While the world is focusing in the Middle East protests and in the almost civil-war in Libya, the African country of Côte d’Ivoire is spiraling towards a total civil war. The situation began to deteriorate when Alassane Ouattara, a former Ivorian prime minister, was certified as winner in the November’s presidential runoff by the country’s electoral commission and the UN. Then Laurent Gbagbo, who had been president of the country since 2000, declared victory claiming that the vote counting was flawed and refused to step down. Read the rest of this entry »

From one day to the next the West changes its attitude towards the Libyan crisis. Ominously, some leaders have been beating the drums of war. One day leaders like British Prime Minister Cameron, are asking for a non-flying zone and the next, probably when they realize what that would entail, they retreat. It is worrisome and dangerous as anything can happen. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week after a short visit to Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Washington’s year-old surge strategy for the war was working and pulling U.S. troops of major combat by 2014 was a goal that could be met. Read the rest of this entry »

In a televised address from the Oval Office, President Obama declared last evening an end to the seven-year Iraq war in a rather gloomy speech befitting a grim and violent war. He said that the United states had met its responsibility towards Iraq and that now it was time to turn to problems at home. Read the rest of this entry »

From Katmandu to Kosovo the world marks today the International Day of the Disappeared, most of them the unsung victims of wars and forced victims of dictatorships regimes and conflicts. Read the rest of this entry »

Spain was mourning today the death of two Spanish officers and their interpreter, a Spanish citizen of Iranian origin, who were slain yesterday in Afghanistan. The killings took place in Badghis province in the northwest of the country , where Spanish forces are training police recruits as part of a NATO effort to turn over responsibility for security to the Afghan army and police. Read the rest of this entry »

Plans made for Afghanistan by the Obama administration are not going totally according to the goals that were made. Maybe because in some cases they appeared to be more wishes that real plans for something that could succeed. In any case, the so much talked about ’surge’ has had mixed results. Read the rest of this entry »