Just went over the numbers you posted. They seem to me to be way off. Where do you get these numbers?
One in particular that is skewed badly, is the poppy harvest. In reality, it has never been higher and has increased dramatically every year since the start of the Afghan War.
Also not taken into account is how many taliban insurgents/sympathizers actually make up the numbers for the Afghan Security Forces.
All indications from Iraq are that the Sunni-Shia split is re-emerging and the trend AGAINST the Kurds is strengthening as government corruption increases.
I am just questioning where this information actually came from.
The US Commanders on the ground in Iraq are increasingly unhappy at how They are being shut down and dissed by this admin AND the Iraqi Government.
Mesta, I believe alot of the info is from Gov. agencies reporting...but she would be able to be more specific.
The numbers come from regular government reports over the years, open-source news, DoD unclassified briefs, international documents etc. The Afghanistan opium numbers come from an annual survey (they are still quite high but they have dropped):
http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_opium_survey_2009_summary.pdf
It is hard to quantify how many insurgents have become part of ANA or ANP. It is likely there are some.
In Iraq I think lately we’ve seen a lot of indiscriminate attacks partially targeting the government and partially targetting the masses of people who might be gathering. There are a few recent attacks which may be problematic if the trends were to continue, those reminsicent of the death squads of 06/07 and those orchestrated by AQI/Baathist elements being the main ones. The very recent string of attacks targeting Shiites was likely largely due to Ashura... same general reason for the renewed clashes in Iran that will continue to prove a major challenge to the powers that be going forward.
I have to tell you, your profile page is beyond impressive! If anyone got an award for their FR Profile, you have it hands down MM!
Danish media say the man who attacked an artist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad in a cartoon has previously been arrested in Kenya.
The Politiken newspaper reported Sunday that Danish intelligence knew the 28-year-old Somali man was held in Kenya in September for allegedly plotting an attack against U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said he was later released due to lack of evidence.
But Denmark’s ambassador to Kenya, Bo Jensen, told the news agency Ritzau the man was arrested in Kenya for incomplete travel documents. He said Kenyan authorities never told the embassy he was suspected in any terror plot.