Double Digit Economic growth for Afghanistan

Upon hearing this, I'm as skeptical as anyone. Really, Afghanistan has growth comparable to the rates of India and China? Well, for one, as the article notes, they're starting much lower than either of the two Asian Giants. But its interesting to hear such news coming from landlocked and war torn country and somewhat hopeful as well. Obviously the biggest prerequisite for a growing economy is political stability, which has been a problem for Afghanistan for most its existence. American support is crucial and if Obama gets his way, then America is out as of 2012; or at least in terms of active military presence. This says nothing for the future of American bases though. Whether the nation can pull out of the trend is dependent on quite a lot of other factors, but the New York Post article sheds a hopeful light on the future of Afghanistan.

Read the Article here

Pakistan supporting the Taliban insurgency

Or at least that's what it seems based on a new cache of documents released by Wikileaks. According to the documents, which are classified as reliable by the US military, Pakistan's Intelligence and Spy Agency are working directly with the Taliban and Al Qaeda to coordinate resistance and suicide attacks. As much as I dislike Obama's foreign policy for dealing with Afghanistan, he ran on the premise of expanding the fight into Pakistan, which he did with the bombing of several regions. I wonder if his campaign promises are going to take him further into Pakistan's borders than he anticipated.

The New York Times sums up the release here.

Photos from Afghanistan

A collection of photos coming out of America's longest war courtesy of the Big Picture.

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/afghan_06_30_10/a01_24008185.jpg

Petraeus will get whatever he wants?

Well, well, well — where have we seen this before? The indiscreet U.S. commander whose tongue digs his own grave. The stunning resignation submitted within hours of the magazine's online posting of the story. And General David Petraeus — yet again — as the go-to choice as America's turnaround specialist. Amidst all the nonstop chatter from pundits, politicians, and former ambassadors, allow me to distance myself from the familiar situation I was in with Admiral William Fallon and sift through the tea leaves to look ahead at Petraeus's new gig. Because there are magazine stories, and then there is war. And because — who knows? — Afghanistan may be a lot better off, and Obama may have picked his replacement in more ways than one.

Read the full article here...

Russian supported rebellion in Kyrgyzstan

"Kyrgyzstan’s self-proclaimed new leadership said on Thursday that Russia had helped to oust President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, and that they aimed to close a U.S. airbase that has irritated Moscow.

Their comments set Wednesday’s overthrow of Mr. Bakiyev, who fled the capital Bishkek as crowds stormed government buildings, firmly in the context of superpower rivalry in Central Asia."

More here...

My Comments: Take a look at the map and notice Kyrgyzstan's proximity to the Afghanistan. It's no wonder the US might lure the small nation into its sphere of influence with promises of aid and support in exchange for a small air base for use in operations in Afghanistan.

But lets zoom out for a second.

Kyrgyzstan is also within very close proximity to Russia, a world power and was a former Soviet Republic of the Soviet Union. In placing an air base in Kyrgyzstan the US under the Bush II administration made a threatening move to Russian security, and now Russia is using its growing influence, and a weakened US influence in the region, to claim the territory back.

However, it should be noted that the air base was a transit base, as opposed to a base supporting war aircraft or housing troops and it was primarily used to pour men into Afghanistan. Furthermore, the Obama administration failed to negotiate new terms for the base and it was scheduled for closing in 2009. Apparently, negotiations had been ongoing since 2007.

Russia is on the rise again to secure it's borders. With a Moscow led Economic Union in the works for 2012, including Kazakhstan as a keystone member, Kyrgyzstan's neighbor, and the Obama administration's "reset" of relations with Russia, its no wonder Putin is seeking to re-establish Russian dominance in its former Soviet Republics.