A sex poll came out 2 1/2 years ago, but I am only just now hearing about it. Oh, well, it seems like sex is always leaving me standing at the station these days.
The articles on the poll deal with teenagers having lots of oral sex, apparently instead of intercourse. The article all act like this is horrible, but I actually think it is good. Despite my feast or famine bachelor life, I actually do love sex, and I am a sexual liberationist. The articles mostly fuss on and on about all of the diseases one can acquire from oral sex.
First of all, this is part of an insane national neurosis we have long had in this nation about sex. Europeans have long commented on it. We are Puritans yet we demand that Americans be having sex continuously. Even if they are not married. Even if they are not 18.
Yes, it is true. There's a $6 billion dollar a year porn industry and we are in the midst of a Mass Hysteria called Child Molester Hysteria. Although there are reasons to worry about adult sex abuse of children, I really fear that this is part of our neurosis about teenagers, especially teenage girls, having sex.
Child Molester Hysteria, the way I understand it, pretty much makes it illegal for teenage girls to get laid. If she does it, the guy's a molester, no matter what his age is. It is understandable that conservatives, Christians, married men and vaginized males of all types would be behind this Protect Our Teenage Girls! bullshit. What doesn't add up is that the feminists are behind it too.
Yep, feminists, the very women who ought to supporting teenage girls who choose to have sex, who ought to even be urging girls to learn to have an orgasm by age 15 since science shows waiting longer increases the odds she will never get one, are leading the charge of this preposterously chivalrous, putting girls on a pedestal nonsense.
Anyway, on the article . Article says, teenagers not screwing so much, good. Having oral sex instead, bad. Why is it bad? Because, the article worries, you can get VD. What sorts of VD can you get? Well, syphilis, warts (HPV), gonorrhea and herpes. Well, let us look at this notion.
As far as cunnilingus goes, it would be quite hard to catch much of anything from doing that. You would be better off to worry about getting hit by a meteor. So go ahead and do it! To your heart's content! She'll love ya for it, guys!
Now, onto fellatio. It is true that one can get gonorrhea of the throat from doing this, but it's not a common problem, except maybe in the gay community. Syphilis is quite rare outside the gay community, and you always just very noticeable symptoms. So it's not much to worry about.
About herpes, well, one out of every six adults has it anyway and it won't kill you. It comes on strong at first, then it fades to an annoyance, and there are drugs that take out the flareups. So no worries.
HPV is much more troubling here since research shows that you can catch it in your throat, and it apparently can lead to throat cancer. I'm at a loss for words about this, but I don't think it's the worry of the century.
Lesbianism got a lot of writeup in the study. Apparently 14.4% of young women aged 20-24 have tried it with another female. That's interesting, but it's got to be higher than that. Only 6.5% of males that age have done it with another guy. Those figures have got to be wrong.
What's interesting is that whenever they go out and do these face to face surveys about sex and dope, they come with some very low figures for both gay sex and dope. No one wants to fess up to being a fag or a doper, even if they were only gay for a day, or if they didn't inhale.
But recently a new study allowed persons to answer questions about sex and dope anonymously via computer in a locked room. They were assured repeatedly that there would be no way to link up their computer answers with their actual selves, since the testers themselves were not grading the tests.
As one might expect, scores for sex and drug use for young Canadians were much higher when the answers were submitted via computer privacy than via face to face.
The authors considered that maybe people were making stuff up on the tests, but then rejected that. Testers had been closely questioned before about the importance of being honest on their answers. If they were inclined to make stuff up, they were asked not to take the test.
The numbers for current homosexual behavior among this group of young Canadian males were about 13-14%. Most of it seemed to be what we would call opportunistic homosexuality, or bisexuality, among especially single males. I don't intend to have sex with males myself, but as a young men I saw epidemic levels of opportunistic male homosexuality all around me among young males, especially single ones.
This was in Southern California in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
Other studies have shown some fairly high levels of males experimenting with homosexuality. Kinsey got 37% lifetime, but his work has been questioned. The Playboy Survey of the 1970's got 25% lifetime, and I always thought that was about right.
The same computer surveys above also found remarkably higher drug use among respondents than face to face surveys found, especially of hard drugs like PCP or heroin.
One of the major findings of the study was that more and more straight folks are getting into anal sex. 40% of men have tried it, and 35% of women have. That's about double previous surveys. Gay men have always gone in for this kind of sex bigtime for obvious reasons. I'm not going to say much about this for myself except to say I don't have much interest in that sex act.
Porn has made anal sex very popular, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.
As a sexual liberationist, I really don't care how people do it. I think people ought to consider that there may be a health downside to this type of sex. I have seen reports on bulletin boards of women aged 30 or so who had lots of anal sex in their 20's who know have to wear a type of diaper because they have lost some control over their bowels. That's called anal incontinence.
I don't know how much anal sex you have to have before something terrible like this happens to you, but it's something people might want to think about before they jump into anal sex too much.
There are all sorts of gay rights types and sex educators that say there is no way this can happen to you if you practice anal sex the right way, but I wish they would spell out their theory in clear science so it's something more than a crap shoot.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Showing posts with label Feminism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Feminism. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Maoists Are Ruling Nepal
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated December 7:
The news has been pretty confusing for a long time coming out of Nepal. The Nepalese Maoists laid down their guns and gave up armed struggle for a variety of reasons, after a brutal civil war in which 13,000 people were killed, 10,000 of them by the security forces.
The Maoists decided to try to seek power by peaceful means. They seem to have won about 1/3 of the vote in the nation's first real democratic elections. They got into power, apparently in a coalition with some other parties.
They are now part of a ruling coalition in Nepal. One of the first things this new government did was to get rid of the Nepalese monarchy. The next agenda was to call for a Constituent Assembly, apparently in order to rewrite the Constitution. This was their program toward the end of the war - an end to monarchy, a constituent assembly, a true multiparty democracy with the right to dissent.
I've been reading quite a few interview with these guys, especially with their leader, Prachandra. He has taken the position that Marxists need to toss out Stalin, Lenin and even Mao, or at least not follow them to the letter. He says that they all had some good ideas too, but Marxism has moved beyond them. In particular, he takes the fascinating position that modern Marxists should support full democracy.
His argument is that in Nepal, the Maoists' program will be so popular that they hope to get re-elected over and over. It is true that this party has managed to get huge support on the ground. He also says that socialism has to be completely democratic, with civil liberties for all.
One of Prachandra's arguments is that with the world in such a death grip of imperialism these days, Communists have to adjust themselves to that reality and try to make some sort of peace with imperialism, at least in order to survive.
This has caused quite a rift in the International Communist Movement. Most non-Maoists haven't had much to say about it, but the debate in Maoist circles has never quit. There are supporters of the CPN-M and opponents of them.
The opponents take the line that the CPN-M should not take part in parliamentary politics ("parliamentary cretinism", according to Lenin) and instead should have a dictatorship of the proletariat and a people's republic. Prachandra seems to take the position that the dictatorship of the proletariat is through.
If it really is over, we can say goodbye to some of the harshest criticism of Communists for being cruel and wicked dictators who denied basic civil liberties and deliberately killed millions of people. I feel this is an albatross off the neck of the movement. Capitalism does such a great job of killing people as it is. Why should Communists be killing anyone once they get into power. Leave the killing to the capitalists. They do it so well.
The CPN-M seems now to have split into two lines - a hardline faction wanting to go straight to a people's republic (And dictatorship of the proletariat?) and the more moderate faction surrounding Prachandra and his followers.
Prachandra has made some disturbingly pro-imperialist statements, including saying he wanted to work with the World Bank and the IMF. But maybe in today's Nepal, if you blow off the World Bank and the IMF, you are screwed.
The people around Prachandra also want a positive relationship with China, and have taken tours to China to see Chinese socialism (or socialism with Chinese characteristics) in action.
The hardline Maoist position that China has reverted to capitalism is not correct. Chinese villagers still live much better than Nepalese villagers, and the differences are in large part due to the achievements of Chinese socialism. The countryside still retains a cooperativist and collectivist nature, and in general, private ownership of farmland is not yet allowed, although this may be about to change.
This article from a couple of years ago shows us just how much the Maoists have achieved in Nepal in the course of their revolution.
At the time, CPNM controlled 80% of the countryside in the country. The rural situation is dire because most Nepalese are cut off from trade, schools, hospitals, mostly due to the lack of roads. The monarchist regime in Nepal has had a century to build roads in the country and they have completely failed.
In an extremely sexist nation, the Maoist army had a very large number of female fighters - 40% of PLA was female. The All-Nepal Womens Association (Revolutionary) - has 2 million women members. The situation for women in Nepal is horrible -women cannot own land or vote, die 13 yrs sooner than men, and are routinely trafficked as sex slaves to India at age 10.
Prior to the revolution, land could not support the people, but due to the changes instituted by the Maoists, now it does. Previously, men had to migrate to other areas to work at day labor to survive.
The party has placed solar panels in many villages to wire them up for electricity, and has set up seven party radio stations that broadcast in different languages. Language rights is one thing that Communists have generally pushed better than most groups.
Nepali is the language of the feudal upper class (yes, Nepal still has a feudal to semi-feudal land tenure system) and languages other than Nepali are banned in Nepal for official purposes such as education. The Maoists have instituted mother tongue education and literacy classes. Literacy figures in Nepal are horrible - below 50%, much lower figures for women and in rural areas.
It's pretty amazing that here we are in 2008, and a Maoist Communist Party is leading the government of a country after a successful revolutionary war. They have re-evaluated the many long-held Marxist tenets and are calling for a radical re-evaluation in Marxist thinking. Here's hoping they succeed.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Updated December 7:
The news has been pretty confusing for a long time coming out of Nepal. The Nepalese Maoists laid down their guns and gave up armed struggle for a variety of reasons, after a brutal civil war in which 13,000 people were killed, 10,000 of them by the security forces.
The Maoists decided to try to seek power by peaceful means. They seem to have won about 1/3 of the vote in the nation's first real democratic elections. They got into power, apparently in a coalition with some other parties.
They are now part of a ruling coalition in Nepal. One of the first things this new government did was to get rid of the Nepalese monarchy. The next agenda was to call for a Constituent Assembly, apparently in order to rewrite the Constitution. This was their program toward the end of the war - an end to monarchy, a constituent assembly, a true multiparty democracy with the right to dissent.
I've been reading quite a few interview with these guys, especially with their leader, Prachandra. He has taken the position that Marxists need to toss out Stalin, Lenin and even Mao, or at least not follow them to the letter. He says that they all had some good ideas too, but Marxism has moved beyond them. In particular, he takes the fascinating position that modern Marxists should support full democracy.
His argument is that in Nepal, the Maoists' program will be so popular that they hope to get re-elected over and over. It is true that this party has managed to get huge support on the ground. He also says that socialism has to be completely democratic, with civil liberties for all.
One of Prachandra's arguments is that with the world in such a death grip of imperialism these days, Communists have to adjust themselves to that reality and try to make some sort of peace with imperialism, at least in order to survive.
This has caused quite a rift in the International Communist Movement. Most non-Maoists haven't had much to say about it, but the debate in Maoist circles has never quit. There are supporters of the CPN-M and opponents of them.
The opponents take the line that the CPN-M should not take part in parliamentary politics ("parliamentary cretinism", according to Lenin) and instead should have a dictatorship of the proletariat and a people's republic. Prachandra seems to take the position that the dictatorship of the proletariat is through.
If it really is over, we can say goodbye to some of the harshest criticism of Communists for being cruel and wicked dictators who denied basic civil liberties and deliberately killed millions of people. I feel this is an albatross off the neck of the movement. Capitalism does such a great job of killing people as it is. Why should Communists be killing anyone once they get into power. Leave the killing to the capitalists. They do it so well.
The CPN-M seems now to have split into two lines - a hardline faction wanting to go straight to a people's republic (And dictatorship of the proletariat?) and the more moderate faction surrounding Prachandra and his followers.
Prachandra has made some disturbingly pro-imperialist statements, including saying he wanted to work with the World Bank and the IMF. But maybe in today's Nepal, if you blow off the World Bank and the IMF, you are screwed.
The people around Prachandra also want a positive relationship with China, and have taken tours to China to see Chinese socialism (or socialism with Chinese characteristics) in action.
The hardline Maoist position that China has reverted to capitalism is not correct. Chinese villagers still live much better than Nepalese villagers, and the differences are in large part due to the achievements of Chinese socialism. The countryside still retains a cooperativist and collectivist nature, and in general, private ownership of farmland is not yet allowed, although this may be about to change.
This article from a couple of years ago shows us just how much the Maoists have achieved in Nepal in the course of their revolution.
At the time, CPNM controlled 80% of the countryside in the country. The rural situation is dire because most Nepalese are cut off from trade, schools, hospitals, mostly due to the lack of roads. The monarchist regime in Nepal has had a century to build roads in the country and they have completely failed.
In an extremely sexist nation, the Maoist army had a very large number of female fighters - 40% of PLA was female. The All-Nepal Womens Association (Revolutionary) - has 2 million women members. The situation for women in Nepal is horrible -women cannot own land or vote, die 13 yrs sooner than men, and are routinely trafficked as sex slaves to India at age 10.
Prior to the revolution, land could not support the people, but due to the changes instituted by the Maoists, now it does. Previously, men had to migrate to other areas to work at day labor to survive.
The party has placed solar panels in many villages to wire them up for electricity, and has set up seven party radio stations that broadcast in different languages. Language rights is one thing that Communists have generally pushed better than most groups.
Nepali is the language of the feudal upper class (yes, Nepal still has a feudal to semi-feudal land tenure system) and languages other than Nepali are banned in Nepal for official purposes such as education. The Maoists have instituted mother tongue education and literacy classes. Literacy figures in Nepal are horrible - below 50%, much lower figures for women and in rural areas.
It's pretty amazing that here we are in 2008, and a Maoist Communist Party is leading the government of a country after a successful revolutionary war. They have re-evaluated the many long-held Marxist tenets and are calling for a radical re-evaluation in Marxist thinking. Here's hoping they succeed.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
We Love Yale Sluts
Updated August 23. This article was published earlier, but I am republishing now since I found a cool photo to go with it.
A most interesting event occurred around January 21, 2008, in front of the Yale Women's Center at 1 AM. A group of men pledging the Zeta Psi fraternity (a mostly athlete frat) posed in front of the women's center with a sign saying, "We Love Yale Sluts". They then uploaded the picture to Facebook.
Here's the photo that caused the imbroglio at Yale. Actually, I think this picture is pretty humorous. I'm fully sympathetic with the female students who are pissed off about this though - it's important to recognize that women are extremely offended and enraged by things we guys blow off. They see it as misogyny, and I guess they've got a point. It's surely in poor taste all right.
Thing is, I used to look at tons of Internet porn. I must say that your average Internet porn site is much more misogynistic than this stuff. I don't know what point I'm making here, but this seems like small potatoes to me. On the other hand, I'm a male, so this stuff doesn't really hit home for me. I guess I don't get it. If you're trying to succeed with women, why be a sexist asshole?
It turned into a great big brouhaha. The Women's Center promptly threatened to sue for sexual harassment and mischaracterized the initiation rite. They said that the group stood in front of the Women's Center and chanted "Dick, dick, dick, dick!" and blocked the door as woman after woman, mostly rape victims apparently, tried to come in for counseling.
The facts:
The incident occurred at 1 AM and the center was closed. There were no women coming to the center that got their way blocked, and there were certainly no rape victims. Rape victims hardly ever go there anyway, and there are few of them on campus anyway. They weren't chanting, ""Dick, dick, dick, dick!"; instead they were chanting "Deek, deek, deek, deek!" That's the name of a rival frat.
Nothing has happened since the Women's Center threatened to sue. They never attempted to contact the frat in any way, and the frat attempted to contact the WC many times. The leaders of the frat issued at least one formal apology.
Apparently the lawsuit never came, and on April 30 Yale found the frat not guilty of intimidation and harassment charges relating to the incident. The guy who held the "We Love Yale Sluts" sign in the pic is a football player whose Myspace page is here.
His name is Gio Chistodoulou and he claims he deeply respects women and had no idea what was on the sign he was holding. He says he thought it said, "We Love the Yale Women's Center and All the Services It Provides".
So. Do you think he's lying?
A female, Jessica Svendson, claimed that she tried to enter the center but was blocked by the group of men shouting "Dick, dick, dick, dick!" She was so terrified by the word "dick" (I guess because she's never experienced one) that she had to enter through the back door. Except that the center was closed, so how could she have gotten in anyway? She tried to appeal the university's decision but was refused.
In an earlier incident, a group of male fraternity pledges stood in front of the same Women's Center and chanted, "No means yes, maybe means yes, yes means anal!" over and over. Lot of women didn't think that was too funny either.
The comments after these Feministing posts are interesting and encouraging. I sympathize with the anger and disgust towards these guys that these women are experiencing. They are calling these guys all sorts of names that they seem to deserve. That's ok. I agree this was a pretty fuckwad thing to do. On the other hand, I think a lawsuit sounds pretty ridiculous.
A most interesting event occurred around January 21, 2008, in front of the Yale Women's Center at 1 AM. A group of men pledging the Zeta Psi fraternity (a mostly athlete frat) posed in front of the women's center with a sign saying, "We Love Yale Sluts". They then uploaded the picture to Facebook.
Here's the photo that caused the imbroglio at Yale. Actually, I think this picture is pretty humorous. I'm fully sympathetic with the female students who are pissed off about this though - it's important to recognize that women are extremely offended and enraged by things we guys blow off. They see it as misogyny, and I guess they've got a point. It's surely in poor taste all right.Thing is, I used to look at tons of Internet porn. I must say that your average Internet porn site is much more misogynistic than this stuff. I don't know what point I'm making here, but this seems like small potatoes to me. On the other hand, I'm a male, so this stuff doesn't really hit home for me. I guess I don't get it. If you're trying to succeed with women, why be a sexist asshole?
It turned into a great big brouhaha. The Women's Center promptly threatened to sue for sexual harassment and mischaracterized the initiation rite. They said that the group stood in front of the Women's Center and chanted "Dick, dick, dick, dick!" and blocked the door as woman after woman, mostly rape victims apparently, tried to come in for counseling.
The facts:
The incident occurred at 1 AM and the center was closed. There were no women coming to the center that got their way blocked, and there were certainly no rape victims. Rape victims hardly ever go there anyway, and there are few of them on campus anyway. They weren't chanting, ""Dick, dick, dick, dick!"; instead they were chanting "Deek, deek, deek, deek!" That's the name of a rival frat.
Nothing has happened since the Women's Center threatened to sue. They never attempted to contact the frat in any way, and the frat attempted to contact the WC many times. The leaders of the frat issued at least one formal apology.
Apparently the lawsuit never came, and on April 30 Yale found the frat not guilty of intimidation and harassment charges relating to the incident. The guy who held the "We Love Yale Sluts" sign in the pic is a football player whose Myspace page is here.
His name is Gio Chistodoulou and he claims he deeply respects women and had no idea what was on the sign he was holding. He says he thought it said, "We Love the Yale Women's Center and All the Services It Provides".
So. Do you think he's lying?
A female, Jessica Svendson, claimed that she tried to enter the center but was blocked by the group of men shouting "Dick, dick, dick, dick!" She was so terrified by the word "dick" (I guess because she's never experienced one) that she had to enter through the back door. Except that the center was closed, so how could she have gotten in anyway? She tried to appeal the university's decision but was refused.
In an earlier incident, a group of male fraternity pledges stood in front of the same Women's Center and chanted, "No means yes, maybe means yes, yes means anal!" over and over. Lot of women didn't think that was too funny either.
The comments after these Feministing posts are interesting and encouraging. I sympathize with the anger and disgust towards these guys that these women are experiencing. They are calling these guys all sorts of names that they seem to deserve. That's ok. I agree this was a pretty fuckwad thing to do. On the other hand, I think a lawsuit sounds pretty ridiculous.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Anal is the New Oral?
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated August 23:
The anal sex fad, fed largely by pornography, continues. This is an interesting article on the fad as it plays out amongst upper middle class and upper class White yuppies, the only people most magazine journalists ever interview for any story, because these are the only people they ever know.
Ever noticed how every Time or Newsweek Magazine article interviewing "ordinary Americans" always interviews doctors and lawyers? Same with most other magazines. Same with way too many movies. Highly-paid journalists don't know any working class people, so the vast majority of our media tells the tales of the upper middle class and upper class.
Anyway, back to the article. The article deals with some not very good acting young males who are having sex with women and more or less acting like pigs about it. I thought that their comments were out of line, though truth be told, ladies, a lot of us guys are basically just pigs (actually, I'm more of a dog than a pig, but you get the picture) and a lot of us do talk this way about you all when you're not around.
The comments at the end are great, especially the furious comments of the women. I was actually cheering these women on when they were laying it into these guys. I don't like feminazis, but I like a woman who stands up for herself and her gender. It's complicated.
They described the men in this article with the following words:
Boys; horrible; asshats; mindless brutal and unfeeling animals; immature; sociopathic; rapists; pigs; closet cases; disgusting; assholes; frat boy mentality; awful; misogynists; objectifiers of women; sadists; disrespectful; dickblisters; rape apologists; horrific; pro-rape; low-lifes; disgusting excuses for human beings; loathsome, tools.
A number of the women said basically, hey, if you guys like it so much, let us to it you, and see how you like it! Some samples that I thought were humorous:
Updated August 23:
The anal sex fad, fed largely by pornography, continues. This is an interesting article on the fad as it plays out amongst upper middle class and upper class White yuppies, the only people most magazine journalists ever interview for any story, because these are the only people they ever know.
Ever noticed how every Time or Newsweek Magazine article interviewing "ordinary Americans" always interviews doctors and lawyers? Same with most other magazines. Same with way too many movies. Highly-paid journalists don't know any working class people, so the vast majority of our media tells the tales of the upper middle class and upper class.
Anyway, back to the article. The article deals with some not very good acting young males who are having sex with women and more or less acting like pigs about it. I thought that their comments were out of line, though truth be told, ladies, a lot of us guys are basically just pigs (actually, I'm more of a dog than a pig, but you get the picture) and a lot of us do talk this way about you all when you're not around.
The comments at the end are great, especially the furious comments of the women. I was actually cheering these women on when they were laying it into these guys. I don't like feminazis, but I like a woman who stands up for herself and her gender. It's complicated.
A number of the women said basically, hey, if you guys like it so much, let us to it you, and see how you like it! Some samples that I thought were humorous:
If men are so enamoured with anal sex I say buy your female partner a strap-on and experience it for yourselves.I asked Sexmaniacman about the article and this is what he said:
I tell my husband if he is willing to let me do him with a dildo, then I will let him try anal sex. Same with a blow job, no big thrill for me there either, and it is a little demeaning. I tell my husband, when he shows me he can ram a banana down his throat 10 or 20 times without throwing up, then I can too! So, you big strong men, put up or shut up!
The only man who has the right to "demand" anal sex is the one who just took a large dildo up the anus by the woman whose anus he is "demanding" to screw.
Thanks, Bob, my good friend, for letting me comment on this subject. To tell the embarrassing truth, I've jerked to countless fantasies and porn videos featuring anal sex (That's men doing it to women, thank you very much!). On the other hand, I've hardly done it much in my life.Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
I did it to this one woman once. With the same woman, I also used to stick my finger up her ass while we fucked. She used to do the same to me while I fucked her, and I really did not mind it. I never even asked, I just started sticking my finger up her ass, and she started doing it to me during our endless sex sessions.
One time I was with this beautiful Korean woman I picked up in Koreatown. We went back to my place and she was giving me a great blowjob. Just as I was about to cum, she stuck her finger up my ass, fingernail and all, and massaged my prostate gland! That was one great orgasm, I tell ya!
I later told some guys about it at work and they acted like it was sort of gay or something of me to do that. My attitude was fuck you guys. I'm screwing a beautiful woman, and there's something gay about that?
At one point, when I was feeling really sick and perverted, I bought a dildo and used to stick it up my ass. It's a weird feeling, and it causes some bleeding. I still like to stick my finger up my ass from time to time, and I have a girlfriend now who makes me do it so she can watch. She really gets off on it!
I haven't tried anal with her yet though. I have my doubts about it, and I'm worried it loosens the sphincter muscle so you can anal leakage. I don't want that for myself, and I'm worried about causing it in women. I think there are a lot of medical issues with this kind of sex that are pretty dubious. Straight sex and oral are a million times safer.
Western Women's Culture of Meanness
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated August 23:
In the comments section, Lafayette Sennacherib says, possibly jokingly:
Updated August 23:
In the comments section, Lafayette Sennacherib says, possibly jokingly:
I'll go along with feminism this far: it's ok for women to bring in a wage, as long as they still rear the kids, clean the place, cook, sew, provide regular sex, are totally faithful unless it's with another woman and we can watch/share, and don't mind their men having a bit on the side. Fair's fair! We owe them that much!I don't know if he's joking or not, but I won't even go that far. I decided to ask Sexmaniacman his opinion of LS' post, and here is what he said:
Bob, first of all, thanks so much for inviting me over so I can write about this. My complaint, Bob, is that feminism has cultivated a culture of meanness, at least here in the US. I would say that American women have cultivated a culture of meanness, but I think they reason they have is feminism. Feminism makes women pissed off at us men. Period. Full stop.Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
As a het guy who chooses to deal with women as more than platonic friends, I don't dig being hated on. It sucks, and it feels deflating to my cock.
I've gotten to the point now where I can have sex even with a woman who completely hates me and is making that clear as we are engaging in the sex act, but it wasn't always that way. Angry, bitchy, emasculating women make men impotent. Either physically, psychologically, or spiritually.
I figure even non-feminist women are bitchy enough sometimes. Add feminism into the stew and now they are way bitchier even than they are normally. Fuck that. I hate bitchy women. Nothing worse.
One thing that I have noticed is that a lot of wimpy, leftwing, pro-feminist men love bitchy women. They sit back and cheer them on.
And these bitchy feminists are attracted to wimpy pro-feminist guys, but the truth is that these guys' wimpiness drives the feminists insane, because even though they are feminists who say they hate macho men and machismo, they are still women, and most women hate wimpy guys and long for a macho man to reduce them to meek, wimpering Southern belles.
That's why feminism doesn't work in practice.
It creates what we've got in Northern California. The stereotypical Northern California male: so wimpy and/or feminized that a lot of people will think the guy is gay. And it concurrently creates the Northern California female: so butch and/or masculinized that a lot of people will think she's a dyke.
These two things attract each other. That's why you will find a fair number of these wimpy-type guys messing around with guys, and you will find quite a few of these dykey women either messing with women or just going full gay either part of full-time.
Macho guys create feminine female counterparts and vice versa. Wimpy guys create bitches at best and vice versa and create macho dykey women at worst and vice versa. At both extremes, normally het people will start moving into homosexuality and bisexuality.
This is another thing I have against feminism: it's full of lesbians. Now, I have nothing against lesbians and gay men being members of gay rights organizations. But why should feminism, objectively merely pro-women's rights, be full of a dykes? Reason is that feminism creates lesbians, and for some weird reason, lesbians love feminism.
Have you ever noticed that the women who scream most about rape are lesbians, probably really butch, dykey, homely and living in some gay community, IOW, just about the least likely women to get raped!
The women most likely to get raped are het women, women who are fully involved with men and men's lives, and who have men in their lives. Straight men, not gay men. Often they are raped by their boyfriends, husbands, dates or just guys they know.
I go to a feminist site and typically it's swarming with lesbians. My first reaction is why? I went to a feminist site, not a gay rights site. Second reaction is turnoff. I'm here to see what straight women think, not lesbians.
Final thought is even more disturbing. A lot of radical feminists and feminist separatists openly hate men. They're into misandry. Yep, the very women screaming most about misogyny are often misandrists themselves. It's it's bad for the goose, it's bad for the gander.
As feminism has cultivated misandry (something many feminists now admit), it's turned lots of feminists into a bunch of lesbians. A family friend was one of the founding members of NOW, and I was a member myself for years. She eventually quit going to the meetings because the feminist women wouldn't stop hitting on her and propositioning her. Even back then, the movement was swarming with lesbians.
I'm perfectly willing to help raise the kids, clean the house and cook the food, but I am sorry that I cannot sew. I'd be glad to learn if it was easy. I'm not sure I even mind if women cheat. I never used to mind and often had open relationships.
I was raised in the androgynous 1970's. In part I was never comfortable with the macho man thing, so I rejected it because it just wasn't me, and though I was always into masculinity deep down inside, I was also influenced by feminism wanting to make us into "New Men" - sensitive, vulnerable, all that.
I turned into a straight Mick Jagger - Steve Tyler - New York Dolls androgynous surfer - rocker - punk rocker - doper - dope dealer - compulsive womanizer.
What did I get for this? Guys tried to beat me up for "being a fag". I even got beat over the fucking head with a baseball bat once. Nicer people were continuously suggesting that I was gay or bi, much to my consternation. Usually it was guys saying I was gay. Females, being more intelligent, usually thought I was bi, because gay men have no interest in women.
I was attacked by my very own girlfriends, heads full of feminism, for being gay, bi, wimpy or just not much a man. Screw this. What did I get out of going along with this feminist "New Man" shit? Not a damn thing. Hell with it. I'm gonna be a macho pig, and the feminists can fuck off if they don't like it.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Do We Live In a Patriarchy?
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated August 23:
In the comments section, two of my favorite bloggers, k&y of to the ambient void suggest that we live in a patriarchy today. I think that these two guys are both gay, but that's fine with me, in fact, I think it's great! I decided to call Sexmaniacman over to ask him what he thought of the notion that we live in a patriarchy today. Here's what he wrote:
Updated August 23:
In the comments section, two of my favorite bloggers, k&y of to the ambient void suggest that we live in a patriarchy today. I think that these two guys are both gay, but that's fine with me, in fact, I think it's great! I decided to call Sexmaniacman over to ask him what he thought of the notion that we live in a patriarchy today. Here's what he wrote:
It's easy for gay men to side with women in the War Between the Sexes because they're not trying to fuck women, so they don't have to put up with women's bullshit that is inevitable in those of us who do.Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
They're trying to fuck guys in a gay culture that seems a Hell of a lot more sex-friendly and sex-positive than this chilly het culture with these censorious female and mostly feminist Comstocks wanting to beat us with rods every time we get a hardon.
Like to look at porn? You're a woman-hater. Can't get laid, poor guy? Haha, say the feminists, you loser. Now, me, a masculinist, I side with the guy. The guy's not getting laid because of women. Women don't put out that much, and they're collectively refusing to fuck this guy, and then ridiculing him for it.
Like to girl-watch? You're a woman-hater. Like to look a pictures of pretty girls in magazines or on TV or like to watch beauty pageants or have girlie pictures on your walls? You hate women. Excuse me, feminist ladies, but that is one chilly anti-sexual turd you're laying on our sex parade. This society of yours, where 90% of the time guys get hardons, it's due to "sexual objectification of women", sucks.
I don't know if we have a patriarchy or not. I go to the feminist sites and read about really horrible, obnoxious, and, yes, misogynistic behavior, and I feel tremendous empathy for these feminists in their frustration, depression and rage. Really I do. Now, these feminists probably hate me for being a dog, but I want to tell them that I feel your pain, ladies.
Thing is, if we have a patriarchy, I, being a male, am supposed to be on top and winning the race. Instead I feel like I'm getting fucked, and have been getting fucked for much of my life.
I don't feel like I'm winning, or like I'm a member of some male ruling class, or anything like that. A lot of my non-rich male friends feel that way. They feel like an oppressed class, not some member of some ruling class called a patriarchy. I can't think of one benefit I ever got in my whole damned life due to having a dick.
So a lot of us are pissed at feminists. Feminists are sitting on the sidelines, screaming that we're a ruling class that's oppressing them, and we don't feel like we're oppressing anyone. As for being a ruling class, a lot of us can hardly pay the rent, much less take out one of these expensive things called females.
In the same way a lot of White guys are mad at White Privilege Theory and the notion that we live in a White Supremacist society. What did I ever get from being White. How was I ever privileged in life? I can barely even pay my rent and bills. I'm privileged how now? I'm oppressing who now? It's the same thing - they say we are in a White ruling class but a lot of us feel like an oppressed underclass.
It also kind of pisses off us het guys that so many women are still gold-diggers, I mean whores, I mean, well, what do I mean? They want money, our money. Much of it, most of it, all of it, whatever. They go for the guy with the most money. If we don't have lots of money, we don't get laid. Worse, we are not even men.
The number of women who have abandoned this collective gendered money-grubbing thievery of us men is small, although some middle-aged women start to leave it behind, because they lose their looks and are not much wanted anymore, so they can't sell their fucking pussies anymore. If you're a woman going for the rich guys, you're a whore. You're selling your pussy for money, real simple. If you're not a whore, what are you?
What does feminism say about this ubiquitous behavior? Nothing, nothing, nothing. The silence is deafening. You see the charts about how women make less money than we do. Are they including the zillions of dollars women steal from men by selling their pussies to us?
Nowadays a lot of women make as much money as we do, or more. My girlfriends always seemed to make more money than I do, and that, by the way, pretty much ruins any het relationship nowadays. Even though these bitches made more money than I did, I still had to pay for every single fucking thing when we went out anywhere.
All her money's for her, and all my money's for her. Nice arrangement. Nice rip-off arrangement. Rip-off of me that is.
What does feminism say about this grasping whoredom? Nothing at all! Well, I'm a guy and it pisses me off. My friends and I regularly refer to women as "whores", because from our vantage, that's what they are.
We've discussed this with some women. Those who responded civilly suggested that when you get married, the woman's not whoring anymore, but then the conniving bitch gets 1/2 my money for the rest of my life.
Does this sound like patriarchy to you? Sounds like women on top and us lowly males as some kind of Underclass.
I'm tired of a lot of feminists, though I do support a lot of, or most of, their goals.
What I'm tired of is this anti-sex shit. They seem like they don't want me to get laid. And they don't want my friends to get laid. They don't even want me or my friends to look at women in public. God forbid we look at pornography. I'm not allowed to look at any sexual depictions of women whatsoever. That's reducing women to sex objects.
Well, fuck.
If I'm horny, women are sex objects to me. Sorry.
I'm not gay. I'm interested in fucking women. Have been my whole life.
My surfer friends on the beach used to fuck everything female that moved. They'd rent a house on the beach, have permanent kegs of beer, sell dope, and screw 100 women a summer, three a day. These guys were my idols, but I could never quite do it like they did, no matter how hard I tried. It seemed like they were trying to set new world records. I understand that feminists hate this behavior and regard it as misogyny.
Well fuck me.
I guess I'm a boys will be boys, girls will be girls type. I notice 3rd world women take the attitude that all men are dogs and nothing can be done about this, so don't worry about it. That seems a lot more helpful.
I'm basically a dog anyway when it comes to women. I've always been one. I may not even be capable of monogamy. At various times in my life, I've been a compulsive womanizer. I'd be one today too, I bet, except I'm not having much luck. I understand feminists hate compulsive womanizers and say we're misogynist.
Well, fuck you, feminists.
All's fair in love and war.
Friday, August 01, 2008
No Wonder White Men Are Pissed
Cool post from the comments from an American mulatto woman, telling it straight up like it really is about masculinity, femininity and race:
That does it, Sexmaniacman said. I knew there was a reason I never married! Lots of sex before marriage, then tie the knot and no more sex. Then the kid-anchor, or ball and chain. The anchor plus the no sex. Plus the bitching, carping, emasculating shrew-thing you're forced to co-habit with.
I think at that point I might be feeling homicidal, he averred. Towards my wife, Sexmaniacman said. Yes, you read that correctly. Living alone sounds like a tropical island by comparison, and plus Sexmaniacman still doesn't have any murder convictions yet.
Well, of course. The masculinity thing. Like the Kabbalist conception of God - that which can not only never be discussed, but can never be conceptualized either. Can you discuss masculinity with other males. You jest. With a group of males? The conversation will be shut down in no short order. With females? Oh, but they don't understand.
Boo hoo. They whine sorrowfully, full of pity. Why are we fragile males so concerned about such a meaningless subject? Why are you guys so worried about that anyway? What's the big deal? Why can't you relax about it? After all, women don't have complexes about their femininity, or whether or not they are a woman. They get furious when we won't cry. And why should we? Men don't cry, you know.
Read the story above, lady. That's why it matters. Feminist Woman created Wormboy, and she's been stomping her foot in frustration and screwing sociopathic Black men ever since. They demand that we cry like woosies, Sexmaniacman pointed out, then they get furious when we do because even they know crying's not manly.
Unlike Sexmaniacman's mother's generation, they delight in attacking our masculinity when they get mad. Sexmaniacman's Mom shook her head when he told her that. "Oh Sexdude, hun," she said solemnly, putting her hand on his shoulder. "We would never do that. That's one thing we would never do."
Like guys in prison with Mom on their shoulder, Sexmaniacman cherishes his mother. If anyone suggests that he's too close to her, he'll just threaten to slit their throat, just like that.
It's not just guys like Sexmaniacman who get it. All men do. The most macho guys Sexmaniacman ever knew have been taunted with this shit, and they are the most furious and homicidal of all about it.
One day Killerdude and Sexmaniacman were drinking and getting high.
Killerdude was feeling angry and homicidal, but that was ok, because men are supposed to feel that way sometimes. "Sexman. Bro. I want to kill her," he confided. "I want to kill that fucking bitch."
Sexmaniacman's ears perked up. "Oh? Who?" It wasn't every day they talked homicide.
Killerdude looked at the ground. He'd been shooting coke and doing lots of PCP lately. Just the other day, he was lying on the ground at Sexmaniacman's place, pissing his pants, orbiting the solar system on angel dust, while Sexmaniacman and his friends were drinking and laughing at the spectacle.
"My old lady. I want to kill my old lady. I swear. I swear. If I could get away with it. I swear. If I could get away with it, I'd do it. Just like that. I've thought about it many times. I've got it all planned out. The crime, the weapons, the getaway, the whole thing. I just need you to swear you won't tell."
Sexmaniacman didn't have any tea to stir, but he wanted to. He took a swig of beer instead. "Maybe. Maybe I could. Why? What did she do to you?"
Sexmaniacman knew he could do it, and he knew the bitch deserved it.
Killerdude was quiet. His mood was bleak and scary. "She took my kid. She won't let me see my kid. And she attacks me. She attacks me as a man. She attacks my manhood. I can't tolerate that."
Sexmaniacman understood completely. In Man World, such a crime could and often did carry the death penalty. You attacked a real man's manhood at your own risk, knowing that he may try to kill you anytime you did it.
"Yeah. I've seen that. She calls you Pipsqueak. You. Of all people. The most macho guy that ever lived. A lot of other dudes, I can see it. But you? No way."
Killerdude is livening up. "Yeah!" He's smiling and frowning, and he's nervous and agitated and it looks like he's going to cry, all at once. "You've heard that? You've heard that? You heard that shit?"
Sexmaniacman was quiet. "Yeah." He shook his head with mournful outrage. "I've seen it. Unbelievable. She practically deserves to be killed just for that right there."
Killerdude is out of his chair, jumping up and down, spilling his beer. "Cheers!" They clash bottles.
Attacking their manhood, the ultimate weapon of modern woman. The weapon that violates all rules of the World of Men. For in Man World, there are all sorts of highly intricate rules, and there is even a Geneva Convention. If you attack a man's masculinity, that's a war crime, and he has a right to punch you, and no one can stop him. He doesn't have a right to kill you, but many times he'll do it anyway.
Well, women get to violate all the rules of Man World and violate all the conventions too. All war crimes are on the table. The bitches can do anything, and we can't even raise a pipsqueak in defense, Sexmaniacman noted angrily, or they call the cops and lie and say we beat them.
Sexmaniacman actually opposed misogyny, believe it or not. Misogynistic porn and misogynistic websites make him frown. The web sites tell how to treat your woman just shitty enough in some certain ways to make her really love you. Yuck.
A friend told Sexmaniacman, "You can't be a nice guy to women, Sexguy. You've got to be an asshole. You've got to be an asshole to women. That's what they want. They want to be treated like shit by a macho jerk so they can sit around with their girlfriends and complain about how their boyfriend treats them like shit."
Sexmaniacman has a feeling he's right, but it bothers him, and he thinks he still can't do it.
I really don't care if girlfriends hate me, Sexmaniacman said. They can hate me all they want to, as long as they still keep coming around. They can call me names, insult me, call me lazy, rage at me, threaten to kill me or cut my dick off. It's not exactly optimal, but it's pretty much unavoidable. Hopefully, I'll just laugh in her face, Sexmaniacman thought.
Just hate me as a man, that's all I ask.
Don't hate me as a not-man, Sexmaniacman said. That I won't tolerate. No wonder that's their favorite weapon, their secret weapon.
Don't date other guys, or screw other guys, and wave them in my face, just to taunt us, Sexmaniacman said, waving his beer bottle in the air and taking a swig.
Yeah.
Women do this to us nowadays. They don't just screw other guys while they are with us. That might be tolerable if they were civilized enough to keep it a secret, but of course they're not.
No, they do it right in front of our faces. They parade the new guy, or the other guy, or whoever the Hell the jerk is, around right in front of our faces, just daring us to do something about it. Hard to believe? Just try.
Happened to Sexmaniacman? Affirmative, sir!
Unbelievable, huh? Why? Because we don't screw them enough or hard enough or good enough? Doubt it, never a problem there, he said. Sexmaniacman remembers this one woman, this one bitch. He was often having sex with her for hours a day, back when he could do such things.
It was the weekend, Saturday morning. "I've got a date, Sexguy!" She announced, real loud and clear, so the neighbors could hear.
"Ok", Sexmaniacman said. After all, they had an open relationship.
"With another guy, Sexdude!"
Duh, he's thinking.
"With a Black guy, Sexworm!" Now she's almost yelling, in Sexmaniacman's face. "I'll be with him the whole weekend!"
"Don't forget to videotape it," Sexmaniacman almost said, but caught his tongue. I guess the bitch's plan here was to provoke Sexmaniacman into murdering her, but for some reason, Sexmaniacman didn't really care. But he think she was trying to make a statement, that seemed clear.
That Sexmaniacman was a wuss, that he could fuck her and fuck her like the greatest fucker that ever lived, because after all he was Sexmaniacman, and he would still be always and forever a wuss.
That she was going to screw a Black guy right in front of him, and that Sexmaniacman wouldn't stop her, and that that really pissed her off about him.
"Wuss!" She seemed to hiss the word silently, on thought waves, scalding steam from inaudible words pouring from her tongue.
Feminist Woman created Wormboy, and she's been stomping her foot in frustration, and having masochistic sex with 80 IQ thugs and ex-cons, ever since.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
I enjoyed reading your post. I am mixed-race, Black and white. I have been with both types of men. I feel that White males used to be much more masculine and the media portrayed them as masculine on TV, but now Black men are portrayed on TV as the heroes. On the other hand Asian men are under represented by the media.We showed this post to Sexmaniacman, a decayed roué, of doubtful origin and uncertain means of subsistence straight out of the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.
Black men are too masculine for me, and I am really not attracted to them.
I wish White guys were the way they use to be - in charge and take control. As a female I feel that a lot of this has to do with the feminist movement. No other men in the world give their women as much freedom as the White male, and in the end they tend to lose their woman to other men because they have let go and have given her too much power.
In turn, the White female now has the power and is in charge in most White relationships.
As a female I have observed the huge difference in how a White female treats a Black male as compared to a White male. It is like night and day.
She is much softer and feminine with the Black male and takes care of him and his needs. With White males, all you hear is there was lots of sex before marriage, then after that she cut off the sex, then has a kid to keep him in control. This strategy does not work with a Black male because he may or may not even marry the White female and may or may not assume responsibility for the child.
This makes the Black male appear as a challenge to a White female or any woman for that matter. Also White men are handsome and may have facial features that are handsome, but no male has the body of a Black male when they are in shape. Muscles make a man appear masculine. I don't date black men mainly due to the fact that I find them to be very promiscuous.
With Asian men the problem is their height. I prefer a man at least 5'10 at least. I find when the Asian man is mixed with white they are usually taller and better looking.
As far as Black females I feel that European males appreciate them more than White American men.
That does it, Sexmaniacman said. I knew there was a reason I never married! Lots of sex before marriage, then tie the knot and no more sex. Then the kid-anchor, or ball and chain. The anchor plus the no sex. Plus the bitching, carping, emasculating shrew-thing you're forced to co-habit with.
I think at that point I might be feeling homicidal, he averred. Towards my wife, Sexmaniacman said. Yes, you read that correctly. Living alone sounds like a tropical island by comparison, and plus Sexmaniacman still doesn't have any murder convictions yet.
Well, of course. The masculinity thing. Like the Kabbalist conception of God - that which can not only never be discussed, but can never be conceptualized either. Can you discuss masculinity with other males. You jest. With a group of males? The conversation will be shut down in no short order. With females? Oh, but they don't understand.
Boo hoo. They whine sorrowfully, full of pity. Why are we fragile males so concerned about such a meaningless subject? Why are you guys so worried about that anyway? What's the big deal? Why can't you relax about it? After all, women don't have complexes about their femininity, or whether or not they are a woman. They get furious when we won't cry. And why should we? Men don't cry, you know.
Read the story above, lady. That's why it matters. Feminist Woman created Wormboy, and she's been stomping her foot in frustration and screwing sociopathic Black men ever since. They demand that we cry like woosies, Sexmaniacman pointed out, then they get furious when we do because even they know crying's not manly.
Unlike Sexmaniacman's mother's generation, they delight in attacking our masculinity when they get mad. Sexmaniacman's Mom shook her head when he told her that. "Oh Sexdude, hun," she said solemnly, putting her hand on his shoulder. "We would never do that. That's one thing we would never do."
Like guys in prison with Mom on their shoulder, Sexmaniacman cherishes his mother. If anyone suggests that he's too close to her, he'll just threaten to slit their throat, just like that.
It's not just guys like Sexmaniacman who get it. All men do. The most macho guys Sexmaniacman ever knew have been taunted with this shit, and they are the most furious and homicidal of all about it.
One day Killerdude and Sexmaniacman were drinking and getting high.
Killerdude was feeling angry and homicidal, but that was ok, because men are supposed to feel that way sometimes. "Sexman. Bro. I want to kill her," he confided. "I want to kill that fucking bitch."
Sexmaniacman's ears perked up. "Oh? Who?" It wasn't every day they talked homicide.
Killerdude looked at the ground. He'd been shooting coke and doing lots of PCP lately. Just the other day, he was lying on the ground at Sexmaniacman's place, pissing his pants, orbiting the solar system on angel dust, while Sexmaniacman and his friends were drinking and laughing at the spectacle.
"My old lady. I want to kill my old lady. I swear. I swear. If I could get away with it. I swear. If I could get away with it, I'd do it. Just like that. I've thought about it many times. I've got it all planned out. The crime, the weapons, the getaway, the whole thing. I just need you to swear you won't tell."
Sexmaniacman didn't have any tea to stir, but he wanted to. He took a swig of beer instead. "Maybe. Maybe I could. Why? What did she do to you?"
Sexmaniacman knew he could do it, and he knew the bitch deserved it.
Killerdude was quiet. His mood was bleak and scary. "She took my kid. She won't let me see my kid. And she attacks me. She attacks me as a man. She attacks my manhood. I can't tolerate that."
Sexmaniacman understood completely. In Man World, such a crime could and often did carry the death penalty. You attacked a real man's manhood at your own risk, knowing that he may try to kill you anytime you did it.
"Yeah. I've seen that. She calls you Pipsqueak. You. Of all people. The most macho guy that ever lived. A lot of other dudes, I can see it. But you? No way."
Killerdude is livening up. "Yeah!" He's smiling and frowning, and he's nervous and agitated and it looks like he's going to cry, all at once. "You've heard that? You've heard that? You heard that shit?"
Sexmaniacman was quiet. "Yeah." He shook his head with mournful outrage. "I've seen it. Unbelievable. She practically deserves to be killed just for that right there."
Killerdude is out of his chair, jumping up and down, spilling his beer. "Cheers!" They clash bottles.
Attacking their manhood, the ultimate weapon of modern woman. The weapon that violates all rules of the World of Men. For in Man World, there are all sorts of highly intricate rules, and there is even a Geneva Convention. If you attack a man's masculinity, that's a war crime, and he has a right to punch you, and no one can stop him. He doesn't have a right to kill you, but many times he'll do it anyway.
Well, women get to violate all the rules of Man World and violate all the conventions too. All war crimes are on the table. The bitches can do anything, and we can't even raise a pipsqueak in defense, Sexmaniacman noted angrily, or they call the cops and lie and say we beat them.
Sexmaniacman actually opposed misogyny, believe it or not. Misogynistic porn and misogynistic websites make him frown. The web sites tell how to treat your woman just shitty enough in some certain ways to make her really love you. Yuck.
A friend told Sexmaniacman, "You can't be a nice guy to women, Sexguy. You've got to be an asshole. You've got to be an asshole to women. That's what they want. They want to be treated like shit by a macho jerk so they can sit around with their girlfriends and complain about how their boyfriend treats them like shit."
Sexmaniacman has a feeling he's right, but it bothers him, and he thinks he still can't do it.
I really don't care if girlfriends hate me, Sexmaniacman said. They can hate me all they want to, as long as they still keep coming around. They can call me names, insult me, call me lazy, rage at me, threaten to kill me or cut my dick off. It's not exactly optimal, but it's pretty much unavoidable. Hopefully, I'll just laugh in her face, Sexmaniacman thought.
Just hate me as a man, that's all I ask.
Don't hate me as a not-man, Sexmaniacman said. That I won't tolerate. No wonder that's their favorite weapon, their secret weapon.
Don't date other guys, or screw other guys, and wave them in my face, just to taunt us, Sexmaniacman said, waving his beer bottle in the air and taking a swig.
Yeah.
Women do this to us nowadays. They don't just screw other guys while they are with us. That might be tolerable if they were civilized enough to keep it a secret, but of course they're not.
No, they do it right in front of our faces. They parade the new guy, or the other guy, or whoever the Hell the jerk is, around right in front of our faces, just daring us to do something about it. Hard to believe? Just try.
Happened to Sexmaniacman? Affirmative, sir!
Unbelievable, huh? Why? Because we don't screw them enough or hard enough or good enough? Doubt it, never a problem there, he said. Sexmaniacman remembers this one woman, this one bitch. He was often having sex with her for hours a day, back when he could do such things.
It was the weekend, Saturday morning. "I've got a date, Sexguy!" She announced, real loud and clear, so the neighbors could hear.
"Ok", Sexmaniacman said. After all, they had an open relationship.
"With another guy, Sexdude!"
Duh, he's thinking.
"With a Black guy, Sexworm!" Now she's almost yelling, in Sexmaniacman's face. "I'll be with him the whole weekend!"
"Don't forget to videotape it," Sexmaniacman almost said, but caught his tongue. I guess the bitch's plan here was to provoke Sexmaniacman into murdering her, but for some reason, Sexmaniacman didn't really care. But he think she was trying to make a statement, that seemed clear.
That Sexmaniacman was a wuss, that he could fuck her and fuck her like the greatest fucker that ever lived, because after all he was Sexmaniacman, and he would still be always and forever a wuss.
That she was going to screw a Black guy right in front of him, and that Sexmaniacman wouldn't stop her, and that that really pissed her off about him.
"Wuss!" She seemed to hiss the word silently, on thought waves, scalding steam from inaudible words pouring from her tongue.
Feminist Woman created Wormboy, and she's been stomping her foot in frustration, and having masochistic sex with 80 IQ thugs and ex-cons, ever since.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Cavewomen and Wormboys
A fellow named Zsidozas comments on the Race, Gender and Masculinity/Femininity post. My comments follow:
Now if you go over to San Francisco, it is a totally different story. The Northern California male is said to be so feminized that many people think that they are gay. Convsersely, the women are often said to be quite masculinized. I never heard this too much when I was in Southern California.
I do not know why this is, but for instance, my brother knows this older guy was paints his toenails like a woman. I heard that and freaked out. I said, "Is he gay?!" Because I think it sucks for a guy to paint his toenails. My brother answered, "No, he is just a Northern California male."
There are some others like that, including a guy well-known to both of us. I will note: "Sometime he acts like a total fag! What the Hell is the matter with him anyway?!" And then I will imitate his ridiculously faggy behavior. My brother responds that this guy is a Northern California male.
Now this guy hooked up with and later lived with a woman for a while who was quite masculine, and I'm not sure what kind of a relationship they had, but they did seem to be happy, so I was very, very happy for them and especially for him, as I have known him forever.
At one point, the relationship started ending, and I heard she was bi or lesbian or something and she had moved her girlfriend into the house with our friend.
Now, this could be fun if they guy got into the sex, but I do not think so. Last I heard she has living with her lez girlfriend.
There is another older guy close to us who has many extremely faggy characteristics: walks like a fag, talks like a fag, etc. I will say: "That guy acts gay!!" and someone will chide me, responding that he's been married five times.
He has some kind of weird relationship with his wife now where he acts all feminine or like a little boy or something, and she thinks it's really cute, and I guess afterwards they fuck like crazy. Whatever. I am happy for both of them though, because she has made a lifetime project out of being miserable, and the guy is at least getting laid, and I cheer that on in all males.
There is another one living in San Francisco married to someone close to us. Everyone (all my close relatives) insists that he acts gay but I do not think he does at all. I just think he acts like me. Hmmmm. But they are very happy together also, so I am happy for them too.
I do not know about Arabs. I dated an Arab woman once, a woman from Egypt who was part Black. She was quite submissive, not bossy or aggressive or anything like that. She was Muslim, but that never got in the way of sex. In fact, she was so incredible that I think I want another one of those Arab women!
I do not think that Arab women are bossy or domineering in their relationships with men, though some are. Saddam's Hussein's Dad was supposedly horribly pussy-whipped by his Mom. I suspect it is probably more common that one might think.
The Philippines has a reputation for being a very sexist place where the males are very macho and do not really treat women all that well. Like Arabs, they frequently beat their women. However, a Filipina I know told me that there is a saying called, "under the saya", which means that a Filipino man is basically pussy-whipped. Saya is skirt.
So he's under his wife's skirt and she controls him. I asked if this was common, and she said it was very common. Keep in mind that in the Philippines, the Arab World and Asia, the woman rules the home. The man just needs to keep out of there.
I read an interview with an Egyptian man and his sons living at home in Cairo. The living room was decorated in frilly pink feminine stuff and the interviewer asked this macho Arab husband if he liked it this way, and he said basically, "Well, it's her house and she can decorate it any way she wants to." I assume the males have some control over the way they want their particular inhabited spaces decorated.
In these places, often the woman controls all the money for the couple, and makes all decisions about household expenditures. My Mom told me a story about a Japanese couple who came to look at a house a friend of hers was selling. The seller asked the Japanese man if he was interested, and he said something like, "That decision is left up to her."
In other words, this poor oppressed Japanese woman actually gets decide what house they buy! It seems to me that these women are not as oppressed as we think that they are, and many Japanese and Arab women resent Westerners and feminists sticking their noses in Japanese or Arab culture and telling them that they are oppressed.
You're often going to get people's patriotic backs up when you do that. Better to let some folks negotiate their way to liberation by themselves.
Jews and Arabs are both highly emotional probably because that is a "Mediterraneanism". In other words, most of the folks in that part of the world tend to act that way.
Arab guys put their arms around each other because this is common in many parts of the world. I had a friend from China who was always trying to put his arm around me in public.
I see Mexican Indian farm workers in town who often walk around with their arms around each other, especially when drunk. I think it is an "Indianism", as you don't see the other Mexicans doing that. This male buddiness does not seem associated with homosexuality in these Indians and it is not in the Chinese.
The Arab World is quite complex. In the Levant and Mesopotamia, homosexuality is despised and treated very harshly, not uncommonly with death. In the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, opportunistic or even preferential bisexuality is very common and in fact, the religious police often look the other way, as they are more concerned about men and women together! Stupid or what?!
In Egypt, there is fairly free and easy bisexuality among unmarried males, which they may continue after marriage. This is a lot more common in Nubia in Southern Egypt, where people are a lot Blacker, and there is actually a long tradition of that stuff.
In Cairo and in Morocco, many males will play the male role in homosexual sex with a "gay" male, who plays the female role. In many cultures, it's not considered gay to play the male role in gay sex. Most guys who do this are young unmarried males. This is what happens when you forbid young males with a stratospheric sex drive female outlets: they screw each other.
I don't find Arab males feminine at all. In fact, I find them ultra-macho.
The commenter asks about Jewish men and women. Well, I don't think Jewish guys have a reputation for being feminine so much as wimpy. Wimpy and oversexed at the same time! So that is not quite the same thing.
And there is the stereotype of the Jewish woman as neurotic, insecure (she hates her looks and longs to be a blond), controlling, addicted to cheap, tacky and gaudy clothing and jewelry, domineering, histrionic (drama queen), and in particular constantly badgering him to make more money.
There were horror stories by Jewish men about Jewish women dating all the way back 100 years ago to the early Jewish press on the East Coast of the US. In many ways, this stereotype has not changed. The Jewish guy is supposed to marry a Jewish girl, but he often resents their domineering nature, and the stereotype is he wants a blonde shiska. Jewish women, like Black women, complain that their men don't want them.
But most Jews do still marry their own. On the plus side, Jewish women can be very nurturing, and in my opinion, they can be real Stand By Your Man types. I had a Jewish girlfriend who everyone thought was a bitch. People thought she treated me like crap in public and would say, "I hate the way she talks to you!"
Well, in the relationship, she started out as a bitch sometimes, but I turned the tables on that pretty quickly!
I forgot her birthday, forgot our anniversary, got in a big fight with her on her birthday (The most evil, cruel, mean, horrible and insensitive thing I could have done!), calmly laughed in her face at her horrible insults, made her cry repeatedly, called her a bitch and a cunt and all sorts of other horrible names I have never called any woman, and this was one of the best relationships of my life.
She hated me at times, but she hated me for being a man. She called me cruel, mean, asshole, jerk, evil and wicked, and at the end she called me Hitler.
She would horribly insult me to my face. I would respond, "Shut the fuck up, you stupid fucking cunt. Shut up, you dumb bitch, etc., etc," real calm and assured-like.
After a few minutes of that, she would be blubbering like a little girl, "Oh, I adore you so much. Oh, I love you so much. I love you baby. Let's get married, etc. etc."
Oh man! Isn't love grand!
It's a horrible cliche, but a lot of these real bitchy types are really looking for a hard, masculine man to put them in their place and turn them into a feminine, blubbering little schoolgirl in love again. These bitches always go after wimpy guys, because they love to dominate them, or they think they love to dominate them, but that just doesn't seem to work, as it violates nature.
I don't like to be Mr. Advice Column on here, but at 50, it has occurred to me someone is going to wear the pants in a heterosexual relationship.
If you don't, she will.
If she suspects you have taken off the pants for a while, she will try to make a power grab to put the pants on herself. This must be stopped, often harshly, with profanities, harsh words, meanness, threats to leave, etc.
Usually she will back down completely and start bubbering and even whimpering apologetically and asking, "Are you mad? You're not mad, are you?" Assure you that you are not but issue an order that she is not to speak to you like that anymore, as you really, really hate it.
Women want to take control, but really a lot of times they hate it, because at the same time, I think that even masculinized Western women are disgusted by their vaginized metrosexual wormboy partners. You can wage cultural revolution and gender bend til the cows come home, but at the end of the day, I am convinced that you can't fool Mother Nature.
Of course we are products of our evolution. In many ways, we are also prisoners. < Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Zsidozas comments: A personal story - as a White American male I've encountered much hostility from White females because I am not an effete and feminized White American male like so many of the others are these days. I am more aggressive, dominant, and masculine than the majority of White males for sure, but I try to temper this by my strong orientation toward reason, rationality, and learning.Ok, first of all, I do not understand why women would hate an overly aggressive or masculine man, even in the feminized US. But I won't deny you the reality of your experiences. Around here, most of the White guys are pretty machoed out.
So yeah, I've encountered problems with White women because many view me as an overly aggressive, pushy, and angry asshole / jerk / brute / prick / Viking / Neanderthal, of which I am not at all, but they only view me that way because I am quite a bit more masculine than most White men (who I agree are, on the whole, far too wimpy and resigned for their own good).
I am not a bodybuilder or football player or anything like that, so it's not like I am afflicted by the 'macho male complex' that men like that suffer from.
So I've noticed that many White women think of me as something a bit unnatural or strange and view me with some contempt and suspicion because I am not easily dominated and controlled like the rest of White men.
In fact, I'll argue and bicker with women (of whatever ethnicity) until we are all blue in the face if I believe something strongly as I'm not afraid to back down like so many modern men are -- and I usually win those arguments.
And when I do win those arguments, believe it or not I've had women get violent with me either playfully or for real, like they are trying to get back at me physically for 'beating them' mentally and emotionally in an argument when they are just so used to lording over modern men.
It seems as if many White women, if they date or marry White men as most do, actually sort-of want or prefer a push-over who they can easily control, manipulate, and dominate in many ways (though they still want the man to bring them home some money, of course).
I think this is a rather recent development and a major reason why gender relations are so screwed up in the modern Western White world, particularly in America.
A quick story: I was at a party with my girlfriend the other night that was mostly populated by a bunch of drunken lesbians and overly masculine (but straight) White females, along with their feminized male lackeys. And one of them, in a drunken and pilled-up stupor actually said to me and me girlfriend as we were talking to her [paraphrasing]: "I love to emasculate men. I just like it. It's fun. I do it all the time at work."
And she said it sort-of at me and my girlfriend, like almost a veiled insult toward me or something. I continued to laugh with her and joked around and such, but still I think it was like a veiled insult toward me because she recognized in me a man who refused to be emasculated and feminized like so many modern men.
So I laughed and joked (but was secretly disgusted toward her that she would actually take pleasure in mentally emasculating men and fucking with their egos).
Lame story, but I think it illustrates a decent point about the attitude of most modern White women.
Also, you didn't mention Semitic peoples here like Jews and Arabs. But just a thought: Jewish males are certainly very effeminate (as effeminate as many Asian men, often more), and Jewish females very masculine (maybe even as masculine as Black women).
Ditto with Arabs -- and maybe this is why Arab men are so severe toward their women, like they want to keep them in check or something? Most Jewish and Arab females have, I've noticed, many masculine physical traits like deep/husky voices and hairy bodies, while many Jewish/Arab men have many feminine traits like higher pitched voices and moodiness/high emotionality.
Many men in Arab countries also engage in some behaviors that are considered effeminate or even gayish here in The West like holding hands as they walk together and kissing each other a lot, but they don't think anything of it over there.
However, there is still something that is just intrinsically aggressive about both Jews and Arabs that I can't pin down yet, though I'm looking for reasons -- maybe it's their rather fanatical ethnocentrism? So, if possible, I'd like your thoughts on Semitics (however brief) as well if you don't mind.
Now if you go over to San Francisco, it is a totally different story. The Northern California male is said to be so feminized that many people think that they are gay. Convsersely, the women are often said to be quite masculinized. I never heard this too much when I was in Southern California.
I do not know why this is, but for instance, my brother knows this older guy was paints his toenails like a woman. I heard that and freaked out. I said, "Is he gay?!" Because I think it sucks for a guy to paint his toenails. My brother answered, "No, he is just a Northern California male."
There are some others like that, including a guy well-known to both of us. I will note: "Sometime he acts like a total fag! What the Hell is the matter with him anyway?!" And then I will imitate his ridiculously faggy behavior. My brother responds that this guy is a Northern California male.
Now this guy hooked up with and later lived with a woman for a while who was quite masculine, and I'm not sure what kind of a relationship they had, but they did seem to be happy, so I was very, very happy for them and especially for him, as I have known him forever.
At one point, the relationship started ending, and I heard she was bi or lesbian or something and she had moved her girlfriend into the house with our friend.
Now, this could be fun if they guy got into the sex, but I do not think so. Last I heard she has living with her lez girlfriend.
There is another older guy close to us who has many extremely faggy characteristics: walks like a fag, talks like a fag, etc. I will say: "That guy acts gay!!" and someone will chide me, responding that he's been married five times.
He has some kind of weird relationship with his wife now where he acts all feminine or like a little boy or something, and she thinks it's really cute, and I guess afterwards they fuck like crazy. Whatever. I am happy for both of them though, because she has made a lifetime project out of being miserable, and the guy is at least getting laid, and I cheer that on in all males.
There is another one living in San Francisco married to someone close to us. Everyone (all my close relatives) insists that he acts gay but I do not think he does at all. I just think he acts like me. Hmmmm. But they are very happy together also, so I am happy for them too.
I do not know about Arabs. I dated an Arab woman once, a woman from Egypt who was part Black. She was quite submissive, not bossy or aggressive or anything like that. She was Muslim, but that never got in the way of sex. In fact, she was so incredible that I think I want another one of those Arab women!
I do not think that Arab women are bossy or domineering in their relationships with men, though some are. Saddam's Hussein's Dad was supposedly horribly pussy-whipped by his Mom. I suspect it is probably more common that one might think.
The Philippines has a reputation for being a very sexist place where the males are very macho and do not really treat women all that well. Like Arabs, they frequently beat their women. However, a Filipina I know told me that there is a saying called, "under the saya", which means that a Filipino man is basically pussy-whipped. Saya is skirt.
So he's under his wife's skirt and she controls him. I asked if this was common, and she said it was very common. Keep in mind that in the Philippines, the Arab World and Asia, the woman rules the home. The man just needs to keep out of there.
I read an interview with an Egyptian man and his sons living at home in Cairo. The living room was decorated in frilly pink feminine stuff and the interviewer asked this macho Arab husband if he liked it this way, and he said basically, "Well, it's her house and she can decorate it any way she wants to." I assume the males have some control over the way they want their particular inhabited spaces decorated.
In these places, often the woman controls all the money for the couple, and makes all decisions about household expenditures. My Mom told me a story about a Japanese couple who came to look at a house a friend of hers was selling. The seller asked the Japanese man if he was interested, and he said something like, "That decision is left up to her."
In other words, this poor oppressed Japanese woman actually gets decide what house they buy! It seems to me that these women are not as oppressed as we think that they are, and many Japanese and Arab women resent Westerners and feminists sticking their noses in Japanese or Arab culture and telling them that they are oppressed.
You're often going to get people's patriotic backs up when you do that. Better to let some folks negotiate their way to liberation by themselves.
Jews and Arabs are both highly emotional probably because that is a "Mediterraneanism". In other words, most of the folks in that part of the world tend to act that way.
Arab guys put their arms around each other because this is common in many parts of the world. I had a friend from China who was always trying to put his arm around me in public.
I see Mexican Indian farm workers in town who often walk around with their arms around each other, especially when drunk. I think it is an "Indianism", as you don't see the other Mexicans doing that. This male buddiness does not seem associated with homosexuality in these Indians and it is not in the Chinese.
The Arab World is quite complex. In the Levant and Mesopotamia, homosexuality is despised and treated very harshly, not uncommonly with death. In the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, opportunistic or even preferential bisexuality is very common and in fact, the religious police often look the other way, as they are more concerned about men and women together! Stupid or what?!
In Egypt, there is fairly free and easy bisexuality among unmarried males, which they may continue after marriage. This is a lot more common in Nubia in Southern Egypt, where people are a lot Blacker, and there is actually a long tradition of that stuff.
In Cairo and in Morocco, many males will play the male role in homosexual sex with a "gay" male, who plays the female role. In many cultures, it's not considered gay to play the male role in gay sex. Most guys who do this are young unmarried males. This is what happens when you forbid young males with a stratospheric sex drive female outlets: they screw each other.
I don't find Arab males feminine at all. In fact, I find them ultra-macho.
The commenter asks about Jewish men and women. Well, I don't think Jewish guys have a reputation for being feminine so much as wimpy. Wimpy and oversexed at the same time! So that is not quite the same thing.
And there is the stereotype of the Jewish woman as neurotic, insecure (she hates her looks and longs to be a blond), controlling, addicted to cheap, tacky and gaudy clothing and jewelry, domineering, histrionic (drama queen), and in particular constantly badgering him to make more money.
There were horror stories by Jewish men about Jewish women dating all the way back 100 years ago to the early Jewish press on the East Coast of the US. In many ways, this stereotype has not changed. The Jewish guy is supposed to marry a Jewish girl, but he often resents their domineering nature, and the stereotype is he wants a blonde shiska. Jewish women, like Black women, complain that their men don't want them.
But most Jews do still marry their own. On the plus side, Jewish women can be very nurturing, and in my opinion, they can be real Stand By Your Man types. I had a Jewish girlfriend who everyone thought was a bitch. People thought she treated me like crap in public and would say, "I hate the way she talks to you!"
Well, in the relationship, she started out as a bitch sometimes, but I turned the tables on that pretty quickly!
I forgot her birthday, forgot our anniversary, got in a big fight with her on her birthday (The most evil, cruel, mean, horrible and insensitive thing I could have done!), calmly laughed in her face at her horrible insults, made her cry repeatedly, called her a bitch and a cunt and all sorts of other horrible names I have never called any woman, and this was one of the best relationships of my life.
She hated me at times, but she hated me for being a man. She called me cruel, mean, asshole, jerk, evil and wicked, and at the end she called me Hitler.
She would horribly insult me to my face. I would respond, "Shut the fuck up, you stupid fucking cunt. Shut up, you dumb bitch, etc., etc," real calm and assured-like.
After a few minutes of that, she would be blubbering like a little girl, "Oh, I adore you so much. Oh, I love you so much. I love you baby. Let's get married, etc. etc."
Oh man! Isn't love grand!
It's a horrible cliche, but a lot of these real bitchy types are really looking for a hard, masculine man to put them in their place and turn them into a feminine, blubbering little schoolgirl in love again. These bitches always go after wimpy guys, because they love to dominate them, or they think they love to dominate them, but that just doesn't seem to work, as it violates nature.
I don't like to be Mr. Advice Column on here, but at 50, it has occurred to me someone is going to wear the pants in a heterosexual relationship.
If you don't, she will.
If she suspects you have taken off the pants for a while, she will try to make a power grab to put the pants on herself. This must be stopped, often harshly, with profanities, harsh words, meanness, threats to leave, etc.
Usually she will back down completely and start bubbering and even whimpering apologetically and asking, "Are you mad? You're not mad, are you?" Assure you that you are not but issue an order that she is not to speak to you like that anymore, as you really, really hate it.
Women want to take control, but really a lot of times they hate it, because at the same time, I think that even masculinized Western women are disgusted by their vaginized metrosexual wormboy partners. You can wage cultural revolution and gender bend til the cows come home, but at the end of the day, I am convinced that you can't fool Mother Nature.
Of course we are products of our evolution. In many ways, we are also prisoners. < Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Friday, May 23, 2008
How Andrea Dworkin Was Right
Obviously, I didn't like Andrea Dworkin one bit (she just died a year or so ago) and I don’t support rape at all, of course.
But Dworkin did say one thing that is correct: all heterosexual intercourse (penis-vagina intercourse) is rape (at least in a slight sense). One is doing the fucking and one is getting fucked. There are no two ways about it. Although I should point out that Dworkin herself said that this was a misreading of her own highly complex writing.
It looks like she was saying that in what she sees as male supremacist society (You must be kidding if you think that the US is one!) intercourse is de facto rape because this is how patriarchy and especially us male pigs want to see it. I'm not going to go into this complex argument, but I will just direct you to a very interesting website called Rad Geek People's Daily that explains it all pretty well (the comments are especially good).
Dworkin does make some good points, even in her rebuttal. She says that women are basically allowed to be raped in marriage. Look, man, if you need to rape the wife, for Chrissake! Just get a divorce. I've been single my whole life, and I never had to rape a soul. It's kind of lonely, but it's not the end of the world.
If your wife won't have sex with you, then be mean to her. Then threaten to have an affair. Then actually have an affair - after all, she's not screwing you, so you have every right to an affair. If that doesn't work, just leave her.
An earlier post of mine linked to a gay website called Heroic Homo Sex (Warning: plenty of gay erotica and some gay porn on that site!) that seemed to have hit on some amazing insights. I'm not gay or bisexual, by the way; I'm hopelessly straight and could not be gay if I wanted to.
HHS' notion was that the whole era of promiscuity, AIDS, “gay men as sex pigs”, effeminacy, degradation, etc, that characterizes gay life today came about through the mass promotion of anal sex. By the very act of getting penetrated anally, gay men were turned submissive.
Why? Because getting penetrated and penetrating resembles rape. Fucking makes the fucker dominant (and a sort of a rapist) and getting fucked makes one submissive (and a sort of a rape victim).
HHS argues that the only way that the gay men can reverse this trend is through something called frottage (they also like other non-anal sex acts) which basically boils down to 2 guys rubbing their dicks against each other in a sort of martial combat. By having sex in this way, neither man is fucked and thereby made submissive.
Also promiscuity is reduced - HHS feels that by getting anally fucked, gay men are degraded and turned into “sex sluts” or “sex pigs”. The corollary to this is that anal sex is also degrading to women who engage in it, but it doesn't seem to turn them into promiscuous "sex pigs". Only in porn it does. So why does anal sex turn gay men but not women into "sex pigs"?
Also, effeminacy will be reduced in gay men by eliminating anal sex, since getting fucked anally in and of itself causes gay men to act effeminate.
I would also argue that the act of getting fucked in and of itself turns a woman feminine, and most men with sexual experience have seen this with their very eyes. The most evil bitch turns into a preening, coquettish Southern belle at least for a while merely by getting fucked. Probably, even pretty wimpy guys are turned a lot more masculine merely by fucking a woman (I can't speak to this one, so I'm guessing).
I have read pro-sex feminists say that getting fucked is an act of violence and and of itself (although they love it) and yes, it does resemble rape in a sense. As I’ve never been fucked, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
I don’t agree when Dworkin conflates all heterosexual fucking with rape. Clearly rape is rape, and consensual sex is consensual sex.
Of course I don’t support rape, but I’ve talked more than a few women into bed before. As in giving them orders, which they were free to refuse, like, “Get over on that bed right now!” Believe it or not, an very large percentage of females actually want to be bossed around and ordered around by a dominant male.
So, I don’t support rape, but I think Dworkin did hit something on the head there.
As far as the rest of her philosophy, I virulently disagree.
Chip Smith, the great writer who runs the highly disturbing blog The Hoover Hog, had an excellent piece on Dworkin, whom he called a tortured soul but a brilliant writer, a while back called Writing About Prostitutes.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
But Dworkin did say one thing that is correct: all heterosexual intercourse (penis-vagina intercourse) is rape (at least in a slight sense). One is doing the fucking and one is getting fucked. There are no two ways about it. Although I should point out that Dworkin herself said that this was a misreading of her own highly complex writing.
It looks like she was saying that in what she sees as male supremacist society (You must be kidding if you think that the US is one!) intercourse is de facto rape because this is how patriarchy and especially us male pigs want to see it. I'm not going to go into this complex argument, but I will just direct you to a very interesting website called Rad Geek People's Daily that explains it all pretty well (the comments are especially good).
Dworkin does make some good points, even in her rebuttal. She says that women are basically allowed to be raped in marriage. Look, man, if you need to rape the wife, for Chrissake! Just get a divorce. I've been single my whole life, and I never had to rape a soul. It's kind of lonely, but it's not the end of the world.
If your wife won't have sex with you, then be mean to her. Then threaten to have an affair. Then actually have an affair - after all, she's not screwing you, so you have every right to an affair. If that doesn't work, just leave her.
An earlier post of mine linked to a gay website called Heroic Homo Sex (Warning: plenty of gay erotica and some gay porn on that site!) that seemed to have hit on some amazing insights. I'm not gay or bisexual, by the way; I'm hopelessly straight and could not be gay if I wanted to.
HHS' notion was that the whole era of promiscuity, AIDS, “gay men as sex pigs”, effeminacy, degradation, etc, that characterizes gay life today came about through the mass promotion of anal sex. By the very act of getting penetrated anally, gay men were turned submissive.
Why? Because getting penetrated and penetrating resembles rape. Fucking makes the fucker dominant (and a sort of a rapist) and getting fucked makes one submissive (and a sort of a rape victim).
HHS argues that the only way that the gay men can reverse this trend is through something called frottage (they also like other non-anal sex acts) which basically boils down to 2 guys rubbing their dicks against each other in a sort of martial combat. By having sex in this way, neither man is fucked and thereby made submissive.
Also promiscuity is reduced - HHS feels that by getting anally fucked, gay men are degraded and turned into “sex sluts” or “sex pigs”. The corollary to this is that anal sex is also degrading to women who engage in it, but it doesn't seem to turn them into promiscuous "sex pigs". Only in porn it does. So why does anal sex turn gay men but not women into "sex pigs"?
Also, effeminacy will be reduced in gay men by eliminating anal sex, since getting fucked anally in and of itself causes gay men to act effeminate.
I would also argue that the act of getting fucked in and of itself turns a woman feminine, and most men with sexual experience have seen this with their very eyes. The most evil bitch turns into a preening, coquettish Southern belle at least for a while merely by getting fucked. Probably, even pretty wimpy guys are turned a lot more masculine merely by fucking a woman (I can't speak to this one, so I'm guessing).
I have read pro-sex feminists say that getting fucked is an act of violence and and of itself (although they love it) and yes, it does resemble rape in a sense. As I’ve never been fucked, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
I don’t agree when Dworkin conflates all heterosexual fucking with rape. Clearly rape is rape, and consensual sex is consensual sex.
Of course I don’t support rape, but I’ve talked more than a few women into bed before. As in giving them orders, which they were free to refuse, like, “Get over on that bed right now!” Believe it or not, an very large percentage of females actually want to be bossed around and ordered around by a dominant male.
So, I don’t support rape, but I think Dworkin did hit something on the head there.
As far as the rest of her philosophy, I virulently disagree.
Chip Smith, the great writer who runs the highly disturbing blog The Hoover Hog, had an excellent piece on Dworkin, whom he called a tortured soul but a brilliant writer, a while back called Writing About Prostitutes.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Friday, March 28, 2008
In the Shining Path of Ann Dunham
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated April 12:
It's a lie that Sendero Luminoso never had much support. Simon Strong's 1992 book gives the lie to that quite well. In the 18 months following Fujimori's seizure of power, an unbelievable 1.5 million Peruvians were arrested on charges of being members of or collaborating with the Shining Path.
Surveys done at the height of their power indicated that they had the passive support of about 50% of the very poorest in society, with the full support of 16%. Really, to win any revolution you probably need 30% support, but the Bolsheviks did it with a lot less.
In the American Revolution, few Americans know that only 1/3 of Americans support George Washington's bands, another 1/3 were basically traitors supporting the English crown and another 1/3 were pragmatic fence-sitters waiting to see which side was going to win before they decided who to support.
Most people don't realize that in most civil wars you have a huge percentage of fence-sitters who are mostly just trying to stay alive.
Sendero had support even in the churches and in the military. They completely blew it in a lot of ways though, and though they still operate, they are a shadow of what they formerly were.
In my post, Sendero Fades and FARC Rises in Peru, I elaborate how Sendero has faded in Peru only to be replaced by the FARC of Colombia, who have been moving far down into Peru for some time now, and have been doing well with peasants fed up with Sendero's mad violence.
The remains of the MRTA (yes, they still exist also) are up in the far north of Peru in San Martin Province where they always had their main base. Many former rebels from Sendero and the MRTA have basically left those groups and marched off to Colombia for retraining as members of the FARC.
This is part of a FARC regional strategy to expand into the countries surrounding it - there is the FARE in Ecuador, the FARV in Venezuela (which may have 2-3,000 members), the FARB that operates in the Dog's Head region on the Brazilian border of Colombia and I believe the FARP that operates in Peru.
This article from La Rouche Publications (no, I do not endorse them) while a bit over the top, has an excellent roundup and analysis of the Sendero phenomenon. Particularly interesting is the huge support they had in the Peruvian diaspora in Europe, the US and Mexico, with a mind-numbing array of organizations.
In the US, the support was run by the Maoists in the RCP, a large US Maoist group. RCP's homepage is here, and they actually run some decent articles, though I don't support Communism in the US or anywhere else in the First World at the moment - I support some variety of socialism instead, and that can even mean social democracy.
El Diario International is the international paper of Sendero, or at least what remains of it. What is amazing is that this Belgium-based paper still prints a lot of issues, at least on the Net. It's chock full of brand-new raving articles all the time.
I don't read Spanish very well, but maybe someone who does could check it out and come back and report to us in the comments. El Diario del Hoy was Sendero's paper in Peru, but it's long been shut down. I think it reappears clandestinely from time to time.
I have read tons of Sendero propaganda and position statements. These people are completely off the deep end. All existing Communist states are "revisionist" (not real Communists but instead reformist traitors to the movement), and that includes North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and of course China. They despise both Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia. Chavez is pegged as some sort of "corporatist fascist".
Sendero does support other armed Maoists like the revolutionaries in the Philippines, Nepal and India (but their most recent editorial condemns the Nepalese Maoists for "capitulation"). The Nepalese revolutionaries have done very well, the NPA in the Philippines is a vast organization, and the Indian Maoists are expanding like mad in the east. I don't have a problem with any of these three movements.
Their position statements, and regular publications of their Red Sun Magazine (both here) are some of the rantingest, ravingest Commie stuff out there (Red Sun (Sol Rojo) 29 in Spanish, Red Sun 29 English supplement). As Peruvian society is evil and the system is a pile of garbage, Peruvian reality drove Senderistas insane. The crazier and more wicked the society, the crazier and more wicked the guerrilla reaction.
The La Rouche link (forget the nonsense about how Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch support Sendero, and forget anything about the UK - LaRouchies have always been insane on the subject of the Crown) makes clear the link between Sendero and radical anthropologists and academics, in particular psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, historians, teachers and agronomists.
The role of anthropologists, both Peruvian and even foreign, as essentially the brainchildren of Sendero is especially glaring.
Just for the record, this blog supports the ELN and FARC in Colombia, and supported the MRTA in Peru, but cannot support the project of Sendero.
The link with anthropologists is especially interesting in that Obama's mother was an anthro, and she has been decried as an America-hater, and this America-hatred of hers can be seen supposedly in both Obama and his wife.
Though I do not care about whether or not Obama and his wife hate America, I think these latest America-hating charges may well be fatal for his campaign, especially with White ethnic working class types (Reagan Democrats), independents and Republicans who were voting for Obama for some bizarre reason.
This Asia Times piece by Spengler is worth reading along those lines. Though I am not a big fan of Spengler, he is definitely worth reading. He tells it like it is all right.
I'm for whichever Dem, the Black or the woman, can beat the Republican clown. At this point it's starting to look like the lady. Women all over the country are fired up and hopping mad about the sexist BS directed at Hillary all through this whole campaign. A bunch of yahoo alpha male dogs showed up at one of Hilary's appearances in New Hampshire and yelped, "Iron my shirts!"
Jeez.
Good for American women for standing up to this sexist crap. Everyone should stand up for their rights, and I applaud my sisters. This blog will never attack Hilary on sexist grounds.
Updated April 12:
It's a lie that Sendero Luminoso never had much support. Simon Strong's 1992 book gives the lie to that quite well. In the 18 months following Fujimori's seizure of power, an unbelievable 1.5 million Peruvians were arrested on charges of being members of or collaborating with the Shining Path.
Surveys done at the height of their power indicated that they had the passive support of about 50% of the very poorest in society, with the full support of 16%. Really, to win any revolution you probably need 30% support, but the Bolsheviks did it with a lot less.
In the American Revolution, few Americans know that only 1/3 of Americans support George Washington's bands, another 1/3 were basically traitors supporting the English crown and another 1/3 were pragmatic fence-sitters waiting to see which side was going to win before they decided who to support.
Most people don't realize that in most civil wars you have a huge percentage of fence-sitters who are mostly just trying to stay alive.
Sendero had support even in the churches and in the military. They completely blew it in a lot of ways though, and though they still operate, they are a shadow of what they formerly were.
In my post, Sendero Fades and FARC Rises in Peru, I elaborate how Sendero has faded in Peru only to be replaced by the FARC of Colombia, who have been moving far down into Peru for some time now, and have been doing well with peasants fed up with Sendero's mad violence.
The remains of the MRTA (yes, they still exist also) are up in the far north of Peru in San Martin Province where they always had their main base. Many former rebels from Sendero and the MRTA have basically left those groups and marched off to Colombia for retraining as members of the FARC.
This is part of a FARC regional strategy to expand into the countries surrounding it - there is the FARE in Ecuador, the FARV in Venezuela (which may have 2-3,000 members), the FARB that operates in the Dog's Head region on the Brazilian border of Colombia and I believe the FARP that operates in Peru.
This article from La Rouche Publications (no, I do not endorse them) while a bit over the top, has an excellent roundup and analysis of the Sendero phenomenon. Particularly interesting is the huge support they had in the Peruvian diaspora in Europe, the US and Mexico, with a mind-numbing array of organizations.
In the US, the support was run by the Maoists in the RCP, a large US Maoist group. RCP's homepage is here, and they actually run some decent articles, though I don't support Communism in the US or anywhere else in the First World at the moment - I support some variety of socialism instead, and that can even mean social democracy.
El Diario International is the international paper of Sendero, or at least what remains of it. What is amazing is that this Belgium-based paper still prints a lot of issues, at least on the Net. It's chock full of brand-new raving articles all the time.
I don't read Spanish very well, but maybe someone who does could check it out and come back and report to us in the comments. El Diario del Hoy was Sendero's paper in Peru, but it's long been shut down. I think it reappears clandestinely from time to time.
I have read tons of Sendero propaganda and position statements. These people are completely off the deep end. All existing Communist states are "revisionist" (not real Communists but instead reformist traitors to the movement), and that includes North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and of course China. They despise both Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia. Chavez is pegged as some sort of "corporatist fascist".
Sendero does support other armed Maoists like the revolutionaries in the Philippines, Nepal and India (but their most recent editorial condemns the Nepalese Maoists for "capitulation"). The Nepalese revolutionaries have done very well, the NPA in the Philippines is a vast organization, and the Indian Maoists are expanding like mad in the east. I don't have a problem with any of these three movements.
Their position statements, and regular publications of their Red Sun Magazine (both here) are some of the rantingest, ravingest Commie stuff out there (Red Sun (Sol Rojo) 29 in Spanish, Red Sun 29 English supplement). As Peruvian society is evil and the system is a pile of garbage, Peruvian reality drove Senderistas insane. The crazier and more wicked the society, the crazier and more wicked the guerrilla reaction.
The La Rouche link (forget the nonsense about how Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch support Sendero, and forget anything about the UK - LaRouchies have always been insane on the subject of the Crown) makes clear the link between Sendero and radical anthropologists and academics, in particular psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, historians, teachers and agronomists.
The role of anthropologists, both Peruvian and even foreign, as essentially the brainchildren of Sendero is especially glaring.
Just for the record, this blog supports the ELN and FARC in Colombia, and supported the MRTA in Peru, but cannot support the project of Sendero.
The link with anthropologists is especially interesting in that Obama's mother was an anthro, and she has been decried as an America-hater, and this America-hatred of hers can be seen supposedly in both Obama and his wife.
Though I do not care about whether or not Obama and his wife hate America, I think these latest America-hating charges may well be fatal for his campaign, especially with White ethnic working class types (Reagan Democrats), independents and Republicans who were voting for Obama for some bizarre reason.
This Asia Times piece by Spengler is worth reading along those lines. Though I am not a big fan of Spengler, he is definitely worth reading. He tells it like it is all right.
I'm for whichever Dem, the Black or the woman, can beat the Republican clown. At this point it's starting to look like the lady. Women all over the country are fired up and hopping mad about the sexist BS directed at Hillary all through this whole campaign. A bunch of yahoo alpha male dogs showed up at one of Hilary's appearances in New Hampshire and yelped, "Iron my shirts!"
Jeez.
Good for American women for standing up to this sexist crap. Everyone should stand up for their rights, and I applaud my sisters. This blog will never attack Hilary on sexist grounds.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Over 400 Yezidis Killed by Al Qaeda in Iraq
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here. The famous Russian neo-Nazi video is on this blog here.
Updated January 23, 2008. The official report is now at 354, not 400, with 80 people still missing. There are 600, not 400, wounded, and many are not expected to make it. 10 more bodies were found on Sunday, August 19.
Genocidal Al Qaeda Sunni Muslim Nazis continued to attack non-Sunni Muslims in Iraq, this time driving four vehicle bombs at two Yezidi villages, Qataniya and Adnaniya, in Iraq near Sinjar, near the border with Syria. The attack occurred on Tuesday, August 13.
They drove four vehicles towards the two villages at once, aiming them at the residential compounds where many Yezidis were milling about outside in the cooling evening air. Some reports say the villages are near Mosul, but actually they are right next to the Syrian border.
Large areas of these villages lie in ruins and the scene resembles a nuclear bomb blast. 334 were confirmed dead as of Friday afternoon, August 17. Other reports on the same day said the toll had gone over 400. Another 400 were wounded and another 70 or so are feared buried in the rubble. All of the homes in both villages, 150 homes, were leveled.
Many of the wounded are missing hands and legs. Many of the wounded are critically hurt and have been dying in the hospital. It surpassed the previous high death toll for an attack of over 200 for an mortar and multiple car bomb attack in Sadr City in November 2006.
The Islamic State of Iraq was seen handing out flyers near the towns in the past week telling Arabs to stay away from the villagers because the Yazidis were anti-Islam.
There is little Iraqi government presence in the region near the Syrian border and Iraq is not able to control the border. Recently, dozens of local Iraqi security forces resigned after receiving threats from guerrillas. There is an excellent BBC video analysis of the attack on this page.
I do not agree with the US imperialist talking head in the video, Anthony Cordesman, who implies in the video that the US "surge" is working and that Al Qaeda is being driven to the far corners of Iraq and is desperately seeking to ignite divides between all of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups in order to set off a civil war.
There is already a civil war in Iraq. This blast shows that the surge is hardly working and that Iraq is a clusterfuck to nowhere. Worse, it's genocide in slow motion.
Juan Cole suggests that this attack shows that Sunni Arabs are fighting with the Yazidis over territory. Cole also carries an excellent comment from "Ivorybill" that shows the attack may indeed have been an intergroup battle over territory.
The Yazidis supported the Kurdish rebellion in the 1970's and subsequently Saddam's Arab Nazis (Arab nationalists) destroyed the villages, rebuilt them and repopulated them with Arabs as part of Saddam's sickening fascist "Arabization" policy.
In 2003, the Arabs were moved out, typically at gunpoint, and they fled to Mosul. I think they could have been put up in housing nearby if the Arabs wanted to be reasonable about it. The Arabs are now concentrated in Ba'aj, a Bedouin town in the desert, and relations between Arabs and Yazidis are very tense.
Interestingly, the Yazidis captured a videotape of Saddam meeting with Izzat Ad-Duri, his right-hand man, in 1998. Ad-Duri suggested "completely eliminating" the Yazidis in the Sinjar area, whatever that means. Saddam said no.
There is a possibility that the Baath Party (now led by Ad-Duri) may have been behind this attack along with Al Qaeda. In that case, we may blame Arab Nazis along with Muslim Nazis. Al Qaeda are a genocidal mixture of Arab Nazis and Muslim Nazis.
Along related lines, Yazidis report that all of the Yazidis in the area had been threatened for some time now by local Arabs because the Yazidis had planned to vote to annex their part of Iraq into the Kurdish Zone. The suggestion is that this is an attack to get them to flee so they won't vote to leave Iraq.
And pickup trucks from the surrounding Arab villages had recently been spotted scouting out the Yazidi towns that were attacked. This shows clearly that the local Arab villages were involved in this genocidal attack and probably enlisted Iraqi Al Qaeda to do it. Iraqi Al Qaeda now styles itself charmingly "the protector of the Sunnis", and the Arab-fascist dog "Marxist" Al-Kubaysi, discussed below, this sort of Nazi BS is just dandy.
But I agree with Eugene Robinson that this looks like something more - genocide. Like an ancient feud between two groups of people. And it's genocidal bigotry too - a Yazidi survivor notes that every time they go to Mosul or Tel Afar, the (Sunni) Arabs or the (Shia) Turkmen try to kill them.
Why? Because these Muslims feel that the Yazidi are "devil worshipers", that's why. For an article on this blog that effectively destroys that notion, see here . It's just Iraqi Al Qaeda taking their usual 1-100 revenge (a philosophy another tribal people called Jews are fond of) for the stoning of Dua Aswad Khalil.
A photo of Dua Khalil Aswad, a beautiful young Yazidi teenager. At age 17, Dua fell in love with a Muslim man, eloped with him, converted to Islam and married him. Her family was furious, but she was told that she would be forgiven if she went back home. She had been staying in a Muslim cleric's home.
When she went home she was accosted by 10,000 men in her village, then stripped and stoned to death by her own relatives. The death was captured on cell phones and can be seen on this blog here. More civilized Yazidis in the cities were appalled by her death and ashamed of the backwards tribal behavior of the Yazidis of the countryside. Al Qaeda, a radical feminist organization if there ever was one, was so outraged by this barbarism that they pledged to kill every Yazidi in Iraq.
Sure, Al Qaeda kills women all the time, Sunnis, Shia, Christians, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen. Hell, they don't discriminate. But this was different. "Infidels" killed a Muslim and the evil Takfiris of Al Qaeda would not stand for that affront.
As if Al Qaeda does not murder Muslim women every day of the week in Iraq! After the stoning, Al Qaeda murdered 23 Yazidi men on a bus in Mosul. They distributed literature in mosques urging the killing of all Yazidis. They hate the Yezidis because they are infidels and because, even worse, they are suspected to be devil worshipers.
If Al Qaeda ever moves into any other nation in large force, they will do the same thing they are doing in Iraq - they will target the non-Muslim religious, Muslim Shia and Sufis and the secular for genocide.
We wiped fascism and Nazism off the face of Earth in WW2. We need to do the same to the Sunni Takfiris of Al Qaeda and their allied groups - wipe them out. I am sorry if that sentiment is not "progressive".
Online responses to the attacks varied. At the excellent MPACUK forum (derided as terror-supporting Al Qaeda-loving British Muslims by British Jewish Zionists) there was a civilized and heartwarming outpouring of sadness for the mass murders of the innocent, showing the Zionists to be the liars they always are.
The British London Times Online has a very nice story about the Yazidis, complete with a neat photo of Yazidi men in full religious garb. They also have one of the nicest looking news websites around (a redesign). There is another nice writeup on the MSNBC site. Incredibly, on this website heavily populated with supporters of Sunni Takfiri-Salafist jihadis, there were cheers for the genocidal attack on the Yazidis on the grounds that
Dua Khalil Aswad at age 5, the "Muslim" whose death was worth 400 Yazidis is here. I am sure she would not approve of that calculation. I must admit that I just adore girls of about this age. Not really sexually, my fantasy chamber is full of mature females and I don't want or need room for much else. I just think they are the most beautiful and adorable human creatures on the planet. Of any race or culture, the 5 year old girl is the same. I love the way they play, laugh, run, tease and sing.
They are uninhibited, curious, and quite intelligent. I'd like to father a young girl myself some day if I could. At one, they are "cute" but very stupid. At 2, they are crying too much and too shy and afraid to show off their amazing intelligence of language. By 9 or so they are are more serious, the energy and non-stop joy level has declined.
This is, curiously, called maturity. The 5-year old girl is bold, curious and friendly, full of joy, happiness and incredible energy, yet still cautious enough to be reasonable. Life is to play, no? What else are we here for anyway? And ideally, is it not, if your work is play, as mine has been in the finest days of working life?
At one job I told my co-workers, "Coming here every day is like going on vacation." And of course it was. I didn't want to go home at night. What for? I wanted to come in on weekends. Why not? The spirit of the eternal 5 yr girl suffused my office, and the other workers, who, sensibly, all hated their jobs, resented it.
I love 5 year old girls. What real human could not? There is nothing sexual there, just the normal appreciation of a wonder of nature, like a waterfall or a wild animal in nature. Call me anything you want, quit reading my blog, report me to Google, or whatever you want. I will shout it to the sky with no shame.
Sure, that's fair.
This blog has posted two articles on the Yazidis, Do the Yezidis Worship the Devil? and The Yezidis, a Mysterious Kurdish Religious Sect. The first article is quite long and goes into exhaustive detail about the group. Here is another take on the Yazidis from a fundamentalist Christian POV, saying that they are the precursors to all of the Abrahamic religions - pre-Jews, that is. I find that a little dubious.
On the subject of Al Qaeda and the increasingly insane and evil "Iraqi resistance", this Maoist blog incredibly prints an interview with the repellent "Leftist" Abduljabbar al Kubaysi, leader of the Iraqi "resistance" and secretary-general of the Leftist Iraqi Patriotic Alliance (IPA). I always worried about this guy, but now he has proven to be a complete maniac.
First, according to him, 99% of the mass murders attributed to Al Qaeda are not done by them - apparently they are done by Iran, the CIA, the Mossad or all three. Right. Then he defends the few mass murders that are supposedly actually done by them as a good revenge against the Iraqi Shia, since they support the evil Iran and all that. The usual Arab nationalist (Arab Nazi) BS.
Kubaysi is a funny kind of "socialist" - I suspect he is a Strasserist or a "National" Socialist, like so many Arab nationalists. Or maybe he is a National Bolshevik (flag look familiar)? All progressives need to stay clear of this fascist cancer. Guys like Kubaysi show just how dangerous playing with nationalist matches can be. And shame on the Maoists at Naxal Revolution for praising this fascist rat.
Note: Readers should carefully read the Commenting Rules before commenting to avoid having their comments edited or deleted and to avoid being banned from the site.
Updated January 23, 2008. The official report is now at 354, not 400, with 80 people still missing. There are 600, not 400, wounded, and many are not expected to make it. 10 more bodies were found on Sunday, August 19.
Genocidal Al Qaeda Sunni Muslim Nazis continued to attack non-Sunni Muslims in Iraq, this time driving four vehicle bombs at two Yezidi villages, Qataniya and Adnaniya, in Iraq near Sinjar, near the border with Syria. The attack occurred on Tuesday, August 13.
They drove four vehicles towards the two villages at once, aiming them at the residential compounds where many Yezidis were milling about outside in the cooling evening air. Some reports say the villages are near Mosul, but actually they are right next to the Syrian border.
Large areas of these villages lie in ruins and the scene resembles a nuclear bomb blast. 334 were confirmed dead as of Friday afternoon, August 17. Other reports on the same day said the toll had gone over 400. Another 400 were wounded and another 70 or so are feared buried in the rubble. All of the homes in both villages, 150 homes, were leveled.
Many of the wounded are missing hands and legs. Many of the wounded are critically hurt and have been dying in the hospital. It surpassed the previous high death toll for an attack of over 200 for an mortar and multiple car bomb attack in Sadr City in November 2006.
The Islamic State of Iraq was seen handing out flyers near the towns in the past week telling Arabs to stay away from the villagers because the Yazidis were anti-Islam.
There is little Iraqi government presence in the region near the Syrian border and Iraq is not able to control the border. Recently, dozens of local Iraqi security forces resigned after receiving threats from guerrillas. There is an excellent BBC video analysis of the attack on this page.
I do not agree with the US imperialist talking head in the video, Anthony Cordesman, who implies in the video that the US "surge" is working and that Al Qaeda is being driven to the far corners of Iraq and is desperately seeking to ignite divides between all of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups in order to set off a civil war.
There is already a civil war in Iraq. This blast shows that the surge is hardly working and that Iraq is a clusterfuck to nowhere. Worse, it's genocide in slow motion.
Juan Cole suggests that this attack shows that Sunni Arabs are fighting with the Yazidis over territory. Cole also carries an excellent comment from "Ivorybill" that shows the attack may indeed have been an intergroup battle over territory.
The Yazidis supported the Kurdish rebellion in the 1970's and subsequently Saddam's Arab Nazis (Arab nationalists) destroyed the villages, rebuilt them and repopulated them with Arabs as part of Saddam's sickening fascist "Arabization" policy.
In 2003, the Arabs were moved out, typically at gunpoint, and they fled to Mosul. I think they could have been put up in housing nearby if the Arabs wanted to be reasonable about it. The Arabs are now concentrated in Ba'aj, a Bedouin town in the desert, and relations between Arabs and Yazidis are very tense.
Interestingly, the Yazidis captured a videotape of Saddam meeting with Izzat Ad-Duri, his right-hand man, in 1998. Ad-Duri suggested "completely eliminating" the Yazidis in the Sinjar area, whatever that means. Saddam said no.
There is a possibility that the Baath Party (now led by Ad-Duri) may have been behind this attack along with Al Qaeda. In that case, we may blame Arab Nazis along with Muslim Nazis. Al Qaeda are a genocidal mixture of Arab Nazis and Muslim Nazis.
Along related lines, Yazidis report that all of the Yazidis in the area had been threatened for some time now by local Arabs because the Yazidis had planned to vote to annex their part of Iraq into the Kurdish Zone. The suggestion is that this is an attack to get them to flee so they won't vote to leave Iraq.
And pickup trucks from the surrounding Arab villages had recently been spotted scouting out the Yazidi towns that were attacked. This shows clearly that the local Arab villages were involved in this genocidal attack and probably enlisted Iraqi Al Qaeda to do it. Iraqi Al Qaeda now styles itself charmingly "the protector of the Sunnis", and the Arab-fascist dog "Marxist" Al-Kubaysi, discussed below, this sort of Nazi BS is just dandy.
But I agree with Eugene Robinson that this looks like something more - genocide. Like an ancient feud between two groups of people. And it's genocidal bigotry too - a Yazidi survivor notes that every time they go to Mosul or Tel Afar, the (Sunni) Arabs or the (Shia) Turkmen try to kill them.
Why? Because these Muslims feel that the Yazidi are "devil worshipers", that's why. For an article on this blog that effectively destroys that notion, see here . It's just Iraqi Al Qaeda taking their usual 1-100 revenge (a philosophy another tribal people called Jews are fond of) for the stoning of Dua Aswad Khalil.
A photo of Dua Khalil Aswad, a beautiful young Yazidi teenager. At age 17, Dua fell in love with a Muslim man, eloped with him, converted to Islam and married him. Her family was furious, but she was told that she would be forgiven if she went back home. She had been staying in a Muslim cleric's home.When she went home she was accosted by 10,000 men in her village, then stripped and stoned to death by her own relatives. The death was captured on cell phones and can be seen on this blog here. More civilized Yazidis in the cities were appalled by her death and ashamed of the backwards tribal behavior of the Yazidis of the countryside. Al Qaeda, a radical feminist organization if there ever was one, was so outraged by this barbarism that they pledged to kill every Yazidi in Iraq.
Sure, Al Qaeda kills women all the time, Sunnis, Shia, Christians, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen. Hell, they don't discriminate. But this was different. "Infidels" killed a Muslim and the evil Takfiris of Al Qaeda would not stand for that affront.
As if Al Qaeda does not murder Muslim women every day of the week in Iraq! After the stoning, Al Qaeda murdered 23 Yazidi men on a bus in Mosul. They distributed literature in mosques urging the killing of all Yazidis. They hate the Yezidis because they are infidels and because, even worse, they are suspected to be devil worshipers.
If Al Qaeda ever moves into any other nation in large force, they will do the same thing they are doing in Iraq - they will target the non-Muslim religious, Muslim Shia and Sufis and the secular for genocide.
We wiped fascism and Nazism off the face of Earth in WW2. We need to do the same to the Sunni Takfiris of Al Qaeda and their allied groups - wipe them out. I am sorry if that sentiment is not "progressive".
Online responses to the attacks varied. At the excellent MPACUK forum (derided as terror-supporting Al Qaeda-loving British Muslims by British Jewish Zionists) there was a civilized and heartwarming outpouring of sadness for the mass murders of the innocent, showing the Zionists to be the liars they always are.
The British London Times Online has a very nice story about the Yazidis, complete with a neat photo of Yazidi men in full religious garb. They also have one of the nicest looking news websites around (a redesign). There is another nice writeup on the MSNBC site. Incredibly, on this website heavily populated with supporters of Sunni Takfiri-Salafist jihadis, there were cheers for the genocidal attack on the Yazidis on the grounds that
- They are devil-worshipers.
- It's a legitimate revenge for the stoning death of Dua Aswad Khalil, the Yazidi woman who converted to Islam and then married her Muslim boyfriend.
Dua Khalil Aswad at age 5, the "Muslim" whose death was worth 400 Yazidis is here. I am sure she would not approve of that calculation. I must admit that I just adore girls of about this age. Not really sexually, my fantasy chamber is full of mature females and I don't want or need room for much else. I just think they are the most beautiful and adorable human creatures on the planet. Of any race or culture, the 5 year old girl is the same. I love the way they play, laugh, run, tease and sing.They are uninhibited, curious, and quite intelligent. I'd like to father a young girl myself some day if I could. At one, they are "cute" but very stupid. At 2, they are crying too much and too shy and afraid to show off their amazing intelligence of language. By 9 or so they are are more serious, the energy and non-stop joy level has declined.
This is, curiously, called maturity. The 5-year old girl is bold, curious and friendly, full of joy, happiness and incredible energy, yet still cautious enough to be reasonable. Life is to play, no? What else are we here for anyway? And ideally, is it not, if your work is play, as mine has been in the finest days of working life?
At one job I told my co-workers, "Coming here every day is like going on vacation." And of course it was. I didn't want to go home at night. What for? I wanted to come in on weekends. Why not? The spirit of the eternal 5 yr girl suffused my office, and the other workers, who, sensibly, all hated their jobs, resented it.
I love 5 year old girls. What real human could not? There is nothing sexual there, just the normal appreciation of a wonder of nature, like a waterfall or a wild animal in nature. Call me anything you want, quit reading my blog, report me to Google, or whatever you want. I will shout it to the sky with no shame.
Sure, that's fair.
This blog has posted two articles on the Yazidis, Do the Yezidis Worship the Devil? and The Yezidis, a Mysterious Kurdish Religious Sect. The first article is quite long and goes into exhaustive detail about the group. Here is another take on the Yazidis from a fundamentalist Christian POV, saying that they are the precursors to all of the Abrahamic religions - pre-Jews, that is. I find that a little dubious.
On the subject of Al Qaeda and the increasingly insane and evil "Iraqi resistance", this Maoist blog incredibly prints an interview with the repellent "Leftist" Abduljabbar al Kubaysi, leader of the Iraqi "resistance" and secretary-general of the Leftist Iraqi Patriotic Alliance (IPA). I always worried about this guy, but now he has proven to be a complete maniac.
First, according to him, 99% of the mass murders attributed to Al Qaeda are not done by them - apparently they are done by Iran, the CIA, the Mossad or all three. Right. Then he defends the few mass murders that are supposedly actually done by them as a good revenge against the Iraqi Shia, since they support the evil Iran and all that. The usual Arab nationalist (Arab Nazi) BS.
Kubaysi is a funny kind of "socialist" - I suspect he is a Strasserist or a "National" Socialist, like so many Arab nationalists. Or maybe he is a National Bolshevik (flag look familiar)? All progressives need to stay clear of this fascist cancer. Guys like Kubaysi show just how dangerous playing with nationalist matches can be. And shame on the Maoists at Naxal Revolution for praising this fascist rat.
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Monday, December 18, 2006
Afghanistan Wrapup for December 14, 2006
The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here.
Updated January 31, 2008
Thursday, December 14
Zabul Province: Suicide bomber attack on a police commander's vehicle as it traveled along a crowded street killed 4 civilians and wounded 25 more. It is not known if the commander was hurt.
Along the highway in Zabul Province. This is from a trip taken by Bill Roggio from Kabul to Kandahar. Numerous Taliban were seen along the way, especially in this province. They were typically riding motorcycles are were quickly pointed out by the Afghan guides. This province is quite arid and gets up to 120 F in summertime.
Khost-Gardez Highway, Khost Province: Hundreds of tribesmen protested the killings of what they said were civilians in a raid on a home in nearby Darnami 2 days before (see the December 12 report for more on that).
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Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: French M-2000D Mirages attacked Taliban fighters battling US troops near here. For the past few weeks, the Asadabad area has been bombed continuously, even as winter looms.
Now Zad, Now Zad District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces battling British troops near here. Now Zad has been being bombed almost every day for the past few weeks with no end in sight.
Wednesday, December 13
Siah Choy, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, Late: NATO launched an air strike on a Taliban command post here, completely destroying the post. A number of Taliban commanders were said to have been killed in this attack. A US B-1B Lancer dropped a GBU-38 on the target. Siah Choy (map) is located along the Arghandab River 23 miles west of Panjwayi, the capital of the district.
Now Zad, Now Zad District, Helmand Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and a B-1B attacked Taliban fighters again near here, with the A-10's firing cannons at the rebels. The B-1B dropped GBU-31s and GBU-38s on Taliban positions.
Kabul: French M-2000Ds attacked guerrillas battling NATO forces near here, dropping GBU-12s on their positions.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: Air Force A-10s and French M-2000Ds attacked guerrillas battling US troops near here. Urgun is being bombed regularly in recent weeks.
Tuesday, December 12
Farah Province: The Afghan police and army launched an operation against the Taliban here, killing 8 Taliban. 1 Afghan officer was wounded in the clash.
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Laskhar Gah, Lashkar Gah District, Helmand Province: Suicide bomber attack on a the compound of the governor of Helmand, Mohammed Daud. The bomber blew himself inside the governor's compound but the governor was not there at the time.
The governor has been widely accused of corruption and abuse of his position and is despised by the vast majority of Helmandis. 4 policemen and 2 civilians were killed in the attack.
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Darnami, Khost Province, 1 AM: The mainstream press reported on a US Special Forces raid on a home here.
According to the report, which is disputed by locals, US forces surrounded 4 guerrillas in their home here and ordered all "military-age males" to come out but they opened fire on US forces instead. Troops returned fire, and among the casualties were a 14-year-old girl, who was killed and an 8-year-old girl, who was wounded. All 4 guerrillas were killed.
Sources on the ground dispute this description of the events. According to Marc Herold, in the other version of this event, US Special Forces raided the home of a man named Engineer Shafik, killing 3 members of his family, including a 14-year-old girl.
According to Abdul Majid Arif and Javid Hamim of Pajhwok Afghan News, U.S Special Forces raided the home of Sarfaraz, an Afghan intelligence official serving in Khost.
Engineer Shafiq Mandozai, manager of a private bank in Khost and a member of the Sarfaraz family, said US troops broke into the home and an Afghan interpreter shouted in a Kandahari dialect for everyone to get out. US forces then inexplicably started shooting (apparently there were no shots fired by people inside the home), killing 5 people.
The dead were Mandozai's 14-year-old sister; Engineer Sarfaraz; Mandozai's father, Mohammad Jan, chief of the Forestry Department in Khost; and 2 other civilians. 3 civilians were wounded, including 2 more of Mandozai's sisters, one of them an 8-year-old girl.
Startled by the shootout, neighbors came running towards Sarfaraz' home. Guldad, an official working with the intelligence department in Khost, said two more civilians were then wounded by US forces, including another one of Mandozai's sisters.
Mandozai said US forces tied him up and beat him. As they were getting ready to kill him, he pulled out some personal documents and showed them to the troops. He was then released.
The US version of events implies that Sarfaraz and Mohammad Jan, one an Afghan intelligence agent working in Khost and the other the chief of the Forestry Department in Khost, were both members of the Taliban. If this is what US forces feel, then they need to back that accusation up with evidence. As it panned out, this is looking more like a botched raid. Darnami (map) is 10 1/2 miles west of Khost.
Khost Province is an interesting place. Right now, the city of Khost is regarded as a haven for backwards, reactionary fundamentalist morons but during the Russian War, the city was known as "Little Moscow", due to the large number of Communists who lived there. Isn't it amazing the way places change?
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Northern Now Zad District, Helmand Province: A British Royal Marine was killed when his patrol was attacked with small arms fire by the Taliban here. The dead Marine was Richard J. Watson. Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers provided air support for British troops during this battle, firing enhanced Paveway II and Paveway II munitions, dropping general-purpose 500-pound bombs and firing rockets on Taliban positions.
Kandahar: US Air Force MQ-1 Predators fired Hellfire missiles at Taliban forces near here.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrilla positions near here.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrilla positions here once again
Monday, December 11
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces here. This area is being bombed almost every single day recently.
Now Zad, Now Zad District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer and RAF GR-7s attacked Taliban forces here. The GR-7s fired an Enhanced Paveway II munition on a Taliban position.
Uruzgan Khas, Uruzgan Khas District, Uruzgan Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs provided attacked Taliban forces near here.
Sunday, December 10
Balabuluk District, Farah Province, Night: US troops and warplanes attacked a Taliban hideout here, killing at least 9 Taliban, including Mullah Abdul Samad, a regional commander, in fighting that went on for several hours. The Taliban have been in this Pashtun district for some time now. Their aim, among other things, is to cut the highway running from Herat to Helmand that runs through the district.
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Sperwan, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Canadian and Afghan forces battled the Taliban here. Much of the battle was engaged using small arms, but Coalition forces also called in air support. There were no Coalition casualties but 1 Taliban was wounded. News reports constantly list this town's name as Sperwan Ghar but the real name of the town is Sperwan.
Sperwan (map) is 19 miles southwest of Panjwayi, the district capital. The Canadians have a large base here. A description of the base can be found here. In September, US Special Forces fought a major battle with the Taliban that they are calling the Battle of Sperwan Ghar. A detailed description of this gripping battle is here.
Unfortunately, I am not sure what good all this fighting has done, as I think the Taliban are still deeply dug into this area, where many of them are simply farmers who pick up a weapon and fight one minute and then put it down and pick up a farm implement the next. The Taliban has a deep network of spies here, and they are warned in advance of any Canadian troop movement.
Furthermore, at least some of the informants the Canadians have been using here are Taliban informants. The area is a rich river valley, with grapes, corn and a great deal of marijuana growing in the area. The Taliban use the high crops as cover and have turned many of the villages into armed fortresses.
The Canadians are unfortunately associated with the Indian movies and music videos that the locals can now see on their satellite TV's - in other words, the locals are convinced that NATO has come to corrupt their society. It will be a long, difficult fight here.
This is one of the most unstable areas in Afghanistan. Repeated operations, including Operation Medusa that reportedly killed 900 Taliban, cannot seem to rid this area of the Taliban, who obviously have deep roots here.
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Qalat, Qalat District, Zabul Province: A Air Force B-1B and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces battling US troops near here. The Taliban control this entire province.
Now Zad, Now Zad District, Helmand Province: The never-ending bombing of the Now Zad continued, with US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs firing cannon rounds on Taliban positions here.
Sangin, Sangin District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters near here. Sadly, the Sangin District is totally controlled by the Taliban.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: US Air Force A-10s and a B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban forces once again near here.
Tagab Valley, Kapisa Province: US and Afghan forces were patrolling through a bazaar and a compound nearby when they became engaged in a battle with guerrillas. 1 guerrilla was killed but that was the only casualty. The Tagab Valley, previously stable, is becoming increasingly unstable in the past couple of months, a worrisome trend.
Bombing attack on the village of Khanaqa, Kapisa, from Marc Herold's excellent webpage about Afghanistan, Archivistan. US warplanes attacked this village on November 7, 2001, and completely obliterated it. No word on civilian casualties in that attack.
Bombing attack on Khan Agaha village in Kapisa during the initial US invasion. US bombs hit a residential area in this village called Qalaye Katir, killing 16 Afghan civilians, including 9 children.
The attack took place on October 27, 2001, when US FA-18's dropped 36 bombs on the village, apparently aiming for a Taliban machine gun on a nearby hill. One bomb hit a timber and mud-brick home and destroying it, killing an entire family, including 7 children who were eating breakfast with their father.
The US government has sponsored women's conferences in Kapisa and Logar. This is a photo from one of those conferences. The poster shows some fundamentalist bonehead beating an Afghan woman, which is one of the favorite activities of these "macho" guys, when they are not blowing up schools and threatening men for shaving their beards and stopping people from playing music.
A boy dives into a stream to go for a swim in Kapisa Province. There is quite a bit of flowing water here, even in early summer, when this photo was taken, and there are still many trees here. But that water doesn't look very clean. Photo taken June 21, 2006 - this past summer.
Kapisa Province is still fairly well-forested. 25 years of war have resulted in the deforestation of 70% of Afghanistan, a heartbreaking figure. In this arid land, the forests do not necessarily grow back after you cut them down, either, as is the case in very wet regions. Hillsides simply become barren, erosion increases and rainfall probably decreases with resulting drought, hunger, starvation, disease, etc.
It is not well known, but Lebanon and Greece were once forested - now the hills of both lands are largely barren after being denuded centuries ago. Further north in Scotland, the famous barren Scottish hills were once covered with oak forests, a fact few people know. Only 2% of these oak forests remain.
A burqa-clad woman crosses a full stream in Kapisa Province this past summer on June 21, 2006. As you can see, the creeks here run full and high in early summer and there is plenty of riparian vegetation. That burqa looks like a hazard when crossing the creek, though.
The village of Obdarah, in mountainous Kapisa Province. The Panjshir Valley is located in this province. This is where the famous Lion of the Panjshir, Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, held sway against first the Russians and then the Taliban. He was killed by Tunisian Al Qaeda suicide operatives posing as journalists, armed with an exploding video camera, a mere 2 days before 9-11, in an operation that was clearly intended to be part and parcel with the 9-11 attacks.
Many girls are still not in school here for some reason - less than 20% of the students in school here are girls. Taliban night letters have appeared, threatening teachers with death unless they resign. The number of girls in school has increased somewhat here recently, as international aid agencies have been quite active in this province since it is comparatively safe. That may all be changing now with these increased attacks.
Artillery shells hidden in a cave in Kapisa Province. International aid agencies continue to work here, and one of their priorities is demining and cleaning up hidden munitions. With increased attacks here, it is not certain that the aid agencies will be able to continue to do their good work here.
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Laghman Province: Afghan sources said that a NATO airstrike here earlier in the week killed at least 4 Afghan civilians and wounded 1 more when a house was bombed. The Taliban are definitely increasing their presence here lately.
Saturday, December 9
Paktia Province, Late: Roadside bomb attack on Afghan forces killed 6 Afghan soldiers here. The bomb hit their vehicle and killed all 6 men on board. Paktia is known as a stronghold of the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami. There are also Al Qaeda fighters here from time to time. The famous Operation Anaconda in early 2002 was fought in this province.
*****
Mizan District, Zabul Province: The Taliban attacked a US patrol here with machine guns and a land mine in this Taliban-controlled district, damaging vehicles and wounding 2 US troops in a gunbattle that went on for some time. This district is fairly quiet but that is just because the Taliban here spend most of their time hiding out rather than attacking.
The Mizan District, in the west of Zabul, borders the Shah Wali Kot District of Kandahar. Similarly, Shah Wali Kot is fairly quiet only because not many foreign troops are there right now. This is one of the most backward districts in the whole country. As an example, the last census was in 1963! The district is 100% Pashtun.
Water is a problem here, although it is widely available. Twice a day, residents walk 1 mile to get water, and then wait in 1-hour lines to fill their containers. As usual, sanitation is a typical problem here. The bathrooms here are known as "wherever you can squat". Women squat inside compounds; men wherever there is open space. I assume people learn to watch their step here.
2/3 of the open cultivated land, and all of the rain-fed land, lies fallow due to drought. The livestock here are sheep, camels, goats, donkeys, cows and chickens. An incredible 97% of the sheep and goats are dead after years of drought, which has even killed 50% of camels! I wasn't aware a camel could die from a drought.
Brangel, okra, tomatoes, cabbage, pomegranates and almonds are grown here. The parts of the district near the Arghandab River, which runs through the center of the district, still have good farming. In other areas, the harvest is poor. As is usual in so many Afghan districts, the main road here is partly destroyed and the rest of the roads are muddy much of the time.
The bridges, as usual, are partly destroyed. The economy is so poor here that 70% of residents travel outside the district to look for work. There is not one health clinic in this district. Residents can thank George Bush for that.
There are no high schools here at all, and only a few students at all in the grade schools - 80% of the grade school aged boys are not in school. No girls are in school and there are no female teachers, as we might expect for Zabul. The schools here actually have water and washrooms, unlike so many Afghan schools. Most actually have buildings too, though some are held outdoors.
As we might expect, women play no role in the community at all.
Resupplying a US base in Zabul. Photo by Joseph Marble.
A Taliban night letter from Zabul Province warning teachers to stop teaching or be killed. On January 3, 2005, Taliban worms entered the Sheik Mathi Baba high school in Qalat, the capital, and beheaded the teacher in front of his students, in one of the most shocking attacks on education so far in Afghanistan.
This is what parts of Zabul, especially the mountainous areas, look like in wintertime. Here US forces are supplying snowed-in residents in Zabul in early February 2005, when harsh winter weather hit the region, especially Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan.
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Saturday, December 9
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Afghanistan: US officials are voicing new worries about the situation in Afghanistan. The fears are that a renewed Taliban offensive next Spring will be a "tipping point" which could tip a large number, or possibly a majority, of Afghans over into support for the Taliban. Government control is tenuous at best in 20% of the country.
Zabul Province is almost totally Taliban-controlled, and in Helmand and Kandahar, the Taliban control most areas outside of the cities. Further, since April, the Taliban have been in control Baghran, Sangin and Dishu Districts. Dishu was captured first in February. By April, Baghran was captured. By May, they had grabbed Sangin.
Since then, the Taliban have clearly seized the Garmser and Musa Qala Districts. In the Helmand districts they control, the Taliban have banned music and forbidden men from shaving their beards. Men are forced to go to the mosque to pray five times a day.
The Taliban have a great deal of power and possibly wield control in the Now Zad, Kajaki and Nahri Sarraj Districts, especially the latter. The Taliban do not completely control the Washer, Lashkar Gah, Nad Ali, Reg and Nawa-i-Barakzayi Districts, although they are active there.
In Kandahar Province, the Taliban have a huge presence in the capital city and in control much of the Panjwayi District west of the capital. The violence is increasing inexorably; there were four times as many attacks last year as the year before. In the past year, up to 7,000 Taliban may have been killed but there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of new recruits.
A timeless scene from Zabul Province, with ancient mud-brick homes. The report above notes that Zabul is totally controlled by the Taliban at the moment.
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Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: US Navy F/A-18 Hornets dropped a GBU-12 on a Taliban position during fighting with British troops near here. Lashkar Gah is being bombed regularly these days.
Kabul: An Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas fighting NATO troops near here. The B-1B dropped GBU-38s on Taliban positions.
Friday, December 8
Uruzgan Province, Afternoon: Roadside bomb attack on a US vehicle killed 2 Afghan interpreters but did not injure any Americans.
Now Zad District, Helmand Province: The Taliban attacked British and Afghan forces here. The Coalition returned fire, killing 5 Taliban. There were no Coalition casualties. Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers assisted in this battle. One of the GR-7s dropped a general-purpose 500-pound bomb on an enemy position.
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Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: US Air Force B-1Bs, Navy F/A-18 Hornets, an Air Force B-1B Lancer, Air Force A-10s Thunderbolt IIs, French M2000D Mirages and an Air Force MQ-1 Predator attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here, an area that has seen constant fighting the past few weeks.
The B-1Bs and F/A-18s dropped GBU-12s and GBU-38s, one of the A-10s dropped a GBU-12 and a general-purpose 500-pound bomb, the B-1B dropped GBU-31s on enemy targets, and the Predator fired a Hellfire missile on the guerrillas.
*****
Thursday, December 7
Airport Road, Kandahar: Suicide car bomb attack on a Canadian convoy caused no Canadian casualties but either killed or wounded 15 civilians. This was the 7th suicide car bomb attack on the airport road in the last nine days, an incredible figure.
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Between the Gulran District and Herat, Herat Province: The Taliban attacked a district police chief's vehicle, killing him and wounding his bodyguard. Hajji Zahir, police chief for the Gulran District, was driving towards Herat city when the Taliban opened fire. The Gulran District is located in the northwest corner of Herat. It is bordered on one side by Iran and on the other side by Turkmenistan.
An ethnic group called the Jamshidi Aimaq makes up a large percentage of the population of the Gulran District. There are 120,000 Jamshidi Aimaqs in Afghanistan and another 37,000 in Iran. The Jamshidis are part of a larger group called Aimaqs, numbering about 850,000 - 650,000 in Afghanistan and 200,000 in Iran.
Other figures put the total population at about 1.75 million in all countries, and 1.53 million in Afghanistan. If there are 900,000 Aimaqs in Afghanistan, they would make up 3.4% of the population. They are best classed as semi-sedentary, since they wander with their flocks somewhat. This is part of a cluster of 8 tribes called the Char Aimaq. The tribal formations date back to the 1500's and 1600's.
The Aimaq language is related to Persian, with some Turkic and Mongolian vocabulary and influence. Jamshidi is one of the dialects of Aimaq. The leader of the a group of Jamshidi is known as a khan. He typically traces his ancestry back to the founder of the tribe.
For a tribe of rural Afghans, women have a surprisingly high position. Many do not marry until age 18, and girls are even known to reject the husbands who have been picked for them. The future groom often moves in with his future wife's family for up to 2 years before marrying.
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Kandahar: U.S. Navy F/A-18s dropped GBU-12's on Taliban positions near here.
Kabul: French Air Force M2000D Mirages attacked guerrilla forces fighting NATO troops near here. The Kabul area is being bombed regularly lately, an ominous development.
Musa Qala, Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here, an area where a truce between the British and local elders has apparently completely broken down.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province:Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrilla fighters once again near here in an area that is being bombed all the time lately.
Wednesday, December 6
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Kolikhel, Paktia Province: Armed men, probably the Taliban, kidnapped two NGO employees here. Two employees of a relief agency Ibn-e-Sina were driving towards the Zurmat District when they were captured.
The employees had failed to inform the police before leaving for Zurmat. The town was listed as Kalal Koh in news reports, but there is no such town. However, there is a town called Kolikhel (map), which is located about 3 miles north of Zurmat.
The Taliban fundamentalist nutcases have stated that they will be targeting all NGO employees, because they are serving the interests of the "infidel (Tarzan's) regime". By the same lunatic reasoning, all Afghan teachers are being ordered to quit their jobs, because schools "benefit the Karzai government". The Taliban must be one of the most insane and evil insurgencies on Earth.
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Kandahar: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the offices of a US mercenary firm here, killing two Americans and five Afghans. The bomber approached the USPI (US Protection and Investigation) compound as men were leaving the building and detonated himself. In addition to the two Americans killed, an additional 5 Afghan employees of the firm were also killed, including two interpreters.
A regional USPI chief may have been amongst the dead. 1 of the Americans was John Micheal Krancich. We do not have the name of the other American.
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Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs once again attacked Taliban fighters battling British troops near here. The F/A-18s dropped a GBU-12 on and fired cannon rounds at Taliban positions. Do you get the impression that the Taliban are besieging the capital of Helmand?
Tuesday, December 5
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Garmser, Garmser District, Helmand Province, 5 AM: British Marines attacked the Taliban-held town of Garmser, a city of 50,000 people in Helmand Province, the province that produces 1/3 of the world's opium supply. But the British were forced to withdraw after the Taliban surrounded advancing Marines and threatened to cut them off.
Marines called in air strikes and artillery fire but the Taliban managed to withstand those attacks. The only place in the Garmser District that is held by the Afghan government and British troops is a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Helmand River in Garmser.
Scores of Marines ran across the bridge just before sunup and moved out into wheat fields on the other side. At first, there was only off and on Taliban fire. But as the British moved forward, Taliban forces hiding in a well-designed series of trenches launched a vicious attack using heavy weaponry in an attempt to outflank the British.
British forces counterattacked from light armored vehicles and fired mortars and machine guns at guerrillas. The British felt trapped and called in heavy air support. Apache helicopters fired rockets, B-1 bombers dropped 500-pound bombs and A-10 Thunderbolts shot cannon fire at the Taliban, but the guerrillas were able to hold their ground in spite of the heavy fire from above.
Two Royal Marines were injured in the fighting, and one of those, Jonathan Wigley, later died of wounds. Both were airlifted to the UK hospital in Camp Bastion. An article about Wigley and the Afghan War is here. Wigley was apparently killed by friendly fire from a US A-10 attack jet.
Taliban fighters officially seized the town of Garmser over the summer two times and NATO forces had to come back days later to retake it. The Taliban angered even those locals opposed to foreign troops by burning the Afghan flag and hoisting the flags of two fundamentalist idiot groupings in Pakistan.
Schools have been shut down across Garmser and the Taliban have staged a number of public executions, further angering locals. Some locals here despise the Taliban creeps and want the British to drive the fundamentalist freaks out of the area. But Britain lacks enough troops to do that.
The British commander has been constantly calling for another 1,000 troops for Helmand but all his requests have been turned down. This means that the only way that the British could drive the Taliban worms out of Garmser would be to devastate the town from the air, which would leave a victory of ruins.
Further complicating efforts is the blatantly dishonest nature of the British role here - the British did not come to Helmand to fight the Taliban, but instead came here to rebuild the place. Shades of Alice in Wonderland.
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Kandahar: Suicide car bomb attack on a Canadian convoy on the Airport Road wounded two Canadian soldiers and six Afghan civilians. The bomber, driving a minivan, blew up his vehicle next to a Nyala RG-31 armored vehicle and a transport truck. The two wounded Canadian troops were in the truck.
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Miran Shah, North Waziristan, Pakistan: Tribesmen furious over the government's failure to restore power to Miran Shah cut off road links to the town by placing burning tires and boulders on three main roads leading to Miran Shah.
Power was cut to the region, supposedly due to technical problem, on November 13, and has not yet been restored. Makes you wonder if the government is not cutting off power to the Taliban and Al Qaeda-controlled region on purpose?
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Great Britain: A bizarre new ruling by the British courts is rewarding millions of pounds to British troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan by referring to them as crime victims. What this means is that the court said that the guerrillas fighting British troops in those countries are criminals, not irregular soldiers.
This ruling was necessary because the British Ministry of Defense became liable for possible damages from British troops wounded after the official "end of the war" in Iraq in May 2003.
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Kandahar: An Air Force MQ-1 Predator fired a Hellfire missile on a Taliban target near here.
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Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer, Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, U.S. Navy F/A-18s and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters swarming the Helmand capital once again.
The B-1B dropped GBU-38s, the A-10s dropped general-purpose 500-pound bombs and fired cannon rounds, the F/A-18s dropped GBU-12s and fired cannon rounds, and the GR-7s fired an enhanced Paveway II munition on Taliban forces.
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Kajaki Dam, Kajaki District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1B, Navy F/A-18s and RAF GR-7s attacked Taliban fighters battling British troops near here, an area that has been bombed for months now.
Monday, December 4
Kandahar, 11:50 AM: A US Special Forces soldier was wounded while demolitions training here.
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Germany: A report from the German military, the Bundeswehr, warns in a classified report that the Taliban are moving in on Kabul and that attacks in the capital city are likely to increase. The analysis is based on the notion that security in districts within Kabul Province adjacent to the capital is deteriorating.
The report voices a fear that attacks on Kabul will increase in coming months. The report indicates that the Taliban have said that they will focus attacks during the winter on the largest cities in Afghanistan. The security situation has already "visibly deteriorated" in two districts located only 5 miles from Kabul's city limits.
In these districts, Afghan security forces don't even dare to patrol the streets at night. The districts were not named in the Der Spiegel article on the military report. The report feared that the Taliban could use the deteriorated districts as "gateways" to Kabul and also as a safe haven to plan future attacks.
The report said that Taliban fighters are smuggled into the districts in small "groups of up to eight men," and they blend into the local area by staying in the homes of local residents for several days at a time.
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Kandahar Province: German authorities said that two journalists may have been kidnapped here. One of them is apparently a German citizen. The pair did not registered with NATO's media office and were not covering NATO's activities.
Sangin, Sangin District, Helmand Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces near here in this Taliban-controlled district. The F/A-18s dropped GBU-12s and a GBU-38 and the GR-7s fired rockets on enemy positions.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban forces fighting British troops once again near here. It appears the capital of Helmand is surrounded by the Taliban.
Sunday, December 3
Kabul-Kandahar Highway, Near Qalat, Zabul Province, Early AM: The Taliban attacked a police checkpoint here, setting off a gunbattle that killed 4 Taliban and 1 policeman. Police recovered three AK-47's, one RPG and one dead Taliban fighter.
Mus'am Ghar, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, 5:10 PM: Two rebel rockets landed near this Canadian base, but caused no casualties. Canadian troops fired back with two mortar rounds of their own. Mus'am Ghar could not be located on any maps.
Kunduz: Guerrillas attacked a German patrol here. The attack did not cause any casualties, but it did slightly damaged three Dingo armored troop carriers. German soldiers returned fire at the attackers. It is not yet known who is carrying out these attacks in relatively calm northern Afghanistan.
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Airport Road, Kandahar: A suicide car bomb exploded next to a NATO convoy here, damaging an open-top NATO vehicle. As troops sped away, they fired on several civilian cars, wounding several Afghans. All together, 19 people were wounded, 16 Afghans including three NATO soldiers.
10 Afghans were wounded in the initial blast and 6 more were wounded by NATO troops afterwards. NATO troops fired on vehicles as far away as 1/2 mile from the blast site. All told, at least eight people were killed in the attack, 3 by the bombing and 5 more by NATO troops afterwards.
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Kandahar: Navy F/A-18 Hornets and French Air Force M-2000Ds attacked Taliban forces once again here.
Saturday, December 2
Panjwayi, Panjwayi District, Afghanistan, AM: For the first time since the Korean War, Canadian tanks have been deployed in a combat situation. A squadron of Canadian Leopard tanks drove through here as locals watched on their way to a forward observation base. Canadian forces said the tank deployment was meant to send a message to the Taliban.
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Duabi, Jawand District, Badghis Province, 9:23 PM: Unknown gunmen attacked Chinese workers in a remote camp being run by the China Railway Shisiju Group Corporation here. The workers managed to evacuate the base to a major base 25 miles away after the attack. No workers were injured. Afghan police guarding the walled camp returned fire against the attackers.
A gunbattle lasting 1 1/2 hours ensued. After 90 minutes, the firing ended, but the attackers had not yet retreated. 2 hours after the initial attack, police reinforcements arrived and the attackers fled. At the time of the battle, around 30 Chinese workers, building a local road, were stationed in the camp.
The camp is surrounded by barbed wire netting and trenches. There has not yet been any information about who was behind the attack or why it was launched. Doabi (map) is located 1/4 mile west of Jawand, a major city.
Badghis is a quiet but desperately poor province that is suffering from drought and resulting lack of food. Jawand is one of the worst districts in all Afghanistan. The entire area is ravaged by disease, drought and starvation.
There are no roads, no doctors, no medical clinics, no schools and almost 100% of the population is illiterate. Check out the heartbreaking Guardian story above about the district. The article is from 2002, but I doubt if things have much improved since.
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Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: British forces attacked a Taliban force here, after being informed by local police that the guerrillas were gathering nearby. The ensuing attack killed an estimated 70 to 80 Taliban. There were no British casualties. The fighting was quite heavy and continued into early Sunday.
The fighting occurred in a remote part of the district and there was no way to independently confirm the casualty figures. This seems to be the end of the truce negotiated in October between British forces and the Taliban here, negotiated by local elders. The truce was intended to keep the Taliban out of the area but all it did was cement Taliban control over the district.
There is some question about whether the truce applied to the entire district or just to the town of Musa Qala. In recent days, locals, many of them women and schoolteachers, have traveled to Kabul to complain about the truce, saying that all it did was let the Taliban take over.
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Northern Kandahar Province, AM: A US NATO-chartered MI-21 helicopter with a crew of eight personnel flown by the US mercenary firm Dyncorp International, flying supplies from a NATO base in Kandahar city to another in Tirin Kot in Uruzgan, went down here for unknown reasons in poor weather. The Taliban said they shot it down but NATO would not confirm or deny that.
It is also not known how many, if any of the crew were killed and whether any were wounded, although it was suggested that there may have been fatalities. This crash is mysterious. A search and rescue team found the helicopter at noon.
Initially, NATO was not able to dispatch ground troops to the crash site due to weather, location and terrain and the last report was that it had no information about the crew. This crash is very strange and we need more information about it. Dyncorp is widely considered to be a CIA front corporation.
2 weeks later, the Taliban were still saying that they shot this helicopter down. They may indeed have done so. If the crew was CIA, then that explains why there has been no information about any possible casualties, since CIA casualties are often not reported.
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Afghanistan: Much of Afghanistan saw significant snowfall. This will slow down the insurgency.
Friday, December 1
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Ghazni Province, 5 PM: A US convoy fired on a group of officers twice in twilight in a very confused situation, killing 1 Afghan policeman and wounding 1 more. waning daylight in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. NATO said that the police fired first on the convoy as it moved through a bazaar in a town and troops then returned fire.
Afghan police said that troops had opened fire without provocation, killing 1 officer out of 3 manning the checkpoint. 2 of the 3 police manning the checkpoint that was attacked were in civilian clothes. The other 2 officers ran away and hid.
About 45 minutes later, the convoy passed by once again, and again opened fire on police, this time wounding an officer who was shouting at them to try to show them he was a friendly. Clearly a very confused situation.
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Tirin Kot, Tirin Kot District, Uruzgan Province, Night: The Taliban attacked police in the Darwishan area of the city of Tirin Kot , capital of Uruzgan Province. Over the course of a 3-hour battle, 7 Taliban were killed and 4 others wounded. 2 policemen were also wounded.
Wardak Province, Night: In a battle with guerrillas here, police killed 4 guerrillas. There were no further details. Wardak is definitely deteriorating lately.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces once again besieging the capital, in what is becoming a daily affair.
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Muqur District, Ghazni Province: Navy F/A-18s attacked Taliban forces fighting US troops near here. US forces have made some great changes here recently as they have ignored Washington and gone ahead with their own reconstruction and security-related projects.
The locals are sick and tired of the Taliban and want security and development. Prior, security forces were woefully ill-equipped. US forces are even funding the building of mosques in villages, arguably a positive thing.
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Thursday, November 30
Sangin District, Helmand Province, Early: British and Afghan troops, backed up by warplanes and helicopters, killed 10 Taliban and captured two Taliban commanders in a raid on an alleged suicide bomb cell here. One British soldier was lightly wounded in the operation. The identities of the Taliban leaders captured raid were not revealed. Troops seized two suicide vests, several RPG's and a cache of equipment and weapons.
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FOB Martello, Northern Kandahar Province, Afternoon: A speeding taxi approached a Canadian patrol near here and refused to slow when directed to do so. Canadian troops fired one shot at the car, which missed the driver but hit the passenger in the leg. FOB Martello was created by the Canadians in April of this year. It is located on the road between Kandahar and Tirin Kot in Uruzgan.
The area is a high, rocky desert with scattered oases and farming communities grouped around the oases. It is definitely swarming with Taliban. The base is located near a town called Elbak (map). Elbak is located 49 1/2 miles northeast of Kandahar and only 10 1/2 miles south of the border with Uruzgan Province.
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Muqur District, Ghazni Province: A US vehicle rolled over here during a battle with guerrillas, killing 1 US soldier, Specialist Chris Kleinwachter. The death is now being classified as non-hostile.
Kabul: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets dropped GBU-38s on guerrilla positions. Do you get the impression that the guerrillas are besieging the capital?
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers and French Air Force M2000D Mirages attacked Taliban fighters once again near here. The GR-7s expended rockets on Taliban positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer dropped GBU-38s on Taliban positions. Are the guerrillas besieging this regional capital also?
Kandahar: An Air Force B-1B and Navy F/A-18s attacked the Taliban who were battling Canadian troops near here.
Wednesday, November 29
Kabul: NATO said that suicide bombings have killed 244 people including 17 NATO soldiers, in Afghanistan this year, a dramatic increase over the previous year.
Afghan/Pakistan border of Eastern Afghanistan: Scores of al-Qaeda fighters stormed a checkpoint here, setting off a 1-hour battle that left 2 guerrillas dead. This attack must have taken place on the border with either North or South Waziristan on the Pakistani side and Paktika Province on the Afghan side.
Airport Road, Kandahar: A suicide bomber attacked a Canadian convoy here, killing two civilians. There were no Canadian casualties.
United States: About $2 billion worth of U.S. Army and Marine Corps equipment is wearing out or being destroyed every month in Iraq and Afghanistan. The figure is equal to about a quarter of the $8 billion per month that the US is spending on the wars themselves on direct military expenditures.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces battling British troops near here. The GR-7s fired an enhanced Paveway II munition and rockets on enemy positions.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer once again attacked guerrillas near here, dropping GBU-31s on enemy positions.
Khost Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer attacked guerrillas here.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas once again near here, in what has become a regular occurrence.
Kandahar: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas again near here. The Kandahar region is getting bombed almost every day these days.
Muqur District, Ghazni Province: An Air Force B-1 attacked Taliban fighters battling US troops here. This area is getting bombed quite a bit lately, and there have been some US casualties also.
Tuesday, November 28
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Puli-i-Nam District, Logar Province, Afternoon: Roadside bomb attack on a NATO vehicle here killed two US soldiers, Staff Sergeant Michael A. Shank and Specialist Jeffrey G. Roberson, and wounding one soldier and one interpreter. Puli-i-Nam is the capital of Logar. Logar is a conservative district, but not as conservative as the south of the country.
There is evidence that Ayman al-Zawahiri sought refuge here soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was in a familiar place. There were several Al Qaeda training camps in Logar during the Taliban's rule but the locals were not very friendly towards the largely-Arab foreign fighters.
Parts of Logar were controlled by the Taliban and others by the Northern Alliance during the Civil War. Hezb-i-Islami has always been very popular here. The district is majority Pashtun with a Tajik minority.
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South of the Arghandab River, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, Afternoon: in a suicide bomb attack in the Suicide bomb attack on a Canadian Bison armored personnel carrier A slightly wounded a Canadian soldier.
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5 miles south of Herat, Herat Province: A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle next to a counterterrorism police truck that had been chasing him, killing one policeman and wounding 1 more.
The vehicle approached a police checkpoint where police tried to stop and search bomber's car, but he sped away. Police then chased the vehicle. In the course of the chase, the bomber detonated his vehicle, killing himself and causing the 2 other casualties.
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Garmser District, Helmand Province: RPG attack on a British vehicle here wounded 1 British soldier. The Taliban control virtually 100% of this district.
Khost Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer attacked guerrillas once again here.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked the Taliban once again near here, firing enhanced Paveway II munitions and rockets on enemy positions.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: A B-1 Bomber once again attacked guerrillas here. This areas is getting bombed all the time lately. It is right across from North Waziristan, which explains the heavy fighting. The B-1 dropped GBU-31s on guerrillas here. enemy positions near Orgun-e.
Kandahar: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked the Taliban again near here, in a reprise of the constant bombing in this area.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas again near here. Asadabad is getting bombed most every day lately.
Muqur District, Ghazni Province: An Air Force B-1 once again attacked the Taliban here. This province is getting bombed a lot lately.
Monday, November 27
Shindand District, Herat Province, Night: Roadside bomb attack on a police convoy wounded three police.
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Makeen, North Waziristan, Pakistan: The Taliban shot and killed a local cleric here, accusing him of spying for the US in Afghanistan. Gul Tahmim's body was found in a ravine near a Pakistani base.
A note left with his body said: "See this body! He was spying for America and had friendship with Maulana Salahuddin and Maulana Hashim Khan, who were also American spies." Those 2 men had been killed in the area previously, one of them 2 weeks before.
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Airport Road, Kandahar: Suicide car bomb attack on a Canadian convoy here damaged a Bison armored personnel carrier, killing two Canadian soldiers, the crew commander and the driver of the Bison. An Afghan was also killed in the attack. The 2 soldiers were Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard and Corporal Albert Storm.
A minivan pulled up alongside the Bison soon after it left the airport and detonated. Several camels alongside the road were also killed. There were several other soldiers inside the vehicle but they were not hurt. The troops were helping on reconstruction projects in the Panjwayi District. On the day of the attack, they were leaving the Airport base for the District to work on more rebuilding.
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Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: French M2000D Mirages and Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here, in an area that is getting bombed almost every day lately.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer attacked Taliban forces battling US troops near here. What is going on here? Why is Asadabad getting bombed every day?
Tirin Kot, Tirin Kot District, Uruzgan Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces here. The Taliban control the entire rural area surrounding this capital, and recently they have moved into the city itself.
Sunday, November 26
Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province, 2 PM: A "suspect" vehicle approached a US British convoy here, and jittery soldiers opened fire on the vehicle when it refused to slow down, killing an Afghan civilian. A similar incident happened only 4 days ago. According to NATO, "Despite clear signals to stop, including the use of flares and warning shots, the vehicle refused to halt".
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Kamdesh District, Nuristan Province, Night: A US military truck rolled down a sharp embankment here in this remote province, killing one US soldier, 1st Lieutenant Benjamin Keating, and injuring 1 more. The troops were providing supplies to the Kamdesh Civil Military Operations Center (CMOC) at the time of the accident in this extremely rugged and remote area, where roads are little more than rude dirt tracks.
Men greet mountaineers in Kamdesh, Nuristan Province. Notice that there are no women present here. Also note that the homes are made of wood. This region has become very fundamentalist since it was forcibly converted to Islam 110 years ago. Osama bin Laden has probably been hiding in Nuristan at least some of the time since 2003, when he is not in Dir across the border in Pakistan.
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Mano Gai, Pech District, Kunar Province: Guerrillas captured 4 Afghans returning from work at a U.S. military base here. The guerrillas here include Hezb-i-Islami Hekmatyar, Hezb-i-Islami Khalis, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba and some other obscure fundamentalist dolts.
The fighters include Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs and are often very well-armed and very well-trained. Mano Gai (map) is the capital of the district.
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Urgun, Urgun District, Paktika Province: A Pakistani suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant here, killing 15 Afghans and injuring 24,. He was apparently targeting an Afghan special forces commander and a district chief who were at the restaurant and were among the injured. The restaurant was destroyed.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: RAF GR-7s once again attacked the Taliban, who are surrounding this capital city, dropping a 540-pound bomb and an firing enhanced Paveway II on Taliban positions.
Kandahar: RAF GR-7s dropped a 540-pound bomb and an fired enhanced Paveway II munitions on enemy positions. The Kandahar area is getting bombed about every day these days.
Musa Qala, Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked the Taliban here, dropping a GBU-12 and firing cannon rounds on enemy positions. Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers also attacked in the same area, expended rockets on enemy positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban forces once again near here.
Saturday, November 25
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Kabul-Kandahar Highway, Zabul Province, Night: The Taliban ambushed a police convoy here in this Taliban-controlled province, setting off a gunbattle in which 1 Taliban was killed.
US forces in Zabul in June 2005. As you can see, this province is quite arid. The Taliban now rules almost this entire province. In 2005, 86 schools here were closed down due to terror threats from Taliban fundamentalist losers, the highest number for any province, even Helmand or Kandahar. As of March 2006, about 1/2 of the schools are closed, and only 8% of girls are in school.
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Tirin Kot District, Uruzgan Province: NATO forces said that they killed about 55 Taliban fighters in 2 separate battles here. Original reports said two NATO soldiers died in one of the clashes, but later reports indicate that only 1 soldier was killed, 2nd Lieutenant Scott B. Lundell.
Lundell was killed by small arms and RPG fire. The fighting began when the Taliban attacked NATO forces here. NATO returned fire and called in attack aircraft, killing about 50 Taliban.
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Arghandab district, Zabul Province: About 50 Taliban fighters attacked the police chief's compound here, setting off a 1-hour firefight. At the end, 1 Taliban was killed 3 more were wounded. There were no police casualties.
US forces in Zabul in an undated photo from a Slovenian newspaper. These homes appear to be in ruins for some reason, possibly still from the Russian War. This entire province is Taliban-controlled, so US forces are fighting an uphill battle here.
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Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: The Taliban fired on Canadian and Afghan troops here, wounding 3 Canadian soldiers. The Canadians called in an air strike that killed about five Taliban.
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United States: US Air Force C-17 transport planes, planes that fly troops, supplies and fuel in missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, were attacked 215 times — an average of four times a week — in 2006. The smaller turbo-prop C-130 transports were attacked 65 times.
70% of the attacks happened when the planes were flying below 5,000 feet. Most of the attacks were with small arms such as assault rifles and machine guns. Since the war on terrorism began five years ago, there have been five “major” hits on C-17s.
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Charkh District, Logar Province: Suicide car bomb attack on a combined Afghan-NATO convoy wounded 2 who were walking in the street. Some vehicles in the patrol were lightly damaged.
Kabul: Roadside bomb attack on an Afghan army jeep damaged the vehicle but caused no injuries. A public bus was also damaged.
Helmand Province: Two Pakistani journalists held by the Taliban in southern of Afghanistan and put on trial for unknown reasons, A reporter for The Star said that its reporter Saleem Shahzad and another journalist, Qamar Yousafzai, had been detained by Taliban commander named Matiullah. Shahzad was detained on November 21 by the Taliban.
Kabul: Czech troops arrived to take command of the Kabul International Airport. A unit of 47 Czech troops is scheduled to take charge of the airport starting in early December until early April 2007.
Musa Qala, Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: Navy F/A-18Fs attacked the Taliban once again here, in a district where a truce with the Taliban has clearly totally broken down. The F/A-18Fs dropped GBU-38s and a GBU-12 on enemy positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here.
Friday, November 24
Kandahar Province, 12:11 PM: US forces fought with the Taliban somewhere in this province, in a battle in which US forces utilized mortars, artillery, and air power. 7 Taliban were killed in the fighting.
Mus'am Ghar, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: The Taliban fired a rocket near the Canadian base here, missing an assembled foot patrol by 50 yards. There were no casualties. As noted above, Mus'am Ghar cannot be located on a map.
Kandahar: Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked the Taliban once again here, where the Taliban are possibly besieging the capital. The F/A-18s dropped GBU-12s and fired cannon rounds on the Taliban.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: RAF GR-7s attacked the Taliban once again here, in what appears to be a case of whack-a-mole.
Thursday, November 23
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Qarabagh District, Ghazni Province: The Taliban fired a rocket at a US patrol, killing 1 US soldier and wounding 1 more. US forces and guerrillas traded small arms fire and later US troops called in air support. The soldier's name has now been released as Corporal Nathan Joel Goodiron.
His vehicle took the full brunt of an RPG attack while escorting a military convoy. His cousin, Sergeant C.J. O'Berry, was the soldier wounded in the attack. Interesting that 2 cousins were manning the same vehicle.
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Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked guerrillas once again, in what is becoming a daily series of bombings in this area. The F/A-18s expended cannon rounds on enemy positions.
Ghazni, Ghazni Province: Navy F/A-18s attacked Taliban forces battling US forces near Ghazni.
Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: French Air Force M2000D Mirages attacked Taliban forces battling British troops near here. This area is Taliban-controlled.
Forward Operating Base Carlson, Afghanistan: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked guerrillas fighting NATO forces near here. FOB Carlson could not be located.
Khost, Khost Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas once again here. This area is getting bombed a lot these days.
Wednesday, November 22
Kandahar, 12:30 PM: An explosion at a gun shop here killed 1 civilian and wounded 4 more. Five gun shops were destroyed and a mosque was partially damaged. The blast was apparently caused by improper storage of gunpowder in one of the gun shops.
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Between Kabul and Bagram Airbase, Kabul Province: US troops fired warning shots at a civilian van here, upsetting the driver and causing him to crash his van, killing an Afghan doctor and wounding four other people The doctor had been working at a health clinic at the Bagram base.
The doctor was in a civilian van that US forces felt was acting suspiciously in the vicinity of a US patrol. US forces signaled for the van to stop and fired a number of warning shots. The shots upset the driver so much that he crashed his car, resulting in the casualties above.
The view of the Hindu Kush near Bagram Airbase. This photo looks like the Great Basin in Western US. That could be Eastern California, Nevada, Utah or Eastern Oregon.
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Kabul: Militant activities have dropped in Afghanistan over the past month. The daily number of guerrilla attacks dropped below 10 in November and roadside bomb attacks dropped to 0.2. The last NATO soldier killed was on November 6, however in the days afterwards, a few more NATO troops were killed, along with some US mercenaries.
Tuesday, November 21
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Kandahar Province, Late: Taliban criminals on motorbikes attacked a female provincial councilor's car here, killing her husband. The gunmen attacked when Zarghona Kakar and her husband stopped at a roadside bakery to buy bread here.
She is the third prominent woman to be attacked in Kandahar in recent days. This woman was attacked first for being a prominent woman, and only secondly for being a Karzai legislature. The Taliban's misogyny is boundless.
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Spin Boldak, Kandahar Province: The Taliban are plotting a fresh offensive against foreign troops in Afghanistan when the winter ends early next year, according to a top Taliban commander. Attacks have declined rapidly in recent weeks.
Winter runs from late November to early March in Afghanistan. The Taliban say it is hard to stay up in the mountains during the harsh winter months. An early winter has already hit this year, with sleet falling in valleys and snow higher up in the mountains.
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Khost Province: Suicide bomber attack on a US convoy here wounded four Afghans, including two school children. No US troops were hurt in the attack. Troops were distributing kits to school children when the blast went off.
The bomber's nationality was not known. The Taliban here are mirroring the Iraqi guerrillas for being the most disgusting and evil guerrillas on Earth.
Just as the Sunni guerrillas in Iraq have delighted in repeatedly attacking US forces while they handed out candy to Shia schoolchildren, slaughtering dozens of kids in the process, the Taliban cancer here follows in the malevolent footsteps of the Iraqi criminals, targeting schoolkids once again, in this case their own Pashtun Sunnis.
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Islamabad, Pakistan: A local BBC journalist disappeared as he was set to leave here and head back home to Dera Ismail Khan in the Northwest Frontier Province. He was kidnapped and roughed up by Islamists but turned up 24 hours after he disappeared, shaken but healthy. Dilawar Khan Wazir was quite upset and broke down repeatedly while telling his story.
The kidnappers took him to a house where they roughed him up and questioned him about his reporting and sources. The kidnappers dumped him in a remote area and threatened to kill him if he talked about what they did to him.
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Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Canadian troops were on a foot patrol in a town here when one of them stepped on an anti-personnel land mine, injuring two soldiers. One soldier was severely wounded, the other only superficially wounded.
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Sangin, Sangin District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers and Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked Taliban fighters here, with the GR-7s firing rockets on enemy positions. The enemy is generally lying low in Sangin lately, though they control the district. The British stay in their bases and the Taliban stay in their villages.
The British come out at night and shoot into the air to scare the Taliban and let the Taliban know the British are there. The Taliban do not fire back. The Taliban have realized that the best strategy here is to just lay low and not attack the British. The British, for their part, are not keen on endless battles with the Taliban.
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Kandahar: US Navy F/A-18s attacked Taliban fighters battling Canadian troops near here. Kandahar is bombed almost every day these days.
Khost, Khost Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas here once again. Khost is getting bombed a fair amount lately.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas again near here, in an area that is being bombed almost every day lately.
Monday, November 20
Bermal, Paktika Province, Late: A suicide bomber blew himself up next to an Afghan army patrol, killing himself but no Afghan troops were injured.
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Marja, Nad Ali District, Helmand Province, Late: The Taliban attacked a local police station here, killing 2 policemen. Marja (map) is 17 miles west of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the province. The Nad Ali District is 80% Pashtun, 10% Hazara, 5% Tajik and 5% Baloch.
Most of the people live in the far east of the district near Lashkar Gah. Except for the far east of the district, the rest of the district is uninhabited desert. That region is known as Zamindovar. This district is very warm. In the wintertime, it averages 68 F, and in the summer it climbs to 120 F.
As usual in Afghanistan, there is no sanitation, and waste water flows right into the canals where the people get their drinking water. Cotton, wheat, corn, turnips, tomatoes, ladyfinger brinjiles, pomegranates, apples and opium are grown here - especially opium - but cotton is still the primary crop.
The harvest is good on irrigated lands, but the rain-fed lands are all dry. 90% of the arable land is still being cultivated, which is a very good figure for Afghanistan. The main road is partly destroyed and the rest of the roads are often muddy, typical for an Afghan district. Most of the bridges are partly destroyed also. Water is readily available but the well water is salty and therefore difficult to drink.
Most people in the district are working and few are unemployed. There is plenty of work in the cotton fields. There are two clinics in the district with two female nurses, but there are no woman doctors. The clinics treat 50 people a day and have fairly good facilities for Afghanistan. Still, the district needs more health centers.
There are a number of schools here, and there are actually a few girls in school, though boys outnumber girls by 10-1 in high school. There are also four woman teachers here. There are no girls in grade school. 70% of the boys are in school - the rest are working, usually in the fields. The schools are in bad shape, with no water or bathrooms available. The teachers are not trained.
Although women are usually confined to their homes in the Pashtun tradition, some work in the fields and others work as maids or cooks.
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Kandahar: French M2000D Mirages, US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers all attacked the Taliban once again near here. The F/A-18s dropped a GBU-12 and fired cannon rounds on enemy positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10s and an Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked guerrillas again here, in what are apparently daily battles in this area.
Kabul: Air Force A-10s and Navy F/A-18s attacked guerrillas fighting NATO forces near here once again. The Kabul area is really getting bombed a lot lately.
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Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province: Air Force A-10s and U.S. Navy F/A-18s attacked guerrillas near here. Hezb-i-Islami Hekmatyar and Hezb-i-Islami Khalis are particularly strong in this region, in particular Younis Khalis' faction.
Bear in mind that in the last election, Hezb-i-Islami won an incredible 25% of the seats in the Afghan government, though Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has not yet made a peace with the government. There are yet rumors that Hekmatyar is negotiating a peace with the government. Hekmatyar is probably hiding in the Dir District in Pakistan south of Chitral and east of Kunar and Nuristan Provinces in Afghanistan.
Dir is the rear guard for Hezb-i-Islami Hekmatyar. Speaking of Dir, there is excellent evidence that this is precisely where bin Laden is, and has been since at least 2003. Hopefully, more on that in a future post. It is obvious that Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, knows where Hekmatyar is, and it is probable that they also know where Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are also. The ISI just does not feel like catching them.
Hekmatyar has influence in Kunar and Nuristan Provinces and to a lesser extent Kunduz Province in the north, where he is from, and he also has forces in Khost, Paktia, Logar and Paktika Provinces. Hekmatyar's super-Islamist faction was favored by the CIA in the Russian War, receiving 70% of funds.
These funds were all distributed by the ISI. This funding is the genesis of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Younis Khalis is a warlord from Nangarhar Province who gave bin Laden a training camp and base at a place called Farmada, south of Jalalabad.
Khalis had a particularly close relationship with bin Laden, but he quickly sold out and cut a deal with the US soon after the invasion. Hekmatyar is now with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and the rumors are that Khalis' faction has now aligned with the Taliban and Al Qaeda too.
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Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: Navy F/A-18s attacked guerrilla forces once again in the endless air strikes on guerrillas here.
Sunday, November 19
Eastern Afghanistan: NATO forces said they killed 11 Taliban in air raids and artillery strikes here.
Kandahar: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked the Taliban once more here, dropping general purpose 500-pound bombs and GBU-12s, and firing cannon rounds on enemy positions.
Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked Taliban forces fighting British troops near here.
Musa Qala, Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: Navy F/A-18s attacked the Taliban here again, where a truce has totally unraveled and heavy fighting has resumed. The F/A-18s dropped a GBU-12 on enemy positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10s attacked guerrillas once again battling US troops in this dangerous area. The A-10s dropped a GBU-12 and a general purpose 500-pound bomb and the B-1B dropped GBU-12s on guerrilla positions.
Friday, November 17
Afghanistan: Air strikes in Afghanistan have increased dramatically lately, according to this report here.
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Updated January 31, 2008
Thursday, December 14
Zabul Province: Suicide bomber attack on a police commander's vehicle as it traveled along a crowded street killed 4 civilians and wounded 25 more. It is not known if the commander was hurt.
Along the highway in Zabul Province. This is from a trip taken by Bill Roggio from Kabul to Kandahar. Numerous Taliban were seen along the way, especially in this province. They were typically riding motorcycles are were quickly pointed out by the Afghan guides. This province is quite arid and gets up to 120 F in summertime.Khost-Gardez Highway, Khost Province: Hundreds of tribesmen protested the killings of what they said were civilians in a raid on a home in nearby Darnami 2 days before (see the December 12 report for more on that).
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Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: French M-2000D Mirages attacked Taliban fighters battling US troops near here. For the past few weeks, the Asadabad area has been bombed continuously, even as winter looms.
Now Zad, Now Zad District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces battling British troops near here. Now Zad has been being bombed almost every day for the past few weeks with no end in sight.
Wednesday, December 13
Siah Choy, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, Late: NATO launched an air strike on a Taliban command post here, completely destroying the post. A number of Taliban commanders were said to have been killed in this attack. A US B-1B Lancer dropped a GBU-38 on the target. Siah Choy (map) is located along the Arghandab River 23 miles west of Panjwayi, the capital of the district.
Now Zad, Now Zad District, Helmand Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and a B-1B attacked Taliban fighters again near here, with the A-10's firing cannons at the rebels. The B-1B dropped GBU-31s and GBU-38s on Taliban positions.
Kabul: French M-2000Ds attacked guerrillas battling NATO forces near here, dropping GBU-12s on their positions.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: Air Force A-10s and French M-2000Ds attacked guerrillas battling US troops near here. Urgun is being bombed regularly in recent weeks.
Tuesday, December 12
Farah Province: The Afghan police and army launched an operation against the Taliban here, killing 8 Taliban. 1 Afghan officer was wounded in the clash.
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Laskhar Gah, Lashkar Gah District, Helmand Province: Suicide bomber attack on a the compound of the governor of Helmand, Mohammed Daud. The bomber blew himself inside the governor's compound but the governor was not there at the time.
The governor has been widely accused of corruption and abuse of his position and is despised by the vast majority of Helmandis. 4 policemen and 2 civilians were killed in the attack.
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Darnami, Khost Province, 1 AM: The mainstream press reported on a US Special Forces raid on a home here.
According to the report, which is disputed by locals, US forces surrounded 4 guerrillas in their home here and ordered all "military-age males" to come out but they opened fire on US forces instead. Troops returned fire, and among the casualties were a 14-year-old girl, who was killed and an 8-year-old girl, who was wounded. All 4 guerrillas were killed.
Sources on the ground dispute this description of the events. According to Marc Herold, in the other version of this event, US Special Forces raided the home of a man named Engineer Shafik, killing 3 members of his family, including a 14-year-old girl.
According to Abdul Majid Arif and Javid Hamim of Pajhwok Afghan News, U.S Special Forces raided the home of Sarfaraz, an Afghan intelligence official serving in Khost.
Engineer Shafiq Mandozai, manager of a private bank in Khost and a member of the Sarfaraz family, said US troops broke into the home and an Afghan interpreter shouted in a Kandahari dialect for everyone to get out. US forces then inexplicably started shooting (apparently there were no shots fired by people inside the home), killing 5 people.
The dead were Mandozai's 14-year-old sister; Engineer Sarfaraz; Mandozai's father, Mohammad Jan, chief of the Forestry Department in Khost; and 2 other civilians. 3 civilians were wounded, including 2 more of Mandozai's sisters, one of them an 8-year-old girl.
Startled by the shootout, neighbors came running towards Sarfaraz' home. Guldad, an official working with the intelligence department in Khost, said two more civilians were then wounded by US forces, including another one of Mandozai's sisters.
Mandozai said US forces tied him up and beat him. As they were getting ready to kill him, he pulled out some personal documents and showed them to the troops. He was then released.
The US version of events implies that Sarfaraz and Mohammad Jan, one an Afghan intelligence agent working in Khost and the other the chief of the Forestry Department in Khost, were both members of the Taliban. If this is what US forces feel, then they need to back that accusation up with evidence. As it panned out, this is looking more like a botched raid. Darnami (map) is 10 1/2 miles west of Khost.
Khost Province is an interesting place. Right now, the city of Khost is regarded as a haven for backwards, reactionary fundamentalist morons but during the Russian War, the city was known as "Little Moscow", due to the large number of Communists who lived there. Isn't it amazing the way places change?
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Northern Now Zad District, Helmand Province: A British Royal Marine was killed when his patrol was attacked with small arms fire by the Taliban here. The dead Marine was Richard J. Watson. Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers provided air support for British troops during this battle, firing enhanced Paveway II and Paveway II munitions, dropping general-purpose 500-pound bombs and firing rockets on Taliban positions.
Kandahar: US Air Force MQ-1 Predators fired Hellfire missiles at Taliban forces near here.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrilla positions near here.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrilla positions here once again
Monday, December 11
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces here. This area is being bombed almost every single day recently.
Now Zad, Now Zad District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer and RAF GR-7s attacked Taliban forces here. The GR-7s fired an Enhanced Paveway II munition on a Taliban position.
Uruzgan Khas, Uruzgan Khas District, Uruzgan Province: US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs provided attacked Taliban forces near here.
Sunday, December 10
Balabuluk District, Farah Province, Night: US troops and warplanes attacked a Taliban hideout here, killing at least 9 Taliban, including Mullah Abdul Samad, a regional commander, in fighting that went on for several hours. The Taliban have been in this Pashtun district for some time now. Their aim, among other things, is to cut the highway running from Herat to Helmand that runs through the district.
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Sperwan, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Canadian and Afghan forces battled the Taliban here. Much of the battle was engaged using small arms, but Coalition forces also called in air support. There were no Coalition casualties but 1 Taliban was wounded. News reports constantly list this town's name as Sperwan Ghar but the real name of the town is Sperwan.
Sperwan (map) is 19 miles southwest of Panjwayi, the district capital. The Canadians have a large base here. A description of the base can be found here. In September, US Special Forces fought a major battle with the Taliban that they are calling the Battle of Sperwan Ghar. A detailed description of this gripping battle is here.
Unfortunately, I am not sure what good all this fighting has done, as I think the Taliban are still deeply dug into this area, where many of them are simply farmers who pick up a weapon and fight one minute and then put it down and pick up a farm implement the next. The Taliban has a deep network of spies here, and they are warned in advance of any Canadian troop movement.
Furthermore, at least some of the informants the Canadians have been using here are Taliban informants. The area is a rich river valley, with grapes, corn and a great deal of marijuana growing in the area. The Taliban use the high crops as cover and have turned many of the villages into armed fortresses.
The Canadians are unfortunately associated with the Indian movies and music videos that the locals can now see on their satellite TV's - in other words, the locals are convinced that NATO has come to corrupt their society. It will be a long, difficult fight here.
This is one of the most unstable areas in Afghanistan. Repeated operations, including Operation Medusa that reportedly killed 900 Taliban, cannot seem to rid this area of the Taliban, who obviously have deep roots here.
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Qalat, Qalat District, Zabul Province: A Air Force B-1B and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces battling US troops near here. The Taliban control this entire province.
Now Zad, Now Zad District, Helmand Province: The never-ending bombing of the Now Zad continued, with US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs firing cannon rounds on Taliban positions here.
Sangin, Sangin District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters near here. Sadly, the Sangin District is totally controlled by the Taliban.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: US Air Force A-10s and a B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban forces once again near here.
Tagab Valley, Kapisa Province: US and Afghan forces were patrolling through a bazaar and a compound nearby when they became engaged in a battle with guerrillas. 1 guerrilla was killed but that was the only casualty. The Tagab Valley, previously stable, is becoming increasingly unstable in the past couple of months, a worrisome trend.
Bombing attack on the village of Khanaqa, Kapisa, from Marc Herold's excellent webpage about Afghanistan, Archivistan. US warplanes attacked this village on November 7, 2001, and completely obliterated it. No word on civilian casualties in that attack.
Bombing attack on Khan Agaha village in Kapisa during the initial US invasion. US bombs hit a residential area in this village called Qalaye Katir, killing 16 Afghan civilians, including 9 children.The attack took place on October 27, 2001, when US FA-18's dropped 36 bombs on the village, apparently aiming for a Taliban machine gun on a nearby hill. One bomb hit a timber and mud-brick home and destroying it, killing an entire family, including 7 children who were eating breakfast with their father.
The US government has sponsored women's conferences in Kapisa and Logar. This is a photo from one of those conferences. The poster shows some fundamentalist bonehead beating an Afghan woman, which is one of the favorite activities of these "macho" guys, when they are not blowing up schools and threatening men for shaving their beards and stopping people from playing music.
A boy dives into a stream to go for a swim in Kapisa Province. There is quite a bit of flowing water here, even in early summer, when this photo was taken, and there are still many trees here. But that water doesn't look very clean. Photo taken June 21, 2006 - this past summer.
Kapisa Province is still fairly well-forested. 25 years of war have resulted in the deforestation of 70% of Afghanistan, a heartbreaking figure. In this arid land, the forests do not necessarily grow back after you cut them down, either, as is the case in very wet regions. Hillsides simply become barren, erosion increases and rainfall probably decreases with resulting drought, hunger, starvation, disease, etc.It is not well known, but Lebanon and Greece were once forested - now the hills of both lands are largely barren after being denuded centuries ago. Further north in Scotland, the famous barren Scottish hills were once covered with oak forests, a fact few people know. Only 2% of these oak forests remain.
A burqa-clad woman crosses a full stream in Kapisa Province this past summer on June 21, 2006. As you can see, the creeks here run full and high in early summer and there is plenty of riparian vegetation. That burqa looks like a hazard when crossing the creek, though.
The village of Obdarah, in mountainous Kapisa Province. The Panjshir Valley is located in this province. This is where the famous Lion of the Panjshir, Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, held sway against first the Russians and then the Taliban. He was killed by Tunisian Al Qaeda suicide operatives posing as journalists, armed with an exploding video camera, a mere 2 days before 9-11, in an operation that was clearly intended to be part and parcel with the 9-11 attacks.Many girls are still not in school here for some reason - less than 20% of the students in school here are girls. Taliban night letters have appeared, threatening teachers with death unless they resign. The number of girls in school has increased somewhat here recently, as international aid agencies have been quite active in this province since it is comparatively safe. That may all be changing now with these increased attacks.
Artillery shells hidden in a cave in Kapisa Province. International aid agencies continue to work here, and one of their priorities is demining and cleaning up hidden munitions. With increased attacks here, it is not certain that the aid agencies will be able to continue to do their good work here.*****
Laghman Province: Afghan sources said that a NATO airstrike here earlier in the week killed at least 4 Afghan civilians and wounded 1 more when a house was bombed. The Taliban are definitely increasing their presence here lately.
Saturday, December 9
Paktia Province, Late: Roadside bomb attack on Afghan forces killed 6 Afghan soldiers here. The bomb hit their vehicle and killed all 6 men on board. Paktia is known as a stronghold of the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami. There are also Al Qaeda fighters here from time to time. The famous Operation Anaconda in early 2002 was fought in this province.
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Mizan District, Zabul Province: The Taliban attacked a US patrol here with machine guns and a land mine in this Taliban-controlled district, damaging vehicles and wounding 2 US troops in a gunbattle that went on for some time. This district is fairly quiet but that is just because the Taliban here spend most of their time hiding out rather than attacking.
The Mizan District, in the west of Zabul, borders the Shah Wali Kot District of Kandahar. Similarly, Shah Wali Kot is fairly quiet only because not many foreign troops are there right now. This is one of the most backward districts in the whole country. As an example, the last census was in 1963! The district is 100% Pashtun.
Water is a problem here, although it is widely available. Twice a day, residents walk 1 mile to get water, and then wait in 1-hour lines to fill their containers. As usual, sanitation is a typical problem here. The bathrooms here are known as "wherever you can squat". Women squat inside compounds; men wherever there is open space. I assume people learn to watch their step here.
2/3 of the open cultivated land, and all of the rain-fed land, lies fallow due to drought. The livestock here are sheep, camels, goats, donkeys, cows and chickens. An incredible 97% of the sheep and goats are dead after years of drought, which has even killed 50% of camels! I wasn't aware a camel could die from a drought.
Brangel, okra, tomatoes, cabbage, pomegranates and almonds are grown here. The parts of the district near the Arghandab River, which runs through the center of the district, still have good farming. In other areas, the harvest is poor. As is usual in so many Afghan districts, the main road here is partly destroyed and the rest of the roads are muddy much of the time.
The bridges, as usual, are partly destroyed. The economy is so poor here that 70% of residents travel outside the district to look for work. There is not one health clinic in this district. Residents can thank George Bush for that.
There are no high schools here at all, and only a few students at all in the grade schools - 80% of the grade school aged boys are not in school. No girls are in school and there are no female teachers, as we might expect for Zabul. The schools here actually have water and washrooms, unlike so many Afghan schools. Most actually have buildings too, though some are held outdoors.
As we might expect, women play no role in the community at all.
Resupplying a US base in Zabul. Photo by Joseph Marble.
A Taliban night letter from Zabul Province warning teachers to stop teaching or be killed. On January 3, 2005, Taliban worms entered the Sheik Mathi Baba high school in Qalat, the capital, and beheaded the teacher in front of his students, in one of the most shocking attacks on education so far in Afghanistan.
This is what parts of Zabul, especially the mountainous areas, look like in wintertime. Here US forces are supplying snowed-in residents in Zabul in early February 2005, when harsh winter weather hit the region, especially Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan.*****
Saturday, December 9
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Afghanistan: US officials are voicing new worries about the situation in Afghanistan. The fears are that a renewed Taliban offensive next Spring will be a "tipping point" which could tip a large number, or possibly a majority, of Afghans over into support for the Taliban. Government control is tenuous at best in 20% of the country.
Zabul Province is almost totally Taliban-controlled, and in Helmand and Kandahar, the Taliban control most areas outside of the cities. Further, since April, the Taliban have been in control Baghran, Sangin and Dishu Districts. Dishu was captured first in February. By April, Baghran was captured. By May, they had grabbed Sangin.
Since then, the Taliban have clearly seized the Garmser and Musa Qala Districts. In the Helmand districts they control, the Taliban have banned music and forbidden men from shaving their beards. Men are forced to go to the mosque to pray five times a day.
The Taliban have a great deal of power and possibly wield control in the Now Zad, Kajaki and Nahri Sarraj Districts, especially the latter. The Taliban do not completely control the Washer, Lashkar Gah, Nad Ali, Reg and Nawa-i-Barakzayi Districts, although they are active there.
In Kandahar Province, the Taliban have a huge presence in the capital city and in control much of the Panjwayi District west of the capital. The violence is increasing inexorably; there were four times as many attacks last year as the year before. In the past year, up to 7,000 Taliban may have been killed but there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of new recruits.
A timeless scene from Zabul Province, with ancient mud-brick homes. The report above notes that Zabul is totally controlled by the Taliban at the moment.*****
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: US Navy F/A-18 Hornets dropped a GBU-12 on a Taliban position during fighting with British troops near here. Lashkar Gah is being bombed regularly these days.
Kabul: An Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas fighting NATO troops near here. The B-1B dropped GBU-38s on Taliban positions.
Friday, December 8
Uruzgan Province, Afternoon: Roadside bomb attack on a US vehicle killed 2 Afghan interpreters but did not injure any Americans.
Now Zad District, Helmand Province: The Taliban attacked British and Afghan forces here. The Coalition returned fire, killing 5 Taliban. There were no Coalition casualties. Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers assisted in this battle. One of the GR-7s dropped a general-purpose 500-pound bomb on an enemy position.
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Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: US Air Force B-1Bs, Navy F/A-18 Hornets, an Air Force B-1B Lancer, Air Force A-10s Thunderbolt IIs, French M2000D Mirages and an Air Force MQ-1 Predator attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here, an area that has seen constant fighting the past few weeks.
The B-1Bs and F/A-18s dropped GBU-12s and GBU-38s, one of the A-10s dropped a GBU-12 and a general-purpose 500-pound bomb, the B-1B dropped GBU-31s on enemy targets, and the Predator fired a Hellfire missile on the guerrillas.
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Thursday, December 7
Airport Road, Kandahar: Suicide car bomb attack on a Canadian convoy caused no Canadian casualties but either killed or wounded 15 civilians. This was the 7th suicide car bomb attack on the airport road in the last nine days, an incredible figure.
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Between the Gulran District and Herat, Herat Province: The Taliban attacked a district police chief's vehicle, killing him and wounding his bodyguard. Hajji Zahir, police chief for the Gulran District, was driving towards Herat city when the Taliban opened fire. The Gulran District is located in the northwest corner of Herat. It is bordered on one side by Iran and on the other side by Turkmenistan.
An ethnic group called the Jamshidi Aimaq makes up a large percentage of the population of the Gulran District. There are 120,000 Jamshidi Aimaqs in Afghanistan and another 37,000 in Iran. The Jamshidis are part of a larger group called Aimaqs, numbering about 850,000 - 650,000 in Afghanistan and 200,000 in Iran.
Other figures put the total population at about 1.75 million in all countries, and 1.53 million in Afghanistan. If there are 900,000 Aimaqs in Afghanistan, they would make up 3.4% of the population. They are best classed as semi-sedentary, since they wander with their flocks somewhat. This is part of a cluster of 8 tribes called the Char Aimaq. The tribal formations date back to the 1500's and 1600's.
The Aimaq language is related to Persian, with some Turkic and Mongolian vocabulary and influence. Jamshidi is one of the dialects of Aimaq. The leader of the a group of Jamshidi is known as a khan. He typically traces his ancestry back to the founder of the tribe.
For a tribe of rural Afghans, women have a surprisingly high position. Many do not marry until age 18, and girls are even known to reject the husbands who have been picked for them. The future groom often moves in with his future wife's family for up to 2 years before marrying.
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Kandahar: U.S. Navy F/A-18s dropped GBU-12's on Taliban positions near here.
Kabul: French Air Force M2000D Mirages attacked guerrilla forces fighting NATO troops near here. The Kabul area is being bombed regularly lately, an ominous development.
Musa Qala, Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban fighters battling British forces near here, an area where a truce between the British and local elders has apparently completely broken down.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province:Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrilla fighters once again near here in an area that is being bombed all the time lately.
Wednesday, December 6
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Kolikhel, Paktia Province: Armed men, probably the Taliban, kidnapped two NGO employees here. Two employees of a relief agency Ibn-e-Sina were driving towards the Zurmat District when they were captured.
The employees had failed to inform the police before leaving for Zurmat. The town was listed as Kalal Koh in news reports, but there is no such town. However, there is a town called Kolikhel (map), which is located about 3 miles north of Zurmat.
The Taliban fundamentalist nutcases have stated that they will be targeting all NGO employees, because they are serving the interests of the "infidel (Tarzan's) regime". By the same lunatic reasoning, all Afghan teachers are being ordered to quit their jobs, because schools "benefit the Karzai government". The Taliban must be one of the most insane and evil insurgencies on Earth.
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Kandahar: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the offices of a US mercenary firm here, killing two Americans and five Afghans. The bomber approached the USPI (US Protection and Investigation) compound as men were leaving the building and detonated himself. In addition to the two Americans killed, an additional 5 Afghan employees of the firm were also killed, including two interpreters.
A regional USPI chief may have been amongst the dead. 1 of the Americans was John Micheal Krancich. We do not have the name of the other American.
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Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs once again attacked Taliban fighters battling British troops near here. The F/A-18s dropped a GBU-12 on and fired cannon rounds at Taliban positions. Do you get the impression that the Taliban are besieging the capital of Helmand?
Tuesday, December 5
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Garmser, Garmser District, Helmand Province, 5 AM: British Marines attacked the Taliban-held town of Garmser, a city of 50,000 people in Helmand Province, the province that produces 1/3 of the world's opium supply. But the British were forced to withdraw after the Taliban surrounded advancing Marines and threatened to cut them off.
Marines called in air strikes and artillery fire but the Taliban managed to withstand those attacks. The only place in the Garmser District that is held by the Afghan government and British troops is a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Helmand River in Garmser.
Scores of Marines ran across the bridge just before sunup and moved out into wheat fields on the other side. At first, there was only off and on Taliban fire. But as the British moved forward, Taliban forces hiding in a well-designed series of trenches launched a vicious attack using heavy weaponry in an attempt to outflank the British.
British forces counterattacked from light armored vehicles and fired mortars and machine guns at guerrillas. The British felt trapped and called in heavy air support. Apache helicopters fired rockets, B-1 bombers dropped 500-pound bombs and A-10 Thunderbolts shot cannon fire at the Taliban, but the guerrillas were able to hold their ground in spite of the heavy fire from above.
Two Royal Marines were injured in the fighting, and one of those, Jonathan Wigley, later died of wounds. Both were airlifted to the UK hospital in Camp Bastion. An article about Wigley and the Afghan War is here. Wigley was apparently killed by friendly fire from a US A-10 attack jet.
Taliban fighters officially seized the town of Garmser over the summer two times and NATO forces had to come back days later to retake it. The Taliban angered even those locals opposed to foreign troops by burning the Afghan flag and hoisting the flags of two fundamentalist idiot groupings in Pakistan.
Schools have been shut down across Garmser and the Taliban have staged a number of public executions, further angering locals. Some locals here despise the Taliban creeps and want the British to drive the fundamentalist freaks out of the area. But Britain lacks enough troops to do that.
The British commander has been constantly calling for another 1,000 troops for Helmand but all his requests have been turned down. This means that the only way that the British could drive the Taliban worms out of Garmser would be to devastate the town from the air, which would leave a victory of ruins.
Further complicating efforts is the blatantly dishonest nature of the British role here - the British did not come to Helmand to fight the Taliban, but instead came here to rebuild the place. Shades of Alice in Wonderland.
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Kandahar: Suicide car bomb attack on a Canadian convoy on the Airport Road wounded two Canadian soldiers and six Afghan civilians. The bomber, driving a minivan, blew up his vehicle next to a Nyala RG-31 armored vehicle and a transport truck. The two wounded Canadian troops were in the truck.
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Miran Shah, North Waziristan, Pakistan: Tribesmen furious over the government's failure to restore power to Miran Shah cut off road links to the town by placing burning tires and boulders on three main roads leading to Miran Shah.
Power was cut to the region, supposedly due to technical problem, on November 13, and has not yet been restored. Makes you wonder if the government is not cutting off power to the Taliban and Al Qaeda-controlled region on purpose?
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Great Britain: A bizarre new ruling by the British courts is rewarding millions of pounds to British troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan by referring to them as crime victims. What this means is that the court said that the guerrillas fighting British troops in those countries are criminals, not irregular soldiers.
This ruling was necessary because the British Ministry of Defense became liable for possible damages from British troops wounded after the official "end of the war" in Iraq in May 2003.
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Kandahar: An Air Force MQ-1 Predator fired a Hellfire missile on a Taliban target near here.
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Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer, Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, U.S. Navy F/A-18s and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters swarming the Helmand capital once again.
The B-1B dropped GBU-38s, the A-10s dropped general-purpose 500-pound bombs and fired cannon rounds, the F/A-18s dropped GBU-12s and fired cannon rounds, and the GR-7s fired an enhanced Paveway II munition on Taliban forces.
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Kajaki Dam, Kajaki District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1B, Navy F/A-18s and RAF GR-7s attacked Taliban fighters battling British troops near here, an area that has been bombed for months now.
Monday, December 4
Kandahar, 11:50 AM: A US Special Forces soldier was wounded while demolitions training here.
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Germany: A report from the German military, the Bundeswehr, warns in a classified report that the Taliban are moving in on Kabul and that attacks in the capital city are likely to increase. The analysis is based on the notion that security in districts within Kabul Province adjacent to the capital is deteriorating.
The report voices a fear that attacks on Kabul will increase in coming months. The report indicates that the Taliban have said that they will focus attacks during the winter on the largest cities in Afghanistan. The security situation has already "visibly deteriorated" in two districts located only 5 miles from Kabul's city limits.
In these districts, Afghan security forces don't even dare to patrol the streets at night. The districts were not named in the Der Spiegel article on the military report. The report feared that the Taliban could use the deteriorated districts as "gateways" to Kabul and also as a safe haven to plan future attacks.
The report said that Taliban fighters are smuggled into the districts in small "groups of up to eight men," and they blend into the local area by staying in the homes of local residents for several days at a time.
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Kandahar Province: German authorities said that two journalists may have been kidnapped here. One of them is apparently a German citizen. The pair did not registered with NATO's media office and were not covering NATO's activities.
Sangin, Sangin District, Helmand Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces near here in this Taliban-controlled district. The F/A-18s dropped GBU-12s and a GBU-38 and the GR-7s fired rockets on enemy positions.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban forces fighting British troops once again near here. It appears the capital of Helmand is surrounded by the Taliban.
Sunday, December 3
Kabul-Kandahar Highway, Near Qalat, Zabul Province, Early AM: The Taliban attacked a police checkpoint here, setting off a gunbattle that killed 4 Taliban and 1 policeman. Police recovered three AK-47's, one RPG and one dead Taliban fighter.
Mus'am Ghar, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, 5:10 PM: Two rebel rockets landed near this Canadian base, but caused no casualties. Canadian troops fired back with two mortar rounds of their own. Mus'am Ghar could not be located on any maps.
Kunduz: Guerrillas attacked a German patrol here. The attack did not cause any casualties, but it did slightly damaged three Dingo armored troop carriers. German soldiers returned fire at the attackers. It is not yet known who is carrying out these attacks in relatively calm northern Afghanistan.
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Airport Road, Kandahar: A suicide car bomb exploded next to a NATO convoy here, damaging an open-top NATO vehicle. As troops sped away, they fired on several civilian cars, wounding several Afghans. All together, 19 people were wounded, 16 Afghans including three NATO soldiers.
10 Afghans were wounded in the initial blast and 6 more were wounded by NATO troops afterwards. NATO troops fired on vehicles as far away as 1/2 mile from the blast site. All told, at least eight people were killed in the attack, 3 by the bombing and 5 more by NATO troops afterwards.
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Kandahar: Navy F/A-18 Hornets and French Air Force M-2000Ds attacked Taliban forces once again here.
Saturday, December 2
Panjwayi, Panjwayi District, Afghanistan, AM: For the first time since the Korean War, Canadian tanks have been deployed in a combat situation. A squadron of Canadian Leopard tanks drove through here as locals watched on their way to a forward observation base. Canadian forces said the tank deployment was meant to send a message to the Taliban.
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Duabi, Jawand District, Badghis Province, 9:23 PM: Unknown gunmen attacked Chinese workers in a remote camp being run by the China Railway Shisiju Group Corporation here. The workers managed to evacuate the base to a major base 25 miles away after the attack. No workers were injured. Afghan police guarding the walled camp returned fire against the attackers.
A gunbattle lasting 1 1/2 hours ensued. After 90 minutes, the firing ended, but the attackers had not yet retreated. 2 hours after the initial attack, police reinforcements arrived and the attackers fled. At the time of the battle, around 30 Chinese workers, building a local road, were stationed in the camp.
The camp is surrounded by barbed wire netting and trenches. There has not yet been any information about who was behind the attack or why it was launched. Doabi (map) is located 1/4 mile west of Jawand, a major city.
Badghis is a quiet but desperately poor province that is suffering from drought and resulting lack of food. Jawand is one of the worst districts in all Afghanistan. The entire area is ravaged by disease, drought and starvation.
There are no roads, no doctors, no medical clinics, no schools and almost 100% of the population is illiterate. Check out the heartbreaking Guardian story above about the district. The article is from 2002, but I doubt if things have much improved since.
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Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: British forces attacked a Taliban force here, after being informed by local police that the guerrillas were gathering nearby. The ensuing attack killed an estimated 70 to 80 Taliban. There were no British casualties. The fighting was quite heavy and continued into early Sunday.
The fighting occurred in a remote part of the district and there was no way to independently confirm the casualty figures. This seems to be the end of the truce negotiated in October between British forces and the Taliban here, negotiated by local elders. The truce was intended to keep the Taliban out of the area but all it did was cement Taliban control over the district.
There is some question about whether the truce applied to the entire district or just to the town of Musa Qala. In recent days, locals, many of them women and schoolteachers, have traveled to Kabul to complain about the truce, saying that all it did was let the Taliban take over.
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Northern Kandahar Province, AM: A US NATO-chartered MI-21 helicopter with a crew of eight personnel flown by the US mercenary firm Dyncorp International, flying supplies from a NATO base in Kandahar city to another in Tirin Kot in Uruzgan, went down here for unknown reasons in poor weather. The Taliban said they shot it down but NATO would not confirm or deny that.
It is also not known how many, if any of the crew were killed and whether any were wounded, although it was suggested that there may have been fatalities. This crash is mysterious. A search and rescue team found the helicopter at noon.
Initially, NATO was not able to dispatch ground troops to the crash site due to weather, location and terrain and the last report was that it had no information about the crew. This crash is very strange and we need more information about it. Dyncorp is widely considered to be a CIA front corporation.
2 weeks later, the Taliban were still saying that they shot this helicopter down. They may indeed have done so. If the crew was CIA, then that explains why there has been no information about any possible casualties, since CIA casualties are often not reported.
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Afghanistan: Much of Afghanistan saw significant snowfall. This will slow down the insurgency.
Friday, December 1
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Ghazni Province, 5 PM: A US convoy fired on a group of officers twice in twilight in a very confused situation, killing 1 Afghan policeman and wounding 1 more. waning daylight in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. NATO said that the police fired first on the convoy as it moved through a bazaar in a town and troops then returned fire.
Afghan police said that troops had opened fire without provocation, killing 1 officer out of 3 manning the checkpoint. 2 of the 3 police manning the checkpoint that was attacked were in civilian clothes. The other 2 officers ran away and hid.
About 45 minutes later, the convoy passed by once again, and again opened fire on police, this time wounding an officer who was shouting at them to try to show them he was a friendly. Clearly a very confused situation.
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Tirin Kot, Tirin Kot District, Uruzgan Province, Night: The Taliban attacked police in the Darwishan area of the city of Tirin Kot , capital of Uruzgan Province. Over the course of a 3-hour battle, 7 Taliban were killed and 4 others wounded. 2 policemen were also wounded.
Wardak Province, Night: In a battle with guerrillas here, police killed 4 guerrillas. There were no further details. Wardak is definitely deteriorating lately.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces once again besieging the capital, in what is becoming a daily affair.
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Muqur District, Ghazni Province: Navy F/A-18s attacked Taliban forces fighting US troops near here. US forces have made some great changes here recently as they have ignored Washington and gone ahead with their own reconstruction and security-related projects.
The locals are sick and tired of the Taliban and want security and development. Prior, security forces were woefully ill-equipped. US forces are even funding the building of mosques in villages, arguably a positive thing.
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Thursday, November 30
Sangin District, Helmand Province, Early: British and Afghan troops, backed up by warplanes and helicopters, killed 10 Taliban and captured two Taliban commanders in a raid on an alleged suicide bomb cell here. One British soldier was lightly wounded in the operation. The identities of the Taliban leaders captured raid were not revealed. Troops seized two suicide vests, several RPG's and a cache of equipment and weapons.
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FOB Martello, Northern Kandahar Province, Afternoon: A speeding taxi approached a Canadian patrol near here and refused to slow when directed to do so. Canadian troops fired one shot at the car, which missed the driver but hit the passenger in the leg. FOB Martello was created by the Canadians in April of this year. It is located on the road between Kandahar and Tirin Kot in Uruzgan.
The area is a high, rocky desert with scattered oases and farming communities grouped around the oases. It is definitely swarming with Taliban. The base is located near a town called Elbak (map). Elbak is located 49 1/2 miles northeast of Kandahar and only 10 1/2 miles south of the border with Uruzgan Province.
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Muqur District, Ghazni Province: A US vehicle rolled over here during a battle with guerrillas, killing 1 US soldier, Specialist Chris Kleinwachter. The death is now being classified as non-hostile.
Kabul: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets dropped GBU-38s on guerrilla positions. Do you get the impression that the guerrillas are besieging the capital?
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers and French Air Force M2000D Mirages attacked Taliban fighters once again near here. The GR-7s expended rockets on Taliban positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer dropped GBU-38s on Taliban positions. Are the guerrillas besieging this regional capital also?
Kandahar: An Air Force B-1B and Navy F/A-18s attacked the Taliban who were battling Canadian troops near here.
Wednesday, November 29
Kabul: NATO said that suicide bombings have killed 244 people including 17 NATO soldiers, in Afghanistan this year, a dramatic increase over the previous year.
Afghan/Pakistan border of Eastern Afghanistan: Scores of al-Qaeda fighters stormed a checkpoint here, setting off a 1-hour battle that left 2 guerrillas dead. This attack must have taken place on the border with either North or South Waziristan on the Pakistani side and Paktika Province on the Afghan side.
Airport Road, Kandahar: A suicide bomber attacked a Canadian convoy here, killing two civilians. There were no Canadian casualties.
United States: About $2 billion worth of U.S. Army and Marine Corps equipment is wearing out or being destroyed every month in Iraq and Afghanistan. The figure is equal to about a quarter of the $8 billion per month that the US is spending on the wars themselves on direct military expenditures.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban forces battling British troops near here. The GR-7s fired an enhanced Paveway II munition and rockets on enemy positions.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer once again attacked guerrillas near here, dropping GBU-31s on enemy positions.
Khost Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer attacked guerrillas here.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas once again near here, in what has become a regular occurrence.
Kandahar: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas again near here. The Kandahar region is getting bombed almost every day these days.
Muqur District, Ghazni Province: An Air Force B-1 attacked Taliban fighters battling US troops here. This area is getting bombed quite a bit lately, and there have been some US casualties also.
Tuesday, November 28
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Puli-i-Nam District, Logar Province, Afternoon: Roadside bomb attack on a NATO vehicle here killed two US soldiers, Staff Sergeant Michael A. Shank and Specialist Jeffrey G. Roberson, and wounding one soldier and one interpreter. Puli-i-Nam is the capital of Logar. Logar is a conservative district, but not as conservative as the south of the country.
There is evidence that Ayman al-Zawahiri sought refuge here soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan. He was in a familiar place. There were several Al Qaeda training camps in Logar during the Taliban's rule but the locals were not very friendly towards the largely-Arab foreign fighters.
Parts of Logar were controlled by the Taliban and others by the Northern Alliance during the Civil War. Hezb-i-Islami has always been very popular here. The district is majority Pashtun with a Tajik minority.
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South of the Arghandab River, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, Afternoon: in a suicide bomb attack in the Suicide bomb attack on a Canadian Bison armored personnel carrier A slightly wounded a Canadian soldier.
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5 miles south of Herat, Herat Province: A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle next to a counterterrorism police truck that had been chasing him, killing one policeman and wounding 1 more.
The vehicle approached a police checkpoint where police tried to stop and search bomber's car, but he sped away. Police then chased the vehicle. In the course of the chase, the bomber detonated his vehicle, killing himself and causing the 2 other casualties.
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Garmser District, Helmand Province: RPG attack on a British vehicle here wounded 1 British soldier. The Taliban control virtually 100% of this district.
Khost Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer attacked guerrillas once again here.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked the Taliban once again near here, firing enhanced Paveway II munitions and rockets on enemy positions.
Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: A B-1 Bomber once again attacked guerrillas here. This areas is getting bombed all the time lately. It is right across from North Waziristan, which explains the heavy fighting. The B-1 dropped GBU-31s on guerrillas here. enemy positions near Orgun-e.
Kandahar: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked the Taliban again near here, in a reprise of the constant bombing in this area.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas again near here. Asadabad is getting bombed most every day lately.
Muqur District, Ghazni Province: An Air Force B-1 once again attacked the Taliban here. This province is getting bombed a lot lately.
Monday, November 27
Shindand District, Herat Province, Night: Roadside bomb attack on a police convoy wounded three police.
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Makeen, North Waziristan, Pakistan: The Taliban shot and killed a local cleric here, accusing him of spying for the US in Afghanistan. Gul Tahmim's body was found in a ravine near a Pakistani base.
A note left with his body said: "See this body! He was spying for America and had friendship with Maulana Salahuddin and Maulana Hashim Khan, who were also American spies." Those 2 men had been killed in the area previously, one of them 2 weeks before.
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Airport Road, Kandahar: Suicide car bomb attack on a Canadian convoy here damaged a Bison armored personnel carrier, killing two Canadian soldiers, the crew commander and the driver of the Bison. An Afghan was also killed in the attack. The 2 soldiers were Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard and Corporal Albert Storm.
A minivan pulled up alongside the Bison soon after it left the airport and detonated. Several camels alongside the road were also killed. There were several other soldiers inside the vehicle but they were not hurt. The troops were helping on reconstruction projects in the Panjwayi District. On the day of the attack, they were leaving the Airport base for the District to work on more rebuilding.
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Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: French M2000D Mirages and Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here, in an area that is getting bombed almost every day lately.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1 Lancer attacked Taliban forces battling US troops near here. What is going on here? Why is Asadabad getting bombed every day?
Tirin Kot, Tirin Kot District, Uruzgan Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked Taliban fighters battling NATO forces here. The Taliban control the entire rural area surrounding this capital, and recently they have moved into the city itself.
Sunday, November 26
Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province, 2 PM: A "suspect" vehicle approached a US British convoy here, and jittery soldiers opened fire on the vehicle when it refused to slow down, killing an Afghan civilian. A similar incident happened only 4 days ago. According to NATO, "Despite clear signals to stop, including the use of flares and warning shots, the vehicle refused to halt".
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Kamdesh District, Nuristan Province, Night: A US military truck rolled down a sharp embankment here in this remote province, killing one US soldier, 1st Lieutenant Benjamin Keating, and injuring 1 more. The troops were providing supplies to the Kamdesh Civil Military Operations Center (CMOC) at the time of the accident in this extremely rugged and remote area, where roads are little more than rude dirt tracks.
Men greet mountaineers in Kamdesh, Nuristan Province. Notice that there are no women present here. Also note that the homes are made of wood. This region has become very fundamentalist since it was forcibly converted to Islam 110 years ago. Osama bin Laden has probably been hiding in Nuristan at least some of the time since 2003, when he is not in Dir across the border in Pakistan.*****
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Mano Gai, Pech District, Kunar Province: Guerrillas captured 4 Afghans returning from work at a U.S. military base here. The guerrillas here include Hezb-i-Islami Hekmatyar, Hezb-i-Islami Khalis, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba and some other obscure fundamentalist dolts.
The fighters include Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs and are often very well-armed and very well-trained. Mano Gai (map) is the capital of the district.
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Urgun, Urgun District, Paktika Province: A Pakistani suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant here, killing 15 Afghans and injuring 24,. He was apparently targeting an Afghan special forces commander and a district chief who were at the restaurant and were among the injured. The restaurant was destroyed.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: RAF GR-7s once again attacked the Taliban, who are surrounding this capital city, dropping a 540-pound bomb and an firing enhanced Paveway II on Taliban positions.
Kandahar: RAF GR-7s dropped a 540-pound bomb and an fired enhanced Paveway II munitions on enemy positions. The Kandahar area is getting bombed about every day these days.
Musa Qala, Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked the Taliban here, dropping a GBU-12 and firing cannon rounds on enemy positions. Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers also attacked in the same area, expended rockets on enemy positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked Taliban forces once again near here.
Saturday, November 25
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Kabul-Kandahar Highway, Zabul Province, Night: The Taliban ambushed a police convoy here in this Taliban-controlled province, setting off a gunbattle in which 1 Taliban was killed.
US forces in Zabul in June 2005. As you can see, this province is quite arid. The Taliban now rules almost this entire province. In 2005, 86 schools here were closed down due to terror threats from Taliban fundamentalist losers, the highest number for any province, even Helmand or Kandahar. As of March 2006, about 1/2 of the schools are closed, and only 8% of girls are in school.*****
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Tirin Kot District, Uruzgan Province: NATO forces said that they killed about 55 Taliban fighters in 2 separate battles here. Original reports said two NATO soldiers died in one of the clashes, but later reports indicate that only 1 soldier was killed, 2nd Lieutenant Scott B. Lundell.
Lundell was killed by small arms and RPG fire. The fighting began when the Taliban attacked NATO forces here. NATO returned fire and called in attack aircraft, killing about 50 Taliban.
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Arghandab district, Zabul Province: About 50 Taliban fighters attacked the police chief's compound here, setting off a 1-hour firefight. At the end, 1 Taliban was killed 3 more were wounded. There were no police casualties.
US forces in Zabul in an undated photo from a Slovenian newspaper. These homes appear to be in ruins for some reason, possibly still from the Russian War. This entire province is Taliban-controlled, so US forces are fighting an uphill battle here.*****
Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: The Taliban fired on Canadian and Afghan troops here, wounding 3 Canadian soldiers. The Canadians called in an air strike that killed about five Taliban.
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United States: US Air Force C-17 transport planes, planes that fly troops, supplies and fuel in missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, were attacked 215 times — an average of four times a week — in 2006. The smaller turbo-prop C-130 transports were attacked 65 times.
70% of the attacks happened when the planes were flying below 5,000 feet. Most of the attacks were with small arms such as assault rifles and machine guns. Since the war on terrorism began five years ago, there have been five “major” hits on C-17s.
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Charkh District, Logar Province: Suicide car bomb attack on a combined Afghan-NATO convoy wounded 2 who were walking in the street. Some vehicles in the patrol were lightly damaged.
Kabul: Roadside bomb attack on an Afghan army jeep damaged the vehicle but caused no injuries. A public bus was also damaged.
Helmand Province: Two Pakistani journalists held by the Taliban in southern of Afghanistan and put on trial for unknown reasons, A reporter for The Star said that its reporter Saleem Shahzad and another journalist, Qamar Yousafzai, had been detained by Taliban commander named Matiullah. Shahzad was detained on November 21 by the Taliban.
Kabul: Czech troops arrived to take command of the Kabul International Airport. A unit of 47 Czech troops is scheduled to take charge of the airport starting in early December until early April 2007.
Musa Qala, Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: Navy F/A-18Fs attacked the Taliban once again here, in a district where a truce with the Taliban has clearly totally broken down. The F/A-18Fs dropped GBU-38s and a GBU-12 on enemy positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas fighting US troops near here.
Friday, November 24
Kandahar Province, 12:11 PM: US forces fought with the Taliban somewhere in this province, in a battle in which US forces utilized mortars, artillery, and air power. 7 Taliban were killed in the fighting.
Mus'am Ghar, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: The Taliban fired a rocket near the Canadian base here, missing an assembled foot patrol by 50 yards. There were no casualties. As noted above, Mus'am Ghar cannot be located on a map.
Kandahar: Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers attacked the Taliban once again here, where the Taliban are possibly besieging the capital. The F/A-18s dropped GBU-12s and fired cannon rounds on the Taliban.
Laskar Gah, Laskar Gah District, Helmand Province: RAF GR-7s attacked the Taliban once again here, in what appears to be a case of whack-a-mole.
Thursday, November 23
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Qarabagh District, Ghazni Province: The Taliban fired a rocket at a US patrol, killing 1 US soldier and wounding 1 more. US forces and guerrillas traded small arms fire and later US troops called in air support. The soldier's name has now been released as Corporal Nathan Joel Goodiron.
His vehicle took the full brunt of an RPG attack while escorting a military convoy. His cousin, Sergeant C.J. O'Berry, was the soldier wounded in the attack. Interesting that 2 cousins were manning the same vehicle.
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Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked guerrillas once again, in what is becoming a daily series of bombings in this area. The F/A-18s expended cannon rounds on enemy positions.
Ghazni, Ghazni Province: Navy F/A-18s attacked Taliban forces battling US forces near Ghazni.
Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: French Air Force M2000D Mirages attacked Taliban forces battling British troops near here. This area is Taliban-controlled.
Forward Operating Base Carlson, Afghanistan: An Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked guerrillas fighting NATO forces near here. FOB Carlson could not be located.
Khost, Khost Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas once again here. This area is getting bombed a lot these days.
Wednesday, November 22
Kandahar, 12:30 PM: An explosion at a gun shop here killed 1 civilian and wounded 4 more. Five gun shops were destroyed and a mosque was partially damaged. The blast was apparently caused by improper storage of gunpowder in one of the gun shops.
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Between Kabul and Bagram Airbase, Kabul Province: US troops fired warning shots at a civilian van here, upsetting the driver and causing him to crash his van, killing an Afghan doctor and wounding four other people The doctor had been working at a health clinic at the Bagram base.
The doctor was in a civilian van that US forces felt was acting suspiciously in the vicinity of a US patrol. US forces signaled for the van to stop and fired a number of warning shots. The shots upset the driver so much that he crashed his car, resulting in the casualties above.
The view of the Hindu Kush near Bagram Airbase. This photo looks like the Great Basin in Western US. That could be Eastern California, Nevada, Utah or Eastern Oregon.*****
Kabul: Militant activities have dropped in Afghanistan over the past month. The daily number of guerrilla attacks dropped below 10 in November and roadside bomb attacks dropped to 0.2. The last NATO soldier killed was on November 6, however in the days afterwards, a few more NATO troops were killed, along with some US mercenaries.
Tuesday, November 21
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Kandahar Province, Late: Taliban criminals on motorbikes attacked a female provincial councilor's car here, killing her husband. The gunmen attacked when Zarghona Kakar and her husband stopped at a roadside bakery to buy bread here.
She is the third prominent woman to be attacked in Kandahar in recent days. This woman was attacked first for being a prominent woman, and only secondly for being a Karzai legislature. The Taliban's misogyny is boundless.
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Spin Boldak, Kandahar Province: The Taliban are plotting a fresh offensive against foreign troops in Afghanistan when the winter ends early next year, according to a top Taliban commander. Attacks have declined rapidly in recent weeks.
Winter runs from late November to early March in Afghanistan. The Taliban say it is hard to stay up in the mountains during the harsh winter months. An early winter has already hit this year, with sleet falling in valleys and snow higher up in the mountains.
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Khost Province: Suicide bomber attack on a US convoy here wounded four Afghans, including two school children. No US troops were hurt in the attack. Troops were distributing kits to school children when the blast went off.
The bomber's nationality was not known. The Taliban here are mirroring the Iraqi guerrillas for being the most disgusting and evil guerrillas on Earth.
Just as the Sunni guerrillas in Iraq have delighted in repeatedly attacking US forces while they handed out candy to Shia schoolchildren, slaughtering dozens of kids in the process, the Taliban cancer here follows in the malevolent footsteps of the Iraqi criminals, targeting schoolkids once again, in this case their own Pashtun Sunnis.
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Islamabad, Pakistan: A local BBC journalist disappeared as he was set to leave here and head back home to Dera Ismail Khan in the Northwest Frontier Province. He was kidnapped and roughed up by Islamists but turned up 24 hours after he disappeared, shaken but healthy. Dilawar Khan Wazir was quite upset and broke down repeatedly while telling his story.
The kidnappers took him to a house where they roughed him up and questioned him about his reporting and sources. The kidnappers dumped him in a remote area and threatened to kill him if he talked about what they did to him.
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Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province: Canadian troops were on a foot patrol in a town here when one of them stepped on an anti-personnel land mine, injuring two soldiers. One soldier was severely wounded, the other only superficially wounded.
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Sangin, Sangin District, Helmand Province: Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers and Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked Taliban fighters here, with the GR-7s firing rockets on enemy positions. The enemy is generally lying low in Sangin lately, though they control the district. The British stay in their bases and the Taliban stay in their villages.
The British come out at night and shoot into the air to scare the Taliban and let the Taliban know the British are there. The Taliban do not fire back. The Taliban have realized that the best strategy here is to just lay low and not attack the British. The British, for their part, are not keen on endless battles with the Taliban.
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Kandahar: US Navy F/A-18s attacked Taliban fighters battling Canadian troops near here. Kandahar is bombed almost every day these days.
Khost, Khost Province: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas here once again. Khost is getting bombed a fair amount lately.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked guerrillas again near here, in an area that is being bombed almost every day lately.
Monday, November 20
Bermal, Paktika Province, Late: A suicide bomber blew himself up next to an Afghan army patrol, killing himself but no Afghan troops were injured.
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Marja, Nad Ali District, Helmand Province, Late: The Taliban attacked a local police station here, killing 2 policemen. Marja (map) is 17 miles west of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the province. The Nad Ali District is 80% Pashtun, 10% Hazara, 5% Tajik and 5% Baloch.
Most of the people live in the far east of the district near Lashkar Gah. Except for the far east of the district, the rest of the district is uninhabited desert. That region is known as Zamindovar. This district is very warm. In the wintertime, it averages 68 F, and in the summer it climbs to 120 F.
As usual in Afghanistan, there is no sanitation, and waste water flows right into the canals where the people get their drinking water. Cotton, wheat, corn, turnips, tomatoes, ladyfinger brinjiles, pomegranates, apples and opium are grown here - especially opium - but cotton is still the primary crop.
The harvest is good on irrigated lands, but the rain-fed lands are all dry. 90% of the arable land is still being cultivated, which is a very good figure for Afghanistan. The main road is partly destroyed and the rest of the roads are often muddy, typical for an Afghan district. Most of the bridges are partly destroyed also. Water is readily available but the well water is salty and therefore difficult to drink.
Most people in the district are working and few are unemployed. There is plenty of work in the cotton fields. There are two clinics in the district with two female nurses, but there are no woman doctors. The clinics treat 50 people a day and have fairly good facilities for Afghanistan. Still, the district needs more health centers.
There are a number of schools here, and there are actually a few girls in school, though boys outnumber girls by 10-1 in high school. There are also four woman teachers here. There are no girls in grade school. 70% of the boys are in school - the rest are working, usually in the fields. The schools are in bad shape, with no water or bathrooms available. The teachers are not trained.
Although women are usually confined to their homes in the Pashtun tradition, some work in the fields and others work as maids or cooks.
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Kandahar: French M2000D Mirages, US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets and Royal Air Force GR-7 Harriers all attacked the Taliban once again near here. The F/A-18s dropped a GBU-12 and fired cannon rounds on enemy positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: Air Force A-10s and an Air Force B-1B Lancer attacked guerrillas again here, in what are apparently daily battles in this area.
Kabul: Air Force A-10s and Navy F/A-18s attacked guerrillas fighting NATO forces near here once again. The Kabul area is really getting bombed a lot lately.
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Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province: Air Force A-10s and U.S. Navy F/A-18s attacked guerrillas near here. Hezb-i-Islami Hekmatyar and Hezb-i-Islami Khalis are particularly strong in this region, in particular Younis Khalis' faction.
Bear in mind that in the last election, Hezb-i-Islami won an incredible 25% of the seats in the Afghan government, though Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has not yet made a peace with the government. There are yet rumors that Hekmatyar is negotiating a peace with the government. Hekmatyar is probably hiding in the Dir District in Pakistan south of Chitral and east of Kunar and Nuristan Provinces in Afghanistan.
Dir is the rear guard for Hezb-i-Islami Hekmatyar. Speaking of Dir, there is excellent evidence that this is precisely where bin Laden is, and has been since at least 2003. Hopefully, more on that in a future post. It is obvious that Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, knows where Hekmatyar is, and it is probable that they also know where Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are also. The ISI just does not feel like catching them.
Hekmatyar has influence in Kunar and Nuristan Provinces and to a lesser extent Kunduz Province in the north, where he is from, and he also has forces in Khost, Paktia, Logar and Paktika Provinces. Hekmatyar's super-Islamist faction was favored by the CIA in the Russian War, receiving 70% of funds.
These funds were all distributed by the ISI. This funding is the genesis of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Younis Khalis is a warlord from Nangarhar Province who gave bin Laden a training camp and base at a place called Farmada, south of Jalalabad.
Khalis had a particularly close relationship with bin Laden, but he quickly sold out and cut a deal with the US soon after the invasion. Hekmatyar is now with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and the rumors are that Khalis' faction has now aligned with the Taliban and Al Qaeda too.
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Orgun-E, Urgun District, Paktika Province: Navy F/A-18s attacked guerrilla forces once again in the endless air strikes on guerrillas here.
Sunday, November 19
Eastern Afghanistan: NATO forces said they killed 11 Taliban in air raids and artillery strikes here.
Kandahar: Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs attacked the Taliban once more here, dropping general purpose 500-pound bombs and GBU-12s, and firing cannon rounds on enemy positions.
Gereshk, Nahri Sarraj District, Helmand Province: U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets attacked Taliban forces fighting British troops near here.
Musa Qala, Musa Qala District, Helmand Province: Navy F/A-18s attacked the Taliban here again, where a truce has totally unraveled and heavy fighting has resumed. The F/A-18s dropped a GBU-12 on enemy positions.
Asadabad, Asadabad District, Kunar Province: An Air Force B-1B Lancer and Air Force A-10s attacked guerrillas once again battling US troops in this dangerous area. The A-10s dropped a GBU-12 and a general purpose 500-pound bomb and the B-1B dropped GBU-12s on guerrilla positions.
Friday, November 17
Afghanistan: Air strikes in Afghanistan have increased dramatically lately, according to this report here.
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