Månad: februari 2022

The Biden administration has announced that it will invoke emergency powers to deal with $7 billion of currently frozen assets held by the Afghan central bank in New York. The aim is for $3.5 billion to go toward humanitarian relief in Afghanistan; the remaining assets will stay in American hands with a view to being accessed by relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks.

As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s been hard to tolerate the political and military general class that bears so much responsibility for the disasters that unfolded in those countries. President Biden’s confusing move regarding the $7 billion of assets appears right up there with all the other cack-handed handling of and disregard for Afghans. […]

For right or wrong, throughout history, a country’s menfolk have usually proved defensive of their women in relation to outside interference. As recounted by the writer Jan Morris in Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress, the first volume of her incomparable trilogy about the British Empire, a factor in the breakout of the first Anglo-Afghan War in 1839 was the “free and easy behaviour” of British officers with local Afghan women that “made many secret enemies” in Kabul. That war ended infamously with the whole British force wiped out bar one survivor to tell the terrible tale. Us Brits have now fought in four wars in Afghanistan—we have either lost them or managed a vague stalemate that soon unraveled. At least you in the U.S. have only lost one—though perhaps you also vicariously lost the one the Russians lost, since so much sown in that war came back to haunt you, your military partners, and everyone else.

Maybe it’s time to notice the trends in all this? It could be distilled to the following maxim: Don’t piss around with the Afghans—take them seriously. And don’t ride roughshod over their culture, as backward and malevolent as it may appear. Also, international calls for respecting female rights appear rather moot when Afghans of both sexes are starving and likely to die. Let’s prevent that and sort out that crisis, and then consider the great rights conundrum, which we should deal with in a way that might actually be heeded by the Taliban and hence prove effective. We must never again underestimate just how complicated Afghanistan and its people are. Läs artikel

How they must be laughing in the Kremlin. Western policy towards Ukraine is evolving from the ridiculous to the positively surreal. Thus the latest demonstration of the West’s unbreakable commitment to Ukraine and to future Ukrainian NATO membership is — to evacuate Western diplomats from Kiev, before a single shot has been fired, and while Russia continues to deny that it has any intention of invading. At this rate, Russia will have no need whatsoever to do so. President Putin can enjoy a quiet cup of coffee while Western governments run around squawking hysterically, and NATO’s credibility collapses along with the Ukrainian economy. […]

Apart from the effect on what is left of the West’s reputation for courage and discipline, the consequences of this route for Ukraine and supposed Western interests there will be severe; for the effect is to undermine still further the already faltering Ukrainian economy and currency. Hence the tragicomic sight of the Ukrainian government, which has spent years talking up the Russian military threat to Ukraine, now desperately trying to talk it down again. On the other hand, this attempt by Kiev to reduce tension does reflect the feelings of the Ukrainian population, most of which seems vastly calmer than Western capitals.

However humiliating and contemptible, the evacuation of the diplomats (and the advice to all other Western citizens to leave Ukraine) could have one good result, assuming that Western political elites, media, and citizens are still capable of occasionally looking at themselves honestly in the mirror. For what it demonstrates beyond all possible remaining doubt is that the Western offer one day to admit Ukraine to NATO is totally empty. Läs artikel

Amerikansk etterretning meiner Russland har planar om å invadere Ukraina i morgon. Vi må ta situasjonen på alvor, seier Jonas Gahr Støre.

Jan Egeland har nylig kommet tilbake fra en ukes opphold i Øst-Ukraina.

Flyktninghjelpens generalsekretær reiste gjennom det han beskriver som «fattige og delvis utbombede samfunn» langs frontlinja, der han møtte «forfrosne pensjonister som ikke har penger nok til brensel». Her møtte han også noen av de norske medlemmene av den ubevæpnede observatørgruppa til Organisasjonens for sikkerhet og samarbeid i Europa (OSSE) […]

I helga kom meldingen om at flere land, deriblant USA, trekker sine OSSE-observatører ut av Ukraina, av frykt for en mulig russisk invasjon. Også Storbritannia og Danmark skal ha trukket sine observatører ut av Øst-Ukraina. Dette er en beslutning Egeland ikke forstår.

– Dette arbeidet burde heller oppskaleres nå. Det er etter mitt skjønn helt absurd å trekke observatørene ut når de har en viktigere jobb enn noensinne, sier Egeland. […]

De lager blant annet ukentlige konfidensielle rapporter om all militær aktivitet som blir delt med alle partene i konflikten og de 56 medlemslandene i OSSE.

– Vi må vite om det er provokasjoner og falskt flagg-aksjoner og om det er den ene eller andre siden som trapper opp. Den dynamikken som ble satt i gang ved at USA og Storbritannia og Danmark trekker folk ut istedenfor å sende dem inn, i denne alvorlige timen, det mener jeg er helt galt, sier Egeland. […]

Egeland mener USA har egne motiver for å spre den informasjonen de gjør.

– Jeg personlig, og vi som er til stede på bakken, deler nok i større grad ukrainernes mer nøkterne analyse enn den vestlige analysen. Det er viktig å være klar over at den etterretningen man sprer offentlig, er en del av det storpolitiske strategiske sjakkspillet, sier Egeland. Läs artikel

På grund av det ryska agerandet vid den ukrainska gränsen har hotbilden för utbildningsinsatsen Operation Unifier ökat markant. Därför har den kanadensiska ledningen beslutat att tillfälligt dra tillbaka sin personal. De fyra svenska officerarna som ingår i insatsen befinner sig därför just nu i Polen. Läs pressmeddelande

The conditions are no longer in place to continue the fight against Islamist militants in Mali and President Emmanuel Macron has asked to re-organise French troops in the region, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday.

”If the conditions are no longer in place so that we can act in Mali, which is clearly the case, then we will continue to fight terrorism next door with the Sahel countries, who ” Le Drian told France 5. […]

The Takuba mission has about 600-900 troops of which 40% are French and includes medical and logistical teams. It has been more of a symbolic force accompanying local troops.

Few diplomats believe it can survive a withdrawal from Mali, but Paris hopes to convince its allies to support countries in the Gulf of Guinea, notably Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin and Ghana, where there are concerns militancy is spreading due to porous borders. Läs artikel

[…] Alene søndag er der blevet fløjet hundredvis af ton ammunition ind til den ukrainske hær. Afsenderen var USA, fortæller den ukrainske forsvarsminister, Oleksii Reznikov, i et opslag på Twitter, hvor han oplyser, at der i to amerikanske fly var 180 ton ammunition. Dermed har amerikanerne i alt sendt 1.500 ton ammunition til Ukraine, lyder det fra forsvarsministeren, der kommer med en klar besked:

»Vores venner sover ikke!« Läs artikel

Afghanistan’s central bank has condemned a recent decision by the United States to seize billions of dollars of frozen Afghan funds to pay the claimants of the September 11, 2001 attacks. […]

Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) censured the Joe Biden administration’s plan, saying the funds had been invested in the United States in line with international practices and belonged to the people of Afghanistan, Press TV reported.

“DAB considers the latest decision of USA on blocking FX (foreign exchange) reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes, injustice to the people of Afghanistan,” the central bank said in a statement.

“DAB will never accept it if the FX reserves of Afghanistan is paid under the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others and wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan,” it added. Läs artikel

[…] Siden Ruslands annektering af Krim for otte år siden er amerikanerne i stigende grad igen begyndt at se et behov for at opstille et forsvar i Europa. Og det er også en del af forklaringen på, hvorfor den amerikanske regering har taget initiativ til at indlede forhandlinger om en ny forsvarssamarbejdsaftale med Danmark, der kan indebære, at USA udstationerer soldater og militært materiel på dansk jord. Et principielt nybrud i dansk forsvarspolitik, der bryder med årtiers ikke-udstationeringspolitik. […]

Med en aftale om at tillade amerikanske tropper og materiel på dansk jord vil USA have større mobilitet og være bedre rustet, hvis der opstår en krisesituation med Rusland i Baltikum og Østersøen. Danmark og danske baser og havne kan i en sådan situation være et støttepunkt og opmarchområde, hvorfra USA og Nato kan hente forstærkninger.

Den danske regering betoner, at der ikke er en direkte sammenhæng mellem forsvarssamarbejdsaftalen og Ruslands aktuelle oprustning på den ukrainsk-russiske grænse. Den amerikanske henvendelse til Danmark daterer sig da også et helt år tilbage og kan tolkes som en forlængelse af et stadigt tættere samarbejde mellem de to lande. Omfanget af aftalen skal desuden nu forhandles, og det kan komme til at tage flere år. Men nyheden om, at den danske regering er indstillet på at give amerikanerne en permanent militær tilstedeværelse i Danmark, afspejler ikke desto mindre, hvor alvorlig sikkerhedssituationen i Europa er blevet, og hvor foruroligede både USA og de europæiske lande er. Läs artikel