US army base transfer in Japan delayed

(L-R) Japan's Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hold a joint press conference at the Department of State June 21, 2011 in Washington।

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185741.html

The United States and Japan have acknowledged dropping a 2014 deadline for the relocation of an American military base on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

“Completion of the FRF (Futenma Replacement Facility) and the Marine relocation will not meet the previously targeted date of 2014,” the US and Japan said in a joint statement following a high level meeting in Washington on Tuesday.

The meeting involved US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, Reuters reported.

The future of the base has been a major source of friction between the United States and Japan.

Washington and Tokyo agreed in 2006 to shift the US Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa to a less crowded area on the island, which is host to about half of the 47,000 US troops in the East Asian country.

But Tokyo has failed to win local backing for its plan to relocate the American base on the island.

Many of Okinawa's residents are demanding the removal of the military base from the island altogether.

Japan hosts some 47,000 US troops under a post-World War Two treaty.

Japan, US drop Okinawa base relocation

US Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa, Japan.(file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/178664.html

Japan and the United States have cancelled a formerly-approved plan for relocating the controversial American airbase on Okinawa Island by 2014.

According to Japanese media, Washington and Tokyo will discuss a new timeframe for the relocation of US Marines' Futenma airbase, Reuters reported on Friday.

The issue of US military bases on the southern Japanese island has long strained relations between the two countries. Last year, Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan promised to implement a 2006 agreement to shift the American airbase to a less populated part of Okinawa.

The failure to implement the 2006 deal sustained a hefty blow to Kan's predecessor Yukio Hatoyama, who was forced to resign in 2010 after facing public pressure and outrage over the issue.

The two sides had agreed in 2006 to transfer the facility from the residential district of Ginowan to the coastal and less populated area of Henoko in Nago, Okinawa.

However, that plan is also facing strong opposition from local residents who see the base as a source of crime, accidents and noise.

Former US National Security Adviser James Johns says the best possible choice is the integration of Futenma air base with another US base in Kadena town in southern Okinawa.

Johns said in a Friday meeting in Washington with Mikio Shimoji, secretary general of Japan's ruling party, that the relocation plan was not feasible on account of expected environmental destruction in the area.

DNC urges withdrawal from Afghanistan

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/167337.html

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has adopted a resolution calling on President Barack Obama to withdraw most of the US armed forces from Afghanistan by July 2011.

The resolution, adopted on Saturday during the DNC annual winter meeting in Washington DC, read, “The Democratic Party supports prioritizing job creation and a swift withdrawal of US armed forces and military contractors in Afghanistan which must include a significant and sizable reduction no later than July 2011," The Huffington Post reported.

It goes on to list reasons for withdrawal, including ten years of combat, a cost of more than USD 100 billion per year, lack of public support and non-military intervention as a preferred solution.

"The passage of my resolution places the Democratic Party squarely on the side of American people who overwhelmingly support a swift withdrawal from Afghanistan,” said Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA).

The Obama administration has stated that troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will begin in July 2011, stressing that it plans to fully hand over security responsibilities to Afghanistan authorities by 2014.

In Obama's proposed 2012 budget released on Monday, USD 107 billion was requested for military spending in Afghanistan.

Seventy-two percent of the American public wants faster troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The US Army has recently been accused of psychologically manipulating senators and officials to support the war effort in Afghanistan.

Reports allege that members of a psychological-operations team, known as psy-ops, had unduly influenced politicians into providing increased funding and support for the war effort.

US to hike 2011 military budget

The US House of Representatives

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/154638.html


The US House of Representatives has approved a bill that boosts the country's defense budget nearly $160 billion for 2011.

The figure reflects a $31 billion hike in the country's military budget for the 2010 fiscal year, which is reportedly $128 billion. Now the official cost for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for almost the past decade has surpassed $1.1 trillion.

The bill needs to be passed by the Senate and then signed by US President Barack Obama to take effect, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

According to analysts, however, the bill may undergo some modifications in the Senate.

The United States officially announced that it ended its combat mission in Iraq at the end of August, but carried out several military operations after the date.

Following the announcement, Washington withdrew most of its troops from the Iraqi soil after seven years of military presence in the country, leaving some 50,000 American soldiers for what it has described as "training and advising" purposes.



In 2006, a study conducted by the British medical journal The Lancet, revealed that 655,000 Iraqis lost their lives in the US-led war. The Opinion Research Business (ORB)'s study, however, put the number of post-invasion deaths at over 1 million.



As of February 2010, the Pentagon has spent nearly $704 billion in Iraq, based on estimates of current expenditure rates that range from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) estimate of $2 billion per week to the $12-billion-a-month figure estimated by economists.



Based on US military official figures, 4,404 US soldiers have been killed and 31,827 others wounded in action in war-torn Iraq as of May 28, 2010. Total coalition military deaths are put at 4,568 bodies.



The war in Afghanistan has also resulted in over 2,100 coalition casualties, including over 1,400 American deaths. The US currently has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. The total number of coalition forces in the country reaches 150,000.



The monthly cost of the war in Afghanistan, driven by troop increases and fighting on difficult terrain, has topped Iraq costs for the first time since 2003 and shows no sign of letting up.



Pentagon spending in February, the most recent month available, was $6.7 billion in Afghanistan, compared with $5.5 billion spent in Iraq. As recently as fiscal year 2008, the US military spending in Iraq was three times higher than in Afghanistan. The Iraq war expenditure in 2009 was twice as costly as the Afghan war.

US plans another Kyrgyzstan base

Members of the US military and US aircraft are seen at the
Manas military base in Bishkek airport in Kyrgyzstan.


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137866&sectionid=3510203


The US is planning to construct a USD 10 million military base in the southern city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan, where more than 300 people died in deadly clashes in June.

The US Defense Department says the base, called Osh Polygon, will feature a range of facilities and weapons training services, including a secure garrison compound with officers' quarters and barracks for enlisted personnel, range facilities, crew-served weapons and explosive ordnance, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

US officials raised the issue of the base under ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev for training Kyrgyz troops for alleged counter-terrorism operations.

According to US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake, Kyrgyzstan is still highly unstable as tensions continue to rise between Kyrgyz government soldiers and the Uzbek minorities living in the southern part of the country.

In a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, Blake expressed concern about the security along the southern border as some militants from Afghanistan might try "to come up through that border," the Washington Post quoted Blake as saying.

According to Blake, keeping the other US base in Manas near the capital Bishkek is a national priority for Washington, as it serves as the entry and exit points for US troops in Afghanistan.

The United States has paid USD 45 million to the Kyrgyz government this year and USD 13 million in fees for use of the Manas base, according to the Bishkek embassy website.

Osh was the site of a bloody uprising in June against the new Kyrgyz government, which reportedly claimed more than 300 lives. The unrest had reportedly forced more than 300,000 people across the border into Uzbekistan.

The inter-ethnic violence was the worst to hit the country in years.

US funds billions more for Afghan war

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=136490§ionid=3510203


The US Congress has approved an extra multi-billion dollar fund to pay for President Barack Obama's increase in US troop numbers in Afghanistan.

The House of Representatives voted 308 to 114 in favor of the $60bn war-funding bill.

The Senate had already passed the bill, which will now go to Obama to be signed into law.

The package provides roughly $33.5 billion for the additional 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan and nearly $4 billion for other programs in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

The bill also covers some expenses for military operations in the war-torn Iraq.

The new money is in addition to about $130 billion the Congress already approved for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq this year. The US Congress has appropriated over $1 trillion for the two wars since 2001.

The latest vote comes at a time when some lawmakers are growing skeptical about the nine-year-long war in Afghanistan.

Interestingly, more Republicans supported the bill than Obama's fellow Democrats did.

The recent leak of tens of thousands of secret military documents on the war in Afghanistan was the main reason behind the 102 Democratic votes against the bill.

The files released by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks detail how US-led forces have killed or wounded Afghan civilians in unreported attacks.

11,000 NATO containers go missing

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=133101&sectionid=351020401

Reports say more than 11,000 containers bound for the US-led forces in Afghanistan have mysteriously gone missing over the past two years in Pakistan.

The containers filled with food and military equipment worth USD 220 billion have been illegally unloaded in Pakistan, sources said on Friday.

However, Pakistani officials put the number of missing containers at only 40 and blame corrupt customs department officials for the scam.

Reports say several Pakistani officials have been arrested over the missing containers. Many fear the items have been handed over the militants.

Pakistan, a US ally in the so-called war on terror, remains the main transit route for the NATO forces stationed in neighboring Afghanistan.

Trucks carrying supplies for foreign forces in Afghanistan frequently come under attack in Pakistan.

The developments also come after months after the disclosure that thousands of US weapons went missing in Afghanistan.

US military officials failed to keep proper records on about 87,000 rifles, pistols, mortars and other weapons sent to Afghanistan between December 2004 and June 2008.

Analysts say the weapons may have fallen in the hands of militants linked to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda.

House OK's 'Mission Impossible' fund

House approves additional funds for Afghan war


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=133059§ionid=3510203



The US House of Representatives has approved an additional fund aimed at supporting President Barack Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

The House did not act in time to get the $33 billion to the troops by July 4 as the Pentagon had requested, after the Democratic leaders procrastinated for weeks over the bill.

The fund will be spent on deploying another 30,000 troops to the battlefields in Afghanistan.

The new funding comes over and above the $130 billion Congress has already approved for the dual wars of Afghanistan and Iraq for this fiscal year.

The bill can only become law if both houses agree. Congress will not be in session again until July 12. It is unclear how the Senate will view the additions the House has made.

The legislation was advanced despite increasing pessimism and unhappiness among lawmakers over the war in Afghanistan.

"Why are we continuing to send our troops into a Mission Impossible?" Reuters quoted Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio as saying.

In a 260-162 vote, the House also defeated a Democratic amendment that would require Obama to set a timetable for withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.

'Petraeus to create crisis in Mideast'

Gen. David Petraeus, the newly appointed commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=133140§ionid=351020403



The newly appointed top US and NATO military commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus pursues a strategy that will destabilize the Middle East region, an Iranian envoy says.

"Petraeus pursues a certain strategy that will create crisis in the [Middle East] region and will further complicate the issues," Iran's Ambassador to Afghanistan Fada-Hossein Maleki said.

Maleki noted that the former top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, had major differences with the White House officials.

"McChrystal believed that it is possible to use a combination of political and military initiatives in Afghanistan, but some White House hardliners disregarded the idea," Fars news agency quoted the Iranian envoy as saying on Friday.

Maleki also slammed the British military forces in Afghanistan over their poor function that has exacerbated situation in the war-torn country.

He noted that the UN had tasked Britain to fight narcotics in Afghanistan, but the production of the drugs has increased "forty-fold over the past eight years" in the country.

Petraeus landed in Kabul late Friday, where he is to take command of both US and NATO operations in Afghanistan.

McChrystal was effectively fired for remarks he and his aides made to a reporter for Rolling Stone about President Barack Obama and other US officials.