Global Security

This first link is to the report, a 20 page PDF, from the Oxford Research Group.

Global Security After the War on Terror

Paul Rogers assesses the impact of the "war on terror" on international peace
and stability, and argues for a fundamental re-thinking of those current
approaches to security that focus prmarily on military instruments. Instead,
the major global trends of a wider socio-economic divide, mass
marginalisation and environmental constraints all require an approach rooted
in what is now being termed sustainable security.

Casualty recorders issue joint communique

Saturday, 28 November 2009

The Recording Casualties of Armed Conflict International Practitioner's Network is pleased to announce the release of its first joint communique on 25th November 2009. Twenty organisations so far, from around the world, declare: "We will collaborate to raise our capacity, visibility and collective strength, thereby enhancing casualty recording activities worldwide." The full communique and a list of signatories is available here.

Operation Free

We are packing our bags and heading east next week to join the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. A delegation of veterans from OpFree will be there to make sure the world understands the grave threat climate change poses to global security. We know that climate change makes the world a more dangerous place and that dependence on oil makes America vulnerable. That's why it's time for America to get on the team with the rest of the world and lead by example to combat this threat

We'll be livecasting our press events and updates from the conference.

To keep up to date on activities, sign up here for reminders to watch and/or listen to our broadcasts: "Live from Copenhagen with Operation Free."

Our veterans will bring personal stories and a front-lines perspective to the national security threat, a vital and oft-overlooked aspect of the ongoing negotiations. Most of the veterans served during the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We hope you'll join us in Denmark.

Thanks for all you do,

Operation Free

Jon Powers

What Is So Patriotic About Hysteria?

The loudest voices on the right never tire of telling us that they are the truest patriots. They claim to be the deepest believers in our system, the strongest defenders of our Constitution, the most upbeat, bold and courageous Americans anywhere. But now that the government is finally prepared to put the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on trial, these same patriots are the first to spread doubt, instigate anxiety and abandon constitutional principles.

When did fear-mongering in a time of war become an act of patriotism?...>>>>>

How much security did $1 trillion buy?

I'm not going to add anything, I've been saying what this video, and the series Robert Greenwald is putting together for eight damn years, and I haven't been alone!!

Rethink Afghanistan (Part 6): Security

FORWARD THIS VIDEO TO 5 FRIENDS!

The war in Afghanistan is increasing the likelihood that American civilians will be killed in a future terrorist attack.

Part 6 of Rethink Afghanistan, Security, brings you three former high-ranking CIA agents to explain why.

There is no "victory" to be won in Afghanistan. It is the most important video about U.S. Security today.

Become a Rethink Afghanistan Producer

8.19.09

6 More Soldiers KILLED!!

6 US troops die in Afghanistan ahead of election

The U.S. military said Wednesday six American troops were killed in Afghanistan, as militants killed six election workers amid growing fears on the eve of the presidential election that insurgents would mar the vote.

Two troops were killed in gunfire in the south on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, while a third was killed in an unspecified hostile attack. The U.S. also said a roadside bomb Tuesday in the south killed two troops, while another died of noncombat-related injuries. No other details were released.

The deaths bring to at least 32 the number of American troops killed in the country this month, a record pace................

This Is What Should Have Happened: Afghanistan

I just caught this and will say, this is what should have occurred after we invaded and rid the country of the Taliban rule, and while we went after bin Laden and al Qaeda!

Will it be to late?

I think it is already, and Hopefully I'm Wrong, Very Wrong, this time:

U.S. civilians may join Afghan buildup

Hundreds of U.S. civilians may be sent to Afghanistan in a program to support
security, governance and local development, Obama administration officials said.

The new civilian diplomats and specialists from U.S. departments such as Agriculture and Justice, along with hundreds of "full-time, temporary" hires, would work at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, the officials said.

Other civilians would be assigned to U.S. "provincial reconstruction teams" and to other efforts "to build Afghan civilian capacity around the country," The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported.

The new civilian force would complement 17,000 new U.S. troops scheduled for deployment this year, bringing the total to about 55,000, administration and Pentagon officials said.

At this stage of the occupation, and as Afghanistan has been ramping up in Taliban/al Qaeda numbers, destructive raids and bombings, this will be very dangerous for any civilian corps, especially a large one. One good thing,it isn't happening under the previous administration and Hopefully will be Nothing Like What We Had In Iraq, Hopefully!!!!!

Don't Forget the Iraqi Refugees

REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN URGING OBAMA TO HELP IRAQI REFUGEE

Washington D.C. - As President Obama works to stabilize Iraq, he must be sure to comprehensively address the Iraqi refugee crisis. Five million Iraqis have been uprooted by conflict, forced to leave everything behind. They have sought refuge within Iraq, Syria, Jordan and other neighboring countries. They are running out of resources with little opportunity for employment; access to food, heath care, education and other essential services is extremely limited. The conditions for Iraqis to return home safely do not exist, and millions of Iraqi refugees are unlikely and unwilling to return to Iraq in the foreseeable future. The U.S. administration must lead international efforts to meet the long-term needs of displaced Iraqis. Failure to assist Iraqis will have dramatic impacts on security inside Iraq.

The campaign features a petition urging the Obama administration to:

1. Assist Iraqi refugees.

2. Ensure a safe, voluntary return home when possible.

3. Pressure Iraq to meet its responsibilities to its own people.

4. Increase resettlement for those who can't go home.

Supporters can sign the petition here or when you click on the top link the petition, with intro video, loads to sign.

Contact Information:
Sara Fusco
Refugees International Site
Phone: 202-828-0110, ext.204
Sara at Refugee International

Walled in Neighborhoods! Security or Imprisoning Residents?

Baghdad Security Plan Burdens Residents - 10.07.2008

Baghdad, Iraq - The ongoing fighting in Baghdad pushed the Iraqi and US forces to establish checkpoints all over the city to secure the roads and neighborhoods. Controlling the cars inside the city and preventing them from distributing weapons or bombs was the first aim of these checkpoints. There are four main types of checkpoints in Baghdad, the checkpoints made by US forces those of the Iraqi National Guard, and finally those established by the Iraqi Police or the Ministry of Interior.

There are approximately five hundred checkpoints deployed around the perimeter as well as inside the city. Most of the checkpoints are directed by the Iraqi National Guard or Coalition forces. These checkpoints are getting attacked repeatedly by IEDs, car bombs, and sniper attacks. Many Iraqis were killed because of these attacks, for example, they may be driving into a checkpoint or getting killed by stray bullets fired after a car bomb attack.

On the other hand, starting several years ago, militias began using what are known as “fake checkpoints” in order to kidnap or kill people. The fake checkpoints generated great fear among the Iraqi people agains Iraqi forces whether they were military forces or police. It become something very familiar within Iraqi society that if someone was kidnapped or disappeared at one of the “fake checkpoints,” the family should go and look in the morgue looking for that person.

Another type of checkpoint began appearing in late 2007, these ones have been run by the Sahwa “Awakening” Forces, in order to control the Sunni Areas and keep them out of Al-Qaeda control and free of any other groups that may be related to Al-Qaeda. These Sahwa Forces were selected from the same area they work in, their local knowledge helps them to know everyone coming in or out of neighborhood. These forces have assisted in establishing many of the stability gains in the Sunni neighborhoods.

The Iraqi security forces used to wear masks to hide their identity form other extremist insurgents, and not to be followed when they return home. Many militias also used masks to hide their faces and keep a low profile. In late 2007 the Iraqi government ordered all security forces to take off their masks to give a greater impression of honesty and trustworthiness to the Iraqi people and prevent them form being afraid due to the threat of fake checkpoints.

Today, although security appears to have returned to much of Baghdad, blast walls and checkpoints continue to choke the city streets. These measures helped re-establish security in the capital, but today many people question them and have begun pushing the Iraqi government to take down the walls that block much of the city.

Opps??

Will we see any change?

Funding for Iraq groups phasing out

Or will the situation that exist now stay pretty much the same?

And if change, how serious?

The process in northern Iraq could be a harbinger for how it is done by American units in other parts of the country. The decision to cut off funding has some soldiers worried that Iraq could lose some of its hard-won security gains when the groups disappear.

"Them getting rid of the ‘Sons of Iraq’ is going to be one of the biggest mistakes they’ve made," said 1st Sgt. Michael Livingston, a 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment soldier who has worked extensively with the security volunteers in the Ninevah and Salah ad Din provinces.

Looks like some In-Country may have that answer!

Pressure for Results

Those of us who served in 'Nam, or really any insurgent conflict, and anybody else who were paying attention understand the Government Propaganda used to make things look rosier than the reality on the ground.

One of the most blatant is "The Body Count". Used to show success, in 'enemy kills', and used to show success in the citizens feelings security because of actions by an occupying force or a puppet government.

Real Honesty is not a popular tool of propaganda!

Newsweek and the New York Times are carrying articles about the returning Iraqi's to Baghdad, looking deeper into the reasons why, reasons anyone paying real attention already understand.

In the Newsweek article called There’s No Place Like … Iraq?

We find this subtitle:
Actually, yes. Refugees are returning—but it's tough to resettle them without worsening sectarian divisions.

Why are some returning, and they actually are, is it because of how Secure? Baghdad has become, or are other reasons in play.

Dawood (he won't risk the use of his full name) is a 33-year-old IT engineer, but he couldn't find work outside Iraq. His Lebanese visa ran out, and Canada refused his asylum application. So a few weeks ago, practically broke, he returned to Baghdad. His old district is torn by an ongoing Shia-Sunni turf war, but Dawood says he feels safe in the family's new, mainly Shia area.

Syria, the region's last country that offered free access to Iraqis, has cracked down on new entries and forbidden Iraqis to hold jobs. "They put a stamp in your passport that says NO WORK," Dawood says. Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt enforce similar bans.

The money is about enough to fix all the broken windows, but it won't begin to replace the furniture that was looted in their absence. Besides, the house is a triplex. Hamoud's in-laws used to have the other two units, now occupied by Sunni fugitives from Shiite-led ethnic cleansing in the Jihad neighborhood. Hamoud says when her husband asked them to leave, they refused, saying: "If you get the people out of our house in Jihad, we'll go back there."

It closes with a little girls wish to return to her real home and that her father not leave again:

"She told me to promise not to leave again, but until now I don't promise," says Dawood. "We don't know what life will bring."

The New York Times looks a little deeper into the 'body count' of the returning Iraqi's.

The Politics of Tallying the Number of Iraqis Who Return Home

The description of the scope of the return, however, appears to have been massaged by politics. Returnees have essentially become a currency of progress.

Under intense pressure to show results after months of political stalemate, the government has continued to publicize figures that exaggerate the movement back to Iraq and Iraqis’ confidence that the current lull in violence can be sustained.

They admit to just 'counting the bodies':

“We didn’t ask them if they were displaced and neither did the Interior Ministry,”

The UN though dug abit further:

A United Nations survey released last week, of 110 Iraqi families leaving Syria, also seemed to dispute the contentions of officials in Iraq that people are returning primarily because they feel safer.

The survey found that 46 percent were leaving because they could not afford to stay; 25 percent said they fell victim to a stricter Syrian visa policy; and only 14 percent said they were returning because they had heard about improved security.

Furthermore, people are still leaving their homes — 28,017 were internally displaced in October, according to the latest United Nations figures. In all, the United Nations estimates that 2.4 million Iraqis are still internally displaced, with many occupying someone else’s home.

We are getting a number of reports of how we are creating alliances with once insugents, fighting us and each other, by training and paying them to rid their area's of al Qaeda of Iraq.

What are we really doing?

To my view of those reports, added to the reports, reading between the lines of the returning Iraqi's, it seems we are training and arming Militia's that are now protecting their ethnically cleansed neighborhoods, that we allowed, in Baghdad and other cities, as well as pockets of Iraq outside of the cities controlled by the verious sect tribes of Sunni and Shiite.

I fail to see where 'The Surge' main objective is being realized, a functioning Iraqi Government, and especially one creating their own security for the country we destroyed.

We tore open, and destroyed, 'Pandora's Box' of Iraq. The Iraqi's still want All Foreign Troops out of their Country, a Country where these sects, despite what our Allie Saddam did to many lived and worked together, married and had children, were friends, lived side by side.

Can they be brought back together by Buying them off, Nope!

Will these militia's we are creating join forces to really bring about a more secure Iraq, a Big Question!

Or will they once again revert back, or have they really left that, to the Killing and Maiming of each other, and the occupying militaries, in order to keep their own ethnically cleansed area's safe for their own????

Priest Discusses Christianity in Baghdad - 01.15.2007

Alive In Bagdad

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Christians have felt themselves increasingly under attack. During Saddam Hussein’s time, brutal acts were carried out against all Iraqis, but Saddam only permitted atrocities at his whim.

Without the security of Saddam’s strong central state and intelligence apparatus, sectarian, religious, and ethnic in-fighting has sprung up in much of Iraq. The Christian community, already small and isolated, primarily in Northern Iraq and Baghdad, has grown even more worried. They have faced a surge of attacks targeting them, attempting to push them from the country.

These attacks have been all too successful, today Iraq’s Christian community is almost entirely devastated. Most of them have fled to Jordan and Syria, many seeking a path to safety amongst other Christians in the West.

This has also led to the devastation of two of Iraq’s oldest idigenous communities, the Assyrians and Chaldeans, who are both primarily Christian communities now.

To continue hearing the stories of regular Iraqis’ daily lives, consider making a donation to support the work of Alive in Baghdad and continue providing our correspondents with a salary and the equipment necessary to continue their work.