Our Changing Globe

Archive for the ‘Taliban’ Category

First Read – Afghan war anniversary a political occasion for GOP …

firstread.msnbc.msn.com10/7/11

The 10th anniversary of the U.S. war in Afghanistan proved a political flashpoint for Republican presidential contenders, who sought Friday to sharpen their foreign policy message for prospective primary voters. Republicans …

Aid, Not War in Afghanistan: An Open Letter From Religious Leaders …

www.sojo.net6/22/11

As leaders of these communities, some of us initially supported the war in Afghanistan as a justified response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Others opposed the war, believing there were better ways than military force to address the al Qaeda threat. Today, however, we are united in the belief that it is time to bring the … Resources. Faith Works (By Jim Wallis) · Living God's Politics (By Jim Wallis and editors of Sojourners) …

Wouldn't you be hedging your bets too?

I believe that President Obama was fully justified in requesting Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s resignation, and not because McChrystal’s comments amounted to insubordination because they didn’t, but because his comments were a serious enough show of disrespect to justify his removal.

Choosing David Petraeus to succeed him was most likely the best choice too, given the belief that Petraeus strategies have been so successful in Iraq, but it should be noted that there are major differences between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Afghan government is weak and corrupt whereas Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki has shown that he can be a competent national leader rather than just a sectarian one, whereas Hamid Karzai has been making public overtures to the Taliban, which suggest that he is hedging his bets.

Why Are Hamid Karzai And The Non-Taliban Hedging Their Bets?

The answer is simple.

In the same breath that Obama announced the Afghan surge he announced an intended withdrawal schedule which was just one year later.

If you were a non-Taliban Afghan and had to decide whether to support the combined Afghan and American forces who would only remain in the area for a year or so, or the Taliban, whose fighters return to a village, and butcher collaborators mercilessly, and publicly, which side would you back?

Bush And The Iraqis – The Big Difference

The surge in Iraq succeeded in large part because George Bush refused to set a withdrawal date and the Iraqis trusted him and that trust meant that the locals cooperated in large numbers with the U.S. and local forces, and the more bad guys that got killed and arrested, the greater became the trust in the local forces and the Americans, and the greater the cooperation.

The Bottom Line

If you were Hamid Karzai, or a peasant in Afghanistan, then you’d most likely be hedging your bets too, and for very good reasons.

Why Is Obama Attacking The CIA?

Obama is in free fall in the polls, and his health plan is in the pits.

Almost without exception, all his other programs have failed, and he’s now under attack from all sides because of the growing deficits, which if not cut, will cause totally unsustainable debt in the near future.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday August 29, shows that 32% of the nation’s voters strongly approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President and forty percent (40%) strongly disapprove

So what does Obama do?

He attacks the CIA, in spite of the fact that forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters disagree with the Justice Department’s decision to investigate the treatment and possible torture of terrorists during the Bush administration.

Thirty-six percent (36%) agree with Attorney General Eric Holder’s naming of a veteran prosecutor to probe the CIA’s handling of terrorists under the previous administration and fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.

The vast majority of Americans that voted for Obama, did so having almost no idea of who he is, or knowing what he wants or believes in.

Obama intentionally hid his past and what was known about him such as his membership of the New Party (communist) party just 13 years ago, was quickly swept under the rug by the MSM (Main Stream Media).

The Jihad Connection

On October 21st, 2008 this appeared,

"NBC reported just a few days ago that Mouha Husaini who is the Obama campaign’s Muslim outreach coordinator, met last month with her predecessor Mazen Asbahi who was forced to resign this summer because of his connections with radical Islam.

They met in area known as the "Wahhabi Corridor" which is in one of Washington’s Northern Virginia suburbs and what is perhaps even more disturbing was the presence of two prominent Muslim Brotherhood operatives, Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Nihad Awad of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The NBC is on record as saying that others at the meeting expressed concern that the Obama campaign was reaching out to such "politically radioactive" individuals as Bray and Awad and the episode is perhaps yet another indication that the Democratic candidate hopes to win the White House aided in part by the Islamic voteand its money".

And the story promptly disappeared from the radar.

The Saudi King and Rev. Wright

Obama later upset most Americans by bowing to the Saudi king and he clearly did.

The Reverend Wright story is so well known that there’s no need to rehash it here, except to say that it’s implausible that Obama didn’t never witnessed Wright’s inflammatory, racist and anti-American speeches while attending the Trinity United Church for over 20 years.

The Attack On The CIA

Obama’s decision to release a previously classified 2004 CIA interrogation report, and appoint a special prosecutor to look into possible misdeeds by personnel involved in questioning high-value terrorists would seem to be a huge mistake, but is it?

Earlier this year, Obama himself vowed it was time to look forward and not back, but in addition to being another policy flip-flop, his decision will likely leave officers in the field wondering whether they should be more concerned about getting terrorists, or getting lawyers.

The public release of such information will be used by al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist organizations around the globe for propaganda purposes, and the publication of national security information, even if edited, will almost certainly give our allies great cause for concern.

Who will want to share information with America if it’s going to end up on news channels, the front pages of newspapers and all over the Internet?

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said, "It isn’t by chance that we haven’t been attacked in nearly eight years", and "we owe the CIA a debt of gratitude for keeping us safe", and in the heavily censored 2004-2005 memos, the unidentified author calls the interrogations a "crucial pillar of U.S. counter terrorism efforts, which helped foil 9/11-style attacks planned for Los Angeles and London".

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, it became clear that America faced a national security crisis, and that a war was being waged not just against it, but against the whole of the West, and extensive anti-terrorism policies were subsequently put in place.

Some terrorists were hunted down and killed, whilst others were captured and interrogated, and in what presently appears to be a few isolated cases, "enhanced interrogation techniques" were authorized and used, in order to coerce the captives to reveal what they knew about intended terrorist attacks that were still in the planning stage.

The Administrations Message

The message from the Whitehouse now seems to be that America can be returned to a pre-2001 way of thinking and acting, since it no longer faces a terrorist threat, and that we should no longer be overly concerned about militant Islamists attacking us.

What is not being explained however, is why we should no longer be concerned about future attacks, since there is such overwhelming evidence to suggest otherwise.

Would You Pull The Trigger?

Terrorists are still being assassinated by drones in remote corners of the world, and perhaps by a close up bullet in the head, but for how much longer will it be reasonable to ask an operative to pull the trigger?

Would you?