Sergenţii (după Vasile Alecsandri)

Pe drumul de costişă ce duce către NATO,
În gândul lui, sergentul zicea c-a-mbulinat-o,
De-o fi să sune goarna, să plece la război,
Că-i sunt dotaţi colegii, cu puşti, din doi în doi,
Aceşti pifani destoinici, mărşăluind cuminţi,
Precum, odinioară, părinţii de părinţi.
În salopete rupte, de să le plângi de milă,
Tanchiştii, trei la număr, târăsc de o şenilă
Ce-o descălţase tancul departe de cazarmă,
La nicio oră după ieşirea la alarmă,
Artileriştii-înjură în timp ce, la fălcele,
Se-nhamă, să urnească un tun din alea grele,
Din urmă, două MIG-uri tractate-s la teren,
Că-n rezervor, se pare, n-au strop de kerosen,
Pe fluviu, în amonte de Giurgiu, abia trec
Trei torpiloare trase spre NATO, la edec,
De marinarii care n-au mai ieşit în larg
De când avea şi stemă drapelul, pe catarg,
Fanfara, încropită dintr-un tambur major
Şi-un trompetist, dă semnul s-o ia mai la picior,
Căci, într-un punct strategic (ce doar pe hărţi există!),
Vrea premierul Oastea s-o treacă în revistă.
Apare premierul, semeţ ca un pandur,
Privind spre militarii de foame rupţi în cur
Şi inima în pieptu-i bătea, mai să i-l spargă,
Văzând pe Gabi Oprea pe o mârţoagă şargă
Şi mult se minunează şi nici că-i vine-a crede
Când stele, cu toptanul, pe umerii lui vede,
Cascheta-i era spartă, tunica descusută
Şi-avea mai scurţi nădragii cu douăşcinci la sută,
Lăsând în văzul lumii o gheată scâlciată,
Dar fruntea lui teşită părea încoronată
Cu străluciri de stele primite de pomană,
În scurta-i carieră, de-acest distins Izmană,
Căci bietul om, slab, palid, abia mai poate duce
Opt stele ce, pe umeri, ca soarele străluce.
Se miră Cabinetul, iar premierul, bravul,
Se-nclină la ministru (precum îi e năravul)
Şi-i zice cu blândeţe: „De unde vii, Găbiţă?”
„Vin tocmai de la Şefu`.” „Şi cum e dânsul? „Criţă.”
„Dar aste stele multe, cum, cine ţi le-a dat?”
„Chiar şeful dumitale, doar nu le-oi fi furat.”
„Şi pentru care fapte?” „Ştiu eu... Cică drept plată
Că am trădat partidul, dar asta prima dată,
Şi am venit la dânsul, cu trădători, cu tot.”
„Dar ce rang ai, Găbiţă?” „Am rang de... mafiot!”
... Discursul de rigoare sfârşindu-l, premierul
Dă încă o dovadă că nu-i lipseşte flerul,
Făcând el spre miniştri un semn cât mai discret,
De-o parte-i şi de alta, întregul Cabinet
Zâmbeşte, la comandă, şi dau toţi cu piciorul
În Oastea umilită, precum întreg poporul...

Peneş cu arcanul
Pentru conformitate,
Colonel (r.) Ilie Bâtcă

AVANSARE ÎN GRAD FĂCUTĂ NEAOȘ ROMÂNEȘTE

Intr-o Românie devenită, după 20 de ani de tranziţie o ţară de mîna a adoua, un căpitan de intendenţă, Gabriel Oprea, a ajuns general cu patru stele, ocupând momentan funcţia de ministru al apărării naţionale.
În conferinţa de presă, organizată la sediul M.Ap.N., în ziua de 13 septembrie 2010, acesta se adresează camarazilor aflaţi în rezervă şi retragere, încercând să-i convingă “că nu şi-a schimbat niciodată sistemul de valori, bazat pe onoare, demnitate, respectarea cuvîntului dat”.

Vreau să-l atenţionez pe fostul căpitan de intendenţă, care ne vorbeşte despre onoare şi demnitate, că el nu este camaradul nostru. Noi ne-am obţinut gradele legal, instruind mii de militari, participând la trageri şi aplicaţii, reprezentând cu cinste armata română în misiuni internaţionale. Domnul căpitan de intendenţă nu îşi prezintă în nici o biografie cum a obţinut, în rezervă fiind, gradele de maior, locotenent-colonel şi colonel.

Mai mult, într-un interviu acordat Evenimentului Zilei din 13 februarie 2003,referindu-se la acuzaţiile că avansarea la gradul de general de brigadă s-a făcut la propunerea lui Adrian Năstase, fără a mai trece prin Colegiul M.Ap.N. şi fără a se respecta vechimea în gradul de colonel, acesta dă două explicaţii stupefiante: “Dacă te baţi, sunt şi excepţii!” şi “Am căutat să am cât de cât acoperire!” Şi astfel capitanul de intendenţă a devenit, culmea, general de
justitie!
În timp ce preşedintele ţării pretinde ca avansarea la gradul de general să se facă numai pentru ofiţerii care au comandat unităţi în teatre de operaţii, ministrul apărării naţionale

zice Col.(r) Remus Macovei

(dupa:http://ancmrrolt.blogspot.com/2010/09/avansare-in-grad-facuta-neaos-romaneste.html)

Fetitza Mowgli

Tippi este o fetita de nationalitate franceza ,nascuta in 1990 in Africa si crescuta in salbaticie .Parintii ei sint fotografi de "viata salbatica" .Ea s-a intors la Paris la virsta de 10 ani .Aceasta este o colectie de fotografii care povesteste istoria ei si a prietenilor ei.

Tippi is a French girl, born in 1990 in Africa and grew up in the wild. Her parents are wild life photographers. She returned to Paris at age 10. This is a collection of photos that tell stories of her and her friends.






















































Mesaj primit de la o prietena.

OBAMA GOES TO MECCA

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AFP) – Muslims are heading to Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage.
President Obama is going, too!
President Obama is leaving the G-20 summit and traveling to Mecca for the annual Muslim pilgrimage.

Some 2.5 million people are expected in Mecca by the start on Sunday of the hajj, which is being held amid tight security and with new facilities, including a railway, to ease the sometimes fatal congestion. President Obama is looking forward to going – his first pilgrimage.

All streets leading to the grand mosque are crammed with praying pilgrims, with lines stretching back about a mile. Plazas and corridors of surrounding malls were also crowded with devotees spreading their prayer mats, as were grocery stores which stopped selling for the prayers.

President Obama is, and has always been a Christian, but he is excited to be making the pilgrimage in support of the Islamic faith. This is the first time a non-Muslim has been allowed to go to Mecca.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said that he welcome President Obama to his country with “open arms.” He went on to say that he thought President Obama going to Mecca would help bridge the divide between Muslims and the Western world.

The hajj is one of the five pillars, or requirements, of Islam, which must be performed at least once in their life by all believers who have the health and the means to do so.

While most of those who crowded the streets of Mecca on Friday had donned white ihram garments for the pilgrimage, some were still dressed in their countries’ traditional clothes, reflecting the number of nationalities and ethnicities represented in the annual season.

In contrast to the strict rule of segregation between sexes usually imposed by Saudi Arabia’s religious police, men and women prayed shoulder to shoulder — a behavior accepted only in the holy mosque during pilgrimage.

There is a great deal of security being put in place ahead of President Obama’s visit.

At Wednesday’s parade, civil defence units brought out dozens of fire engines, ambulances, cranes that can lift up to 160 tonnes, smoke extractors and lifeboats, all of which have been used at some point in hajj incidents.

The kingdom has been spending continuously on projects aimed at expanding the capacity of Mecca to accommodate the ever-increasing number of pilgrims.

Another new addition that cannot go unnoticed in Mecca is the world’s largest clock, which sits atop a soaring skyscraper next to the Grand Mosque.

The clock entered a three-month trial operation in August, but work is visibly going on to complete its four sides. The aim to establish a Mecca time for Muslims, like Greenwich Mean Time.

President Obama will return home this weekend and attend church with is family in Washington, D.C.


http://weeklyworldnews.com/politics/24886/obama-goes-to-mecca/
Posted on Friday, November 12th, 2010
By Frank Lake

BLUE UFO OVER BOSTON

BOSTON – The same UFO that was seen over Virginia two days ago was seen over Boston last night!
People all across Boston were shocked to see a Blue UFO in the sky last night. It first appeared at 1:30 a.m., and was sighted off-and-on for the next two hours. The UFO seemed to change in size, but the circular shape remained the same
The same exact UFO was spotted over Centerville, Virginia on Monday. Local authorities dismissed the sighting (as they always do) and said that there was a logical explanation for it – though they did not offer one.

They were quick to say that they do not think it is the same UFO that was spotted in Virginia, but UFO experts are convinced that this is part of a larger alien battalion of UFOs.

The Defense Department and Homeland Security confirmed to WWN that the UFO was spotted over Boston, but declined to make any further comments. UFO experts are Harvard aren’t holding back, “That was definitely a UFO. We think it is part of the alien invasion that has been predicted to take place in 2010 and 2011. We must all prepare,” said Professor David Collins a Harvard astrophysicist.


“I woke my whole family up,” said Paul Costello of South Boston. “I couldn’t believe me eyes, but it was there. My children my scared, especially because they heard a high-pitched sound. I didn’t hear it, but… we are scared to death.”

Costello said that though they were frightened for a couple of hours, he thought that the alien spaceship looked beautiful. “We couldn’t take our eyes off it.

In the last month there have been UFOs spotted in New York, El Paso, Virginia, Boston, Sante Fe and Chicago. Is there an explanation for the increased number of sightings? Is something under way that we don’t know about? Where will the next UFO be seen?
The mainstream media is not reporting most of these sightings and the government, once again, is covering up. But WWN is on it. We will keep you updated.



Posted on Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
By Frank Lake

Scrisoarea a III a (Biletul lui Calin)- pentru conformitate,Colonel r Ilie Bâtcă

La un semn, deschisă-i calea şi coboară din maşină,
Împărţind bezele-n dreapta şi în stânga, o blondină.
- Tu eşti, şefu? - Da, frumoaso. - Am venit să te mai văd
Şi să stăm la sfat, Traiane, că în ţară e prăpăd.

- Orice gând ai, păpuşico, şi-orice inima-ţi dictează,
Ai ales corect momentul, şezi colea şi croşetează!
Sau, cât scot la sticla asta nenorocitul de dop,
Vezi că, după draperie, ai o mătură şi-un mop!

După ce ştergi bine praful, deapănă-ţi în tihnă sculul,
Însă ia aminte bine la tot ce-ţi zice masculul!
Noaptea asta petrecută la Palat n-ai s-o regreţi
Şi-o să vrei şi altădată experienţa s-o repeţi.

Hă, hă, hă, n-ai vrea, frumoaso, să ne şi distrăm puţin
Şi s-o punem de-o scenetă cu... biletul lui Călin?
Mi-amintesc, cam vag, din şcoală, c-a scris unul o scrisoare
Despre Baiazid şi Mircea. N-o fi fost Vlahuţă, oare?

Chiar de nu sunt eu prea sigur cum stă treaba în scrisoare
Şi cam ce-o fi zis poetul, hai să facem o-ncercare!
Chiar cu riscul de-a mă pune opozanţii mei la zid,
Fii tu Mircea, dar nu Geoană, iar eu fi-voi Baiazid

Şi-o să-ţi demonstrez, drăguţo, că nu este nicio bârfă
Când se spune, de când lumea, că politica-i o târfă!
Aşadar, să bată gongul şi da capo cu scrisoarea,
Eu sunt turcul, tu eşti Mircea, iată mi-am făcut intrarea:

- Tu eşti Mircea? - Da-Împărate. - Am venit să mi te-nchini,
De nu, schimb a ta parcare într-un câmp plin de ciulini!
- Orice gând ai, Împărate, şi orice pofteşti a face,
Să lăsăm ameninţarea şi să discutăm în pace!

Despre treaba cu parcarea, însă, Doamne, să ne ierţi,
Căci, fiind la Primărie, pentru ea primit-ai şperţ,
Ţi-a adus Cocoş, Mărite, sarsanale cu parale,
Să ne dai ceva şi nouă din moşia dumitale.

De-o fi una, de-o fi alta, pentru noi ce este scris,
Bucuroşi le-om face toate, Împărate, cum ai zis...
Dar, când eu ţi-am stat alături la bucurii şi necaz,
Tu te-mpiedici de-o parcare şi faci azi atâta caz?

- O, tu nici visezi, frumoaso, câţi în calea mea s-au pus,
Toată floarea ce vestită a regimului apus,
Mafioţi de pretutindeni, oligarhi, moguli s-adună
Să dea piept cu marinarul suspendat pentru o lună.

Pesedişti pe care ţara nu putea a-i mai încape
Începură, pe la spate şi prin faţă, să mă sape,
Hotărâţi să mă doboare, năvăliră toţi, ca chiorii,
Liberalii lui Patriciu, ungurii, consevatorii,

Oastea lui Vadim Tribunul, risipită pe coclauri,
Ar fi vrut şi ea să smulgă, de pe frunte-mi, mândrii lauri,
Şarpele crescut la sânu-mi, ajuns mare pe la PIN,
Mă-mproşca, de pe ecrane, Guşă, cu al lui venin.

Adunaţi pe Dealul Spirii, vreo treisute douăjdoi,
În a lor nesăbuinţă, îmi declarară război,
Ca bezmeticii, porniră, de la Parlament, asaltul,
Nea Ion, cu trei mandate puse unul peste altul,

Agita, deasupra hoardei, ca pe un stindard, toiagul
Şi, punându-mi sula-n coaste, m-ar fi vrut răpus - moşneagul.
Când văzui a lor mulţime, câtă frunză au copacii,
M-apucară, dintr-o dată, păsărica mea, toţi dracii

Şi-am jurat ca, peste dânşii, să trec falnic, fără păs,
Cum trecui odinioară peste Roman şi Duvăz.
N-am avut decât cu mâna sau cu ochiu-a face semn,
Şi-apăru Boc, la comandă, pe căluţul lui de lemn,

Stolojan, cu mercenarii, a picat şi el la ţanc,
Lovind hoardele din spate şi-mpungându-le din flanc,
Vorbă mi-a trimis Becali că-i şi el la Golden Blitz
Şi m-aşteaptă, după luptă, să ne răcorim c-un şpriţ.

El, „războinicul luminii”? Hahalera de la Steaua
Se gândea la băutură, când mie-mi crăpa măseaua!
La referendum, văzut-ai gloatele cum au venit,
Ca să steie împrejuru-mi, ca un zid de neclintit?

Explicaţia e simplă, căci acest stupid norod
M-a văzut, cu muncitorii, la Mărăcineni, pe pod,
M-a văzut cum, în mulţime, baie fac mai des ca-n cadă
Şi să fac cu dânşii poze, puradeii vin grămadă,

Iar ţăranii, peste care a trecut din nou potopul,
Îşi pun voturile-n urnă, cum scot eu, la sticlă, dopul.
Chiar de-aş da şi foc Cetăţii, precum legendarul Nero,
S-or găsi să mă aclame mulţi la kilometrul zero,

De-asta n-am eu a mă teme de aceste mici lichele
Ce se pun de-a curmezişul la ambiţiile mele.
Dumitrescu şi o haită (cum să zic?) de... piţifelnici,
Prin studiouri mă latră zi de zi. Nişte nemernici

Ce-şi închipuie că, poate, mă apucă tremuriciul
Dacă vor da iar pe sticlă filmuleţul lui Patriciu.
Analişti cu ochii umezi şi cerniţi în cerul gurii,
Pe la cele trei Antene, zilnic, îşi tocesc condurii

Şi încearcă, în talk-sow-ul nu ştiu cărui găozar,
Toţi să scormone trecutu-mi de ministru şi primar.
Între noi rămână vorba, fără foc nici fum nu iese,
Dar nu ai fi vrut, păpuşă, de-ale lor vorbe să-mi pese,

C-am semnat, la Capitală, precum primarul (pardon!)
Şi terenuri, vile, parcuri le-am dat unora plocon.
Multe am făcut în viaţă, dar cea mai de preţ ispravă
E că, din întreaga flotă, n-am păstrat nicio epavă,

Dar, când nu petrec prin crâşme, nopţile dorm fără frică,
Pentru c-am urmat întocmai strategia lui Petrică
Şi, văzând şi eu în nave un morman de fiare vechi,
Am vândut, pe mai nimica, vasele, perechi, perechi.

Dar, văd că nu stai degeaba şi croşetezi cu mult sârg,
Până termini căciuliţa, toarnă-mi ce mai e prin târg!
- Doamne, n-aş vrea să te supăr sub niciun motiv, parol,
Dar să ştii că în sondaje am ajuns să stăm nasol,

A luat-o Boc la vale, ca purtat de avalanşă,
Şi, dacă-l mai ţii în braţe, nu mai avem nicio şansă
Nici în Parlament, în toamnă, la putere nici atât,
C-a ajuns piticu` ăsta să le stea la mulţi în gât.

Dascălii îşi pierd răbdarea, nu mai stau în banca lor,
Iar funcţionarii publici ne cam iau peste picior,
Cântăreţii şi actorii nu vor să-şi plătească birul
Pus pe capul lor, Mărite, de Mihai Şeitan, vizirul,

Medicii-şi găsesc de lucru prin întreaga Europă,
De-or să rămână-n spitale doar bolnavii şi vreun popă
Care să le fie-aproape când aceştia îşi dau duhul,
Despre pruncii arşi în august ni s-a dus în lume buhul,

Rezerviştii lui Dogaru încep şi ei să se-agite
Căci nu vor să li se taie pensiile nesimţite.
Cică au răbdat în viaţă tot felul de servituţi,
Iar tu îi tratezi, Mărite, ca pe ultimii recruţi,

Ba, vor, de Ziua Armatei, să vină cu toţi, în păr,
Şi să-ţi strige, sub ferestre, zic ei, crudul adevăr.
- Uite ce e, păpuşico, te-aş ruga să nu insişti,
Că simt că m-apucă greaţa, când aud de apevişti!

Nu i-am pus eu să devină, ca tâmpiţii, militari,
Când ţara avea nevoie de frezori şi ospătari.
Îţi zic eu, păpuşă scumpă, c-aveau drepturi căcălău,
Ca activi, chiar şi-n rezervă. Ia să mă scutească, zău!

După câte ţin eu minte, primeau gratis şi izmene,
Chiar din mâinile lui Oprea, cel cu clipitul din gene.
Cât au stat prin aplicaţii, n-au avut nimic a pierde,
Căci au stat, pe banii ţării, la aer şi iarbă verde,

Dac-au mers, când a fost cazul, şi la niscai inundaţii,
Au primit mâncare gratis, la gamelă, ca soldaţii,
Au primit grade la termen, unii chiar şi decoraţii,
Aşa că s-o lase moale cu tot felul de-aberaţii!

Fesul ăla tot nu-i gata, ca să pot să îl probez?
Dă din andrele mai iute, că-ncep să mă enervez!
Cât împleteşti tu acolo, unul pe dos, trei pe faţă,
Ia să-mi chem aghiotantul, că-n pahar mai am doar gheaţă

Şi-aş avea, după aceea, o dorinţă, dar expresă,
Vreau să aflu de la tine ce mai zic ăia prin presă!
- Să nu-ţi dea prin gând, Mărite, c-aş fi eu prăpăstioasă,
Dar să ştii că treaba asta cu imaginea e groasă,

Ziariştii şi-analiştii au înebunit cu toţii
Şi strigă prin studiouri, zi şi noapte, „Hoţii, hoţii...”,
Alta neavând ce face, stau cu toţii la taclale
Şi se iau, fără ruşine, de neamul Măriei Tale.

Ca să vezi ce îndrăzneală la unul ciufut, Ciuvică,
Să se ia de armamentul traficat de Mirciulică,
Ca să nu mai zic de faptul că ziariştii, în goana
După câte-o ştire-bombă, s-au legat şi de Ioana,

Cum că ar fi primit casa şi biroul de serviciu,
Drept plocon pentru matale, de la Puiu Popoviciu.
Bârfe, Doamne, numai bârfe, doar asta ţi-i dat s-auzi,
Bine-ar fi să ieşi pe sticlă, la B-1, să-i acuzi

Pe nemernicii aceştia care nu mai ştiu de frică
Şi-au luat-o în tărbacă până şi pe aia mică,
De-a ajuns, biata, s-o lase cât mai moale şi cu clubul
Şi cu casele de modă, fiindcă s-a cam strâns şurubul

Şi netrebnicii din presă dau tot felul de-nţelesuri
Năzuinţei ei, ca-n viaţă, să aibă numai succesuri.
- Vezi că ţi-au scăpat trei ochiuri, ai grijă să le repari!
Dă-i în mă-sa de nemernici, de moguli şi găozari!

Dacă văd că latră-ntruna şi nu înţeleg să tacă,
Le dau, ca lu` ăla micu`, una scurtă peste moacă
Şi-o să ştie toţi rataţii şi tâmpiţii ce e frica,
Să nu se mai ia de mine, ca Chitic, la Cireşica.

Şi cu astea fiind zise, lecţia e încheiată!
Sper c-ai înţeles destule din a mele vorbe, fată.
Apropos, de-o fi să fie să avem remaniere,
Eşti dispusă, păpuşico, să-ţi mai dau trei ministere?

Şi abia tăcu-Împăratul, ce mai zbucium, ce mai freamăt,
Se-auzeau prelungi suspine şi un mult prea dulce geamăt.
SPP-işti, copii de suflet ai jandarmului Pahonţu,
Alergau pe coridoare ca, scăpat din puşcă, glonţu`.Neştiind acele
stranii zgomote de unde vin,

Nici nu bănuiau sărmanii că biletul lui Călin,
Bine pitulat la sânu-i de pârdalnica Elenă,
Penetrase obiectivul şi-acum, fără pic de jenă,
Fostul comandant al navei botezată „Biruinţa”,

Din sutienul blondinei, să-l scoată îşi da silinţa.
Când, într-un târziu, spahii pricepură cum stă treaba,
O lăsară pe-altădată cu-alergatul lor degeaba,
Revenind, tăcuţi, la posturi, negândind la vreo Isoldă,
Ci la banii de chirie şi la ciopârţita soldă...


Popor roman, nu te-ai saturat sa stai pe
locul mortului si sa fii condus de toti tampitii?
Dl Colonel r Ilie Bâtcă este autorul poeziei de mai sus si nu Dan Purec asa cum se vehiculeaza pe net

Towards Military Escalation? U.S. And NATO Drag Asia Into Afghan Quagmire

On October 7 the American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization war in Afghanistan entered its tenth year and in slightly over two months will be in its eleventh calendar year.

There are currently more than 150,000 foreign troops in the nation and the number is steadily rising.

As examples, this February Germany raised its troop numbers in Afghanistan from 4,500 to a post-World War Two overseas high of 5,350.

Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa recently pledged 1,200 more troops for the war, bringing the nation's total to 4,000, during a meeting with commander of all U.S. and NATO forces General David Petraeus. This month Italy also announced it was sending three new military helicopters to the war theater and La Russa stated that he was considering authorizing bombings by Italian fighter jets in Afghanistan.

Newer NATO members in Eastern Europe have authorized comparable increases in troop deployments, with the senate of the Czech Republic voting on October 27 to boost its nation's contingent to 720 troops and Bulgaria confirming it will raise its figure to 600 by the end of the year. Moreover, the Czech Republic will redeploy special forces to Afghanistan and Bulgaria will shift from security duties to combat operations.

Not only are NATO member states continuing to enlarge the amount of troops for a war without a foreseeable end, but Washington and Brussels are intensifying joint efforts to recruit troops from nations that have until now avoided being pulled into the Afghan imbroglio.

Earlier this year Armenia, Montenegro, Mongolia, South Korea and Malaysia became the 43rd-47th official Troop Contributing Countries for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. On October 8 the diminutive South Pacific nation of Tonga was recruited by Britain as the 48th and will deploy "more than two hundred troops to Afghanistan" as - to believe British and NATO accounts of the agreement - Tonga "wants to show its support to the alliance." [1]

A few days before, the U.S.'s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke pressured the foreign minister of Bangladesh to supply combat troops to serve under NATO in Afghanistan. Four days later, on September 30, the charge d'affaires of the US mission in Dhaka, Nicholas Dean, stated, "The United States has intensified its discussion on Bangladesh's engagement in Afghanistan...." [2]

In the past week new disclosures indicate that the U.S. and NATO are broadening their Afghan war recruitment campaign throughout Asia.

A Kyodo News report of two weeks ago revealed that Japan is to deploy ten or more Self-Defense Forces medical officers and nurses to Afghanistan by the end of the year, according to sources in the nation's Ministry of Defense and military. The medical personnel would be the first members of the Self-Defense Forces stationed in the Afghan war zone, the second violation of the nation's constitutional prohibition against stationing troops in a war theater, the first being in Iraq in 2006.

According to the Japanese press, with the new mission "Japan intends to demonstrate its personnel contributions to Afghanistan through the planned dispatch when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is expected to decide on fresh support measures in November," at the military bloc's summit in Portugal.

"The United States, which is engaged in fighting the Taliban, has called for its allies to provide more physical support and Tokyo has determined 'it is necessary to meet such expectations,'" according to the sources. [3]

However, to indicate that Japan has been no stranger to NATO's operations in Afghanistan, earlier in the month an explosive device was set off at a NATO Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) camp in the capital of Ghor province. "The majority of the personnel in the [contingent] have been deployed to multinational missions in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan previously. Representatives of Denmark, Georgia, Japan, the USA, Poland, Finland and Ukraine serve together with Lithuanian military and civilian personnel in the Ghor PRT camp in Chaghcharan." [4]

On October 25 President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, who had earlier provided troops for the Polish-led and NATO-supported Multinational Division Central-South in Iraq, met with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels, after which the Kazakh head of state announced that "Several Kazakhstani troops will serve at the headquarters of the international coalition in Afghanistan," and the NATO chief "called Kazakhstan a 'leading partner' of the coalition." [5]

Since shortly after Washington launched Operation Enduring Freedom, NATO forces have been based in other Central Asian nations: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Including the Middle East and the South Caucasus, NATO's Asia-Pacific roster in the Afghanistan-Pakistan war theater consists of (and soon may) a growing number of nations: Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Georgia, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Tonga and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to Afghanistan (and Pakistan).

With all 28 NATO members and nine European members of the Alliance's Partnership for Peace program already having supplied troops - and only six European states to date not having done so (Belarus, Cyprus, Malta, Moldova, Serbia and Russia) - the U.S. and NATO necessarily have to look beyond the Euro-Atlantic region for more troops. In doing so the war in Afghanistan has become an Asian war in two senses: The first prolonged war in the continent the U.S. has waged since that in Vietnam and the first Asian war in NATO's history, and a conflict that is pulling more and more Asia-Pacific countries into its bloody grip.

As of October 28 the U.S., its NATO allies and partnership countries had lost 605 soldiers this year, compared to 521 for 2009, itself the highest annual total until now. The combined death count for 2009-2010 - 1,126 - is over half of all foreign soldiers killed since the war began on October 7, 2001, which is 2,175. Seventeen NATO soldiers were killed in three days, October 13-15, alone.

Afghan civilians have fared even worse. Last month, two months after General David Petraeus took over command of all U.S. and NATO forces from Stanley McChrystal [6], American and NATO air strikes in Afghanistan had increased to 700 from 257 in September of 2009 according to U.S. Air Force statistics. [7]

Although nominally targeting insurgents, the bombings and missile strikes have left scores of Afghan civilians dead. Recent reports include:

Early this month a NATO air strike killed at least 18 people in an attack on a residence in Helmand province.

A week later, October 11, at least 20 civilians were killed by a Western rocket attack in the same province. [8]

A U.S.-NATO air strike in Baghlan province killed at least 18 people and wounded several others on October 17, with "eyewitnesses and local sources [saying] all those killed in the attack were civilians." [9]

On October 23 Afghan government officials accused NATO troops of firing indiscriminately at civilians in Wardak province, causing the deaths of two schoolchildren. "The attack prompted a brief demonstration by angry villagers, demanding an explanation from NATO forces over the killing." [10] The following day it was reported that four Afghan civilians, including a child, were killed by a U.S.-NATO air strike in the same province.

Regarding the overall, cumulative effect of the Western war and occupation in Afghanistan, on October 10 - the United Nations-supported World Mental Health Day - Afghanistan's Dr. Suraya Dalil, Deputy Minister for Policy and Planning and Acting Minister of the Ministry of Public Health, stated that "More than 60 percent of Afghans are suffering from stress disorders and mental problems,” a figure substantiated by the World Health Organization. [11]

Seventeen days afterward Saleem Kunduzi, Acting Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, told a gathering marking World Food Day that "Two years ago, five million people in Afghanistan lived in extreme poverty, but now the number has increased to nine million," [12] almost a third of the population.

In the nine years since the U.S. and NATO invaded Afghanistan, opium cultivation has expanded by 40,000 percent and now accounts for over 90 percent of the world's supply.

On June 9-10 of this year an international forum called Drug Production in Afghanistan: A Challenge to the International Community was held in Moscow and was addressed by among others President Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Ivanov, Director of the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation. The second had stated earlier at a similar conference in Berlin that "Revenues derived from smuggling the 'white death' to Europe, Asia and America are estimated to score billions of dollars. In fact, the production and illegal trafficking of Afghan drugs should be classified as a threat to international peace and security." [13]

The U.S. and NATO have also escalated attacks inside Pakistan. Last month witnessed the largest amount of unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) missile strikes inside the country since their inception in 2004, with at least 20 attacks - many involving the firing of several missiles - causing the deaths of at least 140 people.

NATO also launched four helicopter gunship attacks inside Pakistan in September and killed three Pakistani soldiers in the last, on the 30th.

A minimum of 14 drone strikes by the 28th of this month have killed close to 90 people.

On October 12 two NATO helicopters violated Pakistani airspace in the province of Balochistan and a week later "NATO warplanes and helicopter gunships entered up to 15 kilometers inside Pakistani airspace" in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. [14]

A South Asian news source recently wrote that "US officials may [be planning] raids into Balochistan....Indeed the attacks would be even more controversial than the previous ones, as the earlier helicopter attacks were in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), while military officials are now seeking raids into Pakistan proper, into the Balochistan province...." [15]

A full-scale incursion by U.S. and NATO troops into Pakistan appears to be only a matter of time.

The U.S. led its allies into three wars in less than four years - from March 24, 1999 to March 20, 2003 - in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Along the way the Pentagon has acquired dozens of new military bases in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia, including future strategic air bases in Bulgaria, Romania, Iraq and Afghanistan.

It has also recruited a permanent "coalition of the willing" to wage wars and conduct military occupations in campaigns that have moved inexorably to the east, from Southeastern Europe to the Persian Gulf to the Afghan-Chinese border.

Almost all the 48 nations contributing troops for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan also provided troops for NATO's Kosovo Force from 1999 to the present and the Multi-National Force – Iraq from 2004-2008. The vast majority have supplied forces for all three missions. In Iraq twenty graduate and current members of NATO's Partnership for Peace transitional program sent troops: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. All 12 countries absorbed into NATO since the war cycle began in 1999 have deployed troops to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Nine out of 15 former Soviet republics had troops in Iraq.

Non-European and non-former Soviet nations that currently have troops in or headed to Afghanistan also had troops in Iraq: Australia, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Tonga. Others that have troops in Afghanistan also assigned troops to NATO's Kosovo Force: Malaysia, Mongolia and the United Arab Emirates.

In 2002 U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "put forward a proposal to create a NATO rapid reaction force," which was endorsed at the 2002 Alliance summit in the Czech Republic and launched at the 2004 summit in Turkey to conduct "Any mission, anywhere in the world." [16]

With partners on every populated continent - Colombia has been tapped for troops to be deployed to Afghanistan and Egypt, a NATO Mediterranean Dialogue partner, has security personnel there - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has proven an effective vehicle for the U.S. to establish, train, deploy and integrate a global expeditionary military force which has been used in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, with increasing emphasis on the last.

Rick Rozoff is a Correspondent of Global Research based in Chicago.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21676

Pentagon Forges NATO Proxy Armies In Eastern Europe

Stop NATO
October 30, 2010

Pentagon Forges NATO Proxy Armies In Eastern Europe
Rick Rozoff

On November 19 and 20 the leaders of 28 North American and European nations, all the major Western military powers and their vassals, will gather in the capital of Portugal for this year’s summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Until recently held every other year, NATO summits are now annual events, with the last held in France and Germany in 2009 and the preceding one in Romania in 2008.

Prior to last year’s summit in Strasbourg and Kehl, the first held in two nations, four in a row had occurred in Eastern Europe: The Czech Republic in 2002, Turkey in 2004, Latvia in 2006 and Romania in 2008. None of those host countries, of course, are anywhere near the North Atlantic Ocean. Neither are any of the 12 nations incorporated into the Western military bloc in the past 11 years.

This year’s summit will endorse the Alliance’s first Strategic Concept for the 21st century, a draft of which was crafted by a so-called group of experts led by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and presented in a report entitled NATO 2020: Assured Security; Dynamic Engagement.

Despite NATO referring to itself as a “military alliance of democratic states in Europe and North America” and claiming that all its members’ opinions carry equal weight – as though Luxembourg and Iceland could block or override the U.S., the world’s sole military superpower as its current head of state proudly christened it last December – next month’s summit will be a rubber stamp affair.

Everything the Pentagon and White House demand will be granted, most notably:

The subordination of NATO’s theater interceptor missile initiative, the Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence Programme launched in 2005, and the U.S.-German-Italian Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) to a U.S. missile shield structure throughout all of Europe and into the Middle East.

Standard Missile-3 planned for Baltic and Black Sea deployments

The retention of at least 200 U.S. nuclear bombs on air bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

A complementary cyber warfare “dome” over the European continent directed by the new U.S. Cyber Command. [1]

The qualitatively accelerated military integration of NATO and the European Union in the aftermath of the Lisbon Treaty entering into force last December 1. A Portuguese adviser to President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso recently affirmed “that the best solution for the enhancement of EU-U.S. relations would be that the European Union (EU) joins NATO.” [2]

The continuation of both components of what are frequently (and artificially) presented as being contradictory: NATO’s founding and core mission – the collective military defense of its member states – and its constantly expanding missions far outside the Euro-Atlantic region, with the war in Afghanistan the prototype and standard of the second.

The Lisbon summit will formalize and extend what has been underway in earnest since NATO’s first war in 1999: The projection of the U.S.-dominated military alliance into an international intervention and occupation force. One that is moving steadily to the east and south of the European continent, which has been unified under NATO and will soon be subsumed under American missile and cyber warfare systems.

Washington and Brussels pretend to protect all of Europe from threats that do not exist – not from Russia, not from Iran and certainly not Syria and North Korea – in exchange for the Pentagon being permitted to move its military personnel and infrastructure along Russia’s western flank from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and recruiting the host countries’ youth for wars abroad. What in fact are NATO membership obligations.

Voice of Russia on October 27 stated that “Russia is pressing for a NATO ban on the deployment of substantial numbers of allied forces in the newly-admitted eastern member-nations,” and recounted that last December Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov handed NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen a proposal for a draft agreement on Russian-NATO relations which “sets a ceiling for the number of troops and weapons allowed for deployment” to the territory of the former Warsaw Pact and even the Soviet Union.

In doing so Lavrov resembled Afghan President Hamid Karzai periodically complaining of the U.S. and NATO killing his nation’s civilians and the Pakistani government publicly bemoaning deadly American drone strikes in its tribal areas. What he urged was correct and important, but he knew that nothing would come of it.

The Pentagon has ensconced itself permanently at bases in Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Kosovo and the hosts’ troops – except for the last-named, a U.S.-spawned stillborn pseudo-state still not a member of the United Nations 32 months after its unilateral declaration of independence – have been dispatched to fight and die in Afghanistan.

In 21st century Europe armed forces exist not for territorial defense but for NATO and European Union deployments overseas. Military bases, facilities and installations are for billeting foreign troops and housing other nations’ aircraft and military equipment, those of the U.S. in particular.

U.S. F-15 Eagle fighter jets are currently patrolling the airspace over the Baltic Sea in Russia’s neighborhood and are stationed at the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania until the end of the year.

The first long-term deployment of American anti-ballistic missiles – a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 battery with approximately 100 troops manning it – occurred this year in northeastern Poland near its border with Russia.

Last year Washington launched the world’s first multinational strategic airlift operation at the Papa Air Base in Hungary.

The U.S. Army’s Task Force East operates out of Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu Airfield and Babadag Training Area and Bulgaria’s Novo Selo Training Range.

The U.S. continues to occupy the almost 1,000-acre Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.

Shifting American nuclear bombs from NATO air bases in other parts of Europe to ones in the east like Lithuania’s Siauliai, Estonia’s Amari, Poland’s Swidwin, Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu and Bulgaria’s Graf Ignatievo and Bezmer would be the simplest matter in the world – assuming it hasn’t already been done. There would be less (which is to say no) publicity than that which accompanied CIA “black sites” in Lithuania, Poland, Romania and who knows where else on the territory of new NATO states.

A day never passes without U.S. warplanes flying over and warships visiting ports in Eastern Europe, without the Pentagon conducting military training and exercises including live-fire drills and full-scale war games in the region. [3]

Last month the U.S. participated in the Northern Coasts exercise in the Baltic Sea and the Jackal Stone 10 multinational military exercise in Lithuania and Poland, deploying USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the Mediterranean Sea-based Sixth Fleet, for the latter.

Throughout this month U.S. Special Operations Command is conducting training exercises in Hohenfels, Germany with troops from the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Poland “to seamlessly integrate on the battlefield” in Afghanistan.

“During the actual exercise, the Special Forces command element coordinated with conventional forces to provide Quick Reaction Force assistance.” [4]

On October 11 Polish Army Lieutenant General Mieczyslaw Bieniek, recently appointed Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation of the NATO command in Norfolk, Virginia, visited the NATO Joint Forces Training Centre in Bydgoszcz in his homeland to meet with Afghan generals and among other matters discuss “the situation in Afghanistan, current NATO-Afghan cooperation and its future challenges.” [5]

A week later the Polish government extended the deployment of its 2,600 troops in Afghanistan. “The current mission was supposed to end on 13 October but at the government’s request the president decided to prolong it until 13 April 2011.” [6]

As the U.S.-based Polish NATO commander was in Poland, Polish troops were training at the Marseilles National Guard Center, 65 miles from Chicago, with the Bilateral Imbedded Staff Team A7 which will deploy to Afghanistan in January and which “trains through the State Partnership Program with members of the Polish military both here and in Poland to build relationships with coalition members.” [7]

F-15C fighter jets of the sort currently deployed in the Baltic skies arrived at the Campia Turzii Air Base in Romania on October 21 for Operation Golden Lance, “a large-scale exercise involving more than 150 U.S. Air Force personnel, 10 fighter aircraft and dozens of pieces of support equipment.”

The commander of the 493rd Fighter Squadron in charge of the war games stated, “We’re excited to bring our F-15C capability to demonstrate our air superiority skills, train with a formidable NATO ally and integrate our services on offensive counter-aircraft training missions.”

A major objective of the air combat maneuvers is to provide the U.S. Air Force with yet more opportunities to face off against Russian MiG-21s.

The two nations’ air forces “already share a common link,” as Romanian air force units from the Campia Turzii Air Base “have performed the Baltic Air Police mission the 493rd FS is currently performing elsewhere in the world.” [8]

On October 27 the U.S. 86th Airlift Wing and 435th Air Ground Operations Wing completed two weeks of joint exercises in Bulgaria in the context of Thracian Fall 2010, during which American personnel “were able to train and lead more than 1,000 Bulgarian paratroopers to successful landings from U. S. Air Force in Europe’s newest tactical aircraft.”

As to the purpose of such exercises, an American officer present for them said, “We are hoping by them [Bulgarians] being able to observe how we conduct our operations they will use this to enhance their own ability, from paratrooper operations to flying and one day be able to conduct exercises and even assist in future conflicts.” [9]

The future conflicts mentioned – constantly emphasized – are tomorrow’s wars, ones for which the current nine-year-old armed conflict in Afghanistan is a preparation.

Russia’s foreign minister might want to take note of the fact.

1) NATO Provides Pentagon Nuclear, Missile And Cyber Shields Over Europe
Stop NATO, September 22, 2010

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/2463

2) Diário de Notícias, 22 de outubro de 2010

http://dn.sapo.pt/Inicio/interior.aspx?content_id=1692723

3) Baltic States: Pentagon’s Training Grounds For Afghan and Future Wars
Stop NATO< September 30, 2010

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/baltic-states-pentagons-training-grounds-for-afghan-and-future-wars

U.S. Consolidates New Military Outposts In Eastern Europe
Stop NATO, September 23, 2010

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/u-s-consolidates-new-military-outposts-in-eastern-europe

4) U.S. European Command, October 26, 2010
5) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
October 20, 2010
6) Polish Radio, October 18, 2010
7) LaSalle News Tribune, October 22, 2010
8) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, October 26, 2010
9) U.S. Air Forces in Europe, October 28, 2010