Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Afghan War News Snippets


Climate Change in Afghanistan. This past week the leaders of the world converged in Paris to attend the climate conference. President Ghani attended as well. Read up on the problems of climate change in Afghanistan in "Before the Paris Conference: The state of Afghanistan's climate and its adaption capability", Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), November 30, 2015.

New MoD HQs Building. The Afghan military has a very new and large Ministry of Defense headquarters building in Kabul. (RS News, Nov 1, 2015).

RS HQs Dining Facility Named. The dining facility has been named after the late senior enlisted advisor of the Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan (CSTC-A) - SGM Wardell Turner. He was killed in Afghanistan in an improvised explosive device attack on November 24, 2014. (RS News, November 24, 2015).

Air Evacuation of Casualties Harmful? A recent news report suggests that the air evacuation of casualties with traumatic brain injury might cause additional damage to the patients. Read "Study: Air evacuating casualties might do more harm than good", The Washington Post, November 30, 2015.

Russia Helping Out . . . With 10,000 AKs. The Russian Federation has promised 10,000 Kalashnikov AK-47s to Kabul. They are expected to arrive before the end of the year. (Khaama Press, Nov 28, 2015).

'Heart of Asia'. A conference will soon be held to promote regional cooperation in South and Central Asia. The Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process has 14 member nations in the region. Read more in "Security Stability in Afghanistan, the 'Heart of Asia'", The Diplomat, December 2, 2015.

Poetry and Afghanistan. Lots of books are being published about the history of the U.S. military deployment during OEF to Afghanistan. But not many of them are about poetry. Randy Brown has penned Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems From Inside the Wire. Read about this new book in "The poetry of an Afghan deployment", Foreign Policy - The Best Defense Blog, November 30, 2015.

Germany Accepting Refugees . . . Not So Much. The majority of the 140,000 Afghans who have fled Afghanistan this year have ended up in Germany. Why not - it is a nice place to live, there are some jobs available, and the social safety net is way better than the one found in Afghanistan. However, there is just one sticking point. The welcome mat is no longer on the doorstep. Read more in "Merkel: We will have to return people to Afghanistan", Deutsche Welle, December 2, 2015.

Guantanamo Bay Prisoner - "Oops, Sorry About That". Looks like we had the wrong guy. A prisoner locked up for 13 years in Cuba was not the fellow we thought he was. Read more in "Guantanamo Bay prisoner victim of mistaken identity, says US", BBC News, December 2, 2015.

Afghanistan Looking to Central Asia for Internet Options. The Internet continues to see expanding usage in Afghanistan and the country is looking north for increased services at reduced prices. Read "Internet Draws Central Asia, Afghanistan Closer", Silk Road Reporters, December 2, 2015.

World Vision and WASH. UNOCHA provides funding for a project that installs water pumps. Watch 2-min video that provides insight to this program in Badghis province. (UNOCHA, Nov 30, 2015).

Photos of Afghanistan - Cultural in Kabul. Kabul's rich cultural landscape is sometimes overlooked with the news of constant danger. Have a look at some photos by Tyrell Mayfield in "Kabul: A Different View", The Diplomat, November 30, 2015.

More Photos of Afghanistan - Commerce in Kabul. A couple of photojournalists provides us with photos of life, labor and commerce in Kabul. (Bloomberg, Dec 1, 2015).

Political Economy of a District. War is continually present in many of Afghanistan's districts. This is especially true of Andar district in Ghazni province - and the economy suffers from this constant threat. Learn more in "Finding Business Opportunity in Conflict: Shopkeepers, Taleban, and the political economy of Andar district", Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), by Fazal Muzhary, December 2, 2015.

'Russian Taliban' Gets Life. A former military tank commander has been sentenced to life in prison for leading a Taliban attack on U.S. forces in Khost province, Afghanistan in 2009. He was a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan who stayed and joined the Haqqani Network. (Gandara Blog, Dec 4, 2015).

Plight of Deported Afghan Minors. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is reporting on the plight of Afghan teenagers who are smuggled across the border into Iran to seek employment. While making that journey they are often victimized and end up in unfavorable situations during their employment. Read more in "IOM Highlights Needs of Deported Afghan Minors", IOM, December 4, 2015.

More Female Afghan Lawyers Needed. Women held in detention face a troubling future. Their ability to seek justice is hampered by a lack of female lawyers. (RefWorld, Dec 3, 2015).

MEC Losing International Funding? USAID and other donors are threatening to stop funding the operations of the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) due to corrupt activities such as illegal salary increases, travel payment abuses, and other shady goings-on. Hmmm.

UN Address by Afg Ambassador. H.E. Mahmoud Saikal, the Afghan ambassador to the United Nations, made a presentation on November 30th about the situation in Afghanistan. (YouTube, UNAfghanistan, 20 minutes).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qJ1PX55iqo

Marine Forced Out - Had Warned of Insider Attack. A Marine officer is being forced out of the service because he disseminated classified information about the possibility of an insider attack in Afghanistan. He tried to warn other Marines about an insider attack that could occur because a corrupt Afghan police chief who was sexually abusing children. One of the child victims subsequently took possession of an AK-47 and killed three U.S. Marines. Read more in "Decision to force out Marine who sent warning ahead of insider attack upheld", The Washington Post, November 30, 2015.

Video - U.S. Army's Human Dimension Strategy. The Army needs a concerted effort in the implementation of a comprehensive human dimension strategy - to include development of agile and adaptive leaders, realistic training, and institutional agility. U.S. Army Center for Combat Arms, November 30, 2015. (YouTube, 5 mins).

Former Detainee Now DGov in Nangarhar. A detainee held by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay is now back in the fight; but working for the Afghan government. Read "Once in Guantanamo, Afghan Now Leads War Against Taliban and ISIS", The New York Times, November 27, 2015.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Afghan War Photos

A photographer embedded with the 3rd Cavalry Regiment in Afghanistan provides us with a glimpse of the war. View his 55 photos in "Embedded in Afghanistan", Baltimore Sun, December 23, 2014.


Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Photos of Afghan War

Stars and Stripes has posted some of its best photos from the Afghan War online. You can view them at "Afghanistan: A look back at 13 years of War".
http://media.stripes.com/i/AfghanWarGallery/#bar

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Photography and Afghanistan

An article about a photojournalist (Larry Towell) and his work in Afghanistan is presented by The New York Times (December 8, 2014) in "Losing the Media War in Afghanistan".

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Photos of Old Kabul

A professor at Arizona State University spent some time in Kabul with UNESCO teaching at the Higher Teachers College. While there he took some photos of Kabul in the late 1960s. Interesting contrast from Kabul of today! View the photos at this link on Radio Free Europe (November 29, 2014).