Language & Conflict: A Report from Afghanistan

     Many thanks to WIIIAI, for this link to a discussion of the language issue (Dari (vs Farsi) vs Pashto) in Afghanistan.  Student conflicts have resulted in 100s of injuries.  The Culture Minister is accused of being against all Iranian influence as foreign, and un-Afghan, but the same guy supports the use of English.  One person says that people re using the language issue to divide Afghans, as part of a plot.  If I have done that, I apologize.  My main interest is justice, specifically administrative/legal justice, a requirement for good governance, which requires that the judge, jury, lawyers, witnesses, police and prison guards can all communicate reasonably effectively with the accused.

New Strategy Required in Afghanistan

     If part of the strategy involves some people acting as bullet sponges, we need a new strategy.

Back to Blogging: Watching the NY Times Lay Down

     Been away from the computer for a while.  The author of FiveThirtyEight is pro-Obama, but his methodology is public.  His polling aggregation is fairly attractive, and the numbers about now look good (if you don't want John McCain to win, anyway, they look good).

     A french paper of non-high-repute published a communique between a Deputy French Ambassador and the French government, suggesting a dictator for Afghanistan is probably NATO's best bet.  The story included a comment that the U.S./NATO plan is doomed.  But a few other NY Times stories basically laid down for the administration.  There was a very long story on a holiday (Eid al-Fitr, end of Ramadan) party held by Iraqis.  Yah?  Really?  Give with the details, NY Times!  Um, I take it back!  A story on Afghanistan's poppy production was basically the repeat of the hopes and wishes of the Governor of Helmand.  The story re-affirms the hard-to-believe story that the poppy problem is a Taliban problem.  Helmand is not near the many parts of Afghanistan which are increasingly Taliban controlled.  In fact, this U.S. State Department map of poppy production from March, 2008 doesn't overlap well at all with this 2007 map of Taliban influence.  Sure, the Taliban has influence in Helmand, which is a Pushtun(Pashto-speaking) area, but they are much stronger in/near the Waziris, Peshawar and Jalalabad.  I suppose they could be farming in the South and sending the funds to the East, but they are strong in the East, not so much in the South.  Here is another, more recent, map of violence in Afghanistan, which furthers the point.

     The NY Times laid down again when discussing violence in Somalia.  The article starts by bemoaning the lack of health services in one of the most anarchic nation-sized places on Earth, firmly blaming the Somali Islamists who are battling the Ethiopian backed government.  But Somalia is actually divided into Somaliland, Puntland, Gulmudug and Ethiopian/Islamist embattled areas.  Most of the physical space of Somalia has no connection to the Ethiopian connected areas, much of which has been under very limited control of the Ethiopian backed government at any time (De Jure Government areas on the map).  Do I want Islamists to run Somalia?  No, I'd prefer they got their act together, educated their kids until their brains spin, and ran their own show.  Arguably, I'm for Greater Somalia (although I know neither Kenya nor Ethiopia is going to give up an acre of land without first shooting a lot of people, no matter what the people on that land might want).

     Somalian Islamists are throwing out _two_ (not all) aid groups from their areas.  This a week after four CARE offices were raided.  The NY Times doesn't even ponder that maybe the US Gov't was using these groups as cover for their operatives.  Keeping Americans ignorant is the job of a newspaper?  Bah.

Another article, which I swear did more covering for Wall St. in the print version, suggests that Germany might weather some sort of global depression (always possible, now more likely than some other times) best.

Persephone (UPDATE 1)

UPDATE: Colored Ilam province (in Luri and Bakhtiari) in red, see comments
     A map of the Persephone world.  Dari, I know, is Persian, while Tajik, I think, is very close.  It looks like the colors are very good choices.


Image from Wikipedia, I found it looking up the Pashto Language.

Bush Calls for Halt to All Violence

Apparently "all" does not include Iraq or Afghanistan.  Sorry, distant cousins!

Bush was only talking about Georgia, while Saakashvili has requested in the last hour that Georgia's Parliament declare war on Russia.  It's a war they can't win.  I hear most S. Ossetians like the Russians, more, so it would be like forcing themselves on an unwilling population.  Hmm, maybe that's why George Walker is behind them?  No, seriously, if America had spare military capacity, and it turns out Georgia's claims about how the violence started (very important to me) are true, we could do a little dance.  Now we can do next to nothing.  Realist speaking, Russia still has the 2nd most nukes in the world.  Economy and trade speaking, Russia has industrial workers and a large industrial base, and tons of natural resources.  McCain, though, wants to boot them from the G-8.

Will anyone ever clear up who actually started this incident?

Deteriorating Security Situation in Afghanistan: The Cable News Response (UPDATE 1)

UPDATE 1: MSNBC now running oil (Pres. Race, Congress + Drilling) story.

The Brave Leaders who run CNN, MSNBC and Fox News are shoring up the walls of American ignorance by keeping news of Afghanistan out of our dear little heads.  How can we thank them enough?

But in the last hour, two of three networks discussed the oil industry, massive profits of the oil companies this quarter(CNN), the high price of gasoline (CNN+Fox), the drilling and spilling question (Fox).  MSNBC, which often is sometimes more newsy than its competitors, was pure fluff during the monitored period.

But, if there is any truth to the allegations that Iraq was about oil one could guess that Fox and CNN are subtly reminding us of our Asian adventures.

How Are Things in Afghanistan?

Apparently, we can ask al-Qaeda.  Their military chief in Afghanistan, who was really bummed in March, is far more optimistic this July.  Lots of new fighters, the India Embassy bombing, and the temerity to invite a Pakistani television news crew to his undisclosed location for an interview.

Their concerns include plans by America to put a military base in every Muslim country, Israel, and Muslims who work with apostate regimes.  Americans will not be distinguished from the American government, he says, because they were foolish enough to vote for Bush a second time. 

A fine Blog, Ghosts of Alexander

In the last week I've been looking at lots of military-minded, Iraq and Afghanistan-a-lot blogs.  My highest consideration so far is for Ghosts of Alexander.  The linked post is about censorship in Afghanistan.  Fine stuff.