Monday, October 12, 2009

Afghanistan: The War We will Not Win.:McChrystal’s Battle.

TELEVISION REVIEW | 'FRONTLINE: OBAMA’S WAR'

Situation Report: The Dilemma of Afghanistan

Martin Smith for Frontline
"Frontline: Obama's War," the documentary about the United States involvement in Afghanistan, runs on most PBS stations Tuesday night.
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Published: October 12, 2009
“Obama’s War” is a “Frontline” documentary on PBS about Afghanistan that might more accurately be called “McChrystal’s Battle.”

ArtsBeat
Martin Smith for Frontline
A Marine resting during a patrol in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, which has been retaken by Taliban forces three times.
This is a focused look at a dismally complex and intractable conflict, and running as it does on Tuesday, the night before President Obama’s fifth strategy meeting on Afghanistan with his national security team, it couldn’t be more timely.

Or depressing. What “Obama’s War” does best is illustrate the immense task that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top commander of American and allied forces in Afghanistan, has taken on. As Mr. Obama weighs his options, and General McChrystal travels the world lobbying for a revitalized counterinsurgency plan and at least 40,000 more troops, “Obama’s War” gives viewers a glimpse of what trying to defeat the Taliban — again — really entails eight years into the conflict.

The sight of a 20-year-old Marine being shot and killed in a firefight is shocking and heartbreaking. So, in a different way, is the scene of a Marine sergeant risking his life on a foot patrol in wilting heat to befriend — and debrief — tight-lipped, wary Afghan farmers. He is part of a campaign to reassure the civilian population in a place where even the word “where” is misunderstood; the Afghan interpreter has little command of English or the local dialect.

On enemy terrain a seemingly simple assignment — face time with local merchants — is fraught with mortal risk and the spirit-grinding frustration of cultural divide.

And that reality often gets lost in the swirl of seminars, news conferences and Sunday talk shows. The film slyly makes a detour to a boisterous, cup-clattering coffee break at a counterinsurgency conference in Washington last summer, where a panel of what “Frontline” describes as “the best and the brightest” experts (including Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) explains the building blocks of “a global counterinsurgency campaign.”
“Frontline” then returns to the front lines in Afghanistan, where a Marine valiantly tries to engage a farmer in a chat about his cows.

“60 Minutes” ran a lengthy and illuminating profile of General McChrystal last month that showed him greeting locals at a busy market unarmed — though shadowed by a large security force. “Obama’s War” spends less time with the general and more time examining his mission.
“Frontline” also delves into the threat to American security posed by Pakistan’s political and military instability. That problem flared again Monday: a car-bomb attack on local Pakistani police forces in a market in the Swat Valley took at least 41 lives — in an area that the Pakistani military declared cleared of militants last summer.

In “Obama’s War” General McChrystal concedes that his strategy is formidable and risky but says, quite flatly, “There is no alternative.” “Frontline” interviews many outside experts, including retired military officers who argue that other options exist besides “full spectrum” nation building in Afghanistan. But the film does not explain the nature or feasibility of less intrusive alternatives, or go far into the history of invading nations that felt they had no choice but to stay, only to withdraw in retreat.

“Obama’s War” begins in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, a territory that has fallen back into Taliban hands three times, and that Marines of Echo Company were sent last summer to recapture, not just by fighting the enemy, but also by winning over the locals.

Under General McChrystal’s command, Marines have been instructed to look less like invaders and occupiers and more like protectors — and that means hunkering down in an empty, abandoned school still smeared with Taliban graffiti, and traveling in foot patrols instead of armored convoys. “So they see us as human beings,” Maj. Gen Michael T. Flynn explains to the “Frontline” correspondent Martin Smith. “And we treat them as such, rather than looking like something out of ‘Star Wars’ to them.”

For the military that loosening of security is a huge concession to diplomacy and local sensibilities. But even to American viewers Marines in flak jackets, helmets, ammunition packs and rifles who stop suspicious-looking men for full body searches do not look likePeace Corps volunteers.
On a visit to Kabul, Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative to the region, says that the United States must undo the missteps of the last eight years. Kabul is one of them.
“The U.S. has spent a lot of time trying to build a strong central government in Afghanistan,” says Seth Jones, the author of “In the Graveyard of Empires,” which argues that the Bush administration’s focus on Iraq allowed the Taliban to rise again. “That is completely ahistorical in Afghanistan.”

The Taliban, meanwhile, is correcting its own mistakes.
“In Southern Afghanistan, the Taliban now has ombudsmen,” Andrew Exum, an adviser to General McChrystal, says, describing an insurgency outreach program to woo the locals who mistrust the government of President Hamid Karzai, who has lost credibility even in Washington.
It’s not just the enormity of the mission, it’s the familiarity. General McChrystal doesn’t hide the bitterness in his voice as he describes having to take back Helmand Province all over again. “Once you clear something and don’t hold it, you probably didn’t clear it, it has no staying power,” he says. “ In fact I would argue that it’s worse, because you create an expectation and then you dash it. And so I think that you’re almost better to have not gone there at all.”
The general was describing conditions in that part of Afghanistan, but his words were just as apt for the larger war still being waged. Moments of discouragement are not the hardest thing in this film. Gung-ho confidence — feigned or real — is far more chilling, a repudiation of history that sounds like America whistling past the graveyard of empires.

Arms ship stopped on way from Iran to Syria


Report: Arms ship stopped on way from Iran to Syria

German Der Spiegel magazine says US war ships intercepted Iranian munitions shipment bound for Syria. Weapons found aboard German-owned vessel; Berlin said to be 'embarrassed' by incident
Ynet
Published: 10.12.09, 22:17 / Israel News

A German merchant ship was stopped by US war ships in the waters of the Suez Bay in early October, on suspicion of carrying Iranian weapons bound for Syria, Berlin's Der Spiegel magazine reported Monday.

The shipment is a violation of a UN Resolution 1747, which ordered an arms embargo on both Tehran and Beirut, and has become a source of embarrassment for Berlin.

Arms Trade

Int'l team to probe Russian ship hijacking / Olga Gouresky

Team made of reps from five European countries will investigate disappearance of 'Arctic Sea' vessel
Full story

A German official described the incident as an "embarrassing affair," adding it was potentially damaging to trans-Atlantic relations.

According to the report, US soldiers stopped the vessel, Hansa India, at the beginning of October. Upon boarding the freighter, they found seven containers full of 7.62 millimeter ammunition suitable for AK-47 rifles and eighth container full of cartridges suitable for the manufacture of additional rounds.

The arms are believed to part of an Iranian shipment bound for either the Syrian army or Hezbollah.
 

The Hansa India is registered to the Hamburg-based shipping company Leonhardt and Blumberg. According to the company, the 297-foot long ship was leased to Iran's state-owned shipping company several years ago.

The US ships eventually allowed the freighter to continue on its reported destination in Malta only after the German government intervened. Upon its arrival, the containers were secured

A Church Presence in a Virtual World


Digital Missions: Leveraging Technology to Fulfill the Great Commission


There was a time when a church's greatest ability to spread the Gospel was through the Gutenberg printing press. Over the years, advances in printing and communication technologies expanded the Gospel throughout the world. Today, Internet and mobile technologies are enabling churches to reach out to more people, in more places, than ever before.

Many churches have embraced new tools and technologies in an effort to meet the charge in Matthew 28:19 to "go and make disciples of all nations"; however, there may not be another church that is as aggressively leveraging technology to fulfill the Great Commission as LifeChurch.tv in Edmond, OK. What is particularly refreshing is that LifeChurch.tv is not merely developing new tools; they are giving them away for free to churches!

Growth, Technology, and Innovation

Established in 1996, LifeChurch.tv began with just a few people led by the founding pastor, Craig Groeschel and his wife Amy. The church grew steadily, and by the end of 2000, it was serving over 3,000 people. In 2001, Craig and Amy's fourth child arrived after the Saturday evening services, and Craig knew he would be unable to preach the following morning. Someone suggested that they play the video of the Saturday evening sermon on Sunday morning. This was the genesis for their first video teaching experience, and by year's end the church was serving over 5,500 people in seven worship services across two campuses.

By 2004, LifeChurch.tv had spread to four locations and was reaching over 12,000 people. They soon added a satellite uplink allowing them to broadcast a live video feed of their services to all of their campuses, and in 2005, the first out-of-state campuses were launched in Arizona. In 2006, LifeChurch.tv expanded beyond the limits of a physical location when they launched their Internet campus (now known as Church Online), providing a live church service for people anywhere in the world.

The church pushed the boundaries of streaming video and web chat to provide an online experience that allowed people to engage in genuine community, volunteering, online LifeGroups and even mission opportunities.

Freely Sharing Resources

In April of 2006, LifeChurch.tv launched OPEN, an online web presence for churches to download creative content, messages and resources, all for free. Over 30,000 churches have signed up to use OPEN.LifeChurch.tv, with over 1,000,000 downloads to date, and according to Tony Steward, Pastor of Online Community with LifeChurch.tv, they want to extend this service even further.

In order to do that they are building a team of volunteers to translate the OPEN resources into multiple languages. Terry Storch, the Digerati Pastor at LifeChurch.tv, talked about the impact OPEN has had on LifeChurch.tv, "Being able to reach out and help churches all over the world has blown us away. OPEN is completely free for churches to use, so that's created a lot of opportunities to repurpose these resources."

A Church Presence in a Virtual World

LifeChurch.tv took another pioneering step just a year after OPEN launched when they created a virtual campus in SecondLife, a free user-created virtual community. This campus features an online, 3-D service where members can virtually "walk" into the buildings of the church, interact with others and engage in church services in the virtual auditorium. The online campus even includes video kiosks and a resources section, resembling a church bookstore.

When asked why LifeChurch.tv would sink time and effort into a virtual campus, Craig Groeschel said simply, "To reach people no one else is reaching, we have to do things no one else is doing." Storch follows that by saying, "Today, Second Life is a mission field for our Church Online ministry, where we have a completely volunteer community that is engaging with people in that environment. It is the most global community we're reaching today."


It is definitely making an impact. Storch relates how time after time LifeChurch.tv is hearing of the influence that SecondLife is having on people's lives, bringing entire families into the fold. One gentleman told Storch that he clicked on an ad in one of virtual casinos in SecondLife and found himself in a church service on Easter Sunday. The service moved him so much that he gave his life to Christ that day, and with the online services in SecondLife as a guide, his family soon followed him in that decision.

Creating Real-Time Metrics

Another barrier-breaking advance made by this church is ChurchMetrics. It was originally built out of a need for LifeChurch.tv to have real-time analytics in its multi-site environment, but it quickly became evident that other churches could utilize this technology. Storch states, "We were inundated with churches that visited us and saw the tool we'd built and they wanted to have that tool as well. That provided us with the clarity to share it." The benefit of real-time data is for churches to understand how their campuses and events are impacting the church as a whole, and ChurchMetrics makes that easy. True to form, LifeChurch.tv made ChurchMetrics.com completely free, enabling nearly 5,000 churches to make informed decisions for their future growth.

Building a Free, Online Bible Tool

Later, in 2007, LifeChurch.tv launched YouVersion, a free online Bible and Bible study tool that allows users to connect Scripture with media content including pictures, video, journal entries and blogs. Steward says, "YouVersion, in a sense, is a community of believers that brings a community feature wrapped around Scripture, extending the Biblical conversation." The idea was that to enable people to discuss the Word, it needed to be readily available and easily accessible to them. LifeChurch.tv set out to make that happen. Storch says, "YouVersion was birthed out of the concept and idea that people are engaging in conversations and interacting with media all over the web, but the Bible wasn't present in those conversations," said Storch. "The catalytic move was to bring the Word to intersect a content-rich and media-rich environment. As people are interacting with YouTube, Flickr or a blog post, as ideas are sparked in people, now they can interject Scripture into those conversations."

Going Mobile with YouVersion

In 2008, YouVersion Mobile launched with over fourteen translations of the Bible and was also released to the iPhone and Blackberry, again free of charge. Storch explains, "We started seeing that people truly did not have a Bible availability challenge; we have a Scripture engagement platform challenge. When we moved the Bible to the mobile device, we started seeing this challenge met as over 2,000,000 people installed these apps to interact with Scripture on their web-enabled mobile phones."


Empowering Communication with the World
Taking the idea of global communication a step farther, LifeChurch.tv released BabelWith.me. BabelWith.me is a free group chat tool that automatically translates a conversation as it is typed. This allows users to chat with anyone, anywhere in up to forty-five languages. LifeChurch.tv developed BabelWith.me to communicate with anyone freely, from church partners to those attending Church Online all over the world. LifeChurch.tv Pastor, Innovation Leader Bobby Gruenewald states, "In our increasingly global society, language barriers have remained major hurdles to bringing people together. Our hope is that BabelWith.me will set conversation free by empowering communication between different cultures and creating new opportunities for important discussions."

Sharing Teaching via Video

With all that LifeChurch.tv has shared of their own development and resources, they have encouraged other churches and pastors to do the same with VideoTeaching.com. In the spring of 2009, VideoTeaching.com was launched offering free sermons, or messages, from a variety of churches and pastors. LifeChurch.tv developed this resource as a way to meet the needs of churches that are between pastors or have services during the absence of a pastor, that have bi-vocational pastors, or for those that would seek to expand their teaching team through video teaching. Offered as free video downloads in a variety of digital formats, there are currently over fifty messages available with more being added shortly.

More on the Horizon


What is next for this innovative church? With more than 80 worship services across thirteen physical locations and the Internet, and serving over 26,000 people in six states and worldwide via Church Online, the opportunities seem limitless. With the free resources available to other churches, the growth will most likely exceed the context of LifeChurch.tv, which excites Terry Storch. "We truly believe that God's Word changes lives. We also believe mobile platforms are the future of technology. The big ‘what's next' for us to is to maintain our focus on mobile devices." Recently, YouVersion announced plans for a new, interactive addition called YouVersion Live. This free service will allow for two-way dialogue, encouraging users to interact with live events, share stories and engage in dialogue. Launching in October, YouVersion Live looks to be the next step in sharing truth via mobile content.

By combining innovative new technologies with free distribution models and resource sharing, it is encouraging to see LifeChurch.tv lead the way for other churches to not only leverage technology, develop it, and then share it with the world.