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Lost in Translation - Afghanistan
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TO SEE MORE VISIT - http://www.guardian.co.uk/video
June 2008
US forces in Afghanistan face an unexpected enemy: the language barrier. They need villagers to cooperate but inaccurate translations keep defeating them. Here is one comically absurd example of failed communication.
An increasing number of Taliban rockets has been hitting Charlie Company. The source of the attacks was located near Mangratay, a small Afghan village. Sergeant Adams is sent to Mangratay to speak to the local elders about the attacks. As always, he finds a ghost town: 'everybody has just disappeared.' Finally, a man appears but he only speaks Pashto. Asked about the level of security in the area, he replies that 'there is no security'. Inexplicably, this gets translated to: 'We are fine; there are no problems here.' The translators have become empowered and inject their own interpretation into everything. Although the elder clearly indicates he wants to cooperate, the translator fails to convey his answers, And so it goes on. The old Afghan offers the American soldier a parable; 'The Taliban are like little ants, there is no way to keep them from the wheat' is translated to 'the Taliban are behind this mountain'. This is a familiar situation to Sergeant Adams, who leaves swearing and angry. A week later, more rockets hit the same area. Time after time the Americans and ordinary Afghans fail to understand one another. Never was the absurdity of war more obvious than here. |
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Ross Kemp in Afghanistan 1 1/5
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http://www.skyone.co.uk/rosskemp/
http://www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk/SOSAmazonAffiliation.html |
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TCW Afghanistan Rockstar
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Rockstar music video by TCW in Afghanistan |
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| Time:
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Kandahar Air Base - Afghanistan
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Produced July 2007
With many roads in Afghanistan too dangerous to use, helicopters play an integral part in NATO's strategy. The giant airbase in Kandahar has become a key staging post. But even this vast compound isn't safe from attack. |
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Afghanistan Soviet War (August 1988 fragment-1)
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http://www.ruswar.com/ Soviet Afghan war 1979-1989
Fragment of the documentary 'One day in the life of colonel Vasenin'
The last song in the video 'To the mountain peak' performed by Vladimir Vysotsky (Владимир Высоцкий)
Используется музыка из к/ф "Джентельмены Удачи", "Пираты XX века" (Зодиак - "Пасифик") |
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| Time:
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Taliban Country (2004) - US In Afghanistan Video Documentary
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Away from the glare of the media, in the most remote and dangerous parts of Afghanistan, U.S. marines are on a mission to hunt down the Taliban. But in many places their security sweeps are proving counterproductive. More and more villagers are alleging they have been abused by marines. Carmela Baranowska's Taliban Country is a rare and damning insight into what U.S. forces are doing in remote Afghanistan. For three weeks, Carmela was embedded with the U.S. Marines in their remote forward operating Base. Suspicious of what was really happening, Carmela later became the only person in 2004 to return and independently cover this area. She was reported kidnapped by the Taliban but the source of reports of an abandoned vehicle and Taliban abduction of a Western woman have never been uncovered. Carmela obtained disturbing testimony from local villagers, some of which echo the sexual abuse documented at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Naval Base. They fingered us, beat us and humiliated us, alleges villager Wali Mohammad. No Muslim should suffer that. He claims he was imprisoned for three days by the marines after soldiers raided his village and accused him of providing food and shelter to Al Qaeda. His elderly father, Noor Mohammad Lala, was also arrested. They took my clothes. I could not do anything, Noor confides. Both men claim they were sexually abused and forced to pose for photographs. I was so humiliated I couldn't see for my pain, states Noor. The marines raid on their village of Passau was so offensive that locals want the camera to record every indiscretion. They used this as a toilet, says one man gesturing at the floor of a home. Their wheat harvest was destroyed and the mosque door battered down. As a result of this raid, many people have already left the village. Almost all the families are gone, complains the tribal elder bitterly. Our people are being forced to pack up and leave. Stories of abuse have tainted the U.S. military's entire efforts in this region. A few weeks after the raid, Major Alva Cook, Head of Civic Operations, visited the area with gifts of medicine, seeds and a radio. He asked if we needed anything, recalls the village elder. And I said, Don't humiliate us. For the villagers, the actions of the marines allies are as much to be feared as raids by the marines themselves. Local warlord Jan Mohammad has allied with the marines to hunt down the Taliban. But villagers claim that he is exploiting his new American connections to harass villages which belong to a different tribe. Their tribe, in their areas, have never been searched, one man complains. His friend claims that Mohammad's men recently beat and imprisoned several young children in an attempt to gain information. Ironically, as well as searching for Taliban and Al Qaeda members, the marines are also on a hearts and minds campaign to convince the locals the Americans are their friends. During an earlier raid, Major Alva Cook apologised to tribal elders for the extra dust their vehicles have kicked up. He also provides medical assistance while soldiers crack jokes with local militias about the surrounding poppy fields. But if the aim of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan is to remove the Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants and allow the country to embrace true democracy, they clearly still have a long way to go. In this remote corner of the country they are turning the local people against them. Some are being driven to join what remains of the Taliban. As the village leader summed up, Enough is enough. These Americans must be accountable to someone. Taliban Country, in addition to winning the Walkley Prize, will be recognized at the International Festival of Biarritz. The broadcast of the documentary on Australian television has led to two U.S. military investigations. Director: Carmela Baranowska. Producer: Carmela Baranowska. Production Company: Carmela Baranowska. Public Domain Film. |
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The Oil Factor - Why are we in Afghanistan? O-I-L
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www.linktv.org
"The Oil Factor"
Why are we in Afghanistan? OIL!!!!
We wanted a huge oil pipeline to go from the Afghan-Pakistan region to the Indian Ocean and the Taliban was in our way. So we got them out of our way which is what 9/11 provided and now we get our oil pipeline. Simple!
The permanent US military bases all correspond to oil areas and they are so massive that they rival the permanent bases in Europe. Here is a clue- we aren't leaving Iraq/Afghanistan any time soon. And the war has all been for oil. Blood for oil...American blood for American oil...at least that's how the oil is seen by the Bush Administration. So that's why American soldiers are dying in Afghanistan...for a pipeline that the Taliban did not allow. The leader of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai was a consultant for Unocal Oil Company. DUH!
linktv.org
"The Oil Factor"
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| Time:
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Canadian Army in Afghanistan - Full Movie
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Canadian Army Operations between the 8th and 9th of July, 2006. |
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Ashraf Ghani: What Afghanistan REALLY needs from the world
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http://www.ted.com This passionate presentation by Ahsraf Ghani (former Finance Minister of Afghanistan) includes a 10-minute talk on mobilizing capital for state-building, followed by a 10-minute conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson on the future of Afghanistan. Ashraf Ghani is an expert on the economics of developing nations and post-conflict reconstruction. He was a candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 19:24) More TEDTalks at www.TED.com |
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| Time:
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AFGHANISTAN OPIUM: Financing the Enemy; Expanding the War
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The only important question is; how long will we be fooled into thinking those who engineer these kinds of wars are simpletons who have our best interests at heart? They tricked us into Vietnam with the Gulf of Tonkin scam and they did it again in Iraq with the WMD scam.
Step 1; Plant the seeds for the creation and development of a puppet global enemy. The Bush Sr. team financed and supplied both bin Laden and Saddam in the 1980s. The House of Saud helped with step 1.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/jan/17/yemen.islam
Step 2; make the puppet enemies angry.The Bush Sr. team set up military bases on Saudi holy land after giving Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait. The House of Saud helped with step 2.
Step 3; allow the puppet enemy to attack. 9/11 was allowed to happen.The House of Saud helped with step 3.
Step 4; make sure the puppet enemy has enough resources to keep up a good fight.That's where the billions of dollars flowing from Afghan opium comes into the game. Afghan opium pays for the IED'S that kill and wound our marines and soldiers yet USAGOV does not aerial spray (for eradication) the wide open Afghan opium fields like we do the Columbian coca fields.
Step 5; profiteer off the resulting conflict financially (high oil prices and corrupt defence contracts)and use the war to meet neo-con expansionist goals (permanent military bases throughout the middle east). The House of Saud is participating in step 5.
CIA says Afghan Opium Trafficking pays for al-Queda's world-wide terror attacks and also pays for the IED's that kill and cripple our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan:
http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2000/000203gt.pdf
Page #7 last paragraph in "Narcotics" section
Former CIA Director George Tenat;
"there is ample evidence that Islamic extremists such as Usama bin Ladin use profits from the drug trade to support their terror campaign."
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http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040121-101225-6688r.htm
back-up link
http://opioids.com/afghanistan/osama.html
"It seems clear to me heroin is the No. 1 financial asset of Osama bin Laden," Representative Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois
Republican, told The Washington Times almost 3 years ago when he came back from a fact-finding mission in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bin Laden is reaping $24 million alone from one narcotics network in Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to Mr. Kirk's investigation. "The most important thing here is to change the language to not describe Osama bin Laden anymore as a terrorist, but to more accurately describe him as a narco-terrorist," said Representative Kirk.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/02/world/main1962818.shtml
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-10-26-opium-afghanistan_x.htm
Doug Wankel, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who is point man for the U.S. counternarcotics initiative at the American Embassy in Kabul, says the opium industry is "financing terrorism. It's financing subversive activities. It's financing warlordism ." Wankel described the drug trade as a "national security threat to Afghanistan, the region and the world."
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http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/12/30daac23-6363-4dbd-aa74-b3938edd6ebd.html
U.S. Marine General James Jones, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO; "without funds from the opium trade, the Taliban wouldn't be able to afford to continue its insurgency."
Video sources;
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/execsummaryafg.pdf
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/terrorism/t_0019.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-10-26-opium-afghanistan_x.htm
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_158250.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/02/world/main1962818.shtml?CMP=ILC-SearchStories
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/3/28/95240.shtml
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/media/2006/10/1 |
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F-16 live fire exercise in Afghanistan
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F-16 live fire exercise. The vid shows a FAC team designating a target on the firing range near Pol E Khomri in Northern Afghanistan. F-16's get scrambled and fire their cannons.
Footage taken from Dutchmil. |
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| Time:
07:57 |
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I Parachute Battery, Helmand, Afghanistan
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A tribute....... Every Man an Emperor |
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08:11 |
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