Over night Summary

Photo by Gerald: CR 2008

Global Hand Washing Day today
LAHORE: Global Hand Washing Day will be observed on Wednesday (today). The day’s theme is ‘Focus on School Children’. The practice of hand washing with soap is on the top of the international hygiene agenda this year with the first Global Hand Washing Day. Several diseases, including diarrhoea and...  

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Worth a second look:

"Meta-Terror: Terrorism and the Virtual World"

By Andrew Cochran

We will be taking a hard look at this, G

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Taleban mounts week’s second assault on Helmund capital

October 15, 2008, 1:56 PM (GMT+02:00)

Afghan police report 18 Taleban attackers were killed on Wednesday, Oct. 15 in their second attempt this week to capture the Helmund capital of Lashkar Gah.

NATO and US commanders are concerned about the insurgents' redoubled determination to capture a major Afghan town. The number of attacks in Afghanistan has reached a six-year high. 
More...

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One Man Human Terrain Teams for IW

Cannoneer No. 4
Over on the Pak side of the Durand Line, the tribes are restless. Over on the ISAF side, attention may finally be paid to getting Pashtun irregulars into the fight against the Taliban. This could work. The Taliban themselves are Pashtun irregulars. Students of American military history are aware of the use of indigenous scouts, but up until recently the weakness and illegitimacy of Karzai’s regime made any paramilitary forces organized along local, district, provincial or tribal lines unacceptable. Finally, after almost seven years, propping up the regime we installed in Kabul after deposing the Taliban may not be the first priority.SOURCE:The Pashtuns are not a tribe, but an ethnic and linguistic community of tribes, khels,clans, and Mafia families. Some of these people in RC East still retain traditions like respected maliks, or chiefs, discussion of issues by jirgas or tribal councils, enforcement of jirga decisions by arbakai, or tribal police, and applying muscle against interlopers with warrior bands of Kalashnikov waving lashkars.

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Diplos Still Not Ready for Nation-Building: ReportBy Nathan Hodge October 15, 2008 9:47:00 AMCategories: Reconstruction  Last week, the Army unveiled its new manual for stabilizing and rebuilding countries. Field Manual 3-07 is supposed to provide the blueprint for piecing back together failed states, and it states the obvious: nation-building requires a lot of "soft power" -- and the full participation of the civilian agencies of government -- if it is to succeed. That means the Foreign Service, USAID and other federal departments must be prepared to deploy to war zones alongside the military. The question is: are they equipped to handle this mission?

SOURCE:  Permalink 

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