Category: South Asia

More Indian Competition for F^%$ed Up Defense Contracting

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It appears that India’s Tejas fighter is not meeting performance specs. It’s take off thrust and low speed performance with the US F-404 engine is lacking.

This is surprising, since the F-404 is a very known quantity, it’s been flying for 25 years, and one must assume that this is an issue of problems of engine integration/inlet design.

The F-404 was intended as an interim engine, but:

The failure has been attributed to insufficient available thrust from the aircraft’s General Electric F404 engine, and underlines India’s need to replace the US design with the Kaveri powerplant now under development by its Gas Turbine Research Establishment. In common with the wider Tejas programme, the Kaveri project has been dogged by development delays and cost escalations, which have forced New Delhi to order additional F404s to power its initial production batch of lightweight fighters.

It sounds like the Arjun all over again.

What’s more, it now appears that they are having problems with the radar:

New Delhi in mid-August announced a co-operative agreement under which its defence industry will develop the aircraft’s multi-mode radar with Israel Aerospace Industries’ Elta Systems subsidiary.

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The initiative will replace previous work conducted by the Bangalore-based Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, with technical hitches having prevented a radar design from being integrated with a prototype Tejas.

Antony says the new fire-control radar is needed to support demonstration flights of the fully developed and armed fighter from 2010, and Israeli sources reveal that the sensor will be a further development of Elta’s EL/M-2052 active electronically scanned array.

So, they have just dumped an indigenous system for a largely developed system.

Brits to US: Sod Off in Afghanistan!!!

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This is interesting, it appears that the British operating in Southern Afghanistan want the US to stop operations in their area.

A senior British commander in southern Afghanistan said in recent weeks that he had asked that American Special Forces leave his area of operations because the high level of civilian casualties they had caused was making it difficult to win over local people.

ther British officers here in Helmand Province, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized American Special Forces for causing most of the civilian deaths and injuries in their area. They also expressed concerns that the Americans’ extensive use of air power was turning the people against the foreign presence as British forces were trying to solidify recent gains against the Taliban.

An American military spokesman denied that the request for American forces to leave was ever made, either formally or otherwise, or that they had caused most of the casualties. But the episode underlines differences of opinion among NATO and American military forces in Afghanistan on tactics for fighting Taliban insurgents, and concerns among soldiers about the consequences of the high level of civilians being killed in fighting.

The US military has a culture that is disastrous in a counter-insurgency situation.

There is a general disregard for civilian casualties, and an understanding of these consequences that I believe comes from an unwillingness to ascribe basic human motives to the indigenous population, along with an over-reliance on air-power.

This racism (and what else can you call dehumanizing someone in this way) is disastrous in a counter-insurgency situation, and the British are calling the US on this.

I understand the difficulties of dealing with a situation where the insurgents blend into the population, but if a police force were to, as a matter of policy, shoot hostages, there would be justified outrage.

This is worse than wrong, it’s aiding the enemy.

Pervez Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto Met in Secret

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I’m not sure what to make of this news, but the fact that Musharraf and Bhutto have met in secret is significant.

I think that more than anything else, it is an indication of how profoundly weak Pres. Musharraf has become.

Pakistan, due to extensive meddling in the area by the US and USSR, have created a nuclear armed entity that is in many ways close to a failed state where government fails to reach into much of the country, particularly the oft mentioned “tribal areas”.

Tillman Coverup May Obscure a Murder

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While it has been clear for some time that Pat Tillman’s death resulted in an orgy of military ass covering, it now appears that there are uninvestigated evidence of foul play, so the friendly fire might not be so friendly.

It’s already clear that Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan, did not like Bush, and thought that Iraq was an illegal war, but here are the quick points of the article:

  • The doctors – whose names were blacked out – said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

  • In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop “sniveling.”

  • Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.

  • The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman’s death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn’t recall details of his actions.

  • No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene – no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.

The above General is being demoted, BTW.

Us Screwing the Pooch in Afghanistan

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It appears that the Italy Foreign Minister is calling on the US to end operation Enduring Freedom in Afghaninstan.

The Italian foreign minister said Wednesday that the separate U.S.-led operation in Afghanistan overlaps with NATO’s mission and should be ended.

Massimo D’Alema, speaking to a parliamentary commission, said the NATO mission and the U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom raise problems of coordination, posing risks for the Afghan population.

His comments reflected recent NATO concerns that civilian casualties could undermine public support for the international security mission in Afghanistan.

Basically, this comes down to the fact that the US’s bomb-happy policies in Afghanistan are driving Afghans to the Taliban, and interfering with rebuilding and securing the country.

Basically, it appears that the US military needs adult supervision.

I don’t find this surprising. The US military has been disdainful of these sorts of operations since it adopted its post Vietnam mindset, as evidenced by steadfast refusals to apprehend people with credible allegations of crimes against humanity in Kosovo.

Ten Schoolgirls Murdered for Bush’s Oedipal Issues

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This is what George W. Bush’s Oedipal obsession with Iraq has bought us: the Taliban taking over Afghanistan again.

As War Enters Classrooms, Fear Grips Afghans
By BARRY BEARAK

QALAI SAYEDAN, Afghanistan, July 9 — With their teacher absent, 10 students were allowed to leave school early. These were the girls the gunmen saw first, 10 easy targets walking hand-in-hand through the blue metal gate and on to the winding dirt road.

The staccato of machine-gun fire pelted through the stillness. A 13-year-old named Shukria was hit in the arm and the back, and then teetered into the soft brown of an adjacent wheat field. Zarmina, her 12-year-old sister, ran to her side, listening to the wounded girl’s precious breath and trying to help her stand.

But Shukria was too heavy to lift, and the two gunmen, sitting astride a single motorbike, sped closer.

As Zarmina scurried away, the men took a more studied aim at those they already had shot, killing Shukria with bullets to her stomach and heart. Then the attackers seemed to succumb to the frenzy they had begun, forsaking the motorbike and fleeing on foot in a panic, two bobbing heads — one tucked into a helmet, the other swaddled by a handkerchief — vanishing amid the earthen color of the wheat.

Six students were shot here on the afternoon of June 12, two of them fatally. The Qalai Sayedan School — considered among the very best in the central Afghan province of Logar — reopened only last weekend, but even with Kalashnikov-toting guards at the gate, only a quarter of the 1,600 students have dared to return.

Shootings, beheadings, burnings and bombings: these are all tools of intimidation used by the Taliban and others to shut down hundreds of Afghanistan’s public schools. To take aim at education is to make war on the government.

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Taliban Learns from Iraq Insurgents

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You this whole “fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here”, bulls$%@ is going swimmingly.

We have created a petri dish for terrorists, and proving and training grounds for tactics ant technology to be used against us.

If this is safer, I’m going to have start taking up French Kissing Cobras as a hobby.

Taliban adopt deadly Iraqi tactics
6 Canadian soldiers and interpreter die as insurgents use powerful bomb against Canada’s strongest troop carrier

GRAEME SMITH

July 5, 2007

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Six Canadian soldiers and their interpreter died yesterday as the Taliban continued to launch bold attacks inside zones considered mostly pacified, shifting their tactics toward the kind of bombings that have proved devastating in Iraq.

About a dozen military vehicles, Canadian and Afghan, were driving west along a gravel road after finishing a search of a village about 20 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, when a powerful bomb detonated at 11 a.m. local time.

The explosion engulfed an RG-31 Nyala troop carrier, a vehicle manufactured in South Africa and specifically designed with a boat-like hull to withstand mine blasts. It’s the Canadians’ strongest vehicle against roadside bombs, but the insurgents have recently been wiring up bigger caches of ordnance and more sophisticated-shaped charges into their so-called improvised explosive devices, breaking through even the best armour.

“We’re not perfect and we do miss some, as we have seen today,” said Brigadier-General Tim Grant, the top Canadian commander in Afghanistan. “But the battle against the Taliban and the battle against their choice of weapons, IED, is successful.”

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And in The OTHER War….

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This is why the Iraq debacle is so damaging.

As a result, we are now losing TWO wars, not just one.

Taliban fighters seize south Afghan area – Yahoo! News

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban militants overran a district in southern
Afghanistan and are pushing for control of another key area, sparking fierce clashes with
NATO and Afghan forces that have left more than 100 people dead over three days, officials said Tuesday.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters launched raids on police posts near the strategic town of Chora in Uruzgan province Saturday, forcing NATO, backed by fighter jets, to respond. Fighting was continuing Tuesday, and some officials reported there have been dozens of civilian casualties.

Also late Monday, Taliban occupied Miya Nishin district in neighboring Kandahar province, said provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai. Authorities were planning an operation to retake the remote area, he said.

The insurgent push in the south appears to be the biggest Taliban offensive of the year and marks a change in tactics.

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We’re F&^%ing Up Afghanistan

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This is why Iraq is so dangerous. There are places in the world that need those resources.

U.S. Troops Kill 7 Afghan Police

U.S. Troops Kill 7 Afghan Police
Tuesday, Jun. 12, 2007 By AP
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(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Afghan police mistakenly thought U.S. troops on a nighttime mission were Taliban fighters and opened fire on them, prompting U.S. forces to return fire and call in attack aircraft, killing seven Afghan police, officials said Tuesday.

U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops, meanwhile, killed more than 24 suspected Taliban fighters during an eight-hour battle in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the coalition said.

President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman labeled the shooting at a remote police checkpoint in the eastern province of Nangarhar ‘a tragic incident’ caused by a lack of communication.

‘The police forces were not aware of the coalition’s operation,’ said spokesman Karim Rahimi. ‘The police checkpoint in the area thought that they were the enemy, so police opened fire on the coalition, and then the coalition thought that the enemies were firing on them, so they returned fire back.’

The commander at the post, Esanullah, who goes by one name, said U.S. gunfire and helicopter rockets killed seven policemen and wounded four.

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