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« Frontline: Obama's War | Main | Silver »

October 12, 2009

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The other side of the mountain (part one)

By Greyhawk

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Talking point: al-Qaeda is in Pakistan. And we spend $30 in Afghanistan for every dollar in Pakistan.

That's from Fareed Zakaria's Washington Post piece, but I've heard it parroted on the TeeVee News several times today - along with the statement - delivered straight-faced - that Pakistan is now the Central Front.


Certainly all of our fine American media superstars have "inside connections", though perhaps they all took shortcuts and drew the money/focus talking point from this Newsweek Joe Biden profile:

During a long Sunday meeting with President Obama and top national-security advisers on Sept. 13, the VP interjected, "Can I just clarify a factual point? How much will we spend this year on Afghanistan?" Someone provided the figure: $65 billion. "And how much will we spend on Pakistan?" Another figure was supplied: $2.25 billion. "Well, by my calculations that's a 30-to-1 ratio in favor of Afghanistan. So I have a question. Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar we're spending in Pakistan, we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?" The White House Situation Room fell silent. But the questions had their desired effect: those gathered began putting more thought into Pakistan as the key theater in the region.

Which is surprising for two reasons (and neither is "Biden can do math in his head"). One, we're not supposed to know about what went on in those meetings. (But certainly there have been so many leaks lately, so what's one more going to hurt?)

Two, a quick glance at the March paper on Af/Pak strategy reveals it says "the core goal of the U.S. must be to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and its safe havens in Pakistan, and to prevent their return to Pakistan or Afghanistan."

That's in paragraph two of the White Paper* - but maybe no one in the White House read that far, or maybe they didn't notice the double tap on Pakistan before Afghanistan was even mentioned.

But that's not likely. Even though Newsweek assures us today that "...in March, Biden stood alone. When Obama announced that he was launching a counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan--to develop the country and make its civilians safe from the Taliban--Biden was the only one of the president's top advisers to seriously question the wisdom of this course". Because while it's likely that Joe Biden (or his spokesperson) can impress TeeVee, newspaper, and magazine "journalists" with tales of how far out in front of the rest of the pack he is with his high-speed thinking, it's not all that likely that everyone else in the triple-crypto-super-double-top-secret underground situation room was actually ignorant of American efforts in Pakistan, or far too stupid to understand what the President's policy paper said. (Though if they are, we certainly don't have to worry about them figuring out who's leaking all the secret stuff any time soon.)

But it is likely they'd rather not see that relationship with Pakistan appearing in any of its uncomfortable detail on TeeVee, newspapers, magazines, or the innernets.

Like one such detail did - coming close to breaking out of the undercurrent, appearing as an editorial in the Washington Post last week:

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said without reservation that Taliban advances in Afghanistan were a mortal threat to his country. "We see Mullah Omar," the leader of the Afghan Taliban, "as a serious threat. If the likes of Mullah Omar take over in Afghanistan, it will have serious implications for Pakistan," Mr. Qureshi said. "They have a larger agenda, and the first to be impacted by that agenda is Pakistan. . . . Whether they do it in Pakistan or whether they do it in Afghanistan, it will have implications on Pakistan and it will have implications on the region."

Like a couple of senior European leaders who visited Washington last week, Mr. Qureshi expressed a diplomatic version of dismay at President Obama's public wavering on fighting the Taliban. "If that is going to happen, why have we stuck our necks out?" he asked. "Why did Benazir die?" Benazir Bhutto, the former leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, was assassinated after she campaigned in favor of a decisive move by Pakistan to take on the Taliban movement -- something the government and army declined to do until this year. Elements of the military or its intelligence service may still quietly support some Taliban groups; if the United States appears to retreat, those forces will be strengthened -- at the expense of the pro-Western civilian government.

In short: if you want to help Pakistan, please stop being so damn wobbly on Afghanistan. But here the ongoing tug of war between President Obama ("The United States must overcome the 'trust deficit' it faces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where many believe that we are not a reliable long-term partner" - the White Paper) and President Obama ("The United States must look for a way out of the war in Afghanistan, President Obama said... "There's got to be an exit strategy," Mr. Obama said in a wide-ranging interview" given as he announced his new strategy...) yet again seemed less than impressive to those who could only stand witness - and await the consequences.

But other events in the months between March and October were even less visible than conversations in secret meetings quickly related as bumper sticker talking points in every media outlet in America.

More to follow...

*****


*Note: When the White Paper says "The following steps must be done in concert to produce the desired end state: the removal of al-Qaeda's sanctuary, effective democratic government control in Pakistan, and a self-reliant Afghanistan that will enable a withdrawal of combat forces while sustaining our commitment to political and economic development" the first step listed is "Executing and resourcing an integrated civilian-military counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan." More on why that isn't wrong here and here. It would certainly be nice if there were easy options, but good ones rarely are.




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Obama is a master of double speak. War is peace.

He never had any intention of keeping his campaign promises.

His having been awarded a Nobel would be laughable if the medal hadn't already been a joke - a prize often given exclusively to liars, traitors, murderers, eugenists and promoters of global government.

Gee, how many of those apply to Obama?

I'm sure it's his day dream to void our Constitution, just as the global elites are cheering him on to with his shiny new badge. It's so common an observation it's even been made into a game, "2011: Obama's Coup Fails", you can find it through a google search.

I can only hope if he ever tried it I'd get my own militia, like in the game, hahah.

"Biden stood alone." So, he's like the Clint Eastwood of the administration. Except more talkative.

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March 17, 2010


Dawn Patrol 03/17/2010
[Mrs Greyhawk]
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Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world. If you're a blogger, you can join the conversation. If you link to any of these stories, add a link to the Dawn Patrol too and your trackback will be added to the list. Hat Tips to the Dawn Patrol are greatly appreciated.Refresh for updates.


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Support Our Troops, Read Their Stories

----------------------------


AFGHANISTAN

Suicide attackers killed in Afghanistan -- [CNN]
Two suicide attackers, dressed as women, stormed a relief agency in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday and were killed by police before they could detonate their explosives.

US kills 8 terrorists in 2 new airstrikes in North Waziristan -- [LWJ - Bill Roggio]
The US launched a strike in the village of Hamzoni and another in Datta Khel, the second there in two days.

S.N.A.B.U. = Situation Normal All BAF-fed Up -- [Afghanistan My Last Tour - in Afghanistan]
After 2 hours of driving and being bounced around on the Afghan highways like a ping-pong ball, we arrived at our destination. Originally we were planning to drive on to
BAF and then off-load the Humvees. But when we found out about the mountain of paperwork and coordination required to escort our ANA counterparts on the installation, we opted to off-load outside the base and drive them the remainder of the way.

Post Office Doesn't Like Me -- [Afghanistan My Last Tour - in Afghanistan]
Imagine it's your first day on the job and you are responsible for picking up the mail and incoming packages for the camp. You visit the main post office and in a wooden bin they have a stack a mail of that hasn't been picked up in awhile. Then you ask the question "Is there any other mail?" The clerk has this sheepish grin and leads you out back to a metal storage container. Inside the container, there are hundreds of boxes marked with your camp's address. As you examine the boxes closer, you notice most of these boxes are marked for a SMSgt Rex Temple at your camp. You have never met this person and your vehicles don't have enough spare room to haul all of these packages.

Danger Room Explainer: Outsourced Intel in Afghanistan -- [Danger Room]
When is intelligence really intelligence, and when is it merely "atmospherics"? It may sound abstract, but it goes to the heart of a New York Times scoop about a defense official who apparently set up an off-the-books intelligence operation in Afghanistan.
On Monday, the Times ran a story about Michael Furlong, the Defense Department official being investigated over an ad hoc spy ring. The piece raised more questions than it answered, and Washington Post intelligence columnist David Ignatius is now filling in some of the blanks.
In a column today, Ignatius distills the story. "Under the heading of 'information operations' or 'force protection,' he writes, "the military has launched intelligence activities that, were they conducted by the CIA, might require a presidential finding and notification of Congress. And by using contractors who operate 'outside the wire' in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the military has gotten information that is sometimes better than what the CIA is offering."
Ignatius also unpacks some of the curious semantics around this..


IRAQ

Iraq Votes - Part VI -- [MEMRI]
The Elections Commissions announced yesterday the results of 79% of the votes counted. The results delivered a big surprise showing Ayad Allawi's Al-iraqiya slate ahead of Prime Minister Al-Maliki's State of Law by a few thousand votes. This is not much given that the counting of the votes is still going on, but the State of Law has already asked for a recount, particularly in the Province of Baghdad claiming fraud.[1]
The fact, however,...

Mission Accomplished: Astroturfing Baghdad -- [Danger Room]
Lots of strange press releases land in my inbox, but the first line of this one stood out: "The world leader in artificial turf is proud to announce that the first artificial turf sports field in Iraq for the U.S. Government has been installed at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad."




U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Allies everywhere feeling snubbed by President Obama -- [Washington Post]
The contretemps between President Obama and Israel needs to be seen in a broader global context. The president who ran against "unilateralism" in the 2008 campaign has worse relations overall with American allies than George W. Bush did in his second term.

Chahar-Shanbeh Souri -- [Planet Iran]
People are chanting a new message to Obama saying: "Hossein, Hossein, stop trying to talk to our murderers!"




WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

If bin Laden is found, he'll be killed, Holder says -- [AP]
Holder: If bin Laden found, he'll be killed -- Osama bin Laden "will never appear in an American courtroom," Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told House members at a hearing Tuesday. -- "Let's deal with the reality here,"

ACLU files lawsuit for information on US Predator program -- [Threat Matrix]
The American Civil Liberties Union has followed up its Freedom of Information Act request that was filed in January seeking information on the US Predator program. Today, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the the Defense Department, the State Department, and the Justice Department, demanding enforcement of its January request for information on the program. The full press release release from the ACLU is..


SUPPORTING THE TROOPS

Army Suicides Grow, but This Soldier Was Saved -- [Politics Daily]
...Alone in his barracks room at Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah, Sanders, a soft-spoken young man with a pleasant demeanor, seized his M-4 carbine, put the barrel under his chin, squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the trigger.
When Sanders pulled the trigger of his loaded carbine, there was only a light click. Horrified both at what he had done and what he had failed to do, Sanders tore open his weapon, searching frantically to find why it hadn't fired. He quickly identified the reason: no firing pin.
At that moment his roommate, Spec. Albert Godding, walked in. "Where's my firing pin -- I don't have a firing pin!'' Sanders yelled, terrified that he'd misplaced that critical piece and would get in trouble for losing it. "And how,'' Godding asked gently, "did you discover it was missing?'' When Sanders realized what had happened -- that Godding was worried enough that he'd removed the firing pin ...

Silver Star Winner Reprimanded for Afghan Battle -- [ABC]
Three Army officers have received letters of reprimand for failing to prepare adequate defenses for a combat outpost in Wanat, Afghanistan, where a mass Talibanattack in July 2008 resulted in the deaths of nine soldiers and 27 wounded, Defense Department officials confirmed to ABC News.
"These are essentially career-enders," said a military official of the letters of reprimand.
Two Defense Department officials said the actions are not yet final because the review that led to the letters of reprimand is still ongoing and the three officers have a period of time to respond and request reconsideration of the disciplinary action.
Among the three officers receiving the letters of reprimand is Capt. Matthew Myer, the company commander of the unit attacked at Wanat, who was awarded the Silver Star for his brave actions in repelling the attack.


Making today matter -- [Soldiers Angels Germany]
From Chaplain Campbell of Warrior's Sanctuary:
Last weekend while my wife and I were returning from a quick shopping trip we saw some flashing lights on the other side of the freeway. Not from a police car or a fire truck. The flashing lights were from large "Am Buses" transporting our wounded warriors to Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Navy Medical Center at Bethesda.
And it got him to wondering,


MILITARY

Arrrrrrmy Training, SIR! -- [This Ain't Hell]
I'm sure you've all read that the Army, for some stupid reason, is changing basic training. Their reasons are specious and indicative of why Army training was changed thirty years ago.
...The Army wants to do away with the endurance running and focus on some sort of short distance sprints and zig-zagging. Dicksmith seems pleased about. I'd remind the Army and dicksmith that endurance running builds soldiers' immune systems and their aerobic capacity - improving their overall internal health. Do away with distance running and you're going to make the force less effective.


WELCOME HOME

Bushrod honors were not misplaced -- [Fredericksburg.com]
Jermon Bushrod's return to King George after his Super Bowl victory resulted in some letters that I feel were way off mark ["Football players aren't 'heroes,' King George," Feb. 26].
Mr. Bushrod is a millionaire, no doubt. He also happens to be one of the most humble, respectful gentlemen you will come across.
He's a local boy who has done good and provides a positive role model for our kids. He deserves accolades for all his accomplishments and the example he sets.
To compare him and his welcome home to our troops in harm's way displays an agenda or maybe a misguided avenue to express a point.
As a 24-year military veteran, I certainly had no issue with the fanfare in which Mr. Bushrod was welcomed home. Nor, do I suspect, did any of my fellow service members, active or not. Maybe a more powerful message would come from a letter expressing a desire to read more of the positive stories involving our troops, instead of the dirty laundry.

They're Coming Home! -- [KBND]
We are going to have four welcome home celebrations. One in Portland, one in Bend, one in Medford, and one in the Eugene Springfield area.




THE MEDIA/CULTURE

It's just some ribbon. -- [From my Position...]
American Idol is one of the Mrs.' guilty pleasures. While I watched it tonight, I was treated to Andrew Garcia, a talented performer, singing something. I can't remember what, however, because I was way to interested in why he was wearing a series of ribbon devices on his pocket. One of those medals is the Army commendation medal. The others I haven't bothered to look up yet.

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POLITICS

GE and Ronald Reagan: The Mutual Gift That Keeps On Giving -- [Politics Daily]
As part of a one-year celebration to honor the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth, General Electric will run ads honoring the 40th president's legacy -- and will donate $10 million to The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library

Petraeus Testifies About DADT
PETRAEUS: It would include an assessment of the likely effects on recruiting, retention, moral and cohesion and would include an identification of what policies might be needed in the event of a change and recommend those polices as well.


The Petraeus briefing: Biden's embarrassment is not the whole story -- [Foreign Policy Blog]
The Mullen briefing and Petraeus's request hit the White House like a bombshell. While Petraeus's request that CENTCOM be expanded to include the Palestinians was denied ("it was dead on arrival," a Pentagon officer confirms), the Obama administration decided it would redouble its efforts -- pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. While the American press speculated that Mullen's trip focused on Iran, the JCS Chairman actually carried a blunt, and tough, message on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that Israel had to see its conflict with the Palestinians "in a larger, regional, context" -- as having a direct impact on America's status in the region. Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.
Israel didn't. When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, ...


HUMOR/SATIRE


Day By Day



(Need more? Dawn Patrols Archives are here.)



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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk. Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components. Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house.

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Original content copyright © 2003 - 2009 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed.

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