#asie_centrale

Les #steppes d’#Asie_centrale menacées par la #désertification | CNRS Le journal
▻https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/les-steppes-dasie-centrale-menacees-par-la-desertification

https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/sites/default/files/styles/visuel_principal/public/assets/images/adobestock_191024891_72dpi.jpg

Des contreforts nord du plateau du Tibet au sud de la Sibérie, de l’ouest du Kazakhstan à l’est de la Mongolie, s’étend l’un des plus vastes #écosystèmes au monde : les steppes d’Asie centrale. À perte de vue, un océan herbacé accueille une riche #biodiversité : élans, gazelles, ours bruns, léopards ou tigres sibériens, entre autres espèces remarquables, y ont élu domicile.

Pourtant, à cette vaste géographie il manquait l’histoire. L’#histoire_naturelle, s’entend. L’évolution de ces steppes au cours des âges géologiques restait mystérieuse car très peu étudiée. Une équipe franco-néerlandaise est venue pallier cette lacune. Elle vient de présenter, pour la première fois, une chronologie des grands événements climatiques et environnementaux (en anglais) survenus au cours des derniers 40 millions d’années. Cette histoire montre à quel point la steppe est fragile et vulnérable aux modifications du #climat [▻https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/41/eabb8227].

Pour les chercheurs, ces steppes pourraient redevenir un désert hyper-aride. Déjà, la dégradation des écosystèmes est visible. Pour preuve, l’avancée du #désert de #Gobi a conduit les autorités chinoises à se lancer dans un vaste programme de reboisement appelé « grande muraille verte ». « L’un des scénarios possibles est que l’avancée du désert ne laisse que des îlots de fertilité. Puis, si les zones mortes continuent de s’étendre, alors ces zones fertiles pourraient à leur tour disparaître », anticipe le chercheur.

Or, cette évolution pourrait être irréversible. « Ce que montrent nos travaux, c’est qu’il existe un seuil au-delà duquel on ne peut pas revenir en arrière. Une fois que l’environne
ment désertique se met en place, il peut se maintenir sur des millions d’années. Ainsi, même si l’on parvenait à contrôler les niveaux de CO2 dans l’atmosphère, revenir à la situation antérieure serait impossible », prévient Guillaume Dupont-Nivet. Si ce scénario catastrophe venait à se réaliser, ce sont les moyens de vie de centaines de millions de personnes qui s’écrouleraient en quelques décennies. ♦

How Russia Wins the Climate Crisis - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/16/magazine/russia-climate-migration-crisis.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/12/16/magazine/16mag-russiahomepagevideostill/16mag-russiahomepagevideostill-facebookJumbo.jpg

Around the world, climate change is becoming an epochal crisis, a nightmare of drought, desertification, flooding and unbearable heat, threatening to make vast regions less habitable and drive the greatest migration of refugees in history. But for a few nations, climate change will present an unparalleled opportunity, as the planet’s coldest regions become more temperate. There is plenty of reason to think that those places will also receive an extraordinary influx of people displaced from the hottest parts of the world as the climate warms. Human migration, historically, has been driven by the pursuit of prosperity even more so than it has by environmental strife. With climate change, prosperity and habitability — haven and economic opportunity — will soon become one and the same.

And no country may be better positioned to capitalize on climate change than Russia. Russia has the largest land mass by far of any northern nation. It is positioned farther north than all of its South Asian neighbors, which collectively are home to the largest global population fending off displacement from rising seas, drought and an overheating climate. Like Canada, Russia is rich in resources and land, with room to grow. Its crop production is expected to be boosted by warming temperatures over the coming decades even as farm yields in the United States, Europe and India are all forecast to decrease. And whether by accident or cunning strategy or, most likely, some combination of the two, the steps its leaders have steadily taken — planting flags in the Arctic and propping up domestic grain production among them — have increasingly positioned Russia to regain its superpower mantle in a warmer world.

[...]

Russia’s agricultural dominance, says Rod Schoonover, the former director of environment and natural resources at the National Intelligence Council and a former senior State Department analyst under the Obama and Trump administrations, is “an emergent national security issue” that is “underappreciated as a geopolitical threat.”

[...]

And as climate change increasingly drives mass migration, the eventual pressure from the population to the south is quite real. Northeastern China, a report from the U.S. National Intelligence Council warns, will face water shortages and droughts that could drive its population into Russia “in large numbers,” potentially unsettling the entire region. Chinese migrants might be pulled into the Russian Far East by economic opportunities today, the council stated, but by as soon as 2030 the dynamic could flip to one in which they will instead be pushed out of China for lack of basic resources.

And it won’t just be from China. Water shortages and more frequent droughts across Central Asia and Mongolia and south as far as India could push large numbers of people north. A 2015 study by Russian demographers published in The Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences looked at how unabated climate change would force the “resettlement of millions” of Vietnamese, many of whom might also come to Russia, as sea levels inundate the Mekong Delta by the end of this century.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the instability that has already been caused by climate-driven migration around the world, whether drought-stricken Guatemalans at the U.S. border or Syrians pressing into Europe, it’s that a strategy of accommodating migrants would almost certainly be more to Russia’s benefit than one that attempts to keep them out. Accommodation, an abundance of migration research shows, stands a better chance of preserving Russia’s own sovereignty while improving the stability of its surrounding regions; exclusion is likely to lead to endless conflict and chaos on its borders, which risks spilling across in destabilizing ways.

#climat #agriculture #migration #géopolitique #Russie #Chine #Asie_centrale #Inde

BBC - Travel - The mystery of Central Asia’s ‘desert kites’
▻https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200907-the-mystery-of-central-asias-desert-kites

https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/624x351/p08ngs7b.jpg

Desolate lands

Rising between the Caspian and Aral seas and stretching across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the Ustyurt plateau is an ultra-remote expanse of scorched clay-desert valleys that surge into rust-red pinnacles and mesas. This otherworldly 200,000 sq km expanse is roughly the size of England and Scotland combined, but with fewer than 13cm of annual rainfall and extreme seasonal temperatures that swing between 40°C and −40°C, the arid region is only home to a few sparsely populated semi-nomadic tribes.

#asie_centrale

Millions of migrants across Russia, Central Asia, ‘teetering on the brink’, as UN launches urgent appeal | | UN News
#Covid-19#migrant#migration#Russie#Asie_centrale#aide#OIM

▻https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/05/1064182

https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/assets/2017/10/28200/image770x420cropped.jpg

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched an urgent $7 million appeal on Thursday, to ease the impact of COVID-19 on migrant communities in five Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation, where the pandemic is pushing a growing number of migrant workers into poverty.

’Mailbox 200’: Soviet waste dump a landslide away from poisoning millions - Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kyrgyzstan-environment-nuclear-waste-idUSKBN1XF10W
▻https://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20191105&t=2&i=1448622326&w=1200&r=LYNXMPEFA40QX

Neglected for decades by the Soviet Union and then #Kyrgyzstan, uranium ore dumps near the town of Mailuu-Suu must be urgently reinforced to prevent disaster, according to the European Commission and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which are raising funds for the project.

“There are 14 million people in the Ferghana valley and in the event of a natural disaster water may wash away the tailings into the Naryn (Syr Darya) river which will be a tragedy for the whole valley,” says Bolotbek Karimov, an environment researcher based in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh.

#asie_centrale #nucléaire #déchers_radioactifs #environnment #ex-urss

Pour exploiter l’uranium kazakh, Orano va raser une forêt protégée
▻https://reporterre.net/Pour-exploiter-l-uranium-kazakh-Orano-va-raser-une-foret-protegee

Au #Kazakhstan, premier producteur mondial d’#uranium, #Orano (ex-#Areva) va raser une #forêt protégée pour exploiter un gisement. La dérogation de l’entreprise française a été obtenue lors de la visite de Bruno Le Maire fin juillet dans ce pays d’#Asie_centrale devenu stratégique pour l’industrie nucléaire française.

#saxaoul #nucléaire #arbre #destruction

Dinara Assanova, cinéaste réaliste – L’Histoire par les #femmes

Pour me rappeler de ma période centrale asiatique. Una artiste remarquable

▻https://histoireparlesfemmes.com/2019/06/06/dinara-assanova-cineaste-realiste

https://histoireparlesfemmes.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/le-pivert-na-pas-mal-a-la-tete-une.jpg

Dinara Kuldashevna Assanova (Динара Кулдашевна Асанова) naît le 24 octobre 1942 à Frounzé (actuelle Bichkek) en République socialiste soviétique kirghize (ou Kirghizie), alors en URSS et qui deviendra en 1991 le Kirghizistan. Elle a une sœur, prénommée Klara. À la sortie de l’école en 1959, alors que ses parents espèrent la voir se diriger vers une carrière dans l’enseignement, Dinara voit les choses différemment : elle, c’est de cinéma qu’elle rêve.

Alors qu’elle n’est âgée que de dix-sept ans, Dinara commence sa carrière cinématographique en se faisant engager au sein de la société de production cinématographique Kirghizfilm, qui s’appelle alors « Studio d’actualités et de films documentaires de Frounzé ». Elle y travaille comme accessoiriste, monteuse, actrice, jusqu’à devenir assistante réalisatrice pour le film Une fille de Tien Shan (1960) d’Algimantas Vidugiris. Elle assiste également la réalisatrice soviétique Larissa Chepitko sur son long-métrage Chaleur torride.

#asie_centrale #cinéma #kirghizstan

BBC - Travel - The birthplace of the modern apple

▻http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181120-the-birthplace-of-the-modern-apple

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Winter’s cool indifference had already embraced the snow-tipped peaks of the Tian Shan mountain system, winds whispering the tall trees into a state of undress.

“It is cold,” said Alexey Raspopov, a guide with Trekking Club #Kazakhstan, pointing to the dashboard thermometer of his 4x4 as we ascended, leaving Kazakhstan’s second city Almaty to disappear beneath a layer of smog.

#pomme #asie_centrale #fruits #pommes

Malin comme un ours
▻http://www.chroniquesdugrandjeu.com/2018/10/malin-comme-un-ours.html

Il y a deux mois, après le sommet de la Caspienne à Aktau, nous nous interrogions sur le fameux gazoduc transcaspien (TCP) censé transporter l’or bleu turkmène vers l’Azerbaïdjan, donc la Turquie et l’Europe : Pourquoi les Russes ont-ils soudain accepté...

#CartOrient : #Asie_occidentale - #Caucase - #Asie_centrale

CartOrient est un #portail de diffusion d’études cartographiques portant sur l’Asie occidentale, le Caucase et l’Asie centrale. Son but est de :
– assurer la mise en commun de données
– développer des outils de production et d’analyse cartographique
– diffuser des connaissances cartographiques à destination de la communauté scientifique et d’un public plus large
– développer des collaborations entre collègues de disciplines et de pays différents

CartOrient est un projet pluridisciplinaire : il intègre des travaux relevant de l’ensemble des sciences humaines et sociales (géographie, histoire, archéologie, etc.) et portant sur toutes les périodes historiques, de l’antiquité à la période contemporaine.

CartOrient comprend trois modules de visualisation de cartes :
– un atlas interactif
– des atlas thématiques
– une bibliothèque d’atlas et de cartes numérisés

https://i.imgur.com/ysNbnCo.png

Nomads and Soviet Rule: Central Asia under Lenin and Stalin

The nomads of Central Asia were already well accustomed to life under the power of a distant capital when the Bolsheviks fomented revolution on the streets of Petrograd. Yet after the fall of the Tsar, the nature, ambition and potency of that power would change dramatically, ultimately resulting in the near eradication of Central Asian nomadism.

Based on extensive primary source work in Almaty, Bishkek and Moscow, Nomads and Soviet Rule charts the development of this volatile and brutal relationship and challenges the often repeated view that events followed a linear path of gradually escalating violence. Rather than the sedentarisation campaign being an inevitability born of deep-rooted Marxist hatred of the nomadic lifestyle, Thomas demonstrates the Soviet state’s treatment of nomads to be far more complex and pragmatic. He shows how Soviet policy was informed by both an anti-colonial spirit and an imperialist impulse, by nationalism as well as communism, and above all by a lethal self-confidence in the Communist Party’s ability to transform the lives of nomads and harness the agricultural potential of their landscape. This is the first book to look closely at the period between the revolution and the collectivisation drive, and offers fresh insight into a little-known aspect of early Soviet history. In doing so, the book offers a path to refining conceptions of the broader history and dynamics of the Soviet project in this key period.

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#Turkestan region founded, Kazakh President’s Decree

▻https://www.inform.kz/en/article/3293834

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The Head of State noted that Shymkent ranks now among the cities with the population over one million along with Astana and Almaty.

"According to Article 1, Paragraph 3 of the Law of Kazakhstan “On administrative - territorial division of the Republic of Kazakhstan” Shymkent gained the status of the city of national significance. This administrative unit will be the seventeenth region of Kazakhstan. it’s regional centre is Turkestan, the heart of political and spiritual life of the Kazakh khanate and entire Turkic world," the President said.

#ouzbekistan #asie_centrale

La question de l’#eau en #Asie_centrale

▻https://www.climate-diplomacy.org/news/water-cooperation-central-asia-nexus-interview-benjamin-pohl

▻https://www.climate-diplomacy.org/publications/rethinking-water-central-asia-%E2%80%93-costs-inaction-and-benefi

Central Asia is a very interesting and in many ways unique region when it comes to transboundary waters. Because of its shared Soviet heritage, it features very ambitious water infrastructure that was designed for a single country. That country, however, fell apart in 1991, at a time when the disastrous environmental consequences of the Soviet interventions in the Aral Sea basin’s water cycle became impossible to ignore. The newly independent republics created a number of regional institutions to ensure water cooperation and save the Aral Sea, but that cooperation has remained limited.

The rise of the Kazakh capital

▻http://www.bbc.com/capital/gallery/20180510-the-rise-of-the-kazakh-capital

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/live/624_351/images/live/p0/66/tg/p066tg8p.jpg

The rise of the Kazakh capital
By Dene-Hern Chen and Taylor Weidman 15 May 2018

From an international expo centre to a massive indoor beach, #Astana, the capital of the world’s largest landlocked country, is entering the limelight.

#Kazakhstan #urban_matter #asie_centrale

La #Chine en Asie centrale, un nouvel acteur de #sécurité en zone d’influence russe - Stratégie
▻https://www.diploweb.com/La-Chine-en-Asie-centrale-un-nouvel-acteur-de-securite-en-zone-d-influence

https://www.diploweb.com/IMG/jpg/carte-1-Asie-centrale-Afghanistan-et-Xinjiang-V2.jpg

Que veut la Chine en Asie centrale ? La stratégie chinoise en Asie centrale, que l’on peut qualifier d’égocentrique, sert d’abord des intérêts nationaux strictement intérieurs, plutôt qu’une volonté expansionniste. De même pour le domaine de la sécurité, Pékin se préoccupe de la stabilité de son voisinage proche en premier lieu pour la sécurité de son territoire national, dont la principale menace aujourd’hui est le terrorisme jihadiste.

LA CHINE est de plus en plus présente en #Asie_centrale, depuis les années 1990, dans les domaines économique et sécuritaire. Sur le plan économique l’attrait de la Chine pour l’Asie centrale a d’abord été motivé par les ressources énergétiques, notamment les hydrocarbures kazakhs puis turkmènes, ainsi que par les débouchés potentiels sur de nouveaux marchés d’exportation. Depuis l’annonce du lancement de l’initiative de « Ceinture économique de la route de la soie » par le président Xi Jinping au Kazakhstan en 2013, les accords commerciaux et projets d’infrastructures d’énergie et de transport portés par Pékin s’y multiplient.

#énergie

The midnight train to Moscow

Riding the rails to Russia with the migrant workers of Central Asia.

The search began before dawn; the train had just crossed the border of Tajikistan into Uzbekistan. We were only three hours into the four-day train ride between Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital, and Moscow.

https://foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/moscow-train.jpg https://foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/07_buildingsite.jpg

Nouvelles #Routes_de_la_soie : où en est-on exactement ? - Asialyst

▻https://asialyst.com/fr/2017/12/19/nouvelles-routes-soie-ou-en-est-on-exactement

https://asialyst.com/fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/iran-chine-train-route-soie-e1513682930698.jpg

En 2013, Xi Jinping annonçait au Kazakhstan la « version terrestre » des « Nouvelles routes de la Soie » (la « Ceinture »). Quelques mois plus tard, il présentait la « version maritime » (la « Route ») à Jakarta. Depuis ces annonces, la dénomination anglaise a évolué. D’abord siglée OBOR (One Belt One Road – Une ceinture, une route), l’appellation était trop centrée sur les intérêts chinois et, pour les mauvaises langues, elle se traduisait par « Our bulldozers, Our rules ». Aussi Pékin a-t-il glissé vers une plus modeste Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Déclinée sur tous les modes – voie ferrée, maritime, routes, digital et aérien –, la BRI se développe le long de deux axes ayant chacun des variantes. Le premier traverse l’Asie Centrale et continue vers l’Europe, via la Russie ou via l’Iran, et également la Route du Nord (Arctique). Le second se démultiplie en trois corridors (Pakistan vers le port de Gwadar, Birmanie vers le port de Kyaukphyu, Laos vers Singapour), et se prolonge par une voie maritime qui aboutit au Pirée d’où elle continue vers l’Europe centrale. La BRI qui ne se limite pas aux infrastructures et incorpore la construction de zones industrielles, la production électrique et même des projets hôteliers.

#chine #asie_centrale #transport

Russia Says Caspian Legal Status Resolved, Agreement Ready For Signing

▻https://www.rferl.org/a/qishloq-ovozi-caspian-status-resolved-russia-says/28903729.html

Si c’est vraiment vrai, c’est historique.

https://gdb.rferl.org/28EDEB1E-9E9A-440C-9D63-D860F6B684AD_cx0_cy9_cw0_w1200_r1_s.jpg

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a recent meeting of foreign ministers from the Caspian Sea littoral states that after more than 20 years of talks, an agreement on the legal status of the Caspian was “practically ready” for signing.

Lavrov met in Moscow with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan on December 4-5.

After the meeting ended, Lavrov told reporters: “I am pleased to tell you that we have found solutions to all outstanding key issues linked with this document. The text of the convention is practically ready.”

Un petit rappel du contexte :

►https://visionscarto.net/caspienne-mer-ou-lac

https://visionscarto.net/local/adapt-img/1300/20x/local/cache-vignettes/L3493xH3152/28690517253_4211-03a1e.jpg?1505057771

#mer_caspienne #asie_centrale #caucase

La mer d’Aral par le timbre

Avant

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/2l223u22osa9lq8/aral%20sea%20stamp%20before.jpg?dl=0

Après

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/5y46cpls97ulm4g/aral%20sea%20stamp%20after.jpg?dl=0

Évolution jusqu’en 2007. Je n’ai pas encore fait la mise à jour, mais depuis 2007, ça ne s’est pas arrangé !

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/0karoo9gob44hdd/0280-aralsea-chrono-FR.jpg?dl=0

#aral #mer_aral #asie_centrale #philatélie #timbre
#le_monde_par_les_timbres

Oliver Wainwright on the glitzy starchitecture of Astana: “Like a teenager trying to show off” | News | Archinect
▻https://archinect.com/news/article/150033707/oliver-wainwright-on-the-glitzy-starchitecture-of-astana-like-a-teenager-

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Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright reports from the Astana World Expo grounds as part of the paper’s fascinating new series, Secret Stans, which offers a glimpse into the cities of the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

In his piece, Wainwright minces no words and describes the collection of petrodollar-funded starchitecture that Kazakhstan’s lone ruler, Nursultan Nazarbayev, enabled to grow from the Eurasian steppe as a “row of awards in a particularly gaudy trophy cabinet,” and also questions the ’regime-enforcing’ integrity of well known international architects who agreed to build it.

#architecture #asie_centrale #kazakhstan

Tajikistan Authorities Invite Ridicule with Demand Wikipedia Correct ‘Spelling Mistakes’

Tajikistan urges Wikipedia to correct Tajik content – apparently unaware it could do it itself v @RFERL ▻https://t.co/sATv38xSs4 Joanna Lillis (@joannalillis) October 4, 2017

▻https://globalvoices.org/2017/10/05/tajikistan-authorities-invite-ridicule-with-demand-wikipedia-correct-s

https://globalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Tajikistan-1000-800x450.jpg

Tajikistan’s leader Emomali Rakhmon is looking to grow a reputation as a fastidious man who likes his house in order, so it might not come as a surprise that the authoritarian Central Asian country’s language committee has blasted Wikipedia over spelling mistakes on its Tajik language entries. That government officials either do not realise that they can correct the mistakes themselves, or are too lazy to do so, might also not surprise.

#tadjikistan #wikipedia #asie_centrale

Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan: Once Deadly Foes, Now BFF? · Global Voices

▻https://globalvoices.org/2017/09/13/kyrgyzstan-and-uzbekistan-once-deadly-foes-now-bff

https://globalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/D267B077-DDCC-4CF5-BB06-E618566B4A9A_cx17_cy14_cw68_w1023_r1_s-800x450.jpg

t wasn’t just about the first ladies and their matching shoes, although that didn’t go unnoticed; Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s visit to Kyrgyzstan last week marked a sea change in relations between two Central Asian countries that up until recently, lived in the long shadow cast by his uncompromising predecessor.

Islam Karimov, who ruled Uzbekistan from before independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 until his death last year, had few nice things to say about Kyrgyzstan.

#asie_centrale #turkmenistan #ouzbekistan #dictatures

As an Economic Crisis Grips Turkmenistan, the President Sings and Bikes · Global Voices

▻https://globalvoices.org/2017/08/01/as-an-economic-crisis-grips-turkmenistan-the-president-sings-and-bikes

Turkmenistan has an abysmal human rights record and is experiencing a difficult economic situation, with unemployment and shortages of basic goods on the rise. But Berdimuhamedov, who in February 2017 “won the hearts” of 97.69% of voters in the country’s presidential election, prefers not to publicly say a word, instead propagandizing the “great achievements of the country and a successful life of his people.”

Many of those achievements are his own: “Yadimda” (Turkmen for “I Remember”) is not the first number written and sung by the Turkmen president, and writing songs and singing are not his only talents.

Berdimukhamedov, deemed “one of worst world dictators” by the Foreign Policy magazine, is the author of more than 40 books on different topics. A work of his on tea last year, for example, was received by his compatriots with almost religious reverence:

#turkménistan #dictature ##asie_centrale

In Uzbekistan, the World Bank is masking labour abuses

Uzbekistan has often used forced labour to bring in the cotton harvest. A new report shows that the World Bank’s continuing investment may only prolong the practice.

https://cdn.opendemocracy.net/files/imagecache/article_xlarge/wysiwyg_imageupload/553429/Cotton_Uzbekistan.jpg

When Climate Change Starts Wars - Issue 45: Power
▻http://nautil.us/issue/45/power/when-climate-change-starts-wars

http://static.nautil.us/11658_5fdfe2c20035ef27771422342d1842ff.jpg

The Kyrgyz soldier stepped quietly out of the dark green bushes and swung his Kalashnikov rifle in the direction of our car. Another emerged and did the same. Their checkpoint was a skinny log dragged across a broken asphalt road heading toward an ethnic Uzbek village and the disputed waters of the Kasan-sai, a reservoir that irrigates the agricultural heartland of the ancient Fergana Valley. With a sleepy shake of his head, the special forces sergeant waved his rifle and made us turn our beat-up Mitsubishi around. “There won’t be any fighting here,” the sergeant said. At least not today. The quiet of the hot September afternoon was unbroken as we turned around and slowly ground off through the heat. Driving back the way we came through the parched foothills on the edge of the western (...)