Sarah Palin in 2012: afghanistan

Showing posts with label afghanistan. Show all posts

Friday, November 27, 2009

Deliberating or Dithering

One year ago, Obama was being hailed as a miracle man, but now, with the whole world watching and waiting for his next move, he seems to have lost his magic or never had it. JC

AT LAST Barack Obama seems to be starting to make up his mind. After months of agonising, he is apparently close to announcing that he will after all send a decent number of American reinforcements to Afghanistan (see article). Meanwhile, having barely mentioned climate change since his inauguration, he has now told the world that he is going to the international summit in Copenhagen—and with a provisional promise that the world’s greatest polluter will cut emissions.

Bold stuff. But both Afghanistan and Copenhagen can also be cited as evidence of a weakness that runs through his foreign policy. It looks to many as if he has dithered, not deliberated. On Afghanistan, far from being clever, his faint-hearted attempt to talk round Congress, manage his squabbling officials and twist the arm of Hamid Karzai, the vote-rigging Afghan president, has arguably accomplished little except hand the initiative to the enemy: his generals have an uphill struggle. On climate change, the rush to Copenhagen, with no bill in sight in Congress, has an air of desperation.

This goes to the heart of the debate about Mr Obama’s diplomacy. Which will he be, clever or weak? Does this president have a strategy, backed if necessary by force, to reorder the world? Or is he merely a presidential version of Alden Pyle, Graham Greene’s idealistic, clever Quiet American who wants to change the world, but underestimates how bad the world is—and ends up causing harm?

http://bit.ly/6BAxMC

© Janet Crain

Click here to view all recent Sarah Palin in 2012 posts

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Man's Best Friend Can be a Military Hero Too

(CNN) -- An Australian special forces dog has been found alive and well more than a year after going missing in action in Afghanistan.

Explosives detection dog Sabi was recovered by a U.S. soldier who found her wandering near an isolated patrol base in the desolate southern province of Oruzgan last week, according to the Australian Government Department of Defense.

John, the U.S. soldier, who was identified only by first name, knew his Australian counterparts were missing an explosive detection dog. He knew immediately that Sabi was not a stray.

"I took the dog and gave it some commands it understood," he said.

When she disappeared, the black Labrador was nearing the end of her second tour of duty in Afghanistan. She went missing in September 2008 when insurgents ambushed a combined Australian, U.S. and Afghan army convoy. Nine Australian soldiers, including Sabi's handler, were wounded during the gunbattle.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/special.forces.dog/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

Monday, September 28, 2009

Hyping Global Warming 24/7... It's a Full Time Job

Friday, April 24, 2009

Are We Stumbling into a 100 Year War?

by Janet Crain
Here is a blogger who voted for Obama, believing his promise to end the War in Iraq and whatever he said about Afghanistan. He realizes now that it was all a lie. And wonders if we will ever end these wars?

And so do I. Cindy Sheehan, where are you? Not camped out on Obama's lawn, that's for sure.

Obama has endangered us immeasurably by releasing the CIA papers and photos to come of Military Personnel. He is tying their hands, and threatening to prosecute them in the future, tried to make them provide health insurance coverage for their War injuries and he is sending them into the jaws of Hell in Afghanistan.

How long before the rest of his supporters wake up like this man?

Obama Establishing A State of Permanent Warfare

Diary Entry by Alfred McGuire

If we don't oppose Obama, the wars will go on forever.

::::::::

And to think I voted for him for many reasons, but primarily to end quickly the state of chronic warfare to which this country has succumbed
Ending the wars? He is not doing it. And he appears to have no intention to do so. Progressives, including myself, have to stop their tendency to deny the obvious where Obama is concerned. He is not only repeating Bush’s policies. He’s out-doing Bush, particularly with regard to Afghanistan. And in Iraq he is prolonging the war and leaving himself plenty of leeway to engineer an endless occupation, in other words endless war. Why is he pursuing this course and why have progressives, even anti-war groups been so silent about what can only be termed Obama’s betrayal of their goals and principles?
I have no definitive answer- only questions:
- Is his apparent readiness to accede to the interests of the military-industrial complex by engaging in profitable ( to them ) ongoing warfare part of his deal to win the presidency? How much in campaign start-up monies and subsequent contributions did he receive from weapons manufacturers and other war-related industries and suppliers? We need to start getting the tally on this.
- Does he share Bush’s fantasy that he can prove himself to be a “great” president by utilizing warfare to win imperialist domination in the region? Have the generals convinced him that he can do it?
- Is David Gergen’s assessment correct; namely, that Obama doesn’t want to be the one to end the wars for fear that he’ll be blamed for any subsequent problems that might arise in the region- which might prove detrimental to his re-election campaign? Is continued and expanded death and destruction little more to him than an adjunct to his political career? In that case, we voted for nothing less than a man of diminished conscience and we had better acknowledge that unpleasant fact honestly and speak out against him.
- Does he truly believe that the expansion of the war in Afghanistan is necessary to fight terrorism? The Europeans and other allies seem to view that as so much nonsense and will have none of it. Obama failed completely in his recent bid to get them to send troops. Does he know something that they don’t and why won’t they listen?
- Are oil reserves really the major issue in Iraq and is that why Obama seems to be planning a permanent occupation ( i.e. permanent war ) a la McCain’s “Hundred Years?”
Yes, all I have is questions. But my most urgent question is why we aren’t asking more and more questions, demanding answers and taking effective action.

http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=12991

© Janet Crain

Click here to view all recent Sarah Palin in 2012 posts