Comment is Free Chris Luenen 14/12/2009

About 25 countries have promised to send more troops to Afghanistan in response to President Obama's call for extra support from Nato members. But France and Germany, the two European powers who could make a real difference, remain as hesitant as ever.

French and German leaders now face a painful choice. Should they finally embrace Nato's efforts in Afghanistan more wholeheartedly – which would mean accepting significantly more human and material sacrifices? Or should they or conclude that the war has already been lost, or that "success" does not merit the cost, and abandon the mission altogether?

For their own good, they should choose the first option. They should remember that unlike the war in Iraq, which they strongly opposed from the outset, all Nato member states, including themselves, unanimously and unambiguously sanctioned the war effort in Afghanistan in 2001. But aside from the need to fulfil their alliance duties – and in fact even more important – they have clear national interests at stake in this strategically located central Asian state.

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The Chronicle Watch 11/12/2009

A Pakistani newspaper reports the arrest of five American Muslims in Sargodha, Pakistan, for terrorist activities after a raid in a town called Sargodha. The arrests took place following a raid at the home of a member of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, a Pakistani movement designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2001.

The five American Muslims have been identified as Ahmed Abdullah, Waqar Hassan Khan, Eman Hassan, Yasir and Rami Zamzam.

Zamzam is a graduate dental student at Howard University, where he served as president of the Muslim Student Association.

According to reports, Zamzam and his family worshipped at the radical Dar Al-Hijrah mosque, which is located in a Virginia suburb of Washington.

Along with Zamzam, another member of the mosque was Maj. Nidal Hasan, who stands accused of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas.

Before 9/11, one of the mosque’s preachers, Anwar al-Awlaki, was in contact with at least two of the 9/11 hijackers. U.S. authorities are now investigating contacts between al-Awlaki, who later fled the U.S. for Yemen, and Hasan.

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The Guardian Ranj Alaaldin 10/12/2009

At least 110 people were killed and hundreds more injured yesterday when five near-simultaneous bombs struck Baghdad. In typical fashion for a country of painful ironies, yesterday's attacks came in the aftermath of the Iraqi parliament's passing of a long-debated election law. With elections set to take place in March, few should have been surprised that Sunni extremists struck once again in an attempt to hurt the country's Shia-dominated government.

What is significant is that Arab Iraq's security problem reflects its political problems and also the geopolitical realities. There is, among Iraq's neighbours, no enthusiasm for a stable and democratic Iraq – Iraq still remains at the mercy of the intentions of its neighbours, who continue to be complicit in facilitating attacks in the country. Iraq, one could say, has become a contaminated cocktail of regional neighbours' ideological and geo-strategic aspirations; a battleground between the Sunni Arab world and Shia Iran. The equivalence of a turf war between the country's political and ethno-sectarian groups does not help.

Political reconciliation at the top, and resolution of outstanding territorial and constitutional disputes can help to remedy all this but only when Iraqi politics truly starts to cross ethnic and sectarian boundaries.

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The Herald (UK) 07/12/2009

International concern is growing over the use of youngsters by Huthis in their escalating conflict with the Yemeni government, but a child suicide bomber’s story shows that these atrocities are far from one-sided

At first, it is difficult to see the boy sitting behind the rows of microphones, spotlights shining down on him as cameras roll from all sides of the packed hotel conference room.

Above the table where he sits hangs a huge poster showing a Yemeni boy dressed in a traditional brown robe, holding a detonator in one hand, while with the other he lifts his gown to reveal plastic bags strapped to his legs.

The Arabic script above the photograph reads: “No to the exploitation of children for destructive operations and terrorism.”

Prior to the press conference a text message from the government had alerted journalists and aid workers to the shocking news: a nine-year-old suicide bomber had been arrested carrying a bomb through the Old City of Saada, stronghold of the powerful Huthi clan in Yemen’s north, which for five years has led an armed rebellion against the government of Sanaa, the capital.

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