A Look At President Trump's Strategy In Afghanistan

 

President Trump addressed the nation last night to outline his strategy in Afghanistan. Of course he didn't go into details,being smarter than his twp predecessors. There were no deadlines or grandiose claims, merely that America would start winning this war and that our eventual withdrawal would be based on conditions on the ground rather than any arbitrary dates.

He announced five “core pillars” to the approach: getting rid of any timelines for how long U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan; using all elements of power, including diplomatic and economic; getting tougher on Pakistan; getting India to help more with economic development; and expanding authorities for U.S. forces to fight terrorists.

He said it was up to the people of Afghanistan to “take ownership of their future” and to “achieve an everlasting peace.”

“We are not nation-building again, we are killing terrorists.”

Here's what the president had to say, in his own words. And it's obvious he's thought about this quite a bit:




Needless to say, the President received quite a bit of criticism, especially from the Left.

So let's look at what the president actually had to say.

AfPak is a war we should never have gotten involved with in the first place. I never went to West Point, but I also understand that it was crazy to send an army and billions of dollars worth of equipment to a landlocked country surrounded by hostile territory - and I include Pakistan in that. Most of the equipment needs to be unloaded at Karachi and sent overland to Afghanistan via the Torkum Pass, and aside from us needing to bribe the Pakistanis with billions every year, they've cut the road and kept us from supplying our troops on various occasions.

OTOH, both commanders in chief involved in this handcuffed our troops with ridiculous rules of engagement and various other things designed to appease 'hearts and minds' of the locals.Which of course, didn't work. The Brits kept the Afghans at bay for some time by paying the chiefs 'subsidies' to keep them from raiding India. The Afghan Wars only started when the Brits stopped paying.

The president isn't talking about arbitray deadlines and 'nation building' but victory If Trump lets our troops do what's needed and especially if he brings back great combat generals like McCrystal and starts fighting the war strategically, he has a chance. it also helps that by all accounts, the Afghani government has a lot more respect for Trump than they ever did for Barack Hussein Obama.

I have a feeling Trump and Mattis are going to fight a very different war than Bush and especially Obama, who actually appeared to be aiding and abetting the Taliban on numerous occasions... like giving up 5 top Taliban commanders and a cash ransom for Bowie Bergdahl, a deserter.

I also fully agree with his statement on getting a lot tougher with Pakistan. They have no interest in a stable Afghanistan, which was heading that way in the 1950's and 1960's.



What changed things was the Soviet invasion and Jimmy Carter's well intentioned funding of the muhadajeen, many of whom were Islamists and became the breeding ground for al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups. Since Afghanistan is landlocked, it was Pakistan who decided who get the money and arms, and they made sure it was the Islamists. That and Bill Clinton's failure to support the pro-Western Northern Alliance is what delivered Afghanistan to the Taliban. And as I mentioned, Pakistan has still given tacit support to the Taliban by periodically cutting off supplies to our troops and allowing the Taliban to have havens in their country except for periodic raids when the Taliban or allied groups have carried out terrorist activities in Pakistan itself.

One thing that could be especially effective is forgetting Afghanistan as a country to an extent and dealing with the local chiefs directly. They make most of their money selling opium, and they are forced to pay 'taxes' to the Taliban in order to be able to sell their crops at whatever price they can get...with most of the processing done in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier.

Imagine what would happen if the U.S made them an offer they couldn't refuse?

"We want to be your friends, and as our friends, they will be able to sell their crops directly to us for a fair market price, and without any more taxes.to the Taliban. And we will help our friends defend their territory from the Taliban. of course, those who are not our friends will see their fields burned, much as we'd hate to do that."

Many of these Pashtun chiefs have territories that overlap the AfPak borders, Give them some help defending their territories and the bennie no longer having to settle for whatever price they can get and with Taliban taxation and this war could take on an entirely different complexion. Especially if we took a hard line with the Pakistanis about any obstructions and the consequences.

Yes, we could also simply leave, and part of me says 'why not?' . But there are inherent and obvious problems with that. With the right leadership, this could end up being a major graveyard for jihadis.

This was a mess Trump inherited from two dysfunctional commanders-in-chiefs. Let's withhold judgement and see how he does.

'The Horror That Is America' - Ransoming Bowe Bergdahl

President Obama staged a convenient photo-op in the Rose garden with the parents of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier captured by the Taliban under suspicious circumstances and released in exchange for five senior Taliban commanders held in Club Gitmo. The event was stilted and strange for a number of reasons.

It was absolutely astounding to hear this president say that 'we leave no man behind' in view of what happened in Benghazi...and of course, with the revelation of the VA 'death lists', I'd say those wounded vets were definitely left behind.

Then there was the lingering fallout from the fact that once again, this president blatantly broke the law, which called for the president to inform Congress 30 days before any pending transfer of jihadis from Gitmo. Even Obama loyalists like the New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin and California Democrat Dianne Feinstein were shocked and critical over this. And members of the president's own team who voiced any opposition to the way this deal was being conducted were simply told to shut up and salute.

But the president's behavior aside, Robert Bergdahl, Bowe Bergdahl's father was absolutely bizarre.

After the usual remarks, Bergdahl said his son had supposedly lost the ability to speak English and recited"“Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim.” That phrase, from the Qu'ran translates as “In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Compassionate.”

Either Bergdahl has converted to Islam or is simply unknowing, but uttering that phrase is a profession of belief in the Muslim faith. Was that supposed to be a message to his son, who mentioned in Taliban propaganda films that he was 'exploring Islam?'

Since the words are Arabic, not Pashto, the language his son's Taliban captors would have been speaking, it somehow doesn't gel with the idea of a father trying to communicate with a son who has supposedly lost the ability to speak his native language in a mere 5 years.

Bergdahl senior apparently also has some interesting views on America, not that he isn't entitled. Here's a tweet he tried to delete:

 

Why would anyone be working to free the sort of murderers held at in Club Gitmo if they had, shall we say, a positive view of America? And since he obviously doesn't hold the Taliban or other jihadis responsible for 'the death of every Afghan child' because he wants them all freed, it's obvious he blames America for their deaths....and is calling for Allah to take revenge.

Bowe Bergdahl himself apparently has some interesting views on his service and his country.

Shortly before the Taliban got their hands on him, he said in an e-mail to his father:

“I am sorry for everything here,” he wrote. “These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid.”
Bergdahl also complained about fellow soldiers. The battalion commander was a “conceited old fool,” he said, and the only “decent” sergeants, planning to leave the platoon “as soon as they can,” told the privates — Bergdahl then among them — “to do the same.”

“I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools,” he concluded. “I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting.”

His father's reply? “OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!”

OK...it's a soldier's prerogative to gripe from time to time. But 'I'm ashamed to be an American' and 'The horror that is America is disgusting'? Obviously we have someone who was raised with certain views and given his father's outbursts, the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Three days after that e-mail exchange, Bowe Bergdahl left camp on his own without authorization accompanied by two Afghans whom he had befriended, according to the original report. The Taliban said Bergdahl was intoxicated when they captured him,something the Army denied although since they weren't present at the scene, one wonders how they would know.

What Bergdahl did is commonly known as desertion, and a number of his fellow soldiers see it exactly that way.

My own take is that Bergdahl was likely a career flake who probably never intended to desert, but merely intended to go AWOL. He went off with some Afghans he trusted with the idea of scoring drugs and/or sex. Instead, they apparently sold him to the Taliban while he was 'relaxing', which would square with the Taliban's account that he was intoxicated when they picked him up (note the word I'm using, 'intoxicated' as opposed to 'drunk'. Booze is difficult to find in Muslim rural Afghanistan except in areas like military bases or Kabul where westerners hang out,while dope is easy to score).

At the every least, he was obviously AWOL, and his tale about being captured while 'lagging behind on patrol' was exploded as sheer BS early on.

Aside from that, apparently there were casualties that were incurred searching for him. Men died because Bowe Bergdahl decided to bug out.

It seems pretty obvious Bowe Bergdahl did not 'serve with honor and distinction' nor was he 'captured on the battlefield' as President Obama's National Security Adviser Susan 'It Was The Video, The Video' Rice insisted to the talking heads at ABC. Although perhaps that's how the team in the White House considers it, given what appears to be their conception of 'honor and distinction'. Especially since Bergdahl's being cut loose got some Gitmo jihadis freed and knocked the VA scandal out of the headlines for awhile.

Six soldiers whom did not desert lost their lives searching for him. 'Honor and distinction?'

What he did not only led to American casualties but the freeing of five dangerous men, and it put a price on the head of every American in Afghanistan now that the Taliban has seen that kidnapping is such a successful tactic.

According to the USMJ, at the very least,Bowe Bergdahl ought to face charges by a military tribunal for deserting his post. Given our current commander-in-chief, the odds are he won't.

I'm glad Bowe Bergdahl made it home, even if he despises the country that paid such a high price to free him. The Taliban are some of the most brutal people on the planet,and no one deserves to be held by them.

But Bowe Bergdahl is no hero. And the attempts by the president and his people to paint him as one to suit their own political agenda are beneath contempt. There can be no clearer indication of the disdain this president and his team have for our military...and in view of their speech and actions in the last five and a half years, that is saying something.

UPDATE: The president's little diversion to put Benghazi and the VA scandal has exploded in his face aa more facts have come out about this and public opinion has rapidly shifted.

It turns out that the Pentagon had investigated Bergdahl's disappearance and as long ago as 2010 had investigated and concluded he had deserted.Among other things, he left a letter stating that he was deserting and that he was renouncing his citizenship.

And that leads to a number of questions for the Pentagon. Bergdahl was never officially classified as a POW for obvious reasons, yet he was automatically promoted to sergeant while in captivity, and the Army swooped in with investigators who forced many of the soldiers in Bergdahl's unit to sign unprecedented non-disclosure agreements.In fact, a number of those soldiers simply defied those agreements and spoke out when they were treated to the sickening spectacle of their commander-in-chief trying to make a hero out of Bergdahl in the Rose Garden.

Who ordered the Army to keep Bergdahl on the promotion list and to try make sure no one in his unit spoke out about what had happened? And why?

And what about reports that Bowe Bergdahl had converted to Islam and was giving the Taliban intel on U.S. tactics and training in bomb making?

There's even actually some credible evidence that Bergdahl had tried to contact the Taliban and may actually have left his unit with the idea of joining them.

Meanwhile, the top level Taliban commanders we gave up for a deserter were greeted like heroes in Qatar and will have full freedom of movement while they're there...which may actually include travel out of the country.

These men are responsible for literally thousands of deaths and will undoubtedly be responsible for many more in the future. None of that mattered next to President Obama's personal political requirements or his agenda to shove detainees out of Gitmo,no matter how dangerous.

Will the Army actually investigate this? Will 'Sergeant' Bergdahl actually be tried for desertion? Don't bet on it.

But no matter what happens, this question remains. There comes a point when cowardice, lawlessness, incompetence and arrogance get to the point where they can no longer be tolerated, because they've become dangerous. How much longer are the American people going to put up with this? How much are they prepared to take?

How much more contempt will you swallow, my countrymen, before too much becomes enough? How much?

Deadly Incompetence: White House Leaks Identity of CIA head Of Station For Afghanistan

President Obama's Memorial Day trip to Afghanistan was a well-executed propaganda coup, especially with the VA scandal still in the news.

And then somebody screwed up. Someone at the White House accidentally leaked the name of the CIA station chief in Kabul, Afghanistan on a list of people the president was going to meet with to some 6,000 members of the press, and there's no telling whom it could have gone to from there.

This is dangerous not only for the individual involved, but for anyone he talks to, as this person's movements are are likely one of a number of others being monitored by al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Only NBC out of the three major alphabet networks even mentioned this story, although they found considerable air time to devote to stories on Michelle Obama's school lunch program.

And as you'll notice, the NBC reporter, Peter Alexander mentioned the leaking of part-time agent Valerie's Plame's identity by "Bush administration officials" and took care to equal the two.

Actually, there's not much of a comparison except in one major detail...in both cases, it's a felony. The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 makes revealing the name of a covert CIA agent a crime.

In the Plame outing,the story became a major firestorm and made national headlines after the late columnist Robert Novak published a piece revealing that revealing that prominent Democrat Iraq War critic Joseph C. Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA employee. The dinosaur media were all over the story. A Special Counsel was appointed to investigate the leak, and charges of political retribution by the Bush White House over Wilson’s opinions on the Iraq War (and as it turned out later, his wholesale lies) were the story for months. Figures within the Bush administration including Karl Rove were targeted and investigated.

Eventually, Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libbey was charged, mostly because in the months between his first statements to the FBI and subsequent ones and his later testimony under oath some of his details weren't correlated and didn't match up. He became the Official Designated Victim,and got 30 months in federal prison, a fine of $250,000, and two years of supervised release, including 400 hours of community service. He was spared prison but remains a convicted felon because President Bush commuted only his 30-month prison sentence and left his conviction and the rest of his punishment intact.

And in the end, the person who gave Novak the leak was not a 'Bush Administration official' but Colin Powell's deputy Richard Armitage, who readily admitted that he was the source but claimed he didn’t know Plame was covert. He,of course, was never punished, most likely because it would have reflected on Colin Powell, who sat back, said nothing and let Libbey take the rap.

Now as bad as releasing Valerie Plame's name was, let's remember that she was essentially a clerical employee who worked in Washington DC, not in Kabul, one of the most dangerous posts in the world. Yet there's no media frenzy, no call to investigate Obama appointees in the White House, no calling for a special counsel, nothing.

It remains to be seen if members of Congress and the dinosaur media are going to go after this story, report indignantly about this latest example of the Obama White House's sheer incompetence and insist that whomever leaked this CIA station head's name be punished.

Two Western Female Journalists Shot - By Afghan Policeman

 

A uniformed Afghan policeman yelled 'Allahu akbar' and opened fire on two western female journalists while they were sitting in a car waiting for a convoy to move.

Anja Niedringhaus (left) was killed and Kathy Gannon was wounded twice and is receiving medical treatment.

German photographer Anja Niedringhaus, 48, had received international recognition for her work and Gannon, a Canadian, was the AP's Pakistan and Afghanistan correspondent.

"Anja and Kathy together have spent years in Afghanistan covering the conflict and the people there. Anja was a vibrant, dynamic journalist well-loved for her insightful photographs, her warm heart and joy for life. We are heartbroken at her loss," said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, speaking in New York.

The attack took place in the small town of Khost Tanay district in Khost province near the Pakistan border, where the women were working on a story about the upcoming elections. They were waiting for a convoy to move near the heavily guarded police compound when a police commander identified by a government spokesman as Naqibullah walked up to the car, yelled "Allahu Akbar" — God is Great — and opened fire on them in the back seat with his AK-47.

To give you an idea of how this Saturday's election is likely to go, the Taliban have a standing offer of 500 Pakistani rupees - the equivalent of just over $5 (likely accompanied with an 'or else') for people's voter cards so that they will not participate in the coming election. And apparently they're also swamping districts they control with fake ones. I can't imagine why these folks are wasting time working in Afghanistan when the Democratic National Committee and Organizing America would pay quite well for experienced operatives like these to work the midterms.

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission has said at least 10 percent of polling stations will not be able to open due to the threat of violence, the majority of them in the east of the country.And a number of polling places simply aren't going to be open because there's no way to prevent mass fraud and ballot box stuffing.

The sooner we exit and leave these people to their accustomed 7th century ways, the better.

Afghanistan: U.S. Embassy Hit, No Agreement With Karzai And The Last Oz Troops Leave

 

An interesting Christmas in Afghanistan...

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul was fired on today just before dawn, with two rounds of what was referred to as 'indirect fire' hitting the compound. 'Indirect fire' usually means rocket attacks, RPG's or mortar rounds.

No Americans were reported as casualties, but the fact that our enemies were able to get close enough to target and fire heavy weapons at our heavily fortified embassy in what is supposedly a safe zone says quite a bit.

The Taliban claimed responsibility, but given the attacks on Americans by our supposed 'allies' among the Afghan forces, that's a pretty wide range.

Afghan police were targeted in two bombing incidents, one on a roadside restaurant in Puli Alam, the capital of Logar province some 35 odd miles east of Kabul that killed six and wounded 13 and a second attack in east Kabul that wounded three Afghan policemen.

As we retreat and draw down, they're getting a lot bolder. Winter used to be something of a lull for the most part in Afghanistan because of the weather and topography. Not anymore.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is still refusing to sign a security agreement with the U.S. that would leave some American troops in his country. He is still insisting on a ban of airstrikes,raid and the entry of U.S. forces into Afghan homes, is demanding the U.S. broker a peace with the Taliban and is still insisting that any new treaty should be signed by his successor after the next Afghan elections in the spring. Translation - Karzai, his brother and their families want to make sure they have a secure way out of the country before the Americans leave, and they won't sign on to anything until they get that guarantee.

Karzai reiterated this, interestingly enough, at a three day conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with whom Karzai has signed a security agreement. Afghanistan does share a small border with India, and the Indians have a vested interest in making sure that their border is secure and that a potential flashpoint with either the Taliban or more likely Pakistan is checkmated.

And finally, today is the day the Diggers left.

 

The Australian forces represented the largest non-NATO contingent in AfPak, and as usual, they came in because they're one of the best allies we have and to them, that's what allies do. Every report I've heard of their performance in AfPak marks them, along with the Canadians, as some of the most useful and resourceful non-U.S. troops in the theater, miles ahead of most of the motley crew supplied by our European allies. They were always willing to mix it up with the jihadis, never shirked the hard jobs, and lost 40 of their mates in AfPak as their share of the sacrifice involved.

They left for Oz today from Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province, Australia's main base in the country and I don't blame them one bit. With President Obama giving the Taliban a set in stone withdrawal date, the Australians realize that there's no reason to hang around. And PM Tony Abbot underlined that today:

"This war is ending, not with victory, not with defeat, but with hope that Afghanistan is a better place and Uruzgan in particular is a better place for our presence," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. "I firmly believe that to be the case." 

 When one of your best allies takes a look at your strategy and at your commander-in-chief and realizes that there's no sense hanging around anymore, that says something.

Around 400 of the Australian military are committed to remain in Afghanistan through 2014 to train the Afghan military in Kabul and Kandahar. Whether that holds good if the U.S. completely bugs out as President Obama is threatening to do if no security arrangement gets signed by Karzai is doubtful.

Fair dinkum.

Afghanistan Signs Security Pact With Iran...And Shuns The U.S.

Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai has finally gotten his revenge on Barack Obama for trying to humiliate him and oust him from power back in 2009. And the perceived U.S. retreat in AfPak has a lot to do with it.

Kharzai and Iranian president Rouhani signed a security and cooperation pact in Tehran on December 8th, which his spokesperson, Aimal Faizi described to Reuters as "a long-term friendship and cooperation pact with Iran."

"The pact will be for long-term political, security, economic and cultural cooperation, regional peace and security."

Both agree on one important thing...they want the U.S. completely out of the picture:

Rouhani said Sunday his country opposes the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan and the region, saying their presence generates tension, the official IRNA news agency reported.

IRNA quoted Rouhani as telling Karzai: "We believe that all foreign forces should leave the region and that the security of Afghanistan should be handed over to people of the country."

"We are concerned about tensions caused by foreign forces' presence in the region," Rouhani was quoted as saying. He also called for more cooperation between Tehran and Kabul.

For Karzai, aside from the personal satisfaction of shafting our clueless president, the benefits are obvious. A friendly Iran could help Karzai stay in power by offsetting the Taliban until Karzai can come to his own agreement with them to stay in power, while the Iranians would benefit from a friendly client state in central Asia on its eastern borders...and one with a U.S. trained and equipped military.

And America? We will retreat in 2014 from Afghanistan having achieved absolutely nothing except the expenditure of our blood and treasure.

Thinking about the courage and sacrifice of our warriors there, I think this would be a good time to censor myself in regards to our current commander-in-chief.

Meanwhile, Back In Afghanistan..Here's The Latest

While our eyes are focused on the ObamaCare debacle and the horrendous capitulation in Iran, the war in AfPak goes on, winding down to President Obama's per-ordained end game.

Except now, he wants to change the rules.

Relationships between Afghan President Karzai and the Obama White House could best be described as shaky and not particularly pleasant. At this point, we're essentially reduced to parsing surrender terms for a more or less easy exit, thanks to President Obama's set in stone withdrawal date of 2014, which always meant that all the Taliban had to do was wait us out.

President Obama and his team are trying to achieve two things here. The first is to buy a little peace from the Taliban until we skedaddle, which President Obama recently did by giving Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif another $1.6 billion in 'aid'. Sharif (known in Pakistan as 'Mr. Ten Percent' because of his kleptocrat ways) will pocket some of the swag and give some of it to the Taliban as a sort of exit fee.

The second, goodness knows why, is a security agreement with the Karzai government that would allow a small contingent of 10-15,000 U.S. soldiers to stay in the country after 2014 as a security force, a commitment of around $2 billion per year or so not counting baksheesh to Pakistan for allowing us to resupply them overland via the Pakistani port of Karachi and the Torkhum pass, something which is presently running us about $7 billion or so. And not counting any aid we give to Afghanistan.

The deal as proposed by the U.S. mandates that American troops and personnel will not be subject to what passes for law in Afghanistan, or to any Afghan taxes. The same applies to any U.S. companies doing business there.

Karzai insisted on a letter of apology from the president to the Afghan people 'acknowledging mistakes'. Karzai isn't talking about what was actually in the letter but if you believe Secretary of State John Kerry and the version of the letter the Afghans posted online, there was no apology, merely the outline of the proposed deal and language along the lines of "Many of my countrymen and women have given their lives or been seriously wounded in the pursuit of protecting Afghans, and we honor the enormous sacrifices they have made, side by side with Afghans."

Of course, a number of those Americans who gave their lives were actually murdered, in some cases by the every Afghans they had trained, to the point where joint patrols have been suspended but the ever optimistic Secretary Kerry had this to say about the American role in Afghanistan after 2014:

"It is entirely train, equip and assist. There is no combat role for United States forces, and the bilateral security agreement is a way to try to clarify for Afghans and for United States military forces exactly what the rules are with respect to that ongoing relationship."

Wonderful.

The proposed agreement satisfies Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s demand for an end to controversial raids by explicitly stating that U.S. forces will no longer be allowed to enter Afghan homes, no matter what.

Of course, there's also baksheesh at stake...an additional $8 billion for Afghanistan security forces and what are called 'development projects', AKA nation building. In case you're counting, we're up to a commitment of around $17 billion plus if you also count baksheesh to Pakistan ( $7 billion) and money to deploy 10-15,000 U.S. troops ( between $1.5 and $2 billion). Oh, and let's also add in another $7 billion in equipment the Pentagon says it's going to destroy or just abandon partly because of the terrain and partly because of the fast approaching deadline, because they say it would cost more to ship it out of AfPak than it's worth. In my family, our share of that $7 billion amounts to around $100.

Karzai originally stonewalled, insisting that the proposed agreement should be signed by his successor after elections, scheduled for April 5 of 2014. Then he insisted that the agreement had to be sent to the Loya Jirga, the Afghan council of tribal chiefs and elders, about 2,500 people.

Of course, when the Loya Jirga saw all that money at stake, they promptly ratified the agreement and urged Karzai to sign it.

Karzai is still on the fence about the matter. He refuses to sign unless his further demands are met; peace talks with the Taliban the release all 17 Afghan jihadis being held in Guantanamo Bay.

Let's remind ourselves, by the way, that Karzai was deliberately humiliated by President Obama back in 2009 because he was thought to be 'Bush's man'. So President Obama and accused him of voter fraud and stealing an election (the irony is murderous) and pushed for Abdullah Abdullah as president. Of course, being half-Tajik, Abdullah Abdullah knew the Pathans would never except him, so he bowed out in favor of Karzai during the process...and Karzai, who never forgot or forgave the insult has no reason to make things easier on President Obama now.

OK, now let's analyze what's going on here.

The rationale for our troops staying here is that they're going to train and build up yet another Muslim army financed by the American taxpayers. And our troops going to act as 'advisers' with a combat role in spite of Secretary Kerry's horse manure. We wouldn't need 10-15,000 soldiers there as 'trainers' otherwise and could cut that force by 75% if all they were doing is training a friendly ally.

But the point is that the Afghans aren't our allies, a lot of them don't mind being ruled by the Taliban and they don't care for foreigners at all...although they do like our money.

Someone else who likes our money - the taxpayer's money, that is - are the various well connected companies who are going to get the contracts from the Obama White House to build that Muslim army and for all those nation building 'development' projects.

That's what this is all about, and Hamid Karzhai, along with his brother is already a multimillionaire thanks to our intervention in Afghanistan. He's just holding out for some severance pay. He'll go along with the agreement once he gets it, and will likely be gone as soon as the elections are over.

The ones who will be stuck there are our troops, doomed to try to defend themselves under even more restrictive Rules of Engagement than before, surrounded by enemies open and covert.

But wait, I hear you say. Don't we have to maintain a presence there in order to make sure Afghanistan doesn't become a failed state and a haven of al-Qaeda and other terrorists? Don't we need to train the Afghans to fight the Taliban?

No, I don;t think so. For one thing,there are already plenty of failed states out there that are havens of terrorism. Taken a look at Pakistan lately? Aside from that, al-Qaeda, thanks to President Obama's assassination of Osama bin-Laden and the ascendency of his second and command,ex-Muslim Brotherhood leader Ayman Zawahiri have largely relocated to the Arab world, to places like Libya,Syria and Iraq, among other places. And as I mentioned,there are quite a few Afghans who like the Taliban and their 7th century worldview a lot more than they like ferenghis in their midst.

And of course,there's also this question that no one wants to answer. Why spend billions we don't have to train and equip Muslim armies who are just as likely as not to take those same weapons and use them against us given the chance? Especially when budget cuts are hurting and curtailing our own military?

I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious, but I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

And as for Afghanistan, it was a bad idea to go there in the first place. One genius of a president decided it was a great idea to send an army and billions in equipment into a landlocked country surrounded by hostile territory.And another genius of a president decided to double down to make up for shooting his mouth off during a presidential campaign about 'the good war'...after letting our enemies know exactly how long they had to wait before we retreated.

It's high time we left, and the sooner the better. And that's particularly true given whom our current commander-in-chief is.

Obama Begins 'Negotiating' US Surrender To The Taliban

The US has confirmed statements by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid that peace talks will begin between the US negotiators and a Taliban delegation in Doha, Qatar on terms for ending the war in Afghanistan and a U.S. withdrawal.

The talks have been authorized by the Taliban's leader Mohammad Omar.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government is being excluded from the talks, but he's insisting that his High Peace Council will follow up with its own talks a few days later,provided his preconditions are met. The preconditions?

“The conditions are: The talks, having begun in Qatar, must immediately move to Afghanistan,” Karzai said. “Second, the talks must bring about an end of the violence in Afghanistan, and third, the talks should not become a tool for any third-party country” to pursue its own interests in Afghanistan.

Since the Taliban are pretty open about calling Karzai 'a U.S. stooge' and refusing to deal with him, we'll see how that ends up.

The only U.S. conditions are almost exactly what I predicted when I first wrote about the U.S. working with Qatar to open a Taliban office six months ago:

Essentially, the scenario will likely go something like this. In exchange for releasing captured terrorists from Gitmo into Taliban custody, recognizing the Taliban as legitimate political rulers in Afghanistan plus a suitable baksheesh in the form of some more aid money, we will be allowed to retreat more or less gracefully and Mullah Omar and the Taliban will mouth some platitudes about disengaging from al-Qaeda.

Or to quote the New Speak spouted by the Obama Administration, two statements 'opposing international terrorism launched from Afghan soil and supporting the peace process:'

In addition to agreeing to meet with Afghans, the statement issued by Mujahid said “the Islamic Emirate does not want to inflict harm to other countries from its soil” and wants “good relations” with all countries. It said Taliban objectives for the office included “to support a political and peaceful solution.”

A U.S. official said the statement fulfilled the requirements. The Taliban also repeated its demand for an end to the foreign “occupation” of Afghanistan and its goal of establishing “an independent Islamic system” there.

Keep in mind that people like the Taliban don't regard the activities of people like Hamas, al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba or Hezbollah to be terrorism in the slightest. And at any rate, any agreements made with an infidel are meaningless anyway as far as the Taliban is concerned.

And that wonderful Islamic system? Pure 7th century, especially when dealing with uppity women:

 





















Yes, the Taliban want to be back in power, want all foreign troops out of the country and want all of their detainees released. They will undoubtedly get everything they want and more.

Those detainees include about 60 prisoners the United States still holds in Afghanistan and five being held at Guantanamo Bay. Most of the rest of the Taliban killers with American blood on their hands were already turned over to the Afghan government by the Obama Administration, so the remainder include some real hard cases.

We might even see a couple of celebrity detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed go free as well, perhaps being turned over to Qatari custody for awhile before being quietly released. The Qataris, who have acted as the Taliban's lawyer throughout the negotiations are a likely choice for role of halfway house in these situations.

Karzai and other members of the Afghan elite who've grown wealthy during our occupation will leave once the Taliban takes over. President Obama never liked him anyway - he was 'Bush's man' - and once President Obama failed in a clumsy attempt to muscle him out of power when he first took over, he ceased working with us or trusting us.

Those Afghan security forces we spent billions to equip and train? Some of the officers, especially the more high ranking ones who were in a position to steal and put a little bit away will likewise leave. The rest will serve Afghanistan's new masters. Like the other Muslim armies we built in Iraq and 'Palestine', the Afghan forces would happily turn those shiny new M-16s we gave them on us if the occasion arose.

This is how Obama's War ends, the Good War, the one he accused President Bush of 'dropping the ball on', the one Obama in his arrogance insisted he was going to win after his overblown campaign rhetoric.

Instead, after a dysfunctional adventure that saw us doubling down on the original folly with no clear goals and with Rules of Engagements that handcuffed our warriors and put them in harm's way to no purpose, we're bugging out. Again, from the original piece I wrote last January:

In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, we have emboldened our enemies, spent blood and treasure and accomplished nothing of real permanence, although it pains me to say it because I have a very real knowledge of the sacrifices involved.

Instead of handling AfPak the way it should have been handled from the very beginning, we blundered in without any clear strategic goals or direction. Once our enemies and for that matter, those whom were willing to be our friends realized our leaders had no idea what they were doing and weren't serious about real victory, the rest was merely a matter of time.

This is a national disgrace unworthy of the sacrifices of the brave men and women we sent there.

Taliban Slaughters Six Amereicans Including Diplomat In Afghanistan

It was a horrible weekend in Afghanistan, as six Americans lost their lives.

Three members of the U.S. military, Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old foreign service officer ,a U.S. civilian who worked for the U.S. Defense Department and an Afghan doctor were killed yesterday by a suicide car bombing attack while travelling to donate books to a school in the Zabul province in South Afghanistan.

Another American civilian was killed by the Taliban in a separate attack in eastern Afghanistan.



In a statement, Secretary of State John Kerry paid tribute to Anne Smedinghoff, a native of Illinois, who was killed in what he called a "despicable attack".

He said: "She tragically gave her young life working to give young Afghans the opportunity to have a better future."

Kerry described Smedinghoff as "vivacious, smart, capable, chosen often by the ambassador there to be the lead person because of her capacity."

He said "there are no words for anyone to describe the extraordinary harsh contradiction for a young 25-year-old woman, with all of her future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy to improve people's lives, making a difference, having an impact" to be killed, Kerry said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in Zabul and said the bomber was seeking to target either a coalition convoy or the governor.

"We were waiting for one of them," Ahmadi said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It was our good luck that both appeared at the same time."

While the Obama Administration continues to make attempts to negotiate with the Taliban, so far they've shown little interest. With President Obama's set in stone date of a pullout by 2014 and a significant drawdown of U.S. forces already scheduled for the latter part of this year, they simply see it as a case of waiting us out before they take over again.

As Taliban leader Mullah Omar once famously said in an interview after President Obama's mini surge in Afghanistan, "The Americans have the watches, but we have the time."

U.S. Agrees To Allow Taliban To Open 'Political Office' In Qatar As Obama Declares War Lost

 

Remember when presidential candidate Barack Obama called Afghanistan the Good War, the one we had to win? Remember when he accused then President Bush of 'dropping the ball' in AfPak in order to concentrate on Iraq?

Some interesting events just collided.

First, President Obama met with Afghan leader Hamid Kharzai at the White House this afternoon, agreed to speed up our withdrawal  and all but declared the war a lost cause.

"So, you know, I think that, have we achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios? Probably not. You know, there's a human enterprise, and you know, you fall short of the ideal," said Obama.

The president went on to say that America has achieved some measure of success in Afghanistan, however. "Did we achieve our central goal? And have we been able, I think, to shape a strong relationship with a responsible Afghan government that is willing to cooperate with us to make sure that it is not a launching pad for future attacks against the United States? We have achieved that goal. We are in the process of achieving that goal."

Here's what President Obama is talking about when he speaks about us negotiating:

Today, the Taliban announced that they  had finally agreed to open up what they're calling 'a political office' in Doha, Qatar with the Obama Administration's enthusiastic support.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the new liaison office will conduct negotiations and foreign  relations between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ( the Taliban name of the country) and   the international community.

"Right now, having a strong presence in Afghanistan, we still want to have a political office for negotiations," said Mujahid. "In this regard, we have started preliminary talks and we have reached a preliminary understanding with relevant sides, including the government of Qatar, to have a political office for negotiations with the international community."

The choice of Qatar is significant.

Qatar is an oil emirate in the Persian Gulf  that spends a great deal of money financing Islamism in the world. It has always been a major source of funding for the Muslim Brotherhood and its subsidiary organizations like CAIR, MPAC  and ISNA.

It also finances and owns  al-Jazeera ( AKA Jihad TV) which features as one of its most popular programs the anti-Semitic and anti-western sermons of Sheik Youseff Qaradawi. As you know, al-Jazeera (or rather, Emir Al-Thani) just purchased Al Gore's Current TV for a cool $500 million, giving it an enhanced western platform and a potential lobbyist in Al Gore,  who will stay on for a fat paycheck as a 'consultant'.

The Taliban will thus have an important diplomatic presence in the Persian Gulf ( and remember that Saudi Arabia and the UAE recognized the Taliban government when it first took over), a built in conduit for financing, a friendly media outlet close by with a reach that extends to the United States and quite possibly, a built in, well connected lobbyist with strong ties to the Democratic Party.

And they will now have official recognition of their status as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

Essentially, the scenario will likely go something like this. In exchange for releasing captured terrorists from Gitmo into Taliban custody, recognizing the Taliban as legitimate political rulers in Afghanistan   plus a suitable baksheesh in the form of some more aid money, we will be allowed to retreat more or less gracefully and Mullah Omar and the Taliban will mouth some platitudes about disengaging from al-Qaeda. The reality, of course is that thanks to our assassination of Osama bin-Laden, al-Qaeda under its  Egyptian born, ex-Muslim Brotherhood leader Sheik Ayman Zawahiri has now largely relocated again to the Middle East to take advantage of the Arab Spring. In any event, once the Taliban takes over again, al-Qaeda will be there as well.

Kharzai and other members of the Afghan elite who've grown wealthy during our occupation will duck out,while the rest of the Afghan people will return to the 7th century Sharia Disneyland they had before we came.

Those Afghan security forces we spent billions to equip and train? I think the answer to that is pretty obvious by now. Just like the other Muslim armies we built in Iraq and 'Palestine', the Afghan forces will be in service to the new  regime and will just as soon turn those shiny new M-16s on us or our allies given the chance.

Don't get me wrong. With all respect to our heroic warriors (and I was writing about them when hardly anyone else was) the whole decision to go into Afghanistan  in the first place was  ridiculous, especially since we did nothing about Pakistan, a country that has fomented far more terrorism than ever emanated out of Afghanistan.

I've characterized it before as one genius of a president making a decision to put an army and billions of dollars in equipment into  a land locked country surrounded by more or less hostile territory without any real strategic goals in  mind, and a second genius of a  president deciding to double down to avoid looking ridiculous after his overblown campaign rhetoric.

In an odd way, our wars in Iraq and AfPak operated at cross purposes to each other.

In Iraq, we took out the Sunni counter weight to Shi'ite Iran and left a Shi'ite dictatorship in its place where the political power is concentrated in Iran proxy Moqtada al-Sadr, the power behind President Maliki. The one positive was our destroying of al-Qaeda in Iraq and driving the remnants out of the Middle East.

In Afghanistan, we failed to defeat the Taliban, and are now reduced haggling with them over a ceasefire we need much more than they do. And with the assassination of Osama bin-Laden, the Obama Administration's empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood and Maliki's oppression of Iraq's Sunnis, al-Qaeda is back in its natural home in the Arab world again.

In Afghanistan, as in Iraq, we have emboldened our enemies, spent blood and treasure and accomplished nothing of real permanence, although it pains me to say it because I have a very real knowledge of the sacrifices involved.

Instead of handling AfPak the way it should have been handled from the very beginning, we blundered in without any clear strategic goals or direction. Once our enemies and for that matter, those whom were willing to be our friends realized our leaders had no idea what they were doing and weren't serious about real victory, the rest was merely a matter of time.

US Commander Uses Ramadan As Excuse For Afghan Murders Of Our Troops

I can still barely believe this one, even after hearing it with my own ears.

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen was queried about the huge increase in U.S. troops being murdered by their supposed Afghan 'allies.'

He actually blamed the spike in the murders of U.S. troops on the stress of fasting and in his words, sacrifice associated with Ramadan!

It's not the stress of fasting, which normally promotes inactivity. For many jihadis, Ramadan is the prime time for holy war against the infidels and the enemies of Allah.General Allen surely knows that, but instead makes up this...this nonsense. And I'm being polite.

And it's not the first time General Allen has spouted this kind of dhimmified, cringing attempt to cover for what we're really facing in AfPak and elsewhere.

General Allen is far from a stupid man. So he's obviously decided to follow orders from above and kow tow to jihad in an effort to pretend Islam's inherent violence is not a factor in what we're fighting.

This is an absolute disgrace.

3 Marines Murdered By Afghan Commander Who Invited Them To Dinner

Another 3 Marines were murdered by their Afghan 'allies' when a police commander invited them to his home for the Iftar meals Muslims eat to break the sun up to sundown Ramadan fast.

He broke bread with the infidels, let them finish their meal and get comfortable and then killed them:

An Afghan police officer shot and killed three U.S. Marines after sharing a meal with them before dawn Friday and then fled into the desolate darkness of southern Afghanistan, the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week.

The Afghan police commander opened fire on the three Americans after inviting them to dinner at his outpost under the pretext of having a meeting to discuss security.

Thirty-one coalition service members have now died this year at the hands of Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms, according to NATO — a dramatic rise from previous years.

The assaults have cast a shadow of fear and mistrust over U.S. efforts to train Afghan soldiers and police more than 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban's hardline Islamist regime for sheltering al-Qaida's leadership.[...]

Sangin's district chief and the Taliban both identified the gunman as Asadullah, a member of the Afghan National Police who was helping the Marines train the Afghan Local Police.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by telephone that the attacker joined the insurgency after the shooting.

'Now, he is with us,' Ahmadi said.

Actually, he always was.

Not one of my military contacts in Afghanistan has ever told me that they could trust the Afghan troops or police we're arming and training at such great expense as far as they could throw them.

The Afghans respect strength, and the NATO forces aren't showing them that. The ridiculous Rules of Engagement our troops have been saddled with and the Obama Administration's pathetic attempts to negotiate surrender terms with the Taliban have seen to that. The Taliban are simply waiting the ferenghi out.

The achievement of our warriors under these conditions are almost beyond belief, but they were always saddled with a murky mission with no clear objective and fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.

Afghanistan was a always questionable enterprise of little strategic value at best. Regular members of Joshua's Army know that as far as I'm concerned, one genius of a president decided to send an army and billions worth of equipment into a landlocked country surrounded by hostile territory, and an even bigger genius of a president decided to double down to back up his ignorant, chest thumping rhetoric about Afghanistan being 'the real war'.

Virtually everything the Obama Administration has done since then has simply been a case a digging a deeper hole.

There's no need to waste another dollar or another life 'training' the Afghans. All we're doing is giving the Taliban more arms and better uniforms.

Pentagon Now Buying Helicopters From Russia - For The Afghan Air Force!

Every time you think the Obama Administration has hit bottom when it comes to ridiculous nonsense, they surprise you by sinking to a new low. Get your mind around this...the Pentagon is using your tax dollars to buy helicopters from Russia - for the Afghan air force.

The Pentagon must pay Russia’s state- run arms trader to provide helicopters for Afghanistan’s air force even though the company also been has supplying Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with weapons to kill his own people, according to the Defense Department’s top policy official.

The U.S. Army has taken delivery of nine Russian-made MI-17 helicopters for the Afghans from Rosoboronexport under a $375 million contract issued in May 2011, with six more awaiting shipment and another six to be delivered by May 31, Acting Undersecretary for Policy James Miller said in a previously undisclosed March 30 letter to lawmakers. The U.S. has an option to buy an additional 12 Russian helicopters for the Afghans, who have been flying them for 30 years.

“I share your concern that Rosoboronexport continues to supply weapons and ammunition to the Assad regime and acknowledge there is evidence that some of these arms are being used by Syrian forces against Syria’s civilian population,” Miller wrote Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, who’s led opposition to the contract in Congress.

The U.S. barred deals with Rosoboronexport from 2006 to 2010, citing its arms sales to nations including Iran and Syria as violating efforts to curb proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

In his letter to Cornyn, Miller sought to reconcile the Pentagon’s purchases from the Russian government arms company with the Obama administration’s pleas for nations and companies to stop doing business with Assad.

The Syrian angle aside - and that alone is a pretty large one in view of all the pious rhetoric and inaction from the Obama Administration - a few other questions come to mind. Why are we paying the Russians to build helicopters with U.S. tax dollars when we have American companies here that can do it, combined with an 'official' unemployment rate of over 8% nationally? Is building helicopters yet another one of those jobs Americans won't do? And if we are outsourcing this, why not to one of our allies, instead of to a nation that is in many ways hostile to us and our foreign policy aims?

And while we're on the subject, why do we need to subsidize the building of an Afghan air force anyway? Just like the shiny new armies we have built at U.S. expense for the 'Palestinians' and for the Iraqis, exactly what good is America going to get out of spending over a billion dollars to buy helicopters from Russia to give to the Afghans?

Dumb and dumber.

U.S. Troops Took Pictures With Afghan Corpses..So What?

The Los Angeles Times, in the grand tradition of biased, left wing urban newspapers has 'distinguished' itself yet again.

They published some photos given to them by a disgruntled ex-soldier from the 82nd Airborne that were taken in Afhanistan by American soldiers in combat over two years ago, showing our warriors posing with the corpses and mugging for the camera.

The Army begged the Times not to publish the photos because of the danger it could incite violence against our warriors an dcivilians still in the country, but that wasn't of the least concern to the L.A. Times.

Times Editor Davan Maharaj said, "After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops."

Careful consideration my behind. They wanted the story and the scoop because it was down with the Agenda, and anything else is secondary.

Condemnations have come, of course, from SecDef Leon Panetta and other members of the Obama Administration as well as from NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Oddly enough, no one had any words of condemnation when President Obama performed his own version of desecrating the dead, using the bodies of dead American servicemen returning to the U.S. for a political photo-op against the wishes of the families and contrary to Department of defense regulations. Remember that one?

On top of all this, the Army is now organizing a criminal investigation against the soldiers in the pictures, obviously to gain political favor with the current administration. I wonder how many of the warriors whom are going to be prosecuted have been decorated for valor under arms?

The above picture is of some historical significance. Taken in 1945 during WWII, it shows General George S. Patton with some of the guys from the Third Army pissing in the Rhine, a national symbol of Germany.

They had just busted through the Siegfried Line and were en route to settling final accounts with Hitler and his accomplices . Patton urinating in the Rhine sent a message to our enemies.

Tell me..if General Patton was in charge of our war effort, do you think we'd still be fighting a bunch of 7th Century Brigands over a decade after 9/11? What do you think he would have said about the current ridiculous Rules of Engagement our troops have been saddled with in Iraq and Afghanistan?

We are not fighting civilized foes who have any notion of our moral standards.But they understand power. We display weakness and appeasement, constantly.

Real peace comes from victory. A primary reason I never bought President Barack Obama's nonsense about 'the good war' in Afghanistan is because I realized a long time ago that not only wasn't there anything worth winning there, but that our warriors were never intended to win...not under Bush '43 and certainly not under Obama.

This is just another example.

And as far as the warriors of the 82nd AB who are involved go, I think G-d they're on our side. It's a pity they have to constantly watch their sixes for attacks from the rear like this one.

US Paid $50K Per Head To Afghans For Deaths; Told Money 'Came From Obama'

The United States government has paid compensation to the families of each Afghan killed or wounded in the incident in Kandahar attributed to Staff Sergeant Robert Bales:

The United States has paid $50,000 in compensation for each Afghan killed in the shooting spree attributed to a U.S. soldier in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official and a community elder said Sunday.

The families of the dead received the money Saturday at the governor's office, said Kandahar provincial council member Agha Lalai. Each wounded person received $11,000, Lalai said. Community elder Jan Agha confirmed the same figures.

They were told that the money came from U.S. President Barack Obama, Lalai said.

A U.S. official confirmed that compensation had been paid but declined to discuss exact amounts, saying only that it reflected the devastating nature of the incident. The official spoke anonymously because of the sensitive nature of the subject.

This is disturbing in a number of ways.

First of all, what we've done, essentially, is admitted guilt and paid blood money in accordance with Pashtun tribal custom. And what we've admitted to in their eyes is not one soldier apparently having a breakdown, but what an Afghan commission charged with 'investigating this tragedy came up with - the fantasy that this was a planned U.S. military strike involving 15 to 20 soldiers with air support.

If Sergeant Bales comes to trial and is found not guilty because of PTSD, temporary insanity or some similar cause, just how do you think the Afghans are going to react - since we've already admitted guilt by paying the blood money?

Another point that bothers me intensely...who does President Obama think he is using our money to do this and then taking personal credit for it, as if it came out of his own pocket rather than ours?

Clueless and arrogant, all in one package.

Kharzai: Americans Are 'Demons' , 'Satanic'; Afghans Claim Killings A Planned Military Strike

Afghan President Hamid Kharzai is repeatedly referring to Americans in Afghanistan as 'demons', refers to the Q'uran burnings as "wild and inhumane' and as “Satanic acts that will never be forgiven by apologies” and said that the killing of 16 Afghan civilians was "not the first incident, indeed it was the 100th, the 200th and 500th incident."

In a recent speech that was broadcast all over the country on Friday, the day Muslims go to mosques to get riled up by incendiary sermons, he called on Afghans to "pray for God to rescue us from these two demons,” meaning America and the Taliban.

What President Kharzai is doing is attempting to bolster his own popularity by indulging in rhetoric that threatens the lives of the very people whom are keeping him in power.

Just wait, it gets better.

As you may remember, the Afghans are conducting their own investigations into the unfortunate events surrounding the killing of 16 civilians in Kandahar.

While Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is being held in Ft. Leavenworth awaiting charges for the killings, the Afghan investigators, which included a number of mullahs and members of the Kharzai government have come up with their own story, and it surpasses even the usual exaggeration and hyperbole one constantly sees in the Muslim world.

The Afghans are claiming that two groups of soldiers, totaling 15 to 20 troops, carried out a planned attack with air support:

The delegation, sent to Kandahar by the Afghan House of Representatives, reported that two groups of soldiers, totaling 15 to 20 troops, carried out a planned attack with air support, killing nine children and seven other civilians.

But the US investigation has repeatedly maintained that only one soldier was behind the assassination.

Unbelievable. But to be expected when our 'ally' Afghan President Hamid Kharzai is referring to us as 'demons'.

No matter what happens in the Bales case, I say we take him at his word. Let's pull out of Afghanistan and leave them to the barbaric 7th century Islamo-Disneyland they obviously find so much more to their liking.

As for Kharzhai, I guarantee you that as soon as we leave he, his cronies and their families will be jetting to Europe or the Emirates right behind us to enjoy the money they've stolen from us over the last decade.

Army Sergeant Suspected In Afghan Killings Identified

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is suspected of killing 16 Afghan villagers and attempting to burn some of the bodies has been flown to the U.S. and is now being held in an isolated cell at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

His overall profile makes it more likely that what happened in Afghanistan that night happened when he was simply not in his right mind.

He's a ten year veteran who enlisted after 9/11, giving up a good job as a stock trader to do it. Sergeant Bales had completed four tours serving in Iraq and Afghanistan,and had a string of commendations for good conduct. His former platoon leader described him as a model soldier, who performed coolly and competently under fire:

[Army Capt. Chris Alexander] said that while serving with Bales, he saw no evidence that Bales had any more difficulty dealing with the stresses of battle than anyone else. If the allegations against Bales are true, "it's 100 percent out of character for him."

"He always made sure his team was ready, that they were briefed on the mission, that the equipment was checked," he said. "Anything he was given to do, you never had to worry about it getting done and done well."

"I'm not a psychologist, but you don't go from being a solid NCO (noncommissioned officer) to this unless there are extenuating circumstances," Alexander said. "He is not some psychopath. He's an outstanding soldier who has given a lot for this country."

The dinosaur media is looking into Bales' background with a microscope,because the script is to paint him as a crazed killer who finally snapped because the Army was to blame. Think of it as a modern day spin on the old 'crazed, psycho baby killer Vietnam vet' that was so popular with them for awhile.

So far, they've managed to find a few indications of financial troubles largely based on the plummeting real estate market, an incident of what was likely reckless driving that he paid a fine on and an old incident with a girl friend that resulted in his having to attend some anger management classes - again, nothing unusual given the way today's laws are structured.In actuality, Bales' overall background is fairly normal and straightforward.

Bales' attorney will be John Henry Browne, a Seattle attorney famous for defending serial killer Ted Bundy. Bales will also have at least one military lawyer.

Charges against Bales are still being decided as an investigation of what happened continues and will probably be filed within a week or so.

The defense may very well build its case around post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or temporary insanity. Given the politics of the situation and the fact that the Afghans are screaming for Bales' head, that's going to be an uphill battle even if it's the truth.

Rogue US Soldier Reportedly Kills 16 Afghan Civilians in Kandahar

Sixteen Afghan civilians have reportedly been murdered by a lone US soldier who suffered what is being described as a 'mental breakdown'.

The soldier reportedly entered three Afghan family’s homes in Alkozai village, Kandahar at or around 3AM this morning and simply shot down whomever he found inside. An Afhan who claimed to be an eyewitness said that he then 'poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them.'

The U.S service member, identified as an Army staff sergeant is said to have surrendered to U.S. military authorities after the killings, and is currently in their custody.

Lt. Gen Adrian Bradshaw, deputy commander of NATO-led forces, said he was unable to "explain the motivation behind such callous acts", adding that "our thoughts and prayers are with those caught in this tragedy".

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the rampage as "intentional murders" and "assassinations" and demanded that the killer be turned over to the Afghans to be tried under their laws.

You can just imagine what will ensue if a US soldier is examined, actually did suffer a nervous breakdown and is found mentally incompetent to stand trial.

There's the difference. We try and punish our murderers, no matter whom they've killed. The Afghans don't even consider the men who murdered 6 soldiers over a Q'uran burning to even be murderers.

There's a great deal that's revealed by just that simple fact.

US Military Weighing Possible Court Martials For Up To 5 US Soldiers Over Q'uran Burnings

Military investigators looking into the burning of Q'urans in Afghanistan have concluded that five U.S. service members were involved:

U.S. military officials said that although the five service members will be reprimanded, it is unlikely that their names will be released or that their punishment will approach the severity of what some Afghans are demanding, including trial in an Islamic court.

“For the soldiers, it will be serious — they could lose rank. But you’re not going to see the kind of public trial that some here seem to want,” said one U.S. military official.”

A separate Afghan investigation conducted by Afghan lawmakers and Muslim religious officials is expected to conclude in several days. I'm sure you can already guess what the result is going to be.

What the Afghans want, including President Karzai, is for the culprits to be turned over to them to be tried under sharia and hung. Nothing else is going to satisfy them.They're not going accept that the US Code of Military Justice doesn't specify the death penalty for burning books. And those groveling apologies meant absolutely nothing. In fact, given the Muslim mindset, as I pointed out earlier, they almost certainly inflamed things even further:

The burning of the Muslim holy book by U.S. forces at an Afghan prison is unforgivable, a powerful council of Muslim scholars said Friday. It demanded that foreign forces turn over control of prisoners to Afghanistan’s government.

In a statement released through President Hamid Karzai’s office, the Ulema Council said the incident occurred because of “illegal management” of the prison.

“The representatives of the Ulema Council also said that the unforgivable and inhuman action of American forces in Bagram is something that could not be forgiven and an apology is not enough. The criminals of this action should be openly prosecuted and punished as soon as possible,” according to the statement.

Because of the violent reaction from the locals, there is a real likelihood that the five service men involved could receive a full court martial, and several sources in the Pentagon have hinted as much, especially after the groveling apologies by the NATO commander General Allen and President Obama. They'd have to reach a bit, but one of my sources tells me that Article 92,dereliction of duty or Article 134, "all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital" could be stretched easily to fit Q'uran burning.

To understand how ridiculous this is, let's recap what actually happened here.The accused are going to be charged with confiscating Q'urans supplied and paid for by the US taxpayers away from jihadi prisoners who were using them to transmit secret messages. And then burning the already defaced Q'urans, which is exactly how Muslims dispose of them!

Of course, if the Pentagon investigation bothered to cover the murder of six US troops by their supposed allies, rest assured that none of the murderers are going to be punished at all, especially not by the Afghans.

Meanwhile General Allen has ordered mandatory training for all troops in how to properly handle Q'urans, and most NATO advisers are still in lockdown and have not returned to their duties. The few who have to attend what are called “mission essential” meetings with their Afghan counterparts are escorted by an armed guard and wearing full body armor. A wise precaution, considering that USAF Lieutenant Colonel John Loftis, 44, and Army Major Robert Marchanti II, 48, were murdered not in combat with the Taliban but in a heavily secured room in the Afghan Interior Ministry by an Afghan intelligence officer, an 'ally' trained by the US who had a full security clearance to enter and then left without anyone doing a single thing to stop him.

You have to wonder why General Allen, the JCS and yes, even President Obama fail to realize that continued appeasement of Islam and its culture are nothing less than a suicidal slow rot of our military, our war effort and even our freedoms and security here at home. This has been going on for 11 years now, during two administrations. Is it any wonder we're still fighting this war?

This is the hidden face of the COIN strategy, which 'worked' to allow us a graceful retreat from Iraq because Iraq's Sunnis were revolted themselves by al Qaeda's brutality and were thus amenable to another traditional part of Muslim culture - they were willing to accept baksheesh from us to switch sides. In the end,of course, it did them no good because as soon as we left and turned the country over to the Iran friendly Shi'ites, the Sunnis, far from having a voice in ruling Iraq have become increasingly marginalized and repressed.

COIN was never going to have a hope of working in Afghanistan, because the Afghans are far more used to brutality, far more primitive, far more tribal, far more inured towards hatred of foreigners and non-Muslims than even the Iraqis, and far more dominated by one group, the Pashtuns.

The result is that the 'hearts and minds' strategy has resulted in our troops and appearing weak because they're being forced to fight with one hand tied behind them, not to mention our leaders. And it has had the effect of destroying any respect the Afghans had for us after we took out the Taliban.What our warriors have managed to accomplish in view of the impossible mission they were saddled with is little short of amazing.

General Allen and the JCS are military men who have the excuse for this debacle that they were following the orders of their commander in chief. That commander, President Barack Obama, is going to have to answer to history.And there's not going to be anyone he's going to be able to blame for it either.

Afghanistan - 'You Knew I was A Snake When You Picked Me Up'

There has been a great deal of anger expressed by average Americans over the riots in Afghanistan over the burning of Qu'rans - paid for by American taxpayers, I might add - that Taliban prisoners used to send messages to each other. The Afghan's reaction has been typical...hysterical rage expressed in violence towards people who had nothing to do with the matter at hand except that they were infidels and ferenghi.

At least four American soldiers have been killed, two of them American officers murdered inside the Interior Ministry building in a highly secured area, possibly by an Afghan security officer and two other American soldiers were shot to death by a member of the Afghan Army at a base in eastern Afghanistan. A number of others, both military and civilian UN and NATO personnel have been injured. An even larger death toll was avoided when an Afghan cook at Bagram Air Force base was caught attempting to poison food scheduled to be served to American personnel at the base.

After a successful car bombing in front of Jalalabad airport that killed nine and injured nineteen Afghan civilians and law enforcement officers and four NATO soldiers (Jalalabad is used exclusively by NATO forces and the military) NATO Commander General John Allen ordered all NATO military and civilian personnel to leave the Interior ministry and a number of other strategic locations in Kabul and go into what amounts to virtual lockdown.

General Allen is obviously aware that the chief danger comes from our Afghan 'allies' . He issued orders for Americans to stay clear of their Afghan counterparts until 'tensions die down'.

Both General Allen and of course, President Barack Hussein Obama promptly issued what amounted to groveling apologies to President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan people for the Q'uran burnings. As I or anyone else familiar with the kind of mindset we're dealing with could have told them, the apologies only made matters worse and caused the violence to spike.

The feelings of many Americans are pretty much captured in the Michael Ramirez cartoon above. Charles Krauthammer, Andrew McCarthy and others were quick to point out that Hamid Karzai never apologized for the murder of our troops...any more than he apologized for the murder of eight UN aid workers last April, who were butchered when a crazed mob overran a base in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif after an American pastor from a small church in Florida deliberately burned a copy of the Q'uran. At least two of them were decapitated, and the only worker in the office who lived survived because he managed to convince the mob he was a Muslim.

General David Petraeus, who was then the NATO commander if Afghanistan and NATO Ambassador Mark Sedwill issued a particularly servile statement after that atrocity, apologizing humbly and condemning any disrespect for what they termed 'the Holy Q'uran'.

Karzai did not apologize or condemn the murders then or now for a very good reason. In his culture, apologizing is almost never done, because it's considered a sign of weakness and dishonor. In fact, that's true of Islam in general, especially when kuffars, non-believers are concerned. That should give you some insight into how Karzai, most Afghans and indeed a lot of Muslims feel about our representatives, our military commanders, and of course, our commander-in-chief at this point.

Another attitude not overly present in Muslim societies is that of gratitude, particularly when it comes to foreigners and infidels. Those of you whom were watching closely may have noticed a singular lack of it when our forces left Iraq.

After freeing the Shi'ite majority from the murderous Saddam Hussein, putting them in control of the country, saving their oil fields after Saddam set them on fire, seeing to it they had their first free elections and spending 4,000 precious lives and over a trillion dollars to rebuild their country,not a single Iraqi dignitary bothered to attend the final ceremony where our flag was lowered and we officially turned over all authority to the Iraqis, and Iraq's leader Maliki made a fairly harsh speech on Iraqi television that wasn't reported here on how happy the Iraqis were to finally rid themselves of foreign 'occupation' and see the back of us.

Some noted at the time the lack of a ticker tape parade in New York or a national celebration to welcome home the American troops returning from Iraq. Yet, the occasion was not without its public celebrations. A picture of one of them can be seen below, as hundreds of Shi'ites in Falluja celebrate our final withdrawal. And it wasn't just in Falluja.


That picture literally is worth a thousand words. Or more accurately, a trillion dollars and over 4,000 lives.

The home made Israeli flag in the picture is no accident. As our warriors who were there will tell you, many Iraqis, especially in Baghdad habitually referred colloquially to American troops as 'the Jews' as in 'you can't get there that way - the Jews have a roadblock there.'

Of course, there are no Jews in Iraq any more, but the Americans were seen in exactly that way by the majority of Iraqis, as despised infidels and farenghi albeit rich, gullible and powerful ones. They put up with us for a while to get what they wanted out of us, but eventually it was always going to be a case of `thank you very much for your time and money, infidels..now leave, so we can bond with our Shi'ite jihadi brothers in Iran.' I caught a fair amount of flak when I wrote that over five years ago, but the way the wind was blowing was obvious to anyone looking honestly at the situation. When the Iraqi leader you're propping up with your military hangs out with your worst enemy in the region and smiles and nods when you're referred to as 'unwanted guests' the message is fairly easy to read.



Most Iraqis have no understanding of freedom or democracy as we see it, nor do they wish to. What they understand is the strong horse, power and retribution, as Iraq's Christians and Sunnis have already found out. While there are always individual exceptions, by and large expecting gratitude or even friendship from such people is a particularly forlorn hope.As with most things, the Q'uran is the final authority on that*.

The same holds true in Afghanistan.Unless they happened to be female, most of the Afghans, and particularly the Pashtuns who form the majority of the population were perfectly at home living in the barbaric 7th century Islamo-Disneyland the Taliban created there. The rides weren't much to brag about, but it was theirs, it was what Allah told them they should have and it suited them. And they never asked us to come in and change it for them.

After 9/11, we found out that the Taliban were sheltering Osama bin-Laden, and President Bush gave Mullah Omar an ultimatum to turn him over to us or else. Since bi-Laden was a guest of the Taliban and under their protection for Mullah Omar to do that would have violated pashtunwalli, an ancient code of conduct in Afghanistan that predates Islam. Not only that,but regardless of whom he was to us, to the Taliban, Osama bin-Laden was a war hero because of his combat record against the Russians.

Either President Bush knew very well that they were never going to turn him over to us, or he operated out of ignorance. In the end it really doesn't matter.

It was far easier to go after the subcontractors of jihad rather than the leaders, enablers and funders of it, which after all would have meant being honest about what and whom we were fighting rather than calling it a 'war on terror'. So President Bush made the brilliant decision to send an army and billions of dollars worth of equipment into a landlocked country surrounded by hostile territory.His successor President Obama made the even more brilliant decision to double down and send more even more troops and equipment there to back up his genuinely clueless campaign rhetoric about Afghanistan being 'the good war' where President Bush 'took his eye off the ball'. You can only truly appreciate how ironic this was if you look at how Senator Obama, like many members of his party did his very best to sabotage our military effort both in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The American people were sold on Afghanistan because they were told that it was necessary to prevent it from becoming a failed state and a haven for terrorist attacks.And they were told that also meant we had to engage in an expensive adventure in nation building, just as we did in Iraq.

How utterly that failed in both places on all accounts can be seen by what's happened in Iraq and Afghanistan since. Osama bin-Laden simply moved from Afghanistan to another failed state right next door - another Muslim 'ally' of ours - with their full knowledge and assistance and hunkered down comfortably in the nice villa they provided for him next door to the country's military academy.

There's no sense in being frustrated by any of this. Directing our anger at the Iraqis, Malii, Hamid Karzai or the Afghans is is senseless, and changes nothing. That is simply whom these people are. And if we thought we were going to change them, we were kidding ourselves.

You can take a rattlesnake into your home as a pet, feed it, and treat with kindness and decency, and it's still a rattler who at some point is going to revert to its basic nature and sink its fangs into you. You knew that when you picked it up...or you should have.

Afghanistan as a strategic objective in the war we actually ought to be fighting is worth about as much as the urine a few Marines sprinkled over some Taliban corpses a few weeks ago.

And I don't say that lightly, since I like to think think I have a better idea than average about some of the amazing things our warriors have accomplished there and what it cost. The fault is not with them, but with politicians who are more concerned with appeasing the Muslim world than with victory over our enemies and who handcuffed them at every turn with unworkable strategies and rules of engagement that would have had their grandfathers who won WWII shaking their heads in disbelief.

Iraq, had it been properly handled was at least an opportunity. If we had put it under military governorship for several years as we did with Japan and Germany, used Iraq's oil to pay for the occupation, helped our Kurdish allies put together an independent Kurdistan and used the Persh Merga to double our troop strength there overnight, and had we fought the war there ruthlessly the way it should have been fought, Iraq might truly have emerged as a US ally and a democracy.

Afghanistan was never an opportunity for that at all. It was a diversion. At one point, when the Afghans still respected us as warriors, we could have perhaps made an arrangement with the Pashtun chiefs to safeguard some of our interests for a retainer, just as we paid off the Sunni chiefs in Iraq who were part of the Awakening. The British kept the Afghans quiet for almost a century using exactly those methods, and only had to send troops into what was largely a futile conflict once Parliament cut the subsidies. Such an arrangement is no longer possible, nor perhaps even desirable and it's time we realized that there's nothing we're going to attain there using the current tactics we seem wedded to that's worth a single dollar or a drop of American blood.


*See surahs 4:101, 5:51, 9:12 and 9:27 among many others for further details