MAY 8/03: Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused. If you find something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War".
Welcome! Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Guest Blogger Robi Sen. What do you think? Use the Comments section and tell us!
TO IRAQ...
On the Battlefield...
Germany is scrambling to respond to an unexpected invitation to send Bundeswehr peacekeepers to Iraq under Polish command. 64 years later, revenge at last. I bet the Poles think this is pretty damn hilarious. I sure do. (UPDATE: See reader comments for more background... there's more to this)
US troops still continue to face challenges in Iraq but as they transition from a combat force to a policing force they're getting some help from a group of L.A. cops .
JK: Rodney King jokes aside, this story from the fall of Baghdad explains why that's probably a good idea.
JK: Roger Roy of the Orlando Sentinel writes of his time as an embedded reporter with the US Marines. He says he understands Marines better now, and he has some fine stories to tell. One more crack in the undeclared war.
Inside Iraq
It looks more and more like that the truck that was found weeks ago was a mobile weapons lab. While the Pentagon and the administration have been notable cautious in discussion of the truck its worth notifying that if the truck is a mobile weapons lab it would be in violation of UN Resolution 687.
Ghazi Hamud al-Adib was taken in to custody Wednesday May 7th. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash (aka Ms. Anthrax) was also captured and one can assume that Huda will be able to provide more information on Iraq's WMD program.
A list of all the "cards" we have captured so far: The CENTCOM list, and the visual version of "Ba'ath Poker."
Continued claims of Saddam being alive surface, although the evidence still seems shaky.
Iraq rebuilding moves forward at a rapid pace. The President of the International Red Cross says "There is not a dramatic or serious humanitarian crisis in Iraq".
The more journalists dig in Iraq, the more evidence comes to light of France not only aiding Saddam but the whole Ba'ath party, causing US intelligence to look to Europe for top officials from Saddam government.
Collation forces are continuing to recover Artifacts from the National Museum in Baghdad.
JK: Some thoughts on reconstruction: The Republic of Iraq. And the debt forgiveness situation.
JK: Could titled property be an important key to reconstruction?
The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, British and Australian. Anyone out there with more information, incl. the Poles and Czechs? [updated April 1, 2003]
AND BEYOND...
The war on terrorism in Afghanistan continues as collation troops capture associates of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
While people worry about North Korea and its nuclear threats, nuclear powers India and Pakistan still are unable to come to a agreement on Kashmir. Yet the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough exists. India, though, deploys Agni I & II missiles and the violence continues in Kashmir. Even more disturbing are some claims of Pakistani Nuclear weapons being available to Al-Qaeda.
Following up on Dan's Winds Of War and the April 30th suicide bombers, Jane's reports that the recent Tel Aviv bombing trail leads to Damascus. Distrubingly, MI-5 was monitoring these terrorists.
JK: An interesting approach to treating anthrax. Note the similarities to phage therapy, something we've covered here before.
The US and UK have been criticized by many for not been actively involved in Africa where some of the worst human rights abuses and large scale suffering are tacking place. The US and the UK have moved to sideline Zimbabwe's Mugabe a la Arafat while African leaders fail to persuade him to step down.
The Telegraph follows up on Galloway, while Galloway's party decides to suspend him.
We try to close on a lighter note if possible. One can only hope that in the future this is the worst threat Police Officers in Israel will have to face. Donald Sensing has some relevant links and recordings from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.If you're interested in applying to Captain our Winds of War feature and having your day at the helm, here's what we're looking for.
one of the stories I forgot to mention was *this * which if you think about it is pretty damn hilarious.
Good take on the india/pakistan situation which is something that should be talked about way more.
I will tell you what I find to be the most disturbing thing of all, (though all and all I am heartened by much of what I am seeing ... there does seem to be movement and progress in lands and places where, heretofore, there had not been) ...
... but France's culpability is, by far, the worst and most sickening to discover.
Treasonous ... an act of war against one's own professed and proven ally ... Does anyone remember WW2 and D-Day? ... I have walked and slept upon French soil ... I have sipped espresso and wine in lazy cafe's in the beautiful and serene French countryside ... I have had dear and close friends in that land ... and though I do not hold those whom I know and have known personally responsible, I do take this act and betrayal personally. I do strongly believe that there should be some kind of punitive action for France's violations of the UN resolution.
My father, upon entering Paris, as an American soldier, shortly after we liberated her during WW2 ... said that he felt, not appreciation, but resentment ... and now that resentment has most definitely come to light. My father described the sentiment as being captured in the following French slogan (... reading between the lines, of course ...)
"Viva La France ... [and phuck everyone else] !"
... pardon my french ... but ...
If you cannot trust your "friends/allies", who can you trust ... and what does it take to achieve true peace with these volatile and brutal regimes when your efforts are being undermined and subverted behind your back?
Robi ... excellent post and extremely informative ... where do you get the time to accumulate all of those links and references? Don't you ever sleep?
Peace,
Arthur,
just sometimes i think americans should'nt try to write about european policy.
"64 years later, revenge at last. I bet the Poles think this is pretty damn hilarious. I sure do."
i bet you're damn wrong... i can assure you...
THE POLES are PANIC - when rumsfeld told them they should administrate and secure one thrid of iraq they where in REAL trouble
trouble reason No.1: the polish population IS and was AGAINST THIS WAR, this makes it difficult for this government (wich is in trouble because of other reasons right now..) to consent in this question.
trouble reason No.2: they just have'nt the money to do the job - so they asked mr rumsfeld for some money, but the only thing he could say them is he will ask some foreign contries for some donations .. which simply does'nt solve the polish problem.
trouble reason No.3: they haven't the troops to do the job. in short history of post-cold-war polish armee they just where sometimes with small contingents in UN-Peace missions, but they never had any command.
so their SOLDIERS are not expierienced in doing the difficult iraqi job, they haven't that good material nor supply abilities to send troops so far away under own command and responsibility, AND (which will cause even MORE PROBLEMS) they haven't got the staff to do the job, they haven't got experienced generals, nor officers to do a job of this kind. remember: FIRST they said 'YEA! we will send 9000 man to iraq [which is, in my eyes, absured understuffed], THEN they said, okay OOPS we can't do this, we will send 2200 man, and ask some other countrys to send another 5000 [7000 soldiers to secure and rebuild ONE THRID of iraq? this is absolute ABSURD]
their only way out was the german/danish/polish corps wich is expierienced in international peace-missions, but was in the past _alway_s under german command. so the polish defense minister ASKED the germans if they would agree in sending this troops - but theri problem was THE WAY they asked so now we have:
trouble reason No.4: germans didn't want to send troops to iraq, ONE is their ability to do so: they have troops in afghanistan, AND have the cent-com there, they have troops at somalia's coast under own command, they have/had AWAYS in turky airspace, they have peacekeeping troops in kosova and mazedonia, and they have ABC-troops in Kuwait, so they have pretty much to do by now (TO HELP THEIR AMERICAN FRIENDS - BEAR THIS IN MIND!!!), and are not hot to get a new difficult job to do.
the other reason was their opposition of the irai invasion. and politically they wouldn't even get the idea to send troops UNLEAST there is a UN-Mandat.
but IF they where asekd politely by the polish to agree to send the german/dansih/polish corps, BACKED by US diplomacy it would have been difficult to say 'no' .. BUT the polish DIDN'T talk to the germans (nor the danish) but told the whole story to an AMERICAN NEWSPAPER - this was ridiculous, so germans easily could say 'no this was not arraged with us, we have no interest in this' - and BY NOW the polish have a problem.
by now the polish are in a FUCKED UP situation - and they are SURLY NOT HILARIOUS, and they never where - rumsfeld has braught them in a damn difficult 'how-the-hell-i-can-get-out-of-this-trouble' situation.
and some words in general: you should bear in mind, when you're philosophize about your 'new europe' - you are an illusionist. POLAND, like ALL the 'new europe' is hinging on european economy, they are addictet to the money and goods they get out of 'old-europe', and they are addictet to the exports to 'old-europe' - and in case of doubt POLAND is nearer to germany then to the US.
i could read an article in a tcheska republica newspaper (which, for those who don't know is part of 'your new-europe') about the american idea of removing the troops out of germany and send them to tcheska and poland. the article said the folloing:
- it is a bad idea to accept the american troops, this will seem like a punishment to the 'unwilling germans', wich will do damage to whole europe.
- american troops are not longer needed in germany, nor elsewere in europe, the EU should to this job alone.
- the new idea of an european-armee-union is great, and after germany,france and belgium other countries should join - ALSO, some time in the future, the states of the 'new-europe'
this are the voices coming out of your 'new-europe'.
just let me bet a few things, i do not have to be right here, but I think the possibility is high:
- POLAND will REJECT the american idea of securing one third of iraq, because of lack of money, experience and troops. [only way out: america pays some billions to Poland]
- the whole 'new-europe' will soon turn 180° and see germany, france and the other EU countrys are nearer, in history, economy and secruity intrests to them then the US.
- a european-armee-union will develop in the not to fast future, beginning with france, germany and belgium but other european countries joining fast.
- the US will be troubled in AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ, and will lose credit in the whole world (they just did).
and last words: neither THIS, nor I am any kind of 'anti-american' - i just do analyses out of my eyes, like you do. read brzezinski, he writes in the same diction about europe and russia, so i think it's okay to to the same with america.
I KNOW, LIKE (in my eyes) NEARLY EVERY GERMAN, THE US IS A DEEP FRIEND OF US, but they make mistakes, and why should we remain silent on this??
"the more evidence comes to light of France not only aiding Saddam but the whole Ba'ath party"
i think this is absolute nonsense. you should stop spreading this absurd conspiracys.
france surly did NOT give any passports or help to saddam or any of his friend.
in order to the passports: it is impossible to them to just distrubute european-union passports.
to immigrate into EU is not very easy, or let's better say it's damn hard, and not every country can do what ever it wants to, because it affects every other EU member.
Maxim,
You make some good points, but as a clear eyed analyst you should recognize that many Americans will not consider themselves "deep" friends of Germany for a while and friends at any level of France for the rest of their lives. While Old Europe may be nearer in history and economics to the US than New Europe, New Europe is closer to the US in its love of liberty for themselves and others than is old Europe. Rumsfeld and the US will not let Poland fail because the success of it and the rest of new Europe is too important as a counterbalance to the hostile trends developing in Old Europe.
France did too many things to stab us in the back in this war. We will be inclined to believe "absurd conspiracies" about them till proven untrue. The burden of proof has shifted to them.
Poland now has decided to take over control of Northern Iraq and is in the process of doing so. What’s interesting is that some people now see Poland as more of a world player than either *Germany or France*