One of the agreements taken at the NATO summit in Lisbon was that after the coalition would start turning the security control to the Afghans this spring, the transition would be completed by the year 2014. Even if the NATO leaders approved this, Western experts have indicated that the majority of Afghanistan’s police are untrained and do not know the law. Read the rest of this entry »

While Obama was on his Asian trip and is now in the G20 summit, not finding it easy to defend the US economic actions and proposals, we have just learned that once he is back home he is going to give us a few surprises. Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend we received once more distressing news from Afghanistan. There had been a tragic and failed attempt to rescue Linda Norgrove, the 36 year-old British aid worker who had been kidnapped last month by armed men wearing the uniform of the Afghan army.<!–more–> It would appear that a decision to launch the rescue operation was agreed by the Nato forces as it was feared that Linda Norgrove was in danger of being taken by his captors to the al-Qaeda in Pakistan. While that decision is debatable and impossible to judge now when it is too late to be sorry due to the tragic developments that finally took place. Unaware of the decision being made and in most cases even of the abduction of the aid worker, most of us heard the news when the British Foreign Office released a statement explaining that Linda had been killed by the explosion of a bomb one of her captors had detonated during the attempt by her American would be rescuers to liberate her. It was only later on, when the Americans reviewed the video of the operation that they changed the story. Apparently, it was one of the American troops that threw a grenade which ended up killing Linda. Thus Monday British Prime Minister, David Cameron said that he had to announce the “deeply regrettable” news that Linda Norgrove was not after all killed when one of her captors detonated a suicide vest but probably by an American grenade.Many of us are now wondering what really happened as it seems that we had already been there before. The case of Pat Tillman is the most documented one that comes to mind. Has this been another attempt at a cover up? That the Americans were the ones involved in the so called rescue it is understandable as Linda was hold in an area of Afghanistan the American troops are in charge. The main questions are the almost sudden decision for the rescue at that time, why the American troops threw grenades in such an attemp and why they went to such length to explain the alledge cause of Linda’s death when the reality was bound to come out? A reality which has made President Obama phone Prime Minister Cameron to promise to “get to the bottom” of last Friday failed rescue attempt.

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 »

British Prime Minister David Cameron, in power since last May, arrives Tuesday to the US for his first official visit. In the UK there is a lot of expectation about the treatment he will receive by the Obama administration. The British have not forgotten the shoddy treatment the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown got last year during his White House visit. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday the country was celebrating. After all the depressing news of the past months, it was a kind of catharsis that everybody needed. Unfortunately the problems did not disappear and we have to continue facing them. Read the rest of this entry »

In the US the controversy about General McChrystal’s interview published in the Rolling Stone magazine has exploded. And not at the best time for President Obama who has a number of problems in his hands, specially the disaster about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Read the rest of this entry »