We hear this over and over.  Ooops, sorry.  How many did we accidentally kill this time?  The US and NATO and the multitude of countries occupying Afghanistan, on an obsessive-compulsive mission to complete the mission started after 9/11/2001.   The Taliban is hurt but not destroyed, Bin Laden is dead.  There is no oil in Afghanistan … even though there are plenty of valuable minerals.  There is always the famous golden egg, poppies. Somebody wants to make money from that, while spending more money to eradicate the same thing, the Golden Goose.  Just like the US war on drugs is doing in America. Spend money on more war toys while being paid by the drug lords.

The US and NATO allies are obsessed with destroying those Afghan poppies, making everything as western as they can, and unleashing proselytizer soldiers.  Yes, Afghanistan is poor, uneducated and subject to the whims of whoever occupies them at the moment.  They adapt.  They suffer from extremist religious suppression … would not want to be a female in that place.  But, it is their country.  We did extract revenge on the last two occupiers of the country (Russia and Taliban).  After all, we put the Taliban there to get back at the Russians.  We put Bin Laden in charge.  We have resolved our guilt, moved the money around the table and reduced earth’s population by several thousand.  We have also created new and wonderful enemies, trained them and given them weapons.  All this to insure we will have to come back sometime in the future to boost the global military-industrial complex, and make money change hands again.

WIKI: Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome.^[1] The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.

WIKI: As of November 22, 2011, there have been 1,801 American fatalities in the war in Afghanistan. More than 1,455 of these casualties have been the result of hostile action. But, we may never know how many civilians and non-combatants have been destroyed.

US censures report on drone casualties - Officials reject independent UK study’s finding that up to 168 children have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan.

Hollywood shows us how strategic and accurate our weapons of war have become … sure.  Hollywood gives the war machine too much credit.  Repeat, Mea Culpa over and over, because we can’t stop ourselves from sloppy warfare.  The billions of dollars changing hands from military-industrial lobbyists to politicians and back to the military-industrial complex promises the moon, but gives inferior star wars technology, made in China, Korea and Malaysia.  Our toys just don’t work as advertised.  Collateral damage is the definition of today’s conflicts.  

US politicians spout convincing reasons for these accidents, after reading the excuses sent to them by the military officers in charge of the missons. The last thing any of  the military reports will give us is the truth.  For those officers in charge, it is bad public relations … and, how would this effect their political future and publication royalties?  

‘Civilians make up over 90% of casualties in US drone strikes in Pakistan’

U.S. Drone Strikes Have Killed 2292 People In Pakistan Since 2004, Including Over 160 Children

Photos from the Ground Show Civilian Casualties

In the US, remote-controlled drones are considered great tools in the war on terror. For years Washington has sent these high-tech weapons into western Pakistan, lauding their precision. But a local journalist says he has photographic evidence that civilians are often the victims.

Drones Radicalize Locals

A financial house of cards 

As Americans come to realize the full scope of the now global economic crisis, the instability it causes is being seen as a bigger security threat than terrorism.

Every sector of the US economy has been negatively impacted and layoffs are being announced almost daily.

The roots of this crisis can be traced back to the economic policies of the 1980s.

For a generation the growth of the US economy has been disproportionately driven by the availability of cheap consumer goods and investment credit.

This system, which peaked with the rise of the securitisation of highly risky sub-prime mortgages in the last few years, enabled an investment system to emerge in which the debt to equity ratio was an outstanding, and totally unsustainable, 100 to one. [Read More]

The current  crisis is rooted in a culture that encouraged consumer borrowing and demand for cheaper products.  Gluttony became a way of life for anyone with a credit card.  The power of mass producing consumables, moving away from a culture of permanence into a culture of disposable, was more than the economy and environment could withstand.  The cost of disposal for all those packaged products has been phenomenal.  Count the billions of tons of  waste material we cannot flush.  Billions of tons of flushable waste is economically and environmentally unsupportable.

Our throw away society has met its nemesis.  The hypnotic grip marketers use to entice and influence consumers have overloaded the system.  By hypnotizing foreign populations into lusting after the ‘sweet life’ enjoyed by Americans, they were lured into the same unsustainable mind set.  Americans flaunted their lifestyle everywhere they went.  It was inevitable that as role models, only American ‘luxury’ gleamed through.  The ‘Streets of Gold, Land of Plenty’ image went everywhere.  The logistics of reality was never considered.

Now that the error of short sight has gripped the wallets of workers, the domino effect of tens of millions of jobs lost globally.

Jobs, with companies, make the products Americans have stopped buying.

Companies cannot stay open if their products don’t sell enough to support employees.

Employees earn wages to buy products to sustain them and to entertain them.

No wages. No buy. No buy, no company. No company, no product.  No product … then we have slipped back into an era where we must make do with the resources at hand.  Much of the land and water is contaminated or unfit for private use.  Shelter is relative to exactly you are when no other options are available, like transportation.

“… a long-term drop in global consumption is one of the few conceivable ways to stop the slide toward the tipping point of global warming and environmental degradation, not to mention the increasingly violent resource wars and global poverty, that are the inevitable outcome of a world economic system premised on limitless growth and consumption.”  Mark LeVine is a professor of Middle East history at the University of California, Irvine

Everyone has an opinion, either they think they understand what is happening, or they admit they haven’t a clue.  People are so focused on their own survival, how can they see the big picture?  Cause and effect at the personal level creates mental distress and  sometimes fatalism.  People can feel betrayed by the only system they know.  Today, in America, the social support system is broken and not sympathetic.  The government’s resources are running on empty.  If individual attitudes are allowed to dissolve into  total despair, they will do anything to survive.  Some have already lost their mental stability and devolved into  murder-suicide.  This is NOT where we want millions of people to go.

It does not have to be global catastrophe where the human population embraces extinction at its own hand.   It can be a realignment, which is never easy or without casualties.  Realigning humanity toward sensible behavior which accepts that more humans occupy a finite space, than ever before  Planet Earth.

World governments must enforce some drastic economic priorities to accommodate survival of the species.   Business as usual is not an option.  Borrowing from other countries is the only option on the table.  Trade with other countries is necessary for our species to share the same planet.  Unfortunately, some leaders are bent on reducing human numbers as an option.  War is especially not the answer.  Humanity will never be on the same page economically, politically or religiously.  But, we must be on the same page about saving humanity … whether we deserve it or not.

Humans have the power of will to struggle through the most difficult times and prevail.  History has taught us that.  History has also taught that difficult times change us all.  Humans are an adaptable species.  Those who embrace the challenge of change with creativity and perseverance will save the human species.

The 20-Hour Workweek – The unemployment rate seems low. That’s because it’s not counting all those underemployed workers.

U.S. Jobless Rate Hits 14-Year High

SPECIAL REPORT AMERICA’S MONEY CRISIS

Obama Calls On Congress to Act Fast on Stimulus

Jobless Rate Hits Highest Level Since 1994

Unemployment state by state

See where your state ranks.

How Obama should fix the economy

Stocks rally

2 more banks go belly-up

Berkshire Hathaway’s profit falls 77%

GM: Nearly out of cash

A survival guide for the unemployed

Canadian Mental Health Assoc: – Coping with Unemployment

Boston College – Coping With Unemployment

You are not alone. Almost all of the alumni that we see here at the Career Center have either lost their jobs unexpectedly or are dissatisfied with their current career and looking to make a change.

An “acceptable” level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.  –Author Unknown

The Wolf At The Door:

An Unemployment Survival Manual

12 Steps to Cope With Unemployment – Australia

1. Establish a daily schedule including a regular time for job search activities
2. Set daily goals that you know you can accomplish. Go for a walk, go to the library, call a friend
3. Contact the local employment agencies or other employment counselling service for information on programs in your community
4. Use your networks. Tell everyone you know what kind of work you are looking for, and ask if they know of any jobs or any companies that employ people with your skills. Your friends, relatives and acquaintances may not think of mentioning contacts to you because they don’t have a clear idea of what kind of work you are looking for. Remember, many people get their jobs through “word of mouth.”
5. Read some books or take a workshop on stress management techniques. Everyone is under extra stress when unemployed, and you could save yourself and your family from additional emotional strain if you learn some effective stress management skills
6. Volunteer to help someone else or set up a team of jobseekers. (See photo … I volunteered to help at the Masters Games 2008 recently)
7. Keep busy and stay active outside your home. Isolating yourself at home will not get you a new job and can lead to additional mental and emotional stress
8. Reward yourself on a regular basis for your efforts
9. Before you go to bed, prepare a written plan for the next day. It will give you a reason to get up in the morning
10. Pursue the hobby you always wanted but never seemed to have time for
11. Check into new career opportunities or the possibility of continuing your education
12. Keep regular hours, and get regular exercise

Try the above points today and you’ll find they make a difference.

Ask the Dollar Diva By Dorothy Rosen • Bankrate.com

Survival tips for the unemployed

1. Cut living expenses to the bone. Set up a spending plan to help you plan your cash flow. Also, check out the cost-cutting advice from another person who was laid off as well as a myriad of money-saving ideas at Frugal U.

2. Finding a job is a full-time job. Get up, get dressed for an interview, get on the phone or the Internet and make it happen — every day. Buff up that resume and check out job fairs. Let friends, family and all of your professional contacts know you are on the hunt. Want to make a great first impression on potential employers? Bankrate offers 20 tips for a successful job interview.

3. Take night classes to improve your current skills or learn new ones. You can never be too smart and it’ll boost your confidence to be out and involved.

4. If your savings get below your comfort level, look for part-time work. Industries that have peak periods, such as retail businesses during the holidays and tax-preparers during tax season, always need good help when the heat is on.

5. If things look bleak, and there’s not enough cash to pay all the bills, pay the secured debt (mortgage and car loan) and hold off paying on the unsecured debt (credit cards and doctor bills) until your fortune turns around. Contact the creditors you can’t pay, explain the situation and assure them you will resume payments as soon as you find a job.

Being unemployed for a long period is devastating, but it happens to the best of us. When life slaps us around it helps to remember that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. And the stronger we get, the less we tend to get slapped around.

Department of Labor

DEPSearch DOL / A to Z Index

You get the cutback or layoff news, or your pink slip.  The first thing that hits you is OMG the car payment is due, the rent or mortgage is due.  I’m already late paying the utilities… The kids are in school, where can we go to keep them there?  How will we explain to the kids that the pets have to go?   OMG, we are out of milk, bread, eggs, toilet paper… Reassessment of your condition cannot be ‘knee-jerk’.  Time to sit down with your entire household and plan.  Don’t underestimate kids ideas, but know when adult reality must intervene. Make your strtegy a team effort.  Its not just your situation  alone.  Your household is in there with you.  Make lists, what will you and everyone cut out of the budget and reduce consumables.  How much is left in savings … or under the mattress.  Do not discount baby steps for making money, …Garage Sales are a great first step. Time to call the relatives and find out their situation.  Do not allow pride or ego interfere with sharing your reality.  Thats not part of the game anymore.  Call ALL your creditors, mortgage company or landlord.  Be brutally honest, but don’t exagerate. Declare your intention to get another job ASAP.  Do NOT take it personally if there is little sympathy,  you may be speaking to someone in the same boat. Attitude is everything.  Your situation is NOT trivial, but it is NOT a new condition.  Your Grandparents survived it, post WWII survivors had it much worse.  That is not meant to trivialize your situation, but to encourage you to knuckle down and be as strong as your ancestors.  Granted, you may not have the same survival skills they had, but today is a different landscape from what they were familiar with.  What you do have in common is stamina to address your situation, think it out, plan a strategy and go forward.  Never give up and never dismiss any opportunity, no matter how temporary or small.  Your self esteem must be recast with thoughtfull reality, its no longer about image or what part of the consumer class structure you fit in to.  Its about facing forward and gathering all your determination to prevail.  Your numbers are growing.  There is power in numbers if you figure out how to use it.

Here is a link to your last options, if I locate more handy links, I will update the list.

How to Live in Your Car

This image speaks more to the insanity of building a fence along the Texas border with Mexico.

This wall project has more “un-intended” consequences than have been seriously studied.

If you consider the human factor in this region, the resources for assistance is uneven. The further north this damage goes, the further away from resources. The coast for both countries is well covered. But, as population thins as you move north, resources also thin out. DHS has it’s Border Wall project that will cause more grief than safety.

Speaking about safety, how will DHS handle relief efforts? A Category One Hurricane is not the beast of past storms … UNLESS it hits at the mouth of a major river. The Rio Grande River can be a monster when flooding starts from the North … But when a storm surge starts from the mouth of the river, you will see major flooding and destruction. The infrastructure on the Mexico side will be hard pressed to attend the consequences. History has demonstrated the cost. The Border Wall will be its own monster when the hurricane passes.

Bashir’s one goal is to maintain power. He has sown discord in Darfur with a classic divide-and-conquer strategy. As a result, interethnic conflict is tearing the region apart, and attacks on aid agencies by government and rebel militias have left a million people beyond the reach of humanitarian aid. Bashir, 63, has blocked the deployment of a larger U.N.-led peacekeeping operation that would protect Darfur’s civilians.

And yet something good may come from Bashir’s bloody legacy. In universities, synagogues, churches and town halls across the U.S., Americans are writing letters and raising hell about Washington’s inaction in response to Darfur. Citizen groups around the world are following suit. In a David-vs.-Goliath scenario, only the activism of ordinary people will galvanize the action necessary to stop Bashir and future war criminals.

Sudan president ‘masterminded’ Darfur genocide: ICC

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court formally requested an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Monday, accusing him of masterminding and implementing a plan to wipe out three African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of mass murder, rape, torture and genocide.

But while the ICC is being praised for bringing charges against Sudan’s President, some observers say the charges might complicate efforts to negotiate with the Sudanese government to deploy more United Nations peacekeepers in the troubled region.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, of Argentina, presented a three-judge panel in The Hague with evidence he has amassed to support 10 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Mr. Bashir, who, if the indictment proceeds, will become the first head of state to face charges before the ICC. He accused Mr. Bashir of personally directing a campaign “to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa” tribal groups in Darfur.  Janjaweed, Arab militias, armed by the Sudanese government and paid to do its dirty work.

While one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises continues some 600 miles away in Darfur, across Khartoum bridges are being built, office towers are popping up, supermarkets are opening and flatbed trucks hauling plasma TV’s fight their way through thickening traffic.

Despite the image of Sudan as a land of cracked earth and starving people, the economy is booming, with little help from the West. Oil has turned it into one of the fastest growing economies in Africa — if not the world — emboldening the nation’s already belligerent government and giving it the wherewithal to resist Western demands to end the conflict in Darfur.

They live in temporary refugee camps. They live in terror and despair.  They are living breathing examples of PTSD, only because they had the audacity to survive.  They tell their story that overwhelm westerners.  They have to watch their aid workers tracked and attacked. These survivors demonstrate vestiges of ancient atrocities that the modern world thought it had outgrown.

Civilization has regressed.  The redefinition of civilization should be published as an ideal instead of a reality.  Today’s world shows, that whatever progress we pride ourselves in is a delusion.  America’s homeless live in luxury under bridges, they have safety offered to them should they choose to accept it.  Most of America’s homeless have stepped away from society through circumstance or mental condition.  American squalor is luxury, compared to Darfur, hands down.

Arrest Is Sought of Sudan Leader in Genocide Case

We have seen the never ending humanitarian disaster unfold for years.  We have seen world celebrities bring attention to this shameful man made catastrophe. We have seen WESTERN LEADERS make excuses for not intervening to stop the slaughter.  Now!  After conservative figures of two and a half a million murders, someone finally has the guts and resources to same something meaningful! HAT TIP to: The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo at the International Criminal Court formally requested an arrest warrant on Monday for Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the past five years of bloodshed in the Darfur region of his country.

The prosecutor’s pursuit of Mr. Bashir introduced new volatility to the already chaotic situation in Darfur. While some diplomats and analysts worried that the move would undermine efforts to negotiate peace and provide aid to the millions displaced by violence, others said it offered new leverage to pressure the Sudanese government to end the conflict in Darfur.

Bracing for reprisals, United Nations peacekeepers and aid workers stepped up security in Darfur and pulled out all but the most essential civilians. Sudan promised not to vent its outrage on them, but said it would unleash a “diplomatic war” to try to scuttle the case.

It was the first time the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court had brought genocide charges against anyone. It was also the first time the prosecutor had brought charges against a sitting head of state since the court opened its doors in 2002. Two other presidents, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Charles Taylor of Liberia, were charged by other international war crimes courts, also while they were in office.

The Prosecutor

“I deeply hope that the horrors humanity has suffered during the 20th century will serve us as a painful lesson, and that the creation of the International Criminal Court will help us to prevent those atrocities from being repeated in the future.”

Statement made by Luis Moreno-Ocampo on the occasion of his election as first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court by the Assembly of States Parties in New York on 22 April 2003.

ICC Prosecutor presents case against Sudanese President, Hassan Ahmad AL BASHIR, for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

The Hague, 14 July 2008

Situation: Darfur, Sudan

ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has presented evidence today showing that Sudanese President, Omar Hassan Ahmad AL BASHIR committed the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

Three years after the Security Council requested him to investigate in Darfur, and based on the evidence collected, the Prosecutor has concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that Omar Hassan Ahmad AL BASHIR bears criminal responsibility in relation to 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Prosecution evidence shows that Al Bashir masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups, on account of their ethnicity. Members of the three groups, historically influential in Darfur, were challenging the marginalization of the province; they engaged in a rebellion. AL BASHIR failed to defeat the armed movements, so he went after the people. “His motives were largely political.  His alibi was a ‘counterinsurgency.’  His intent was genocide. ” The Prosecutor said.

We must watch this process, and support these efforts, to make tyrants accountable for their atrocities.  We must condemn our own politicians, who contribute empty declarations, and block humanitarian efforts, while victims multiply.  There is a hint of racism hidden in these actions.  What these sorry public servants, who see themselves as world leaders, offer, is a look into how they really feel about less fortunate populations.  They are expendable.  That part is loud and clear.  America is the most guilty of neglecting this horror.  Blind eyes to genocide is convenient when oil is the obsession.  After all, a manufactured war is hard to keep up with, it’s a high maintenance project to keep the spin going.

Hat Tip to those brave and persistent celebrities, who lifted these atrocities out of obscurity and kept the pressure on.  They are better humanitarians than the countries they represent. ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo should become a world celebrity for this effort.

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) – Italy on Monday proposed increasing margin requirements on futures markets to deter speculative buying of oil, which Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said could reach $200 a barrel.

“There are fears oil prices could increase further. Some people fear they could reach $200,” Berlusconi told reporters on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Group of Eight rich nations on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. [More]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — With $100-a-barrel here for now, Goldman Sachs says $200 a barrel could be a reality in the not-too-distant future in the case of a “major disruption.”

With the dollar’s fall continuing and financial markets roiled by the credit crunch, commodities like oil have been drawing the fancy of increasing numbers of investors. Accordingly, Wall Street firms have been eager to adjust forecasts to incorporate fresh data on the global economy and energy supplies.

Production quotas are unable to keep pace with world demand of 82-million barrels a day, which is increasing as China’s and India’s economies grow.

The era of cheap oil is at an end, experts and the industry are warning. A diverse range of oil industry insiders — like Ali Bakhtiari, head of strategic planning at Iran’s National Oil Company; Dr Colin Campbell; a former executive vice-president of Total-Fina; and Matthew Simmons, an energy investment banker and energy adviser to the Bush administration — are united in their belief that global oil production is about to peak, which will signal the permanent end of cheap oil.

Dust off your bicycles …

$200 Oil and $6 Gas Just Months Away

We can argue about whether high oil is a bubble or not and who the villians are, but $200 oil is now a real possibility. WSJ:

Oil’s historic ascent from $100 to nearly $150 a barrel in just six months is lending weight to a far grimmer prediction: Crude could reach $200 a barrel by the end of the year.

Oil at that price would wreak deeper havoc on the world’s airlines and automobile industries.

In the U.S., $200 crude would push the price of gasoline to well over $6 a gallon, causing commuters to alter their driving habits more sharply than they have already, while putting extreme strains on large sectors of the U.S. economy.

The good news, such as it is, is that such theories no longer seem crazy. And the more that talk of an “oil bubble” is replaced by a sullen consensus that prices are headed straight to the moon, the more likely it is we’ll get a major correction. Unfortunately, the main catalyst for this drop will likely be global economic collapse.

Why oil costs over $140 per barrel: the failure of leadership

The speed of living is about to slow down. We are experiencing a global shift in how humans do business. This shift is already becoming traumatic for most. Accustomed to solve personal shortages by jumping into a car, people have major adaptations to make. Abandoning frivolous reasons for practical reasons, about using personal transportation, is currently the largest test for western society. Multi-tasking will become a way of life … lower income families are already doing this. There is much still to learn and much adaptation to embrace if we are to survive. Learning to entertain ourselves constructively, instead of seeking mind numbing video or computer games, will be a BIG challenge for western youths.

Challenges and Tradeoffs in Low-Income Family Budgets:

• Implications for Health Coverage – Report
• How Low-Income Households Allocate Their Food Budget
• Michigan Budget Crunch Forces Cancellation of Federal Family Education Loan Program
• Budget crunch hits kids in the belly
• Latest Victim Of California Budget Crunch: Foster Homes

• * Obama wants $50 billion stimulus package
• * McCain has support of 300 economists
• * Trade, health care differences

ST. LOUIS, July 7 (Reuters) – Democrat Barack Obama on Monday called for a second stimulus package to boost the ailing U.S. economy, while Republican John McCain tried to paint his presidential rival as a tax-and-spend liberal in a battle over who can best handle voters’ No. 1 concern.

With Americans returning to work after the Independence Day holiday weekend, both candidates turned to the economy in a bid to win over voters wrestling with home foreclosures, job losses and the soaring cost of gasoline.

USD stronger on lower oil prices as G8 summit begins

This is what I have been waiting for …

Toyota to equip Prius with solar panels: report

Now, all I have to do is organize my green living efforts. Separating garbage will be one of my biggest challenges because my garbage company is not cooperating. I have managed to separate wet garbage and have a working mulch pile. I am gently nudging my lifestyle toward sustainability and low impact. There is no switch to flip, unless it is OFF!

Japan has an admirable mission called mottainai: It means “don’t waste”

It’s hardly an anniversary many will register, but last week marked 30 years since President Jimmy Carter authorised the first covert CIA operations against the government of Afghanistan.

By backing the anti-Communist mujahideen and creating civil unrest, the plan was to provoke a Soviet invasion and thus, in the words of Carter’s adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, “[give] the Soviet Union its Vietnam War”.

History records this Cold War gamble paid off. But the laws of unintended consequences have also meant that 30 years on we’re still living with its legacy.

The “warlords” who inherited the ruins of Afghanistan after the Soviet army began pulling out 10 years later in turn provoked the reactionary extremism of the Taliban. The ensuing fundamentalist Islamic state became a refuge for bin Laden and al Qaeda . September 11 provoked another invasion, this time by the US and its western allies. Seven years on we are hearing the familiar comparisons with Vietnam all over again.

Overall, civilian deaths are at their highest since the start of the war and military casualties, while not as bad as in Iraq in terms of sheer numbers, are rising. Pakistan now harbours something like 1.5 million Afghan refugees. The opium trade is back in business. The Afghan army remains inept and untrained. Iraq has drained American and Nato military resources.

Coalition troop deaths in Afghanistan surpass Iraq

• May and June death tolls for foreign troops were higher in Afghanistan than Iraq
• 46 U.S. and allied troops died in Afghanistan in June; 31 in Iraq
• Afghan deaths included troops from U.S., U.K., Canada, Poland, Romania, Hungary
• Same trend seen with civilian deaths, analysts say

(CNN) — For the second month in a row, U.S. and allied troop deaths in the Afghan war have surpassed those in Iraq, according to official figures tallied by CNN.

In June, 46 foreign troops died in Afghanistan and 31 troops died in Iraq. In May, 23 foreign troops died in Afghanistan and 21 died in Iraq.

A Pentagon report issued last week about Afghanistan said that security in many areas of the country is regarded as “fragile” and that Taliban militants have regrouped into a “resilient insurgency” after the Taliban was toppled from power in 2001.

June was the deadliest month for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the conflict there began in 2001. Twenty-eight Americans, 13 Britons, two Canadians, one Pole, one Romanian and one Hungarian died in Afghanistan. The latest deaths were three American troops who died in a vehicle rollover while on patrol in Kandahar province.

Afghanistan: Airstrikes kill civilians

• U.S. airstrikes hit Nuristan province in Afghanistan on Friday
• Provincial governor says strikes killed 22 civilians, including 1 woman, 1 child
• U.S. says strikes hit two vehicles carrying insurgents

US, NATO deaths in Afghanistan pass Iraq toll

Afghan Civilian Casualty Rates

A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States’ Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan:

Karzai orders probe into deadly U.S. strike

• Afghan president orders inquiry into allegations 15 civilians killed in U.S. strike
• In second strike local officials said coalition bombing killed 23 in wedding party
• Karzai has stepped up pressure on his U.S. allies to take more precautions

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered an inquiry into allegations that 15 civilians were killed in a U.S. military strike targeting militants.

UN figures reveal 62% rise in Afghan civilian deaths

The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan has risen by almost two-thirds in the first half of the year compared with 2007, UN figures showed today.

The figures, which reveal that almost 700 civilians have died, show that the instability and violence afflicting the country are taking an increasing toll on ordinary Afghans.

John Holmes, the UN’s humanitarian affairs chief, said a recent increase in militant attacks was making it increasingly difficult to deliver emergency aid.

“The humanitarian situation is clearly affected and made worse by the ongoing conflict in different parts of the country,” he said in Kabul.

“Most of these casualties are caused by the insurgents, who seem to have no regard for civilian life, but there are also still significant numbers caused by the international military forces.”

The hearts and minds of those we are trying to save, die from the good intentions the Bush Message sends every day.

Send More Troops To Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (CBS News) ― Grappling with a record death toll in an overshadowed war, President Bush promised Wednesday to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan by year’s end. He conceded that June was a “tough month” in the nearly 7-year-old war.

In fact, it was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the conflict began.

“One reason why there have been more deaths is because our troops are taking the fight to a tough enemy, an enemy who doesn’t like our presence there because they don’t like the idea of America denying safe haven (to terrorists),” Mr. Bush told reporters Wednesday. “Of course there’s going to be resistance.”

Mr. Bush said it was a tough month too for the Taliban fighters. The former ruling Islamic militants have rebounded with deadly force since their overthrow 6½ years ago by U.S.-led troops.    “We’re going to increase troops by 2009,” Mr. Bush said, without offering details of exactly when or how many.

It amounted to a reiteration by Mr. Bush of a promised buildup of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He said coalition forces have doubled in size over two years and pledged that the twin strategy of fighting extremists and supporting Afghanistan’s civil development “is going to work.”

The more Bush pledges, the more Bush promises, the more Messages Bush sends dig us deeper into the body count …  The message the world has heard since 9/11 is that the USA has devolved into the evil empire.  The seeds of resentment, hate and conflict have been sewed by the USA since WWI.  That was when the US started picking up where British Imperialism left off.  Using better euphamisms, the US has embedded its influence across the world with the similar manipulation techniques used by Britain.  It is all about creating a monopoly for resources and commerce.  Body count becomes incidental.

Any promises Bush makes at this point is so moot it would be comical had Bozo the Clown not passed away recently.   Bozo actually reincarnated before his passing.

The only problem is Bush has the personality of

Head of Movement for Democratic Change cites violence against supporters as main reason for boycott.

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, has announced that he will not take part in the run-off presidential election against Robert Mugabe, the country’s long-standing president.

Tsvangirai said on Sunday that Mugabe has “declared war by saying that the bullet has replaced the ballot”, and so his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will not be a part of the June 27 vote.

Citing violence against his supporters as a major reason for the withdrawal, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop “genocide” in Zimbabwe.

• Should international peacekeepers be sent to Zimbabwe?
• Profile: Morgan Tsvangirai
• Profile: Robert Mugabe
• Dethroning Mugabe no easy task
• Q&A: Zimbabwe’s election crisis

South Africa: Grant Temporary Status to All Zimbabweans

Because of South Africa’s dysfunctional asylum system, many asylum seekers’ claims are not examined adequately and others are not able to lodge their claims at all. Because its deportation practices are also arbitrary and haphazard, many of the tens of thousands of Zimbabweans registered as asylum seekers in South Africa are at risk of refoulement, the forcible return to persecution in Zimbabwe, a fundamental breach of international refugee law. As a party to the refugee convention, South Africa is bound by the principle of non-refoulement, and may not send people back to face persecution.

South Africa faces a stark choice: it can break international law by deporting asylum seekers and ignore the harsh reality faced by hundreds of thousands of other Zimbabweans on its territory, or it can grant them temporary status and the right to work.

Shame on the world for letting this happen. We have watched this catastrophe unfold for months.  We have watched the people of Zimbabwe decline into food and economic crisis.  We have moaned and groaned and wrung our hands at the plight of Zimbabweans.  We have watched neighboring countries abuse and attack Zimbabwe refugees.  We have watched The United Nations fail to mediate or intervene successfully.  News media has risked life and limb to bring pictures of Zimbabwe and Darfur to the World’s attention.   But, the world has distracted itself with personal economics.  Consumerism, mortgage crisis and oil prices have trumped humanitarian interests.  World Humanitarian Agencies are struggling to help with one hand tied behind their backs.  If it is not in YOUR back yard, why should you care?  Because, this is what happens when shouts of terror fall on deaf ears.  The Golden Rule needs to be remembered by everyone.  Every religion has a version of the same concept.

The wimpy GLOBAL humanitarian efforts applied to the Darfur and Burma disasters appear to have become the norm … This is unacceptable!  Put down those IPODS and cell phones long enough to donate that dollar you would have spent on the lottery or latte.  The Humanitarian Agencies need your help.  Start with:

• International Crisis Group
• Human Rights NGO Forum
• Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)
• Amnesty International
• Zimbabwe expels UN human rights officer
• United Nations Human Rights
• Peace Africa
  

It makes no sense, it feels like the government wants these people to die

Dohlaiy lost her children and grandchildren to the cyclone.

She now lives together with 20 other survivors, in the only house that still stands amid the rubble of the former fishing village of Uomiou. One of its walls is missing.

The survivors have no fresh water and just enough rice to get by.

The rice, they told us, was donated by the neighbouring village, not the government.

“We have two cups a rice a day per family. Its not enough,” Dohlaiy said.

“We don’t know what to do, we don’t have a boat to get out of here, but we can’t stay here either,” another villager said.

The cyclone has filled their rice fields with sea water, devastating the crops and stripping the people of the only source of livelihood they know.

The state-controlled newspapers have been full of praise for the way the government has handled the crisis.

The generals have tried to make sure that no-one is in a position to challenge their view.

Army checkpoints block all roads to the Irrawaddy Delta.

Foreign journalists have been thrown out of the country and no aid workers are allowed anywhere near the disaster area.

“It makes no sense, it feels like they [the government] want these people to die,” said one aid worker, who asked not to be identified as he is waiting for the permission to go into the delta.

In the meantime, the UN says another cyclone could be on its way to Burma.

“We asked them to drop rice and water as everyone is starving, but they did not hear us.”

Burma generals failing their people

A trail of wreckage and dead bodies stretched all along Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta.

Two weeks on since Cyclone Nargis hit, the Delta is still devastated and hundreds of thousands of people are still waiting to be rescued.

They are hungry and homeless not just because of the disaster, but because of the government that does not seem interested in helping them.

YANGON: The Red Cross estimated that the cyclone death toll in Myanmar could be as high as 128,000 — a much larger figure than the government tally. The UN warned a second wave of deaths will follow unless the military regime lets in more aid quickly.

The grim forecast on Wednesday came as heavy rains drenched the devastated Irrawaddy River delta, disrupting aid operations already struggling to reach up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of food, water and shelter.

“Another couple of days exposed to those conditions can only lead to worsening health conditions and compound the stress people are living in,” said Shantha Bloemen, a spokeswoman for UNICEF.

A tropical depression in the Bay of Bengal added new worries, but late in the day forecasters said it was weakening and unlikely to grow into a cyclone. Myanmar’s government issued a revised casualty toll on Wednesday night, saying 38,491 were known dead and 27,838 were missing.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, however, said its estimate put the number of dead between 68,833 and 1,27,990. The Geneva-based body said the range came from a compilation based on other estimates from 22 different organizations, including the Myanmar Red Cross Society, and on media reports.

Burma expels foreign aid workers

THE Burmese authorities have sealed off the cyclone disaster zone from the outside world, expelling foreign aid workers and placing multiple checkpoints along roads into the Irrawaddy Delta, to the despair of foreign diplomats and aid workers.

The isolation of the delta confirms the growing sense among international organisations that the Burmese junta is never going to allow a wide-ranging foreign-led aid effort of the kind that was mounted in several countries after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Aid groups are trying instead to mount a stealth operation in which Western aid is distributed by government organisations, local aid workers, and international staff from countries that the regime regards as friendly and compliant.

Time, though, is running out – not only to avert epidemics of infectious diseases such as cholera, but also to prevent a catastrophic failure of this year’s rice crop, 65 per cent of which comes from the cyclone-stricken area.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called an emergency meeting on the aid crisis yesterday to discuss a strategy for escalating the humanitarian response.

Myanmar’s killing fields of neglect

BANGKOK – With an estimated two million people at risk of death by disease, deprivation or starvation and the scant amount of foreign aid that has entered the country diverted from those most in need, Myanmar’s worst case humanitarian scenario is now playing out in full view of the international community.

As the death toll mounts and the United Nations futilely negotiates with the country’s ruling generals to open Myanmar’s borders and allow a multinational response to the Cyclone Nagris disaster, the moral case for a unilateral US military-led humanitarian intervention has grown.

The the world today, the entertainment and coffee table discussion is Burma, Darfur and China. What entertainment these disasters have become. World governments admire China’s rescue and recovery efforts. World governments condemn the Myanmar Junta and Sudan’s genocide policies. Talk and talk everywhere while the world watches and waits for things to get worse. That really helps those who have no food, water or sanitation. There must be a death toll criteria before the world decides to take action. There must be a combined agreement to watch these disasters evolve into a global health threat before a decision is made to intervene. Cholera is already spreading. Starvation is spreading. crops are ruined and the victims are unable to support themselves in the meager way they are accustomed. Fishing is ruined until the waters recover from the toxic pollution. Isolation for victims without resources is a criminal act worthy of Geneva Convention intervention. The Junta has demonstrated its unwillingness to open up to world relief efforts. Oh yes, they will accept supplies and confiscate them while telling the humanitarians they have everything under control, its not as bad as it looks. Somehow a few journalists have managed to release more realistic information about conditions.

Is there a monetary value on human life? Is there no consideration for the consequences of neglecting the health and welfare of so many? Will the world look back and see this as the start of a new pandemic? The water, fresh and salt travels to other communities. With that water comes more disease and suffering. Should the world wait until the entire quadrant of this planet is unusable? The human factor should not be dismissed as the consequences of poverty and tyranny. If the world neglects to act now, there will be little hope for recovery for decades. The world can stay aloof from personal emotion because no one knows the names of the casualties. That makes it easier to look to other issues, like oil and entertainment.

The UN has sharply increased its estimate of those severely affected by Burma’s cyclone to 2.5m people.

The figure was revised up from the 1.5m previously thought to be in need, following the storm 12 days ago.

Since Cyclone Nargis struck, hardly any foreign aid workers have been allowed into Burma to hand out relief supplies.

Latest Burmese official figures put the death toll at almost 38,500 with 27,838 more missing but the Red Cross warned as many as 128,000 could be dead.

‘Food is not the problem. Right now, it’s clean water’

Red Cross: Up to 128,000 may have died in Myanmar

Monsoon predicted in Myanmar delta

Aid Trickling In to Myanmar

International disaster assistance experts are still having trouble securing visas, despite ongoing negotiations. There is great concern about the possibility of disease among the many, now homeless, survivors, but no outbreaks have been reported yet.

THE devastating natural disasters in Burma and China illustrate the difference between having a competent government and an incompetent one.

The Burmese military, unlike the Chinese, has done little to help its people, of whom more than 100,000 are already dead. The Burmese Government’s reluctance to allow foreign aid in will condemn many more tens of thousands to unnecessary deaths.

Optimistic analysts in Southeast Asia and in the West hope the appalling suffering in Burma may lead to the collapse of the military junta and its replacement by a government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

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China quake toll close to 15,000

Nearly 15,000 people died in the devastating earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

More than 25,000 are still trapped in the rubble two days after the 7.9 quake struck, flattening homes, schools and entire villages and cutting roads.

Soldiers have begun to reach the isolated epicentre by helicopter and on foot, bringing much needed supplies.

The government has meanwhile downplayed fears about the stability of a dam. No damage has been reported to the massive Three Gorges Dam, also in Sichuan province, but there were concerns about dozens of smaller dams closer to the epicentre.

Troops sent to repair quake-hit Chinese dam

Some 2,000 Chinese troops were sent today to repair “extremely dangerous” cracks in a dam upstream of an earthquake-hit city where 500,000 people live.

Officials warned that Dujiangyan “would be swamped” if the Zipingpu reservoir were to breach the hydroelectric dam, five miles upstream of the south-western city.

Earlier, engineers released water from the reservoir to relieve pressure on the dam, after cracks appeared on its surface.

Speaking to Reuters, He Biao, the deputy Communist party chief of Aba prefecture, said: “If the danger intensified, it could affect some power stations downstream. This is an extremely dangerous situation.”

Yesterday authorities pointed out that the earthquake had not damaged the huge Three Gorges dam, which is still incomplete. The quake registered a magnitude of four in the dam area, which is 600 miles from the epicentre of the quake, where it registered 7.9.

The Three Gorges dam is designed to withstand earthquakes up to seven in magnitude. However, one of the many criticisms made of the dam was that its sheer size could trigger earthquakes.

China’s deadly quake: Is the Three Gorges dam to blame?

Though the deadly Wenchuan earthquake was the result of tectonic stresses, experts are concerned that the filling of the Three Gorges dam’s enormous reservoir may have induced or exacerbated the earthquake.

Engineers have already linked the massive weight of water behind the Three Gorges dam to increased seismic activity since its filling began in 2003.
“Whether reservoir-induced seismicity is behind this week’s earthquake should be urgently investigated before the Three Gorges reservoir is filled to its maximum height,” says Patricia Adams, executive director of Probe International, a Canadian group monitoring the Three Gorges dam since the 1980s.

The deadly month of Dis-May! Burma’s Junta makes matters worse by adding human greed to a costly natural disaster. This despicable ruling Junta is confiscating the ‘cream’ of humanitarian aid for their own use. They continue to impede foreign aid workers from participating and organizing effective relief efforts. All this band of hoodlums want is the goodies. To Hell with their people … It is time for pre-emptive intervention to save lives, prevent outbreaks of disease and assist in rebuilding infrastructure.

China is not ready to admit the Three Gorges Dam project could have led to the devastating earthquake. No one listened years ago when there were protests mounted on scientific evidence that because Three Gorges sits atop two great fault lines, there could be heavier seismic consequences.

Again, accountability and forward thinking appear to be mere irritants to today’s world governments. When the bottom line is money, power and image, consequences become someone else’s responsibility. Let the next generation worry about the consequences, “we live for today” … where have we heard that before? Oh yes, that old hippie song …

Let’s Live For Today by The Grass Roots, 1967

When I think of all the worries people seem to find
And how they’re in a hurry to complicate their minds
By chasing after money and dreams that can’t come true
I’m glad that we are different, we’ve better things to do
May others plan their future, I’m busy lovin’ you (1-2-3-4)
Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today
Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today
And don’t worry ’bout tomorrow, hey, hey, hey
Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today
Live for today
We were never meant to worry the way that people do
And I don’t need to hurry as long as I’m with you …

And the world suffers the consequences.