COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate, instead, on using the money saved to secure our own borders.



Hat tip: Desert Rat

Writing in the Guardian, Kim Howells – who had ministerial responsibility for Afghanistan until 2008 – said: "It would be better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate, instead, on using the money saved to secure our own borders [and] gather intelligence on terrorist activities inside Britain."

Kim Howells, a former minister, said the shooting dead of five British soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman has dealt a blow to the heart of the UK's exit strategy.

Mr Howells, who now chairs the Intelligence and Security Committee, said the incident in the Nad-e'Ali district of Helmand province yesterday undermined the British and US strategy of building up the Afghan security forces.
"There are many people who have argued that there is only one way out of this for Britain and America and that is to train up the Afghan army and police force so that they can become responsible for their own security.

"This is a real blow because it strikes right at the heart of that policy."
Earlier, Dr Howells broke with Government policy by calling for the phased withdrawal of British troops, arguing that the money would be better spent on police and security measures to prevent al Qaeda terror attacks in the UK.

__________________________

British soldiers killed in attack by Afghan policeman
Ministry of Defence says five soldiers died after 'rogue' policeman opened fire in Helmand province


Mark Tran, Alexandra Topping and Jon Boone in Kabul
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 4 November 2009 09.43 GMT


Five British soldiers have been killed and several others injured in a gun attack by a "rogue" Afghan policeman in Helmand province, the Ministry of Defence said today.

The soldiers – three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military police – were killed by gunshot wounds suffered in the attack, which happened in the Nad-e'Ali district yesterday.

British and Afghan officials said the men were killed at a police checkpoint when the policeman picked up his weapon and began firing.

They said the attacker's motives were unclear, adding that the incident was being investigated by Afghan authorities and the Royal Military police.

"The soldiers concerned were mentoring Afghan police," Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, an army spokesman, told Sky News.

"They were working inside and living inside an Afghan national police checkpoint.

"It would appear, and it is our initial understanding, that an individual Afghan policeman, possibly acting with another, started firing within the checkpoint before fleeing the scene."

Wakefield stressed that the attack had not come as a result of any breakdown or fight between British and Afghan forces.

The casualties were evacuated to hospital at Camp Bastion, with several flown there in Chinook helicopters and a US Black Hawk.

Two injured Afghan policemen were taken to hospital at Bost, in Lashkar Gah.

Peter Galbraith, a former deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan – who left his post over disagreements about the presidential elections – said "rushed" attempts to train extra Afghan officers for the now cancelled presidential election runoff meant such incidents could be expected.

"It is a terrible tragedy … but it is, I won't quite say inevitable, but it is not surprising," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He said police usually received an eight-week training course, but it had been shortened to five weeks in order to have more police available for the elections, particularly in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, he added.

"The process of police training and recruiting has been very rushed," he added. "There isn't a lot of vetting of police before they are hired.

"It is not totally surprising that people were recruited who may have had Taliban sympathies or were infiltrated into the police by the Taliban, although I don't know yet whether, in this particular episode, that is exactly what happened."

The deaths make 2009 the bloodiest year for the British armed forces since the Falklands war, bringing the total so far to 93.

Until now, the worst period since the Falklands conflict had been 2007, when 89 members of the armed forces died on active service.

The death toll in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001 now stands at 229, and the increasing number of casualties has led to growing questioning of the eight-year war.

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, paid tribute to the soldiers, describing their deaths as a "terrible loss".

"My thoughts, condolences and sympathies go to their families, loved ones and colleagues. I know that the whole country, too, will mourn their loss," he said.

"They fought to make Afghanistan more secure, but above all to make Britain safer from the terrorism and extremism which continues to threaten us from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I pay tribute to their courage, skill and determination. They will never be forgotten."

Brown said it was his "highest priority" to ensure troops had the best possible support and equipment and "the right strategy, backed by our international partners, and by a new Afghan government ready to play its part in confronting the challenges Afghanistan faces".

The defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, offered his condolences to the families of the soldiers and emphasised the need for the country to show "resolve" in supporting the Afghan conflict.

"It continues to be a difficult year in Afghanistan for our brave people who are operating within the most challenging area of the country," he said.

"We owe it to them to show the resolve that they exhibit every day in building security and stability in Afghanistan and protecting the UK from the threat of terrorism."

Earlier this week, the MoD announced that a senior army explosives expert had been killed while defusing a bomb in southern Afghanistan.

Staff Sergeant Olaf Sean George Schmid died as he tried to make safe an improvised explosive device in the Sangin region of Helmand on Saturday.

The 30-year-old had been about to end his tour of duty after five months in Afghanistan.

Abdullah Abdullah, President Hamid Karzai's closest challenger in the disputed Afghan presidential election, also offered his condolences to the relatives of the dead soldiers and stressed the need for international troops.

"Eight years down the road, we still need more troops in the absence of a credible and legitimate partner," Abdullah, a former foreign minister, said. "More soldiers and more resources are the only thing we can resort to."

The latest fatalities came as a major rift opened in the British government's support for the Afghan war, with the former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells calling for the phased withdrawal of UK troops from Helmand.

Howells, who is now Brown's intelligence and security watchdog, said the billions of pounds saved should be redirected to defending the UK from terrorist attacks by al-Qaida.

Writing in the Guardian, Howells – who had ministerial responsibility for Afghanistan until 2008 – said: "It would be better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate, instead, on using the money saved to secure our own borders [and] gather intelligence on terrorist activities inside Britain."


143 comments:

  1. We must remember that the Afghan Army, Police and para-militaries are the keystone to General Stan's "Plan".

    Dependent upon that Afghan policeman, that killed five Brits.

    We'll "need" 350,000 of them, to succeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We can't at present recruit enough Afghans to flesh out the police ranks. Our enemies actually pay more. Positions go begging.

    We haven't bothered to outbid the Bad Guys.

    A lot like Mexico. But worse. Out-gunned and underpaid in the heart of the insurgency.







    In Afghanistan as elsewhere: Money talks, bullshit walks.




    "Let's all just go home."

    Yeah. Good luck with that, guy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And where does the responsibility for that lay, trish?

    Who had the authority and set the rates for the indig troops?

    Who set those current policies in place?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Clinton: US wants Israel settlement halt 'forever'

    By ROBERT BURNS (AP)

    ReplyDelete
  5. As someone at the Corner (National Review, not Moscow, Idaho) correctly put it: Virginia returned to the fold yesterday.

    The conservative insurgency, in the person of Hoffman, took a hit. A GOP fuck-up.

    A good, but not great, day for the Republican Party.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's a good question, Rat.

    I really don't know who or what is the source of that particular allocation.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yep the Brits should withdraw back to Londonstan and start rounding up and deporting all the Taliban that already lives in England...

    Or better yet?

    Send them to AZ to live with RAT. He likes their kind and according to Rat, he's got lots of room...

    Armed Jihadists are Armed Jihadists...

    Kill em....

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. If we are to follow the Iraq model, we will have to hire the Taliban in Helmand to defend it, from the Taliban.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Send 'em on over, "misdirection".
    Our Mexicans will keep them in line, no problems.

    They won't take no shit from ragheads, or gringos, for that matter.

    ReplyDelete
  12. If you get a chance to look at the Frontline video, juxtapose the Wasington seminar on counterinsurgency theory with the marines on the ground. Look at the reaction and interaction with the Afghan peasants.

    Now I suppose if all the people in the seminar would put on some battle gear and go to Afghanistan to try out their theories, the next seminar may be different.

    I watched Petreaus make his chart presentation. I ill post his chart without further comment.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Israeli Government Press Director Daniel Seamen reacted to this Obama administration statement by saying: “I have to admire the residents of Iroquois territory for assuming that they have a right to determine where Jews should live in Jerusalem.”

    ReplyDelete
  14. "misdirection" calls for war with the Pakistani Army, when he calls for killing armed jihadi.

    Anyone but me wonder why we should follow that course?

    We cannot beat the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Sunni tribes of Iraq, but "misdirection" wants to expand the conflict, regardless.

    ReplyDelete
  15. "Let's all just go home."

    AND, in the run-up, hoist our anti-COIN flag.

    ReplyDelete
  16. the Rat states:

    We cannot beat the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Sunni tribes of Iraq, but "misdirection" wants to expand the conflict, regardless.



    Now that is misdirection..... Just keep expanding and adding what people say.... Now that is really misdirection, something you do on an hourly basis...

    Armed Jihadists are Armed Jihadists...

    Kill em...

    The Jihadist war is already expanded to include the world, it's a matter of time when they reach you in AZ...

    Not to worry, the Prez is importing Palestinians to LA, Somoli's to Ohio and scores of other Jihadists all over the USA...

    The Jihadists are coming here!

    So we dont have to "expand" the conflict, the conflict is already expanded...

    As for "beating" the taliban? It's possible but not for the jihadist loving current administration...

    The world is embracing change...

    I do not....

    I do not accept the Jihadist right to kill us...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Seaman was born on a US Air Force base in Germany in 1961. His family emigrated from the United States to Israel in 1971

    An US emigre' that claims the United States to be illegitimate, qualifies him as a traitor. In the same league as the spy that the Isreali would not bring in from the cold. But left on the streets of DC, to spend a life in jail instead of on the shores of the eastern Med.

    Seaman is a shill for the Isreali, an immigrant with no birthrights to the Levant. Since he finds the US to be the land of Iroquis, perhaps he'll return his diploma from Hunter College of New York.

    Where he did not hesitate to exploit the natives for his own career advancement.

    ReplyDelete
  18. As for pakistan? As for the sunni in Iraq?

    We dont have to do the killing...

    Just pit the shits against the suns...

    they do a nice job hacking each other to death....

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh goody...

    Rat is going to pull out his list of Isreali's that are bad Americans...

    We havent seen that list in what 2 threads?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Quick Rat, check under your bed... I heard there are some "isrealis" spying on you...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hey Rat. Look outside, besides your car...

    It's and Isreali spy....

    Better shoot him....

    Hurry, no time to waste, those "isreali" spies are EVERYWHERE!!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Just in "Isreali spies" steals pizza recipes from un-suspecting American pizza makers....

    News at 6...

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hey Rat... Better check the refrig... I heard that Isrealis are thinking of illegally stealing your coleslaw...

    ReplyDelete
  24. You quoted Seaman as an authority, I questioned who he was, to provide such a judgment of the United States.

    Now it is clear just what Mr Seaman is. A man that does not love America, so he left it.

    No harm in that, in fact it is to be respected that he had the courage of his convictions, but it is a fact that he abandoned the United States and is not an unbiased source.

    He is an America hater.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Daniel Seaman is anti-American, no doubt of it.

    Proven by his life choices and current statements.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Why do you let him rattle your cage, What Is?

    He obviously gets off on it.

    ReplyDelete
  27. This just in.....

    An Isreali national just urinated in a mens room, Rat and the Palestinians just filed an war crimes report...

    ReplyDelete
  28. Daniel Seaman may not like our free secular society.
    He may just be another radical Abrahamic, hard to say, fer sure.

    But that he anti-American and that he speaks for the Isreali Government, goes without question.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Good Dog, Smart Dog

    Life as a Labradoodle may sound free and easy, but if you’re Jet, who lives in New Jersey, there is a lot of work to be done.

    He is both a seizure alert dog and a psychiatric service dog whose owner has epilepsy, severe anxiety, depression, various phobias and hypoglycemia.

    Jet has been trained to anticipate seizures, panic attacks and plunging blood sugar and will alert his owner to these things by staring intently at her until she does something about the problem. He will drop a toy in her lap to snap her out of a dissociative state.

    If she has a seizure, he will position himself so that his body is under her head to cushion a fall.
    ---
    In September, the Army announced that it would spend $300,000 to study the impact of pairing psychiatric service dogs like Jet with soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder. Both the House and Senate have recently passed bills that would finance the training and placement of these dogs with veterans.
    ---
    Beyond these perceptual abilities, in which trainers can use the dogs’ natural instincts, some research has examined dogs’ actual cognitive ability, and found not just good doggie, but smart doggie.

    “I believe that so much research has come out lately suggesting that we may have underestimated certain aspects of the mental ability of dogs that even the most hardened cynic has to think twice before rejecting the possibilities,” said Stanley Coren, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and an author of several books on dogs.
    ---
    Only intellectual pinheads could believe dogs were as dumb as "science" and intellectual conventional wisdom "proved" them to be.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Rat: But that he anti-American and that he speaks for the Isreali Government, goes without question.




    Rat is correct... He speaks for the isreali government...

    and... he speaks for the martians, the flat earthers and such...

    last i heard MAD magazine was signing him up to cover the new Atlantis verses Isreal ping pong match...

    The good news? There is no "isreali government"

    The bad news?

    Rat ran out of prozac AGAIN...

    ReplyDelete
  31. Here is a fun post from a couple of years ago:
    London Sheikh Calls on Moslems to Kill Jews (5.2.02)

    The British newspaper, The Times, reports that a Moslem preacher living in London, Sheikh Abdallah al-Faisal, publicly calls upon the his faithful to kill Jews and, since September 11, 2001, to prepare for a worldwide Jihad. According to the Times, the Sheikh spreads his message through cassette tapes and speaking tours in UK mosques. His tapes, including one called No Peace With the Jews, contain racist and violent incitement against the Jews and the Western world. Despite his violent incitement, British authorities have, as yet, done nothing to stop him from spreading his message.

    The preacher, known as Sheikh Faisal, is a convert to Islam originally from Jamaica. His audiences include Moslems from every ethnicity and background and his tapes are sold in many Islamic book stores, reports the Times. According to one of the Sheikh Faisal tapes, the Jews are evil to the core and, he instructs, in reply to an audience question if Moslems should beat Jews in the street, You have no choice but to hate them. How do you fight the Jews? You kill the Jews. In two post-September tapes, al- Faisal encourages Moslems to prepare for a Jihad and says, The way forward is never the ballot. The way forward is the bullet.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I, on the other hand, am serenely delighted to entertain another day's advocacy of retreat by the Bar.

    It's rather like crossing paths with myself back in, oh, 2006.

    In fact, I could write every Buchananite "Give up! Go home!" post myself.

    ReplyDelete
  33. "misdirection", as always, fails to address the issues of emigration and loyalties, fails to discern patriotism and service as important aspects of that loyalty.

    He rejoices in claims that the United States is illegitimate.
    He morally equates the United States to Isreal.

    That says it all.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I really dont have an opinion about whether to stay or go...

    But if we are there, we should not tie the hand of our boys and girls with bullshit ROE...

    If we send our troops to fight, we must support them and give them air cover, supplies and moral support.

    If our strategy becomes one that we deem to leave? Fine too, but there is no running away from the armed jihadists...

    Maybe the best idea is to pit the shits verses the suns and stir...

    Of course Pakistan, Iran and most of the arab world, northern africa, India and regions west would explode...

    This, of course, doesnt also include the Jihadists in the Americias & Europe....

    Sooner or later the Islamic peoples are going to have a clusterf*ck with themselves... NO matter where they happen to be kneeling at the time...

    ReplyDelete
  35. "But if we are there, we should not tie the hand of our boys and girls with bullshit ROE..."

    I've listened to this complaint for fucking ever. I've lodged it myself.

    The fact of the matter is you can't go killing everyone because you ARE trying to persuade some fence-sitters and to keep those who are rather precariously on your side, on your side.

    This is especially pertinent when you are dealing with border areas.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Rat: He rejoices in claims that the United States is illegitimate.
    He morally equates the United States to Isreal.

    That says it all.




    No.... What it SAYS is...

    Israel has MORE moral authority to the Land of Israel than America has to American lands...

    America, in it's FOUNDING compares it's self to the LAND of Israel, not the other way around....

    If America now questions Israel's right to build in it's capital (3000 years old) it is reasonable to question America's moral standing to it's own behavior...

    America has a right to build in Washington DC...

    And even more morally correct, Israel has a right to build in Jerusalem.

    That's what it says...

    ReplyDelete
  37. trish: I've listened to this complaint for fucking ever. I've lodged it myself.

    The fact of the matter is you can't go killing everyone because you ARE trying to persuade some fence-sitters and to keep those who are rather precariously on your side, on your side.



    I have been hearing about recent times where our troops were UNDER FIRE and ROE prevented air support...

    I wasnt advocating genocide

    ReplyDelete
  38. "I have been hearing about recent times where our troops were UNDER FIRE and ROE prevented air support..."

    There was that incident, and I don't know the story behind the story.

    I'm assuming, not without reason, that there is a story behind the story, because it would be otherwise a dramatic and unprecedented departure from policy.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I wasnt advocating genocide

    Wed Nov 04, 08:28:00 AM EST

    Emotionally satisfying as that would be on any given day of the week.

    Or at least washing our hands of the whole affair.

    As was noted by someone on the ground back when Iraq was going very, very badly, the prevailing sentiment was one of, "Haul our asses out and lay down a nifty fireball behind us."

    Been there, been there, been there.

    ReplyDelete
  40. "I'm assuming, not without reason, that there is a story behind the story, because it would be otherwise a dramatic and unprecedented departure from policy."
    ---
    More like SOP, imo.

    ReplyDelete
  41. How 'bout when we sacrificed Marines to avoid poking a hole in a (weapons loaded) minaret.

    ...or the famous gates of bullshit incident.

    ReplyDelete
  42. The whole should we or shouldn't we question now wrt Afghanistan - and it saddens me to say that it IS a legitimate one - depends on the answer to another question: Has our window of opportunity actually closed?

    I am hoping that the objective answer to that question is No.

    ReplyDelete
  43. More like SOP, imo.

    Wed Nov 04, 08:40:00 AM EST

    No, it's not SOP to be denied air support when your base comes under attack.

    ReplyDelete
  44. PC ROE's have closed windows and ended lives.
    Repeatedly.

    ReplyDelete
  45. "No, it's not SOP to be denied air support when your base comes under attack."
    ---
    It just happened.
    Despite repeated calls.

    ReplyDelete
  46. ...after 'Crystal called for change.

    ReplyDelete
  47. "It just happened."

    That doesn't make it SOP.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Less than illustrative, gag.

    ReplyDelete
  49. You know the list, I know the list, Trish:
    And we SLL agreed about the Gates of Fire fiasco.

    ReplyDelete
  50. ...in my mind no different than the minaret sniper, or not taking out the dentists (occularist?) tanks.

    ReplyDelete
  51. "...in my mind..."

    Which I've no inclination to spend a day wandering around in.

    ReplyDelete
  52. twasnt directed at you Doug....the Jew vs Jew hater thing grows old.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Other people are paid to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Gag Reflex said...
    twasnt directed at you Doug....the Jew vs Jew hater thing grows old.



    It does... but I aint the hater.....

    to equal the issue as equals is unfair....

    rat is on a crusade...

    it aint new... it aint unique... it is annoying...

    ReplyDelete
  55. I didn't take it personally gag,
    but now that you describe the source...
    who could disagree?

    ReplyDelete
  56. No money has yet been allocated for that task, Trish.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Actually, folks should pay for the *privilege*.

    ReplyDelete
  58. ...like a walk thru the
    Garden of Eden.

    ReplyDelete
  59. "using the money saved to..."



    *shaking head* spendthrifts everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  60. Free Healthcare will save Trillions.

    ReplyDelete
  61. How many USA troops are still in Europe, South Korea, England and Japan?

    ReplyDelete
  62. I got news for 'ya: They delploy.

    Unless they're occupying a Joint billet, they go. Period.

    And we're emptying the pockets and lifting the couch cushions elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  63. One of the real weak spots is State.

    They cannot be made, no matter how desperate the need, to get off their asses and go.

    ReplyDelete
  64. They should be made to sign a deployment agreement. But it's so profoundly against State culture, it'll probably never happen.

    ReplyDelete
  65. 15 year old girl gets gang raped for 2 1/2 hours outside a dance at Richmond High in Richmond, Cal. outside of Berkeley and Oakland, with onlookers coming and going.

    1. Manuel Ortega, Richmond/19/RHS Drop Out

    2. Cody Ray Smith, San Pablo/15/RHS Student

    3. Marcelles James Peter, Pinole/17/RHS Student

    4. Ari Abdallah Morales, San Pablo/16/Continuation School

    5. Saul Rodriguez, Richmond/21(RELEASED)/????

    6. Jose Carlos Montano, San Pablo/18/????

    7. Elvis Josue Torrentes, San Pablo/21/????


    Closing the border sounds like a good idea.

    Richmond High Gang Rape, Whose Fault?

    My sis used to live in Oakland, I recall Richmond, it's gotten worse, didn't seem so bad then.

    ReplyDelete
  66. I know what you're thinking: Who needs them anyway?

    DOD does. We can't indefinitely continue to be the one-armed paper-hanger.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Listen, al-anonoBob:

    We're sick of your disdain for diversity, capiche?

    Hateful, on it's face.
    Get with the program.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Just one question: How do we "WIN?"

    5 years from now, what will we have "accomplished?"

    ReplyDelete
  69. A Republican Christian Scientist whose district includes a CS college slipped a provision into ObamaCare that has the nation paying for prayer treatments for the ailing.

    I think this is kind of funny. I'm all for prayer, in fact think it might often help, but it's not your usual left wing outlook, it doesn't seem the kind of thing that rationally would be in a secular health care bill in a state that separates state and religion, and this guy slipped this in there.

    heh

    ReplyDelete
  70. The enlisted guys, and 2nd Leutenants, "on the ground" are telling us what we need to know. We better listen.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Dick Morris is saying Virginia and New Jersey were the stakes in the heart of ObamaCare.

    ReplyDelete
  72. You see, while the Captain, and Lt Colonel are inside getting smoke blown up their asses by the local drug lord, the Corporal is talking to the "villager." And, the villager is telling them the truth.

    To wit: You're a "stranger," here. You don't know shit, and you're wasting your time. Go away.

    ReplyDelete
  73. You dispensed with every fucking one of them in Iraq, rufus. Every fucking one.

    When the exodus of E4s and CPTs was noted, all you had to say was, "Good. Makes room for those who really wanna be there."

    You're so biased and full of shit it isn't funny.

    ReplyDelete
  74. That's a good legislator, working for his district. You slip the provision in there, when nobody is looking, in a two thousand page bill, and hope nobody sees it.

    ReplyDelete
  75. I'm thinking that if that Canadian NATO general says the situation is not so bad, is localized to the south, maybe progress can be made. After all most of the other Afghans can't stand the Taliban, are afraid of them. Cheered like hell when they were run out. But I don't know enough about it to really say. I trust Obama to make the wrong decision, split the difference, not enough, more than nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Be a "Grown-up," Trish. Iraq had a possibility. It was a "Real Country." Once the bullshit was cleared out it had the wherewithal of supporting an Army, and a Police Force.

    Iraq has an Old "Civilization." An Educated populace. Water. Agriculture. Oil. Strategic location. Universities. Technicians. Businessmen.

    Afghanistan is a piss-poor box of rocks in the middle of nowhere. No money. No industry. No "educated" populace. No "real" reason to even be a country.

    Just 25 Million Muslims that hate our guts, and that will fight us till the day they die (and, until the day their kids, and grand-kids, and great grandkids die.)

    You tell me what we can "Win," and I'll decide if I want to support it.

    ReplyDelete
  77. And, Trish, you're conflating two disparate issues. I didn't say we shouldn't be there because the E-4's and "Captains" didn't want to be there. By the way, if you haven't noticed, I'm not too crazy about "Captains," either. But that's beside the point.

    What I said was, "We better LISTEN to them." They're telling us what the "Afghani people think." They (and, if you'll notice I included 2nd Leutenants in that mix) are the only ones that are actually talking "informally" with the "villager."

    ReplyDelete
  78. Bob, we had scads of "Generals" telling us Vietnam wasn't so bad, also. You can never pay any attention to the "Generals" in a case like this. They have a vested interest.

    You can't pay any attention to the "Republicans," either. They're out to destroy Obama. In a deal like this you have to use your own "Common Sense."

    My very, very "common" sense tells me we're involved in a clusterfuck that will last for many generations.

    ReplyDelete
  79. I agree with you that Iraq's the much more important place.

    You may be right for all I know.

    During the campaign, there was Obama talk (I think) about increasing the size of the Army. Whatever happened to that? Hasn't been done, has it? Just campaign talk, I presume.




    I'm having a chuckle thinking of Ash's beloved ObamaCare paying for Christian Science prayer treatments.

    ReplyDelete
  80. 108 new bureaucracies, death panels, Christian Science prayer treatments---shit, ObamaCare, this has got to be the biggest stew government ever did dream up.

    We need to just start all over and incorporate some pub ideas in there and make some better sense out of it.

    ReplyDelete
  81. WiO,

    The line has been drawn. Debate is futile.

    Jews/Israelis/Zionists need to steel themselves. That is best accomplished by reviewing the film/photos of our dead while reciting, "NEVER AGAIN".

    The ball is in our court; we must be resolute: If you attack us, your little world burns as well. The seriousness of our resolve should be demonstrated by the disproportionate crushing of every bug that crosses us. Irrationality yields fear and hesitation (a lesson missed and unexploited by the USA on 9/11/2001).

    Now, back to the endless bickering and Obama bashing...Sigh...Yawn...

    ReplyDelete
  82. All captured Taliban should be strapped on to the fronts and sides of all vehicles...

    Once strapped in the new passengers shall be given food and water, but next to each shall be a plastic container of liquified pig fat and dog hair..

    If the vehicle hits an IED it will kill the taliban on the spot, mixing throughly with pig and dog, thus sending the taliban to hell...

    ReplyDelete
  83. Captured Iranian arms ship tip of the iceberg of vast weapons sealift to Hizballah
    DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
    November 4, 2009, 11:03 PM (GMT+02:00)
    DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report that a mammoth arms train has been running to Hizballah for months via Egypt. They identify the ship which offloaded the arms shipment at the Egyptian port of Damietta, where it was picked up by the Francop as the Iranian Visea, which is now on its way from the British port of Felixtowe to Hamburg, Germany. An international operation is afoot to apprehend the Iranian ship as of Wednesday, Nov. 4, when Israeli naval forces commandeered the Francop with hundreds of tons of Iranian arms bound for the Lebanese Hizballah near Cyprus. The arms were unloaded at the Israeli naval base at Ashdod port.
    The Visea was formerly called Iran Zanian. She is owned by the IRISL corporation, Iran's national shippers.
    The estimated 500 of tons of weapons aboard were concealed inside sacks of polyethylene and loaded aboard the Visea either at Bandar Abbas or Bandar Imam Khomeini in Iran. It sailed on Oct. 14, docking at Dubai's Jabel Ali on Oct. 18, after which it wound its way through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, reaching Damietta port Monday, Oct. 26. Our sources stress that the containers and their hidden arms freight stood on Egyptian docks for seven days until Nov. 1, when the German ship Francop collected it for delivery at Beirut.
    The Francop is known as a “feeder ship,” which circulates between regular ports of call beginning at Damietta, thence to Limassol in Cyprus and from there to Beirut, Lebanon, Port Latakia, Syria, and back. Neither the owners nor the crew knew about the concealed arms cargo, which was not recorded in the ship's documents carried from the port of departure. These documents were left behind by the Iranian Visea.
    DEBKAfile's counter-terrorism sources report pressing questions arise about Egypt's security procedures in the Suez Canal and its Mediterranean ports, when Iran has managed for months to run a sealift of arms from Iran to Syria and Hizballah, under the noses of Egyptian security and intelligence authorities.
    These sources ask what would have happened if one of the Iranian arms ships plying their waters with hundreds of tons of missiles, rockets, shells and explosives aboard were to blow up in the middle of the Suez Canal. This vital waterway would have been blocked for many weeks, triggering a fresh international financial crisis.
    As recently as October, when the German freighter Hansa India was discovered carrying Iranian arms and ammunition destined for Lebanon, the Berlin government ordered it to sail straight to Malta, after a tip-off from Israeli intelligence. There, the containers were unloaded and found to contain the Iranian arms.
    To disguise its vast traffic of illicit arms to Lebanon, Iran has taken to using commercial "feeder" vessels which are frequently seen on regular tours around the Mediterranean ports and arouse little attention. By this route, Hizballah has received thousands of tons of arms and ammunition in the last few months.

    ReplyDelete
  84. And you never did that.

    Nor did you watch a young Afghan bleed out on a clinic floor because you can't get lift-out.

    Jeezus H. Christ.

    ReplyDelete
  85. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  86. TO put it clearer....

    Americans, British & other nato troops in Iran and afghanistan have been murdered by Iranian arms, ied's, support and training...

    Americans, Israelis and others have been murdered by Hezbollah through out the world, hezbollah is really an armed branch of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran.

    Hamas is an arm of Iran....

    Until we wake up and kill the snakes they will continue to subvert, destroy and target us...

    ReplyDelete
  87. "TO put it clearer...."

    With all sympathy and respect, it's not clearer.

    ReplyDelete
  88. The One Place on Earth Not Destroyed in '2012'

    "Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit," the filmmaker told scifiwire.com. "But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, 'I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.' And he was right."

    And Jews are "tiresome"...right...

    ReplyDelete
  89. This began with the story of five (now possibly more) Brits bleeding out at a check point, as their assailants made a getaway.

    While it is true that we must always strive to take the highroad, at some point our niceties are going to put us all six feet under, assuming our Muslim friends allow for burial.

    I would agree, with one minor exception, “Jeezus F. Christ”!!!

    ReplyDelete
  90. I just watched as much of the video as I could get to play.

    We couldn't accomplish what McChrystal and the idiot brain trust wants to accomplish with a Million Marines. It's fucking criminal. It's fucking Vietnam all over again.

    I've seen this silly shit. Word for motherfucking word. It was fucking nonsense then, it's fucking nonsense now. They don't have the slightest fucking idea what they're doing there.

    We ought to lock the whole motherfucking mess up, and throw away the key.

    ReplyDelete
  91. How could the General be wrong?
    How could McNamera, or whoeverthefuk is SECDEF?

    ReplyDelete
  92. Fuck Petraeus, fuck McChrystal, Fuck Obama, Fuck McCain, Fuck Bush, Fuck Lindsey fucking Graham.

    We're wasting those Marines's lives for nothing more than a fucking vote for some cocksucking politician, and a Star for some fucking general. It's a fucking Crime.

    ReplyDelete
  93. "You're so biased and full of shit it isn't funny."
    ---
    That's a Hell of a lot better than bein a warm pile of cat vomit, Ruf.

    ...you're movin on up!

    ReplyDelete
  94. 240 Motherfucking THOUSAND Sq. Miles. Seventy five motherfucking Million Muzzie Assholes almost entirely spread out in small villages.

    ONE MARINE RIFLE COMPANY to Take, and Hold onto ONE VILLAGE. How many Goddamned Marine Rifle Companies do the motherfucking geniuses think we have?

    Sitting TWELVE MOTHERFUCKING HOURS by the side of the road because a truck "broke down." And they're going to "Pacify" an area half the size of Texas. Fuck!

    ReplyDelete
  95. I might be a steaming pile of shit; but, at least I Can Recognize A Steaming Pile of Shit.

    ReplyDelete
  96. "Once strapped in the new passengers shall be given food and water, but next to each shall be a plastic container of liquified pig fat and dog hair.."
    ---
    If you strap it on their chest, a single AK Round would do the trick.
    ...get to the "heart" of the "matter" quik-like.

    ReplyDelete
  97. "240 Motherfucking THOUSAND Sq. Miles."
    ---
    At least we have friendly terrain and weather on our side.

    ReplyDelete
  98. "Fucking Gates."
    The Guy that sounds like a girl???

    ReplyDelete
  99. Not to mention all those USA-loving, freedom-desiring locals.

    ReplyDelete
  100. The little asshole that would blow any politician on the planet to be anything.

    ReplyDelete
  101. 402. Dave The K.:


    We did it!

    Over 400 posts!
    I made my quota and I couldn’t have done without you guys!

    Now that I got my Paypal transfer from Soros/ACORN, I can finally quit this stupid grocery bagging job and go 100% pro trolling!

    It’s the Big Leagues, baby!

    YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!
    MUCH LOVE FROM THE MARXMEN, YO!

    ReplyDelete
  102. "Now that I got my Paypal transfer from Soros/ACORN, I can finally quit this stupid grocery bagging job and go 100% pro trolling! "
    ---
    My fear is that it's the truth!

    ReplyDelete
  103. A 2009 UN estimate of the total Afghan population is 28,150,000.[3] In 1979, it was 13,051,358. By 2050, the population is estimated to be increased to about 74 million.


    World Series is on.





    You can get a $30 or $40 dollar off your purchases at Amazon right now if you sign up for one of their credit cards and order a book or two.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Whoa, Yanks jump out to a quick 2-0 lead. This series may be over tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  105. We ain't liberal enuff!

    Democrats to Use Election to Push Agenda in Congress

    As they assessed the results, Democratic lawmakers and party strategists said their judgment was that voters remained very uneasy about the economy and did not see Democrats producing on the health, energy and national security changes they promised when voters swept them to power only a year ago.

    “Most of us ran on that,” said Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia and president of the party’s freshman class. “We must deliver. I need to give Democrats something to be excited about.”

    Democrats still face the political dilemma that has dogged their health care efforts this year and will continue to face tough choices as they take up issues like curbing global warming. Should they concentrate on motivating their core supporters, many of whom appeared to stay away from the polls in New Jersey and Virginia, by taking a more liberal approach, for example by embracing a public health insurance option?

    Or do they try to write health, energy and fiscal policies that can attract independents, who broke for Republicans in Tuesday’s voting, in order to protect more moderate Democrats in conservative districts where spending and the rising debt are top worries?

    “We have to do something, but it has to be right,” said Representative Frank Kratovil Jr.,

    ReplyDelete
  106. I haven't seen anyone on the tube comment on the thing that jumped out at me the most last night. Seniors broke, overwhelmingly, for the Pubs. I've never seen that before.

    ReplyDelete
  107. Stealing 500 billion from Medicare just in time for Baby Boomers didn't help, Rufus.
    ...not to mention the death panels.

    ReplyDelete
  108. "We have nothing to say."

    It would be wrong for the Zionist entity to hold property belonging to the poor, suffering Palestinians. Israel should see that the ordinance is delivered, spent, en masse.

    ReplyDelete
  109. Seniors broke, overwhelmingly, for the Pubs.

    I noticed that, Rufus. They got this idea of 'death panels' firmly planted in their (our, my) minds, and don't like the sound of it.



    THE DEATH PANELS ARE BACK IN THE OBAMACARE BILL, SENIORS!

    ReplyDelete
  110. b.s. that last called strike was definitely outside.

    ReplyDelete
  111. Matsui singles---4-1

    They need to change pitchers.

    ReplyDelete
  112. While in Egypt, Madame Secretary was not wearing the obligatory potato, head sack

    One hundred lashes should cure the cur of her insolence. As she would agree, no doubt, no indignity is too high a price to pay for peace (if you are a Jew).

    ReplyDelete
  113. The isreali should demand the halt of settlement activity in Phoenix, Arizona in response.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Let 'em stop that Mexican migration, bob, I'm all for it.

    Not going to happen, though.

    ReplyDelete
  115. Whoa, nice catch of a line drive by Utley.

    I mean, nice catch by Utley of a line drive.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Phillies need to make a move.

    ReplyDelete
  117. It's Matsui Night. 7-1

    ReplyDelete
  118. What a crapper call, Utley didn't swing on that.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Oh my God, bob. We're going to win.

    We're going to win and my personal Yankees fan is out in the desert.

    ReplyDelete
  120. The Yanks only need three more outs. Looks good for the righteous empire.

    ReplyDelete
  121. There was talk about the Yanks getting rid of either Matsui or Daman. Looking for some younger blood. It's age discrimination, I tell you. They seemed like a couple of the best, to me.

    U of Idaho on ESPN this Saturday, Trish, I expect you to be watching!

    ReplyDelete
  122. 1/750,000

    To answer Mr. Rumsfeld's question, "No", we are not overcoming the replacement threshhold". Would an additional 750,000 strikes at about $1,500,000 each accomplish the mission?

    Yep, $1,125,000,000,000.27 ought to do the trick. As a bonus, American unemployment will be reduced to "0". Happy days are here again!

    ReplyDelete
  123. Willing to return the favor but we don't get ESPN.

    ReplyDelete
  124. Are you serious, allen?

    The drones have significant downstream effects for us. They don't go after Willy Lunchmeat.

    The world of hurt we're in would be that much worse without them.

    ReplyDelete
  125. The downside is that Pakistan has to eat it. And they're getting kind of tired of that.

    ReplyDelete
  126. Oh, and that was hatched under Mr. Secretary Rumsfeld himself. With a little help.

    Lest the man go uncredited.

    ReplyDelete