Where’s the Outrage?

Being on-call for trauma on a Friday night is always a weird feeling. You know that you are going to get called, but why and when is the mystery.

• The Taliban are encircling the capital city of Kabul to disrupt and terrorize. Can we destroy these guys once and for all?
• Senator John McCain has altered his web site. There was an article on this web site that described him as a political celebrity. Oops.
• The Judge from the Jena 6 case has been removed. Judge JP Mauffray describe the teenagers as “trouble makers” and as “a violent bunch.”
• A Maryland scientist, Dr. Bruce Ivins, who committed suicide this week was the key suspect in the Anthrax investigation. We all remember the anthrax scare of 2001. My question: Why was the investigation taking so long?
• I know that the Bush administration has told us that the economy is going through tough times and McCain’s quasi-former economic adviser called us whiners. But look at this: The U.S. economy lost 51 thousand jobs. That’s is almost the population of Asheville. The U.S. job market has lost 463 thousand jobs this year alone. The rate of unemployment is 5.7 percent. Yuck.
• A huge article in Newsweek discussed how the Saudi government pressured Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, to kill a corruption investigation into British Aerospace Systems and Saudi contracts. Basically, the Saudi’s blackmailed Tony Blair. They stated that if he didn’t shut down the investigation then they would not cooperate with counter-terrorism investigations. This kind of stuff really can’t happen. The democratic nations of the west have to stand up and demand that Saudi Arabia formally apologize and remove any government official connected with this terrible behavior.

  From the article:
  “This shows how the Saudis can get foreign governments to disregard their own justice system,” said Ali Al-Ahmed, the director of the Gulf Institute, a Washington-based think tank that is critical of the Saudi government. “Terrorism is being used to blackmail the West. You watch, it is only a matter of time before they do this in the U.S.”

Tags: Afghanistan, Economy, Race, Terrorism by ecthompson
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Once again, Tom Brokaw leads with a negative question for Senator Barack Obama: Why haven’t you been to Afghanistan, if you really think that it is the central front on the war on terrorism, before now? (That’s not quite as bad as “Have you stopped beating your wife?”– but close.) Again, Obama does a very good job getting out of this negative frame. He explains that he hasn’t been down at the corner barbershop playing dominoes. He states what he has been doing.

I would urge Obama to step back from phrases like “We must win in Afghanistan.” This type of phrase echoes of discourse on Iraq. All sorts of questions arise. What does “winning” mean? Will defeating the Taliban lead to a formal surrender with Mullah Omar (who is still on the loose) handing over his sword or AK-47 to our General on the ground?

Instead, Obama needs to talk about our goals. Afghanistan needs to develop a viable economy which exports something other than heroin. Farmers must have a reason to plant something other than poppy. We need to help the Afghans build roads, schools, and a real economy. I have no idea how to deal with the local tribal leaders who are used to having an enormous amount of power over their own regions, but these leaders must be made to work within the framework of their constitution.

Obama shows a national audience that he has command of foreign policy. His plan isn’t wimpy. Instead, it is aggressive and thoughtful.

If Obama made a mistake during this discussion it might have been with the phrase, “We know where they are.” However, he did qualify it by saying that military commanders have told him that they are… I don’t know. We’ll see if Senator John McCain and his gang will make something out of this.

Tags: Afghanistan, Election 2008, Pakistan, Sunday Morning Shows by ecthompson
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I don’t need to go to Iraq to understand that Kurds, Sunnis and Shia don’t like sharing the region. Just as you don’t have to go to Watts in Los Angles to know that it is an extremely dangerous neighborhood. I also don’t need to go to Iraq to understand that it was a mistake to invade that country in the first place. So, I really don’t follow Senator John McCain’s reasoning.

Now, given Maliki’s stated position that the Iraqi government is to have U.S. troops out of their country by 2010, McCain is stuck again. McCain has only a couple of positions as I see it.

From Huffington Post: “Prime Minister Maliki is the leader of a country and I’m confident he will act as the President and the Foreign Minister both told me in the last several days,” said the presumptive Republican nominee. “It will be directly related to the situation on the ground — just as they have always said. And since we are succeeding, I am convinced, as I have said before, we will withdraw with honor, not according to a set timetable.”

1) He states that the Iraqis really don’t know what’s going on. Rather, the U.S., like a protective mother, knows best. I just don’t see this going over with anybody.
2) McCain will try and play this will a little body-English saying that we want to withdraw as soon as possible. We agree that the end of 2010 is a goal if conditions on the ground support that goal.
3) He can pressure Admiral Mullen and General David Petraeus to say that conditions on the ground have improved enough to put a complete and total withdraw by the end of 2010.

Actually, all three of those positions are very lame but that is the best that McCain can do. He has painted himself into this corner. It is hard to see any easy way out.

Watch John McCain struggle through this interview on Iraq policy.

Tags: Afghanistan, Election 2008, Iraq by ecthompson
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• Nothing is safe: Tomatoes, lettuce, and now, Jalapeños have salmonella. What’s next - Air? Oh, right, most of the air that we breathe in our major cities is already toxic. I forgot.
• Obama is kicking butt and talking the talk in Iraq. I hope that all of those folks that were whining about Obama’s commitment to withdrawal are now eating crow. Please notice the silence from the Right as they try to formulate a plan to stay in Iraq for several more months, years, or even decades.
• In NFL news, all-World defensive end Jason Taylor gets traded to the Washington Redskins for two draft picks. The Redskins must now be thought of as a playoff contender. He will make their defense, which was already good, much better. This is a great trade for both teams. In the category of Sir Pouts-A-Lot, there is Jeremy Shockey who was traded from the Giants to the New Orleans Saints. This can not be a good career move.
• Back to politics, former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic has been captured. He has been on the run for 13 years. He is now going to be tried for war crimes.
• Remote Afghan district over-run by the Taliban. I’m truly looking for any good news from this part of the World. I’m still looking.
• Attorney General Michael Mukasey has asked Congress to grant him and the administration new powers with regard to the Guantanamo prisoners. I don’t see any way that Congress will even look at his proposal before recess for campaigning.
• Finally, the press doesn’t always follow Drudge’s lead and that’s a good thing.

Tags: Afghanistan, Domestic Issues, Election 2008, Iraq, Sports by ecthompson
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I’m glad that someone is paying some attention to Afghanistan. We need to find the Taliban and kill or capture their leaders. We need to upgrade the country. Afghanistan is a country which lives without many of the things that you and I take for granted: clean water, roads, electricity, and a sewage system. We need to help them get these things and to create an economy that is NOT based on heroin.

All of these things are possible if we put some money and resources into Afghanistan. Oh, and we can destroy Al Qaeda while we are over there.

Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Election 2008, Pakistan by ecthompson
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Out of the thousands of terrible decisions that President George W. Bush and his administration have made, the worst has to be deciding to stop chasing the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. I guess that we can also lump in the decision not to send more troops into the Tora Bora mountains to encircle Bin Laden and kill or capture him at that time. Then there was the decision to push the Taliban and Bin Laden out of the capital city of Kabul instead of closing the city off and cornering all of Al Qaeda’s top leadership. All of these decisions were terrible. We are living with the consequences of these decisions now.

The Taliban attacked an American base in Eastern Afghanistan this week. Now, let’s ruminate over this for a second. American has the most powerful military in the world. Yet, the Taliban launched an coordinated offensive against us. They must have thought either they could win the battle and take the base or they could learn from the American response and use that knowledge in a future attack. Both scenarios are depressing. (They did overrun the base with their second attack.)

Over the last six years, the U.S. has spent billions of dollars in Afghanistan. What have we gotten for our investment? Heroin. Afghan farmers have produced more heroin under the Bush administration then they ever did under the Mullah Omar and the Taliban. Tons of this stuff have flooded the world market. Yet, the Bush administration has done next to nothing to stop it.

We are making the same mistake that former President Reagan made over 20 years ago. U.S. policy was to confront Russia everywhere, keeping the pressure on. When Russia invaded Afghanistan, we supplied weapons to the Afghan warlords and mujaheddin. Russia was pushed out. We declared victory and left. But we didn’t help rebuild the county. More fighting occurred. This time the fighting was basically a civil war. The Taliban won. We continued to ignore events until 9/11.

So, fast forward to late 2001 when we ran the Taliban out of Afghanistan. We left just enough troops to make sure that Kabul will not fall back into the hands of the Taliban as we went after those WMD’s. Afghanistan has been allowed to fester. We don’t have enough troops or money to build a society that respects the rule of law, much less a society that has telephones for commerce or roads to efficiently move produce to market. Six years after the Taliban were pushed out, they are back like Freddie Krueger.

Now the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is looking for more troops to send Freddie back to where he came from– but there aren’t any more troops. Unless Gates has the powers of Samantha Stevens, on the TV show Bewitched, twitching his nose is not going to produce any more troops. All of our combat units are either in Iraq or in Afghanistan or they have just come back from deployment. There are no good short term solutions.

I think that we need to pull a couple of combat units out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan. We need to get control of this situation. We need to kill or capture the leadership of the Taliban and find Osama Bin Laden and end what he started.

I don’t think that I have said anything in this post that would be considered radical or left-wing or controversial. This should be the American stance but, as you know, it is not. Bush supporters somehow try to argue that Afghanistan really doesn’t matter. The really fight against terrorism is in Iraq.

Here’s Fred Barnes trying to make this case on Fox News Sunday:

Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Military by ecthompson
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For the last three years, I have asserted that we need to get control of Afghanistan. We need to find the Taliban leaders and kill or capture them in order to destroy the Taliban. But, the Bush administration thought that a “surge” was not needed in Afghanistan but instead in Iraq. As a result, Afghanistan has been allowed to smolder while the Taliban has become more organized.

I find it interesting that the Taliban thought that they were strong enough to test an American military outpost. This is a bad sign of things to come. We need another 20 to 30 thousand troops in Afghanistan, now.

From the Washington Post:

Nine U.S. soldiers were killed in heavy fighting Sunday at a military base in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, according to a Western official. The attack was the deadliest against U.S. forces in the country since 2005.

The clash began when insurgents in a nearby village attacked a joint Afghan and American military outpost in Konar province early Sunday morning, NATO said in a statement. The insurgents fired on the base with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades for several hours, injuring 19 Afghan and NATO troops. (more… )

Update: I was going to post a whole new story but this is really a continuation. The Taliban has overrun this outpost (near the eastern town of Wanat). U.S. forces pulled out. We only had 25 soldiers at this post and nine were killed a couple of days ago. Still, we need to take the fight to the Taliban. We need more troops. NATO ain’t it. At least not right now. NATO, like the rest of the world, looks to us to lead. Once, we wake up and truly engage the Taliban then NATO forces will also wake up.

The Bush administration should be ashamed that we have 25 soldiers on an island. That just isn’t right.

Tags: Afghanistan by ecthompson
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I have a couple of computers in my home office. One is primarily for blogging and the other is for everything else. Well, the ‘everything else’ computer had a power supply/motherboard problem. Once I fixed those, it seemed had a hard drive issue also. Reloading everything that I had on that computer is taking some time. Some programs just are not working well for me. So, I’m reloading Windows.

I’m saying all of this as an excuse for not blogging as much as usual.

I will add one bit of news. The New York Times is reporting a new poll which shows that blacks, whites and Latinos perceive American race relations differently. No duh!!!

Oh, I have to add this interrogation video. It speaks for itself. I’ll look for other versions without a commentator yacking over it.

Here’s that interrogation video. This kid was reportedly 15 or 16 years old at the time of his video. He is a Canadian citizen.

Tags: Afghanistan, Blogging issues, Iran, Torture by ecthompson
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It is very hard as a freshman Senator to get anything of substance done in Congress but Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has done exactly that. He pushed the GI Bill through both houses of Congress. He attached the bill to other legislation and dared the President to veto it. Senator Jim Webb may be that rarest of politicians. One who has principles and sticks by them. He is someone who said that he supports the troops and then proved to EVERYONE that he, in fact, supports the troops.

From WaPo:

POLITICAL PROMISES are easy to make, harder to keep. So it is a testament to the tenacity of Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) and the justice of his cause that Congress has enacted a new GI Bill for war veterans. The freshman senator’s ability to work across party lines means that the men and women who risk their lives for America’s well-being will, in return, get expanded education benefits, along with opportunities for better futures.

The expansion of education benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans is part of the $257.5 billion emergency spending bill that passed the Senate on Thursday. The House gave its approval earlier, and President Bush is expected to sign it this week. The timing is fitting, considering that 64 years ago last Sunday, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the original GI Bill, which made a college education affordable for millions of World War II veterans. Today’s warriors are equally deserving, but the system, designed for a peacetime military, has not kept pace with the costs of college. Mr. Webb’s bill — The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act — is true to the original in providing full tuition, housing and living costs. (more…)

There are very few politicians that I admire. As I read more and more about these guys and gals, they really don’t resemble anything that I’m familiar with. Senator Jim Webb maybe that rare guy who promises that he will be over on Tuesday to help you built that back deck and on Tuesday he shows up to help.

I congratulate Senator Webb and Senator Hagel for getting this bill through. I also congratulate our troops for a job well done. Here’s their reward.

Tags: Afghanistan, Bush Administration, Iraq, Military by ecthompson
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CBS’ Lara Logan reports from Afghanistan. She interviews an Afghan warlord who has been killing American soldiers and evading American capture. Once again, this report shows us that Afghanistan isn’t fixed. We have a lot of work to do in Afghanistan. We need to build roads. We need to stop the exporting of poppy. We must extend the reach of the government beyond Kandahar.

Tags: Afghanistan, Iran by ecthompson
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Murat Kurnaz is a German citizen who was vaccuumed off a bus in Pakistan. Why he was chosen isn’t clear. It was December 2001. He was tortured in Afghanistan and then in Gitmo. Five years of his life was lost. For what? For our security? Really?

 

 60 minutes - German citizen tortured: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: 9-11, Afghanistan, Torture by ecthompson
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If all of the British tabloids could keep a secret what’s wrong with Drudge? Is he too stupid to understand how publishing that Harry is in Afghanistan puts both his life and the lives of his men in danger or does he not care? Maybe he gets his journalist ethics from Robert Novak!

Tags: Afghanistan by ecthompson
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Bill Moyers Journal reviews the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side.  The film examines the death of a taxi driver who was in US custody at Bagram Air Force Base.  The taxi driver died in US custody.

 

 BMJ - Taxi to Dark Side [8:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Bill Moyers by ecthompson
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I remember some story about Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader,  flashing across my computer a week or so ago.  I can’t remember what it was about.  Omar fired somebody for not following orders.  My question is why is this guy in charge of anything besides a prison cell?  Why isn’t he pushing up daisies?  Somebody help me understand.

Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda by ecthompson
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I know. I know. The neocons are going to say that because of the “surge” more Americans are in harm’s way. Yep. That is correct. My question is why are they over there in the first place. What is our goal? A Jeffersonian Democracy? Iraq able to defend itself from whom? Iran? If that’s our goal, then we should have left Saddam in place.

So many lives lost for no clear reason. Very troubling. Very sad.

(BTW, when did the spelling of Al Qaeda change?)

————-

From MSNBC:

Six U.S. troops were killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. The attack, the most lethal against American forces this year, made this year the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

The six deaths brings the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in 2007 to at least 101, according to a count by The Associated Press — the highest annual death toll for the American military here since it invaded to oust Taliban and al-Qaida fighters after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The war has evolved into an increasingly bloody counterinsurgency campaign.   (more…)

Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Iraq by ecthompson
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Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, from The Nation, has written a tremendous book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.  Jeremy’s book is packed with information about something that most of us know little or nothing about.  I found the book terribly disturbing.  It is well written and shocking.  A private Army that is as well trained, if not better, trained than our Army.  A private Army that answers to some private company.  Let your imagination wander.

———

A portion of Jeremy Scahill’s testimony before Congress last week:

I would like to thank this committee for the opportunity to be here today and for taking on this very serious issue. Over the past six days, we have all been following very closely the developments out of Baghdad in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of as many as 20 Iraqis by operatives working for the private military company Blackwater USA. The Iraqi government is alleging that among the dead are a small child and her parents and the prime minister has labeled Blackwater’s conduct as “criminal” and spoke of “the killing of our citizens in cold blood.” While details remain murky and subject to conflicting versions of what exactly happened, this situation cuts much deeper than this horrifying incident. The stakes are very high for the Bush administration because the company involved, Blackwater USA, is not just any company. It is the premiere firm protecting senior State Department officials in Iraq, including Ambassador Ryan Crocker. This company has been active in Iraq since the early days of the occupation when it was awarded an initial $27 million no-bid contract to guard Ambassador Paul Bremer. During its time in Iraq, Blackwater has regularly engaged in firefights and other deadly incidents. About 30 of its operatives have been killed in Iraq and these deaths are not included in the official American death toll.  (more…)

 

 Who is Blackwater? [4:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Military by ecthompson
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I don’t know if this report is true.  I do know that we haven’t captured any of the top Taliban leaders.  Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, where is he?

 

 Taliban Training Video [2:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Terrorism by ecthompson
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Well at least the Bush Administration has something positive to say about their military adventures. Oh, wait, opium isn’t positive.

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From CNN.com:

In a small district in southern Afghanistan, U.S.-backed Afghan drug forces opened fire on farmers who were blocking roads and throwing rocks to protest the destruction of their poppy fields earlier this year. Scores were injured in the firefight.

Undeterred by the violence, a group of angry farmers gathered around Masood Azizi, the Afghan official supervising the eradication. They maintained that cultivating poppy for opium is the only way they can survive. “We are hungry, thirsty, and we don’t have any money. We are in debt,” one said.

It’s a message that reverberates throughout this impoverished, war-torn country.  (more…)

Tags: Afghanistan, Bush Administration by ecthompson
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You knew that this was coming. With all of our resources in Iraq, we can’t effectively respond to disasters here at home. According to Keith Olbermann, 50% of the Kansas National Guard’s equipment is over in Iraq. This war is costing us in ways we haven’t even begun to calculate.

 

 Countdown - Where's the National Guard [5:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Countdown, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson
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The problem isn’t that the Military decided to lie. The problem is the atmosphere that the Bush administration has created. Bush and the gang made it clear that anything goes as long as you support the team. Push the war. Push tax cuts. If you did that you could pretty much say anything and do anything.

2 of the stories that helped sell the war in Iraq turned out to be false. Pat Tillman did not die in a fire fight with the enemy. Instead, he was killed by friendly fire. Why? What happened? Jessica Lynch, who has as least 2 movies made about the story that the military made up about her, testified that she was not a hero. She did not go down in a hail of bullets. Instead, she was captured because she and her folk company mates were lost and took a very wrong turn. The rest of her story is here.

I guarantee that Bush administration officials are plenty isolated from this.  No one will have to pay for lying to the American public.  Yes, some Army officials are being called out but the folks in the White House are safe in their bunker.

 

 Tillman and Lynch [3:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Military by ecthompson
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