War/Nation Building

Biden visits Iraq to mark formal end to US combat

Vice President Joe Biden returned to Iraq Monday to mark this week's formal end to U.S. combat operations and push the country's leaders to end a six-month postelection stalemate blocking formation of a new government.

Wednesday's ceremony will signal a shift toward a greater U.S. diplomatic role as the military mission dwindles seven years after the American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

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But the Sept. 1 ceremony also marks the start of the so-called "Operation New Dawn" — symbolizing the beginning of the end of the American military's mission in Iraq since invading in March 2003.

Just under 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq — down from a peak of nearly 170,000 at the height of the 2007 military surge that is credited with turning the tide in Iraq as it teetered on the brink of civil war. Additionally, U.S. troops no longer will be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces.

Under a security agreement between the two nations, all U.S. forces must leave Iraq by the end of 2011. But the Obama administration, sensitive to charges of American abandonment, has directed its diplomats to step into the void and help Iraq's weak government, economy and other institutions get back on their feet for years to come.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jIx_f5mAmx2USq6VxK0xbJvIevjgD9HTSP9G0


" U.S. troops no longer will be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces"

" U.S. troops no longer will be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces"

what about private armies

Former 9/11 Commission head: To build nations, start local

Philip Zelikow, the White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia, former director of the 9/11 Commission and former counselor to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said American efforts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan as nations would best be served by starting local.

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Because of his recent service as an adviser to the secretary of state and his knowledge of terrorism as director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow is well qualified to talk about nation-building, terrorism and counter-terrorism,” said George Gilliam, chairman of the Miller Center Forum Program.

Zelikow told the audience that successful nation creation rises from the roots. Going into a different culture with a prefabricated notion of what that culture’s governance should be like often results in frustration and failure, he said.

“The choices have to be local choices,” he said. “An outsider should play only supportive roles. In South Korea, we allowed the citizens to create their own form of government and finance based on traditional Korean philosophies and provided credit and support and, above all, protection so that the nation could be built.”

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He said nongovernmental agencies in Afghanistan often contract with other non-Afghan agencies to provide services to the Afghan people. That sends money elsewhere and stymies small-business creation within the country, leading to an Afghan joke that foreign aid is “the cow that drinks its own milk.”
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2010/aug/30/former-911-commission-head-build-nations-start-loc-ar-480527/

interesting connections for Philip 9/11 and nation building…surprised to see it in print

yes i agree..very strange..and very open!

wow seeker..great find.

that was only a drop..he appears to be the main liar for the 911 commision

U.S. Funding Boost Is Sought for Yemen Forces

WASHINGTON—The U.S. military’s Central Command has proposed pumping as much as $1.2 billion over five years into building up Yemen’s security forces, a major investment in a shaky government, in a sign of Washington’s fears of al Qaeda’s growing foothold on the Arabian Peninsula.

The timing and the final funding amount will depend on how supporters of the effort overcome resistance from some officials at the State Department and the Pentagon, who have doubts about Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the ability of his government, seen by many as corrupt, to effectively use a flood of American-taxpayer money.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704791004575465942358193732.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews

Let’s not be distracted …here is the three year plan…from USAID site
13 page pdf.
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/middle_east/documents/yemen/USAIDYemen2010-2012Strategy.pdf

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USAID will build upon its existing health and education programs to improve service access and quality in targeted communities. Small infrastructure projects, such as health clinic and school rehabilitation will incorporate gendersensitive access. .....
snip
attention to the preservation of scarce natural resources – particularly water – and the human activities that impact the use and availability of those resources will be a focus of program implementation that is vital to sustainability. In the agricultural sector, USAID will support existing local efforts to improve
water management, reduce soil erosion, restore traditional terrace cultivation, discourage qat production and introduce small-scale energy and water resource conservation projects.


more nation building!

Yemen says new gas discoveries in several oil sectors to mull investment

Yemeni Ministry of Oil and Minerals said on Sunday that the recent explorations in many oil sectors gave positive indications about availability of oil and gas in the south and east of the country.

“These indicators on the availability of large quantities of gas made the ministry to accelerate preparing an attachment accord to the previous agreements that sealed with the foreign oil companies operating in these sectors,” Minister of Oil and Minerals Amir al-Aidarous said.

According to the minister, the recent discoveries of the large quantities of gas were located in southeast provinces of Hadramout and Shabwa and in the northeast province of Marib.

“We are now preparing to announce the approved investment oil and gas companies which offered the best investment bids to explore in those new discovered oil and gas blocks,” he added.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/7105459.html


how lucky new gas discoveries!...from the same PDF (above)

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Geographic Focus
This strategy targets villages, communities, tribal areas, districts, governorates, and/or regions that are vulnerable and pose serious risk to Yemen’s overall stability. It also will attempt to create buffer zones to prevent conflict from spreading into areas that are currently relatively stable. The eight governorates of greatest priority to USAID are Amran, Al Jawf, Marib, Shabwah, Abyan, Al Dhale’e, Lahj, and Aden. Resources are insufficient to sustain operations
in all eight governorates, but each of them has the minimal characteristics for targeting. Within each of these governorates, it will be important to focus on the most vulnerable areas, where stabilization needs are greatest, where interventions can have significant impact, where conflict drivers can be mitigated, and where government presence and legitimacy can be reinvigorated. Beyond political complexities, sensitivity to inter-communal and tribal dynamics in each community will be key, along with awareness of the risks of creating animosity in neighboring
communities if they are excluded, possibly resulting in conflict.
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/middle_east/documents/yemen/USAIDYemen2010-2012Strategy.pdf

there is always a reason..energy

Opposition Group Claims Iran Secretly Developing ‘Major’ Nuclear Enrichment Site

An Iranian resistance group claimed Thursday that it has compiled evidence showing Iran has been secretly developing a nuclear enrichment site for years outside Tehran, a development one official said proves Iran has a “hidden, secret nuclear weapons program.”

The Iran Policy Committee hosted a press conference in Washington, D.C., where research from the Iranian resistance, known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, was unveiled. The findings could not be independently confirmed.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/09/iran-watchdog-group-announce-findings-alleged-nuclear-site/

Gates: The Pentagon’s accountability cop
By David Ignatius
Thursday, September 9, 2010

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The Gates era at the Pentagon, which has lasted four years and stretched through two presidents, will probably end next year. He has said that he plans to retire in 2011, and aides say that this time he really means it.

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Gates’s departure is only one of a series of changes that are likely for the Obama team next year: Gen. Jim Jones will probably leave his post as national security adviser. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will complete his term in October 2011, and several of the service chiefs are also due to retire.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/08/AR2010090805703.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

jim jones !!!

Rising Haiti hospital a symbol of future

MIREBALAIS, Haiti — When a new teaching hospital opens in this central Haiti town a little over a year from now, it will be far more than a 320-bed, six operating room facility.

Local and international doctors say it will represent a towering example of post-earthquake recovery.

“It’s going to be a world-class hospital in the middle of central Haiti,” said Dr. Paul Farmer, who has dedicated his life to improving healthcare for the poor in an impoverished Haiti and serves as deputy to United Nations Special Envoy Bill Clinton.

The hospital in the town of Mirebalais, 90 minutes north of quake-ravaged Port-au-Prince along a new asphalt highway through the central mountains, was in the planning stages long before the Jan. 12 quake.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/12/1818533/rising-haiti-hospital-a-symbol.html#ixzz0zNEtvafP

was in the planning stages long before the Jan. 12 quake...hmmmm

World economy: The China cycle

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Nowhere is the impact of this process being felt more keenly than in Brazil.

As trade has boomed with China during the past decade, Brazilians have sometimes complained of being relegated once again to their 20th-century role of providing commodities to the industrial powers. In the past year, however, the long-awaited wave of Chinese investment in the country appears finally to have reached Brazil’s shores. While it reached only $92m in 2009, the country’s officials estimate that it will exceed $10bn this year.

Wuhan Iron and Steel, for instance, paid $400m for a stake in a mining company owned by Brazilian industrialist Eike Batista, and is planning to build a huge steel mill beside the port near Rio de Janeiro that another of Mr Batista’s companies is constructing. Lifan, one of China’s biggest manufacturers of motorcycles and cars, already exports heavily to Brazil. Now the company’s founder, Yin Mingshan, saysit is considering opening a plant to build cars in the country. “Brazil is a very promising market, with a vast territory and a big domestic market,” he says. “Some Chinese businessmen are foolish enough to ignore doing business in Brazil but I am not that stupid.”

If investment in Brazil is one symbol of this new stage of economic Chinese engagement with the developing world, another is the flurry of new rail networks taking shape globally. Chinese railway construction companies are some of the most efficient anywhere, and have for several years been operating in neighbouring countries in central and south-east Asia. But in the past year they have also signed contracts in such diverse places as Ukraine, Turkey and Argentina.

Chinese companies in the sector have not restricted their activities to the manual task of laying rail lines. They are hoping to start signing overseas deals to sell high-speed rail equipment, including locomotives and signalling systems. The first customer could be the planned high-speed line between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

There are two factors that have made these new links possible. The first is that China has produced a generation of companies making capital goods that are now internationally competitive. They can offer developing countries new trains, power stations, mining machinery and telecommunications equipment of sufficient quality at prices that are often well below those of their multinational competitors.

The second element is the financial backing from a banking system that has been mobilised to follow behind these businesses. Yi Huiman, a senior executive at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, told a conference recently that the institution was working with the government to provide “railroads plus finance” around the world. Vale, the Brazilian company that operates the giant iron ore mine in the Amazon, announcedon Friday that it had signed a $1.23bn credit with two Chinese banks to finance the purchase of 12 huge cargo ships from a Chinese shipyard, which will transport iron ore between the two countries.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/57f55ab0-be99-11df-a755-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss

Yi Huiman, a senior executive at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, told a conference recently that the institution was working with the government to provide “railroads plus finance” around the world.