The bedrock principle in the debate on the war in Afghanistan rests on the idea that whatever military action the US undertakes in the country will only serve as ‘a prelude to, rather than a substitute for, Afghanistan taking over the security job.’

That is saying that the ‘White House wants to make sure surge will enable handover.’ The Obama administration is focusing on exit from Afghanistan and the long-drawn war that the US has been waging in the country. ‘Obama’s main problem with the initial military plan was that it seemed too open ended.’ The US president wants to bring the troops back home.

The said exit plan is critical to the buildup of troops in Afghanistan. ‘The goal is for American troops to reverse the rise of Taliban strength in the short term, buying time for Afghan President Hamid Karzai to build up security and police forces that can take over while American forces phase out.’ This real face of the Afghan policy explains why the Obama administration has been taking what is construed as a long time in deciding what to do with the war in Afghanistan.

‘The goal in the rethink, then, is to put in place a specific plan for an Afghan force buildup that moves directly parallel to a new American military push against the Taliban. And a crucial, but little-noticed, adjunct of that strategy requires making sure that next-door-neighbor Pakistan steps up the pressure on the Taliban and al-Qaeda elements that use its territory as a safe haven for their operations in Afghanistan.’

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Via The Wall Street Journal

The word unfriend recently garnered the Oxford University Press’ Word of the Year recognition. Adrian Chen of Gawker realized that ‘the Word of the Year is a huge scam.’ He says that the past four winners are ‘all just hacky trend pieces from that year, in lexicographic form.’

To recall, the past four winners for Word of the Year are hypermiling (which is said to be ‘maximizing gas mileage by adjusting your car and driving techniques’), locavore (someone who adheres to the movement that ‘encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food), carbon neutral (‘reducing your carbon footprint,’ then ‘balancing your remaining emissions’), and podcast (‘a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player’).

Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program, defends the recognition, “In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year.”

As a verb, the word “unfriend” means ‘to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.’ Facebook users will definitely recognize the word “unfriend.” If you’re a Facebook account holder, it’s what you do to your e-stalker that was once your boyfriend or girlfriend before the relationship turned sour, even scary.

Chen says that the Oxford University Press itself ‘admitted that the Word of the Year is nothing more than a silly marketing ploy’ by picking a ‘testament to how much social media is affecting the lexicon.’

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Via Gawker

By now, the world has already realized that the dreaded pandemic-level disease called swine flu, also known as Influenza A (H1N1) ‘isn’t as contagious and deadly as feared.’ Unfortunately for Big Pharma and vaccine manufacturers who want to cash in on the intended pandemic paranoia (remember HIV/AIDS?), ‘the initial fear that swine flu is a totally new virus that your immune system isn’t equipped to handle turns out to be pure hype.’

A brand new study suggest that ‘immune systems that have previously had contact with flu viruses recognize H1N1 and deal with it the same way, by trying to attack the virus in the bloodstream and in infected cells. That’s why swine flu hasn’t been such a killer—the severity of infections has been about on par with a seasonal flu.’ The disease has not really posed more problems. In fact, some people are even more wary about the side effects of the swine flu vaccine than the disease itself.

According to the study co-author Alessandro Sette, director of the La Jolla Institute’s Center for Infectious Disease, ‘the reason why the swine flu virus — officially designated H1N1 — isn’t the killer it was feared seems to be that the various protective mechanisms of the immune system have been primed by exposure to previous flu viruses.’

Study lead author Bjoern Peters, an assistant member of the division of vaccine discovery at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in La Jolla, California, asserts, “What has been widely reported in the general press is that the swine flu is totally new, so there is no immunity to it. But the severity of infections that have been seen is not greater than usually seen in seasonal flu.”

Peters adds, “They produce antibodies in the bloodstream and try to find the virus before it ends up in cells, so they are what prevents the disease. They recognize the virus inside cells, so they are responsible for clearing the infection once you have it. Nobody knows what level of immunity is sufficient for protection. But if infected, our data suggest that T cells in those who have previously been exposed to influenza may make the infection less severe.”

The study found that ‘69 percent of T cells, which attack the virus in infected cells, were alerted by those previous infections.’ So, the swine flu virus that is said to be sweeping across the globe and claiming many lives isn’t a total stranger to the immune system.

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Via Health Day

While Europe is agog over a feared possible Muslim takeover, embodied in the myth of Eurabia, the US, on the other hand, ‘has no reason to fear terrorism from its own Muslim population.’ This is for the reason that ‘American Muslims are far less vulnerable to al-Qaeda recruitment than their brethren across the pond because they’re much better integrated—culturally and economically.’

It seems that some analysts surmise that Islamic religious extremism does not have a fertile ground in the United States. Perhaps, this is because the economic terrain is not conducive to the root cause of extremism which is rebellion against poverty and economic degradation. That is why the likes of Nidal Hasan will be characteristically unique cases. US Muslims are observed to be well-integrated and ‘devout capitalists,’ making US homegrown Islamic terrorism not a threat.

On the other hand, terrorist groups find a perfect recruitment environment and atmosphere in Europe. In Spain, ‘Muslim immigrants arrive poor and stay poor.’ In France, a ‘hijab ban fuels resentment.’ In Germany, ‘anti-Muslim prejudice hinders mosque-building.’ European governments are said to neither especially understand nor seriously sympathize with Muslims.

The US is ‘a society much more comfortable with both immigration and religiosity.’ It is a place where ‘most Muslims are mainstream, middle-class, patriotic, and, in many cases, happy: 38% are satisfied with the state of the US, compared to 32% of the general population.’

These are the reasons why US home-grown Islamic terrorism may not be considered a threat. The country’s ‘free and prosperous Muslim population’ remains its ‘most effective deterrent against Islamic terrorism.’

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Via The Atlantic

TIME has picked its choices for best inventions of 2009. Those that got the votes range from best new gadgets to best new breakthrough ideas of the year. Here are some:

The breeding population of the highly migratory southern bluefin tuna has dipped to more than 90 percent since the 1950s. It seemed that the southern bluefin tuna, prized for its ‘buttery sashimi meat,’ will no longer spawn. Then, ‘in Port Lincoln, Australia, a tankful of bluefin tuna began to spawn in landlocked tanks.’ Now, there’s hope for bluefin aquaculture and the tank-bred tuna.

Philips Electronics ‘became the first to enter the U.S. Department of Energy’s L Prize competition, which seeks a LED alternative to the common 60-watt bulb.’ The 60-watt lights occupy half of the entire domestic incandescent market. The challenge is to replace the said bulb with LED bulbs. If this could be done, ‘the U.S. could save enough electricity per year to light 17.4 million households.’ Philips claims a cash award and federal purchasing agreements worth about $10 million. ‘Philips’ LED bulb emits the same amount of light as its incandescent equivalent but uses less than 10 watts and lasts for 25,000 hours — or 25 times as long.’

The Herschel Space Observatory now has the telescope for invisible stars. It ‘scans the skies in the infrared spectrum. In order to avoid infrared interference and temperature fluctuations from Earth, it hovers in space at the second Lagrange point, about 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) away, where the gravity of the Earth and sun balance out.’

World food shortage and shortfall in world food production may now be addressed with the invention of vertical farming. ‘Valcent, a company based in El Paso, Texas, is pioneering a hydroponic-farming system that grows plants in rotating rows, one on top of another. The rotation gives the plants the precise amount of light and nutrients they need, while the vertical stacking enables the use of far less water than conventional farming. But best of all, by growing upward instead of outward, vertical farming can expand food supplies without using more land.’

Via TIME

Iran could be the ‘savior’ of the Middle East. If it wants to, that is.  The conflict between Sunni and Shia, ‘dating back to the seventh-century dispute over who was meant to be the Prophet Muhammad’s rightful successor, is the most consequential in the Middle East because it is so profound and elemental. But precisely because it is so intractable, it might hold the key to solving another seemingly eternal Middle East conflict, the one between Muslim and Jew.’ Iran just might be in the middle of all this.

The “symbiotic anxiety” shared by Israel and its Sunni Arab adversaries might not be abated as it might be too late to forge a Sunni-Jewish alliance. The reason is hate, a phenomenon that never stopped the ‘formation of pragmatic alliances in the Middle East.’ Making it worse is the new and added Arab enmity for Israel because of last December’s Israeli attacks in Gaza. It might be impossible now ‘for Arab governments to be seen entering even a tacit alliance with Israel.’

Iran has obviously shown to be a guardian of Islamic and, in particular, Palestinian interests. It is an undeniable fact that ‘half of the future state of Palestine is under the control of a Sunni fundamentalist group, Hamas, that is theologically opposed to the Shia dogma, but more than happy to take Iranian money and weapons. Iran can continue encouraging Hamas—as well as the Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon—to subvert any upcoming negotiations.’

David Makovsky, one of the most respected experts on the peace process, and co-author of a new book, Myths, Illusions, and Peace, says, “There is a convergence of interests between the Arabs and Israelis on Iran. As such, this moment is a gift that shouldn’t be wasted. The two sides need to put their differences in perspective to address the common challenge.”

‘The history of Middle East peacemaking is littered with missed opportunities, and the shared challenge of an ascendant Iran might not be enough to induce Arabs and Israelis to make common cause.’

Even if Iran may not want to save the Middle East conflict, it is in the crucial position of owning the possibility of doing so.

Via The Atlantic

Former ambassador Ronald E. Neumann says, “The argument that we could pull out of Afghanistan if Karzai doesn’t do what we say is stupid. We couldn’t get the Pakistanis to fight if we leave Afghanistan; we couldn’t accomplish what we’ve set out to do. And Karzai knows that.”

Fraudulently-elected Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan received an ultimatum from the United States regarding cleaning up his government of corruption. While US President Obama is dead serious about the warning, the US government really has no options should Karzai not reel in Afghan corruption.

In the first place, ending corruption in Afghanistan is more than a tall order for any government head. ‘Administration officials and America’s European allies say that rampant corruption and the illegal drug trade in Afghanistan have fueled the resurgence of the Taliban, and that unless Mr. Karzai moves forcefully to tackle those issues, no amount of additional American troops will be able to turn the country around.’

While Obama’s rare and public call has a US troop pullout as its dangling threat, the Obama administration knows for a fact that doing so would definitely destabilize the region and jeopardize US interests in Central Asia.

The real question is: ‘How much leverage does the United States really have over the Afghan leader?’

Mr. Obama himself laid down the stakes last week when he said he wanted “a sense on the part of President Karzai that, after some difficult years in which there has been some drift, that in fact he’s going to move boldly and forcefully forward and take advantage of the international community’s interest in his country to initiate reforms internally. That has to be one of our highest priorities.”

However, ‘withdrawing all troops would not serve American interests, officials said; aside from the chaos it could cause in Afghanistan, a pullout could tip the balance in even more volatile Pakistan, where the government is battling Taliban militants.’

That leaves the US with not much choice but to support a tainted Afghan president and hope beyond hope that he can, indeed, clean up his messy and messed up country. Already, Karzai’s has appointed some of his ultra-corrupt cronies in his cabinet.

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Via The New York Times

In a game of survival, US military contractors are ‘forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes.’ An Afghan private security official reveals, “Most escorting is done by the Taliban.”

A new report reveals that the United States of America actually funds the Taliban. The US government is ‘financing the very same insurgent forces in Afghanistan that American and NATO soldiers are fighting.’ The US military provides funding to the militant group through contractors.

Through vicarious means, US funds end up in Taliban hands, ‘The Taliban is getting a big chunk of its financing by protecting supply convoys to the American military. Security contractors paid by the US to bring supplies into Afghanistan pay huge amounts of protection money to warlords and insurgents.’

According to officials, the paying of protection money is the only viable way to ensure that necessary supplies are transported safely to recipient areas. One American executive admits, “If you tell me not to pay these insurgents, the chances of my trucks getting attacked increase exponentially.”

As an investigation by the Nation reveals, ‘Pentagon officials are aware of the situation and estimate that at least 10% of the hundreds of millions paid to contractors ends up in Taliban hands.’ Another truth revealed is that ‘a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon’s logistics contracts–hundreds of millions of dollars–consists of payments to insurgents’ as estimated by US military officials in Kabul.

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Via The Nation

US President Barack Obama is expected to hand down soon his decision on the war in Afghanistan. The decision at this point is no longer whether to send more troops to Afghanistan or not, but how many tens of thousands of additional US soldiers should be sent to the wartorn country to fight a long-drawn war.

U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal wants to put U.S. troops as close to the Afghan people as possible. His strategy in Afghanistan is ‘ultimately built around the principle that the United States and its NATO allies are capable of protecting Afghans prepared to cooperate with Western forces.’

McChrystal’s strategy is the US traditional counterinsurgency strategy: military forces would fight their way into regions where a large portion of the population lives and where the Taliban currently operates. The same strategy will be applied in remote areas where the Taliban have a heavy presence and can be pursued through drone strikes.

The strategy will bear heavily upon the Afghans. Logically, ‘local inhabitants will experience multilevel conflict as coalition forces move into a given region.’ The presence of these massive forces might or might not demonstrate to the local population that foreign soldiers spell their national security in the face of armed clashes. Therefore, ‘to convince locals that Western forces enhance their security, the coalition will thus have to be stunningly successful both at defeating Taliban defenders when they first move in and in repulsing subsequent Taliban attacks.’

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Via STRATFOR

Fatty and refined foods, or a diet of processed foods, worsen the risk of depression by as much as 58 percent. This is the conclusion of a recent study conducted by British scientists on 3,500 adults over a period of five years.

The findings show that ‘those who ate mainly fried, processed, refined, high-fat foods had a 58% greater risk of depression than those who ate the least. And those who consumed mostly whole foods, produce, and fish showed a 26% lower risk than those who consumed the least of those foods.’ Additionally, ‘people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression,’ according to the research team from the University College London.

According to Dr. Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, “The UK population is consuming less nutritious, fresh produce and more saturated fats and sugars.” He adds, “This study adds to an existing body of solid research that shows the strong links between what we eat and our mental health. Major studies like this are crucial because they hold the key to us better understanding mental illness.”

“Physical and mental health are closely related, so we should not be too surprised by these results, but we hope there will be further research which may help us to understand more fully the relationship between diet and mental health,” said  Margaret Edwards, head of strategy at the mental health charity SANE.

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Via BBC