The new Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, is the executive in charge of the largest government entity in the world if you combine budget, personnel, equipment, and the 1,000 United States military installations around the globe. The organization is so large; it is hard to imagine the challenge of knowing what one needs to [...]
US commander in Afghanistan retires to spend time with family following Pentagon investigation related to Petraeus scandal.
The Guardian, By Chris McGreal, February 19
Washington – General John Allen, the US commander in Afghanistan, has chosen to retire just weeks before he was expected to be appointed the next military chief of Nato.
By Anas Zarza Al-Akahbar-English Posted by Michael Collins Remember all those articles over the last few months – Syria to fall soon; what will post-Assad Syria look like? Soon, we were lead to believe, the demands of Former Secretary of State (and neo-colonialism) Hillary Clinton would come true. When didn’t she say – “Assad must [...]
The survival of the Syrian government represents a major failure of the empire project to recolonize and dominate energy rich Middle Eastern and North African states.
In an abrupt change from months of anticipatory triumphalism, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius admitted that Syrian President Bashar Assad will not be leaving power [...]
There’s a real thought-provoker buried in The French Mess In Mali and Libya by Prof. Rajan Menon today – the entire piece about the chances France may find itself in a quagmire in Mali is worth a read but this caught my eye:
France could find itself in just the pickle it wants to [...]
Remnants of European imperialism are on display this year in Africa, as France (and eventually NATO) draws itself deeper into the morass of Mali:
SEGOU, Mali — Malian and French forces were reported in control of two important central Malian towns on Tuesday after the French Defense Ministry said they recaptured them on Monday, [...]
Geneva Conventions? Pah, they’re for little countries.
Nato forces stormed into a clinic in central Afghanistan, damaging doors, windows and medical equipment, before using it as a jail and military command centre, in violation of the Geneva conventions, according to the aid group that runs the facility.
Stuttgart, Germany — NATO Allied Land Command, the alliance’s new headquarters in charge of land force planning, officially activated Friday at its new home in Izmir, Turkey.
“Turkey has been essential to the effectiveness and viability of NATO since it joined the Alliance because of its geography [...]
Amid news that the US and other NATO partners are looking favorably on Turkey’s request to be sent US-made patriot missiles, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wants us to believe the following:
Such a deployment would augment Turkey’s air defence capabilities to defend the population and territory of Turkey. It would contribute to the de-escalation [...]
From Joris Fioriti, AFP: France ended its combat mission in Afghanistan on Tuesday, withdrawing troops from a strategic province northeast of Kabul as part of a speeded-up departure from the war-torn country.
Paris has said all French combat soldiers will leave the country next month, two years before allied nations contributing to the [...]
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Turkey is expected to formally request on Monday that NATO Patriot missiles be placed on its border to defend against Syrian attacks, Western officials said.
Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad have been able to take large swathes of land but are almost defenseless against Syria’s air force. [...]
Turkey is upping its pressure on its Western allies by calling for “direct humanitarian intervention”, with Western forces protecting that humanitarian mission, inside Syria. The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, told the Guardian in an exclusive interview:
“We want the international community to find a solution to resolve this issue inside Syria. All means can [...]
Some wars start because people decide they should be started; prepare a case for war, however tenuous, then propagandize and launch it. Others begin by a process of incremental steps – each new provocation from each side only has to be over-reacted to a little bit and eventually you’re in a position where war [...]
Interesting news out of Reuters this morning: Russia’s acting ambassador to NATO, Nikolay Korchunov, has said that NATO must obtain a UN mandate for it’s post-2014 training mission in Afghanistan otherwise Russia will begin to withhold co-operation with the Alliance. “It is a pre-condition both for carrying on the operation and for our cooperation [...]
A Danish Air Force Tactical Command (FTK) report criticises NATO for its inability to direct bombing raids in Libya last year.
According to the confidential report, which Politiken has obtained as part of the Freedom of Information Act, the Air Force operated without trustworthy intelligence on where and how bombing raids should [...]
Recent Comments