On the President's Speech

Okay, I finally am able to get around to writing about the speech and announcement gave by the President on the new troop levels in Afghanistan. First off, in the interest of full disclosure; I did not listen to the entire speech. I was doing something else and realized the speech was on and I turned it on, when the President was giving his speech. I heard over half of the speech; but I heard enough to tell you what I think about it, without in partisan spin or Republican talking points.

First off, it seemed to me that the President was selling the idea of the additional troops to the left. Barring the standard talking points of the far right and of the Fox News/Sean Hannity crowd; that there was not enough of them, that he was dithering and so forth, I really did not have an issue with what was being proposed. My feeling is this — We will simply have to wait and see. Iraq was cut and dry, Afghanistan is very different horse of a different color. There are more issues at hand and I suspect that this mission is going to be a bit more difficult. There are some on the right, which think we should just roll up, pull out, and not make the same mistake as Russia made in that area back in the 1980’s. That way, when the Taliban takes back over and Al-Qaeda hits America again, the Republican Party will be able to blame the Democrats; thereby destroying their credibility. Personally, I believe that is a sick mentality, but there are those on the right that feel that way, I know, I have read the comments sections of their blogs.

As for the people of Afghanistan; they were less then impressed by the bluster of the President:

Thirty thousand more U.S. troops for Afghanistan? Esmatullah only shrugged.

“Even if they bring the whole of America, they won’t be able to stabilize Afghanistan,” said the young construction worker out on a Kabul street corner on Wednesday morning. “Only Afghans understand our traditions, geography and way of life.”

[….]

Shopkeeper Ahmad Fawad, 25, said it would not help.

“The troops will be stationed in populated areas where the Taliban will somehow infiltrate and then may attack the troops,” he said. “Instead of pouring in more soldiers, they need to focus on equipping and raising Afghan forces, which is cheap and easy.”

For many, the prospect of more troops meant one thing: more civilian deaths.

“More troops will mean more targets for the Taliban and the troops are bound to fight, and fighting certainly will cause civilian casualties,” Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, a former Afghan prime minister, told Reuters.

“The civilian casualties will be further a blow to the U.S. image and cause more indignation among Afghans.”

“It was a very wonderful speech for America … but when it comes to strategy in Afghanistan there was nothing really new which was disappointing,” she told Reuters from her home.

“It seems to me that President Obama is very far away from the reality and truth in Afghanistan. His strategy was to pay lip-service, and did not focus on civilians, nation-building, democracy and human rights.”

Other Afghans, hardened by decades of war and wary of foreign forces whom have for years fought proxy battles in Afghanistan, were skeptical of the United States’ intentions.

Kabul money changer Ehsanullah wondered why U.S. forces had managed to find former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but had yet to locate Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden or Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who both fled U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2001.

“This is part of America’s further occupation of Afghanistan,” he said. “America is using the issue of insecurity here in order to send more troops.”

There is no two ways about it; President Obama is got his work cut out for him for the next year. He does make a very decent salary as President. Do not be deceived to think that he will not be working for it. Because now the President is out of the frying pan and into the fire, this is where his job is going to get very interesting.

I just hope, for America’s sake, that the President knows what he is doing.

Follow Up: WMD's in Iraq

I received an interesting e-mail this morning. A good long while back, I made a posting on a report that Iraq did, in fact, have WMD’s.

Well, a gent e-mailed me, about a blog posting, that he made, on a new blog that he has created, called Right of a Nation. The posting is about the WMD’s that were in Iraq.

Check out those posts Here and Here.

Interesting indeed.

Living Proof that Socialist Liberals are Classless Assholes

Cindy Sheehan and her band of code pink thugs attacked a Elderly Decorated Military Vietnam War Veteran!

The Video: (H/T to Gateway Pundit)

Gateway Pundit has more on this, including the parts NOT reported by the media.

CBS 13 in California has more:

An unidentified military veteran was involved in a tense confrontation with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and the group Code Pink at a rally at Travis Air Force Base on Saturday, November 28, 2009.CBSA Saturday rally led by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan at Travis Air Force Base nearly ended in a brawl when a military veteran physically confronted the protesters.

Anti-war group Code Pink demonstrated at the military base Saturday morning in the first of six planned protests against unmanned military drones currently in use in overseas war zones.

Sheehan, a well-known anti-war activist whose son was killed while serving in Iraq in 2004, was leading the demonstration with a megaphone when a man dressed in a formal military uniform stepped up to her and berated her.

Videotape of the incident shows that Sheehan yelled “Get out of my face” through the megaphone at the man, who slapped the device away. Other protesters immediately joined Sheehan and traded insults with the man, and a shoving match broke out.

Military police quickly pulled the two sides apart.

What a disgrace to America!

But, that’s Obama’s America….. 🙄

Home of the sheep and the slaves!

Remember this come 2010 and 2012. We must take our Government back from this America-Hating fascists!

Video: Your Weekend War Porn Video

I must say, that this, is SWEET to watch. The footage is from 2004 and was shot in Iraq.

This comes via Apache Clips:

I love posting stuff like this, because makes the Paleo-Conservative cowards and the liberal sissies heads explode! 😛

Navy Seals in trouble over supposedly punching a terrorist in the mouth

Not to sound like the eternal skeptic here; but something about this story sounds very fishy. I mean, I can understand a death — but a terrorist reporting someone punching him in the mouth strikes me as not being true. Something is fishy here. Not to mention Fox News’s god-awful headline on this story; which does, I am afraid show a horrific bias in this story.

Via Fox News:

Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three, all members of the Navy’s elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral’s mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.

Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named “Objective Amber,” told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.

Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement.

Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of impediment of an investigation.

Not to sound overly crass or anything like that, but this idiot terrorist ought to be glad a “Fat Lip” is the only thing he received from these Navy Seals. Please do not misunderstand what I am trying to say here folks—- I know that Military personnel are capable of committing crimes just as well as anyone else. A perfect example would be the oh, so ever convenient CNN special on the Army guys who shot, killed and dumped in a ditched some prisoners in Iraq here a few days ago.

A little comment about that little situation; those people are cooling their heels in an Army Prison —- right where they should be. There is no excuse for what those men did, at all. I am quite sorry, but using the asinine excuse of “They will be just shooting at us again later” is no excuse to kill a prison and try to cover it up. Anyone that thinks that those men are heroes is just plain crazy.

Anyhow, back to the present situation at hand here, this terrorist could have, in fact, punched himself in the face and then just told the Iraqi Authorities that the Americans did it to him. Since when do we take the word of Islamic terrorists that killed contractors in Iraq, over the words of our brave service members? Unless there is more to this story than is being reported in the media, perhaps another service member saw the persons involved in this abusing this guy and they reported it to the higher ups in the Military? We do not know this information, so it is hard to make that sort of a judgment call.

Another thing I will say here is this, I was reading a few other Conservative blogs, and some of the stuff I read, I found to be downright surprising. Let me remind my follow Conservatives that we do believe in the rule of law. In World War II and all subsequent wars, the United States and its Military always heeded the Geneva conventions; now the Japanese and the Vietnamese were another story. They did not always do as such. Nevertheless, American never responded in kind, we always treated our prisoners of war with respect. This is why all of this Presidential and Justice Department mandated so-called “enhanced interrogation” or as normal, sane, rational people call it — torture; is so troublesome to me. I have to believe that even the feistiest of the old school Democrats of old, which are nowadays mostly New or Neo Conservatives would not have approved of such things.

Anyhow, this story should prove to be quite interesting and here is hoping that someone the media or something in the Blogosphere will continue to follow it.

Obama send in 34,000 more troops with 'Offramps' to Afghanistan

Last night I wrote, in some not-so politically correct words, that the President is not interested in fighting the war in Afghanistan. It appears that this news article confirms what I have believed all along.

Quote:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama met Monday evening with his national security team to finalize a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year to what he’s called “a war of necessity” in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told McClatchy.

Obama is expected to announce his long-awaited decision on Dec. 1, followed by meetings on Capitol Hill aimed at winning congressional support amid opposition by some Democrats who are worried about the strain on the U.S. Treasury and whether Afghanistan has become a quagmire, the officials said.

The U.S. officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly and because, one official said, the White House is incensed by leaks on its Afghanistan policy that didn’t originate in the White House.

They said the commander of the U.S.-led international force in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, could arrive in Washington as early as Sunday to participate in the rollout of the new plan, including testifying before Congress toward the end of next week. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry also are expected to appear before congressional committees.

As it now stands, the plan calls for the deployment over a nine-month period beginning in March of three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., and a Marine brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., for as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.

In addition, a 7,000-strong division headquarters would be sent to take command of U.S.-led NATO forces in southern Afghanistan — to which the U.S. has long been committed — and 4,000 U.S. military trainers would be dispatched to help accelerate an expansion of the Afghan army and police.

This all sounds nice and pretty; that is until you read down further…:

A U.S. military official used the term “decisional” to describe Monday evening’s meeting among Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Gates, Clinton, National Security Adviser Jim Jones, Eikenberry and senior U.S. military commanders.

The administration’s plan contains “off-ramps,” points starting next June at which Obama could decide to continue the flow of troops, halt the deployments and adopt a more limited strategy or “begin looking very quickly at exiting” the country, depending on political and military progress, one defense official said.

“We have to start showing progress within six months on the political side or military side or that’s it,” the U.S. defense official said.

It’s “not just how we get people there, but what’s the strategy for getting them out,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

The approach is driven in part by concerns that Afghan President Hamid Karzai won’t keep his promises to root out corruption and support political reforms, and in part by growing domestic opposition to the war, the U.S. officials said.

HotAir.com’s Ed Morrissey is not impressed at all:

The increase in troops is a good decision, but the off-ramps almost completely undermine it.  The point in extending our footprint is to win the trust of the local communities and prove our reliability in providing them security, which is the central thrust of McChrystal’s COIN strategy.  By getting them to trust our commitment, we can get them to help fight the Taliban themselves, as we did with the Anbar Awakening in Iraq against al-Qaeda, and greatly improve the intel we get from the locals.   If we send 34,000 more troops but give ourselves a six-month time frame for success or bug-out, the locals will very  quickly come to the realization that allying with us will be suicide.  The COIN strategy only worked in Iraq because George W. Bush was adamant that we would stay until we won.

A Commander in Chief doesn’t need “off-ramps.”  Any President can call an end to a deployment based on his own judgment.  Putting these conditions into the American strategy signals weakness — a desire to pull out without getting blamed for the decision.   Obama wants to be off the hook for an eventual withdrawal by claiming that he’s forced to do it because of these benchmark failures.  And if Obama’s that keen to retreat, he should just do it now.

Ed Morrissey hit the nail square on the head. President Barack Obama was never, at any point, interested in fighting the so-called good war in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama knew that he was inheriting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and he knew that if he continued them, that he would also inherit the backlash from the left that goes with them. Therefore, he is devising a way of getting out that region and making himself look like the saint and President George W. Bush look like the bad person.  This was the plan all along; never at any point was there a plan to fight this war until victory; but rather a plan of stealth defeat.

There are many reasons why the Democrats will not fight the war on terror. Namely, it is because to a certain degree the Democrats actually sympathize with the terrorists. The Democrats have always had a disdain for Israel and its right to exist; many Democrats have always felt that President Harry Truman royally screwed up when he decided to formally recognize Israel as a sovereign Nation. It is due to the frosty relationship towards Israel that sparked the attack of the U.S.S. Liberty by a rogue faction within the Israeli Defense Force. Many people who are of the hatemonger class, like to blame Israel and the Jews for that attack; the problem is, they are blaming the wrong people, they should be blaming the Democrats for it.

Not only this, but you also have about sixty percent of the Democrats who actually blame Bush for the attacks on 9/11. They actually believe that Bush knew the attacks were coming and actually allowed them to happen. This is why Eric Holder and the justice department are having civilian trials for a few of the 9/11 conspirators. They desire to drag out of the stuff that happened in the months after 9/11, as to make a mockery of them.  The remaining people within the Democratic Party and those who are of the far-leftist mentality actually have the audacity to believe that the United States of America actually deserved the attacks on 9/11, because of our capitalistic society and because of our past treatment of blacks; because we do not give enough hand-outs to poor people and so forth . President Barack Obama’s former Pastor even said as this very thing, and now President Barack Obama is allowing them to have civilian trials; ponder that scary thought for a moment.

In closing, I simply will offer this sober note. Elections have consequences. The American people elected a man, who was supposed to be a stark contrast to President George W. Bush, someone who could lead. What the American people received was an out of touch, dithering liberal elitist, who in all honesty could not even lead his own household, if the truth were told. President Barack Obama is more interested in shoving his rather idiotic social agenda, of wealth redistribution and outright class warfare onto the American people, than a fighting a war that will ultimately decide America’s success or demise. We should remember this come the elections of 2010 and of 2012 and decide wisely our choices for those we plan to put in office.

President Barack Hussein Obama, The Surrender Monkey

Oh, this is just wonderful. Sounds like we are gearing up for a big time concession to the enemy.

An Afghan source in Kabul reports that U.S. Ambassador in Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry is holding secret talks with Taliban elements headed by the movement’s foreign minister, Ahmad Mutawakil, at a secret location in Kabul. According to the source, the U.S. has offered the Taliban control of the Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan, Kunar and Nuristan provinces in return for a halt to the Taliban missile attacks on U.S. bases.

via The MEMRI Blog – Full Blog Entry.

…and they say that this was the “good war” and they wanted us to win it. I call bullshit. The Democrats never gave two shits about this war. In fact; they want us to LOSE this war, Just like they did Iraq, god-damned bastards. Vietnam 2.0 all over again…. 😡

Others: Nice Deb, The Sundries Shack, Atlas Shrugs, ThreatsWatch, The Anchoress, protein wisdom, BLACKFIVE, Wizbang, American Power, Mudville Gazette, Wake up America and Weasel Zippers

Video: The Latest from Crowder and Zo

First Crowder goes to Gitmo: (H/T HotAir)

AllahPundit Snarks:

I knew the smart-ass would end up there someday. I just didn’t think it’d be as a tourist.

heh. 😆

Zo’s Latest:

Zo’s Website and Zo @ PJTV

President Barack Obama Flip Flops again

This comes via BreitBart TV:

Way to go Barry…..

Others: Scared Monkeys, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Stop The ACLU, Macsmind, Atlas Shrugs and Redhot

Uh-oh: Nidal Hasan may have wired money to Pakistan

Now this is going to be game changer, if found to be true:

WASHINGTON – Authorities have been examining whether Fort Hood massacre suspect Nidal Malik Hasan wired money to Pakistan in recent months, an action that one senior lawmaker said would raise serious questions about Hasan’s possible connections to militant Islamic groups.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., said sources “outside of the [intelligence] community” learned about Hasan’s possible connections to the Asian country, which faces a massive Islamist insurgency and is widely believed to be Osama bin Laden’s hiding place.

Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, would not identify the sources. But he said “they are trying to follow up on it because they recognize that if there are communications – phone or money transfers with somebody in Pakistan – it just raises a whole other level of questions.”

via Fort Hood shootings suspect may have wired money to Pakistan | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News

So much for the liberal line of “Oh, he was just psycho, there was no terrorism involved!” But do you think the liberal main stream media will change its narrative on this? Don’t bet on it. They’re still trying to justify his actions.  I still say that the perfect solution is to force all Muslims OUT of the United States Military and round them all up and put them on camps, until this war is finally over. But of course, I do not run the country. It is a pity too; I could solve many of the Worlds problems.

Others: NO QUARTER, National Review Online, Hot Air, YID With LID, Jules Crittenden, The Strata-Sphere, Flopping Aces, Weasel Zippers and American Power