Afghanistan

The U.N. High Commission for Refugees has announced that the number of internally displaced has reached the highest level ever, thanks to the intensifying of several recent conflicts:

The number of people internally displaced within their own countries has reached a historical high of more than 28 million, the UN's refugee agency said today, as conflicts in Pakistan's Swat valley and Sri Lanka compound a growing global problem.

At the end of last year the total number of people forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution around the world stood at 42 million, including 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 26 million people uprooted within their own countries, according to UNHCR's annual Global Trends report, which was released this afternoon.

But since the end of last year there has been an exodus of more than 2 million from the Swat valley, which has become a battleground between the Taliban and the Pakistani army.

More than 300,000 refugees are being held in internment camps in Sri Lanka, victims of the conflict between government soldiers and the Tamil Tigers, and 130,000 people have been displaced by fighting in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.

The full report can be found on UNHCR's website. Not surprisingly, Iraq (2.6 million) and Sudan (over 2 million) had some of the largest internally displaced populations, but the largest population is in fact still Colombia, due to the decades-long war between the government and the FARC. Similarly tragic is the number of refugees from the most recent major conflicts: Iraq and Afghanistan account for "almost half of all refugees under UNHCR’s responsibility worldwide," with Afghan refugees in an astonishing 69 countries worldwide.

FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/Getty Images

Australian troops on the front lines in Afghanistan have seen their fair share of the horrors of war. But if there's one thing they won't put up with, it's European cuisine:

Troops [in the Oruzgan province] had passed on complaints about the "lousy" food, Senator Johnson says, to both Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon on recent visits.

Food is mainly supplied by the Dutch, which commands the provincial reconstruction taskforce in the province.

Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston defended the soldiers' diet.

"Our soldiers all the way through have had the required amount of calories and the food has been of a very high standard," he said.

"I think the issue is, it's not Aussie food, it's European food and it's pre-prepared.

Worse, getting a taste of home seems to be a status symbol in the Aussie army: 

A major issue seems to be that while general troops are taking their supplies from the Dutch, their colleagues in the elite special forces have their own cooks dishing up the grub.

"Essentially, special forces have been eating Aussie food," Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

Top brass insist that the soldiers are getting good food, but "in total, 10 cooks will eventually be deployed to vary the diet of the soldiers." Whether they will be followed by an elite "Grandma's pies" batallion is at this point unconfirmed. 

AWAD AWAD/AFP/Getty Images

Despite budget cutbacks at the foreign affairs ministry, Israel has announced that it will open an embassy in Turkmenistan following a round of secret talks. In addition to being a major source of natural gas, Turkmenistan shares a border with Iran.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has shown an interest in expanding Israel's footprint in Central Asia before, leading delegations to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan while he was interior minister. Israel is keen to promote security ties with Central Asian states to limit Iran's regional influence.

The U.S. has been making moves in the 'stans this week as well. As mentioned in yesterday's morning brief, the U.S. will once again be supplying troops Afghanistan through Uzbekistan, with an assist from South Korea. Josh Kucera also reports that the new State Department budget includes major aid increases for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, with an eye on keeping supply lines to Afghanistan open.

The Washington Post reports that Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal will be replacing Gen. David McKiernan as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan:

The leadership shift comes as the Obama administration has voiced increasingly urgent concern about the surge in violence in Afghanistan as well as unrest in neighboring Pakistan.

"We have a new strategy, a new mission and a new ambassador. I believe that new military leadership is also needed," Gates said at a hastily convened Pentagon news conference.

"I think these two officers will bring . . . a focus which we really need in 2009. And I just didn't think we could wait until 2010," Gates said.

Gates praised McChrystal [for] "a unique skill set in counterinsurgency" as well as "fresh thinking."

A few important things to note about the Petraeus confidante.

First, most bloggers and news outlets seem to concur that the suddenness of the decision -- the "hastily convened" press conference, for instance -- underscore the seriousness of the situation in Afghanistan and the need for a "nonconventional" approach. 

McChrystal has experience in that approach. He led the covert special forces, which, in the evocative phrasing of the AP, "[fight] in the shadows of battles in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond." McChrystal commanded the black ops unit responsible for the manhunt and death of Iraqi insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (That same unit allegedly abused detainees in a U.S. facility in Iraq, Joshua Foust notes -- something McChrystal might have to answer for in his congressional review.) 

Second, McChrystal approved the Silver Star citation given posthumously to Pat Tillman, the former NFL player killed in action in Afghanistan. The award cited Tillman's heroic conduct in "devastating enemy fire."

But, at the time, McChrystal had already guessed that Tillman was accidentally killed by U.S. troops. He sent a back-channel memo advising then-President George W. Bush to avoid speaking about the "enemy fire." Pentagon officials questioned McChrystal over his conduct, though, he ultimately wasn't punished.  

Stefan Zaklin/Getty Images

McClatchy's Tom Lasseter describes an interesting encounter with Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and accused drug trafficker.

According to Lasseter's account, Karzai became irritated with questions about his ties to the poppy trade:

He began to glare at me and questioned whether I was really a reporter.

"It seems like someone sent you to write these things," he said, scowling.

Karzai glared some more.

"You should leave right now," he said.

I stuck my hand out to shake his; if I learned anything from three years of reporting in Iraq and then trips to Afghanistan during the past couple of years, it's that when things turn bad, you should cling to any remaining shred of hospitality.

Karzai grabbed my hand and used it to give me a bit of a push into the next room. He followed me, and his voice rose until it was a scream of curse words and threats.

I managed to record just one full sentence: "Get the (expletive) out before I kick your (expletive)."

(Hat Tip: TransMission)