I have had the privilege of writing at The Moderate Voice for about two-and-a-half years.
Looking back at what I have written, a few things become apparent.
First, it is incredible how much can happen in such a relatively short period of time.
Second, it is interesting how some things never change or take an awful long time to do so.
Third, it is humbling—perhaps embarrassing—to see how many subjects and issues one starts writing about but then fails to update them, close the loop on, or follow them to the bitter end.
Finally, it is intriguing to see how many events and issues that at one time captured our imagination and the nation’s attention eventually fizzle out or disappear from the headlines without the public knowing or enquiring about the final outcome of such stories.
As a contributor of more than 700 stories to TMV, I am guilty of all of the above.
Even if I would devote myself 24/7 to updating the stories that have “fallen through the crack,” I would not be able to get to half of them.
Since I will not be contributing much more to this great blog (thundering applause and cheers from my critics), I thought that I would briefly review those issues or events that have fallen off that famous “radar screen” in hopes that other contributors or readers might provide some “closure.”
But, believe me, I am keenly and painfully aware that many of these issues may be of little or no interest to many of our readers—reader feedback should quickly make that clear.
This post is in three parts. (Hang in there)
Finally, I wish all our readers a very Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous holiday season.
International Affairs/Foreign Policy
The breaking news this summer was that nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — had been “discovered” in war-torn Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and “enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself,” according to senior American government officials.
While everyone agrees that it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the question begs: Will this discovery attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, possibly affecting the course of the war?
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On a related vein and around the same time as the Afghanistan minerals “discovery,” Pakistani and Indian designs on, rivalries and competing objectives with respect to Afghanistan and the war were hot topics of discussion.
I personally was not aware of the extensive and important role India has been playing in Afghanistan, albeit largely behind the scenes. A role that has already cost India dearly in the form of its embassy’s bombings and attacks both on Indian construction crews and on guest houses frequented by Indians in Afghanistan.
Have recent developments in Afghanistan, including Petraeus-implemented or initiated strategies and tactics changes, respectively, affected this “shadow war” being waged in Afghanistan by both Pakistan and India?
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Just before Christmas last year, a Ugandan legislator sponsored legislation to impose the death penalty on gays living with HIV and for other “gay offenses.” Following wide international condemnation, President Museveni appointed a committee to review the legislation. While the committee recommended various changes to the bill, it still included the provision that promotion of homosexuality be criminalized. There are reports that, notwithstanding the committee’s recommendations, the bill is still a Uganda Parliament private member’s bill and can still be passed, in its original form.
What are the prospects for this legislation?
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For a few days in August, speculation about an Israeli air strike against Iranian nuclear facilities ran rampant. First, the expected date was sometime in the spring of 2011, then—as reports of an imminent fueling of the Bushehr nuclear facility spelled Armageddon—the speculation about an imminent strike went ballistic.
(Approximately a year earlier the Center for Strategic and International Studies had already laid out a “roadmap” for such an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities)
Was the Obama administration, citing evidence of continued troubles inside Iran’s nuclear program, right in persuading Israel that it would take roughly a year — and perhaps longer — for Iran to complete what one senior official called a “dash” for a nuclear weapon?
Have White House assurances dimmed the prospects that Israel will preemptively strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities within the next year?
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The “Darfur Conflict”—the genocide in Darfur is a better term—has now been going on for seven years and has claimed an estimated 300,000 lives. More than 2.7 million people have been driven from their homes, and let’s not even talk about the plundering, the rapes and the inhumanity…
The Bush administration declared in 2004 that genocide was unfolding in Darfur and made it “its top priority.”
On 2008, President-elect Obama said “I will make ending the genocide in Darfur a priority from Day One. It is a collective stain on our national and human conscience that the genocide in Sudan, now starting its sixth year, has gone on for far too long.”
Has the Darfur “conflict” been placed on the back burner awaiting the results of the January 2011 North-South political referendum, when it is expected that the Southern Sudanese will overwhelmingly vote for secession from the North? (It is important to remember that Southern Sudan has most of the oil that drives Sudan’s economy.)
Could the referendum or its results trigger a war and renewed bloodletting and genocide that will make the present Darfur “conflict” look like child’s play?
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Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, Europe’s best known counter-terrorism magistrate, took the first steps last year towards opening a criminal investigation into allegations that a team of lawyers at the White House and Pentagon violated international law by creating the legal framework that justified the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo and the use of torture in the war against terrorism.
Garzón was suspended in May 2010, but given permission to work at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
What is Garzón’s status and what has happened to the investigations?
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A little more than 11 years ago, after what is now referred to as “the forgotten war,” U.S. and other allied troops entered Kosovo under a United Nations Security Council Mandate. The mission: establish and maintain a secure environment in Kosovo.
At the peak, the U.S. had approximately 7,000 troops in-country.
By the end of May of this year, only 830 U.S. troops were to remain in Kosovo.
What are the security conditions in Kosovo today and do we still have American troops there?
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.