Afghan War 2001 - 2010 Ninth Anniversary Article

ꕤ Article SOURCE archived news - as marked http://theredphoenixapl.org/2010/10/07/on-the-ninth-anniversary-of-the-afghanistan-war/ Afghan War 2001 On the Ninth Anniversary of the Afghanistan War By The Red Phoenix on October 7, 2010 Today, the war and military occupation in Afghanistan continues onwards for its tenth year, marking the ninth anniversary of the invasion on October 7th, 2001. The so-called “Global War on Terror” has escalated into a full-scale invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the bombing and terrorization of Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen and other countries. Since then, the financial costs of the Afghanistan War have trampled that of the Iraq War. In February 2010, the monthly cost for Afghanistan was $6.7 billion, while the Iraq War was $5.5 billion. Costs aside, let us take a look at where the Afghan War has taken the Afghan population nine years down the line.  “Operation Enduring Freedom” (OEF) has brought nothing but destruction, a military dictatorship, legalized rape and the re-opening of Afghanistan’s poppy and opium fields to fuel the global drug trade.  [comment:  I thought the figure in the billions per month was a typo, but a check indicates monthly figures in the BILLIONS is correct & the figures given in this 2010 article are correct - here] In addition, NATO airstrikes and ground operations have not ceased for a moment. Even pro-US Afghan President Hamid Karzai is calling on the US to withdraw. The death tolls for both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have independently claimed thousands of lives. Some civilian death estimates for Afghanistan say between 11,443 and 14,240 deaths have been recorded total as “direct deaths,” with 6982 since 2007. Some estimates go as high as over a million dead in Iraq alone. The recent escalation of the war in Afghanistan by the US imperialists is the beginning of President Barack Obama’s plan to send 30,000 more troops in the coming months before a supposed gradual drawdown of troops (much like the recent Iraq “drawdown” no doubt) in 2011. The CIA remains poised and ready to borrow armed bomber drones from the US military in order to expand their covert assassination campaign, which has been known to violate the borders of Pakistan in North Waziristan and commit political assassinations. Current State of Afghanistan  [at 2010] A global public opinion survey involving 47 nations conducted in 2007 found that only 2 out of the 47 countries possessed a majority that supported the continued US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan. These two were Israel (59%) and Kenya (60%) (1). More breaking news included that “The Taliban issued a statement marking the invasion anniversary, claiming 75 percent of Afghanistan was now under its control. ‘The strongholds of jihad and resistance against the invading Americans and their allies are as strong as ever,’ it said. ‘The invading Americans spent hundreds of billions of dollars in order to continue this illegitimate war, lost thousands of soldiers — with tens of thousands of them being injured — and faced heavy losses in terms of military hardware.’ The Taliban urged the U.S. and its allies to immediately leave the country” (2). A report by the Open Society Foundations, a think-tank, said that “Afghans are increasingly angry and resentful about the international presence in Afghanistan and do not believe insurgents are responsible for most attacks and civilian deaths” (2). Just to give our readers an idea of just how bad the drug trade in Afghanistan has gotten since the US occupation, on Wednesday a “joint patrol […] seized a vehicle with 1,700 pounds (760 kilograms) of heroin, 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of hashish, 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of wet opium, five anti-personal mines, and bomb-making materials in Kandahar […]” (2). As Afghanistan was getting ravaged with bombs, the U.S. government enlisted the help of the Northern Alliance led by warlord Rashid Dostum to do their bidding on the ground. In a U.S. orchestrated operation, the Northern Alliance captured the Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif. Thousands of Taliban fighters were taken prisoner in the nearby town of Kunduz. Kunduz fell in November of that year, and in December, New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall reported, “dozens…of prisoners asphyxiated in shipping containers used to transport them to [the] prison in Shibarghan, a journey that took two or three days” (3). The NA needed to transport thousands of “potentially dangerous men” and as such they were stuffed into sealed containers that often line the roads of Afghanistan and are used to transport prisoners. This figure of “dozens” comes from the prison commander who admitted that 43 had died during the journey, most from combat injuries. However, inquiry with inmates held in Shibarghan lead Gall to believe that the actual number of deaths may be much higher. The following May, Gall offered a follow-up report, offering the news, “A tangle of abandoned clothes, half-covered in sand, lies just off the desert track. Pieces of white bone are strewn among the mess and the smell of decaying bodies drifts over the site” (4). She then went on to offer some background information on what she had discovered: The desert outside Shibarghan “hides what are suspected to be large-scale killings committed five months ago by Afghan allies of the US” (3). “Kill Team” in Afghanistan Exposed for War Crimes As for a more recent event, rogue members of a platoon from the fifth Stryker Combat Brigade, second infantry division were charged with killing civilians for sport and for dismembering and photographing corpses. According to the army’s own charge documents, an Afghan man approached the platoon in the small village of La Mohammed Kalay. One soldier, falling back on the excuse that they were under attack, threw a fragmentary grenade and ordered others to open fire. This unprovoked attack, taking place on January 15th, was the beginning of a wide-reaching shooting spree against civilians. The subsequent investigation has pressured the belief that the military ignored warnings of the rouge soldiers and what they were doing. One of the soldiers facing charges, Spc. Adam Winfield, wrote home to his parents after he was notified of the killings done by his fellow soldiers, “I’m not sure what to do about something that happened out here, but I need to be secretive about this” (5). He wrote this on a Facebook message to his parents, dated January 15th, 2009. About a month later, he was able to present his family with the details. Soldiers in his unit were on patrol and killed, “some innocent guy about my age, just farming” (5). He then added that those who had committed the murder suggested that he “get one of his own.” The soldier’s father, Christopher Winfield, went to contact the Army through a hotline in order to prompt an investigation. However, his efforts were all for none. Months later, two more Afghan civilians were killed. Spc. Winfield later told his parents that he had “proof that they [the soldiers in his unit] are planning another one in the form of an AK-47 they want to drop on a guy” (6). He added that he felt a strong concern for his personal safety if he made the decision to report the killings to the authorities. “Should I do the right thing and put myself in danger for it? Or just shut up and deal with it,” adding, “There are no more good men left here. It eats away at my conscience every day” (7). Winfield had good reason to worry. Another soldier in the same unit, Pfc. Justin Stoner, who told superiors about hashish-smoking among soldiers, was savagely beaten by several members of the platoon. Staff Sgt. Gibbs and another soldier further intimidated Stoner by displaying on the floor a set of severed fingers, telling Stoner that “if I don’t want to end up like that guy…shut the hell up” (6). This led Stoner to tell investigators about the murders of the three Afghan civilians. Spec. Jeremy N. Morlock, 22, and a member of the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade admitted to taking place in the killings, which took place in the Kandahar province between January and May 2009. He attempted to shift the blame entirely on Gibbs, claiming that he was the one that planted the idea with their unit to kill innocent Afghans. “Gibbs had pure hatred for all Afghanis and constantly referred to them as savages,” Morlock said in one statement, details of which were first reported by the Associated Press (8). Morlock, Gibbs and three other U.S. soldiers have been charged with murder in the deaths of the three Afghan civilians. In some of the most gruesome allegations against American military personnel since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, they and other soldiers from their platoon also face charges of using hashish, dismembering and photographing corpses, and possessing human bones. Morlock’s defense attorney sought to toss out his client’s statements by arguing that he was on heavy medication at the time of his discussion with Army investigators in May of that year. http://theredphoenixapl.org/2010/10/07/on-the-ninth-anniversary-of-the-afghanistan-war/ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/11/kill-team-calvin-gibbs-convicted The Guardian - 2011 'Kill team' US platoon commander guilty of Afghan murders Calvin Gibbs, who made soldiers help him kill civilians and take body part 'trophies', could be out in less than 10 years Chris McGreal in Washington Friday 11 November 2011 14.36 AEDT A US military court has convicted an army squad commander of leading a "kill team" in Afghanistan that murdered unarmed civilians and collected body parts as war trophies. But Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 26, could be freed in less than 10 years after receiving a life sentence with the possibility of early parole for murder, assault and conspiracy over the killings of three Afghans in separate incidents staged to look as if the victims were combatants. In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, Gibbs recruited other soldiers to murder civilians he called "savages" after he took over command of a US army squad in Afghanistan's Kandahar province in November 2009. Prosecutors described Gibbs as hunting innocent Afghans "for sport", a view reinforced by the staff sergeant's statement likening the amputation of body parts as trophies to collecting antlers from a deer. The military prosecutor, Major Rob Stelle, told the court: "Sergeant Gibbs had a charisma, he had a 'follow me' personality. But it was all a bunch of crap, he had his own mission: murder and depravity. No one died before Sergeant Gibbs showed up." Gibbs was convicted of murder for inciting two soldiers to kill 15-year-old Gul Mudin as he worked in a field. The platoon commander gave a grenade to one of the soldiers, Jeremy Morlock, who threw it at Mudin. A second soldier, Andrew Holmes, then shot the boy. Gibbs played with the corpse of the teenager "as if it was a puppet", Morlock told the trial. The staff sergeant was also convicted of shooting dead Marach Agha, a man sleeping by a roadside, and then planting a Kalashnikov next to the corpse to make it look as if he was a fighter. He kept part of the victim's skull as a trophy. Gibbs was convicted on a third count of murder for killing a Muslim cleric, Mullah Adahdad, with a grenade and then shooting him. Two other soldiers, Morlock and Adam Winfield, have already pleaded guilty over their roles in the killing. Gibbs and other soldiers collected fingers, teeth and other body parts as trophies. They also took photographs of themselves posing next to their dead victims. In one of the pictures Morlock is seen lifting Mudin's [teenager's] head by its hair for the camera and smiling. The soldiers also took ghoulish pictures of themselves with dead combatants. The jury of five soldiers was shown pages of Facebook messages sent by Winfield to his parents in which he described how Gibbs led the killings. In one exchange with his father Winfield recounted Mudin's killing. "An innocent dude. They planned and went through with it. I knew about it. Didn't believe they were going to do it. Then it happened. Pretty much the whole platoon knows about it. It's OK with all of them pretty much. Except me. I want to do something about it. The only problem is I don't feel safe here telling anyone. The guy who did it is the golden boy in the company who can never do anything wrong and it's my word against theirs," Winfield wrote. Winfield later told investigators: "[Gibbs] likes to kill things. He is pretty much evil incarnate. I mean, I have never met a man who can go from one minute joking around, then mindless killings." The court martial was told that Gibbs had six skull tattoos on his leg to mark up each of his "kills" from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In his testimony Gibbs denied responsibility for the killings, saying the victims all died in legitimate combat. But he did admit slicing off body parts from Afghans, including the fingers of a man, and keeping them or giving them to other soldiers as trophies. "In my mind I was there to take the antlers off the deer. You have to come to terms with what you're doing. Shooting people is not an easy thing to do," said Gibbs. The prosecution witnesses against Gibbs included members of his army unit who were also involved in the atrocities. Morlock and Holmes have pleaded guilty to murder and received prison sentences of 24 years and seven years respectively. Winfield pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for failing to prevent other soldiers from attacking Afghan civilians. He was jailed for three years. Another soldier, Michael Wagnon, is awaiting trial over the killings and collecting human body parts. The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating an assault on a soldier, Justin Stoner, after he reported to superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. Gibbs, Morlock and other members of the platoon are alleged to have beaten Stoner and told him to keep his mouth shut. Stoner reported the beating and told investigators what he knew of the "kill team". Prosecutors called Gibbs "monstrous" and "savage" and told the military jury he should never be released from prison. But the jurors acceded to the convicted soldier's plea to have the hope of being reunited with his son and sentenced him to life with the possibility of parole after less than 10 years. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/11/kill-team-calvin-gibbs-convicted SUMMARY February 2010 Cost of War to USA Taxpayers Afghanistan - $6.7 billion per month Iraq - $5.5 billion per month est. civilians killed Afghanistan direct: 11,443 - 14,240 indirect: 6,982 *other estimates as high as over 1-million dead, Iraq alone ➭  CIA covert political assassination program 2007 Survey only majority support for US/NATO occupation  of Afghanistan Israel (59%) Kenya (60%) ➭ Drug trade booming ➭ Taliban claims 75% control of Afghan territory http://theredphoenixapl.org/2010/10/07/on-the-ninth-anniversary-of-the-afghanistan-war/ WAR CRIMES - Afghanistan Killing civilians Suffocation of Captives Northern Alliance USA orchestrated op take town of:  Mazar-i-Sharif 1,000s Taliban fighters taken prisoner (Kunduz) transport to prison in Shibarghan 3-day journey ➭ dozens captives suffocated in sealed shipping containers ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Checking some old stories, as I was having a look at some old photos to get a feel for 2010 wars.  I missed out on what was going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, because I wasn't interested at the time. On reading of the random killings of civilians and body parts collection, the initial feeling was horror and disgust. It makes no sense to kill civilians for nothing and it's sick to play around with dead things, glorifying the slaughter and glorifying one's role in committing the slaughter. While you want people in the military (esp. the army) that can kill and aren't at all squeamish, you don't want sickos targeting civilians or killing unjustly and randomly, and certainly not sickos with a fetish for body parts. But I'm not sure why that's so offensive.  As in, when people are dead, they're dead.   I guess because it goes beyond maybe taking a photograph of someone killed in combat (but this wasn't even combat, it was civilians randomly targeted), and it's taking disgusting trophies -- which is a lot like playing around with and treasuring decay. [I'm eating toast at the moment & my stomach's sort of unhappy with that imagery.] It's sick to be that hung up on dead things,  and the entire thing was staged to pump up this guy's ego and self-image as 'killer.'  It didn't even matter to him that the whole thing was a fraud (in the sense that his victims weren't even combatants) and that he was therefore no great combatant. Odds are that the Staff Sergeant, Calvin Gibbs, is a psychopath. That it was a US military commander, that it was planned in advance, and that the platoon (15-30 soldiers) were OK with this, is damning of the US military. The Winfield guy getting 3 years prison seems harsh, seeing he wasn't involved and wasn't into what his unit was doing, and seeing he expressed fear about speaking up about what was going on. *I can't believe they're going to free the sicko commander & let him loose in US society. ꕤ

Saudi Arabia Backed By West - Killing Civilians Wholesale in Yemen

ꕤ Yemen attacked & bombed by Saudi Arabia supported by West & Gulf  States Yemen ​93% of deaths & injuries in Yemen are civilian Over 2,200 civilian deaths had been registered by September 2015 overwhelming from: air-launched explosive weapons – 93%; ground-launched explosive weapons – 94%; improvised explosive devices – 97%. Report | PDF https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/Documents/Yemen%20EWIPA%20report.pdf SOURCE http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/oct/27/yemen-deaths-93-civilian-this-must-change Hakim Almasmari @HakimAlmasmari Yemen Expert. Reporting/analysis on CNN, WSJ, AJE, BBC, RT, etc. Editor in Chief of Yemen Post Newspaper @YemenPostNews, University Lecturer, Yemeni American. reports: 150,000 Saudi airstrikes Over 40,000 civilians killed in 272 day war ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT I've not check the PDF report attached to The Guardian story. Not sure what the go is with that figure. Academic & Yemen Post editor gives a figure of 40,000 civilians killed (which is vastly more than that 2,200 figure). No time to check now. The man that's holding up 'something' is holding up a human hand. ꕤ

Sweden - The Impact on Unemployment, Productivity, and Crime (Andrew Oates, University of Puget Sound, Economics Senior Thesis 2006)

ꕤ Article SOURCE as marked EXTRACTS http://www.pugetsound.edu/files/resources/1359_ImmigrationInSweden.doc Sweden Immigration in Sweden The Impact on Unemployment, Productivity, and Crime Andrew Oates Economics Senior Thesis University of Puget Sound Fall Semester 2006 Crime Skeptics may argue that the increase in crime could easily be attributed to an increase in population, or that significant crime increases were experienced globally. The first argument is answered with simple data about population and crime. The population in Sweden was roughly 7 million people in 1950. Today, there are roughly 9 million. Total crime increased by nearly 600%, while the population only increased by about 30 percent. It is unlikely that this increase in crime would have occurred in Sweden without outside influence. It is possible that an increased number of immigrants, with different cultural values, are the cause of the increased crime. Since 1950, there has been a net increase in population due to immigrants equal to approximately 1 million people (Benito, 2005). The increase in immigration accounts for almost all of the increased population in Sweden since 1950. It is important to note that not all immigrants commit crime in their new home; rather it appears that certain immigrants are accounting for a dramatic percentage of the increased crime rates in Sweden. An argument for the increase in crime due to a change in values in the last century can be refuted by comparisons of crime rates to the United States. “The percentage of foreign-born [in Sweden] is roughly equivalent to the highest percentage of immigrants the United States ever had in its history (on the eve of World War I)” (Caldwell, 2005). Thus, the crime rates in the United States are not influenced by the difficulties that arise due to the initial merging of differing cultures. If we compare the percentage increases in overall crime, rape, robbery and assault between the U.S. and Sweden, it will become evident that the case in Sweden is unnatural. Several things are apparent from table 2.. First of all, the nature of the increased crimes in Sweden is of malicious motives, not monetary. The data shows that Sweden experienced an increase in assault crimes greater than the United States did. Robbery increased in the U.S. more than in Sweden during this time period. This reveals that the new crime in Sweden is unique, in that the increase in robbery can not be attributed to the clash of cultures in Sweden. Most important, the percentage growth of malicious crimes in Sweden are greater than that of the United States, and therefore, a global impact explanation is insufficient at explaining the entirety of the increase in crime in Sweden. In fact, criminal evidence in Sweden shows that a large percentage of the crime is attributed to immigrants. Immigrants are three times more likely to commit assault, and five times more likely to commit sex crimes than Swedes (The Local, 2005). Almost forty percent of the 1,520,000 offenses recorded between 1997 and 2001 were committed by people born overseas, or by people with at least one parent born overseas (The Local, 2006). This number is especially dramatic since the immigrant population only makes up twelve percent of the population. It is not the case, however, that all new immigrants in Sweden are criminals. According to a Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet (Fjordman, 2006), “9 out of 10 of the most criminal ethnic groups in Sweden come from Muslim countries.” Also, according to Nima Sanandaji (2005), “some immigrant groups have a very low crime rate (such as those from East Asia).” Immigrant youths seem to be the largest contributors to the increased crime in Sweden. It is important to note that the most dramatic increases in crime are found in the crimes immigrants are most likely to commit. These particular crimes are committed to inflict pain to the native Swedish population, rather than for monetary gains. This reveals one possible motive behind the crimes: a hatred of the Swedish people. According to Åkesson’s interviews (Fjordman, 2006), immigrants feel as if they are looked down upon by native born Swedes. In return, immigrant youths have become hostile toward Swedes. An interview with one young immigrant in Sweden revealed a social war existing in Sweden. “Power for me means that the Swedes shall look at me, lie down on the ground and kiss my feet…We rob every single day, as often as we want to, whenever we want to.” This hostility, they explain, is retaliation against treatment by the native Swedes as being inferior. The clash of culture in Sweden is also apparent by the low rate of mixed marriages (Caldwell, 2005). There have also been “honor-killings”, in that family members are killing each other for dating native Swedes. There are also underground immigrant crime syndicates functioning in Sweden’s largest cities. In the 1980’s, a Balkan organized crime network spread out across Scandinavia. Most of these mafia men come from the former Yugoslavia, and came to Sweden during the Bosnian and Kosovo wars in the 1990s (Fleishman, 2006). These crime syndicates traffic drugs, weapons, and prostitutes, and commit large scale robberies. In 2004, these organizations robbed more than $ 10 million from Norway’s central bank, and stole Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” and “Madonna” from a museum in Oslo. Although these particular attacks were against Norway, these criminals live throughout Scandinavia, and wars between organizations have publicized the underground network in Sweden for the last decade. “Even in relatively small Malmö, six Balkan mafia figures have been slain since 2002” (Fleishman, 2006). Sweden’s police force is doing little to combat this problem. With lenient punishment and strong privacy laws, the investigations of organized crime are making little progress. According to Bo Lundqvist, a detective in Malmö (Fleishman, 2006), “We need tougher laws, but that directly contradicts our open society…And we’re looking at individual crimes and not the larger picture.” Another police investigator who was to afraid to reveal his name said, “They brought this gangster mentality that wasn’t anything like the normal Swedish criminal.” These criminals have moved to Sweden because it is easy to commit crime, and punishment is lax. One mobster, Milan Sevo, received only a two-year sentence for weapons-related charges. He escaped from custody during one of his weekend passes to visit his family. When he was eventually recaptured, he served no extra time for running away. Another criminal, Naser Dzeljilji, received an 18 month sentence for drugs, weapons, and conspiracy offenses, but was released from an appeal (Fleishman, 2006). These cases reveal the leniency behind the Swedish penal system, and the attractiveness of immigrating to Sweden for foreign criminals. If the situation in Sweden is not as idyllic as assumed, why is it that immigrants continue to come to Sweden? There are several reasons to immigrate into Sweden, even with the knowledge of the current economic and social problems. Most important, immigrants are attracted to Sweden because of the promise of welfare (Caldwell, 2005). Foreign citizens immigrating to Sweden are given free medical care, free schooling, decent housing conditions, and free lessons in the native language. Also, Denmark and Finland have become stricter on their immigration policies, so current citizens in these nations will move to Sweden in order to bring in their family as well. “Danes under 25 who marry foreigners no longer have the right to bring their spouses into the country. Many such half-Danish couples now live in Malmo” (Caldwell, 2005). Conclusions The decrease in productivity due to immigration has a large impact on the economy in Sweden. Take, for example, a middle aged woman who runs a restaurant business in Halmstad. She feels the effects of the labor protection laws in Sweden. She has less than ten employees. If one of them becomes sick, or takes maternity leave, she needs to find someone to replace the employee. However, now she is paying twice as much for the same level of productivity. Moreover, if the employee is absent for more than six months, the woman must debate between locking another employee into an unbreakable contractual agreement and incuring the transaction costs of hiring and training another employee. Hiring an immigrant is also a nuisance for companies. The social democratic reaction to immigration was to protect its labor unions, and enact a reform that requires companies to provide 240 hours of full pay while the immigrant receives language training. The government effectively increased the transaction costs for hiring immigrants, and to such an extent that immigrants became left behind. Because the government neglected to incorporate the increased population into the economy, Sweden no longer has any effective means for absorbing them into the labor market. Currently, Sweden is a boat, sailing near a whirlpool. They are caught in the current that will eventually lead them to disaster, but haven’t noticed. If they could foresee the problem, there could still be time to steer clear. Unfortunately, the crew is below decks, lounging on Ikea furniture. This analogy accurately depicts the present state of Sweden. The government in Sweden is handling immigration by forcing the migrants into situations where they cannot find work. They are then handing out generous welfare payments to these people, to preserve the idea of equality in the nation. Native Swedes are upset that immigrants are taking up so much of the tax money that they pay, while not working, and committing crimes. Therefore, Swedes are not working as hard; causing productivity to decrease; resulting in smaller profits and tax revenues. Meanwhile, the immigrants are committing crimes due to a feeling of separation from the Swedish culture, with little or no punishment from the institution. In fact, immigrants may realize that by committing crimes, they actually receive more handouts from the government. The impact of this will be the eventual collapse of Sweden’s welfare state. It is arguable whether or not the social democratic government is responsible, by not incorporating the new labor force into the economy. According to Johan Norberg (2006), “[Sweden] has been critically weakened by the system it helped create. Far from being a solution for the new sick men of Europe, Sweden must face serious and fundamental challenges at the heart of its social model.” If so, a major problem in solving this issue is the population’s reluctance to reform the government. The social democrats were just voted out of office in September, in favor of a more moderate government. However, in order to win the election, the moderate government had to change its policies on welfare to be consistent with the social democrats. The population is afraid of change, because they have become dependent on the welfare system. They are reluctant to vote for a reform that might limit the handouts received from the government. Apparently the furniture is really comfortable, because nothing is being done to handle the crisis. The irony of this situation is that countries are looking to Sweden as the model for successful government intervention in a globalizing world. Perhaps they do not see that if Sweden had continued its level of productivity during the fifties throughout the century, they would have higher growth and greater efficiency than any other nation in Europe. Perhaps they don’t see the hidden information that places the unemployment rate at 12%, rather than 6%. Maybe they don’t see the dramatic increase in crime levels, the incentives to commit these crimes, and the lack of indication that it will stop anytime soon. It was the immigrants that brought this change, but the ideals of the social democratic government that caused it. The policies of this government are not bad. They were successful in Sweden for almost sixty years. However, in the face of immigration, the values of the social democracy have created a mess, and need to be reformed, or done away with. There is no way to be certain if a Social Democratic ideal will ever be successful in the future. It worked in Sweden because of the homogeneous state of its society. There might never again be an environment of this nature, for which the implementation of a socialist ideology would be possible. EXTRACTS SOURCE http://www.pugetsound.edu/files/resources/1359_ImmigrationInSweden.doc ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Nooooooooooooo, it's the end of the welfare state! So this is maybe why all those neocon puppet politicians are so keen on immigration? It's to bust up the welfare state? That was really interesting reading. I've only focused on the extracts above, as I'm not that into information about the economy itself ... I'm more interested in the social (and maybe not so social) aspects. ______________ NOTE:   Earlier highlights are lost. Had to ditch the formatting because I'd pasted directly to Blogger from a Word document, which was screwing up my template codes. ꕤ

Europe - Active Military Personnel - 2010-2013

ꕤ Military SOURCE http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.TOTL.P1 Armed forces personnel Armed forces personnel are active duty military personnel, including paramilitary forces if the training, organization, equipment, and control suggest they may be used to support or replace regular military forces. 2010 2011 2012 2013 Albania 14,745 14,750 14,750 8,500 Austria 25,758 23,250 22,800 22,500 Belarus 182,940 158,000 158,000 158,000 Belgium 35,736 34,050 30,700 37,500 BiH 10,577 10,550 10,500 10,500 Bulgaria 65,315 47,300 47,300 47,300 Croatia 21,600 21,600 19,550 19,550 Czech Rep 28,521 26,750 26,750 24,100 Denmark 18,628 16,450 17,200 17,200 Estonia 5,750 5,750 5,750 5,750 Finland 24,975 25,000 25,000 25,000 France 341,967 332,250 325,600 318,400 Georgia 32,355 32,350 32,350 32,350 Germany 251,465 196,000 186,450 181,550 Greece 149,647 148,350 147,350 148,950 Greenland - - - - Hungary 34,587 38,500 38,500 38,500 Iceland 130 180 180 200 Ireland 10,460 8,900 9,350 9,350 Latvia 4,600 5,350 5,310 5,310 Lithuania 25,240 23,350 23,350 21,950 Luxembourg 1,512 1,510 1,510 1,510 Malta 2,127 2,120 2,130 2,130 Macedonia 8,000 8,000 8,000 8,000 Moldova 7,733 7,750 7,750 7,750 Montenegro 13,084 12,180 12,180 12,180 Netherlands 43,279 43,300 43,300 43,300 Norway 24,450 24,450 25,800 25,800 Poland 121,400 118,050 172,700 172,700 Portugal 90,334 90,300 90,300 79,850 Romania 153,800 151,300 151,300 151,300 Russia Fed 1.43-m 1.364-m 1.364-m 1.26-m Serbia 29,125 28,150 28,150 28,150 Slovak Rep 15,799 15,850 15,850 15,850 Slovenia 12,100 12,100 13,550 13,550 Spain 223,216 215,700 215,600 213,950 Sweden 21,163 21,300 16,100 16,100 Turkey 612,800 612,800 612,800 612,800 Ukraine 214,825 214,850 14,850 121,500 UK 174,020 165,650 169,150 159,150 ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Population 1 July 2014 FRANCE:  64,641,279 median age: 40.8 1955 fertility rate:  2.75 2014 fertility rate:  1.98 TURKEY:  75,837,020 median age:  29.8 1955 fertility rate:  6.62 2015 fertility rate:  2.07 SPAIN:  47,066,402 median age:  41.8 fertility rate:  1.48 GERMANY:  82,652,256 median age:  45.9 fertility rate:  1.40 SWEDEN:  9,631,261 median age:  41.1 fertility rate:  1.91 *Aging Population | *Low Reproduction Rate *Exception:  Turkey  Random samples above. http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/ other Israel:  7,822,107 Median Age:  30.1 Fertility rate:  2.91 Palestine:  4,436,411 Median Age:  19.4 Fertility Rate:  4.12 Syria:  21,986,615 Median Age:  22.6 Fertility rate:  3.04 Lebanon:  4,965,914 Median Age:  30.2 Fertility rate:  1.52 Afghanistan:  31,280,518 Median age:  16.8 Fertility rate:  5.24 Iraq:  34,768,761 Median Age:  19.9 Fertility rate:  4.12 Somalia:  10,805,651 Median age:  16.4 Fertility rate:  6.71 South Africa:  53,139,528 Median age:  26.2 Fertility rate:  2.43 Nigeria:  178,516,904 Median age:  17.8 Fertilty rate: 6.01 Sudan:  38,764,090 Median age:  19.2 Fertility rate:  4.53 ꕤ