Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar writes in Asia Times on line about the convergence of interests of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the international conference on terrorism held in Tehran over the weekend by the presidents of these countries:
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TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Re: Gulf Matters

Delft That Article was from the Blog of the Telegraph and Very very Slanted it makes it sound like Nato forces in Afghanistan are on the run.
 

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar comments in Asia Times on line on the ramifications of the Kabul Bank scandal:
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Some $800m has been got away with by friends of President Karzai and the US embassy is trying to use this against him.
But their plans, a continued large scale military presence in especially northern Afghanistan and Central Asia to be directed against China, Russia and Iran, would be unacceptable to may Afghans and to Pakistan as a southern Afghanistan left to the Pashtuns of the Taliban would threaten the existence of Pakistan. The ambassador doesn't think the US game will be successful.
 

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

Delft That Article was from the Blog of the Telegraph and Very very Slanted it makes it sound like Nato forces in Afghanistan are on the run.
I do read The Daily Telegraph but not very intensively. I found this in Asia Times which collects its articles from all over the world.
I would think an Indian former ambassador to be neither pro-Pakistan nor pro-Karzai nor pro-China nor pro-Iran. India has its own interests in Afghanistan of course but he seems to be an acute observer. That he doesn't buy NATO propaganda is no failing.
 

Red Moon

Junior Member
Re: Gulf Matters

I do read The Daily Telegraph but not very intensively. I found this in Asia Times which collects its articles from all over the world.
I would think an Indian former ambassador to be neither pro-Pakistan nor pro-Karzai nor pro-China nor pro-Iran. India has its own interests in Afghanistan of course but he seems to be an acute observer. That he doesn't buy NATO propaganda is no failing.
TerraN_EmpirE is not talking about any Bhadrakumar article, but
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one.

The joke is that the US govt is promising to withdraw only 10% of its forces over the course of one year, and after 2 years, if promises are kept, there will still be twice the number of US troops in Afghanistan as when Obama became president.
 

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

Thank you Red Moon. I had forgotten that one. But the trend of all non-propaganda articles is that the US military, however militarily impressive, represent a lesser political force than US policy makers can imagine. See the articles by the Telegraph political commentator, the Indian former ambassador and the US professor Andrew J Bacevich as examples.
 

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

The US military don't think that the Iraqi government will be able to defend US interests in the country even with some 17000 mercenaries in the pay of the State Department and thousands of CIA operatives to help it. Understandable as the government is dependent on Muqtada el Sadr and his party. Therefore they try to leave as many military as possible "to train the Iraqi army".
Here is an article in Christian Science Monitor:
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In this article is even this remark: "Another factor for Mr. Maliki, however, is his desire to maintain good relations with the US and to keep his access open to American arms". Surely Iran, China and many other countries are able to provide Mr. Maliki with whatever weapons he needs.
 

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

An article in The Washington Post:
US and European allies accuse Iran of violating ban on using ballistic missile technology:
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The last paragraph:
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the violation occurred when Iran launched the Rasad 1 satellite in June,, “which is dependent on ballistic missile technology.”

This concerns the use of a liquid fueled rocket with little or no military usefulness!
 

delft

Brigadier
Re: Gulf Matters

This comment in NYT points to the failure to rebuild Afghanistan:
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The countries that do most to help Afghanistan to become a functioning state are China with, among others, a very large mining project and Iran building its railway to Herat and providing more trading activity.
 
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