Entries Tagged as 'Afghanistan'

War Without Frontiers

Pakistani security officials said on Monday that troops had fired on U.S. military helicopters and forced them to turn back to Afghanistan, but both the Pakistani and American militaries denied the incident … The New York Times reported last week that President George W. Bush has given clearance for U.S. raids across the border. The raid on Angor Adda on September 3 was the first overt ground incursion by American troops into Pakistan since the deployment of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in late 2001. At least 20 people, including women and children, were killed in that South Waziristan raid, sparking outrage in Pakistan and prompting a diplomatic protest. Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani said in a strongly worded statement last week that Pakistan would not allow foreign troops on its soil and Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be defended at all costs.

Tags: Afghanistan, Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan, US military, war, Waziristan by mike
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No Oil For War!

For all the talk of America’s growing reliance on computers, advanced sensors, and stealth technology to prevail in warfare, it has been oil above all that gave the US military its capacity to “project power” onto distant battlefields like Iraq and Afghanistan. Every Humvee, tank, helicopter, and jet fighter requires its daily ration of petroleum, without which America’s technology-driven military would be forced to abandon the battlefield. No surprise, then, that the US Department of Defense is the world’s single-biggest consumer of petroleum … The average GI in Iraq now uses about seven times as much oil per day as GIs did in the first Gulf War less than two decades ago. And every sign indicates that the same ratio of increase will apply to coming conflicts; that the daily cost of fighting will skyrocket; and that the Pentagon’s capacity to shoulder multiple foreign military burdens will unravel. Thus are superpowers undone.

Tags: Afghanistan, geopolitics, Gulf War, Iraq, oil, Pentagon, United States, US by mike
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