Current News Blog

Don’t say the magazine industry is dead yet – there’s still some space left for expansion – like into the world of international terrorism.

Neal Ungerleider at True/Slant found this gem of jihadi literature online. It’s a dense 73 pages and is titled “The Echo of Battle”. (Maybe the magazine industry just needs to work on its titling?) Interestingly, it seems to feature a lot of discussions of movement philosophy as well as some very charming stock imagery:

Get your own copy over here.

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On Current News, user WakeUpPeople points to this story: Report: Taliban trying to turn US troops into heroin addicts.

Originally posted over on the The Daily Beast by Gerald Posner, the story cites an intelligence official that says despite taboos against the military discussing it, addicting American troops to heroin is a goal of the Taliban.

Today’s Taliban-fighting Americans were yesterday’s mujahideen-fighting Soviets. They saw how heroin helped disable a foreign fighting force more than 20 years ago. And that lesson isn’t lost on them. With the Afghan opium crop at record levels—generating more than 90 percent of the global supply—and the Taliban and al Qaeda increasingly relying on the drug trade to finance their war, targeting U.S. soldiers also has the potential to seed new markets.

Though the extent of the problem is unknown (and really the Daily Beast does not offer hard evidence that heroin addiction or even experimentation is widespread among soldiers deployed to Afghanistan) six anonymous soldiers painted a grim picture:

The Daily Beast spoke to six soldiers, four of whom had served in Iraq, and two from Afghanistan. All had developed opiate addictions and had sought treatment from the Veterans Hospitals in their home cities. None wanted to go on the record, because they were either in the Reserves, afraid their comments might be interpreted as criticism of the Army, or might reflect badly on their friends who were still serving honorably in the combat zones.

These six unanimously confirmed that heroin “was everywhere,” especially in Afghanistan. Each of them also talked about local suppliers who had established pipelines into American troop installations in many parts of the countries. One, who had been based at the Bagram airfield, said that heroin was “sold at a lot of the shops in the bazaar” located just outside the air base’s perimeter. They confirmed that some soldiers have bartered away military equipment, including knives, helmets, and flak jackets, for drugs. “Why do you think you can buy surplus Army equipment inside the bazaar,” one solider asked me.

Does this seem likely? Do you think bored US troops would start using heroin in Afghanistan? If so, how can we combat this problem? Leave your comment over on Current News.

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Or so said some American and Afghani officials today. Afghanistan’s current president Hamid Karzai just won an election that’s been decried as fraudulent. But the rules allow for a runoff election between the top two candidates if the results are not conclusive.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Either outcome carries perils. An outright Karzai victory could enrage Dr. Abdullah’s supporters, trigger protests and further undermine the legitimacy of Mr. Karzai’s government in the eyes of the Afghan public.

But authorities also could have a tough battle proving that results of a runoff are legitimate. The harsh winter months are imminent, and could make it hard for voting to proceed. Election officials will have to find ways to mitigate fraud in the second round, a major challenge in a country where security conditions are too poor in many areas for monitors to observe the polling.

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UN envoy Peter Galbraith was recently fired from his post in Afghanistan. He says it was because he was too vocal about widespread fraud in the recent Afghan elections.

Vierotchka on Current News posted this interview with Galbraith today where he talks with Katie Couric about the fraud that took place:

Afghan Election Fraud – Current News

The new illegitimacy of Karzai’s government has been one of the key factors in the Washington debates over what to do with Afghanistan. It’ll be that much harder to win the peace if no one in the country respects its leader.

So what’s to be done with Karzai? Will there be a runoff election in which perhaps Abdullah Abdullah would beat out Karzai? What if there’s not?

Recently from the Afghanistan War group:
- Taliban strength in Afghanistan nears military proportion
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- Fighting IEDs with advertising: Mad Men in Afghanistan?

With IED deaths rising in Afghanistan, what new, futuristic counter-insurgency strategies will the military unleash? How about anti-IED ads? From Wired’s Danger Room blog:

The U.S. Army is looking to battle the improvised explosive device (IED) threat with new armored vehicles, increased surveillance in the sky, and… advertising. Mad Men versus militias, if you will.

Late last month, the Information Operations division of the Army’s Combined Joint Task Force 82 sent out a call for proposals for a “comprehensive strategic marketing and information campaign” for eastern Afghanistan. “The over arching objective of this media and advertising campaign is to influence the Afghanistan people at all levels (strategic, operational and tactical) [that] will directly translate in the reduction of the number of IED devices used against the Afghanistan people and Coalitional [sic] forces.”

The upcoming season of Vanguard features an episode by Kaj Larsen called “Remote Control War” with some of the new technologies making their way to battlefield.

A few other things for you to click on:
- Fully Automatic America – Kaj reports on just how much America loves its guns
- Future of War – A Current.com group to keep you updated on technological advancements in warfare
- The Vanguard Blog – Read regular updates and commentary from your friendly neighborhood Vanguard team
- Afghanistan Wednesday – Today’s update on the 8th anniversary of the start of the war

Obama met with Congressional leaders yesterday and ruled out a sharp reduction in troop levels in Afghanistan. He was also hesitant about a large increase in troop levels. From the NY Times:

Mr. Obama seemed to be searching for some sort of middle ground, saying he wanted to “dispense with the straw man argument that this is about either doubling down or leaving Afghanistan,” as White House officials later described his remarks.

Meanwhile, the Taliban released a statement on their website asserting that they do not want to fight Western countries, but will continue to oppose foreign troops in Afghanistan. From Reuters:

“We had and have no plan of harming countries of the world, including those in Europe … our goal is the independence of the country and the building of an Islamic state,” the Taliban said in a statement on the group’s website www.shahamat.org.

“Still, if you (NATO and U.S. troops) want to colonize the country of proud and pious Afghans under the baseless pretext of a war on terror, then you should know that our patience will only increase and that we are ready for a long war.”

This will be a challenging few weeks for the Obama Administration as they puzzle out what their next steps will be on Afghanistan. Looking to the public, a new poll suggests they have suport for the war, but not necessarily for a large increase in troop levels. From AFP:

Sixty-five percent of US voters “are willing to have American soldiers ‘fight and possibly die’ to eliminate the threat of terrorists operating from Afghanistan,” according to the Quinnipiac University poll. Only 28 percent said otherwise.

Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the Afghanistan War. US soldiers have been there for 8 years now, and there doesn’t seem yet to be a clear exit. What do you think the next steps in Afghanistan are? Anyone out there in the military who’s back from Afghanistan? Maybe you can shed a little light on the situation on the ground for us?

Leave your comment on Current News.

Also on the Afghanistan War:
- Keep updated on the War by joining the Afghanistan War group on Current News.
- Afghanistan’s Presidential Election (Video)