Monthly Archives: July 2008
Programming Note–Off to Africa and Mexico
I am off to catch a plane to Addis Ababa then going to Rwanda, Liberia, Senegal — and Mexico City for next week’s big HIV/AIDS conference. I’ll be following President Clinton and his entourage as they visit his Foundation‘s project sites, and will be posting updates to UN Dispatch and Twitter. Efforts to combat HIV/AIDS (particularly mother to child transmission) and Malaria will be the focus of our many stops…and we will even catch up with the Secretary General in Mexico. Check back for updates throughout the week. I’ll take lots of pictures and post them here.
Morning Morning Coffee: Bombings Everywhere
>>Turkey – In the worst case of terrorist violence in Turkey in over five years, two bombs exploded in a pedestrian area in Istanbul on Sunday, killing 16 and injuring over 150. Initial speculation suggested that it was the work of the P.K.K. Turkish jets had attacked 12 Kurdish targets in Iraq earlier on Sunday.
>>Iraq – In one of the deadliest coordinated attacks in Iraq this year, four female suicide bombers in Baghdad and Kirkuk killed at least 48 people and wounded 249 on Monday. The Kirkuk attacks were targeted at Kurdish demonstrators at the provincial headquarters, protesting a controversial local elections law. Local Kurds immediately suspected ethnic Turkmen and responded with violence. The Baghdad attacks targeted Shiite pilgrims.
>>India – Sixteen bombs exploded in Ahmedabad on Saturday killing over 45 people, a day after eight bombs were detonated in Bangalore. Both areas are ruled by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and are growing at a quick clip. A little-known group, the Indian Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility in an email to a TV station.
UN Plaza: Afghan Refugee Crisis
In this edition of UN Plaza, I speak with Kristele Younes of Refugees International about the Afghan refugee crisis.
Gregory P. Djerejian
With all due respect (and I sincerely mean this, not meant just as the requisite boiler-plate), I find Peter a tad too cock-sure in how he portrays more boots on the grounds as a total no-brainer (“well, do the math”). I understand the importance of boots on the ground for stability operations, indeed in the pages of my blog urged for supplementing our forces in Iraq back in the day, before the decision was belatedly made on the surge (once finally implemented after the myriad criminal ineptitudes of the Rumsfeld era, I disagreed with the wisdom incidentally, as it was not accompanied by a serious regional diplomatic strategy, so that we were merely forging tactical, localized security improvements but missing the wider strategic lens the situation demanded, and indeed still does today).
Peter Bergen
The question about more boots on the ground is a relatively easy one to answer.
None, or few, of those new boots will come from NATO allies and if they do come they will come so freighted with national caveats and domestic political considerations that will make them largely ineffective. So they will have to come from the U.S.
Why are more needed? Well do the math: Afghanistan is a country ideally suited to guerilla warfare with its high mountain ranges and it is a third larger than Iraq and its population is some 6 million or so greater, yet the numbers of soldiers and policemen in Iraq are more than three times larger than in Afghanistan.
Gregory P. Djerejian
I agree with almost everything Peter writes below (particularly his “second” mistake, the clever subtlety he flags in his “third mistake”, and then too his last paragraph-to which I’d add the need to effectively engage with Syria too).
A small quibble however.
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The SC; HRC; DPRK; South Sudan
The SC: The Security Council today held its last consultations under the Council Presidency of ROK. Tomorrow, Russia will take over the rotating Presidency of the Security Council for March under Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
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The SG; Mali; Middle East; Palestine
The SG: At the Fifth Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations in Vienna, Austria today, the SG emphasized the role of youth in ensuring a “prosperous, equitable and peaceful future.”
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The SG; DRC; HRC; Palestinian Prisoner
The SG: In Ethiopia over the weekend, the SG is now in the United Arab Emirates. Today he met with Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, where the two discussed developments in the region, including Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, and in the Middle East Peace Process.
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