Eideard

In an unusual briefing, a top Pakistani general leading troops in the volatile North Waziristan region has acknowledged the effectiveness of the American drone strikes against foreign militants…

Publicly, the Pakistani government and the powerful military condemn the drone strikes, though privately they acknowledge their utility. It is rare for civilian or military officials to give any nod to the effectiveness of the campaign, and the controversy surrounding the drone strikes has become a staple of the national debate. Opposition political parties and Islamists call the drone attacks a violation of the country’s sovereignty and question their legality.

Dawn, considered the country’s leading English-language daily, quoted Maj. Gen. Mehmood Ghayur of the army’s Seventh division in North Waziristan, as saying that “myths and rumors about U.S. Predator strikes and the casualty figures are many, but it’s a reality that many of those being killed in these strikes are hardcore elements, a sizable number of them foreigners.”

The general was briefing a group of local Peshawar-based journalists on a rare trip to Miram Shah, the main city in North Waziristan.

According to details listed in the general’s briefing and quoted by Dawn, militants of several nationalities have been singled out in drone attacks. The diverse nationalities of the militants show the extent to which Pakistan’s tribal regions straddling the border with Afghanistan have been infiltrated by foreign fighters, mostly affiliated with Al Qaeda.

This is the second time in recent memory that statements about the military usefulness of drone strikes, the range of extra-national terrorist forces based in tribal areas, the strength of Al Qaeda in frontier regions of Pakistan has been acknowledged. At least by voices inside Pakistan.

I’m not certain there is as much clarity inside the Washington Beltway.

The new head of Britain’s armed forces, Gen Sir David Richards, has warned that the West cannot defeat al-Qaeda and militant Islam.

He said defeating Islamist militancy was “unnecessary and would never be achieved”. However, he argued that it could be “contained” to allow Britons to lead secure lives.

Gen Richards, 58, said the threat posed by “al-Qaeda and its affiliates” meant Britain’s national security would be at risk for at least 30 years.

The general, who will tomorrow lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall in memory of Britain’s war dead, said the West’s war against what he described as a “pernicious ideology” had parallels with the fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War…

He said the British military and the Government had been “guilty of not fully understanding what was at stake” in Afghanistan and admitted that the Afghan people were beginning to “tire” of Nato’s inability to deliver on its promises…

The general said: “In conventional war, defeat and victory is very clear cut and is symbolised by troops marching into another nation’s capital. First of all you have to ask: do we need to defeat it [Islamist militancy] in the sense of a clear cut victory? I would argue that it is unnecessary and would never be achieved.

“But can we contain it to the point that our lives and our children’s lives are led securely? I think we can.”

He also said the real weapon in the war against al-Qaeda was the use of “upstream prevention” as well as “education and democracy”. The problems that gave rise to militant Islamism were unlikely to be solved soon, he added.

On the issue of future wars, the general said he could see no case for military intervention in other countries “at the moment” but added that he would be “barmy to say that one day we wouldn’t be back in that position”.

I’d love to see discussion with the general more detailed than that contained within the short attention span of the Telegraph. Not a bad newspaper for conservatives; but, sorely lacking in thoroughness and detail providing information for truly thoughtful analysis.

Still, there’s more truth here than you could expect from what passes for popular conservative media in the United States.

An ancient “tunnel-like” structure has been unearthed in the garden of the General Post Office in the Indian city of Mumbai.

The authorities say it is clear that the previously undiscovered structure is not a sewage or storm-water drain. It was only revealed when a local newspaper reporter asked to see it.

The heritage committee is yet to inspect it, or decide what exactly the structure is. Experts say such tunnels were often part of fortified basements…

Chief Postmaster General Faiz-ur-Rehman told the BBC that the discovery of the structure came as a surprise. “I have been here for more than 20 years,” he said, “but was never aware of its existence…

Some reports say there is a possibility of it being an escape route connected to another tunnel. Three ways out, with covers, have been found so far in the garden…

Mr Rehman said that the original drawings for the building were not available in India. Officials say they could be in the UK – the former colonial power.

“Maybe if we could access the original plan we may be able to find out if there are more – and what purpose these structures served.”

Surely, no one expected the Brits to let their “subjects” know much about what they were doing or planning back in the day.

OTOH, some beancounter probably squirreled away a copy of the plans.

“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan”
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

The pastor of a small Florida church said Tuesday he will go ahead with his plans to hold a Koran burning this week, despite warnings by the US commander of the Afghan war of violent reactions in the Islamic world.

Terry Jones, who heads the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville Florida, said he had given “serious” consideration to the concerns expressed by General David Petraeus over plans to torch a Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, but said he would proceed anyway.

“We are taking the general’s words very serious. We are continuing to pray about the action on September 11th,” he said. Nevertheless, he said “we have firmly made up our mind” to go ahead with burning the Muslim holy book…

In a statement, Petraeus expressed concern that the planned torching of the Koran would be a propaganda coup for Islamic extremists.

It’s a true measure of how little integrity opportunist politicians demonstrate on occasions like this. Anyone hear the Republican Party stand up for troops and other Americans abroad versus these fundamentalist nutballs? Not when bigotry represents an important quality of the party line.

Who do you think owns the votes of fanatics like this?

Gen. Stanley McChrystal ended his 34-year career as an Army officer Friday in an emotional retirement ceremony at his military headquarters in Washington, D.C., marking the last chapter of his swift and stunning fall from grace.

Before a crowd of a few hundred friends, family and colleagues on the Fort McNair parade grounds under an oppressively hot July sun, McChrystal said his service didn’t end as he hoped. But he regretted few decisions he had made on the battlefield, cherished his life as a soldier and was optimistic about his future, he said.

“I trusted and I still trust,” McChrystal said. “I cared and I still care. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan was fired last month after Rolling Stone magazine published an article titled “The Runaway General” that quoted scathing remarks he and his aides made about their civilian bosses…

Shortly after the article was published, McChrystal was sent packing…

McChrystal also sounded a more serious note, when he talked about the pain of leaving behind unfulfilled commitments in Afghanistan and watching colleagues ensnared in the scandal…

Still, he said he was approaching the future with optimism…

Soldiers attending the ceremony were allowed to forgo their formal dress uniforms in lieu of combat fatigues — an apparent tribute to a war commander fresh from battle and whose career was marked by more secret operations to snatch terror suspects than by pomp and circumstance.

Wearing his own Army combat uniform for the last time, the four-star general received full military honors, including a 17-gun salute and flag formations by the Army’s Old Guard.

RTFA. A modicum of interest and insight.

I haven’t saluted a general since the days of Omar Bradley and Georgii Zhukov. I salute Stanley McChrystal.

“Merde!”

The top Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Daniel Ménard, has been relieved of duty and ordered home immediately, accused of having an inappropriate personal relationship with a female soldier.

An investigation has been launched into the conduct of Ménard, who is married. Until next week, the forces in Afghanistan will be commanded by Col. Simon Hetherington, the deputy-commander of Canada’s 2,800 soldiers in the country.

An official in Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s office said the allegations against Ménard involve a member of his staff…

The military has a strict non-fraternization policy for deployed troops, forbidding personal relationships of an emotional, romantic or sexual nature.

National Defence spokesperson Lt.-Col. Chris Lemay told the Star by phone from Ottawa Saturday night that the female soldier might also face reprimand after an investigation is complete. “Measures will be taken,” he said.

I like that phrase – “measures will be taken”. Reminds me of when I worked in imports/exports.

We always knew if there was a problem with a product from the UK, someone in management would tell us not to worry, “we’ll sort it out” – and we knew that the real screw-up was about to follow.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Monday that he was replacing the general in charge of the Pentagon’s largest weapons program — the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — and withholding $614 million in award fees from the contractor, Lockheed Martin.

The surprise announcement came after Mr. Gates had touted the plans for the new plane last year in persuading Congress to kill the more expensive F-22 fighter jet program. But a special Pentagon review team had since projected billions of dollars in cost overruns on the F-35, and Mr. Gates said on Monday that the company needed to absorb some of the extra costs.

Mr. Gates disclosed the reshuffling on the F-35 program as he released the Pentagon’s proposed $708.3 billion spending package for fiscal 2011. Coming after a year in which the Obama administration killed the F-22 and other expensive weapons programs, the Pentagon’s new spending plans represent a $14.8 billion increase over the current totals…

Mr. Gates said the program manager on the F-35, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. David Heinz, would be replaced by a higher-ranking general whose name would be announced soon…

The Pentagon plans to buy more than 2,400 F-35s over the next 25 years, and the Air Force, the Navy and the Marine Corps will each have their own versions of the single-engine fighter. Eight allied nations are also investing in the project and could buy hundreds of planes…

But Pentagon and Congressional auditors have criticized the program in recent years for problems with suppliers, delays in producing the first planes and a flight test program that remains only 2 percent complete.

You don’t need a scalpel to continue cutting pork from the Pentagon hogs. There’s enough spare bacon there to keep NASCAR in hog-jowl jam for a century.

An Army general in northern Iraq has added pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could be court-martialed.

The new policy, outlined last month by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo and released Friday by the Army, would apply to female battlefield soldiers who become pregnant and the male soldiers who impregnate them.

Civilians reporting to General Cucolo also could face criminal prosecution under the guidelines.

An Army spokesman, George Wright, said battlefield soldiers who became pregnant were typically sent home. But it is not an Army-wide policy to punish them under the military’s legal code, he said.

However, division commanders like General Cucolo have the authority to impose these type of restrictions to soldiers under their command, Mr. Wright said…

Under General Cucolo’s order, troops also are prohibited from “sexual contact of any kind” with Iraqi nationals. And they cannot spend the night with a member of the opposite sex, unless married or expressly permitted to do so.

Like most “moral” regulations leftover from 19th Century ideology, this will only be honored by the nutballs who think like the general. Or not.

He’s as backwards as the idiots who tried to prevent GI’s from marrying Europeans – while stationed in Europe. Of course, acting out such heresy between couples of different colors was considered more of a crime.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Germany’s top army officer has resigned over the disclosure that the defence ministry had withheld information about civilian casualties caused by a Nato air strike in Afghanistan.

The resignation of Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the Bundeswehr’s chief of staff, along with that of ministry state secretary Peter Wichert, was announced by Germany’s new defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg during a parliamentary debate on the future of Germany in Afghanistan.

Schneiderhan’s resignation amounts to an admission by the defence ministry that it suppressed information about civilian casualties which was ordered by the Bundeswehr – even though it had numerous sources of information, including from its own military police.

According to Nato information, 142 insurgents and civilians were killed in the attack on 4 September on two oil tankers, which had been seized by the Taliban in the northern region near Kunduz.

The then defence minister, Franz Josef Jung, initially dismissed reports that civilians had been among the victims. The ministry later backtracked, saying some civilians had been killed.

Now, Former German Defense Minister and current Labor Minister Franz Josef Jung has resigned over the fatal Afghan airstrike…

The German newspaper, Bild, said it had access to confidential documents and it posted a video of the airstrike on its Web site. It said German Col. Georg Klein was not able to rule out the possibility of civilian victims before he ordered the strike.

The newspaper said a report dated Sept. 6 — two days after the strike — made clear that it was impossible for Klein to verify information his informant had provided before he called in the airstrike.

Jung said Friday he was taking responsibility for miscommunication following the incident.

Bild reported that for days after the incident, Jung — who was then defense minister — repeated that there had been no civilian victims. That was despite Jung having videos and documents that proved the defense ministry knew about civilian victims and also had insufficient information before the strike was ordered.

The Fog of War claims victims at the top as well as on the battlefield. Though, of course, those at the top don’t get bloodied except in the metaphor.

Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the ascetic who is set to become the new top American commander in Afghanistan, usually eats just one meal a day, in the evening, to avoid sluggishness.

He is known for operating on a few hours’ sleep and for running to and from work while listening to audio books on an iPod. In Iraq, where he oversaw secret commando operations for five years, former intelligence officials say that he had an encyclopedic, even obsessive, knowledge about the lives of terrorists, and that he pushed his ranks aggressively to kill as many of them as possible.

But General McChrystal has also moved easily from the dark world to the light. Fellow officers on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he is director, and former colleagues at the Council on Foreign Relations describe him as a warrior-scholar, comfortable with diplomats, politicians and the military man who would help promote him to his new job.

“He’s lanky, smart, tough, a sneaky stealth soldier,” said Maj. Gen. William Nash, a retired officer. “He’s got all the Special Ops attributes, plus an intellect..”

Most of what General McChrystal has done over a 33-year career remains classified, including service between 2003 and 2008 as commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, an elite unit so clandestine that the Pentagon for years refused to acknowledge its existence. But former C.I.A. officials say that General McChrystal was among those who, with the C.I.A., pushed hard for a secret joint operation in the tribal region of Pakistan in 2005 aimed at capturing or killing Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld canceled the operation at the last minute, saying it was too risky and was based on what he considered questionable intelligence, a move that former intelligence officials say General McChrystal found maddening.

The man is a warrior in the mold of Sun Tzu. A compliment I do not advance lightly.