Afghanistan: German Peacekeepers May Leave if US War with Iraq Erupts
German Defense Minister Peter Struck told reporters Friday that civilians and German peacekeeping troops serving in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) might evacuate Afghanistan should a US-led war with Iraq erupt. A German government report warned that Western security and aid groups will face increasing hostilities from Afghan forces harboring anti-Western sentiments that will be amplified by the war with Iraq, according to the Associated Press. “The presence of the [Afghan] government’s sizeable military potentials, drawn mainly from the Northern Alliance (about 10,000 men), pose an underlying security risk,” the report stated. Earlier this month, Germany and Netherlands, assumed leadership of the 22-nation, 4,800-member ISAF.
Meanwhile, US officials insist that aid operations in Afghanistan will not suffer on account of war with Iraq. “The United States is capable of doing more than one thing at a time,” explained Zalmay Khalilzad, special envoy to Afghanistan for President Bush, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Still, critics like UN special representative and former foreign minister of Algeria Lakhdar Brahimi argue, “There are only 24 hours in a day…If you are forced to spend 20 hours on Iraq, then clearly you are not going to have much time on anything else, however much you would like to,” reported the New York Times.
5/22/2013 Immigration Reform Bill Advances In Senate - Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill in a bipartisan vote of 13 to 5. . . .
5/22/2013 Afghan Women Arrested for 'Moral Crimes' Increases 50% - A new report by the Human Rights Watch shows that in the past 18 months the number of women in Afghanistan incarcerated for 'moral crimes' has increased from 400 to 600, a 50% growth.
Many of the women imprisoned for moral crimes were arrested running away from forced or abusive marriages and families, even though there is no law against leaving. . . .
5/22/2013 Army Commander Suspended for Adultery Amid Wave of Sexual Assaults - On Tuesday, Brigadier General Bryan T Roberts was suspended from his position as commander of the Fort Jackson, South Carolina training camp which trains approximately 60% of incoming female recruits pending an investigation into allegations of adultery.
Roberts was suspended following allegations of "adultery and a physical altercation." Colonel Christian Kubik, an Army spokesperson for the Training and Doctrine Command, told reporters "We don't have any evidence of any sexual assault. . . .
