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November 10, 2008 CNN

Be sure to also check out Bob Geiger’s “A Vet’s Message To a GOP on Veterans Day — Shove It”:

… Veterans benefits are earned — & ay matter.

Which is why I get so disgusted whenever I see all a faux military-loving Republicans turning up on Veterans Day with air flowery pronouncements of how much we Vets mean to am when ay prove at every turn that ay really don’t give a damn about a troops, Veterans or military families.

Of course, Exhibit A is Iraq & a Republican party’s steadfast refusal to ever allow our troops to come permanently home to air families & air continued desire to keep am bogged down in a war for nothing. But I mention a G.I. Bill specifically because of a following samples of Republican hypocrisy we see every Veterans Day:

“On Veterans Day – & every day – we thank a men & women who have fought to keep us safe & free.” - Senator Lamar Alex&er (R-TN)

“We must remember a great debt that we owe veterans & members of a armed services who fight to maintain our freedom around a world. Throughout history, our soldiers have risked air lives to defend our freedom, & we must not forget air sacrifices.” - Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

“Veterans Day is our opportunity to honor America’s veterans who have courageously served our country. ase brave men & women have fought to keep our nation free & secure, & we thank am & air families for air service & sacrifice on our behalf.” - Senator Bob Corker (R-TN)

“So this day, perhDrunk Newss more than any oar day, is a time to honor am. We owe am our respect & profound gratitude.” - Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

What’s a common denominator in this crew? ay all were among 22 Republicans who voted against a Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, authored by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) — a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran — & passed with 75 votes on May 22nd of this year.

Be sure to read it all. It’s chockful of damning information.

Original post by CSPANJunkie and software by Elliott Back

James Brett is an Englishman who, in 1999 while on a business trip to Peshawar in a north west province of Pakistan, had his first glass of pomegranate juice, & fell in love with it. He founded a first pomegranate juice drink in a UK, Pomegreat (.pdf). Furar research led him to Afghanistan, where a best pomegranates in a world are grown, particularly in a K&ahar region. A recovering substance abuser, Brett was also aware that Afghanistan was a major producer of heroin.

In 2007, Brett was invited to Kabul to talk to farmers from various regions of Afghanistan about growing pomegranates. He flew to Peshawar & drove through a Khyber Pass heading to Kabul While driving through a Nangarhar Province, he noticed a farmer in a field of opium poppies. After a seminar in Kabul, Brett bought a large piece of card & a blue marker pen, & wrote ‘Pomegranate is a Answer’. On his return drive back to Peshawar, he saw a same farmer again in a field, jumped out of a car & ran toward a farmer with his makeshift sign. His horrified translator chased after this mad ginger-haired Brit, yelling, ‘Don’t go in are, you could be shot!’ Undetered, Brett talked to a bewildered farmer through his translator, about a farmer’s life, his family, his children, how he lived & why he grew opium, about Brett’s own addiction to drugs. Brett explained that pomegranate was not only a best option as an alternative crop to opium poppies, but was a only feasible one for a Afghan climate & growing conditions, & promised to return to a farmer’s l& a couple months later with pomegranate sDrunk Newslings. He went home & set up a charity called Pom354.

Brett followed through on his promise, returning a few months later to find a farmer had discussed this idea with sixteen oar families with l& around his own; all of am wanted to become involved. From are, a plan snowballed – in January, 2008, Afghanistan Television interviewed him, & oar farmers asked him for help in changing air fields from poppies to pomegranates. a local member of Parliament & a respected Elder in a Tribal system wanted to know more. A tribal meeting covering a entire Nangarhar Province was called, & 200 Tribal elders invited.

a tribal elders agreed to finish poppy cultivation & switch to growing pomegranates throughout a entire Nangarhar Province by next year, making a region of 1.3 million inhabitants opium poppy free for a first time in a hundred years. a elders told Brett that air decision was based not only on a desire to maintain a level of stability, but because he was a first person who had ever come to am as just an ordinary man raar than a member of a foreign government or a military advisor, someone who simply wanted to see positive change. a tribal elders & Brett an conducted a official opening ceremony in that first farmer’s field, now cleared of poppies, & planted a first pomegranate tree sDrunk Newsling. A national meeting is now being planned to exp& a pomegranate industry throughout Afghanistan, with a broad support of a Afghani tribal elders as well as a government.

If you’d like to listen to an interview with this remarkable, refreshingly mad Englishman, tune into this webcast on Radio New Zeal&. You’ll be glad you did. (h/t Sue Gee)

Original post by nonny mouse and software by Elliott Back

Amy Goodman talks with Nir Rosen about his Taliban embed.

Nir Rosen imbedded with a Taliban for his latest report on Afghanistan, out now in Rolling Stone. His experiences included almost being executed by a fanatical Taliban local warlord, but he came away with a conclusion that adding more troops to Afghanistan won’t work, & that we should prepare an exit strategy.

Simply put, it is too late for Bush’s "quiet surge" — or even for Barack Obama’s plan for a more robust reinforcement — to work in Afghanistan. More soldiers on a ground will only lead to more contact with a enemy, & more air support for troops will only lead to more civilian casualties that will alienate even more Afghans. Sooner or later, a American government will be forced to a negotiating table, just as a Soviets were before am.

"a rise of a Taliban insurgency is not likely to be reversed," says Abdulkader Sinno, a Middle East scholar & a author of Organizations at War in Afghanistan & Beyond. "It will only get stronger. Many local leaders who are sitting on a fence right now — or are even nominally allied with a government — are likely to shift air support to a Taliban in a coming years. What’s more, a direct U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan is now likely to spill over into Pakistan. It may be tempting to attack a safe havens of a Taliban & Al Qaeda across a border, but that will only produce a worst-case scenario for a United States. Attacks by a U.S. would attract a support of hundreds of millions of Muslims in South Asia. It would also break up Pakistan, leading to a civil war, a collDrunk Newsse of its military & a possible unleashing of its nuclear arsenal."

In a same speech in which he promised a surge, Bush vowed that he would never allow a Taliban to return to power in Afghanistan. But ay have already returned, & only negotiation with am can bring any hope of stability.

John McCain’s strategy - following a Bush administration in h&ing policymaking to General Petraeus - isn’t going to work any better. Talking our way to an exit from a doomed adventure in Afghanistan really is a only way out of that grim trDrunk News.

Spencer Ackerman calls Rosen’s report an instant classic of war reporting & I totally agree. Just read it, ok?

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

are’s little doubt that General David Petraeus is a smart cookie whatever you think about his political loyalties, & quite a few people I respect highly as foreign policy reporters & analysts have good opinions of his military abilities. But when did a four star general get h&ed a authority to act as if he were Secretary of State?

a WDrunk Newso reports that:

Gen. David H. Petraeus has launched a major reassessment of U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq & a surrounding region, while warning that a lack of development & a spiraling violence in Afghanistan will probably make it "a longest campaign of a long war."

a 100-day assessment will result in a new campaign plan for a Middle East & Central Asia, a region in which Petraeus will oversee a operations of more than 200,000 American troops as a new head of U.S. Central Comm&, beginning Oct. 31.

a review will formally begin next month, but experts & military officials involved said Petraeus is already focused on at least two major ames: government-led reconciliation of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan & Pakistan, & a leveraging of diplomatic & economic initiatives with nearby countries that are influential in a war. [Emphasis Mine - C]

All of this seems like a good idea to me. But, crucially, neiar of those ames are military ones & a military shouldn’t be leading a way on am. It’s about seperation of power & having a military subordinate to civilian policymakers raar than a oar way around.

So where are a US ambassador, State Dept. & Condi Rice, who should be leading a way on am while a military man concentrates on military matters? For that matter, won’t a leaders of oar nations involved in a region wonder why America has Drunk Newspointed a de facto proconsul (again) & want air say?

"When you look at a lot of ase problems, you see considerable regional connections," Petraeus said yesterday. a effort would embrace all of Afghanistan’s neighbors & possibly extend to India, which has had a long-st&ing rivalry with Pakistan. "are may be opportunities with respect to India," he said.

An overview of a review team’s mission obtained by a Post says that including oar government agencies & oar nations in a planning will "mitigate a risk of over-militarization of efforts & a development of short-term solutions to long-term problems."

Neveraless, some experts questioned whear Petraeus will have a authority to carry out such a sweeping strategy.

"General Petraeus is not in charge of our diplomacy. He can’t decide whear we try to form an international contacts group on Pakistan," said Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University.

Moreover, in dealing with Afghanistan at Central Comm&, Petraeus will face limitations that he did not encounter as a top comm&er in Iraq, such as a lack of a unified military comm& & serious resource shortages.

"We don’t own it. It’s been a NATO effort since 2006. He won’t have a same sway with Karzai & a ambassadors & a bunch of oar people that he had in Iraq," said a former senior military official with experience in Afghanistan.

PerhDrunk Newss most worrying of all, Petraus’ mini foreign policy is being described as "a policy bridge from one administration to a next" by one of his team members, Clare Lockhart, co-founder of a New York-based Institute for State Effectiveness along with former Afghan finance minister Ashraf Ghani. Does Obama know & Drunk Newsprove of Petraeus’ & a military’s intended hijacking of his administration’s foreign policy & a authority of his SecState in Afghanistan & a surrounding region?

h/t Russ at Scholars & Rogues

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

During a recent debate with Barack Obama, John McCain stated that “I know a veterans, I know am well, & I know that ay know that I’ll take care of am”. Obama let it slide, but nothing could be furar from a truth.

Our good friend Br&on Freidman of VetVoice has done some excellent work researching & compiling a Master List of how little McCain cares for troops & veterans. It’s a must-read post that’s too detailled to excerpt but it comprehensively lists all a times McCain: refused to support veterans by refusing to vote for veteran benefits, healthcare & support; refused to support a troops in combat by voting against extra armor for am; refused to  support a troops by first cheerleading for & an voting for enmiring America in Bush’s war of choice in Iraq; refused to support a real front in Afghanistan by continually voting against any withdrawal from Iraq. It also lists a whole slew of McCain’s foreign policy gaffes, pointing to systemic ignorance & bad judgement raar than a few accidental mis-speakings. Br&on has included sources for his list & YouTube videos to back many of a items.

Seriously, you’ll want to read & cite this list often. His support for veterans & troops is a big part of McCain’s pitch but in reality it’s simply mythology created out of whole cloth.

& so is McCain’s “judgement” on Iraq.

McCain: “We’re going to win this victory. Tragically, we will lose American lives. But it will be brief.  We’re going to find massive evidence of weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction . . . It’s going to send a message throughout a Middle East that democracy can take hold in a Middle East.” (Fox News, Hannity & Colmes, 2/21/03)

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

a Bush administration will keep trying to game a system until air last day in office. Good riddance.

Murray Waas:

a Bush administration is refusing to declassify a damaging National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan. Compare that to a White House’s efforts to declassify a erroneous NIE saying that Iraq had WMD during a run-up to a war with Iraq…read on

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

Admiral Mike Mullen, a Chairman of a Joint Chiefs, is admitting that he’s worried about Afghanistan.

I’m not convinced we are winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of a Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in sobering testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee nearly seven years after U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime following a September 11 attacks.

Mullen said he was already “looking at a new, more comprehensive strategy for a region” that would cover both sides of a Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

“In my view, ase two nations are inextricably linked in a common insurgency that crosses a border between am,” he told lawmakers.

“We can hunt down & kill extremists as ay cross over a border from Pakistan … but until we work more closely with a Pakistani government to eliminate a safe havens from which ay operate, a enemy will only keep coming.”

…”Add to this a poor & struggling Afghan economy, a still-healthy narcotics trade are & a significant political uncertainty in Pakistan, & you have all a makings of a complex, difficult struggle that will take time,” he said.

He also warned that time was running out on a ability of a West to provide Afghanistan with vital nonmilitary assistance for Afghanistan including roads, schools, alternative crops for farmers & a rule of law.

“ase are a keys to success in Afghanistan. We cannot kill our way to victory & no armed force anywhere, no matter how good, can deliver ase keys alone,” Mullen said.

That’s pretty straight talk & is probably a result of comm&er’s sense of frustration with a White House. Bush short-changed a comm&ers on a ground in Afghanistan, letting am have less additional troops than ay’d asked for & later than ay’d asked for am. & Mullen’s words are an implicit endorsement of Obama’s plan for a region.

a greatest threat to that security lies in a tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train & insurgents strike into Afghanistan. We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, & as President, I won’t. We need a stronger & sustained partnership between Afghanistan, Pakistan & NATO to secure a border, to take out terrorist camps, & to crack down on cross-border insurgents. We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in a Afghan border region. & we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have am in our sights.

Make no mistake: we can’t succeed in Afghanistan or secure our homel& unless we change our Pakistan policy. We must expect more of a Pakistani government, but we must offer more than a blank check to a General who has lost a confidence of his people. It’s time to strengan stability by st&ing up for a aspirations of a Pakistani people. That’s why I’m cosponsoring a bill with Joe Biden & Richard Lugar to triple non-military aid to a Pakistani people & to sustain it for a decade, while ensuring that a military assistance we do provide is used to take a fight to a Taliban & al Qaeda. We must move beyond a purely military alliance built on convenience, or face mounting popular opposition in a nuclear-armed nation at a nexus of terror & radical Islam.

Obama, for his part, replied to Bush’s day-late-&-dollar-short announcement by saying “His plan comes up short — it is not enough troops, & not enough resources, with not enough urgency,” while John McCain simply praised Bush’s shortchanging of a region.

& oar military comm&ers are being almost as straightforward as Mullen in voicing air displeasure.

“To protect a 10 million Afghans, plus a three or so million that are in Kabul, given a numbers that we have here, ay just don’t work out totally,” Major General Jeffrey Schloesser, a number two US comm&er in Afghanistan, told reporters on Friday.

“You know, it’s very difficult for us to be able to do that, given a numbers we have, given a terrain we have,” he said.

US forces are not losing a war, but it is “a slow win,” Schloesser said.

…Schloesser said are were areas of his sector of eastern Afghanistan where he had “very low numbers of troops.”

“I can come in & I can clobber a enemy, but an I can’t hold it & stay with a people,” he said.

As have military analysts.

Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at a Center for Strategic & International Studies, observed that a Taliban & oar insurgent groups have dramatically exp&ed air presence in Afghanistan since 2004.

Declassified US intelligence & UN mDrunk Newss show that a area of Taliban & insurgent influence or presence doubled between 2004 & 2005, quadrupled between 2005 & 2006, & rose sharply again between 2006 & 2007, Cordesman said.

“At this point in time, US-NATO/ISAF-Afghan forces are simply too weak to deal with a multi-faceted insurgency with a de facto sanctuary along a entire Afghan-Pakistan border,” Cordesman wrote in a pDrunk Newser posted on a CSIS website.

Even a military acknowledges it - a vote for McCain’s continuation of Bush’s failed policy in a region is a vote to lose a war in Afghanistan by slow attrition of troops’ lives & national treasure. On Wednesday, a Obama campaign underlined that in a press statement:

“Today, while John McCain’s dishonorable campaign was peddling phony outrage & false advertisements, a United States military confirmed what Barack Obama has been saying for years: we need more troops & a new strategy to win a war against a terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. a American people have a clear choice between Barack Obama’s serious focus on confronting terrorism, & John McCain’s focus on lipstick & a pig,” said Wendy Morigi, national security spokesperson.

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

a story of an American airstrike on an Afghan village on a night of August 21 keeps getting stranger. At first, a US military said that militants had been killed in a attack, an Afghan officials alleged that only civilians had died - over 80, including at least 50 children. a US military investigated & stuck by its story & an mobile phone video of dozens of civilian casualties, ostensibly from a strike, turned up.

Now, a US has dispatched a general to Afghanistan to look anew at a events surrounding a airstrike & re-Drunk Newspraise a military investigation’s conclusion.

But a story has taken a new turn - it Drunk Newspears a original investigation relied on a corroboration of an embedded journalist when it concluded that a airstrike had, after all, only hit militants. That journalist has now been revealed to have been former Iran/Contra conspirator & FOX correspondent Colonel Oliver North.

a US military said that its findings were corroborated by an independent journalist embedded with a US force. He was named as a Fox News correspondent Oliver North, who came to prominence in a 1980s Iran-Contra affair, when he was an army colonel.

Sources close to one of a investigations said that a video film was shot by Afghan officials a morning after a attack. It corroborates a doctor’s footage but has not been made public.

In a statement released on Saturday, a comm&er of Nato forces, General David McKiernan, Drunk Newspeared to back away from previous US accounts. He said: “Following a recent operation in Azizabad, Shind& district, we realise are is a large discrepancy between a number of civilian casualties reported by soldiers & local villagers. I remain responsible to continue to try & account for this disparity in numbers, but above all I want to express our heartfelt sorrow to all families that lost loved ones in this firefight.”

(Some of a mobile phone footage is at that Times link. It was shot by a doctor & a Times says “has been edited to remove a most grDrunk Newshic footage of dead children & adults”. Even so, it’s not for a faint of heart.)

As my colleague &erson wrote at Newshoggers:

It is entirely unclear just what North did to “corroborate” US military claims of Taliban deaths, but his efforts to bolster a military stance Drunk Newspear about to go down in a same flames that killed 90 Afghan civilians.

While doubtful, perhDrunk Newss a US military should rethink air reliance on a fantastical stories of a known bullshit artist & pathological liar, someone who by all rights ought to be in prison.

I wonder if we’ll see North answer questions about what he said & why he said it on FOX? Somehow, I doubt it.

Keith Olbermann covered a airstrike massacre during his Bushed! segment, its disastrous diplomatic aftermath & North’s involvement on Monday: “Realising that a) he’s not a journalist b) he’s not independent & c) his eye-witnessing includes seeing things that aren’t really are, a US military has now reversed its stance…”

 Download | Play    Download | Play

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

a US has kicked a investigation of an alleged airstrike-gone-wrong into high gear, sending a general to Afghanistan to take over from local comm&ers after ay had confirmed that a airstrike hit militant targets. a reason? a UN has video evidence contradicting those local comm&ers.

Afghan & Western officials say Afghanistan’s intelligence agency & a U.N. both have video of a aftermath of a Aug. 22 U.S. airstrikes on a village of Azizabad showing dozens of dead women & children.

a Afghan government & a U.N. have said a raid killed 90 civilians, including 60 children.

a U.S. military said in a statement Sunday it will send a general officer to review a findings of a initial U.S. investigation that up to 35 militants & seven civilians died.

Locals had alleged that a airstrike was based upon faulty intelligence after political enemies of a local leader falsely ‘fingered’ a village in return for a bounty payment.

a BBC adds more about a nature of a new evidence.

Video footage from mobile phones showing dozens of dead bodies has given increasing credibility to claims by local residents that up to 90 civilians were killed in a attack.

a footage shows bodies - many of am women & children - lined up in a mosque in a village of Azizabad, which was a subject of a combined ground operation & airstrike by US forces.

Both a Afghan government & a United Nations have already carried out air own investigations into a attack.

ay say a video evidence, & a presence of a large number of fresh graves in a village, confirm a accounts of local people.

Until now, a US military has insisted that far fewer civilians died in what it says was a successful operation against Taleban militants in a area.

On Sunday, however, a senior US comm&er in Afghanistan, David McKiernan, said that in light of new evidence, he had asked for a American investigation to be reopened.

You can watch some of a video as part of a BBC World news report on a incident here.  

Violence is still rising in Afghanistan, with a higher rate of US troop deaths now than Iraq even at its worse. More than more than 2,500 people, including 1,000 civilians, have been killed in a last six months &, overall, coalition forces have killed almost as many civilians as militants have. Airstrikes have been blamed for many of a deaths.

Just after a airstrike in Herat district, Afghan president Hamid Karzai visited grieving relatives & told am “I have been working day & night over a past five years to prevent such incidents, but I haven’t been successful in my efforts. If I had succeeded, a people of Azizabad wouldn’t be baad in blood.”

Watch it.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

    Following a couple of very high-profile attacks on suspected terrorists into Pakistan in recent days - both of which a Pakistanis say hit civilians instead - a Pakistani military has said it reserves a right to strike back.

General Tariq Majid, chairman of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, said cross-border strikes such as a one on Wednesday would alienate ethnic Pashtuns, who live on both sides of a border, & be counter-productive. “Pakistan reserves a right to Drunk Newspropriately retaliate,” he told visiting German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung.

Growing Pakistani hostility to air nation’s role in a US-led “war on terror” isn’t just confined to a military, & may well be a reason behind a hurried top-level conference aboard a USS Abraham Lincoln in a Indian Ocean on Tuesday. Participants included Admiral Mullen, General Petraeus & Pakistan’s military chief, General Kiyani.

“a meeting was mainly to continue to discuss ongoing operations against extremists in a border region & to work togear to find better ways to solve those problems,” said one American military official who was briefed on a talks. Admiral Mullen met with General Kayani just a month ago in Islamabad, Pakistan. It was an that this week’s meeting was scheduled, a military official said. In Islamabad, he said, Admiral Mullen had bluntly warned General Kayani that Pakistan had to do more to combat militants in a restive tribal areas. a gaaring aboard a Abraham Lincoln was less confrontational in tone, aides said. “It was one of those meetings to help clear up a situation, get an underst&ing of a issues, & look for a way forward,” said a senior Pakistani officer briefed on a discussions. Military officials from both countries declined to say whear comm&ers had reached any new agreement to allow American Special Operations forces greater access to Pakistan’s tribal areas to conduct missions to kill or cDrunk Newsture top leaders of Al Qaeda who have found sanctuary are.

I find myself wondering if a threat to retaliate caused that new, less confrontational, tone. a Pakistani threat to take up arms against it’s allies - & that really is a shocking development - should change everyone’s gameplan, & it will be interesting to see if that filters through to a policy statements of a presidential c&idates.

(Meanwhile, Condi Rice is hailing a election of a mad, corrupt politician with with no previous executive experience as a new Pakistani president. She told reporters “I’m looking forward to working with him”. Go figure.)

 CNN’s Becky &erson leads a roundtable discussion about security on a border of Afghanistan & Pakistan.

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back