by Nick Turse 

Prisons, Drones, and Black Ops in Afghanistan      

In late December, the lot was just a big blank: a few burgundy metal shipping containers sitting in an expanse of crushed eggshell-colored gravel inside a razor-wire-topped fence.  The American military in Afghanistan doesn’t want to talk about it, but one day soon, it will be a new hub for the American drone war in the Greater Middle East.

Next year, that empty lot will be a two-story concrete intelligence facility for America’s drone war, brightly lit and filled with powerful computers kept in climate-controlled comfort in a country where most of the population has no access to electricity.  It will boast almost 7,000 square feet of offices, briefing and conference rooms, and a large “processing, exploitation, and dissemination” operations center -- and, of course, it will be built with American tax dollars. 

Nor is it an anomaly. Despite all the talk of drawdowns and withdrawals, there has been a years-long building boom in Afghanistan that shows little sign of abating.  In early 2010, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had nearly 400 bases in Afghanistan.  Today, Lieutenant Lauren Rago of ISAF public affairs tells TomDispatch, the number tops 450.

by Margaret Kimberley

The recently revealed video of American marines urinating on dead Afghans identified as Taliban fighters has sparked much debate, but unfortunately little of it has any value. The usual suspects make the expected comments. Liberals wring their hands and declare that they are shocked, shocked to see such terrible behavior committed by their troops. The right wing shrug their shoulders and either dismiss the behavior’s importance altogether or express outright support.

The Obama administration tries to have it both ways by simultaneously expressing outrage and promising punishment of the offenders but also declaring that the continued occupation of Afghanistan is a necessity. It is meaningless for the secretaries of State and Defense to express outrage and promise to punish the offenders when they are in charge of the inherently murderous occupation.

by Kathy Kelly

NATO/G8 meetings are scheduled to take place from May 19-21 next year in Chicago.  Plans are ramping up everywhere. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen exulted over bringing NATO and the G8 to Chicago, and Clinton promised to call Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and convey Rasmussen’s glowing opinion that Chicago, built upon diversity and determination, shares values that underpin NATO.

Activists on the ground, envisioning a different kind of Chicago, and bracing themselves for the crushing, militarized police response that in recent years has consistently met protesters at these events, can only hope that this is not the case.

by Debra Sweet  

A correspondent wrote me yesterday, "what [is]our government and military doing attacking a Pakistani military base?  Pakistan is supposed to be our ally in this ten years old crazy war in Afghanistan." NATO Airstrike Kills 24 Pakistani Soldiers.

Pakistan had a military government over decades, supported by every US administration.  There's a large base in Pakistan for Islamic fundamentalism, which has deeply penetrated the Pakistani military, which is itself an utterly corrupt institution deeply involved in owning land and business (like Egypt's US-funded military is).

This article is excerpted from the original on BBC News 

Pakistan has buried 24 of its troops who were killed in a Nato airstrike at a checkpoint on the Afghan border. The incident on Saturday has heightened already tense relations between Pakistan and the US and Nato.

Nato has apologised, calling it a "tragic unintended incident", and is investigating what happened.

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he had written to Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to "make it clear that the deaths of Pakistani personnel are as unacceptable and deplorable as the deaths of Afghan and international personnel".

by Gareth Porter 

U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) killed well over 1,500 civilians in night raids in less than 10 months in 2010 and early 2011, analysis of official statistics on the raids released by the U.S.-NATO command reveals.

That number would make U.S. night raids by far the largest cause of civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan. The report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on civilian casualties in 2010 had said the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by insurgents was the leading cause of civilian deaths, with 904.

by Lisa Davis and David Swanson 

Afghanistan has been engaged with more than 30 years of war with thousands of civilians killed or injured since 2001.

It is under these conditions that children are at extreme risk of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect.

The children of Afghanistan are growing up in one of the least developed countries in the world. Six percent of babies die at birth and 25 percent before their 5th birthday. Conflict and political violence force millions of children and their families to flee their homes and as a result displaced families spend years in situations of uncertainty and insecurity.

Girls face multiple gender discrimination from the earliest stages of their life and throughout childhood. 70 percent of school-age girls do not attend school. Ninety-four percent of births are not registered.

by Chris Floyd 

Simon Jenkins fires a powerful salvo of scorn and spleen to mark the 10th anniversary of the imperial quagmire in Afghanistan. Among the glories and triumphs of this magnificent adventure, Jenkins notes the fact that international agencies are now calling for emergency aid to combat the imminent threat of mass starvation in the liberated land. This is what 10 years, thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars worth of "nation-building" have produced: a broken, brutalized, bankrupt society on the verge of murderous famine.

The whole piece is well worth reading, but here are some highlights:

Ten years of western occupation of Afghanistan led the UN this week to plead that half the country's drought-ridden provinces face winter starvation. The World Food Programme calls for £92m to be urgently dispatched. This is incredible. Afghanistan is the world's greatest recipient of aid, some $20bn in the past decade, plus a hundred times more in military spending. So much cash pours through its doors that $3m a day is said to leave Kabul airport corruptly to buy property in Dubai. ...

By Kathleen Kirwin

They disappeared
caskets of dead
soldiers coming home;
cameras out of view.
We knew.
They did not count
all they killed;
the killed do not count
at all.
We knew.
They said the
mission was accomplished.

by Debra Sweet

Standing at #OccupyWallStreet this week, we got a chance to talk with occupiers, supporters, and tourists about the upcoming 10th anniversary of the U.S. bombing and occupation of Afghanistan, and plans to protest it next week, particularly starting Thursday, October 6 at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.

The great majority warmly embraced us, some literally, helping to write "Stop the War" in Arabic, Spanish, and French for our signs, or dropping donations in our bucket.  People stared a long time at a photo of Afghan civilians wounded by a U.S. bomb, and asked, "Is that war still going on?"  "Why hasn't it been stopped, because we're all against it?"  "I think the people there must hate us."

Read more of: Why is the U.S. war in Afghanistan such a central issue?