Taliban, Iraqi Sunnis – Apples, Oranges

What I’m reading about President Barack Obama’s latest pronouncements on turning the tide in the war in Afghanistan makes me uneasy.

There is no doubt that U.S. and NATO fortunes have backslid in Afghanistan, through no fault of our troops on the ground – there just haven’t been enough to pursue any of a number of strategies effectively.  We also know that in many respects the “surge” in Iraq worked to some effect in that war.  The surge was not just about troops, it was also about effective counterinsurgency policy and tactics.  One of those tactics was to co-opt Sunni tribal elders and their followers who had fallen in line with al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Now, as if Afghanistan is just like Iraq, we’re going to surge there as well.  More troops makes sense if those troops are protecting civilians and not leaving them prey to the Taliban.  More troops make sense if we are capturing or killing Taliban.  Paying off Taliban in the way we worked with Sunni leaders in Iraq is a suckers bet, however.

Too many Americans view the Islamic world through a single lens ground from the images of 9/11 and the Bush war on terror.  In this view all muslims are sixth century throwbacks who routinely take to the streets and chant death to America.

The truth is that most muslims want the same things most of us want – peace, prosperity, liberty.  Another part of the truth is that there is a very vocal, in your face segment of Islam, who are grounded in a medieval view of the world.  They are inherently evil.  Their most apparent incarnation is in the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

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Transcript: Obama Interview with New York Times Aboard Air Force One – May Negotiate with Taliban

(Source: New York Times)

President Obama spoke in a 35-minute interview aboard Air Force One on Friday afternoon as he traveled from Columbus, Ohio to Andrews Air Force Base. This is an edited transcript, as recorded by The New York Times.

Q. You said it’s going to take a long time to get out of this economic crisis. Can you assure the American people that the economy will be growing by the summer, the fall or the end of the year?

A. I don’t think that anybody has that kind of crystal ball. We are going through a wrenching process of de-leveraging in the financial sectors – not just here in the United States, but all around the world – that have profound consequences for Main Street. What started off as problems with the banks, led to a contraction of lending, which led in turn to both declining demand on the part of consumers, but also declining demand on the part of business. So it is going to take some time to work itself through.

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Full Text: President Barack Obama Speech Camp Lejeune – Ending the War in Iraq

(Source: White House Press Office)

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Responsibly Ending the War in Iraq
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
Friday, February 27, 2009

Good morning Marines. Good morning Camp Lejeune. Good morning Jacksonville. Thank you for that outstanding welcome. I want to thank Lieutenant General Hejlik for hosting me here today.

I also want to acknowledge all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That includes the Camp Lejeune Marines now serving with – or soon joining – the Second Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq; those with Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force in Afghanistan; and those among the 8,000 Marines who are preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. We have you in our prayers. We pay tribute to your service. We thank you and your families for all that you do for America. And I want all of you to know that there is no higher honor or greater responsibility than serving as your Commander-in-Chief.

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Transcript: President Barack Obama, First Press Conference, February 9, 2009

(Source: CNN)

President Obama: Good evening, everybody. Please be seated.

Before I take your questions tonight, I’d like to speak briefly about the state of our economy and why I believe we need to put this recovery plan in motion as soon as possible.

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AfPakanistan – What Has Barack Obama Inherited

U.S. Marine under fire in Afghanistan, Spring 2008, Reuters

U.S. Military Surge in Afghanistan Can It Work?

U.S. Ally Pakistan – Working Next Door at Cross Purpose

If you’re at all interested in the future of the “War on Terror” and the current version of the Great Game being played out Afghanistan and Pakistan you need to read two stories from the Sunday New York Times:

• Fearing another Quagmire in Afghanistan
• In Pakistan, radio amplifies terror

What a mess.

No question about it, we didn’t finish the job in Afghanistan.  We pulled personnel and resources from the fight and sent it all to Iraq.  Six or seven years later, the Taliban controls swaths of territory, they use the Afghan-Pak border like a revolving door and they still terrorize those who don’t bend to their Dark Ages world view.

I’ve read that President Barack Obama is sending anywhere from 7,000 to 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in order to deal with a resurgent Taliban, drug lords and assorted other characters from Earth’s version of Tatooine’s Cantina.  He might listen to former Secy of State Colin Powell:

Think Iraq was hard? Afghanistan, former Secretary of State Colin Powell argues, will be “much, much harder.”

“Iraq had a middle class,” Mr. Powell pointed out on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” a couple of hours before Mr. Obama was sworn in last Tuesday. “It was a fairly advanced country before Saddam Hussein drove it in the ground.” Afghanistan, on the other hand, “is still basically a tribal society, a lot of corruption; drugs are going to destroy that country if something isn’t done about it.”

Remember the post-Soviet era in Afghanistan? Forget about all the great powers that have had their militaries ground down in the mountain redoubts of the country, just think back to when the Soviets left.

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Saucy Jack Letter Was Debunked Long Ago

Regular readers know that one of my pet peeves is chain emails, or the emails that aren’t true but purport to be someone’s heart-tugging story or tale of modern-day patriotism.  Well, I got another one the other day and held on to it until I had time to look into the matter.  I’m not the debunker here, I’m just trying to use the Internets to amplify the debunking.

Thanks once again to Snopes.com.  You can read the original, expletive laden letter at Snopes and the full story as far as they know it behind the “Saucy Jack Letter.”  This has apparently been in circulation in one form or another since November 2001.  The version I received was G-Rated without the swearing.

An excerpt from Snopes’ overview of the letter:

Is the story at least believable? Not really – the narrative is rife with errors and inconsistencies: for example, Ab Gach, the panhandle, and the Hindu Kush mountains are all in the northeast portion of Afghanistan, not the northwest; scorpion antivenin is injected, not drunk; and a true “Recon Marine” wouldn’t be broadcasting specifics about his position and mission to the world at large. If this really was the work of a serviceman in Afghanistan, he was deliberately trying to be misleading or funny, not to convey an account of real events.

The “Saucy Jack” letter is as popular as it is because it purports to give insight into the day-to-day reality of a soldier in the field that CNN fails to provide. News emerging from the war in Afghanistan seems rigidly controlled, and the people back home are hungry for information that is not forthcoming. A missive such as this one thus falls on highly receptive ears.

DICK Cheney and State Sponsored Torture

VP DICK Cheney appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation this morning.  This interview wasn’t substantively different from any of the others he’s done in the past month:

Cheney also urged the Obama administration to continue the Bush administration’s interrogation policies.

“I would hope [Obama] would avoid doing what others have done in the past, which is letting the campaign rhetoric guide his judgment in this absolutely crucial area,” Cheney said. “We were very careful, we did everything by the book, and in fact we produced very significant results.”

So many problems with that statement, DICK.  There are a great many smart people, including former members of the Bush Administration who warned you and David Addington about getting too carried away with agressive interrogation techniques.  Chief among their concerns was something we patriots like to call the U.S. Constitution.  There’s also this other little concern known as the Geneva Convention.  You can argue all you want that our foes in the war on terror are not lawful combatants, but the rest of the world needs to somewhat agree, or, it looks like selective application of an international human rights treaty.  And, what about the old bromide that we’re not going to stoop to their level.  There’s so much more than campaign rhetoric behind the criticisms of the Bush Administration’s endorsement of torture.

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U.S. Sunday Papers | December 21

Los Angeles Times

• ‘Lethal Warriors’ in Iraq, linked to string of crimes back home
• Obama ups the ante on economic stimulus
• Op-Ed, Doyle McManus: Obama must spend wisely

New York Times

• Obama expands recovery plans
• Economy tests Obama’s vision of energy efficient auto industry
• White House philosophy stoked mortgage bonfire
• Russian push on treason raises fears
• Canada agrees to its own auto bailout
• Ambush raises unsettling questions in Afghanistan
• Op-Ed, Alan Blinder: Missing the Mark with $700 Billion
• Op-Ed, Tom Friedman: China to the Rescue? Not!
• Op-Ed, Olivier Roy & Justin Vaisse: Winning Islam Over

Washington Post

• Obama expands stimulus goals
• Extradition of terror suspects founders
• Tiny state, huge pain
• U.S. might double Afghanistan force
• Will executive pay packages get slashed?
• Op-Ed, Leonard Downie Jr.: Could we uncover Watergate today?
• Op-Ed, George Will: Executive powerplay makes Congress moot
  

Video: Obama’s National Security Team, Face the Nation, Woodward, Zakaria, Mayer, Dyson | November 30

The following 16 minute video is well worth watching – insightful talk with Bob Woodward, Fareed Zakaria, Jane Mayer and Michael Eric Dyson regarding President-elect Barack Obama’s announcement tomorrow unveiling his national security team.  One interesting comment from Woodward:

SCHIEFFER: …the president, if all goes as expected, at 10:50 Eastern time tomorrow will
announce his new national security team, to be headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of
state.

Mr. WOODWARD: She never goes away, she and her husband. It’s an amazing national security team that Obama appears to have selected. It’s kind of like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

You’ve got too cool, which might be–or at least appropriately cool, General Jones as the national security adviser; Gates is kind of just right, in the middle; and Hillary Clinton, hot. This is going to be a whole new center of gravity for the news media, for the whole world. My assessment without having any knowledge, really, is that the economists and the economic team around Obama convinced him that the economic crisis is so deep and going to require to much time, go ahead and give Hillary and Bill the world.

Yikes.  I’m not sure that’s what I voted for, Bob.

Sunday Papers – November 9, 2008

New York Times Magazine

• After the Imperial Presidency– Jonathan Mahler
• Payday Lenders, Check Cashers – Redeemed?– Douglas McGray
• Deprogramming Jihadists– Katherine Zoepf

New York Times

• Obama team weighs what to take on first
• Harsh words about Obama? Never mind
• Citing workload public lawyers refuse new cases
• How Merrill fell
• Pelosi, Reid want aid for U.S. automakers
• Op-Ed, Frank Rich: It still felt good morning after
• Op-Ed, Al Gore: The climate for change
• Op-Ed, Thomas Friedman: Show me the money
• Op-Ed, Nicholas Kristof: Obama and the War on Brains
• Rice visits West Bank
• U.S. electricity project in Afghanistan
• Back home, Palin finds landscape changed
• After push for Obama, Unions seek new rules

Washington Post

• Preparing for the Obama era
• Reid, Pelosi urge Treasury to extend aid to automakers
• Self-sufficiency evades Iraqi security forces
• Obama positioned to reverse Bush actions
• Medvedev calls Obama; Kremlin describes call
• Congressional Democrats say economy first priority
• Op-Ed, Rich Lowry: The right needs to get centered
• Op-Ed, Joseph Stiglitz: More pain to come even if he’s perfect
• Op-Ed, Ron Suskind: U.S. has power – it could use authority
• Op-Ed, David Broder: Governors know best
• Op-Ed, George Will: Democratic ironies and Republican Afflictions

Los Angeles Times

• Democrats set sights on Texas
• Public works on the table once again
• Obama relies on a close-knit inner circle
• Op-Ed, Norman Ornstein: The GOP’s deep hole
• Op-Ed, James Rainey: Right-wing media feeds its post-election anger
• Political blogger be nimble, be quick
• Election leaves gay couple feeling isolated

Why I’m Voting for Obama – Reason 2 of 3 – Our Standing in the World

Where you can blame about half of our economic woes on Congress and Clinton-era policies, there is no doubt that our poor standing within the family of nations lies squarely at the feet of Bush and Cheney. Around the world we are either derisively snickered at for being brutish or boorish, or, worse, feared or hated. The tragedy is that sometimes the fear and hate are born of events and rational analysis due to our seeming irrational actions in places like Iraq. Read more

News – Strickland, DHL, Palin in Lebanon, Obama in Ohio, ODOT, Brunner and ballots, Space, Husted, Kim Jong-Il Revered Glorious Leader, Hurricane Ike, Pakistan-Afghanistan, U.S. Budget Deficit

Ohio News

• Strickland administration says DHL job-cutting plan may be illegal – Columbus Dispatch
• Moonbats wild about Palin in Lebanon – Columbus Dispatch
• Obama wants to double funding for charter schools – Columbus Dispatch

Dear Politicians: Charter Schools are the easy way out. Fix public education.

• ODOT pays $2 million in overtime to workers who aren’t eligible – Columbus Dispatch
• Ohio Lawmakers Reluctantly back Bailout – Columbus Dispatch
• Absentee ballot policy under fire – Columbus Dispatch
• Space-Dailey Race – Columbus Dispatch
• Husted won’t say whether he’s SecState candidate – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• J. Kevin Kelley campaign contributors draw FBI scrutiny – Cleveland Plain Dealer

Hurricane Ike

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Across Haiti a Scene of Devastation – Washington Post
• Billions of damage in Cuba, Ike Sets Sites on Texas – Reuters

World News

• Glorious leader almost certainly ill – BBC
• Russians hail Georgia deal as big win – Christian Science Monitor
• U.S. still weighing stronger action against Russia – Los Angeles Times
• Zadari, Karzai pledge new era of cooperation – Washington Post

Has Zadari told the ISI?

• U.S. federal budget deficit approaches $407 billion – Associated Press

Thanks, Shrub! We’re not only safer because you created terrorists over there in Iraq so you could talk about not having to fight them here … you’ve left us bankrupt! You Jackass.

Thursday A.M. Read – Sick Days, Dimora, Uninsured, Brunner, Marc Dann!, Russia v. Georgia, Rice, McCain, Energy Policy

Ohio News

• Editorial: Sick Leave Fight May Require a Power Play by Strickland – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Number of uninsured in Ohio may be higher than report shows – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Political party leaders spar over election rule – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Prominent Dems want Dimora out – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• By 2042, minorities to be majority – Columbus Dispatch
• Anniversary: Largest blackout in US history – Columbus Dispatch
• Dann had rejected favorite for Academy – Columbus Dispatch
• GOP Fear: Voting too soon – Columbus Dispatch
• GOP pushes Cordray to return money – Columbus Dispatch
• Editorial: Full Accounting on Factory Farms – Columbus Dispatch

National/International News

• Russian forces begin pullout from Gori – VOA
• Rice says Russia faces isolation – BBC
• Bush squares up to Putin – Times of London
• Russia rejects West’s call to recognize Georgian sovereignty – The Guardian
• Op-Ed, John McCain: We are all Georgian – Wall Street Journal
• Now is the key time for energy in presidential race – NY Magazine
• Insurgency’s scars mar Afghan main road – New York Times
• GOP in House at risk in NE – New York Times

Sunday Night Last Look – More housing market trouble, Taliban, Malwebolence

From the New York Times

• Housing lenders fear bigger wave of loan defaults
• Ragtag Taliban show tenacity in Afghanistan
• The trolls among us

The Case Against Torture – Transcript: Bill Moyers inverview of Jane Mayer

Jane Mayer, a writer with the New Yorker and formerly of the Wall Street Journal has published her new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. She was interviewed Friday night on Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS. Moyers’ report on the Congressional hearings on Bush Administration-sanctioned torture and lengthy interview with Mayer was riveting television. It also made me feel like I’ve been tuned out of a debate that no American should ignore.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee subcommittee which conducted the hearings on torture, detainee treatment, etc., did so over the course of around six weeks. They should have had these four hearings, back to back, four days in a row and gotten more of the public’s attention to this issue.

Philippe Sands, a University College of London law professor has also written a book detailing story behind the so-called torture memo signed by then SecDef Rumsfeld. Material from Sands’ book, Torture Team, became this article in Vanity Fair.

 

Now is the point in the post where I should write something about the rule of law, unintended consequences, and a presidency which tramples the Constitution, U.S. and international law. But, Sands said it best in his prepared testimony before the House Judiciary Committee:

From these conversations it became clear to me that the Administration has spun a narrative that is false, claiming that the impetus for the new interrogation techniques came from the bottom-up. That is not true: the abuse was a result of pressures and actions driven from the highest levels of government. The Administration claims that it simply followed the law. My investigation indicated that – driven by ideology – the Administration consciously sought legal advice to set aside international constraints on detainee interrogations. The Administration relied on a small number of political appointees, lawyers with no real background in military law, with extreme views on executive power, and with an abiding contempt for international rules like the Geneva Conventions. These are rules that the United States has done more to promote and put in place than maybe any other country. As result, under international law war crimes were committed: I have no doubt that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions was violated, alongside provisions of the 1984 Convention prohibiting Torture. The spectre of war crimes was raised by US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the 2006 judgment in Hamdan v Rumsfeld. That judgment corrected the illegality of President Bush’s determination that none of the detainees at Guantanamo had any rights under Geneva.

For the complete transcript of Bob Moyers’ interview of Jane Mayer Read more

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