Reports: Khalilzad Ordered to Keep UN from Stopping Gaza War.

There is not all that much news reporting of US sabotage of cease fire proposals while at the same time claiming to want a cease fire. If the US helps sabotage the new Sarkozy proposal this will be the third that they have managed to defeat. Even though Israel has managed to attack two UN schools killing dozens and also attacked the parliament building, university, and police stations this is also justified as self defence.




Reports: Khalilzad Ordered to Keep UN From Stopping Gaza War
Ambassador to UN Warns Arab FMs Not to Have "False Expectations"
Posted January 5, 2009
The French government is reportedly working with the Arab League on yet another draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, while also urging the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid into the strip. According to America’s ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad, they shouldn’t get their hopes up.
“We did not want them to have false expectations,” Khalilzad told reporters today, and its not hard to see why. Having already shot down two separate Arab proposals to end the violence in the Gaza Strip, America seems unlikely, despite its continued claims to want to quick ceasefire, to allow the United Nations to move on one while Israel wants to continue its invasion.
Indeed, Israeli paper Haaretz is quoting sources at the UN who say Khalilzad had been ordered by the State Department to “torpedo any initiative proposed by the Arab bloc which is designed to grant the Security Council the status of an official arbiter that will have direct involvement with disentangling the Gaza crisis.” And a tangled mess it is.
The civilian toll is soaring and Israel seems unwilling to even consider the possibility of ending the war on any terms at all. The United States has ruled out a return to the status quo, but seems perfectly content to continue with the new status quo that allows scores of Gazans to be killed on a daily basis and cheer Israel on as it continues its attacks. As a permanent UN Security Council member, the United States can keep the UN from condemning the killings forever if it wants to, and it seems that it wants to.

compiled by Jason Ditz [email the author]



Find this article at: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/01/05/reports-khalilzad-ordered-to-keep-un-from-stopping-gaza-war



Copyright 2008 Antiwar.com

Avoiding civilian casualties in Afghanistan

This is just another example of the policy of avoiding troop casualties even if it means that there will be Afghan civilian casualties. The latter are not even counted. There will be no clips on Canadian national TV about the funeral of the 8 civilians nor on U.S. tv either.
The claim is made that every attempt is made to avoid civilian casualties but I wonder if therre were any attempts at all to determine whether there were civilians in the compound. I expect not. No doubt those who ordered the air attacks did not want to know. Events such as these make the Taliban recruiters happy.
Karzai has continually complained about these sorts of air strikes but to no avail. Now the U.S. would be happy to see him replaced by their chosen annointed Zalmay Khalilzad. This is from the CBC.

25 militants, 8 civilian hostages reported killed in Afghanistan
Last Updated: Monday, August 11, 2008 4:07 AM ET The Associated Press
The U.S.-led coalition says its troops have killed 25 militants and eight Afghan civilians held hostage by militants in southern Afghanistan.
A statement from the coalition said its forces were ambushed from a building along a road in Uruzgan province on Sunday.
The statement said the militants then moved into a compound where they held 11 noncombatants hostage, including several children and an infant.
The troops called in an airstrike on the compound without knowing the civilians were inside, the coalition statement said. Eight civilians were killed and three were wounded.
The coalition regularly accuses militants of using civilian homes they commandeer to attack foreign and Afghan troops.

Emerson: Burning poppy crops not the solution to Afghanistan's poppy crisis.

Burning poppy crops not the solution to Afghanistan's poppy crisis: Emerson

For once I must agree with Emerson. The U.S. likes to tear up or use herbicide to eradicate opium poppies claiming with some justification that sale of opium helps to finance the Taliban.
However, it also helps finance the Karzai government and the warlords that are part of the supposedly democratic government that we are supposed to be protecting.
Some even on the left have the idealistic view that we can help promote a good clean drug free Afghanistan. Right we can help the Yanks yank out all those horrible poppies. Well at least the Conservatives aren't idiotic enough to buy into that vision. This policy of course would be imposed upon the Afghans against their will. That seems not to matter somehow. It is all for their own good.
What such a policy will do will be to recruit more to the Taliban cause and probably even an understanding between the government and the insurgents that they will do everything possible to stop the process. By the way there is no poppy crisis in Afghanistan. The crisis is in the minds of foreigners. Opium poppies for Afghans are a huge cash cow. Destroying the poppy crops would bring a real crisis.
Note the not very subtle criticism of Karzai in this article and note that the U.S. is becoming impatient with him. The real problem with Karzai is that he is not a good enough puppet. He even complains of U.S. bombing that kills civilians. The U.S. is already grooming the next Afghan president Zalmay Khalilzad a faithful servant of the Bush administration.

By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Burning poppy crops in southern Afghanistan is not the way to stem the tide of opium and heroin coming out of the war-ravaged region, Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson said Sunday.

Speaking on CTV's "Question Period," Emerson said the solution might be to step up interdiction efforts at the processing and shipment levels as illegal drugs make their way out of the country.

"We all agree with the fundamental need to deal with this problem and I know Canada is prepared to step up and be part of a solution," Emerson said.

"Does it necessarily mean going out burning crops - or whatever the latest technique is - I'm not sure about that."

Canada is facing increasing pressure from the United States to support more determined poppy eradication efforts, specifically chemical spraying from the air.

Behind the scenes the Americans have urged Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the last two years to accept chemical spraying as a way to reverse the bumper crops of opium-producing poppies.

Taliban militants use profits from the illegal drug to buy weapons and explosives. A recent United Nations report estimated insurgents reap as much as $100 million in profits from trade in illegal narcotics and exports from Afghanistan account almost 90 per cent of the world's heroin.

Emerson says NATO is trying to win over the support of ordinary Afghans, including farmers, and burning the crops of people who aren't able to grow anything else won't make very many friends.

But a senior U.S. State Department official disagreed.

Thomas Schweich, the American co-ordinator for Afghan counternarcotics and justice reform who has been given an ambassador's title, says the notion that destitute farmers would be hurt by more strident eradication efforts is wrong.

"This myth of the poor farmer has been used as an excuse to avoid eradication," he said.

A few years ago the idea might have had some credibility, but the drug trade evolved, Schweich told CTV.

"If you look at the data, it is not the poor farmers in Afghanistan who are growing the poppy," he said.

"The poor farmers have taken advantage of the (alternative crop) programs we've offered and turned away from poppy. The poorest parts of Afghanistan do not cultivate poppy, but the rich parts of Kandahar, the Helmand Valley, a fertile part of Afghanistan; that's where all of the opium is being cultivated."

Karzai has argued that destroying large numbers of poppy fields would drive poor farmers to the arms of the Taliban.

Schweich said wealthy landowners and even corrupt government officials are taking advantage of the poppy trade.

His comments, which were also laid out in a recent New York Times opinion piece, reflect a growing impatience in the U.S. for the Afghan government to take a hard line on corruption.

At a recent international donors conference in Paris, Karzai pledged - at Canada's insistence - to tackle the problem.

But Schweich has his doubts, accusing Karzai of tacitly supporting the drug lords of southern Afghanistan for fear alienating his political power base.

Emerson dismissed the argument, saying Karzai is the elected president and the Canadian government supports him.

One of the people most often cited in U.S. and British claims of corruption is the president's half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who is head of the provincial council in Kandahar.

A U.S. report leaked to the media last year accused him of "facilitating" the smuggling of narcotics.

Schweich was careful Sunday not repeat the claim, saying Wali Karzai "has not been charged or indicted."

But he said Canadians, who've seen 88 soldiers die since the beginning of the Afghan mission, should be "hopping mad" about the corruption that's undermining the rebuilding of Afghanistan.

Copyright © 2008 Canadian Press

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Karzai pleads for billions in new aid, promises to fight corruption

One problem is that putting up with corruption may be the price Karzai has to pay for support from regional authorities. The U.S. and others are already grooming another president Zalmay Khalilzad to challenge Karzai and put someone in power who is even more pliable and representative of U.S. interests. Notice that Karzai talks about peace and prosperity by 2020. You can expect that there will be more of a drain on Canadian taxpayers after 2011. We are throwing more good money after bad and supporting our troops by making sure that we will remain and suffer more casualties. All for a good cause though the triumph of U.S. imperialism and good defence contracts for U.S. and Canadian companies.


Karzai pleads for billions in new aid, promises to fight corruption
Canada, U.S. already committing extra money to Afghanistan
Last Updated: Thursday, June 12, 2008 8:22 AM ET CBC News
Clean water, electricity and health services are not available in most Afghan villages. President Hamid Karzai is appealing for $50 billion US in new funding for development and security but concern is growing about corruption in his government. (Tomas Munita/Associated Press)
Afghanistan's president appealed for more than $50 billion in new aid for the country while attending an international donors conference Thursday in Paris, promising the money will be spent on reconstruction and not frittered away through corruption.
The appeal for new money was in a strategic development plan that Hamid Karzai presented to the conference, saying Afghanistan would achieve peace and stability by 2020 if it got the needed aid.
"Afghanistan needs large amounts of aid but precisely how aid is spent is just as important," Karzai said, referring to donors' worries about graft and thievery by government officials.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon also warned about the debilitating impact of corruption on reconstruction and development.
"Every act of corruption is a deliberate act by someone in a position of authority," he said in a speech at the Paris conference.
A recent report from an independent aid-monitoring group, Integrity Watch Afghanistan, said only 60 per cent of foreign help sent to Karzai's government since 2001 has reached the Afghan people.
Corruption was only partially to blame, the group found. International aid agency spending on bureaucracy and salaries soaked up a significant amount of money meant to create jobs, train police and build roads, said the group's report released Tuesday.
Karzai should fire corrupt officials: donors
CBC's David Common, covering the conference in Paris, said there are real concerns among donors about Afghan government corruption.
"Some donor governments have privately pleaded with Karzai to fire corrupt officials within his cabinet, including governors who run their provinces like personal fiefdoms."
There are also continuing concerns about the drug trade, with opium production at record levels in almost all the country's 29 provinces. Farmers say they're driven to grow poppies by poverty, and the failure to rebuild rural roads and infrastructure needed to produce other, legal crops.
Most Afghans still live in mud-brick homes, with fewer than 20 per cent having access to electricity, clean water or health services.
Poverty helps insurgency
Taliban insurgents use the country's continuing poverty and the seemingly slow pace of internationally assisted development to recruit fighters in desperately poor areas, observers say.
Canada has already announced a significant boost in its aid to Afghanistan over the next three years.
David Emmerson, acting foreign affairs minister representing Canada at the Paris conference, said the new Canadian money would include funding for a crucial hydro project in northern Kandahar province and a polio immunization drive for seven million children.
The United States has also added $10 billion US to its current commitment to Afghanistan, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who warned that without security, aid spending had little impact on poverty and disease in the Afghan countryside.
"It's a mistake to think of security and reconstruction as somehow different parts of the problem [of Afghanistan]," Rice said.With files from the Associated Press

Senate report: Canadian military should be open to talking with the Taliban

There is no mention of clearing talks with the Taliban with the Karzai government. There is the same type of arrogance in this report that one finds constantly in U.S. thinking. Note that we are not to be out of Afghanistan in 3 years. We will be there supporting our troops and sending home bodies for a much longer period. It is NATO that decides to deploy more troops there is not even a mention of the Karzai government or what it might want. Maybe Karzai will come to a deal with the Taliban first and kick us out before more troops are sent or we stay in Afghanistan indefinitely, all in the interests of creating a successful U.S. puppet state. The new president of Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad is already being groomed to replace Karzai.

Canadian military should be open to talking with Taliban: report
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:13 AM ET
CBC News
Canada will have to extend its military mission in Afghanistan past 2011, must deploy 4,000 more troops to Kandahar and should be open to talking to the Taliban, a Senate defence committee says.
"I don't think there's any chance of being out of there in three years," said Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, chair of the committee on national security and defence. "It's a longer project, and I think as people come to grips with that more and more, they'll come to realize that."
Kenny made the comments as his committee released its report on the mission Wednesday. Titled How Are We Doing in Afghanistan?, the report said while considerable progress has been made, more needs to be done to provide stability to the troubled region.
Among the recommendations, the report says Canadian soldiers and government officials operating in Kandahar should talk to members of the Taliban if they believe communication would encourage disarmament or improve the security of development projects.
The report questions whether the government policy of not talking to the Taliban is effective.
"Drawing lines in the sand is one of these child-rearing mechanisms that doesn't always work in the adult world of conflict resolution," the report states.
"Every effort needs to made to win over moderate Taliban supporters who are looking for evidence that there are better options than continued insurgency."
The report notes that Taliban leaders have rejected conciliatory gestures from the Afghan government, but "that doesn't mean there isn't any hope along these lines."
The report also says Ottawa should pressure its NATO allies to deploy 4,000 additional troops to Kandahar province. Kenny said the 1,000 extra troops called for in an earlier review of the mission headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley are insufficient.
"The Committee is perplexed that the Manley panel concluded that Canada only needs 1,000 additional troops to support our forces in Kandahar province," the report states. "We believe that Kandahar province needs at least 4,000 additional personnel to secure Kandahar province."
As well, the report urges the federal government to send 50 Mounties, 150 municipal and provincial police and up to 500 recently retired police officers from across Canada to Kandahar to train Afghan police.With files from the Canadian Press

A new puppet president planned for Afghanistan

If anyone ever thought the U.S. was really interested in an independent Afghanistan this article should disabuse him or her of that idea. It is already being arranged that a new puppet with better connections should be "democratically" chosen as the next president. Karzai has sometimes been a bad puppet criticizing the U.S. and yet being unable to influence Washington. As the article points out it is Washington not Afghanistan that is important and that is why Khalilzad would be the right man for the job.
We now know what we are fihting for in Afghanistan is to create a country seemingly sovereign but really controlled by the U.S. with a president who spent most of his life in the U.S. and was a servant of the Bush administration. Way to go Canadians. Bush will love us.



Bush's former Iraq ambassador to seek Afghan presidencyWith Hamid Karzai seen as ineffective, many people are looking to someone with serious influence in WashingtonBy Kim Sengupta in KabulSunday, 8 June 2008In his time, he has been President George Bush's point man in Baghdad, Kabul and the UN, as well as a lobbyist for both the Taliban and international oil companies. Now Zalmay Khalilzad is preparing to run for the presidency of his native Afghanistan.Representatives of Mr Khalilzad, currently US ambassador to the UN, have discreetly sounded out various factions to ascertain his chances in the election scheduled for 2009. Although the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, is expected to run again, he is increasingly unpopular at home while his Western backers see him as ineffectual against the Taliban.Three meetings have been held with opposition groups in recent months to promote Mr Khalilzad, pictured, as a "unifying" candidate in a country where deep divisions have begun to emerge between the Pashtun communities of the south and the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras of the north.Mr Khalilzad, a Pashtun, was born in Laghman province in the south-east of the country, but raised in Mazar-i-Sharif in the north. He is on good terms with some former leaders of the Northern Alliance who have split from the Karzai government.Speculation about the 56-year-old Mr Khalilzad's political ambitions sparked into life when he gave a TV interview, saying he was placing himself "at the service of the Afghan people". He was also said to be considering resigning from his post at the UN. The highest-ranking Muslim in the US administration, he was made the effective viceroy of Afghanistan after the 2001 invasion by President Bush before being moved on to Iraq to sort out the mess left by Paul Bremer.The candidacy of Mr Khalilzad, a Rhodes scholar who has spent most of his adult life in the US and has an American wife, may come as a surprise, but many Afghan commentators say he would enjoy a high degree of support."A lot of people in this country feel that things were getting done while he was in charge and have deteriorated since he left," said Waheed Muzhda, a leading political analyst. "He kept the warlords much more in check, the Taliban had not come back and corruption was nothing like as bad as it is now. His close connection with the US government is actually in his favour. Many see Karzai as a US puppet anyway, so the feeling is, why not have someone who has got some actual influence in Washington, and can do some good for Afghanistan?"Diplomatic sources agree that Mr Khalilzad seems to be using his UN post to pave the way for a run at the Afghan presidency. He was accused of undermining the prospect of Paddy Ashdown becoming the UN representative in Afghanistan because he didn't want a heavyweight international figure, controlling a huge budget, as a potential rival.

U.S. envoy may challenge for Afghan presidency

This is from the Telegraph. So let us see! What are we doing in Afghanistan. We are supporting Karzai a president chosen by the U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. However Khalilzad no doubt thinks that he should be in on the game and will start a private business in Afghanistan and perhaps also run for the presidency. If he wins a U.S. citizen will be running Afghanistan. That should please the Americans and surely is worth Canadians paying and dying for.

US envoy may challenge for Afghan presidency
By Thomas Coghlan
Last Updated: 1:41am BST 10/04/2008



The Afghan-born US Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, has signalled that he will run for the presidency of Afghanistan in elections next year.

Mr Khalilzad is a senior figure in the Bush administration who served as ambassador to Kabul before becoming ambassador to Iraq and then the UN.

He holds US citizenship, is married to an American and is a former professor at Columbia University.

advertisementHe has fuelled speculation of a run by announcing on Afghan television: "I will resign from my official work in the next few months and start a private business."

Asked if he would stand for the presidency, he replied: "I have said earlier that I'm not a candidate for any position in Afghanistan, but I am at the service of the Afghan people."

Sources close to Mr Khalilzad within the Afghan establishment insist that he is considering a run for the presidency and has been putting out feelers to political factions within the country.

"He is under pressure to stand from within Afghanistan," said one source. "His comments are genuine in that he will come to Afghanistan and work in the private sector, but he will reassess towards the end of this year whether he has a chance to take the presidency."

Mr Khalilzad is rumoured to have long had his eye on replacing President Karzai, the man he picked to become Afghanistan's first president in 2004.

Mr Khalilzad's supporters are alleged to have sounded out Pashtun tribal chiefs in the south as well as figures within the Northern Alliance, which now calls itself the National Unity Front.

The popularity of President Karzai has waned as disquiet at government corruption and the resurgence of the Taliban has been felt across the country.

Mr Karzai has become increasingly critical of the international community in an apparent attempt to bolster support at home, most notably by attacking Britain and blocking Lord Ashdown, the British diplomat, for the position of UN envoy in Kabul.

The Afghan president let slip his own intention to stand for re-election this week.

Following his return from the Nato conference in Bucharest on Sunday, Mr Karzai said: "I want to complete the work that I started - if they vote for me."