The Blue State

Afghan poppy production up 15% since 2006

Last year, figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes found that opium cultivation in Afghanistan rose 59%.  Today, just more than seven full months into 2007, poppy production is up another 15%.  Even more stunning, this increase comes during the middle of a $475 million anti-heroin effort by the Bush Administration:

U.N. figures to be released in Septemberare expected to show that Afghanistan‘s poppy production has risen upto 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95percent of the world‘s crop, 3 percentage points more than last year,officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The AssociatedPress.

Those ideas representwhat proponents call an "enhanced carrot-and-stick approach" tosupplement existing anti-drug efforts. They are the focus of the new$475 million program outlined in a 995-page report, the release ofwhich has been postponed twice and may be again delayed due todisagreements, officials said.

So how bad is it compared to a few years ago?

• In 2004, Afghanistan produced 87% of the world's heroin, according to UN data.  Just three years later, that same group will report in September that the number is now 95%.
• Between 2005 and 2006, Afghanistan increased its opium yield by 49%.  In 2005, the yield was 4,100 metric tons.  In 2006, it was 6,100 metric tons.

Maybe arming and relying on Afghan warlords, many of them poppy farmers, to catch Osama bin Laden was not such a good idea.  Just a thought.

Less than one-fourth of US aid money to Afghanistan reached its destination

In the book Three Cups of Tea -- a story about a diplomat's quest to build schools in the third world -- Greg Mortenson explains clearly and concisely why the United States is losing the war on terrorism, especially in Afghanistan.  (This is from page 290):

After distributing forty dollars of CAI's (Central Asian Institute's) money to Uzra and twenty dollars to each of her ninety teachers, who hadn't been receiving their salaries either, Mortenson saw Bergman safely onto a United Nations charter flight to Islamabad and began trying to track down Uzra's money.  On his third odyssey through the echoing halls of the crumbling Ministry of Finance, he met Afghanistan's deputy minister of finance, who threw up his hands when Mortenson asked him why Uzra and her teachers weren't receiving their pay.

"He told me that less than a quarter of the aid money President Bush had promised his country had actually arrived in Afghanistan.  And of those insufficient funds, he said that $680 million had been 'redirected,' to build runways and bulk up supply depots in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar for the invasion of Iraq everyone expected would soon begin."

On the Ariana 727 to Dubai, the British Air 777 to London, and the Delta 767 to D.C., Mortenson felt like a heat-seeking missile speeding toward his own government, fueled by outrage.  "The time for us to turn all the suffering we'd helped to cause in Afghanistan into something positive was slipping away.  I was so upset I paced the aisles of the planes all the way to Washington," Mortenson says.  "If we couldn't do something as simple as seeing that a hero like Uzra gets her forty-dollar a-month salary, then how could we ever hope to do the hard work it takes to win the war on terror?"

It should not surprise people that an Administration that despises government programs has trouble understanding some of the concepts behind nation-building.

The problem is also their inability to recognize cause and effect.  If you can't pay the teachers, children can't go to school and get educated.  If Children are not going to school and being educated, then:

• Afghanistan has a better chance of staying economically depressed in the long-run.
• The kids are more likely to turn to destructive hobbies, like being preyed on by Islamic radicals.
• Less citizens in that country will feel like they personally have a lot to gain if the rebuilding process is a success.

This should be common sense, especially after all the money US taxpayers have unknowingly invested in this operation.

Afghan opium production out of control

The Helmand Province in Afghanistan accounts for at least half of the world's opium, according to a new report from the World Drug Report.  Afghanistan as a whole produces 90% of all opium worldwide:

The report says Afghanistan is unlikely to regain real security until the production of illegal drugs is tackled.

In the 1980s, Afghanistan produced some 30% of theworld's opium, but now that figure has more than tripled, the UNdocument says.

It says that Helmand province alone cultivates almost half the world's illegal opium.

Thomas Pietschmann, the report's author, says production in Helmand has now outstripped that of entire countries.

"The province of Helmand itself is around 70,000hectares under cultivation, which is three times the total area undercultivation in Myanmar (Burma).

"So only one province, three times as important as thewhole of Myanmar, the second-largest opium-producing country," MrPietschmann says.

Countries that rely on only one or two resources to finance their economy turn out to be corrupt.  Whether it is oil or opium dependence, whoever controls those resources will do anything to hold onto power.  Profit always comes before emocracy.  The US has 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.  But the opium-producing warlords are really the ones with all the cards.

Iraq refugee situation leading to more abortions

You'd think this would grab the attention of the right-wing. 

The humanitarian group Iraqi Red Crescent (IRC) released a report that showed abortion rates are on the rise due to the worsening security situation:

Pregnant Iraqi women who have been forced from their homes by worseningviolence are obtaining illegal abortions because they are unable to getmedical care for themselves and their unborn, according to a new reportby a national humanitarian group.

A record number of Iraqis -- most of them women and children -- arefleeing their homes to escape the bloodshed of sectarian violence andanti-U.S. attacks, according to a new report by the Iraqi Red Crescentorganization, the largest aid group operating in Iraq.

Health care is inadequate and difficult to access for those people, according to the IRC report. 

"Pregnant women, infants and children are unable to get...requiredmedical care," states the report, which was translated from Arabic,"and criminal abortion became [sic] the norms."

The report also highlighted that rape and drug use are more common -- which are obvious signs of any refugee situation.

In related news, the number of worldwide refugees has increased for the first time in five years, mainly due to the conflicts in Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Also, the number of internally displaced people in the world has doubled.

Here are the four worst refugee crises in the world, according to the group UNHCR:

1. Afghanistan (2.1 million)
2. Iraq (1.5 million)
3. Sudan (686,000)
4. Somalia (486,000)

The worldwide refugee population now stands at approximately ten million.  Today marks the eve of World Refugee Day.

Iraq the second most unstable country in the world

After finishing in fourth place last year, Iraq vaulted itself two spots as the second most vulnerable country to internal attacks:

In the third annual"failed state" index, analysts for Foreign Policy magazine and thenot-for-profit Fund for Peace said that Iraq and Afghanistan, whichranked eighth, show that billions of dollars in development andsecurity aid may be futile without a functioning government,trustworthy leaders and realistic plans to keep the peace and developthe economy.

Preventing Iraq frombecoming a failed state is a key part of the Bush administration’sargument for keeping U.S. troops in the country. The administrationsays the troops are needed to keep Iraq from becoming a breeding groundfor international terrorists.

Sudan finished as the number one most unstable country -- no surprise there.  According to an intelligence analyst, the US is reluctant to coerce the Sudanese government into stopping the genocide because Sudan provides the CIA with crucial intelligence on insurgents in Iraq.

Without further adieu, here's a list of the top-20 most failed states, according to Foreign Policy online magazine.  (Notice that half of the top-10 are oil-producing states.):

1. Sudan (oil)
2. Iraq (oil)
3. Somalia
4. Zimbabwe
5. Chad (oil)
6. Ivory Coast
7. Democratic Republic of the Congo (oil)
8. Afghanistan
9. Guinea (oil)
10. Central African Republic
11. Haiti
12. Pakistan
13. North Korea
14. Burma
15. Uganda
16. Bangladesh
17. Nigeria (oil)
18. Ethiopia
19. Burundi
20. Timor-Leste (oil)

Here is the full report.  It's a very good read.

Q: What Do You Call a Song Titled 'Let's Impeach The President'? A: A Good Start

I feel compelled to find and post the truth every time I hear Our GreatPresident open his mouth which has become synonymous with lying.Thanks again to "granny" for sending us the link for the video.

It didn't take the liberal bloggers and general long public to react and speak outagainst the dems for caving in on the funding bill. And it seems that theybetter grow a set quickly before we start shopping around. Think about this fora moment, you tell your spouse or significant other you are going shopping, butinstead go to a friends house...simple right? umm, NO!, you are confronted bythem and are told you lied. Maybe that's a simple minded analogy, but comparethat to The President of the United States lying on an ongoing basis, changingthe story and then his supporters actually lie further to support him. Wrong,just plain old everyday kindergartenly,  fundamentally, unacceptably wrong.

Well lets start this thing....

'Let's Impeach The President' Song by Neil Youg. Check out Neils page of Song Videos HERE.(check out the hompage)The Lyrics are HERE.

I do not like Andy Dick in just about everything I have ever seen himin...except this video

'Bush Idiot Speech'

Here is a huge list of anti-warsongs worth a peak. Listof Bush lies.

There is just so much more content which could be added to this post, but Ineed to move on from this "consumption" of me.

What the Soldiers Feel, That We Never Will

As I was looking through the blogs to see what was out there to add in a 'BlueBlogs' post (what other blogs are posting), I came across   'Whatthe war is doing to our soldiers' at ThinkProgress. The story is from Captain Jeff Leonard's FresnoBeehive Blog, titled 'Just staring at the wall really'.Capt. Leorand is an Army counselor in Iraq, and with a team of 6 they "helpsoldiers deal with the trauma of combat."

Maj. Johns and I had been at the patrol base to the west for several days. Wetook up residence on two adjacent cots in the far corner of a plywood structurewhich, by size comparisons, was much like the other Army tents it was builtamong. There were no walls to divide the space within the structure. Cots linedthe long side walls with space for a walkway in the middle. There were about 20cots in all and transient soldiers came and went, mostly as they left for, orreturned from, their leaves home. During the daytime, the structure would shakeand breathe in the hot winds and the thin lines of light where plywood panelsmet on the walls, and at the meeting of the walls and the ceiling, would swelland widen broadening bright luminous fissures in the dark space. Small graylizards would crawl though these cracks and take refuge from the heat on theplywood ceiling between the beams.

Soldiers getting ready to go on leave would talk about things they planned todo at home with tones of relief and elation. Soldiers returning to their unitswould move about anxiously and hope for delays in their returns back to theline. When details of their returns were received, and when all hope of delayhad been exhausted, their muscles visibly tightened and their movements becamejolted, almost angry, and they began to speak of their hopelessness, the friendsthey had seen killed. They began to question and criticize the war, late intothe night on their cots in the darkness. In the morning, they would be gone,their empty cots a reminder of them, and of where they would be by now. Oftenwhen we spoke to them, we wondered secretly if they would become one more ofthose we had talked with who might later appear on a memorial flier before us,an inverted rifle and bayonet, a Kevlar, a pair of boots, and dog tags, a typedmessage naming who they left behind back home.

The major and I took up shop in a metal storage trailer during the daytime.It had no windows but had been fitted with lights and an air conditioner.Command, knowing he and I were coming, had detained or sent in several soldiersthey wanted us to see. The recent decision to extend all of the soldiers hadmade our job harder and those who lived day to day had begun to digest andabsorb the mental impact of 90 more days they would need to survive.

"No, sir, I don't really sleep. Well, maybe an hour or two, then I getup. I don't want to dream," the soldier said to us. His name was Staff Sgt.Johnson. He was a good soldier, and you could tell when you spoke to him. He wasa man of honor. He was ashamed to be speaking with us, but his leaders hadinsisted. He had served three combat tours as a squad leader in a line unit. Hisbody and his hands shook during pauses in his speaking and he stared at us, andsometimes past us, with a wide-eyed look of hyper alertness. He had justreturned from leave and two guys in his squad were killed days before hisreturn. Readon...

It's a quick read so hurry back then continue on...I'llwait....

Will Staff Sgt. Johnson be considered an "anti-war lefty thatsympathizes with al-Qaeda" by the conservative war mongers if he can't ordoesn't want to go back after three tours in Iraq? Melanie Morgan's display ofthis behavior was disgusting enough to get her banned from 'TheNews Hour with Jim Lehrer' (with video). Sean Hannity had the balls tostick up for her also with video.

Melanie Morgan was referring to VoteVets .org, which is jammed packed with war vets and heroes. Hannity andMorgan are part of that group where if you don't support the war, you are somesort of "terrorist sympathizer" (or close to it). I'd love to see themtossed into one of these infantry squads and see how long it takes before adiaper change is necessary. Fuc* Hannity and Morgan, and anyone that thinksspeaking out against "A" war is anti patriotic.

Soldiers Banned from Accessing YouTube and other sites

Before I start this post, let me just say I don't think anyone would disagree that militaryplanning, secrets etc. shouldn't be available to the enemy, and neither shouldwhat's happening on a daily basis in a war zone.

The U.S. Military has banned soldiers from accessing youtube, Myspace,Youtube, MTV,Blackplanet , photobucket,live365, hi5.com,pandora.com, 1.fm,and other sites.

US soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friendsand loved ones back home under a department of defense policy that ahigh-ranking army official said would take effect today.

The defense department will begin blocking access worldwide to YouTube, MySpaceand 11 other popular websites on its computers and networks, according to a memosent Friday by General BB Bell, the US Forces Korea commander.

The policy is being implemented to protect information and improve security aswell as reduce drag on the department's networks. "This recreationaltraffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing asignificant operational security challenge," Bell said in the memo.

The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharinginformation that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whetherelectronically or by other means. The new policy is different because it createsa blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages,pictures, video and audio with family and friends.

The U.S.Military launched its own youtube account  MNFIRAQ(Multi National Forces Iraq) where you can see some really great videos, such as'Iraqi Boy Scouts preparefor Jamboree', and 'TroopsGive Gifts to Iraqi Children', and mnay other awesome videos of the many successesthat are happening!

I suppose the military officials decided it was time to stop allowing all theinsignificant videos that have become widely viewed by all the anti-warkooks out there. 

MNFIRAQ currentlyhas 26 videos posted, (not THAT'S a lot of success!)

(Now where did I put that info...it's here somewhere, no not there, Oh! hereit is)

I've written on this before, and it looks like another step is popping up...Step8. 'Control the Press'

In some cases reporters have been wounded or killed, including ITN's TerryLloyd in 2003. Both CBS and the Associated Press in Iraq had staff members seized by the US military and taken to violent prisons; the news organizationswere unable to see the evidence against their staffers.

If youwant to see what the Bush administration and the conservative news media istalking about, and finally come to the realization that terrific things arehappening, and its the right thing to do, follow these simple steps;delete any bookmarks, videos, news articles from your computer; reprogram yourfavorite channels and replace with Fox News; Bookmark MNFIRAQ and watch all the videos and repeat, until you see 'It's not so bad, as amatter of fact there are many successes'.

Walter Reed Surprised Admin., but it Wasn't a Suprise (what a suprise!)

Everyone seemedso surprised when the Walter Reed scandal broke. Then Everyone saidthey will get to the bottom of the issue. Well it seems that Everyoneknew about the neglect of the soldiers in 2004 . The administration justbullshitted us again and simply neglected to prepare for the woundedsoldiers.

April 25, 2007 | WASHINGTON -- When the Walter Reed scandal exploded in themedia in February, bringing wide attention to inadequate care for veterans atthe Army's flagship hospital, Defense Department officials expressed shock andclaimed ignorance. Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant defense secretarywho oversees military medicine, declared at a press conference on Feb. 21:"This news caught me -- as it did many other people -- completely bysurprise."

But Salon has learned that the Defense Department had been conducting monthlyfocus group discussions with soldiers treated at Walter Reed since before thewars in Afghanistanand Iraq had evenbegun, and that it continued to do so as wounded veterans of those conflictsarrived at the facility. The interviews with outpatients were set up to monitorArmy healthcare and provide military officials with direct information about it.

"They were trying to find out the good and the bad and theugly," said a former Defense Department official familiar with the DoDfocus groups. "That is the good-news story. The bad-news story is they didnot do anything about it."

Until last week, the leaders of the Force Health Protection and Readinessoffice, which ran the interviews, reported to Winkenwerder. During his Feb. 21press conference, Winkenwerder suggested that money was not the source of theproblems at Walter Reed. "Let me just say, this is not a resourceissue," he told reporters. The next day, the White House announced thatWinkenwerder would be leaving his post. (His replacement, Dr. S. WardCasscells, a vice president of biotechnology at the University of Texas HealthScience Center, took over last week.)

Read the complete story at TheSalon.: "The Pentagon's Chronic Neglect of Iraq Vets"

So, if you don't agree with the war, you don't support the troops, but if yousupport the war you DO support the troops, just not the injured ones becausethey don't count? This would be a good question to ask the decider, because hecan straighten anything out!

 

 

Lack of Intelligence

I don't know if this guy is telling the truth or not, and I am sure he hassome terrorist ties, but that isn't what this post is about. It's about our intelligence,or lack thereof.

"DetaineeDenies Allegiance to bin Laden" -  In September 2006, advocating legislation for a Guantánamo war court,President Bush described Abu Zubaydah as ''a senior terrorist leader and atrusted associate of Osama bin Laden'' who survived wounds suffered duringhis capture because of CIA-orchestrated medical treatment.

He resisted interrogations, Bush said -- until the CIA employed ''analternative set of procedures'' and he spilled a series of al Qaeda plots.

If "an alternative set of procedures" gets information, how do youknow its the truth? It seems to me that throughout history people have"spilled their beans" because something "bad" was happening orabout to happen to them.

I don't have any answers to securing factual information from the enemy or a suspectedenemy, but somebody in the government better come up with some answers becauseour nations intelligence has a low IQ.

The NYT's also reports on this: DetaineeDenies Membership in Al Qaeda