Guns and Roses: IPS's Reporting On Global Armed Conflicts and Resolution Efforts / IPS Inter Press Service

IPS Correspondent Gareth Porter talks to Real News.

The U.S. military establishment believed they could easily pressure President Obama to back down on his pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months. Having found Obama unconvinced by their argument, they have now launched a campaign in Washington to blame Obama’s withdrawal policy for any future instability in Iraq.

U.S.: "War Comes Home" with Ft. Hood Shootings
By Dahr Jamail
PHOENIX, Arizona - While investigators probe for a motive behind the mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas Thursday, in which an army psychiatrist is suspected of killing 13 people, military personnel at the base are in shock as the incident "brings the war home".
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POLITICS: U.S. Seeks to Limit Warlords in Karzai Cabinet

By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - The Barack Obama administration is talking tough to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the need for decisive action on corruption and governance reform, but its main objective is to prevent particularly corrupt and incompetent warlords from getting plum ministries as rewards for helping clinch his fraudulent reelection, IPS has learned.
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NEPAL: Hopes High for Environmental Rights in New Constitution
By Mallika Aryal
KATHMANDU - As the new federal republic of Nepal forges ahead with writing a new constitution, activists are demanding that environmental rights be enshrined in this important document.
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COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Border Killings Heat Up Tension
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS - The activities of Colombian armed groups across the border in western Venezuela are aggravating the diplomatic conflict between the two governments, which are ideological opposites, and some analysts have begun to wonder just how far the tension will escalate.
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PAKISTAN: Vibrant City Loses Colour, Verve amid Escalating Attacks
By Irfan Ahmed
LAHORE, Pakistan - Lahore, known to the world as "the city of the live-hearted" has been in the grip of extreme fear since Oct. 15, the day when three suicide attacks took place here simultaneously.
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CHILE: Women in Arms
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO - The official version of Chilean history renders women’s political participation "invisible" and relegates them to a secondary or anecdotal role, says journalist Cherie Zalaquett, author of a new book, "Chilenas en armas" (Chilean Women in Arms).
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RIGHTS-CHINA: ‘Give Uyghurs a Chance to Live in Peace’
Catherine Makino interviews REBIYA KADEER, president of the World Uyghur Congress
TOKYO - Following the bloody clashes in July in Urumqi, the capital of the restive Xingjian region in China, activist Rebiya Kadeer found herself in the midst of another controversy, having been accused by the Chinese government of instigating the riots.
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DEVELOPMENT: Hunger and Conflict Go Hand in Hand
By Suzanne Hoeksema
UNITED NATIONS - Countries emerging from conflict need more international assistance to rebuild their food production, since hunger and scarcity may prompt a return to fighting, United Nations and development officials warned this week.
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RIGHTS: Karen Fear Military Offensive Near Planned Dam in Burma
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - With the annual monsoon rains ending, there is a growing fear among the Karen ethnic minority living along military-ruled Burma’s eastern border of a dry season offensive. The most vulnerable are villagers residing in the vicinity of the controversial Hat Gyi dam.
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POLITICS: U.S. in Pakistan’s Mind: Nothing But Aversion
Analysis by Muhammad Idrees Ahmad*
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - To the west of Peshawar on the Jamrud Road that leads to the historic Khyber Pass sits the Karkhano Market, a series of shopping plazas whose usual offering of contraband is now supplemented by standard issue U.S. military equipment, including combat fatigues, night vision goggles, body armour and army knives.
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AFGHANISTAN: U.S., NATO Forces Rely on Warlords for Security
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON - The revelation by the New York Times Wednesday that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has long been on the payroll of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg of heavy dependence by U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists.
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AFGHANISTAN: Poll Finds Optimism, Amid Political Disenchantment
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - As debate continues in Washington over what its next steps should be in Afghanistan and as the total of NATO-led coalition deaths in the country approaches 70 for the fourth straight month, a new survey says Afghans are slightly more optimistic about the future of their country than in years past.
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RIGHTS-UGANDA: Colliding with the Fourth Estate
By Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi
KAMPALA - Charles Odobo Bichachi, editor of the Independent Newspaper has in a span of a year, been summoned to the police several times accused of publishing seditious statements. And just last month, Bichachi fell into trouble again: this time over a cartoon.
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US-AFGHANISTAN: Kerry Argues for Counterinsurgency Lite
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Amid growing speculation and partisan bickering over what President Barack Obama will do about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, an influential Democratic senator Monday warned against deploying tens of thousands more U.S. troops there.
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UGANDA: Rebuilding Home and Hearth
By Joshua Kyalimpa
PALEMY, Uganda - Dusk gathers in the thickets of Palemy village, in the Gulu district of northern Uganda. Men, women, and children follow foot paths through the dark to the residence of Mzee Otto Yuvani.
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The Human Security Report of 2005 identified a fall in the number of armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War. But the evidence examined in the 2008 edition of the Peace and Conflict report shows that the decline has stopped. Armed conflicts -- wars, civil wars, revolts, coups, genocides, ethnic and political violence, and terrorism worldwide -- are flaring up across the world. Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Darfur, South Ossetia, Colombia...the list of conflict-zones is long. And the poor, women, and children, are the hardest hit. With focus on human rights and development, IPS examines armed conflicts around the world and the efforts to stop them.