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According to the latest quarterly report to Congress by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which covers the final months of the Obama administration, about one-third of the country is considered contested.

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Previously USFOR-A [U.S. Forces in Afghanistan] has described contested districts as having negligible meaningful impact from insurgents, contending that neither the insurgency nor the Afghan government maintains significant control over these areas, notes SIGAR.

The U.S. military revealed that more than half (57 percent) of southern Afghanistans opium-rich Helmand Province, which borders Pakistan, is under insurgent control or influence.

Moreover, five out of the six districts (83 percent) in Uruzgan Province which lies next to the Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds of Helmand Province and Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan are under insurgent control or influence.

Kandahar is considered the birthplace of the Taliban.

The Afghan government only controlled or influenced about 57 percent of the countrys 407 districts as of mid-November 2016, marking a nearly 15 percent decrease from the same period the previous year.

Citing the U.S. military, SIGAR explains:

[O]f the 407 districts of Afghanistans 34 provinces, 233 districts were under government control (83 districts) or influence (150), 41 districts (in 15 provinces) were under insurgent control (9) or influence (32), and 133 districts were contested.

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USFOR-A attributes the loss of government control or influence over territory to the ANDSFs [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] strategic approach to security prioritization, identifying the most important areas that the ANDSF must hold to prevent defeat, and focusing less on areas with less strategic importance.

The U.S. military notes that the number of districts under insurgent control or influence rose 2 percent from late August to mid-November 2016, to nearly 10 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of districts that have been deemed contested increased nearly 4 percent to about 33 percent of all districts during the same period.

SIGAR learned from United Nations (UN) that Afghanistans security situation further deteriorated between January and October 2016, with intensifying armed clashes between the Afghan security forces and the Taliban.

Armed confrontations between the U.S.-Afghan security forces which include police and army units and insurgents, primarily the Taliban reached their highest level since UN reporting began in 2007, and marked a 22% increase over the same period in 2015, adds the watchdog agency. The Taliban continued to challenge government control in key districts and attempted to cut off strategically important highways and supply routes.

The UN recorded 6,261 security incidents in Afghanistan between August and November 2016, representing a nearly 10 percent increase from the same period in 2015.

As in past UN reporting, armed clashes account for the majority of the security incidents (65%), followed by those involving improvised- explosive devices [IEDs] (18%). During the period, the majority of the recorded security incidents (66%) continued to occur in the southern, southeastern, and eastern regions that border neighboring Pakistan.

Most of the districts under insurgent control or influence lie in provinces in and around Afghanistans border with Pakistan, which the Pentagon has repeatedly accused of serving as asanctuary for terrorists.

The region with the most districts under insurgent control or influence is centered on northeast Helmand Province and northwestern Kandahar Province, and includes the Helmand/Kandahar border area, Uruzgan Province, and northwestern Zabul, reports SIGAR. This region alone accounts for 16 of the 41 districts (or 31.7%) under insurgent control or influence.

Despite the governments loss of territory and insurgents gains, the U.S. forces in Afghanistan noted that the insurgents failed in their eight attempts to capture a provincial capital this year, points out the inspector general.

Furthermore, the U.S. military found that the amount of population that the insurgency influences or controls decreased from 2.9 million to 2.5 million (a decrease of 1.2%) in the last three months, adds SIGAR.

In its last assessment of the Afghanistan war conducted by the Obama administration, which was released in December 2016, the Pentagon downplayed the insurgent gains.

Taliban territorial gains during this reporting period were fleeting, as the ANDSF consistently retook district centers and population areas within days of a loss, the Pentagon reports. Although security conditions vary across the provinces, the Taliban have exploited their localized and temporary successes by portraying these events as major strategic shifts through the use of social media and other public information campaigns.

The ANDSF largely repelled insurgent attacks in Helmand Province and several attempts to isolate Kunduz City in July, August, and October 2016, it adds. Although the ANDSF experienced minor setbacks during these and other insurgent offensives, they frequently regained lost terrain.

Read more from the original source:
Afghanistan Loses Control of Nearly Half the Country Under Obama - Breitbart News

The government barely controls half its country, hundreds of thousands have fled their homes due to conflict and opium production is at a historic high in Afghanistan. Thats just a glimpse of Afghanistans spiral of dysfunction, compiled by the U.S. government watchdog that oversees the billions of dollars the United States pours into Afghanistan each year.

In a new quarterly report to Congress released Wednesday, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) office, John Sopko, outlined a stark backslide in progress in Afghanistan a country the United States has sunk over $117 billion in since 2002.

Just over a week into his new administration, President Donald Trump hasnt solidified his foreign policy priorities outside of boosting military spending and defeating ISIS. But in Afghanistan, Trump is inheriting a costly and messy conflict from his two predecessors, as the SIGAR report shows.

Among the most damning aspects of the SIGAR report:

The Afghan government had 57.2 percent of the country under its control by the end of 2016 a 6.3 percent decrease from 2015. That doesnt bode well, given the number of Afghan security forces is decreasing while its casualties are increasing.

583,000 people fled their homes due to conflict in 2016. SIGAR added that that is the highest number of displacements since record keeping started in 2008.

Some 23 percent of the 8,397 conflict-related casualties in Afghanistan were attributed to Afghan security forces and the U.S.-led coalition.

Afghan opium production rose 43 percent from 2015 levels. Afghan opium bankrolls the Taliban and other insurgent groups. And its the countrys largest export; 90 percent of the worlds opium came from Afghanistan in 2014 alone.

There were 3 million fewer students actually attending classes in Afghanistan than previously thought. The Afghan Ministry of Education had to strikes the number of students attending classes down to 6 million; some students simply dont show up, others cannot because of conflict or school closures. Security concerns closed more than 1,000 schools down around the country.

SIGAR suspended and disbarred U.S. funded projects due to corruption, fraud, or poor management, valued at over $137 million in 2016 alone. U.S.-funded projects have a sordid history of mismanagement; the U.S. government squandered nearly half a billion dollars on Afghan mining projects through 2016.

Nearly every trend line is going in the wrong direction with one notable exception: procurement reform. The Afghan governments efforts to fight corruption and reform its procurement processes saved $200 million that may have otherwise been lost to corruption, the SIGAR report said.

Sopko added a personal warning in the report to the new Trump administration. Unfortunately in the nearly five years Ive been traveling to Afghanistan, I first witnessed the United States put in way too much, way too fast, he said. More recently, Ive watched the U.S. remove way too much, way too fast. Policy makers both in Congress and the new Trump Administration should take note of this, he said.

Photo credit:Scott Olson/Getty Images

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Scathing Government Watchdog Report Details Bleak Outlook on - Foreign Policy (blog)

Dr. Julien Clment was home in Quebec City on Sunday, relaxing and enjoying some down time with his wife and young family.

It was his day off. He wasn't even on call. But when his phone rang, all of that changed.

"I was planning my summer vacation at home [in] my pyjamas, and I got a phone call from one of my colleagues. There's been a lot of gunshots somewhere, and please come in."

Clment is a surgeon and the medical director for trauma at l'Enfant-Jesus hospital. The hospital is the trauma centre for Quebec City, and it's the one to which five of the victims of Sunday's mosque shooting were rushed by ambulance.

"l'Enfant-Jesus got all the critically injured," Clment told CBC News Tuesday. "All the gunshot wounds."

Some patients needed more than one kind of surgeon, he said. "Let's say you got multiple gunshot wounds, and you got a broken leg, and you got torn lips, and something in the abdomen. Well, you'll need three types of surgeons."

l'Enfant-Jesus hospital has a team of eight, including specialists in thoracic, orthopedic andoral/maxillofacial medicine. By the time Clment arrived, six had already been called in.

Clment got to work on one of the critically injured patients. The man had multiple injuries in the abdomen, the liver, the small bowel and the pancreas.

When that was done, Clment co-ordinated all medical care for the rest of the gunshot victims. At one point, four of the operating rooms were in use.

"Its a team play," said Clment. "That's what it is. If you want to manage a situation like this, you cannot do it by yourself."

He said the unsung heroes were the emergency medical technicians, who performed triage on the victims swiftly and delivered them to the hospital.

By 5 a.m. Monday allsurgeries were completed. For the 37-year old surgeon, only then was there time for reflection.

"Afterwards, you're like, whoa, poor guy. He's got two kids. How [can this] happen in Quebec City?" said Clment.

"I don't think anybody could be totally emotionless with what happened."

Usually, most of the gunshot wounds doctors see in Quebec are from suicide attempts or hunting accidents. Either way, Dr. Clment is no stranger to them.

He was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces for 16 years and was deployed on three separate occasions to Afghanistan. At the Canadian base hospital in Kandahar, he treated victims of improvised explosive devices.

Dr. Julien Clment, left, discusses a patient with one of his colleagues at the Kandahar base in Afghanistan in 2010. The Quebec surgeon was deployed three times as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. (Radio-Canada)

His experience in that country prepared him for events like Sunday's.

"I think it helped on two points," he said. "First, the capacity to take care of gunshot wounds. I've just seen more than many other people.

"The biggest issue is how to deal with multiple patients at the same time. That's something I really took from Afghanistan, because it was day in, day out."

But what happened Sunday night in his hometown, he said, is different from what he experienced overseas.

"That happened in my backyard," he said, pausing. "And I really don't like that."

What he'll remember most from Sunday night, he said, is the families of the gunshot victims. Up to 40 were at the hospital that night, standing vigil in a waiting area by the operating room.

It was "emotional" and "tense," he said, and he made sure the families were kept abreast of any medical developments with their loved ones.

"Facing 40 persons outside the operating room, it's something I was not prepared to do. There's no fun of doing that."

He paused again.

"I have difficulty expressing myself on that topic, because it's more emotional."

On what has been called the terrorist act Sunday night, he doesn't hesitate: "I'm so sad for the Muslim community of Quebec City. I'm also a bit angry about that guy that shot them. There's no bound to human craziness. In French, we say 'la folie humaine.'"

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Hospital's trauma team and emergency medical technicians moved fast to save lives of gunshot victims - CBC.ca

NEW DELHI: The External Affairs Ministry has been given Rs 14,798 crore in the Union Budget, an increase of mere Rs 135 crore compared to last year with a major decline in allocation for projects in Afghanistan from Rs 520 crore to Rs 350 crore.

However, the allocation for Nepal has been increased from Rs 300 crore to Rs 375 crore in the Budget, presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament today.

An amount of Rs 150 crore has also been allocated for Chabahar Port, a strategic oceanic port situated in Iran. While no allocation was made for the project in 2016-17 budget, an amount of Rs 100 crore was given under revised budget.

As per revised estimate, Rs 13,426 crore was given to the Ministry in 2016-17, a decline of Rs 1236.66 crore from the budgetary allocation given that fiscal.

In total, Rs 6479.13 crore has been earmarked under "total-aid to countries" which included Bhutan (Rs 3714 crore), African countries (Rs 330 crore) and Bangladesh (Rs 125 crore), Sri Lanka (Rs 125 crore).

Separately, Rs 14798.55 crore has been earmarked for other expenditures like those relating to pilgrimages abroad (Rs 3.50 crore), Nalanda university (Rs 253.88), maintenance cost of Aircraft of Air India for VVIP travel (Rs 215 crore) and 'Special Diplomatic Expenditure' (Rs 2200.01 crore).

Asked about decline of nearly Rs 170 crore in the funds for projects in Afghanistan, ministry sources said it is because three of the major projects - Afghan Parliament building, Salma dam and restoration of Stor Palace- which were assisted by India have been completed.

They also asserted that the ministry was confident of implementing projects in the given amount.

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Budget 2017: MEA funds for projects in Afghanistan see a decline - Economic Times

Womens rights in the Middle East and Central Asia are intimately related to what iseuphemisticallycalled US foreign policy.

The derogation of womens rights in Afghanistan was the direct result of Washingtons diabolical military and intelligence agenda, the intent of which was to transform Afghanistan into an Islamic proxy state.

What the images presented below suggest is that US interventionism was largely geared towards destroying the secular state and at the same token undermining the rights of women.

This was instrumented by closing down public schools and replacing them with koranic schools.

The Taliban were trained and supported by the US, the Mujahideen rebels (Al Qaeda) were recruited by the CIA.

Michel Chossudovsky, GR Editor, February 1st, 2017

* * *

Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria have been attacked by the US Empire and its allies.

These countries had something very important in common: They all had secular nationalist sovereign governments with long established ties with the former Soviet Union, which is one of the reasons why the US has long planned to destroy them and turn them into client states.

They had an all inclusive society that respected and protected religious and ethnic minorities and womens rights. Their economies were necessarily state controlled in order to protect against predatory western corporations that have destroyed and still are destroying national economies around the world in the name of the so-called free trade and open market policies.

After nearly four decades of war, death and destruction, it is now difficult to imagine Afghanistan before its tragic recent history. Up until the so-called Soviet-Afghan war which commenced in 1979, the country was indeed a secular country with a nationalist government and long proud history, where people lived their normal lives in peace. Contrary to current perception, women then had access to university education and pursued varied professional careers like their counterparts in any other twentieth century modern country.

Women in Afghanistan were not always under house arrest and forbidden by law to leave their homes unchaperoned by a male relative. Once upon a time in pre-Taliban days Afghan women had access to professional careers, university-level education, shops selling non-traditional clothing, public transportation, and public spaces, all of which they happily navigated freely and without supervision.

According to a US State Departmentreportfrom the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 2001:

Prior to the rise of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were protected under law and increasingly afforded rights in Afghan society. Women received the right to vote in the 1920s; and as early as the 1960s, the Afghan constitution provided for equality for women. There was a mood of tolerance and openness as the country began moving toward democracy.

Women were making important contributions to national development. In 1977, women comprised over 15% of Afghanistans highest legislative body. It is estimated that by the early 1990s, 70% of schoolteachers, 50% of government workers and university students, and 40% of doctors in Kabul were women.

Afghan women had been active in humanitarian relief organizations until the Taliban imposed severe restrictions on their ability to work. These professional women provide a pool of talent and expertise that will be needed in the reconstruction of post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Even under Hamid Karzais government, with the recently approvedCode of Conductfor women, all of the women shown in these photographs, taken in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s, couldnot be faulted with improper behavior, according to clerics and government officials.

A record store in Kabul

A co-ed biology class at Kabul University

Afghan university students, 1967. Photo credit: Dr. Bill Podlich, Retronaut

Public transporation in Kabul

University students, early 1970s

Women working in one of the labs at the Vaccine Research Center

Mothers and children playing at a city parkwithout male chaperones

Queen Soraya reigned in Afghanistan with her husband King Amanullah Khan from 1919 to 1929. She would be slut-shamed or worse for wearing this dress in modern Afghanistan.

Compilation of vintage amateur footage of Afghanistan:

Link:
Women's Rights and US Hegemony: From Afghanistan to Syria - Center for Research on Globalization