Archives for the 'Afghanistan' Category
Dots, Not Connected
Published on 6 Nov 2009 at 1:10 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, America, Iraq, Islam, Jihad, Palestinians, military.
Not in time, anyway. The murders of 12 people and wounding of 31 others by one man with two handguns probably made a lot of things painfully obvious, and probably helped cut through a lot of clutter and red tape pretty quickly.
But when, within a matter of hours, the following facts and suspicions are widely reported, [...]
DC Cabbies Like McChrystal
Published on 3 Nov 2009 at 9:28 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, cabbies.
3-2. Lydia Khalil at the Washington Post:
Read ‘DC Cabbies Like McChrystal’
Bush Bad
Published on 2 Nov 2009 at 11:35 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
O’s GWOT-handling public approval numbers just hit pre-Surge levels. Only 34 percent think we’re winning. The American public hasn’t had this dim a view of American war leadership since January 2007. That’s not just bad. That’s Bush bad. Rasmussen.
Maybe it’s because, from Guantanamo to Afghanistan, he isn’t handling the GWOT. WSJ, on Karzai’s new term and Obama’s as-yet unmade [...]
Vietnaming It
Published on 1 Nov 2009 at 11:01 am.
5 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
DC’s alive these days with Vietnam analogies which, thanks to today’s news, probably will rear up again, newly re-envigorated.
Before we get to the news of Abdullah Abdullah’s election pullout, here are the fundamentals of the analogy, compliments of a Financial Times analysis that flogged the dead Vietnam horse – it’s more of a zombie-like Vietnam horse, because inexplicably, it still has [...]
“We Enjoyed It”
Published on 31 Oct 2009 at 11:09 am.
6 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Iraq, military.
The smallest of the four combat branches leads the Valour IT push as of 10 a.m. this morning. It was Marines, $13,486; Army, $11,910; Air Force $5,060; and Navy, $4,790.
Advanced Baby Splittage
Published on 31 Oct 2009 at 10:00 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, military.
President Barack Obama, half-pregnant with Bush’s Afghan war, apparently is leaning toward splitting the baby … surgically. Washington Post:
Read ‘Advanced Baby Splittage’
Wack-A-Mole Advance 360 For Windows 7 Wii
Published on 30 Oct 2009 at 11:12 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
As Obama heads into what is purportedly his last big Afghanistan meeting, he’s trying to outplay his own generals, gaming a sort of sophisticated wack-a-mole strategy … not just that clunky, grimy old arcade game with a choice of wacking the “Afghanistan” mole or the “Pakistan” mole, but a high-speed Afghan province-specific one. Light. It raises the question [...]
Read ‘Wack-A-Mole Advance 360 For Windows 7 Wii’
Gen. L.B.J. “Fightin’ Joe Biden” Obama
Published on 29 Oct 2009 at 7:45 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
The Hero of Altgeld Gardens* asks for a province-by-province analysis of Afghanistan to help decide where, whether, he’ll deploy his troops. Washington Post:
Read ‘Gen. L.B.J. “Fightin’ Joe Biden” Obama’
The Fourth Star
Published on 28 Oct 2009 at 9:34 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Iraq, military.
The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army by Washington Post Pentagon reporter Greg Jaffe. Judging by an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air today, it sounds interesting. The focus is on four generals, their backgrounds, how they were influenced by the military’s Vietnam and Gulf War experiences as they [...]
Golf For We, Not For Thee …
Published on 27 Oct 2009 at 2:05 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Bush, Obama.
War-weary Obama manages a decision … more golf! Boston Herald:
Read ‘Golf For We, Not For Thee …’
Resignation
Published on 27 Oct 2009 at 11:08 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, military.
A disappointment. Former Marine Capt. Matthew Hoh, with intense and traumatic duty in Iraq, who became a PRT team member in Zabul, Afghanistan, has resigned from the Foreign Service and refused high-level offers to stay onboard. Washington Post:
Fallen Marine
Published on 27 Oct 2009 at 9:28 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, military.
Local boy made good, had it all, gave it all. One of 14 Americans to die in Afghanistan yesterday. Another 12 were injured. Boston Herald:
The Other Thing Obama Inherited
Published on 21 Oct 2009 at 11:15 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Cheney, Obama.
A viable war strategy. Only for some reason, he hasn’t said boo about that Bush legacy. Cheney at Fox:
Read ‘The Other Thing Obama Inherited’
Shovel Work
Published on 21 Oct 2009 at 9:25 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
Conducting excavations on a Washington Post poll story, “Americans deeply split on troop increase.” These are sometimes promising sites, but you have to dig deep. Let’s have a look down the hole, see what we can see:
Rod Blagojevich For Special Envoy
Published on 20 Oct 2009 at 7:09 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, pols.
Karzai agrees to a runoff. Apparently there’s a backroom deal in the works to get around the lack-of-legitimate-government problem. NYT:
Read ‘Rod Blagojevich For Special Envoy’
Last-Man-Mistake-Death Opportunity Knocks
Published on 19 Oct 2009 at 10:53 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
Obama admin to GIs, Afghans: Just hang in a little longer, die more, while we figure out whether it’s worth it or not. It’s Kerrythink in action, as Obama, in extended dither, tries to engineer a mistake some poor bastard can be the last man to die for.*
OK, that’s not exactly how NYT put it:
Read ‘Last-Man-Mistake-Death Opportunity Knocks’
Afghanistan Syndrome
Published on 18 Oct 2009 at 10:55 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, media.
It’s a long way from Stockholm.* Pretty much he other side of the world. NYT scribbler David Rohde, “inside the Emirate,” on what happened to him in extended Taliban captivity:
Hammer Wants An Anvil
Published on 17 Oct 2009 at 10:06 am.
5 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, Pakistan.
Paks, unintimidated by the past week’s attacks, have launched their assault on South Waziristan. NYT.
Meanwhile, still waiting to see whether Obama plans to wack the mole on his side of the board. The administration has denied a BBC report that Obama has told the Brits and the Afghans that he is planning to announce this week [...]
McChrystal’s Afghanistan
Published on 15 Oct 2009 at 11:13 am.
5 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, media, military.
NYT’s Dexter Filkins goes deep with a profile of McChrystal in action that includes an intimate look at what he wants to do in Afghanistan, the difficulties he faces, some reasons for hope, a lot of ugly truths, and for a refreshing change in current American reporting trends, some comparison and contrast on the fact that these guys have [...]
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When She’s Right, She’s Right!
Published on 15 Oct 2009 at 8:19 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, moronocy.
Arianna Huffington says Joe Biden should resign over Afghanistan. Agreed! The strategy he is carrying the torch for is moronic! Hang on, that’s not exactly how Huffington puts it. She wants him to fall on his sword as a matter of principle if Obama actually pays attention to his generals. First miscalculation, the notion that Biden is in any [...]
Read ‘When She’s Right, She’s Right!’
Historic Suckupness, Poor Judgment
Published on 14 Oct 2009 at 11:01 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, France, Obama, history.
Self-destructiveness and abandonment. History doesn’t repeat, they say, it rhymes. Badly, sure, and with poor meter. Free verse, if you like.
Guess who else went to Cairo and addressed a big historic suckup speech to the Islamic world, to no avail? Then, through ineptitude, lost the means of his own resupply, bungled the whole operation and saw the greater Islamic world turn [...]
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Obama’s War
Published on 12 Oct 2009 at 11:11 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, media.
PBS’ Frontline is taking a look Tuesday night. An early cut of Act 1 is up at the link.
As basically a grunt’s eye view, on the ground with 2/8 Marines in Helmand, with a lot of about the difficulties of fighting a counterinsurgency. The Marine commander’s opening speech, the combat footage, the Marines’ living conditions and the interactions with locals [...]
First, Want To Win
Published on 11 Oct 2009 at 10:05 am.
6 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, history.
Good point by Graham Bowley at NYT. You want to sell a war? Start to win. But he misses a key point.
Then There’s The Iran Bit
Published on 8 Oct 2009 at 11:14 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Iran, Obama.
Lara Logan at CBS on the Iran-Taliban connection:
Read ‘Then There’s The Iran Bit’
A Tale of Two Bureaus
Published on 8 Oct 2009 at 9:30 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, media.
Two cities, two theaters of war. It’s the remarkable difference illustrated by two news reports tonight from one news agency. The first, from Washington, describes the increasingly imaginary war theater that seems to exist in the collective mind of the Obama administration. It’s captured here by the AP’s Jennifer Loven:
No Code Pink Rethink
Published on 8 Oct 2009 at 9:36 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, moronocy, terrorists, women.
American Power interviews Code Pink co-founder Julie Evans, who claims there’s no Code Pink rethink on Afghanistan. Troops out! Humanitarians in! Women’s rights now! (Apparently she wasn’t paying attention in the ’90s, or the ‘Naughts, for that matter. Not clear on the Taliban/al-Qaeda women’s rights concept).
Here’s the original Christian Science Monitor article about Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin [...]
Battle of the Books
Published on 7 Oct 2009 at 1:24 pm.
9 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, books, vietnam.
Literary quagmire! Looks like Obama’s hitting the books to figure out the best way to have his own Vietnam. Wall Street Journal:
Half-Pregnant
Published on 7 Oct 2009 at 10:00 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, pols.
Obama rules out any big reduction in forces in Afghanistan but won’t say if he’s on board for the big win, as they used to say. NYT:
Wartime President Supported
Published on 6 Oct 2009 at 5:14 pm.
5 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, pols.
This hasn’t happened in what, nearly seven years now. I mean, not without a lot of kicking and screaming. Democrats say they’ll support a wartime president, with American troops in the field, and vital national and global security interests at stake. OK, that’s not exactly how AP put it.
Read ‘Wartime President Supported’
Consulter In Chief
Published on 6 Oct 2009 at 10:18 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, pols.
The president is bringing in Congressional leaders, both parties, to talk about Afghanistan this afternoon. In the long, slow march to deciding whether to fight or not, it’s a key moment which may provide important clues about which way he’s leaning or whether, as has been the case with other major agenda items, he intends to let [...]
Chaos-istan
Published on 5 Oct 2009 at 9:51 am.
18 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, military.
On the Potomac. It’s the kind of thing political and military debacles are made of. UK Telegraph reports the president is PO’d at Gen. Stanley McChrystal over the London speech:
Afghan Tet
Published on 4 Oct 2009 at 11:03 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, military.
While their president mulls the question, to fight or not to fight, Americans are fighting and dying in Afghanistan. Eight dead in a major, organized Taliban assault Saturday. Washington Post:
Rumors Of Anti-War …
Published on 2 Oct 2009 at 8:22 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, pols.
Coming in from various quarters. There’s backroom manuevering. Talk of retreat. Surrenderists ascendant?
Good news first. Obama’s actually met with his Afghan War commander. He managed to squeeze in a meeting with McChrystal on the tarmac at Copenhagen, while nursing his IOC hangover. USA Today:
Obamlet
Published on 28 Sep 2009 at 10:49 am.
6 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
To troop up or not to troop up: that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?
Excuse me, just flipping through some Shakespeare and mulling the news, or lack of it, this [...]
McClellan On The Hindu Kush
Published on 27 Sep 2009 at 11:15 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, military.
They were almost right about the Obama-Lincoln analogies. Turns out he’s not Lincolnescque. Just Lincoln proximate.*
Read ‘McClellan On The Hindu Kush’
A Modern War Reader
Published on 27 Sep 2009 at 10:45 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Iraq, history, military.
JH Stuart, who you’ll know from his periodic comments here, is a Norwich- and UVM-trained civil engineering consultant in Vermont and former Army engineer in Italy and Vietnam who has attacked our current wars with a engineer’s thoroughness, taking them apart to see how they work with the following course of study. Stuart called it “The [...]
Dismount!
Published on 25 Sep 2009 at 9:51 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Iraq, history, military.
Treadheads no more. The unit I rode into Baghdad with, 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, is now reflagged as 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry, 4th Brigade, 3rd ID. Hasta la vista, Bradley! Arrivederci, Abrams. Until we mech again. They’re running around in the dirt in Georgia and getting ready to go to Afghanistan, with about [...]
The Biden Plan
Published on 23 Sep 2009 at 12:19 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama.
NYT:
WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.
Sorry, I got nothing.
Well, there’s this:
In Which Obama Has A General Problem, Just Like A Real President*
Published on 22 Sep 2009 at 9:17 am.
6 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, history, military.
Roggio at Long War points to and discusses a McClatchy report that McChrystal is ready to resign if not given the resources to prosecute the war in Afghanistan.
I’m going to guess Obama and Emanuel are not going to take kindly to being pressured, but it puts them in a spot.
Read ‘In Which Obama Has A General Problem, Just Like A Real President*’
ACME Anti-War Protest Co.
Published on 21 Sep 2009 at 9:33 pm.
5 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, moronocy.
An almost readable exercise in the polemics of indignation by the sockpuppet also known as Glenn Greenwald, who rattles on at some length about reaction to the news of McCrystal’s Afghanistan report, declaring “the vague case for continuing to occupy that country is virtually identical to every instance where America’s war-loving Foreign Policy Community advocates the need [...]
Read ‘ACME Anti-War Protest Co.’
To Look Good Or To Feel Good?
Published on 21 Sep 2009 at 8:05 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, military.
It’s a Lamasian dilemma* for Obama. Washington Post reports the top general in Afghanistan is sticking it to him. More troops or mission failure:
Read ‘To Look Good Or To Feel Good?’
Hard, Hard All The Time, But Doable
Published on 18 Sep 2009 at 8:00 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, military.
In an open letter to the Brits, apparently designed to encourage and reassure, Gen. David Petraeus weighs in on Afghanistan. Times of London:
Read ‘Hard, Hard All The Time, But Doable’
Honor
Published on 17 Sep 2009 at 9:36 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, courage, military.
Sergeant First Class Jared Monti of Raynham, Massachusetts, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor today at the White House. His parents were there to accept it for him.
Monti, a forward observer with 3rd squadron, 71st Cav, 10th Mountain Division, was on a recon mission on June 21, 2006, in Gowardesh on the Afghan-Pak border, when his [...]
Not Liked Enough
Published on 14 Sep 2009 at 9:29 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Iraq, Obama, al qaeda.
Poor Obama, can’t catch a break. If he isn’t getting it from Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan over Guantanamo and gay marriage, he’s getting it from Osama over Iraq. CNN:
Medic Murdered
Published on 10 Sep 2009 at 10:35 pm.
5 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, military.
Navy Corpsman James Layton was shot dead in a hail of Taliban gunfire, along with the wounded Marine he was working on. McClatchy:
Aftermath Anger
Published on 10 Sep 2009 at 11:46 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, media, military.
UK Telegraph reports senior British Army sources voice anger that a soldier was killed rescuing a New York Times reporter who ignored security warnings and went into a Taliban-controlled area. An Afghan translator was also killed, unclear by which side. The military believed that the situation might be about to deteriorate.
Caught a few moments of what sounded [...]
Lessons And Rules
Published on 9 Sep 2009 at 9:49 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, military.
Bitter ones. Herschel Smith at Captain’s Journal looks at the death of four Marines, seven Afghan soldiers and an interpreter in an ambush in Kunar province and considers the force projection aspect of counterinsurgency and the arm-tied-behind-the-back part … when rules of engagement are followed over a cliff.
Small Wars Journal points to some relevant discussion: NYT with a [...]
Afghan Woes
Published on 3 Sep 2009 at 8:44 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, military.
Daniel Dravot: “Ask him who his enemies are, Billy Fish.”
Billy Fish: “Uttar say, ‘Enemies all around. The worst are the Bashkai. Always raiding and stealing our womens. And when we go to bathe, they are pissing in the river!”
Daniel Dravot: “Shocking state of affairs! You tell Uttar, we will help him defeat his enemies. He [...]
Clinton Had It Right
Published on 1 Sep 2009 at 7:24 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, America, al qaeda, terrorists.
That’s not exactly how he puts it, but that’s what I’m getting off this George Will column, “Time to Get Out of Afghanistan,” which can be summed up quickly: War’s hard. Vietnam was hard, and also impossible, Afghanistan’s harder and more impossible. Abandon now. Cruise missile counterterrorism policy, please.
Double Reverse Wack-A-Mole
Published on 30 Aug 2009 at 9:35 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Pakistan, pols.
It’s the latest in Democratic strategic thinking. Sen. Russ Feingold in the Wall Street Journal. Bear with me, because this is really complicated, and also doesn’t make any sense. But I think this is how it works.
Remember when the Dems said the Iraq war was bad, we needed to get out, because all we were doing was [...]
