MARINE VEHICLE BLOWN UP BY TALIBAN LAND MINE (RAW VIDEO)

This CBS News video shows what happened when a Marine vehicle is blown up by a Taliban land mine in Afghanistan.

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WHY AFGHANISTAN IS A LOST CAUSE

Why Afghanistan is a lost cause

Joel Brinkley, Tribune Media Services Inc.
Sunday, July 11, 2010

http://tiny.cc/71ltx

As Gen. David Petraeus assumed his new command in Afghanistan earlier this month, he took up a strategy that has already failed - though not for the reasons most people assume.

Certainly, as most everyone knows, the battle plan appears hopeless. Every night in Marjah, Taliban killers post "night letters" in mosques and other public places, warning city residents they will be killed if they cooperate with the Americans. The next day, quite often, they follow through on their threats.

American and NATO troops "liberated" Marjah in February, hoping it would become a showplace, and now occupation forces number one for every eight city residents. Still, more people are dying in gunbattles on the city's streets right now than during the operation in February. Local officials are afraid to travel by car to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. They take a helicopter instead, even when the drive would take only 20 minutes.

Before he was fired last month, Gen. Stanley McChrystal called Marjah a "bleeding ulcer." All of that is part of a noxious stew of problems on the battlefield. Still, in 2005 and 2006, the war in Iraq looked equally hopeless. Since then, however, the situation there has improved significantly.

But a larger problem afflicts the effort in Afghanistan, one that coalition forces are virtually powerless to address. That is the population's blighted state of affairs. Consider a few statistics that limn the people's lives.

At least 26 of every 100 children born in Afghanistan die before they reach the age of 5. UNICEF says that's the worst child-mortality rate in the world. Of those who survive, almost 60 percent suffer from moderate to severe stunting - also the world's highest rate. Stunting results from sickness or malnutrition during infancy, and it's irreversible. The children grow up to be small and not very smart.

It makes sense, then, that fewer than one-third of Afghan adults can read and write. On average, they earn about $250 a year and die before they reach age 45 - also among the lowest figures in the world. Finally, they are served by a government that is practically the most corrupt on the planet. Transparency International rates only one country, Somalia, as worse.

The cornerstone of the coalition's counterinsurgency strategy calls for the Afghan government to step up and provide stronger government institutions and public services. Afghans must begin to regard President Hamid Karzai's administration as an efficient, helpful alternative to the Taliban. The government must also provide security nationwide once the Americans leave.

But consider what the dark social statistics mean for that plan. An estimated 90 percent of the new recruits for the Afghan army are illiterate. You don't have to read to shoot a rifle, but you do need to be able to read the rifle's instruction manual.

The Afghan police are no better educated, but that's not the most serious problem. Across the country, police set up impromptu checkpoints along the road. They stop cars and demand a payment for permission to pass. These are the lawmen who are going to protect the people after the Americans leave? As it is, most won't investigate a crime unless the victim pays a bribe.

What is the Afghan government doing to remedy these pernicious problems? It is sending suitcases full of cash, at least $1 billion a year in bribe proceeds and purloined foreign aid, out of the country to private accounts in Dubai or other banking capitals. That's not a secret; the shipments are declared as they pass through Kabul's airport. The money has been laundered through hawalas, private money-transfer businesses, and the government gives this practice its blessing.
"Taking money out of the country is fine," Karzai said during a news conference last month. "The relatives of government officials can do this," even "my brothers," who are generally regarded as the nation's most avaricious thieves.

More money leaves the country for private bank accounts each year than the government collects in taxes and fees, the Wall Street Journal reported. When pressed, Karzai did allow that "there's a possibility of corruption." The United States is well aware of the problem. Congress is demanding investigations; the military is chartering audits and inquiries.

But that leaves the United States in an impossible position. To win the war in Afghanistan, the United States must turn a nation that stands as a model of bald-faced thievery into a clean, honest institution that cares for its people, now the most neglected in the world.

It can't be done.

Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the New York Times.

BREAKING NEWS: IRAQ IN STATE OF CHAOS: CIVILIANS GROW RESTLESS OVER LACK OF GOVERNMENT

Iraqis restless over late govt. formation – analysts

http://tiny.cc/8z8yc

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Analysts believe that the late formation of a government three months after the parliamentary elections brought Iraqis to feel restless and nervous and opened the door for political conflicts.

“The Iraqis are now exasperated with all political parties and blocs for their failure to reach an agreement over a government lineup,” political analyst Rebin Rassoul told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

“The Iraqi citizens’ anger just took the form of demonstrations and sit-in strikes, let alone their collapse in this sweltering heat due to the lack of necessary services,” he added.

Rassoul pointed out that if the political blocs remain incapable o solving these problems the citizens would augment their forms of protests, which would add to a deteriorating security condition harming the country’s social harmony.

The political scene in Iraq is now witnessing an intensive dynamics a few days after convening the new 325-seat parliament’s first session on June 14. The session was confined to ceremonial oath-taking procedures due to the blocs’ failure to reach consensus over naming their candidates for the three top posts in the state: a president, a prim minister and speaker of parliament.

The disputes come amidst heated competition between the two largest blocs to for a government as the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), which won 159 seats, seeks winning the prime minister post while al-Iraqiya bloc of former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi (91 seats) insists on retaining its constitutional right to form a government as it had been the bloc that won the largest number of seats in the March 7 legislative elections.

KICK-ASS VIDEO: U.S. FIGHT BACK AFTER AMBUSH BY THE TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN

This video shows U.S. troops fighting back after they were ambushed by the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan.

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THE DEADLY WORK OF WAR IN KANDAHAR AFGHANISTAN: GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES!!! NBC'S RICHARD ENGEL REPORTS

NBC's chief war correspondent in Afghanistan, Richard Engel, reports in this video on the deadly war that is being waged between U.S. forces and the Taliban in Kandahar, Afghanistan, also known as the "Graveyard of Empires."

In this video, Engel reports on the number of Americans killed in the initial phase of the offensive against the Taliban in Kandahar.

It is expected U.S. casualties are going to rise as the full Kandahar offensive is launched later this summer, according to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

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VIDEO OF MEDEVAC TEAM RUSHING TO SAVE LIVES IN "VALLEY OF DEATH"--KANDAHAR AFGHANISTAN

Video shows a Medevac rushing to save the lives of American and foreign wounded from the "Valley of Death"---Kandahar Afghanistan.

Missions like this go on all day everyday in Afghanistan.

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BUSIEST HOSPITAL IN WORLD--BALAD HOSPITAL IRAQ (LIVE VIDEO)

Balad Hospital in Iraq is now the busiest hospital in the world.

More trauma cases are treated at Balad Hospital than any other hospital across the globe.

In this vide, you see medical teams from Balad Hospital preparing for the next wave of wounded coming in from the battlefield.

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