened, and how to make sure it never happens again.

The lives of foreigners, on the other hand, are pretty much worthless. Even when they die because Americans killed them, news accounts marking their deaths are short, sweet, and short-lived. Congressional investigations? No way. To the contrary! If anyone is inconsiderate enough to mention the killings of people overseas in a public forum, they get shouted down or simply ignored.

"We just need to be sure that the final result does not look like a humiliating defeat: to have lost so many men and now abandoned it all... in short, we have to get out of there."

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev - the speaker of those words - was understandably alarmed.

It was June 1986, almost a year since he had taken the decision to start withdrawing Soviet troops from Afghanistan and hand over more responsibility to the government there.

But Soviet losses, already above 10,000, kept mounting.

With conflicting signals this week about the direction of Western policy in Afghanistan, there is a hint of the same kind of panic and indecision.

Res ipsa loquitur translates in common use as “the facts speak for themselves.” I’m among hundreds of writers who document from our own government’s declassified information that all the reasons to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan were known to be false at the time they were presented to the American public. Please verify this evidence for yourself here that your government “leaders” of both parties have lied and are lying about war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hezb’Allah warned that the tragic figures of the FAO-on the number of hungry people around the world-reveal the criminal face of the so-called materialistic culture of savage capitalism at present, holding responsible the world countries practicing and committing aggression, occupation and supporting it, with the US topping the list.

Hezb’Allah issued on Monday a statement in which it commented on the opening of the World Food Summit in Rome for fighting hunger, which afflicts more than one billion people around the world.

More than 60 insurgents are thought to have been killed close to Patrol Base Waheed after the Taliban launched a series of "Kamikaze-style" attacks against British troops.

In the southern area of the district, which is also controlled by the Grenadier Guards, soldiers from the battalion's reconnaissance platoon killed an estimated 16 fighters in a carefully planned ambush last Saturday, although it is difficult for the British Army to be precise about enemy casualties.

An Afghan policeman earns around $120 a month. In return for this he is forced to do a more dangerous job than Afghan soldiers, some 1,500 policemen being killed between 2007 and 2009, three times the number of deaths suffered by the Afghan army. Compare this money and these dangers with that of a US paid consultant earning $250,000 a year -- and with the cost of his guards, accommodation and translator totalling the same amount again – lurking in his villa in Kabul. General Eikenberry is rightly sceptical about the dispatch of reinforcements to prop up a regime which is more of a racket than an administration. The troops may kill more Taliban, but they will also be their recruiting sergeants.

Seven out of 10 Britons back The Independent on Sunday's call for a phased withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan as a landmark report by Oxfam this week exposes the real human cost of the war.

The powerful dossier by the aid agency reveals how women and children in Afghanistan are bearing the brunt of the ongoing conflict, undermining the international community's claims that they are the very people being helped by the West's activities.

Its contents will add to mounting concerns among the public, and in some quarters of the military and the House of Commons, that the US and the UK are fighting an ill-conceived and ill-judged war that has left as many as 32,000 Afghans dead and 235,000 displaced.

How the U.S. Funds the Taliban

By Aram Roston, The Nation
Posted on November 13, 2009, Printed on November 13, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143898/

Welcome to the wartime contracting bazaar in Afghanistan. It is a virtual carnival of improbable characters and shady connections, with former CIA officials and ex-military officers joining hands with former Taliban and mujahedeen to collect US government funds in the name of the war effort.

In this grotesque carnival, the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting.

Insurance, security or extortion? The US is spending millions of dollars in Afghanistan to ensure its supply convoys get through – and it's the Taliban who profit

In front of Tor's shop was a nearly waist high, three deep wall of boxed food,that apparently had been destined for military chow halls."I myself like the cookies and cakes,"Tor said.

MREs are not all they are selling in the "Obama Market".

The host opposes the war in Afghanistan, identifying different factions jostling
for power and looking at how the media won't cover Afghan opinion of the occupation.
He also proposes a great new money-making scheme for Wall Street.

click to listen

Ministry of Defence bureaucrats have pocketed nearly £300 million in bonuses while soldiers have been dying from lack of equipment.

The civil servants have seen 'good performance' payments - including rewards for saving money - double.

The pen-pushers also won extra cash for hitting targets for promoting diversity and improving health and safety.

In one shocking example, two mandarins collected bonuses of £17,000 each - more than a year's basic pay for a squaddie in Helmand.

“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.” - Mohandas Gandhi, Young India 1924-1926 (1927), p. 1285

CBS news reports that sources confirm the deployment of ~40,000 additional US troops in Afghanistan (two-minute video below). The most important context for troops, officers, and the US public to consider is that if the US war is illegal, we must all refuse deployment and any further engagement. All those with an oath to defend and protect the US Constitution are sworn to refuse such an illegal act (along with being viciously immoral).

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect new data on total casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Veterans Day arrives tomorrow, and with it, the anticipated harvest of heartbreaking anecdotes driving the press coverage and our ever wandering attention back to less desirable realities: the disfigured but persevering hero, the homeless warrior, the unemployable sergeant, the father or son or daughter who came home a stranger and cannot be reached.

Usually, there is nothing more powerful than a personal story to pound home the cost of eight years of war overseas, but I think today there is something even more disturbing to bear.

It’s the number 89,457 [.doc].

American military advisers who work with the Afghan National Army, or ANA, speak of poorly trained and unmotivated Afghan soldiers who have little stomach for military discipline and even less for fighting. They describe many ANA units as being filled with brigands who terrorize local populations, exacting payments and engaging in intimidation, rape and theft. They contend that the ANA is riddled with Taliban sympathizers. And when there are combined American and Afghan operations against the Taliban insurgents, ANA soldiers are fickle and unreliable combatants, the U.S. advisers say.

David Swanson has the answer for immediate ending of US troops’ engagement in illegal wars: stop paying for them. The best support for our troops is to bring them home. Don’t believe me, ask your relatives and friends in service. Article includes a great video of David walking an audience through his new book and the gap between what we're promised for political leadership under the US Constitution and what we have in complete violation of limits under law.

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier in an IED attack near Sangin, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Saturday, November 7th. (note this was reported by Cervantes yesterday)

The British MoD is reporting the death of a second British ISAF soldier in an IED attack near Sangin, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday, November 8th.

Nato is reporting the death of an American soldier in an undisclosed location in western Afghanistan on Saturday, November 7th.
MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of two soldiers in a helicopter crash in an undisclosed area in Salah ad Din Province on Sunday, November 8th.

Pentagon Pouring Your Money Into Afghanistan: Are They Preparing for a Very Long War?
By Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com
Posted on November 9, 2009, Printed on November 9, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143819/

In recent weeks, President Obama has been contemplating the future of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. He has also been touting the effects of his policies at home, reporting that this year's Recovery Act not only saved jobs, but also was "the largest investment in infrastructure since [President Dwight] Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s." At the same time, another much less publicized U.S.-taxpayer-funded infrastructure boom has been underway. This one in Afghanistan.

This year's commemorations were given added poignancy by events in Afghanistan.

Collateral damage is nothing more than a euphemism for state-sponsored mass murder. It is the term given to people killed in military actions who were “not intentionally targeted.” In reality, this is pure propaganda. It has always been morally just to protect innocent people against aggressors. But, on the other hand, it has never been moral, nor has it ever been necessary, to bomb cities filled with innocent people.

Chomsky: Obama Continues Bush Policy

Sherwood Ross
Scoop
Thursday, November 5, 2009

Political activist Noam Chomsky says that although President Obama views the Iraq invasion merely as “a mistake” or “strategic blunder,” it is, in fact, a “major crime” designed to enable America to control the Middle East oil reserves.

“It’s (“strategic blunder”) probably what the German general staff was telling Hitler after Stalingrad,” Chomsky quipped, referring to the big Nazi defeat by the Soviet army in 1943.

“There is basically no significant change in the fundamental traditional conception that if we can control Middle East energy resources, then we can control the world,” he said.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who allegedly killed 11 people before being shot and wounded by police at Fort Hood, had said Muslims should "rise up" and attack Americans in retaliation for the US war in Iraq, a former army colleague said.

In this video New York Congressman Massa illustrates the losses from the Afghan war and how the conflict has affected our military and our economy. One of his key points is that the eight year long war has cost each American family over $3,950.00...

The British MoD is reporting the deaths of five British ISAF soldiers from a small arms fire-gun shot wounds incident in the Nad e-Ali district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, November 4th. The AP is reporting that an Afghani policeman, or perhaps two Afghani policemen opened fire on the British soldiers at a joint check point. Six additional British soldiers and two Afghani police were wounded in the attack.

The conflict in Afghanistan becomes increasingly unpopular, a group of veterans came to Washington, DC to show lawmakers the perspective of soldiers and afghan civilians. Priya Sridhar talks to one of the former soldiers about U.S. options in Afghanistan.

Pipeline-Istan: Everything You Need to Know About Oil, Gas, Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan and Obama

AlterNet

By Pepe Escobar, Tomdispatch.com
Posted on May 13, 2009, Printed on May 13, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/139983/

U.S. officials are worried that the Afghan leader will have to award key posts to ethnic warlords and regional power barons who're linked to drug trafficking in exchange for their help in his re-election.

The U.S. concerns were heightened by the return from Turkey late Monday of Abdul Rashid Dostum, a notorious former communist general and a leader of the ethnic Uzbek minority who's alleged to have allowed the 2001 killing of as many as 2,000 Taliban and al Qaida prisoners, then having their mass graves dug up and their remains hidden in 2008.

Dual Citizenship -- Loyal to Whom?

by Dan Eden

Someone wrote and asked me, "Why are there Israeli- but not Mexican-American Dual Nationals?"

Well, here's my take on this. I'd also like your views and opinions.

War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger.

The election in Afghanistan has turned into a disaster for all who promoted it. Hamid Karzai has been declared re-elected as President of the country for the next five years though his allies inside and outside Afghanistan know that he owes his success to open fraud. Instead of increasing his government's legitimacy, the poll has further de-legitimised it.

Obama Is a Pawn of the New World Order

It is obvious from Obama's appointments to positions regarding foreign relations that part of the deal with the "powers that be" is that he continue to promote the "fake war against terror", the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to secure the oil and natural gas resources and the continued stealing of the remaining resources of this country by the Federal Reserve Bank.

Afghanistan, Another Untold Story

Only Leaves Out 9-11 Being an Inside Job

by Michael Parenti
December 7, 2008
GlobalResearch.com

Author's website: www.michaelparenti.org.

Barack Obama is on record as advocating a military escalation in Afghanistan. Before sinking any deeper into that quagmire, we might do well to learn something about recent Afghan history and the role played by the United States.

Cheney's Chief Assassin Is Now Obama's Commander in Afghanistan

By James Petras, Axis of Logic
Posted on May 18, 2009, Printed on May 18, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140068/

“The Deltas are psychos…You have to be a certified psychopath to join the Delta Force…”, a US Army colonel from Fort Bragg once told me back in the 1980s. Now President Obama has elevated the most notorious of the psychopaths, General Stanley McChrystal, to head the US and NATO military command in Afghanistan.

just change date proposed in video to 11/27/2009

A grieving father whose son died alongside the most senior soldier to be killed in Afghanistan has called on the Prime Minister to resign.

Peter Hammond said Gordon Brown was either lying or incompetent when he insisted that a shortage of helicopters had not led to British deaths.

Mr Hammond, whose teenage son Josh died alongside Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, said: 'Brown's either a liar or hasn't a clue about what's going on. He should do the right thing and quit.'

Accusing his opponent, Hamid Karzai of setting up a vote that could not be transparent, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah withdrew from next weekend's run-off election. This, practically, hands Karzai a victory. But it also makes the questions about the corruption and legitimacy of the leadership of Afghanistan even more questionable

More than 1,000 American troops have been wounded in battle over the past three months in Afghanistan, accounting for one-fourth of those injured in combat since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

The dramatic increase in amputees and other seriously injured service members comes as October marks the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

A few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Bush administration concluded without supporting evidence, that "Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation were prime suspects". CIA Director George Tenet stated that bin Laden has the capacity to plan ``multiple attacks with little or no warning.'' Secretary of State Colin Powell called the attacks "an act of war" and President Bush confirmed in an evening televised address to the Nation that he would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them". Former CIA Director James Woolsey pointed his finger at "state sponsorship," implying the complicity of one or more foreign governments.

The most senior soldier to be killed in Afghanistan foreshadowed his own death in a damning memo about the shortage of helicopters.

Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe told his superiors that British troops would die because they were being forced to make trips by road.

Less than a month later, he was blown up by a roadside bomb.

The United Nations cannot account for tens of millions of dollars provided to the troubled Afghan election commission, according to two confidential U.N. audits and interviews with current and former senior diplomats. (Read both audits.)

As Afghanistan prepares for a second round of national voting, the documents and interviews paint the fullest picture to date of the finances of the election commission, which has been accused of facilitating election fraud and operating ghost polling places. The new disclosures also deepen the questions about the U.N.'s oversight of money provided by the United States and other nations to ensure a fair election in Afghanistan.