1. The NY Times reports U.S. lead as the world’s top arms supplier grows. “The United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new” study from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

   The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before…

   The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.

   The increase in American weapons sales around the world “was attributable not only to major new orders from clients in the Near East and in Asia, but also to the continuation of significant equipment and support services contracts with a broad-based number of U.S. clients globally,” according to the study, titled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations.”

Four at Four continues with American homelessness and unemployment, an update from Afghanistan, and useless in Iraq.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the U.S.-led coalition, has now more than 100,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan. McClatchy reported there are “101,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan according to Pentagon figures. The New York Times reported the level to be slightly higher at 103,000 troops for the coalition.

The Soviet Union’s military force in Afghanistan was kept roughly between 80,000-104,000 troops for duration of its occupation in the 1980s. The Moscow-backed Afghan government fell despite more than nine years of Soviet military assistance and nearly 14,000 Soviet casualties.

The U.S.-led occupation force is even larger when private civilian and military contractors are added to the Western military footprint. For at least the past couple years, contractors have outnumbered U.S. troops in Afghanistan the NY Times reported on Tuesday.

1. The NY Times reports Signs of a jobless recovery in unemployment report. “The American economy lost another 216,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent”.

   “Many experts now see a high probability of another so-called jobless recovery, in which the economy expands but jobs continue to disappear – a replay of what happened after the last recession in 2001.”

   The broader U-6 measure marks the seasonally-unadjusted unemployment rate for August 2009 at 16.8 percent.

   McClathcy adds the rate of Job losses have slowed down. “Taken along with a key manufacturing index showing growth for the first time in 18 months, Friday’s job numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are one more indication that the U.S. economy appears to have hit bottom and is on a slow upward climb.”

   Bloomberg reports Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says even this jobless U.S. economic recovery may not be ‘sustainable’. “It’s not clear that the U.S. is recovering in a sustainable way,” Stiglitz said.

   Stiglitz said he sees two scenarios for the world’s largest economy in coming months. One is a period of “malaise,” in which consumption lags and private investment is slow to accelerate. The other is a rebound fueled by government stimulus that’s followed by an abrupt downturn — an occurrence that economists call a “W-shaped’ recovery.

   “There’s a significant chance of a W, but I don’t think it’s inevitable,” he said. The economy “could just bounce along the bottom.”

   The U.S. economy is increasingly more vulnerable because some firms are now too big for the financial system to handle any one of them failing.

   “These institutions are not only too big to fail, they are too big to be managed,” he said.

   Stiglitz believes the U.S. “economy faces a short-term threat of disinflation and possibly deflation” with the possibility of declining wages and prolonged high unemployment. Longer-term, massive inflation is the threat.

Four at Four continues with the Afghanistan update, firefighters on the frontline of health care, urban density can fight climate change, and a library goes bookless.

1. The Guardian reports Global warming has made Arctic summers hottest for 2,000 years. “Warming as a result of increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has overwhelmed a millennia-long cycle of natural cooling in the Arctic, raising temperatures in the region to their highest for at least 2,000 years, according” to a study in the journal Science.

   “The accumulation of greenhouse gases is interrupting the natural cycle towards overall cooling,” said Professor Darrell Kaufman, a climate scientist at Northern Arizona University and lead author of the study.

   “There’s no doubt it will lead to melting glacier ice, which will impact on coastal regions around the world. Warming in the region will also cause more permafrost thawing, which will release methane gas into the atmosphere,” he added.

   Scientists fear that warming could release billions of tonnes of methane from frozen soils in the Arctic, driving global temperatures even higher.

   The AP adds the Arctic reverses trend, is warmest in two millennia. “If it hadn’t been for the increase in human-produced greenhouse gases, summer temperatures in the Arctic should have cooled gradually over the last century,” said Bette Otto-Bliesner, a National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist and co-author of the study.

2. Elsewhere in the arctic, the CS Monitor reports Research finds higher acidity in Alaska waters. “The same things that make Alaska’s marine waters among the most productive in the world – cold, shallow depths and abundant marine life – make them the most vulnerable to acidification, says Jeremy Mathis, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.”

   “Ocean acidification, the lowering of basicity and the increase in acidity of marine waters, is tied to increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.” The cool Alaskan waters are absorbing CO2 faster than tropical waters.

Four at Four continues with an update on Afghanistan and some steam locomotive news.

1. ProPublica’s Paul Kiel writes Your August bailout update: $393 billion outstanding.

   Recent reports have drawn attention to the billions in revenue that the Treasury Department has collected from companies early in returning their TARP investments. While those returns have been encouraging, there’s no question that the taxpayer remains deep in the red.

   In total, $392.6 billion remains outstanding to 641 recipients ($297 billion under the TARP and $95.6 billion that’s gone to Fannie and Freddie). That total excludes the 35 companies that have returned a total of $71.6 billion…

   That said, money is flowing in as it’s flowing out. The TARP has two main sources of revenue: quarterly dividend or interest payments and warrant redemptions. Unlike returned money, which can be used again, the Treasury is obligated to use that revenue to pay down the national debt…

   Put all that together, and you get a total of $12.4 billion in revenue. Compared to the $392.6 billion in bailout funds still outstanding, it’s reason for cooling any thoughts, at least for now, of the taxpayer pulling a profit.

2. The LA Times reports the U.S. to boost combat force in Afghanistan. “U.S. officials are planning to add as many as 14,000 combat troops to the American force in Afghanistan by sending home support units… The move would beef up the combat force in the country without increasing the overall number of U.S. troops, a contentious issue as public support for the war slips. But many of the noncombat jobs are likely be filled by private contractors”.

   Already Civilian contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Afghanistan, reports the NY Times.

   Civilian contractors working for the Pentagon in Afghanistan not only outnumber the uniformed troops, according to a report by a Congressional research group, but also form the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel recorded in any war in the history of the United States…

   As of March this year, contractors made up 57 percent of the Pentagon’s force in Afghanistan, and if the figure is averaged over the past two years, it is 65 percent, according to the report by the Congressional Research Service…

   The 68,197 contractors – many of them Afghans – handle a variety of jobs, including cooking for the troops, serving as interpreters and even providing security, the report says.

   The CS Monitor reports it is Bad timing for Obama on any troop buildup in Afghanistan. “The higher-profile casualties and a worry that US troops in Afghanistan are being asked to undertake an unclear or impossible task are feeding the nascent opposition to the war, some war analysts say.”

   According to a new McClatchy/Ipsos poll Most Americans oppose more troops for Afghanistan. “54 percent of Americans think the U.S. isn’t winning the war… At the same time, 56 percent oppose sending any more combat troops to Afghanistan, while 35 percent support sending more troops.”

   Meanwhile, the LA Times reports a Suicide bomber kills Afghan intelligence deputy at mosque. A suicide bomb attack in Mehtarlam “outside a mosque in Laghman province about 60 miles east of the capital, Kabul.” The attack killed Abdullah Laghmani, Afghanistan’s deputy intelligence chief and 22 other people.

   The NY Times adds the Taliban claims responsibility for the attack. “We were looking for him for a long time, but today we succeeded,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Four at Four continues with unlawful human experimentation, A.Q. Khan, and Justice Stevens retirement rumors.

1. The NY Times reports the Groundwork is laid for new troops in Afghanistan. A classified report by Gen. Stanley McChrystal examining the “deteriorating situation” in Afghanistan has been submitted to the Pentagon, the U.S. Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and NATO.

   While the assessment did not ask for more troops, the Pentagon said such a request could come within weeks. In public remarks, McChrystal indicated he “would invest the United States more extensively in Afghanistan” and “he has emphasized protecting civilians over just engaging insurgents.”

   Obama has already ordered a 21,000 more troops deployed to Afghanistan, and “the prospect of a still larger deployment would test his commitment” to endless war. The White House is open to sending more troops to Afghanistan.

   But Obama “faces growing discontent among his liberal base, not only over the war but also over national security policy, health care, gay rights and other issues.”

   McClatchy reports the Pentagon is worried about Obama’s commitment to Afghanistan. McChrystal may request as many as 45,000 additional U.S. troops be deployed to Afghanistan.

   “Vice President Joe Biden and other officials are increasingly anxious about how the American public would respond to sending additional troops… Biden has argued that without sustained support from the American people, the U.S. can’t make the long-term commitment that would be needed to stabilize Afghanistan and dismantle al Qaida.”

   “We are not getting a Bush-like commitment to this war,” said a senior Pentagon official.

   Meanwhile, the NY Times reports Brazen ballot stuffing casts new doubt on Hamid Karzai. Election fraud reports are growing against Afghan President Karzai. When the souther Afghan tribe called Bariz decided to back Karzai’s main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, they were not allowed to vote.

   Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali – the head of the Kandahar provincial council and the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan – detained the governor of Shorbak, Delaga Bariz, and shut down all of the district’s 45 polling sites on election day. The ballot boxes were taken to Shorbak’s district headquarters, where, Mr. Bariz and other tribal leaders said, local police stuffed them with thousands of ballots.

   At the end of the day, 23,900 ballots were shipped to Kabul, Mr. Bariz said, with every one marked for President Karzai.

Four at Four continues with legislation to allow the president to shut down the Internet, NCLB as a military recruiting tool, and Iran wants to talk nukes.