Dealing with a crashed computer today. See you soon....
The other day, The Washington Post reported that President-elect Barack Obama was considering tapping Richard Holbrooke, one of the many runners-up in the secretary of state sweepstakes, to be a special envoy for South Asia, focusing on thorny matters involving India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Whether Holbrooke is the ideal candidate for the post or not, this is a good idea. For years now, the United States has not had any high-level official with immediate White House access in charge of the Afghanistan mess. And though the portfolio for this post would extend beyond the war, tapping Holbrooke or some other diplomatic bigfoot as such an envoy would bring much-needed policy leadership to the Afghanistan war.
Two years ago, I wrote a piece noting that the largely forgotten war had been forgotten by the Bush White House:
George Bush has no senior-level official responsible for policies and actions in Afghanistan. "The situation is worsening," notes former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. "We have to have someone in government responsible for the whole picture--military, economic assistance and political. There's a nexus between each. But there's not one person in the government designated to be in charge of that nexus. It could be the ambassador. It could be someone else--if they have resources and clout and accountability. But this Administration has not been keen on accountability."
Since then, there have been no signs of much change on this front. Can you name any top Bush administration official overseeing Afghanistan issues? Let's hope Holbrooke--or some other runner-up--wins this consolation prize.
![[RSS]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/rss_icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[ARCHIVES]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/archives_icon.png){kind=icon}
Comments
speaking of afghanistan,
"Afghanistan is has become the disaster words could not describe, hence, I decided to illustrate this disaster via these photos of babies born deformed."
death made in america:
http://www.rense.com/general70/deathmde.htm
Posted by: as_if!
| December 4, 2008 4:17 PM
George Bush speech you never heard
http://tinyurl.com/62ssmy
Posted by: as_if!
| December 5, 2008 9:22 AM
Season Of Giving Or Season Of Killing
With the Christmas around the corner, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus (Peace Be upon Him) as a period of benevolence and giving. Indeed, as some Christians practice the season of giving and benevolence, others turned it into a season of killing. I called it a season of killing as thousands of Afghans face death and destruction from US-NATO bombing and forced to abandon their villages and become internally displaced only to face imminent death.
According to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health 1.6 million children under the age of 5 and 625000 child bearing age women are at risk of dying from variety of reasons including lack of food and shelter for those internal displacement due to bombing by US-NATO forces
That is why, for the Afghans it is the season of killing when the rest of world enjoy the season of giving, Afghans are forced to receive death and destruction in part at the hands of those that supposedly believe in the season of giving
http://rense.com/general84/season.htm
Posted by: as_if!
| December 5, 2008 12:51 PM
KBR in Iraq: Cheneyism at Its Finest
A former technician who worked for contracting company KBR in Iraq has filed a class-action lawsuit saying the company “exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there.”
The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that “still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.”
http://tinyurl.com/5hputd
Posted by: as_if!
| December 5, 2008 2:25 PM
Post A Comment