South African Cops Attack Unarmed Soldiers Protesting Low Wages:

“Many Have Threatened To Return With Their Own Rifles To Retaliate”

“Footage From A Local Television Station Shows Police Firing Into The Crowd”

“The Demonstrators Responded By Hurling Firebombs At Police Vehicles”

The Citizen Photo

8.26.09 The Associated Press & The Citizen & DPA & Primedia Broadcasting & Al Jazeera

A virtual war broke out in the in the streets of Pretoria, the capital, yesterday with AWOL soldiers storming the Union Building government premises.

There was now the potential that military bases were unprotected and that there was a lack of troops to support police if necessary.

Dozens of police and military vehicles set on fire or were damaged.

Demonstrating soldiers are furious police opened fire on them with stun grenades and rubber bullets.

Many have threatened to return with their own rifles to retaliate.

About 2 000 soldiers have been protesting over wage packages.

The South African National Defence Union [the soldiers’ union] was demanding a 30 per cent increase in pay and better working conditions.  The union is not officially recognised by the government.

The trouble began when soldiers demanded to get inside the Union Buildings’ south lawn.

There was a stand-off with military police and the SA Police Services, with soldiers threatening to retaliate if the police shot at them.

Soldiers then found one of the gates to the buildings unmanned and ran inside. While they were sitting on the lawn, police started shooting at them with rubber bullets, resulting in a stampede.

In addition to injuries caused by rubber bullets, some soldiers broke their hands and feet when they jumped over the fence.

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas.

A policeman and several soldiers were injured.

A police vehicle was set alight and a number of other cars were also damaged in violence during the daylong protest.

Defense Minister Lindiwe Sisulu condemned the violence and said the soldiers' action was a "threat to national security."

Police tried to disperse over 1,000 soldiers who had converged on the lawns of the Union Buildings, the seat of government, even after a court denied them permission to hold their march.

Footage from a local television station shows police firing into the crowd, forcing the protesters against a fence.

Many protesters retreated back over the fence, and police continued firing across a busy thoroughfare near many embassies and hotels.

The demonstrators responded by hurling firebombs at police vehicles.

The protest ended at about 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) when police warned that more force would be used, the South African Press Association reported.

Sisulu told reporters in Cape Town that she had instructed the head of the defense force to immediately suspend protesters.

Two soldiers had been arrested and handed over to the military police, she said.

The striking soldiers announced they would hold further protests.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Local Fallen Solider Remembered As Hero Of Adventures

08/20/09 ABC 33/40 News

Pinson - A Pinson family is on the way to Dover Air Force Base to pick up a loved-one.

23 year old Pfc. William VanOsdol was killed by wounds suffered during an enemy rocket fire in Iraq on Wednesday.

Friends say he had a fascination with heroes and ordinary people who did extraordinary things, which is exactly what he did when he enlisted.

Michael Taylor met VanOsdol at Erwin High School and even thought about enlisting with his friend after graduation.

"I'd always heard my grandparents went into the army together and heard all the great war stories.  I just thought it'd be neat to do it together," said Taylor, VanOsdol's best friend.

On Wednesday, VanOsdol was killed in Iraq when an enemy rocket hit his quarters.

Taylor says he now questions his decision not to go.

"I'm kind of mixed. Maybe if I'd been there I could've helped. But then again knowing the situation, I don't think there is nothing I could have done," said Taylor.

Pinson Valley High School Assistant Principle Karen Mardis only knew him for a few years after he transferred to the high school. But she believes he was living the epic battle he dreamed of her English class.

"When William really lit up is when we were talking about literature, especially stories about heroes or people who came from common backgrounds to do extraordinary things to change the world," said Mardis.  "This may have been an end he would have chosen to make. He was a hero of adventures and heroism."

But it's certainly not the end anyone had expected.

"He'd already started working on the best man speech and told me about it. I already made him a promise two and a half years ago that I was going to let him to do the speech for me. I don't know what I'm going to do," said Taylor who is engaged and now planning a wedding for next year without his best friend at his side.

VanOsdol was stationed with the 172nd Support Battalion out of Germany.

VanOsdol will be buried in Alabama.  No word on funeral arrangements.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Four U.S. Troops Killed By “Bomb” Somewhere Or Other In Afghanistan

Aug 26, 2009 AP

A bombing killed four U.S. service members Tuesday. 

At least 172 American troops have died in the Afghan war this year -- the deadliest since the conflict began in 2001.

August on pace to be the deadliest month of the war for the U.S. military.

The deaths bring to 43 the number of U.S. troops killed this month. Last month was the deadliest of the war, when 45 U.S. troops died.

Two U.S. Troops Killed Wednesday In Afghanistan

26 Aug. 2009 ISAF Public Affairs Office & BBC

KABUL, Afghanistan - Two U.S. service members died today in separate incidents that occurred in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

One U.S. service member died as a result of an Improvised Explosive Device detonation in southern Afghanistan.

A second was killed in a hostile fire attack in eastern Afghanistan.

U.S. Soldier From Canada Killed In Afghanistan

August 24, 2009 CBC News

People from the Big River First Nation are mourning the death of Cpl. Darby Morin, a soldier serving with the U.S. army.

Morin, 25, was killed last weekend in Afghanistan.

Morin's family told CBC News that Morin fought with the U.S. army for four years.

His body will be flown to Philadelphia.  It will then be taken to the Big River First Nation for burial next week.

Big River First Nation is about 140 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.

Massive Explosion Shakes Kandahar;

“The Bomb Went Off Near A Guest House Frequented By Foreigners, Near The Kandahar Provincial Intelligence Headquarters”

Afghans and policemen at the bomb blast site in Kandahar on August 25. With the Taliban-led insurgency at record levels, the Islamist rebels were blamed for setting off a truck bomb in the heart of the southern city which killed at least 43 people and wounded 65, almost all civilians.  (AFP/Hamed Zalmy)

Aug 25 by Hameed Zalmai, AFP & Aug 26, 2009 AP & BBC & CNN & AP

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – A massive bomb ripped through Afghanistan's troubled southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday, killing 36 people.

The thundering explosion occurred just after nightfall Tuesday.

The bomb went off near a guest house frequented by foreigners, near the Kandahar provincial intelligence headquarters and less than a kilometre from the home of Ahmad Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The Interior Ministry said the blast was from remote-controlled explosives planted in a truck.  Local officials had said a cluster of five vehicle bombs caused the blast.

More than 60 were hurt as buildings collapsed in the city centre attack.

The blast was so intense that windows shattered in homes a kilometer (0.62 miles) away.

"It felt like an earthquake. The power went off and there was a huge explosion," said Agha Lalai, a member of the Kandahar provincial council.

MORE:

A Second Attack In Kandahar Hits Provincial Council Offices

26 August 2009 BBC

A blast has been reported in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a day after the country's deadliest bombing for a year killed some 43 people there.

The explosion was reported close to the site of Tuesday's car bomb attack.

There are reports of casualties. A local official told the BBC the injured were being taken to hospital.

The blast was said to have happened next to Kabul Bank.

Shops were in flames next to the building, an al-Jazeera journalist reported from the city, and mobile phone footage sent to the BBC shot from a location 500m (a third of a mile) from the scene showed a fire burning.

Rescuers are still searching for survivors in the rubble of buildings destroyed in Tuesday's attack, which left more than 60 people injured.

The explosion struck close to the offices of the Kandahar provincial council. Windows across the city were shattered by the force of the blast.

Some reports said bombs were packed in cars that exploded simultaneously, others that a truck or tanker had been used.

MORE:

The Kandahar Follies Roll On:

Incompetent Fools Running The Afghan Occupation Three Steps Behind, As Usual:

As Massive Attacks Rock Kandahar, Idiots In Command Of U.S. Forces Announce “A High-Stakes Wager That The Afghans Have The Ability To Keep Kandahar Safe”

“U.S. Military Officials” Admit They Sent Reinforcements To The Wrong Parts Of Afghanistan, Leaving Kandahar Open To Attacks

AUGUST 27, 2009 By YOCHI J. DREAZEN, The Wall Street Journal [Excerpts]

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The U.S. and its allies are planning to reinforce Afghan police and army units guarding Kandahar with American and Canadian troops, a move that acknowledges the deteriorating condition of the south's largest city.

According to senior military officials, U.S. and Canadian soldiers will for the first time deploy to bases on the outskirts of the city. The local Afghan forces will be bolstered by an expanded number of embedded American trainers.

The plan represents a high-stakes wager that the Afghans have the ability to keep Kandahar safe, a mission they and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces have so far largely been unable to accomplish.

It is also a tacit admission that the U.S. and its NATO allies erred by sending troops to sparsely inhabited parts of eastern and southern Afghanistan instead of to major population centers, such as Kandahar.

NATO has grown increasingly concerned about Taliban encroachment into Kandahar, the militant group's spiritual birthplace.

Nearly 4,000 Marines are embroiled in a major offensive in neighboring Helmand province and military officials say the Taliban appear to have taken advantage of the fighting to infiltrate the city with significant numbers of operatives.

In a sign of the escalating violence that has accompanied election season, Kandahar was rocked Tuesday by five simultaneous car bombs that killed at least 41 people and wounded at least 66, the Associated Press reported, citing local officials.

The Taliban run shadow courts throughout the city, tax local businesses and have stepped up an assassination campaign against government officials, according to U.S. officials.

In recent interviews, several longtime residents of the city said that Taliban militants were routinely posting on walls and handing out so-called night letters threatening violence against those who don't abide by their decrees [translation: against those who collaborate with the foreign occupation of their nation].

Kandahar is one of the largest cities in Afghanistan, with a population estimated at more than 800,000.  The Taliban's fugitive leader, Mullah Omar, was born in Kandahar and ran Afghanistan's government from the city during the Taliban's years of power here.

Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in southern Afghanistan, said American and NATO officials opted against flooding the city with foreign troops.

"We assess that putting coalition soldiers into the city on a large scale would be counterproductive and would feed into enemy propaganda that the government was just being propped up," he said.  [So, send in the troops, lose the city.  Keep the troops out, lose the city.  That’s the whole stupid, hopeless Imperial war in Afghanistan in a short burst.]

He said the bulk of the American reinforcements will be deployed to new bases on the main approaches into the city, population centers in their own right.  Additional forces will be sent to the Arghandab River Valley, a fertile region of the province that also houses a significant share of the area's population, he said.

In the past, American and NATO commanders focused on battling Taliban militants, stationing forces in violent and sparsely populated areas of the country.

That strategy, combined with the troop shortage, left larger population centers vulnerable.

British Soldier Dies In UK From Wounds Sustained In Sangin

25 Aug 09 Ministry of Defence

It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that a British soldier from 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers died at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Selly Oak, today, Tuesday 25 August 2009.

The soldier died from wounds he sustained in an explosion while on a foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand province on the evening of Saturday 15 August 2009.

Resistance Action

A vehicle used by the Kunduz justice ministry director burns after an explosion in Kunduz province north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug 26, 2009.  Sayed Jahangir, the justice ministry director for Kunduz province, was killed when his car exploded while driving to work in the provincial capital.  (AP Photo)

August 23, 2009 AFP

On Saturday an Afghan army officer driving back to Kabul from leave in Kandahar, the old Taliban capital in the south, was killed when gunmen opened fire around Shash Gaw in central Afghanistan, the defence ministry said.

The head of the justice department for northern Kunduz province was killed when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Kunduz city, the Interior Ministry said. There were no other casualties.

One Pakistani engineer was killed and two were wounded when militants attacked their vehicle as they were travelling through northeastern Baghlan province, provincial security official Majid Khan said.

A roadside bomb killed one Afghan soldier and wounded two in Mohammad Agha district of Logar province, south of the capital, Kabul, on Monday, the Defence Ministry said.

Two More Down

A burned Pakistani tanker, which was carrying fuel foreign occupation forces fighting in Afghanistan, after it was attacked by militants on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan Aug. 26, 2009.  (AP Photo/Mohammad Iqbal)

A burning Pakistani tanker which was carrying fuel for foreign occupation forces fighting in Afghanistan, after it was attacked by militants in an area of Pakistani Khyber tribal region, Aug. 26, 2009.  (AP Photo/Qazi Tariq)

BEEN ON THE JOB TOO LONG:

ALL HOME, NOW:

U.S. Marines from 5th Marines patrol in a town in the Nawa district of Afghanistan's Helmand province July 6, 2009.  (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

U.S. soldier of 10th Mountain Division at Combat Operation Outpost (COP) Conlon in the mountains of Wardak Province in Afghanistan July 14, 2009.  REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

U.S. soldier at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shank in Logar Province in Afghanistan July 20, 2009.  REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov

A U.S. 4ID Task Force Mountain Warrior after an operation near Michigan camp, at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province, August 18, 2009.  REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A U.S. soldier 4ID Task Force Mountain Warrior during an operation near Michigan camp, at the Pesh valley of Kunar Province, August 17, 2009.  REUTERS/Carlos Barria

TROOP NEWS

NOT ANOTHER DAY

NOT ANOTHER DOLLAR

NOT ANOTHER LIFE

Aug. 19, 2009: A U.S. soldier from 10th Mountain Division based out of Fort Drum, N.Y., helps evacuate a wounded soldier after their armored vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan's Wardak Province.  (AP Photo/David Goldman)

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.  Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

Frederick Douglass, 1852