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Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, mounted a direct attack on the Government over the invasion and occupation of Iraq when he used a national memorial service commemorating the servicemen killed in the conflict to accuse Tony Blair and his ministers of failing to “measure the price” of military action. Delivering his address in St Paul's Cathedral before a congregation including the Queen, Gordon Brown and Mr Blair himself, the spiritual head of the Church of England accused the former prime minister of indulging in rhetoric before the 2003 invasion, while leaving ordinary servicemen and women to pick up the...

Guinea's military rulers have agreed a huge mining and oil deal with China, officials have told the BBC, amid continuing criticism of the junta.

10 Reasons Why Pastors Avoid the Culture War Posted By Doug Giles On October 13, 2009 @ 5:05 am In Culture, Entertainment, Featured Story, Religion | 45 Comments As far as I’m concerned, a silent or waffling pastor in today’s paranormal climate is unnecessary. I don’t care how much the minister likes kitty cats, candy canes, and if he cries at Celine Dion concerts. Look, Voiceless Vicar, if you’re not currently in the middle of this crucial cultural squabble, pointing out what’s putrid and cheering on what’s proper, then you’re Dr. Evil in my book. Given that the culture-dividing issues,...

soldier, that the troops couldn't get to their mortars to fire back. "They were under heavy enemy contact," Sgt. Jayson Souter said, describing the October 3 attack that pinned his comrades at Combat Outpost Keating, a remote base in Nuristan province.

<p>Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said the White House would be committing "an error of historic proportions" if it doesn't accede to Gen. Stanley McChrystal's requests for tens of thousands of new troops in Afghanistan.</p> <p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, meanwhile, upped the ante from the other side of the partisan aisle, saying that it makes no sense to stay in Afghanistan but not grant Gen. McChrystal the forces he says are necessary.</p>

Numbers 13:30 30Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; we are well able to conquer it. These are not "men" talities you are up against as the walls and Ezekiel but these are the strongholds I speak of to uproot and tear down ! So do not waiver or falter , do not feign awa y but stand ! Proceed ! and wipe off the dust of the earth for my will shall be done and my glory shall show and fall ! I AM with you , my angels...

The State Department speaks out on the Nobel Peace Prize and slams President Bush in the process. "From our standpoint, you know, we think that this gives us a sense of momentum … when the United States has accolades tossed its way, rather than shoes," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday. It's good to know we have people in the State Department that condone that type of conduct toward a President. Someone should tell him that the State Department represents the United States and as an employee his job is to promote and protect our interests. An...

The quest for a solution in Afghanistan may have taken on a new twist. While our troops are fighting to hold back the enemy and the President mulls over alternate proposals that oppose what his generals want, Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, greeted him this morning with the news that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee decided that despite the fact he is engaged in two wars, it was his ability to change the global mood, whatever that means, and his message of hope for world peace that won him the honor. Many in the Arab world...

The quest for a solution in Afghanistan may have taken on a new twist. While our troops are fighting to hold back the enemy and the President mulls over alternate proposals that oppose what his generals want, Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, greeted him this morning with the news that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee decided that despite the fact he is engaged in two wars, it was his ability to change the global mood, whatever that means, and his message of hope for world peace that won him the honor. Many in the Arab world...

US forces leave isolated Afghan base after attack By TODD PITMAN (AP) – 1 hour ago KABUL — Taliban fighters claimed Friday their flag was flying victoriously over an eastern Afghan village U.S. forces abandoned after suffering casualties in one of the war's deadliest battles for American troops.

Will the silent tears or the loud crying ever stop?Look at the eyes, gentle reader, the photographers have captured the pain, the hunger, the shame, the fear, the horror... The UN was supposed to alleviate such problems and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity. It has failed miserably! Precisely because of its all inclusiveness. “Would that include Nazi Germany if it existed today?” I asked him. “Why, yes,” he replied, “a sovereign state is a sovereign state.” The UN makes no demands that its members show even the most minimal regard for human rights or even human...

In trying to understand what is happening in the nation and world, we all employ narratives -- story lines that indicate where things are going and what is likely to happen next. We can check the validity of these narratives by observing whether events move in the indicated direction. If so, the narrative is confirmed. But if things seem to be moving in an entirely different direction, it's time to discard the narrative and look for another.

The Taliban's response to the Afghan war strategy proposed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal could be shocking and grim, with insurgents redoubling suicide attacks and ambushes against American troops, aircraft and road convoys, triumphantly setting up "liberated zones,'' and executing Afghan police and collaborators in areas abandoned by U.S. and allied forces. The first months of the new strategy, rather than feeling like a winning new campaign, could feel a lot like losing. In the short term, at least, that's the dismaying expectation of a wide range of counterinsurgency and Afghanistan experts if President Obama authorizes McChrystal, the top commander in...

Why are we pouring lives and money into Afghanistan? Combat deaths passed Iraq’s in May; economic drain is expected to do likewise in 2010, in a landlocked, less than Texas-sized collection of mountains and desert. Over half the people live below the poverty line, 40% are unemployed and 80% percent who work are in agriculture on 6% of the land, of which 12% is farmable. Annual GDP per capita is about $800 per the available data. Yes, there is some oil, gas and minerals- but no roads or security for development. What is the attraction? It gets worse; the people...

Charles Krauthammer observes: You have the best generals in the world – McChrystal on counterterrorism and Petraeus on counterinsurgency – the best in the world who know exactly how this is done and who conclude you cannot do a counterterrorism strategy, only counterinsurgency. And all of a sudden he is relying on Biden, Rahm Emanuel, and himself to go against the advice of these experts? Hard to believe.It is. (And don’t forget David Axelrod.) More than one conservative colleague has remarked upon the inordinate role that advisers who lack the necessary credentials and expertise have in shaping foreign policy in...

Afghan, US troops kill 40 militants in east (snip) Ten Afghan soldiers were also killed during the operations since Monday (snip) NATO said in a statement that 100 attackers were killed in Saturday's fighting

Christians, are you there? Are you out there? Are you listening to what you just read? Are you angry? Are you fed up with our rights being stripped away and trampled on by the enemy? If this country is going to preach tolerance, then where is the so-called tolerance for Christianity? I mean talk about biased. We have allowed ourselves to be blocked out. The ones who constantly complain about us not being tolerant are not being tolerant at all. So to them I say, “Practice what you preach!” To my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, I say, “Shame...

Since first invading Afghanistan nearly a decade ago, America set one primary goal: Eliminate al Qaeda's safe haven. Today, intelligence and military officials say they've severely constrained al Qaeda's ability to operate there and in Pakistan -- and that's reshaping the debate over U.S. strategy in the region. *** A key point of contention in President Barack Obama's review of war strategy is the ability of al Qaeda to reconstitute in Afghanistan.

On the frontline of Washington's counter-insurgency in Afghanistan, intelligence officer Hajji Mir Hamzai stands before a map and tells a young Marine where the Taliban are next likely to strike... Hunt wants to know if any of the Taliban in Garmsir district can be turned into allies. "All Taliban are the same," said Hamzai, whose three brothers were killed in two separate suicide attacks by the Taliban. "There is another type which is also called Taliban. They are simple. They are not politicians, they are just locals ... But the ones that fight, the only way is to kill them,"...

At West Point his classmates compared him to the charismatic renegade played by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. But General Stanley McChrystal, the coalition commander in Afghanistan, can offer no vanishing trick for the “deteriorating” mission that he has been ordered to rescue. Rather, he has called on politicians and a weary public to make the leap of faith... McChrystal, who is married and has a (non-military) son, was chosen as the man who would shake things up. He arrived in Kabul last June to declare there were two types of people at headquarters — “martyrs and those that...

In February of 2009 President Barry Soetoro ordered 17,000 troops into Afghanistan my 20-year-old received orders and is now serving there along with other sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers and sisters. (see source) My question is why did the president order this nation’s young men and women into harms way if he didn’t properly assess the consequences of sending them there in the first place? Did his advisors tell him that 17,000 additional troops were enough to successfully complete our objectives and our mission in Afghanistan? Or was sending my child and other’s children to Afghanistan an empty political gesture...

Army Gen. Ray Odierno's comments came one day after he announced at a congressional hearing that he will send home about 4,000 additional troops by the end of October. The top American commander in Iraq said Thursday it is unlikely the U.S. can declare victory by the time forces leave at the end of 2011. "I'm not sure we will ever see anyone declare victory in Iraq, because first off, I'm not sure we'll know for 10 years or five years," Army Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. "What we've done here is we're giving Iraq...

State-owned oil firm China National Offshore Oil Corporation was reported to be in talks with the oil-rich African nation of Nigeria to buy large stakes in some of the richest oil blocks in world. [ID:nN28108010] Here are some of the assets Chinese oil firms have bought or are trying to purchase, and deals reached in Africa in recent years. August 2009 -- CNOOC confirmed it was bidding for Kosmos Energy's stakes in the Jubilee oilfield offshore Ghana, which could be worth between $3 billion to $5 billion.

From the Wall Street Journal - October 1, 2009 Gates Doubts U.S.'s Afghan Strategy As Obama Reviews Options, Defense Secretary Worries Manpower-Intensive Plan Won't Stop Taliban WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama met with senior counselors for three hours Wednesday to launch his review of Afghan war strategy, amid indications that his defense secretary -- the key link between the White House and the military -- is among those undecided about the right approach. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the senior U.S. commander in Kabul, is advocating a manpower-intensive counterinsurgency strategy that focuses on protecting the Afghan populace rather than hunting individual militants. He submitted...

Next week, investigative journalist and author Dr. Paul L. Williams will be tried in a foreign court for his investigative work on reports of al Qaeda terrorists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. But he broke no American statute and his alleged violation of Canadian law took place not in Canada, but at his home in Pennsylvania.

A conservative congressman said on Thursday that top generals may resign or retire early if President Barack Obama does not make a significant changes to the military's Afghan strategy. "Sure, I think that's a legitimate concern," Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told Washington Times Radio this morning. "If the president chooses [not to readjust the strategy] but stay there, I think you'll see that kind of a thing happen, then I think you'll see those kinds of resignations." Ryan expressed worry that the current strategy in Afghanistan is not working. Administration officials have said they are conducting a strategic review of...

Before Obama charmed his way into the Oval Office, liberals sharply criticized President Bush for naming Iran as part of the “axis of evil.” Now liberals are suddenly concerned about the obvious danger of Iran and why nothing has been done to stop their nuclear ambitions. Consider two articles from Huffington Post from then and now.

At its conclusion, Obama reminded the crowd that he hadn't reached a decision and that his war council should return twice next week with more details and ideas, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. The talks revealed the emerging fault lines within the administration, with military commanders solidly behind the request for additional troops and other key officials divided. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Afghan and Pakistan envoy Richard Holbrooke appeared to be leaning toward supporting a troop increase, the official said. White House chief of staff Rahm...

From RT on YouTube: A new EU report may finally answers the question as to which country started the Russo-Georgian war in August 2008. The European Union conducted a nine-month investigation into the issue and has concluded that it was Georgia, more specifically Saakashvili, who triggered the conflict. So why was the U.S. Government, along with the mainstream media, so intent on blaming Russia for the war? And what will these new revelations mean for Georgian relations with the United States and Europe? RT's Dina Gusovsky talks to Tsotne Bakuria, former member of the Georgian Parliament.

op Obama administration officials on Wednesday said recent arrests in alleged bombing plots highlight the challenges they face combating "self-radicalized, homegrown extremists" as well as foreigners in the United States determined to carry out attacks.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 Damascus the World's Most Dangerous Destination! By Bill Salus According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, tourism in Israel has steadily declined in 2009 in comparison to 2008. There appears to be a developing concern among would be “holy land” travelers that a major Mideast war involving Israel, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and others is inevitable and soon to happen. In a semi-related area, Israel’s concerns are further fueled by the genuine possibility that immigration into Israel will come to a complete halt the minute Iran possesses its own nuclear weapon. Ephraim Sneh, the former...

The White House unexpectedly decided to review its strategy in Afghanistan after a series of recent setbacks in the war, including allegations of fraud following last month's presidential elections and surging violence throughout the country. It begins just days after Gen. McChrystal submitted his request for as many as 40,000 additional troops to the Pentagon. Some in the administration, notably Biden, have argued for a smaller military footprint and a tighter focus on counterterrorism as the best way forward. Advocates of such a shift point to the effective use of Predator drone strikes to kill Taliban leaders in Pakistan. Two...

Washington - US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the war in Afghanistan was not purely an "American battle" but was a broader Nato mission, as he met the western alliance's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "This is not a American battle, this is a Nato mission," Obama told reporters after the Oval Office meeting, which comes as he launches a series of intense talks on whether to send more US soldiers to the Afghan war.

U.S. Marines from Charlie 1/1 of the 15th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) fill sand bags around their light mortar position at a Marine Corps base in southern Afghanistan, December 1, 2001. REUTERS/Jim Hollander Words have consequences. This is by no means comprehensive, but a sampling of a few benchmark statements from Senator Obama and President Obama, as well as editorials and op-ed analysis: 8/13/07 "We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there," July 20, 2008,...

s news from Afghanistan moves to the front pages of Americans' newspapers, Gen. Stanley McChrystal tells David Martin that the spread of the violence in Afghanistan was more than he expected.

While Obama slept Ed Laskythelastcrusade.org We now know that Barack Obama has sat for almost a year on the information regarding Iran's "secret" nuclear plant. His hand was forced yesterday by the Iranians who were the ones that went public with the information when it appeared to them that their security had been breached. This led to Barack Obama disclosing the previously withheld information regarding the plant. The Iranians kept the plant secret and Obama aided them by his silence. So much for the transparency promise. What damage has been caused by Obama's withholding this information from the world?...

North Korea Resumes Reunions After 2-Year Hiatus; Family Members Allowed to Visit After Decades of SeparationLee Dong-un cried and held the hands of his 60-year-old North Korean daughter Saturday during their first meeting in more than half a century. They were one of hundreds of families reuniting as part of a program revived by Pyongyang in an effort to ease tensions with South Korea. The meeting was bittersweet for Lee, who left behind his pregnant wife and daughter, then 2 years old, in North Korea when he fled to the South during the Korean War. The 84-year-old burst into tears...

Tom Engelhardt: Petraeus, McChrystal, And The Surgettes On Next Moves In AfghanistanGen. Stanley McChrystal, America's military commander in Afghanistan, tells David Martin the spread of violence in that country is worse than he expected. PHOTO Gen. David Petraeus (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) STORIES Poll: Afghanistan Troop Increase Unpopular U.S. Commander May Revise Troop Request (CBS) Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. He is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of the Cold War and beyond, as well as of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing. He also edited The...

WASHINGTON — As President Obama weighs sending more troops to Afghanistan, one of the most consequential decisions of his presidency, he has discovered that the military is not monolithic in support of the plan and that some of the civilian advisers he respects most have deep reservations. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s troop request, which was submitted to the Pentagon on Friday, has reignited a longstanding debate within the military about the virtues of the counterinsurgency strategy popularized by Gen. David H. Petraeus in Iraq and now embraced by General McChrystal, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan. General McChrystal...

Join General Paul Vallely(ret'd) and Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal for vital conversation on the Long War and Rules of Engagement. Chill those brewsky's break out the cigars, and put on your slippers for some great computer side chat. The Long War Journal consistently provides original and accurate reporting and analysis of the Long War (also known as the Global War on Terror). LWJ accomplishes this through embedded reporters, news aggregation, podcasts, and other media. Bill Roggio is retired Army and has embedded with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Long War Journal has become the go-to site...

This morning the president, along with the leaders of France and Britain, "stunned" the world with this news. President Obama, along with the leaders of Britain and France, demanded Friday that Iran immediately allow international weapons monitors to inspect a nuclear facility the Islamic Republic acknowledges it has been secretly building for years. Obama, joined by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the opening of the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, warned Iran that it will be "held accountable" to an impatient world community if it does not fully disclose its nuclear ambitions.

President Barack Obama now faces a ... tough decision. The war in Afghanistan is not going well. The rebuilding effort isn't going well. The effort to create a competent government isn't going well. So should he commit American support if he isn't committed to doing what is needed to succeed? Mr. Obama owns the war in Afghanistan. He bought it, on credit. But he is fulminating at the cost now that the bill is coming due. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has made clear what the bill will be in terms of additional troops. And the president now wants a review to...

Amid mounting evidence that US troops are getting bogged down fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, many are starting to make comparisons with America’s long and losing war in Vietnam. President Barack Obama rejected the comparison as inapt. “You have to learn lessons from history,” Obama observed. “Vietnam was all junglish and damp. Afghanistan is barren and dry. Very different. In Vietnam, we misguidedly sided against the agrarian reformers. But Afghanistan is the war I promised we’d win in my campaign. Another important difference. Finally, you can never step in the same river twice. In fact, I don’t know if Afghanistan even...

Germany Declares Economic War By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard September 23rd, 2009 If there are any German readers of this blog, I would like to know what they think of the latest breath-taking provocations of German finance minister Peer Steinbrück. Ill-informed belligerence: Peer Steinbrück Remember that Herr Steinbrück is not a journalist, pundit, or back-bench maverick. He speaks officially for the German government and for the German nation on the international stage. Every assertion that he made about Britain in his interview with Stern is either factually wrong, or such a serious distortion of events that it amounts to a smear. Furthermore,...

WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who spoke Tuesday in National Harbor, Md., wants to scale back troops in Afghanistan. The options under review are part of what administration officials described as a wholesale reconsideration of a strategy the president announced with fanfare just six months ago. Two new intelligence reports are being conducted to...

The administration's handling of Afghanistan policy has been amateur hour. The leak of General Stanley McChrystal's assessment of the dire situation there faces President Obama with by far his most serious foreign-policy challenge. It's also a challenge to what appears to be his whole approach to foreign policy. ...who's responsible for allowing President Obama to get into this mess? What mess? That, of course, is the administration's immediate spin. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even maintained...that while Gen. McChrystal might be making one set of recommendations, the administration is talking with others who disagree. Really? Is Obama running an administration...

The alleged Al Qaeda terror thugs involved in the plot to bomb the city tried to rent a 'Jumbo Sized Super Mover' U-Haul truck in St. Albans, Queens. Another terrorist cell was taken down, but the question remains did they arrest all of them and how many more remain under surveillance or worse, not even known to our FBI? HE WAS OUT TO KILL Detectives were combing Queens storage facilities on Monday for stockpiled explosive chemicals that Al Qaeda terror thugs planned to use to bomb New York, sources said. At the same time, the Daily News has learned...

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's grim assessment of the Afghanistan war has opened a divide between the military, which is pushing for an early decision to send more troops, and civilian policymakers who are increasingly doubtful of an escalating nation-building effort. Senior military officials emphasized Monday that McChrystal's conclusion that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan "will likely result in failure" without an urgent infusion of troops has been endorsed by the uniformed leadership. That includes Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command and architect of the troop "surge" strategy widely...

WHEN he was campaigning to be president, Barack Obama said over again that Afghanistan was the necessary war, the one that was justified by al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 but which had been starved of resources because of the unnecessary war in Iraq. Since taking office he has generally been as good as his word. He deployed an additional 17,000 troops, declaring in March that if the Afghan government fell to the Taliban, the country would “again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can.”.. General McChrystal’s assessment...

HAVANA, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Modernization of the Soviet-made military equipment and training of Cuban military personnel will be the focus of Russian-Cuban military cooperation in the near future, the chief of the Russian General Staff said on Friday.