be just

Afghanistan: Marines' Mission Doomed to Failure : Information Clearing House - ICH : "A BBC-ABC News poll conducted prior to the current ground offensive revealed that less than 50 percent of Afghans have a favorable opinion of the United States, down from 68 percent in 2005. (The poll also revealed an even greater dislike of the Taliban, meaning that Afghans tolerate the U.S. military only because they have no other options. The likelihood of American success in Afghanistan is at best dim and, at worst, heading inevitably toward a lose-lose situation. Given the impossibility of surgically identifying and killing a moving and elusive target, there are only two possible outcomes: killing a lot of civilians, or pushing the insurgency to the rest of the country, or both. After the Iraq debacle, are Americans ready for yet another unpopular occupation, protracted war and thousands of U.S. casualties?"

Afghanistan Villages Threatened By US Military Over Kidnapped Soldier : Information Clearing House - ICH : "July 17, 2009 'Huffington Post' -- In the aftermath of a US soldier's abduction by Afghan Taliban forces, the US military is disbursing leaflets in two towns near particularly dangerous areas, which threaten villagers with the prospect of being 'targeted' or 'hunted' if they do not return the soldier safe and sound, CBS News reports. The leaflet has a picture of a languid looking US soldier hanging his head on one side, and reads 'If you do not free the American soldier, then...'; when the card is flipped over, there is a picture of soldiers breaking down the door of small stone hut and a caption that reads, '...then you will be targeted.' The leaflet is one of two kinds that were scattered about the villages. The other is reported to be far less threatening and simply asks for any information anyone may have on the soldier...

Al Jazeera English - Europe - Kadyrov denies murdering activist : "Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's president, has denied claims he was responsible for the murder of Natalia Estemirova, a prominent Russian human rights activist. The Kremlin-backed leader rejected accusations made by Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial, the human rights group which Estemirova worked for, that he was 'guilty' of the killing. 'You are not a prosecutor or a judge therefore your claims about my guilt are not ethical, to put it mildly, and are insulting to me,' he told Orlov in a phone conversation transcribed on Kadyrov's website. 'I am sure that you have to think about my rights before declaring for everyone to hear that I am guilty of Estemirova's death.' Estemirova's body was found on Wednesday in a wooded area in Ingushetia, the region neighbouring Chechnya, just hours after she was seized from her home in Grozny, the Chechen capital. She had been shot twice in the he...

Creative Resistance: The Nassar Family’s “Tent of Nations” : "AMID THE OLIVE trees and rocks, in the stone amphitheaters and shaded groves, young residents of Bethlehem’s refugee camps working alongside European volunteers presented “Romeo and Juliet,” Shakespeare’s immortal drama of the warring Capulet and Montague families. Families and friends followed the cast around, enjoying the fruits of the children’s summer camp project. As the play came to a close, “Juliet” lay motionless on the sarcophagus; on the hillside behind her could be seen the red roofs of the Neve Daniel settlement. In this small corner of Palestine, on land that is under direct threat of confiscation, the Tent of Nations project was doing what it does best: “connecting people to their land,” in the words of co-founder Daoud Nassar. Indeed, both project and play embody the decades-long conflict in all its injustice, frustration, and hope. The Nassars’ land, on which the Tent of Nations is based, has been in the...

US Strike Kills at Least Six Civilians in Kandahar Province of Afghanistan -- News from Antiwar.com : "At least six Afghan civilians have been killed and 14 more wounded as US helicopters attacked them overnight in the Kandahar Province. The strikes came after a US patrol came under fire, though it remains unclear if any militants were actually killed in the strike."