New US and Allies Outlook on Taliban

The attitude of the United States, so to say the Western world has stated changing on the Taliban issue. Now, they want to proceed through not confrontations and clashes but through understanding and peaceful means. After fighting for over a decade in Afghanistan, they have now decided to establish peace by putting an end to bloody war. They are trying to overcome the challenges through political settlement instead of military confrontation. It seems they have changed their stand and policy on Taliban issue.
Al-Qaida and Taliban are the diehard enemies of the United States and its allies. These two organizations are black-listed as international terrorist operatives. Their supporters and sympathizers are also regarded as the enemies of the western world, including the United States. These are also defamed internationally as the enemies of mankind. Not only the Western world, all countries of the glove which are the members of the United Nations hate these extremists and their shelter givers.
The Al-Qaida is blamed for launching terrorists' attacks on Twin Towers of New York and Pentagon building in Washington on 11 September 2001. The Taliban are also identified as the terrorists and extremists as well as accomplices and patrons of the Al-Qaida operatives. The United States and the United Kingdom blamed Taliban for 9/11 terrorist attacks and took vow to crush such evil forces. To attain this objective, they installed an alternative regime of Taliban government in Afghanistan by launching joint the US and British military attacks on Afghanistan on 7 October 2001 to crush the Taliban regime in Kabul as retaliation of the 9/11 incident. Later, an election was held in Afghanistan. The anti-Taliban Karzai government is still ruling Afghanistan. The US troops are still stationed in Afghan soil.
Movements Against Western Forces
Although the western forces were succeeded to overthrow the Taliban regime, they could not eradicate the followers of the Taliban from Afghanistan. They are still building up resistance movements against the Western occupation forces. They are carrying out sniff attacks on Anglo-US forces. The Taliban forces have been continuing guerilla warfare against the strongest western troops for over a decade. The Taliban military strategists made the western power deeply concerned. When they (three Western power) have felt that there is no way to eradicate the Taliban by military action, they have no other alternative but to think for changing their policy and strategies. And exactly the western powers are doing the same thing on Taliban issue. This has been crystal clear from some recent remarks of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. At a press conference on 17 June Hamid Karzai said that the western powers have started discussion and negotiations with the Taliban forces to establish peace ending one decade of arms confrontations. Although it was in the air for quite some times that the United States was trying to start negotiation with the Taliban force, this is for the first time that a high-level Afghan leader like Hamid Karzai admitted this publicly. But he informed that this discussion is still at initial stage. There may be some constructive talks when Afghan Affairs conference will take place in German capital Bonn in next December.
That the United States is going to change its stand on Taliban issue was sensed from some remarks of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the beginning of the current year. She, however, told about some pre-conditions of beginning peace talks with the Taliban forces. She said that before initiating any such peace negotiation, the Taliban must snap their relations with Al-Qaida operatives. Besides, Taliban have to accept the present constitution of Afghanistan. The Taliban, however, outright rejected Hillary's offer.
Al-Qaida’s Threat to the US
The present stand of the United States and its allies is irrevocable on the issue of Taliban. In this regard they are prepared not to give any concession to the Taliban extremists. On 2 May, the US troops entered deep into Pakistan territories and killed Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden. The incident is not end here.
The United States declared its vow to kill Egypt-origin Ayman Al-Jawhiri when he was elected leader of the Al-Qaida international terrorist operative to replace Osama Bin Laden. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of US army declared that Jawhiri would also have to face the same fate like that of Osama Bin Laden. As we have killed Ladin, we will do the same thing in case of Jawhiri, Admiral Mike said. He said that Al-Qaida was still great threat to the United States.
Prevailing Political Reality in Afghanistan
Political analysts viewed that the United States is going to change its stand on Taliban because of prevailing political reality in Afghanistan. The reflection of the attitude of the United States and its allies on Taliban and Afghanistan has also fallen on the United Nations. The UN Security Council has also adopted resolution to carryon more effectively and vigorously its war against terrorism giving new thought towards Taliban and Al-Qaida. The Security Council in this regard is considering two proposals. There is an agenda to take vote in the Security Council in this issue. In these proposals it was said that the Taliban and the Al-Qaida would have to consider under two separate perspectives. This is because these two organizations and extremists outfits do not have same agenda. The aim of the Al-Qaida is to attack on Western interests and to reach this objective they are lodging jihad (holy war). However, the objectives of the Taliban are limited to their own country. They seldom launch any attacks targeting the outside world. Present Chairman of the Security Council and German Ambassador to the United Nations, Peter Wig, while giving his comment on the resolutions taken by the Security Council in the first part of June last on Taliban and Al-Qaida said: "The decision of the security council to impose sanctions separately on Taliban and the Al-Qaida is the true reflection of the reality existing in Afghanistan."
War on Terror
Through taking divided resolution on Taliban and the Al-Qaida, it is presumed that situation has been fast changing in Afghanistan after the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Now time has come to give new thought. In the meantime the New York District Court has dismissed the cases filed against Laden on charge of terrorism owing to his death. Judge Luis Kaplan dismissed over 200 charges of terrorism, murders, use of weapons of mass destructions for killing civilian people brought against Osama Bin Laden. The charges brought against Ladin were dismissed by the court after being sure about his death.
Al-Qaida chief Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden is no more. He was replaced by Al-Jawhiri. Nothing as such new target of Al-Qaida was heard from the lips of Jawhiri until today. Although some hints were received about the change of attitude of the US Administration on the Taliban, no sign was noticed about the aggressive attitude of the United States against the Al-Qaida. However, there is indication of new formula of the United States over its declared the war on terror in cooperation with Pakistan.

The United States: World's Biggest Polluter

The global conference on environment was recently held in Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark. The conference discussed the issue of reducing the release of carbon dioxide and other such toxic gases that destroy the global environment. Today the world is confronting the major issue of environment. Some of the countries of the world have been blamed that they are producing a lot of material releasing carbon dioxide for their industrial development that is affecting the green house gases. This is causing an increase in global temperature. More than 1,500 envoys of the 192 countries participated in this conference. The importance of this issue could be judged from the fact that more than 100 head of states attended this conference. Similarly, more than 100,000 protesters were protesting against these hypocritical policies of the developed countries on streets. However, an important factor was not mentioned over there in the conference. How is it possible that the element responsible for spreading the environmental pollution could not be mentioned in the conference? This agency is playing havoc with the global environment by producing most of the carbon dioxide and other such toxic gases. This agency is US Defense Ministry or Pentagon. Pentagon is a geometrical shape having five sides. To the readers' interest, I must tell that as the US Defense Ministry building is of Pentagon shape, therefore, this building and the US Defense Ministry is called Pentagon.

Largest Oil Consumer
Pentagon is the world's largest oil consumer, its relevant materials and energy user in the world. Despite this fact, it is quite strange that the role of this agency has been shelved under the carpet in almost all global conferences on environment. The release of green house gases during war activities of Pentagon in Iraq and Afghanistan, its secret actions in Pakistan, the equipment used on its more than 1,000 bases spread all over the world, its 6,000 installations in the US, all NATO's operations, its huge aircraft carriers, jet fighters, tests and sales of weapons, sale of weapons and training of troops have never been attributed to the US Government. It has been proved through bulletin of 17 February 2007 that Pentagon is the largest oil consumer in the world. This bulletin contains the details of the jet fighters, ships, vehicles, and installations of Pentagon where oil is used. At that time, the US Navy had around 285 war and supporting ships and 4,000 jet fighters. The US military had approximately 28,000 armored vehicles and approximately 140,000 HMWV. More than 4,000 choppers, several hundreds of other planes, a fleet of 187,497 vehicles, nuclear submarines, huge ships, and aircraft carriers where jet fighters land and take off and they release radio active material in the atmosphere all the time. Moreover, thousands of other army vehicles also use oil. According to the CIA World Fact Book of 2006, there are 210 countries in the world and there are only 35 countries are using more oil than Pentagon. According to an officially released data, the US military uses approximately 321,000 barrels oil in a day and the quantity of that oil has not been counted, which is used by the Army-affiliated contractors or private agencies working on lease. The preparation of deadly weapons, bombs, grenades and missiles and unlimited energy used during their tests and other resources are besides this huge consumption. According to the report of Steve Kretzmann, director of the Oil Change International, approximately141 (MMTCO2e) was released in the air during Iraq war from March 2003 to December 2007.

Major Difficulties
Approximately 60 percent of the total gases released by all countries is released in areas where war is underway. Release of toxic gases is prohibited in war-torn areas under the US law. Therefore, scientists have to face several difficulties, while gathering this data. Bryan Farrell is considered an expert environmentalist and he has written in his book The Green Zone-The Environmental Cost of Militarism that "the great attacks on the environment of the each is launched by an agency, which is the US military". It is strange that the activities of the US Defense Ministry Pentagon have got exception in the global environmental conferences. It is also really a strange tale.
The global conference on environment held in Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997. The US Government imposed this condition, while signing the agreement that the US military action in the world, participation of the US military in UN missions, and US-NATO joint military actions would not be discussed in the global environmental conferences. Under the force of circumstances, the participants of the conference accepted this condition, so that the United State could sign this agreement. However, the United States adopted its deceptive posture, and when the entire world acknowledged its condition, it refused to sign the agreement. In this way, the United States deceptively removed its military actions from the agenda of any global conference in the world. This great concession has provided freehand to the United States in that it could play havoc with the environment of the world through its military action as much as it desires.

Impact of Toxic Gases and Materials
In addition to carbon dioxide, the US military is adding up several other toxic gases and materials in the soil and water. The US military is also using weapons that have been manufactured with less powerful uranium. These weapons were used on wholesale basis in the Middle East, Balkan, and some areas of the Central Asia. That spread thousands of pounds used material and radioactive particles in the areas. The US Government is also selling explosive mines and cluster bombs on wholesale basis. These bombs causing damages to farmers and common citizens after they are sprayed in the fields in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Thousands of people have been maimed due to this. Israel showered more than 100,000 US supplied cluster bombs on Lebanon in 2006.
Toxic and chemical material was spread on a vast area in Vietnam because of the US invasion. Because of that invasion, still the level of dioxin toxic gas is 300-400 above dangerous level. This is causing birth-disabilities to the newborn babies and diseases like cancer. The Iraqi land was the most fertile land in the Middle East since 5,000 years.

Environmental Pollution
However, the twice US invasion has devastated its fertility. Iraq used to supply food to other countries and now it imports more than 80 percent from aboard. We have not mentioned the nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. No agreement can decrease the environmental pollution, in which the US military actions are not included. The world should include the US military actions in its agenda.

US Fights Hard Counterterrorism War Like Fighting Cancer Cells

The case of a failed attempt to explode a US aircraft has forced President Barack Obama who is very cautious to avoid using the word "war", raised the topic of war again. This time, when he mentioned this war, he has also set off a domino effect in all international airports and all international flights. He has made everyone to believe that airplane disasters might just happen any minute.
Someone pointed out that Yemen has now become a new terrorist sanctuary. From Iraq to Afghanistan and to Yemen, the way the United States fights the terrorist cells is quite similar to the way a human body fights cancer cells. When a cancer patient tried to put all his effort by taking up a strategic position to hit at the cancer cell that seems to spread around; and when the cancer patient thought the cancer cell was almost eliminated, and when he thought that the fight against cancel seed was always over, little did he knew that the cancel cell has already move to another part of the body quietly.

Counter Terrorism
Similar to the way a human body tries to eliminate a cancer cells, the way to annihilate the terrorists will also need to waste massive financial and human resources. This is in addition to the reality that we have to waste many innocent lives.
The medical field has this to say: within our body there are some existing cancer cells. In the same token, we can also say that within every country there are some potential religious extremists hiding somewhere. The medical field also has this to say: the use of chemotherapy to combat cancer is a hard battle. If there is no natural therapy to supplement this hard battle, then when the cancer relapses, the physical condition of the patient will even become even more difficult to cure.
The US counterterrorism strategy has the similar effect as fight cancer. The US troops detained terrorist suspects, imposed severe torture on them. But there were also time we heard that they also arrested some innocent people, put them in prison for years without given them a fair trial or venue to redress their cases.

Influx of Prisoners of War
News sourced from the Pentagon said that an influx of prisoners of war who were released from the US Guantanamo camp now appearing in Yemen and participating in the jihad war there. We can understand this phenomenon absolutely. Among these jihadists, some of them can really be genuine terrorists who want to do their old business again. However, some of them may not be terrorists. Yet since the US troops arrested them and put them in prison for years, they might have cumulated and built up too much resentment in prison and would need some venue to vent out their anger on the United States. Therefore, they decided to join the jihadist groups in Yemen angrily in order to take retaliatory action against the United States.
So what is the natural therapy to combat terrorism? We have no answer. This is because the two involved parties only know how to keep adding heavy dose to fight the hard war.

Major Loopholes
We can still find many loopholes in the prevention of global terrorist attacks today. Not too long ago, a failed airport security test ended up with a Slovak man unwittingly carrying hidden explosives in his luggage on a flight to Dublin. If someone with explosives can go through arranged screening process, in an unexpected situation, the risk and possibility for terrorists to go through airport screening test can even be higher.
The way world nations carry out counter terrorism measure is very similar to the way cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. There is no guarantee efficacy.