As we wait for the bailout bill, sorry the rescue package, to be passed by our “country first” Congress, and as we wait for the low expectations debate tomorrow evening, one may wonder what is happening around the rest of our “interconnected” world.

Well, here is my quick perusal of headlines this morning:

First to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Los Angeles Times discusses how the insurgence in Afghanistan is escalating and how warlords now direct attacks against U.S. forces from havens in Pakistan, and how

Despite a flurry of U.S. airstrikes against their organizations and million-dollar bounties on their heads, the Pashtun chieftains have been able to operate, and even expand their networks, largely unmolested from bases spread along the border with Pakistan.

The New York Times reports that even General Petraeus admits to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan in “Insurgents in Afghanistan Are Gaining, Petraeus Says”, “Certainly in Afghanistan, wresting control of certain areas from the Taliban will be very difficult.”

While the Washington Post reports the good news that “Violence Declines Further in Iraq,“ it does also have some caveats:

Security gains remain “reversible and uneven,” with the main threats coming from Iranian-backed militias and the Shiite-led Iraqi government’s slow integration of volunteer Sunni fighters, according to a Pentagon report released yesterday. Potential is growing, moreover, for politically driven violence as ethnic, tribal and religious groups vie for influence in advance of provincial elections planned in coming months, according to the congressionally mandated quarterly Pentagon report on security in Iraq.

And the Philadelphia Enquirer reports:

The number of Iraqi security forces killed in September rose by nearly a third, to 159, compared with the same period last year, Associated Press figures showed yesterday. U.S. troop deaths for the same period fell by nearly 40 percent, to 25. The figures are a sign that the U.S. military is increasingly relying on the Iraqis, including U.S.-allied Sunni fighters, to take the lead in operations so they can assume responsibility for their own security and let the Americans eventually withdraw.

While the “political” talk is all about troop reductions in Iraq, the Seattle Times reports

Six Army brigades, a National Guard unit and three military headquarters have been ordered to Iraq next summer in a move that would allow the U.S. to keep the number of troops largely steady there through much of next year.The planned deployments involve about 26,000 troops and would maintain 14 combat brigades in Iraq from about February to early fall. But the decisions do not rule out potential changes as military leaders assess the security there and eye more troop withdrawals.Even as violence in Iraq has plunged in the past year, cautious Pentagon leaders have resisted insistent public and congressional calls for more rapid and hefty troop pullouts. Instead, top commanders insist the security situation remains fragile, and the improvements reversible.

The Washington Times reports that,

The United States needs new weapon systems, including missile defenses and other advanced military capabilities, to deter and counter China’s steady buildup of nuclear and conventional arms, according to a draft internal report by a State Department advisory board. U.S. defense policy has stressed missile defenses against Iran and North Korea. The report, by the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), is the first to recommend such defenses against China, including technology in space.

Should China now be added to the Axis of Evil?

Talking about weapons systems, U.S. weapons exports rose about 45 percent to $33.7 billion in the just-ended fiscal year, the highest total since 1993, as the Defense Department increased sales in the Middle East to improve security in the region. This according to Bloomberg.com

One of the beneficiaries of such weapons systems sales is our ally, Israel.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Pentagon Aims to Sell Israel Fighter Jets,” as much as $15 billion worth of them:

The Defense Department formally notified Congress that it wants to sell Israel as many as 75 of the latest-model fighter jet, which is being developed under a contract led by #Lockheed Martin Corp. A sale could be worth as much as $15 billion. It would mark the first order from outside the original team of countries working on the jet, the F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter.

On the continuing Somali Pirates Caper, the New York Times reports that the “Somali Pirates Tell All: They’re In It For The Money.”:

The Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition said in an interview on Tuesday that they had no idea the ship was carrying arms when they seized it on the high seas.
“We just saw a big ship,” the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, said in a telephone interview. “So we stopped it.”
The pirates quickly learned, though, that their booty was an estimated $30 million worth of heavy weaponry, heading for Kenya or Sudan, depending on whom you ask.

Perhaps unrelated to this, but potentially very applicable and ominous, the Navy Times reports in “AfriCom goes operational”:

After spending the past year under the wing of European Command, the fledgling U.S. Africa Command became fully operational Wednesday — even as it remains headquartered in the middle of Europe.
Stuttgart, Germany, is not the likeliest location for this hybrid military-civilian command that hopes to promote security ties between the U.S. and African nations, help build Africa’s ability to fight terrorism and piracy and focus on “war prevention rather than war fighting,” as AfriCom’s Web site proclaims.
But concerns among both U.S. and African officials about establishing a permanent American presence on the continent combined to block an effort to place even part of its headquarters in Africa.

Finally, talking about (Stuttgart) Europe, and recalling that Russia-Georgia conflict a long, long time ago, the New York Times reports that:

The European Union on Wednesday began deploying 200 civilian monitors across parts of Georgia, witnesses and officials said, despite earlier threats by the Russian military to bar them from buffer zones surrounding the separatist enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

A European Union official said that the unarmed monitors had been allowed through Russian checkpoints at several places to enter the buffer zone. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

If TMV readers express and interest for similar, albeit somewhat “militaristic”, summaries of what is happening in the world outside US, stay tuned.