 |  |
 
October 2011
September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003
     |
 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! November 18, 2009 Unicorns in KabulBy Greyhawk
"Do you trust President Karzai?" CNN's Ed Henry asked U.S. President Barack Obama during his visit to Beijing, China. "President Karzai has served his country in important ways," Obama responded. " When he first came in, there may not have been another figure who could have held that country together. He has some strengths, but he has some weaknesses. I'm less concerned about any individual than I am with a government as a whole that is having difficulty providing basic services to its people in a way that confers legitimacy on them." And that change from when he first came in is the official position of the United States of America. You can see a bit of that reflected in this MSNBC story on Karzai's second-term swearing in.
On the eve of the ceremony Kabul is a place of appalling gloom, we are told in this LA Times report: "The mood is glum, fueled by disappointment in the government." They even found one local whose opinion sounded amazingly like... Barack Obama's.
Not only is that a far cry from five years ago, it's a far cry from reports on the announcement of Karzai's victory just two weeks ago: "In the capital, a sense of relief was instant and palpable. Kabul residents honked horns and exchanged celebratory text messages as the news spread." We won't be seeing reports like that any more. Times have changed: The United States was represented at the last swearing-in by then-Vice President Dick Cheney. This time, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was to be the highest-ranking American official in attendance. Clinton landed in Kabul late Wednesday, her visit not announced in advance because of security concerns. Of course, there are many good reasons why the current Vice President couldn't attend - an earlier meeting with Karzai ended when he threw his dinner napkin onto the table and stomped out of the room, hardly the ground work for future diplomacy. But on the flight over Clinton was able to issue additional instructions to reporters:
"Karzai in May sparked controversy when he chose Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a former rebel leader accused of war crimes, as his running mate for the August election," UPI reported in their Clinton story. "In another move, Karzai has embraced Uzbek militant leader Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who faces a wide range of charges of abuse and aggressive tactics." MSNBC likewise eagerly detailed those two problems...
Their names had appeared in an earlier report as potential human sacrifices following Karzai's victory:
It's rarely convenient to mention Fahim (a Tajik) and Dostum (an Uzbek), as leaders of the Northern Alliance, were the principal allies of the United States during the initial phases of the war in 2001. How those two problems are dealt with now could prove problematic on many levels. It's arguable who would appreciate their "heads on a platter" more, Barack Obama, the Taliban, or Osama bin Laden. Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko told SPIEGEL ONLINE in Kabul that his office has prepared indictments against five high-ranking politicians. "We have indictments with sufficient proof against five ministers," Aloko said. "Two of them are in the current cabinet and three are former ministers." The indictments have been submitted to President Karzai. "The president only has to grant his approval, then the trials can proceed," Aloko said. "They've done some work on that," Secretary Clinton said regarding corruption, "but in our view, not nearly enough to demonstrate a seriousness of purpose." Citing Afghan law, the attorney general declined to name the politicians involved until the trials begin. He said he was confident that the legal proceedings would result in "stiff penalties." "If he doesn't say anything concrete, or even names names, he will feel the wrath," said one European diplomat of Karzai. "And he knows that." "There is now a clear window of opportunity for President Karzai and his government to make a new compact with the people of Afghanistan to demonstrate clearly that they're going to have accountability and tangible results that will improve the lives of the people who live throughout this magnificent country," Clinton announced to the world after she stepped off the plane. "Are all commanders bad, even those who fought the Taliban and al-Qaeda and have disarmed?" General Dostum asked elsewhere, "They are demanding unicorns in Kabul." More to follow.
Posted by Greyhawk / November 18, 2009 10:42 PM | Permalink 4 CommentsLeave a comment |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
Comments (0) |
|
The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 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. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Here's the problem with BO's world view. He's less concerned with any individual than the big picture. He's less concerned with overall American values than what might work in any instance. He's opportunistic within the framework of each individual situation. In other words, he has no fixed principles except to try to get his way. This may work when one is inviting Chicago-types to beer and pizza, but it just makes one appear weak and erratic when played out on a larger stage with bigger stakes than a grant or photo-op.
Many people believe that we lost in Vietnam when Diem was removed from power.
They are working to make this Vietnam part Deux.
It was exactly the same excuse given in the mid 70s for abandoning Vietnam to the commiescum after the commiescum were all but ready to give up, that they're giving now.
Treachery then, treachery now.
Millions dead because of the treachery then, as many likely to die because of the treachery now.
Decade+ of enemy encouragement because of the treachery then, samey same to be expected now.
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator
Source: Attributed. 58 BC, Speech in the Roman Senate
Grimmy brings the classics...
Isn't it interesting how few ideas have been added to the store of human knowledge since the fall of Rome? (To include a way to avoid such in the future?)