“The White House has been surprised by how much attention has remained on the questions about Bergdahl, from the circumstances of his disappearance to the wild beard his father grew while he was being held that’s even led to Bergdahl’s hometown canceling a celebration. All this, Obama aides say, is in their minds a proxy for the hatred toward the president.”
Tag Archives: Afghanistan
These Would Have Been Guys to Get Diana
The new allegations about Princess Diana’s death don’t just vaguely claim she was murdered by the British military, but specifically by the elite special forces Special Air Service (SAS).
They are analogous in terms of training and missions to the work U. S. special forces (Navy Seals, Army Rangers, Green Berets) do.
The SAS hunted down and took out suspected Al Qaeda members in Iraq and Taliban in Afghanistan in daring and dangerous raids. Taking out a royal who was seen as a threat for her romance with and possible marriage to a Muslim, resulting in Muslim siblings for the future king, Prince William? Would have been a piece of cake for these guys. Aside from her relationship with Dodi, Diana was seen as too much of a loose cannon.
I didn’t expect anything to come out while the Queen and Prince Philip are alive, and I still really don’t.
Peace Talks with Taliban
The U. S. will hold direct, bilateral peace talks with the Afghan Taliban in Qatar in the next few days. The Taliban says it wants a political solution.
I’m not expecting much, but the sooner we leave Afghanistan, the happier I will be.
Prepare to Bump Your Head on the Debt Ceiling
Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said today: “The tax issue is finished, over, completed. That’s behind us. Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and our future, and that’s our spending addiction.”
Then for good measure McConnell threw in the Greece canard, which is very effective in scaring people, but is irrelevant to our situation. Greece’s problem is not having its own floating currency and its own central bank.
I agree that we need to cut spending (How about getting out of Afghanistan ASAP?), but you cut spending by negotiating on stuff you haven’t bought yet. You don’t demand spending cuts by refusing to pay for the things you’ve already bought. And we need to balance spending cuts by reforming the tax code to get additional revenue.
If the GOP were so concerned about the national debt, they wouldn’t be willing to mess with our credit rating, driving up borrowing costs and throwing away money on interest payments.
Jill Kelley Had Phony Cancer Charity
Jill Kelley is the Tampa woman who went to the FBI about harrassing emails that turned out to be from Gen. Petraeus’ mistress Paula Broadwell. She is now involved in an investigation of top Afghaniston commander Gen. Allen because of 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails between Kelley and Allen in the last couple of years.
Now HuffPo reports that Kelley and her husband, who is a surgeon, had a phony cancer charity. They took in about $160,000, spent it on meals, entertainment, travel, and lawyers, and then declared the charity bankrupt in 2007.
Kelley and her husband have been in financial trouble recently, with threatened foreclosures on two properties and lawsuits for unpaid credit card bills.
Jill Kelley’s twin sister Natalie was an officer with the cancer charity. Natalie filed for bankruptcy last April with $3.6 million in liabilities.
OK, Now My Head Is Going To Explode
Now the Pentagon says that it is investigating the commander who succeeded Gen. Petraeus in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, for “inappropriate communications” with Jill Kelley, the woman who complained to the FBI about threatening emails that turned out to be from Petraeus’ mistress, Paula Broadwell.
I think the word we’re looking for here is “Byzantine.”
Another GOP Religious Nut Running for the Senate
Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock says that there shouldn’t be an abortion exception for rape because “It is something that God intended to happen.”
I’d like to bring our troops home from Afghanistan and focus on fighting the American Taliban. They’re a much bigger threat to this country.
Fahrklempt Moment of the Day
“This was one of the most poignant moments of the President’s first term. He was visiting wounded warriors in the ICU at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, May 1, 2012. He had just presented a Purple Heart to Sgt. Chase Haag, who had been injured by an IED just hours before. Sgt. Haag was covered with a blanket and it was difficult to see how badly he was injured. He was also seemingly unconscious so the President whispered in his ear so not to wake him. Just then, there was a rustling under the blanket and Sgt. Haag, eyes still closed, reached his hand out to shake hands with the President.”
From “Pete Souza’s Portrait of a Presidency,” Time
I contrast this with Paul Ryan washing already clean pots and pans at an Ohio soup kitchen for as look as it took to get his picture taken pretending to care about our hungry.
Mitt Sorry We Left Iraq, Wants to Stay in Afghanistan
In his foreign policy speech today at Virginia Military Institute, Mitt showed how out of touch he is with American voters, not just on economic issues, but on military ones as well.
He said that he would have stayed longer in Iraq, when the country as a whole is glad to be out of there: “America’s ability to influence events for the better in Iraq has been undermined by the abrupt withdrawal of our entire troop presence.”
Strategically, we’d be better off today with Saddam Hussien in power as a bulwark and counter-weight to Iran. The problem isn’t that we left, it’s that we went there in the first place.
Mitt said that he won’t be bound by Obama’s promise to get out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, when the country as a whole would like to get out even sooner: “I will evaluate conditions on the ground and weigh the best advice of our military commanders.”
If Mittens thinks we want to lose more lives and limbs and healthy brains, thinks we want to waste more money we don’t have in either Iraq or Afghanistan, he has no clue how the American people feel about these wars.
The terrorists who threaten us have long since moved on from Afghanistan — across the border to Pakistan, north to Yemen and Somalia — and a big ground war there makes absolutely no sense. This is a war for special forces and drones.
As for Iran’s nuclear quest, where Mitt has criticized Obama for not being tough enough, he spoke of sanctions, not military action: “I will not hesitate to impose new sanctions on Iran and will tighten the sanctions we currently have.” Iran has made it clear that sanctions won’t deter their nuclear ambitions. So Mitt’s saying he’d do more of a failed policy.
Time to Get Out of Afghanistan
Our supposed end game in Afghanistan is to leave by the end of 2014 because we’ve trained enough Afghan soldiers and police to take over.
That ain’t gonna happen, they will not be able to secure their country by then (or by 2124 or 2134 either), but this charade is getting our troops killed.
Our “allies” are murdering us.
All joint field operations with Afghans have been suspended indefinitely. We can’t train them if we don’t have joint operations with them.
When you can’t do your mission because the guy you’re trying to help aims his gun at you, it’s time to get the hell out. They can continue to enjoy life in the 7th century.
Embattled Farmers 