Archives: 2007 December

The legacy of President George W. Bush is not on George W. Bush’s mind - so he says.

One clue that the President is not being quite forthright with that statement is the fact that one of the first things on his agenda for 2008 is a trip to the Mid East to take the initiative in helping to push along a peace deal. That trip seems to be a sign that the legacy question is in the back of his mind.

Bush has not taken much interest in an Israeli - Palestinian peace accord over the last seven years of his reign. Contributing to a peace plan now would give him an accomplishment to be proud of during his last year in office and enhance his legacy.

Bush’s accomplishments on the domestic front during his Presidency have been mighty thin, especially considering the Republican majority in congress that he has enjoyed most of the time. The only bill that has been passed that is of much substance is the No Child Left Behind Act , which is now under attack and will have to be revisited in 2008. Bush can not expect much help in building a positive legacy from the domestic front.

That leaves the heavy lifting to Bush’s foreign policy, highlighted by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unless a miracle occurs with the wars progress in 2008 Bush is likely to receive extremely low marks by historians for the outcome of those wars on his watch.

While Bush can point to a reduction of violence in Iraq in the aftermath of his “surge policy” as a step in the right direction the political reconciliation process that was the reason given for the surge in the first place has thus far failed to materialize. The sad situation in Afghanistan has continued to deteriorate during 2007. 2008 will begin with America and America’s allies against the Taliban very much on the defensive.

The Taleban ( also spelled Taliban ), which means “the seekers”,  in Afghanistan have their origin and home base in Pakistan. Here is a brief history of the Taleban according to the Federation of American Scientists website.

============= begin article ==============

The Taleban (”the Seekers”) was formed in September of 1994 in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar by a group of graduates of Pakistani Islamic colleges (madrassas) on the border with Afghanistan, run by the fundamentalist Jamiat-e-Ulema. The members of the Taleban Islamic Movement of Afghanistan (TIMA) were mostly Pashtuns from Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan and were led by a mullah (a village-level religious leader), Mohammad Omar. The Taleban advocated an ‘Islamic Revolution’ in Afghanistan, proclaiming that the unity of Afghanistan should be re-established in the framework of Sharia (Islamic law) and without the mujahideen.

Their fighting ranks were mostly filled with former veterans of the war against Soviet forces. On 11 September 1996 the Taleban captured Jalalabad, the eastern city bordering Pakistan and on 27 September 1996 they captured Kabul, ousting the government. They took former President Najibullah and his brother from a UN compound where they had taken refuge since the fall of his Soviet-backed government in April 1992, beat them severely and then hanged them from lamposts in the city center. At the beginning of June 1997, the Taleban effectively controlled two-thirds of the country. At the end of 2001, they were toppled in Operation Enduring Freedom.

=============== end article =================

The problem for the Western powers of course, is that the coalition forces, lead by the USA, didn’t finish the job back in 2001. President Bush, for whatever misguided reason, pulled most of the American forces out of Afghanistan and sent them to invade and occupy Iraq.

Violence escalates in Pakistan ahead of next months elections.

At least 38 people have been killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in north-western Pakistan near the city of Peshawar, as about 1,000 people offered prayers for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. The toll is expected to increase as police locate other victims bodies at the scene.

Pakistan seems to be on the path to more chaos as the Taliban tighten their grip in the North West Frontier Province. A surge of violence has taken place in north-western Pakistan since troops ousted armed militants from the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.

Fighting in the restive Swat region in North West Frontier Province is the first serious insurgent threat in an area of Pakistan that until recently was thought to be secure. Pakistani troops have driven the militants from a series of small towns and villages where they had tried to implement strict Islamic law but seem to be unable to contain the treat to the region.

With general elections set for January, 2008 the next few weeks in Pakistan will probably be especially dangerous and volatile. Pakistan’s two top opposition leaders, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, have decided to take united action against the government of President Pervez Musharraf to pressure it to ensure free and fair elections.

Bhutto and Sharif reportedly are trying to decide if they will lead a boycott of the elections, thereby further weakening President Musharraf. The coming weeks will be important to the future of Pakistan and likely stressful to the Pakistani - United States relationship.

With American policy in Iraq and Afghanistan in a state of confusion and turmoil the US will be hard pressed to deal with the Taliban and fundamentalist Islamic groups extending their influence in Pakistan.

The Turkish air raids against PPK fighters in Northern Iraq were approved by the US according to Turkey’s top general, Yasar Buyukanit.

Turkish air force jets targeted the Kurdish rebel PKK in areas near but inside the Iraq border. The Turkish media said up to 50 planes were used. The Turks have build up their troop strength along the Turkey - Iraq border for some time. Whether a Turkish troop invasion will take place as a follow up to the air strikes remains to be seen.

General Buyukanit said the US “gave intelligence” that aided the operation. “But what is more important is that the United States last night opened northern Iraqi airspace to us. By doing that, the United States approved the operation,” he said.

The air attack by Turkey places the United States in an awkward position to say the least. The US is supposed to be supporting the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government has summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad and demanded an immediate halt to the strikes. Yet the US by opening up the airspace according to the Turks gave its approval to the attacks.

It looks to me that the friction between the US and the Iraqi government that we are supposed to be supporting is only increasing with time. Turkish military forces operating in Iraq will only add to the complications already existing in the war torn country.

How will the Kurds with their independent militia and the Iraq government respond if the air attacks are followed up by a Turkish troop ground assault is an open question? As bad as things are in Iraq they may be about to become far more complicated.

Now you can take a virtual trip inside a few of George Bush’s secret black torture sites.

Salon Online Magazine has made this possible by posted a disturbing account today about a poor innocent guy being held inside one of George Bush’s secret black torture CIA directed sites for 19 months without any charges ever being filed. While held under American custody he was clearly tortured and treated badly. He was made to simply disappear. Hummmmm. That doesn’t sound very American to me. 

Of course, George Bush looks the cameras right in the lens and proclaims to all that the United States “does not torture.” What the sad little sick man means by that I suppose is that the US doesn’t torture prisoners on our own soil. Why that would be UN American. However, if the prisoners are held in cozy places like Guantanamo Bay or at an American facility in Afghanistan, and subjected to “aggressive interrogation techniques”, hey no problem, we don’t torture.

In Salon, an account of an unfortunate Indonesian businessman named Bashmilah is told. Bashmilah was picked up and turned over to the CIA while he was visiting Jordan.  As far as I know this is the first detailed public account of life inside a black prison site.

Bashmilah’s story appears to show in clear terms that he was an innocent man. After 19 months of imprisonment and torment at the hands of the CIA, the agency released him with no explanation, just as he had been imprisoned in the first place. He faced no terrorism charges. He was given no lawyer. He saw no judge. He was simply released, his life shattered.