NEWS BITS

"These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.”

— Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen (Taliban) leaders to media at the White House (1985)

• Despite Obama's statement that the U.S. troops will be leaving Iraq by the end of 2011 (except of course the 50,000 soldiers we'd leave behind plus the legions of "private security" forces we'd pay for) Secretary of War Gates told reporters last week that if the Iraqi government asked us to stay longer we would.....of course we would. And they are likely to ask.

• The impending US and NATO military operation in Afghanistan's Kandahar province will strengthen the Taliban, not weaken it, according to a new report. The report, written by the Afghanistan NGO Security Office, criticised NATO's counterinsurgency strategy as unsuccessful. It found that violence has spiked with insurgents staging 1,319 attacks in June, up from 611 in January - a 115 per cent increase. The number of civilians killed also increased by 23 per cent, compared to the same time last year.

• The World Health Organization says that, of some 15 million people affected by the floods in Pakistan, only about 1.2 million had access to safe water supplies while, in the areas most affected by the flooding, 200 of 1,167 health facilities — including several hospitals — had been damaged.

• A national space conference was held this week in Huntsville, Alabama with the theme "Enabling Regional Warfighters." In its 13th year, the event drew about 7,000 people who heard presentations on such topics as "A Regional Perspective on Missile Defense," "Operational Perspective of Space and Missile Defense," "Space - Enabling the Warfighter," "Cyber Innovation to Preserve our Decisive Advantage" and "Space, High Altitude and Cyberspace." Huntsville is the home of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army's Missile Defense headquarters. It was to Huntsville that many of Hitler's rocket scientists were brought after the end of WW II to build the U.S. space program under the direction of Werner Von Braun.

• They are currently digging the 5th large hole in front of our house. Seems they like this spot very much. They either are forgetting to put the pipes in the ground the first few times or as one house mate suggests they have discovered gold under the street. Either way it is a dusty and noisy mess out there.