I'm very surprised that Karadzic has finally been captured.
BELGRADE - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world’s top war crimes fugitives, was arrested Monday evening in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country’s president and the U.N. tribunal said.
Karadzic is suspected of masterminding mass killings that the U.N. war crimes tribunal described as “scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.” The killings include the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Europe’s worst slaughter since World War II.
The soldiers moved into the two-story house in the Washash neighborhood in August. The Joint Security Station, as the outpost was formally known, had no running water or air conditioning. Exhausted from long shifts filling sandbags and manning guard posts, the Americans collapsed at night on cots and slept in sweltering rooms.
"It was misery," Wilhite said. "In one word, it was absolute misery."
They didn't trust their Iraqi colleagues. One of the company's first missions was to detain Wilhite's Iraqi counterpart, an army officer, because U.S. soldiers discovered he was working with his cousin, the area's top militia leader.
Many of the Iraqi soldiers were undisciplined and unmotivated, Wilhite said. They frequently fell asleep at checkpoints and sometimes stole the American soldiers' food.
Yes, you heard it correctly...Iraqi swagger, due largely in part to the work of Transition Teams. This is some very good news as long as they can keep this psychological momentum.
BAGHDAD - Wajih Hameed is an Iraqi general with an attitude.
With a satisfied look, he listened as a subordinate officer explained to the deputy commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad how he plans to reposition his troops in the coming weeks.
"Before, they would have asked us to propose a plan" in such a circumstance and then would have accepted it with little argument, said Brig. Gen. Will Grimsley, who led a group of American officers to Hameed's office on Thursday. "Now they are telling us how they will do it," he said in an interview afterward.
That word strikes apprehension into the heart of any Ranger School or Special Forces Qualification Course student. Here at Fort Riley, I somewhat expected it, since I knew I was on the "bench." Just found out yesterday right before the night M4/PEQ-2 qualification range. Yes, folks...another major's father died and he took emergency leave, so I've been turned back two classes to an Iraq class.
Pros:
I know where I'm going now (East Baghdad).
I've got a great team of guys (Active Duty, most with previous combat tours).
I know what type of team I'll be on (Iraqi National Police).
Cons:
I've got to flush my brain of everything I've learned about Afghanistan and focus on Iraq.
I'll be hanging around at Riley a couple more months.
I'm bankrupt.
Stay tuned...in a day or two, I'll have more info.
This will ensure that the Taliban have sanctuary inside the Pakistan border from pursuing Afghan and NATO forces, thus prolonging the conflict indefinitely.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Tribal elders and Pakistani authorities struck a deal Wednesday aimed at bringing peace to a militant-infested northwest region where a paramilitary offensive has tried to flush out insurgents, representatives said.
Meanwhile, about 700 army troops were sent to a separate northwest region to end a siege of a police station by militants demanding the release of fellow fighters, said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army's top spokesman.
The agreement in the Khyber tribal area was the latest manifestation of the new Pakistani government's preferred, and much-criticized, approach to ending extremism: negotiations. A top official warned, however, that ending the offensive depended on tribes meeting the conditions.
Some pretty cool footage below of the volley of various types. This should ensure high gas prices for quite some time.
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said were intended to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. or Israeli attack, state television reported.
The test-firings were widely condemned in the United States, notably by the White House and the two main presidential candidates.
The exercise was being conducted at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about 40 percent of the world's oil passes. Iran has threatened to shut down traffic in the strait if attacked.
This article just happened to pop up on MSN Live Today when I logged on. Kinda reminds me of myself. Going to the big sandbox is going to cure me of my roulette addiction hopefully, although I'm convinced that one can make money with a big enough initial bankroll and a low minimum bet and high table limit. Does that make me a pathological gambler?
"I started to get anxious about money around the time Sean was born. I felt tremendous pressure to give my children a better life than I'd had. I also lost touch with my old friends since my hours were so different from everyone else's. When I worked the 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift, I fell into the habit of stopping off at the dog track on the way home.
"At first it was a lark, something to do. I felt less lonely at the track. I would catch the last two or three races. The first couple of times I won decent money -- two nights in a row, I came home with more than five thousand dollars in my pocket. The next night, I gambled it all away.
"That became a pattern. Winning, losing, winning, losing. All the time I was betting, I was trying to pay off the bills, too. When I was short, I'd get cash advances on my credit card to use at the track. Or I'd borrow from my mother, even daughter once or twice. I didn't want Kim to know. I was secretive and defensive, and when she confronted me or asked about money, I'd clam up or lash out at her. And I adamantly denied that I was gambling.
"As time went on, I got deeper and deeper in debt. Of course, I lied through my teeth and told her I'd never do it again, but all I was waiting for was another chance at the track.
I suppose the peaceniks are going to be royally pissed about this, but aren't they always?
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The United States and the Czech Republic have signed an initial agreement to begin basing part of a U.S. missile shield in the former Soviet territory.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday in Prague that the shield is a good deal for the Czech Republic and for Poland, where the United States hopes to place another part of the system, though Warsaw hasn't yet agreed.
Rice said the next American president will have to decide whether and how to go forward with the missile defense system, but she made the case that the threat from Iran is growing and it is hard to imagine any administration giving up an effective deterrent.
Some pretty good detective work by the Washington Post.
HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe summoned his top security officials to a government training center near his rural home in central Zimbabwe on the afternoon of March 30. In a voice barely audible at first, he informed the leaders of the state security apparatus that had enforced his rule for 28 years that he had lost the presidential vote held the previous day.
Then Mugabe told the gathering he planned to give up power in a televised speech to the nation the next day, according to the written notes of one participant that were corroborated by two other people with direct knowledge of the meeting.
But Zimbabwe's military chief, Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, responded that the choice was not Mugabe's alone to make. According to two firsthand accounts of the meeting, Chiwenga told Mugabe his military would take control of the country to keep him in office or the president could contest a runoff election, directed in the field by senior army officers supervising a military-style campaign against the opposition.
BAQOUBA, Iraq - It’s Staff Sgt. Edgar Covarrubias’ second Fourth of July in Iraq. No family barbecue, no fireworks, but Covarrubias says he’ll call his mom, wife and kids to share the day anyway.
Across Iraq, America’s Independence Day was a normal work day for most U.S. troops. But the military threw in a taste of home at larger bases with ribs, corn on the cob and red, white and blue cake.
The holiday is even leaner at smaller outposts closer to the violence, where it comes with a can of meat, some cookies and a job not yet done.
Too bad we can't declare independence from Muslim oil. If everyone were to join me in obeying posted speed limits, we'd bring those bastards to their knees.
I guess we're going to have to surge in Afghanistan now to achieve a Band-Aid effect like we have in Iraq.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban's growing strength.
The fundamentalist militia in June staged a sophisticated jailbreak that freed 886 prisoners, then briefly infiltrated a strategic valley outside Kandahar. Last week, a Pentagon report forecast the Taliban would maintain or increase its pace of attacks, which are already up 40 percent this year from 2007 where U.S. troops operate along the Pakistan border.
Some observers say the insurgency has gained dangerous momentum. And while June also saw the international community meet in Paris to pledge $21 billion in aid, an Afghanistan expert at New York University warns that there is still no strategy to turn that commitment into success.
Ms. Rice goes to Korea to talk about North Korean nukes and instead gets bogged down with these anti-American beef idiots.
SEOUL - Flying toward the Korean Peninsula on Saturday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was compelled by events on the ground to refocus her threat-assessment radar.
She shifted from the risks of nuclear weapons produced by North Korea to the risks of beef produced by American ranchers.
"I can only say that American beef is safe," Rice told reporters on her plane. "And we hope that in time the South Korean people will listen."
This is good news, as long as they can hold the ground after they clear it.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Paramilitary troops returned Sunday to posts they had abandoned months ago in the Khyber region as Pakistani forces widened their offensive against militants in the volatile tribal area along the Afghan border, an official said.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the government was forced to take action because it faced an "immediate problem" from militants near the city of Peshawar and in the Swat Valley.
The government launched the operation Saturday after the militants began threatening Peshawar and ambushed supply convoys bound for U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan.
I've been thinking...if North Korea is sincere, then this may be the boost to bring the global economy out of its slump....
YONGBYON, North Korea - North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program Friday in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs.
An explosion at the base of the cylindrical structure sent the tower collapsing into a cloud of white and gray smoke that billowed into blue skies as international journalists and diplomats looked on, according to video footage filmed by broadcaster APTN at the site.
The demolition of the 60-foot-tall cooling tower at the North’s main reactor complex is a response to U.S. concessions after the North delivered a declaration Thursday of its nuclear programs to be dismantled.
Barracks life sucks. I've been eaten alive by mosquitoes, it's hot and muggy, and I have to listen to all kinds of stories from cool guys who have been to Iraq or Afghanistan multiple times talking about how many guys they've shot up, what medals and badges they have, how they make fun of the Muslims, how much sex they had from military females who whore themselves in the Sandbox, how much it cost, and so on and so forth. Then I get woken up when they come in from the strip clubs drunk late at night.
Today I caught a Puerto Rican trying to steal my HP iPaq 310 Navigation PDA.
Other than shitty barracks life, the training is top-notch. I've learned so much Afghan cultural stuff, all about the plethora of SATCOM/SINCGARS/BFT comms systems we'll be using, and tomorrow I'll be doing HMMWV night/day training for my first time since 1993. We're also going into a rollover simulator so we can pretend we're escaping a burning HMMWV and helping our buddies escape after the Iranian-made IED/EFP hits us and blows the HMMWV all to hell.
Heaven? Hell? It's all a bunch of fairy tales and bullshit, and here's more proof that there is no God or Satan. If the religious can't even make up their minds, who can?
But deeper investigation found that more than one in four Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and Orthodox Christians expressed some doubts about God's existence, as did six in ten Jews.
Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent "absolutely certain" of it.
"Look, this shows the limits of a survey approach to religion," said Peter Berger, a theology and sociology professor at Boston University. "What do people really mean when they say that many religions lead to eternal life? It might mean they don't believe their particular truth at all. Others might be saying, 'We believe a truth but respect other people, and they are not necessarily going to hell.'"
The faster someone figures out that there is no God, the faster that person will have a great weight lifted off his/her shoulder. I came to the epiphany last month as I uttered one final unanswered prayer in a string of thousands and watched as all hope faded with a few spins of the roulette wheel.
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO launched two artillery strikes across the border into Pakistan after attackers hiding there fired a barrage of rockets into Afghanistan that killed three children, officials said Sunday.
The cross-border fighting could heighten diplomatic tension over Pakistan's inability to stop Islamic militants from operating from its territory — and whether forces in Afghanistan have the right to strike back.
NATO said five rockets were fired at one of its bases in Khost province overnight. At least one hit a house in Kunday, a small village that sits between two military bases, killing the three children. Another hit a NATO base, wounding an Afghan man, the alliance said.
On the surface at least, it sounds as if this little drama is drawing to a close.
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan - Afghan and NATO forces have cleared Taliban militants from a strategic group of villages they had infiltrated outside southern Afghanistan's largest city, Afghan officials said Thursday.
Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said militants fled the villages in Arghandab district after overnight battles and airstrikes. Khalid claimed "hundreds" of Taliban were wounded or killed over the last several days of fighting.
NATO officials have not confirmed that figure or said whether Arghandab is now militant-free. But NATO spokesman Mark Laity did confirm that the alliance launched a "limited number of successful airstrikes" overnight.
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