Afghanistan & Neutrality, the Swedish & Finnish EU cases

international | eu | news report

Sunday September 06, 2009 15:46

by iosaf - mac diarmada

According to the Swedish "Dagens Nyheter" newspaper's updates in the last two hours, the US military entered a hospital run by the Swedish Committe for Afghanistan this week in pursuit of a patient who according to them held valuable intelligence on the Taliban. This would constitute a breach of the Geneva Conventions. This newsbreak follows coverage of the strongest statements critical of the NATO strategy so far by the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt at the meeting of EU foreign ministers held yesterday. Anyone who prizes Irish neutrality or perhaps those who sneer at such a thing, ought know that Sweden is a neutral state. It is unique amongst the neutral states of Europe in that it boasts a highly developed arms industry which indeed is also one of the oldest happily supplying military hardward to all and sundry since before Napoleon. The Swedish share the northern "Provincial Reconstruction Team" with the Finnish under German command.

Leaving aside Shannon, do you think the 7 strong Irish contingent to the ISAF mission in Afghanistan is making a difference?

As we know many in the EU have demanded an explanation this week from Germany for a missile strike it ordered in that military zone which left so many civilians dead.

That German zone is not one of the NATO regions but rather a place where the same German army holds command of a contingent of the Europe - Atlantic Partnership Council to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the majority of the troops stationed in the subdivision of that zone who are not German come from the neutral EU states of Sweden and Finland.

I think this news report may offer Irish voters a chance to understand the nature of their neutrality and the nature of the EU's militarisation.

There are no doubt many readers who understand what the Afghanistan war is about, perhaps having studied not only the popular moral fibre forming history books of Victorian boyhood replete with the heroes of the British wars to stem the Russians and harvest the poppy but have written a doctoral thesis on all wars in the place since. Just as most likely there are many other readers who have brought the Bonn Agreement and its resulting UN resolutions to bed with them and studied the creation of ISAF & its co-existence with & complimentary nature to the US and NATO military presence in the state of Afghanistan.

These are the sort of people who need not be reminded that one can not properly talk of the Afghan war but rather to be accurate and taken seriously one must note there are two if not more wars in Afghanistan and the Afghan narco-state .

The Swedish justify their presence in the German led reconstruction zone for their belief that any war or foreign military action in the world's narcostates will stem the flow of hard drugs. For thoser who don't know what hard drugs are, they generally come in two easy to talk about categories : Cocaine & Heroin which are also known as Coke & Smack. The Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt speaking at the EU foreign affairs meeting yesterday enjoyed an opportunity to see his words reported widely, since the Irish have not ratified Lisbon there is still as of yet no single EU foreign minister and a neutral state may have its opinions heard .

Carl Bildt noted that opium poppy production might have gone down but the global supply of heroin has remained as stable as it has been since ISAF began. If ISAF is about keeping smack of your streets then it's not doing very well. If on the other side (that of the lunatic fringe perhaps) one were to argue that the idea is to keep the smack on your street relatively cheap so your DVD stays on your shelf - then ISAF is doing splendidly.

..............What any of that has to do with fair elections and getting the girls out of burkas and into schooling of course I wouldn't hazard to say.

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some introductory information on the wars in Afghanistan & the Afghan narco-state from wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincial_Reconstruction_...harif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_units_an...nt%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Security_Ass...tions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro-Atlantic_Partnership_...uncil

source for news report on US breach of Swedish hospital and Geneva Conventions covering the patients therein -
http://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/militar-razzia-mot-sve...46596