Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets today to protest the so-called Status of Forces Agreement, which, after nearly a year of back-and-forth, was finally approved by the Iraqi cabinet last weekend, and, on Monday, sent to the parliament for a vote.  

Among other things, the pact would allow the U.S. government to keep forces in the country until 2011.  

For photos of the protest, go here.  

"The Iraqi people want this occupation to be over," says Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar, who recently testified before Congress on the prospect of a renewed UN mandate in Iraq. "They don't trust the U.S. government, and they don't think signing a bi-lateral agreement with it is a good idea."

Meanwhile, as President-elect Barack Obama continues to assemble his own cabinet, things aren't looking good for the antiwar voters who believed his promise of "change" on Iraq.  

Not only is he surrounding himself with people who were supporters of the invasion - most notably, selecting Senator Hillary to be Secretary of State - but Washington consensus is that Robert Gates will stay on as Secretary of Defense.

More than 90 lorries supplying Western forces in Afghanistan have been set on fire in a suspected militant attack in north-west Pakistan, police say.

Police said at least one person was killed as more than 250 gunmen using rockets overpowered the guards at a terminal near the city of Peshawar.

Some of the lorries were laden with Humvee armoured vehicles.

There have been a series of attacks on convoys recently - although not on this scale, says the BBC's Martin Patience.

The road from Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces battling against the Taleban.

A US spokesman, Lt Col Rumi Nielsen-Green, said the incident was "militarily insignificant".

"So far there hasn't been a significant loss or impact to our mission," she said.

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Translation: "The War in Afghanistan being on track to nowhere, the attack has had no effect on us getting there..."

See toon at top. 

America's CIA has found a novel way to gain information from fickle Afghan warlords - supplying sex-enhancing drug Viagra, a US media report says.

The Washington Post said it was one of a number of enticements being used.

In one case, a 60-year-old warlord with four wives was given four pills and four days later detailed Taleban movements in return for more.

"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people," the Post quoted one agent as saying.

"Whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra."

'Silver bullet'

The newspaper said the use of Viagra had to be handled sensitively as the drug was not always known about in rural areas.

It quoted one retired agent as saying: "You didn't hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones."

read more at Chris Floyd...

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It is remarkable, and scary, to read the US military writing about how it goes around the world bringing "stability" to (often ungrateful) people.  This past October the Army published a manual called "Stability Operations".  It discusses numerous American interventions all over the world since the 1890s, one example after another of bringing "stability" to benighted peoples.  One can picture the young American service members reading it, or having it fed to them in lectures, full of pride to be a member of such an altruistic fighting force.

For those members of the US military in Afghanistan the  most enlightening lesson they could receive is that their government's plans for that land of sadness have little or nothing to do with the welfare of the Afghan people.  In the late 1970s through much of the 1980s, the country had a government that was relatively progressive, with full rights for women; even a Pentagon report of the time testified to the actuality of women's rights in the country.  And what happened to that government?  The United States was instrumental in overthrowing it.  It was replaced by the Taliban.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, US oil companies have been vying with Russia, Iran and other energy interests for the massive, untapped oil and natural gas reserves in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.  The building and protection of oil and gas pipelines in Afghanistan, to continue farther to Pakistan, India, and elsewhere, has been a key objective of US policy since before the 2001 American invasion and occupation of the country, although the subsequent turmoil there has presented serious obstacles to such plans. 

President Barack Obama has authorised the deployment of up to 17,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan, saying they are to "meet urgent security needs".

Two brigades - one army and one marine - are to be sent, Mr Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

This first major troop deployment under Mr Obama comes as his administration reviews US policy in Afghanistan.

He has vowed to focus US military efforts on fighting the Taleban in Afghanistan, rather than on Iraq.

The additional troops to be sent to Afghanistan had originally been scheduled to go to Iraq.

"The fact that we are going to responsibly drawdown our forces in Iraq allows us the flexibility to increase our presence in Afghanistan," Mr Obama said.

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see toon at top...

Meanwhile

High cops

Sixty per cent of the Afghan police in the country's southern province of Helmand use drugs, it is claimed.

The estimate, made by a UK official working in the province, was contained in emails obtained by the BBC.

International forces are fighting a fierce counter-insurgency campaign against Taleban militants and other insurgents in Helmand.

But British officials are clearly worried about the reliability of the Afghan police.

But:

Hundreds of British and Afghan troops have seized heroin and drug-making chemicals in Afghanistan with a street value of more than £50m.

Defence Secretary John Hutton praised the troops' bravery and said the seizures in Helmand province would starve the Taleban of funding.

The raids on four drug factories, involving 700 troops, would also stop the drugs reaching UK streets, he said.

Three rival Pakistani Taliban groups have agreed to form a united front against international forces in Afghanistan in a move likely to intensify the insurgency just as thousands of extra US soldiers begin pouring into the country as part of Barack Obama's surge plan.

The Guardian has learned that three of the most powerful warlords in the region have settled their differences and come together under a grouping calling itself Shura Ittihad-ul-Mujahideen, or Council of United Holy Warriors.

Nato officers fear that the new extremist partnership in Waziristan, Pakistan's tribal area, will significantly increase the cross-border influx of fighters and suicide bombers - a move that could undermine the US president's Afghanistan strategy before it is formulated.

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see toon at top...

Nato has agreed to resume high-level contacts with Russia, working with what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called a "greater unity of purpose".

Russia welcomed the move, six months after Nato froze contacts over the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Mrs Clinton stressed Afghanistan, which she called "Nato's biggest military challenge", was a mutual concern.

She has raised the idea of a conference on the issue, with the participation of "all stakeholders", including Iran.

"If we move forward with such a meeting, it is expected that Iran would be invited as a neighbour of Afghanistan," she said.

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see toon at top.

From Fisk

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I do know that the Syrians quite recently complained mightily to the Americans as well as the Canadians. First, the West sent its prisoners to be tortured in Damascus – and then complained that Syria abused human rights! Quite so. Bashar Al-Assad has put a stop to quite a lot of torture in Syria and now that President Obama is sending his cohorts to woo the Syrians, they presumably won't be called on to do America's (or Canada's) dirty work any more.

But I want to know why those complicit in Almalki's torture – the letter writers, the composers of questions – cannot be tried in court. They are, at the least, accomplices to human rights abuses. So are the Brits who went to question tortured men in Guantanamo. Even more so are the American perverts who indulged in their own torture in Afghanistan and Iraq – and yes, I have noted that our dear President Obama is allowing the illegal detention of prisoners at Bagram in Afghanistan to continue. But what else would you expect from a man whose secretary of state, Lady Hillary, far from going to the Palestinians whose homes were going to be destroyed by the Israelis in Jerusalem and denouncing this outrage, said merely that the home demolitions were "unhelpful".

...

Abdullah Almalki drove me to Ottawa airport in the snow after our breakfast, admitting that he was still too mentally broken by his months of Syrian torture to find employment. CSIS doesn't follow him any more as he says it used to before he left Canada for Asia and then the the hell of Syria. No one tailed our car. No one says any more that Almalki is guilty. On the other hand, no one will say he is innocent. But there are an awful lot of men in Western governments who should be in the dock. They won't be, of course. And oh yes – just in case you missed it – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just admitted that Canadian troops in Afghanistan are not going to win a military victory there. Just think. All that torture – for nothing.

see toon at top

Russia has agreed to return to the war in Afghanistan at the request of the Western states which helped the mujahedin to drive its forces out of the country 21 years ago.

The Independent has learnt that Moscow is engaged in training the Afghan army and counter-narcotics troops and has agreed in principle to supply Nato with helicopters for use in Afghanistan.

A number of aircraft have already been sold to Poland, a member of the US-led coalition, for use in the conflict. Now Nato is in talks with the Russians over direct supplies of more helicopters, training the pilots, and allowing arms and ammunition to be transported through Russian territory as an alternative to a Pakistani route which has come under repeated Taliban attack.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/exclusive-afghanistan-russia-steps-in-to-help-nato-2117468.html

see toon at top... and this one too...