Update on missing recon team in Afghanistan:
Topic: General News.

I wrote previously about the missing Navy Seals, in Kunar province Afghanistan, but at the time I didn’t know that two had been found dead and another is still missing. That leaves one still unaccounted for. The mysterious Taliban spokesman Mullah Latif Hakimi had said at the weekend that one soldier had been captured and there would be video in a few days. [Yeah, right.] While this search is on-going in Kunar province the U.S. has admitted to killing 17 civilians in a town called Chechal after dropping two bombs on a house that the pentagon said was a “terrorist target.” Naturally, the weapons used were “precision guided munitions” from a B-52 so if they got killed its their own fault. It appears the civilians were killed when they went to look at the wreckage of the initial attack. The pentagon says “the targeted compound was a known operating base for terrorist attacks in Kunar province as well as a base for medium level terrorist leaders.” Strange how the bodycount is exactly the number of our dead, so far, isn’t it [Not exactly: there is another American missing after falling down a ravine in a humvee.] “U.S. forces “regret the loss of innocent lives…however, when enemy forces move their families into locations where they conduct terrorist operations, they put innocent civilians at risk.” See? It’s entirely their fault. Where exactly are the “terrorists” supposed to take their families anyway? I mean the whole country is a war zone. Why couldn’t they have waited to use their precision-guided weapons for a more opportune moment when the medium-level terrorists were actually engaging in combat?

What is surprising about his story is the reaction from our good allies in the Afghan government. The New York Times quotes a spokesman for Hamid Karzai, Jawed Ludin, as saying, “We know terrorists kill people, destroy mosques and schools…but we should be careful not to cause harm or kill people. That is unacceptable.” Wow, Karzai keeps this up and he’s going to have to hire his own bodyguards.

Central Asia for the Central Asians!

Now comes news, just as W is running over Scottish policemen on his mountain bike at the Gleneagles resort at the G-8 summit, that the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” a group of Central Asian nations plus China and Russia is saying ‘here’s your hat what’s your hurry’ to their buddy Dubya. Our allies in the war on terror in the region “regard it as essential that the relevant members of the antiterrorist coalition set final deadlines for the temporary use of said infrastructure facilities and for the presence of military contingents of members countries.” [Deadlines and bench-marks, isn’t that what L. Paul Bremer was always talking about?] All the countries in the area apparently prefer to deal with Vlad the Impaler rather than the cowboy from Waco. This is a bit puzzling considering we’ve been throwing powder puffs at Islam Karimov since the massacre in Andijan. Perhaps they are confused by the messages we’re sending them. While Foggy Bottom hurls diplomatic arrows at the regime, the pentagon sends trunks of money. Maybe, certain dictators are afraid Condi Rice’s rhetoric about ‘instability is good for democracy’ might actually be serious. They see us bogged down in Iraq, militarily and diplomatically, they see how much we owe China in debt and are thinking they might just go with the up and coming power, China. They smell blood in the water. Obviously, Russia is good for cheap weapons and they speak the language and they are a moderately valuable counter balance to the ravenous Chinese dragon, but they’re still pretty weak. Add Hugo Chavez trying to set up a regional oil cartel in the Caribbean; with ambitions of countering the U.S. in the hemisphere and you start to see a pattern forming here. Bush and Co. say we can invade where ever we want, when ever we want, and the rest of the world starts thinking maybe they have more in common with eachother than they thought they had. Get rid of those petrodollars, we’ve got the Euro now!

Israel creates facts on the ground.

The Israelis president Moshe Katsav told Israeli Army radio that extremists in the settler movement might try “and carry out extremist acts…like trying to kill the prime minister [Ariel Sharon],” in order to stop the pullout from the Gaza strip. Pretty strong stuff there; what has the world come to when Arik is the most hated political leader in the settler crowd? Even Effie Eitam, Mr. ethnic cleansing nut job, said the settlers had crossed the “red-line” by attacking Palestinians and blocking roads. Will wonders never cease? There is one thing that is going on that I sort of alluded to yesterday, that while the media is transfixed by the Supreme Court battle, Israel would try to pull something. I was only half joking. It seems the government has decided to start bulldozing Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem again. (8 houses on Monday) There are thousands of Palestinian houses built without permits (as if they could ever obtain them), that are on a list to be knocked down. Of course, this has nothing to do with creating more “facts on the ground” that will leave Israel is complete control of East Jerusalem even before anything is negotiated with the PA leading to the creation of a Palestinian state. Oh, pooh-pooh!