Link: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/afghans-say-an-american-tortured-civilians-366131

The authorities in Afghanistan are seeking the arrest on murder and torture charges of a man they say is an American and part of a Special Forces unit operating in Wardak province, three Afghan officials have confirmed.

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2013/05/11/karzai-reveals-us-plan-for

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Thursday revealed that Washington wants to maintain nine US military bases scattered across the country after the formal deadline for the withdrawal of US and NATO coalition forces at the end of 2014.

Link: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/192438211.html?refer=y

A moral injury tortures the conscience; symptoms include deep shame, guilt and rage. It's not a medical problem, and it's unclear how to treat it, says retired Col. Elspeth Ritchie, former psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general.

Link: http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/george-bush-tony-blair-and-the-century-s-greatest-crime-1.1147829

What US and Britain did to Iraq is nothing short of state terrorism. It’s been almost 10 years since the US and Britain unleashed ‘Shock and Awe’ on the Iraqi capital Baghdad ostensibly to punish a rogue dictator for hoarding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in non-compliance with binding UN Security Council resolutions. In reality, Saddam Hussain had shut down his nuclear programme and destroyed Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons more than a decade earlier.

Link: http://droneswatch.org/2013/01/20/list-of-children-killed-by-drone-strikes-in-pakistan-and-yemen/

Compiled from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports

Link: http://rt.com/news/uk-afghanistan-cost-war-453/

The UK has revealed that the cost of its involvement in the war in Afghanistan has reached $27.6 billion, and may end up being as much as $32.5 billion. Meanwhile, the UK continues to slash domestic social services to reduce its budget deficit.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-woes-of-an-american-drone-operator/5315869

With seven seconds left to go, there was no one to be seen on the ground. Bryant could still have diverted the missile at that point. Then it was down to three seconds. Bryant felt as if he had to count each individual pixel on the monitor. Suddenly a child walked around the corner, he says. Second zero was the moment in which Bryant’s digital world collided with the real one in a village between Baghlan and Mazar-e-Sharif. Bryant saw a flash on the screen: the explosion. Parts of the building collapsed. The child had disappeared. Bryant had a sick feeling in his stomach. “Did we just kill a kid?” he asked the man sitting next to him. “Yeah, I guess that was a kid,” the pilot replied. “Was that a kid?” they wrote into a chat window on the monitor. Then, someone they didn’t know answered, someone sitting in a military command center somewhere in the world who had observed theirattack. “No. That was a dog,” the person wrote. They reviewed the scene on video. A dog on two legs?

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/15/278193/cia-mossad-staged-911-to-save-israel/

Thus the world (and Americans in particular) is having to come to terms with the nasty evidence that, in order to further Zionist interests by initiating a general war against Islam, the CIA and Mossad were heavily involved in the murder of three thousand Americans. The noted analyst Kevin Barrett, has summed up this situation by saying, “Israel has reached the end of its shelf-life.” He continued, “The US is going broke and sacrificing thousands of lives in wars for Israel - wars that damage, rather than aid, US strategic interests.”

Link: http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/more-than-30-top-u-s-officials-guilty-of-war-crimes-boyle-says/28066/

More than 30 top U.S. officials, including presidents G.W. Bush and Obama, are guilty of war crimes or crimes against peace and humanity “legally akin to those perpetrated by the former Nazi regime in Germany,” the distinguished American international law authority Francis Boyle charges.

Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/04/276060/us-forces-rape-women-in-afghanistan/

The residents of a village in northern Afghanistan say American troopers raped several women during a nighttime raid in the rural community. The locals said that the incident took place in a village in the Chahar Bolak district of Afghanistan’s Balkh Province where US special forces carried out house-to-house searches, Afghanistan Information Network reported on Sunday.

Link: http://www.khaama.com/us-soldier-killed-in-militants-attack-in-southern-afghanistan-2017

A US soldier was killed following militants attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday. NATO-led International Security Assistance Force following a statement announced, “A U.S. Forces-Afghanistan service member died today following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan.”

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/afgh-o24.shtml

The killing of four children in a US raid and the disappearance and murder of civilians at the hands of occupation troops have provoked growing anger and protests among the people of Afghanistan. With the US-led war now in its twelfth year, violence against the country’s population continues to mount. The latest incidents were confirmed by the office of Afghanistan’s puppet president, Hamid Karzai, on Tuesday. The worst of them took place on Sunday in the eastern province of Logar, just south of Kabul.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/afgh-o18.shtml

Washington is holding talks to arrange for the continued occupation of Afghanistan by tens of thousands of US troops after the ostensible deadline for withdrawal at the end of 2014. The ongoing negotiations in Kabul are aimed at ironing out an agreement that will determine “how we manage our forces going forward in Afghanistan” after the 2014 deadline, Marc Grossman, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told a conference in Washington Tuesday.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/10/05-1

If you looked carefully at the news over the past two weeks, you might have heard a report from Afghanistan about how the U.S./NATO forces bombed and killed eight Afghan women who were out walking in the mountains early in the morning before dawn to collect wood. Eight other women were seriously injured.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-obscene-reasons-why-richest-americans-grow-richer-middle-class-declines

The super-rich have learned a new lesson: it is far better to take than to make.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/16-0

A NATO airstrike has killed at least 8 women and girls and injured at least 7 females in the eastern province of Laghman while they were collecting firewood on Sunday, Afghan officials say. (U.S. Air Force photo) Villagers from the province brought the bodies to the provincial capital of Mehterlam, the Associated Press reports. Seven injured females were also brought to the hospital, some as young as 10, according to news agencies. The BBC reports that NATO acknowledged that civilians were killed in the strike.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/pers-a01.shtml

The attempted suppression of an Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) report on atrocities and war crimes committed by Afghan governments and warlords from 1978 to 2001 is devastating exposure of the US puppet regime in Kabul.

Link: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m88851&hd=&size=1&l=e

Earlier this year, an Army veteran with four combat deployments under his belt and a sterling professional record came forward with a disturbing accusation: Senior military officials are lying to the American public about conditions on the ground in Afghanistan. In the 84-page report, Lt. Col. Daniel Davis questions the effectiveness of U.S. military strategy, and documents ways that the Pentagon expertly manipulates the media to present a falsely optimistic view of the war.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/27-0

At least eight members of an Afghan family have been killed, including six children, after an airstrike by the US-led NATO coalition in Afghanistan. The missiles hit late Saturday night in the eastern province of Paktia, according to officials. The aftermath of airstrikes. File photo. (Image by: BOB STRONG / REUTERS) Rohullah Samon, a spokesman for the governor of Paktia province, said Mohammad Shafi, his wife and their six children died in an airstrike around 8 p.m. in Suri Khail village of Gurda Saria district.

Link: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/25-May-2012/us-drone-strike-hits-mosque-10-killed

At least 10 people were killed and several others sustained injuries when unmanned US predator drone targeted a mosque in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan Agency on Thursday.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-gregory/war-in-afghanistan_b_1539749.html

If President Obama has his way, the last U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan could be Americans born five years after 9/11. The administration has signed a pact to maintain a military presence there until 2024. After initially claiming the rumors of such a deal were false, the administration has since described this pledge as a means of providing "training" assistance to Afghan forces. The White House continues to issue mixed messages on the war, simultaneously insisting that the war is "over," but that U.S. troops will face "hard days ahead" in the conflict.

Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57436797/house-oks-continued-war-in-afghanistan/

The House endorsed the continued war in Afghanistan on Thursday despite acknowledgment from Republicans and Democrats that the American people are war-weary after more than a decade of conflict.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/08-5

The way in which the U.S. media ignores such events speaks volumes about how we perceive them

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2012/05/07/forever-war

When Barack Obama talked last week about the end of the war in Afghanistan, he didn't mention that by his timeline, it isn't even half over. THE BEST way to make sense of the Obama administration's statements about its plans to "wind down" the decade-old occupation of Afghanistan is to recall the words of author George Orwell: "Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/02-6

President Obama's secret trip to Afghanistan, shrouded in secrecy for security reasons, culminated in a midnight meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the signing of a 'strategic partnership agreement', the full details of which have not been made available to either the American or Afghan public.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31182.htm

The Taliban clearly has broad support from Afghan people. Conscientious objection is a right and obligation in a failed war. Recent attacks in Kabul confirm the occupation is falling to pieces. Claims about "decisive years" and "turned corners" are little more than cant. Instead for all their lack of air power, drones and high-tech equipment, the Taliban are gaining ascendancy.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2012/04/10/the-unraveling-occupation

Nicole Colson reports on the quagmire of the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan--and why 10 years after the war began, the U.S. must get out. U.S. soldiers pass through a village on the outskirts of Kandahar City (Corporal Dan Pop)U.S. soldiers pass through a village on the outskirts of Kandahar City (Corporal Dan Pop) THE U.S. war and occupation of Afghanistan was supposed to bring stability and democracy. Instead, Afghanistan remains a country on the brink of disaster--one that has clearly been exacerbated by the U.S. presence.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/afgh-m19.shtml

Within 48 hours of the Pentagon’s confirming the identity of the US soldier arrested for the massacre of 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, there are mounting questions about the official explanation of the bloody events of March 11. Nearly every fact asserted by US officials in Kabul and Washington has been challenged, either by the villagers where the massacre took place, by the Karzai government in Afghanistan, or by those acquainted with the arrested soldier, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, 38.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/afgh-m17.shtml

President Karzai denounced the US military in connection with last Sunday’s massacre of 16 civilians, but Washington dismissed his demand that it speed up the transfer of security to Afghan forces.

Link: http://aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/us-troops-sexually-assaulted-women.html

"US soldiers were alleged to have sexually assaulted two female victims before they were killed in the Panjwai massacre in southern Kandahar last Sunday, a high-level Afghan probe team revealed.

Link: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Service-Member-Detained-in-Kandahar-for-Attacking-Civilians--142233565.html

Afghan officials and witnesses say a U.S. service member walked off his base and shot and killed at least 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar province Sunday. Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Sunday's shooting unforgivable. He demanded an explanation from the United States for what he called "intentional killings."

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/pers-f27.shtml

Mass protests at US and NATO facilities throughout Afghanistan over the past week, after US troops burned Korans at Bagram Air Base, testify to the Afghan population’s deep hatred for the US-led occupation, now in its eleventh year.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/2/headlines#10

The Obama administration has lifted a ban on military assistance to Uzbekistan in order to preserve a supply line for the war effort in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan has seen reduced U.S. military aid in recent years amid widespread human rights abuses, including torture earlier this month, allowing the United States to provide non-lethal military equipment. On Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters the move will help Uzbekistan fight terrorism.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SmH0PF1IiaI

The U.S. troop withdrawal leaves behind a country embittered by an occupation that's cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. And as U.S. soldiers return home for Christmas, the mood is far from joyful among veterans struggling to deal with the personal aftermath of the war. With soaring suicide rates, it's still too early to estimate the true cost of the invasion. Our correspondent Liz Wall reports.

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/opinion-ieds-and-americas-afghan-war-4562/

Even though it has spent at least $60 billion to destroy them, the Pentagon is losing the battle to combat the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which have accounted for two out of every three U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/afgh-d08.shtml

In the latest round of conflict between Obama and his top military commanders, the senior US general in Afghanistan is opposing the administration’s plans for the withdrawal of troops from the US-occupied country.

Link: http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/International/Furious-at-Latest-U.S.-Attack-Pakistan-Shuts-Down-Resupply-Routes-to-Afghanistan-Permanently.html

NATO recently literally shot itself in the foot, imperiling the resupply of International Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan by shooting up two Pakistani border posts in a “hot pursuit’ raid. Given that roughly 100 fuel tanker trucks along with 200 other trucks loaded with NATO supplies cross into Afghanistan each day from Pakistan, Pakistan’s closure of the border has ominous long-term consequences for the logistical resupply of ISAF forces, even as Pentagon officials downplay the issue and scramble for alternative resupply routes.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29847.htm

On November 25, the New York Times reported--on page 12--that six children were killed in one attack in southern Afghanistan on November 23. This news was, as best I can tell, not reported on ABC, CBS, NBC or the PBS NewsHour. There were, on the other hand, several pieces about U.S. soldiers eating Thanksgiving dinners.

Link: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\11\29\story_29-11-2011_pg7_28

KABUL: Supplies for NATO in Afghanistan have been hit by a blockade as 38 tankers out of total 145 have been sent back from Torkham border to Peshawar amid tight security. The blockade has been enforced after a cross-border strike killed 24 troops, but it remains unclear how seriously coalition forces will suffer. There are around 140,000 foreign troops in landlocked Afghanistan waging a 10-year battle against a Taliban-led insurgency who rely on fuel, food and equipment brought in from outside. Nearly half of all cargo bound for foreign troops routes through Pakistan, which closed the border to NATO traffic on Saturday. But the coalition force insists its fight against the Taliban will not be affected.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/08-4

Operation Enduring Freedom – the dreadfully misnamed ten-year US occupation of Afghanistan – has turned into Operation Enduring Misery. Obama is building the biggest embassy in the world in Kabul, an $800 million fortress with 1,000 personnel, protected by a small army of mercenary gunmen. So much for withdrawal plans. But this is just what the US has been doing in Afghanistan. After ten years of war costing at least $450 billion, 1,600 dead and 15,000 seriously wounded soldiers, the US has achieved none of its strategic or political goals.