Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

Ain‘t gonna study, study war no more, ain‘t gonna think, think of war no more
Ain‘t gonna fight, fight the war no more, we‘re giving it up, we‘re gonna let it go
We‘re giving it up, we‘re gonna let it go

The money spent on bombs alone can build poor people a happy home
And some good we can do, you treat me like I treat you

No more starving in the nation, everybody getting an education
Ev'rytime a baby is born, we know he‘ll have him a happy home

Ain‘t gonna study, study war no more, ain‘t gonna think, think of war no more
Ain‘t gonna fight, fight the war no more, we‘re giving it up, we‘re gonna let it go
We‘re giving it up, we‘re gonna let it go

[willie dixon]

oh yeah, woo hoo

leadbelly - study war no more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EIzKAGwJ-0&feature=related

the seekers - study war no more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwEN21Qs45c&feature=related

patsi, your 5:39 deserves a repost:

Where are the new voters who called Hillary a warmonger during the primaries?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/opinion/01herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Does Palin think the man upstairs is clearing the deck for her 2012 run? Huck is out, but I could get behind Romney/Ron Paul.

Based on what I've seen this year, I would not vote for Obama, again. The only reason I did vote for him was because of McCain's choice for VP.

I wonder how KO and the rest of the lefties who piled on Hil'ry are feeling these days? To them I ask, "Where's your Moses now"?

Dwight Eisenhower:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”

...and until everyone is fed, and clothed, and able to live freely, as many women will never be able to do based on their misfortune of being born into certain cultures, until there is peace for everyone, there is no peace.

Help the women rise up to control their own lives and the ugliness will dicipate.

"The man suspected of gunning down four police officers in a suburban coffee shop was shot and killed by Seattle police early Tuesday, a sheriff's spokesman said."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091201/ap_on_re_us/us_officers_shot

Does Huckabee have time to spin this away?

My favorite Rosanne Cash moment was a song done with her daddy - I still miss someone. Unable to locate it but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZtd_o-CFdo

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272591

Patsi,
Been thinking the same thing..I don't hear anything from the new voter's about CHANGE now??? What change?

Blue,
I agree,where things stand now, I wouldn't vote for Obama again either..I would at this point leave the top of the ticket unchecked...

I'm hoping that with all of this time spent studying the AFPAK problem that Team Obama will come up with a strategy that reflects reality on the ground and not some idealist dream.
today is the moment that the war truly becomes his.

Jack

The link I posted last night seems to indicate that we are preparing to bypass the national government and the war lord structure and go directly to the village level. If it is successful it should make things difficult for not only the Taliban but also for the war lords.

With that type of splintering will we create a confederation of independent tribes under the loose umbrella of a central gov. or do we create another Somalia.

Jack

mornin'

On MoJo this AM they were saying this is Huck's second Willie Horton. I must have missed the first one.

Eisenhower - what a pansy. :-) Funny how the RW war spewers never quote Ike - and for good reason - his was not a war of choice or a war of retribution or a war to right some moral wrong for atrocities against the German people, but a war to stop the naked aggression and conquest of Europe and beyond by the Third Reicht - and one we did not enter until the fate of Europe was in the balance. He knew about the horrors of war, and the tradeoffs that are made to wage it.

Even in bygod West Virginia, I could not vote for a Repug ticket if it contained any of the current crop of prominent idiots in the repug party. Like they say, if you think things couldn't get any worse, wait.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272600

Jack, if we bypass the national and tribal governments, are we occupiers or invaders? I want to make sure to keep my descriptions correct.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/01/party-crashers-today-show_n_374983.html

White House party crashers on Today "the truth will come out." Not to niggle, but why not help it come out by TELLING US WHAT IT IS.

Back to your regular programming.

since today's topic is about agression, here's a new study to participate in to spot it.

"Is your angry tweet a precursor of aggressive behavior?"

http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/11/30/is_your_angry_tweet_a_precursor_of_aggressive_behavior

uh oh.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/30/mccain-contradicts-himsel_n_374588.html

not that I know whether he's right, and that would be a welcome change, but IF he IS, I actually agree with JohnnyMc. (Is that funny sound I hear trhe approach of Armageddon?)

Glad you posted that Ike Quote patd...when I think about how LBJ squandered hopes for the Great Society on Vietnam, it makes me want to throw up.

wars shmores, there's sexier stuff for media to have us think worry about

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/rachel-uchitel-tiger-woods-supposed-mistress-denies-affair/story?id=9214021

pat, indeed - Let's get to the more improtant stuff - whether tiger's wife beat the crap out of him when she found out he was having an affair, the SEC championship game (ROLL TIDE), whether Palin is just blowing smoke up her sycophants' asses by pretending to ride the bus on her book tour.

Well, OK, maybe a little politics. If Reid wants to move the healthcare billf orward, his idea to get the bill moving by making what precious little "progressive" stuff in it weaker is just dumbass stupid. Let's try this - if you vote against cloture on this bill I will strip you of your committee chairmanships and will move you to the DC animal control committee; in other words, I can and will make your life in the Senate miserable as long as I am leader.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/30/reid-still-has-cards-to-p_n_373999.html

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't really care - I think the bill is too weak to be of much use, and my comments are not an endorsement of the bill, but rather criticism of Casper Milquetoast and his gentle ways of leadership.

pogo, perhaps to spur bipartisan effort, he can merge the hc bill with the war/troop enhancement bill

pat - would that be an example of politcs' strange bedfellows?

Patd

typical GMA,
Don't they know the tiger woods story is so yesterday.

Jack

tony, bad news from argentina

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/01/argentinian-judge-blocks-gay-wedding

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-dunn/palins-latest-emrogueem-g_b_373453.html

John Wooden, John Wodden LEGS - really is there a difference? God, it never stops coming.

Thought for the day :
" Minds are like parachutes, they only work when open. "

even more important news.
and it's 'bout dang time too.

"Bobby Bowden's legendary coaching career at Florida State University is expected to end today, the Tallahassee Democrat has learned. Bowden is expected to announce his retirement as FSU's head football coach — possibly by way of a statement to be released today, sources close to the situation told the Democrat."

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091201/FSU03/912010312/Bowden-expected-to-retire

afghan folly.... is that like when you accidentally do a double crochet instead of a single crochet.... is it ripple or granny squares.... hook size H or I......

on a more serious note..... here's what the Brits are saying about Obama in the latest Economist....
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14961345

skunk alert:

".....Those who used skunk were almost seven times more likely than ordinary cannabis users to develop psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, they found.

"In the last five to six years it has been established that there is a link between heavy cannabis consumption and psychosis, but there is a lot of argument about how important it is,"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/01/skunk-users-psychosis-risk-research

>>>" Minds are like parachutes, they only work when open. "<<<<

What are you, C-Bob? Some kind of commie agitator????

I see the Obama haters are continuing.
But he has gotten Health Care further than any other president since Lyndon Johnson started Medicare,
prevented a depression,
gotten a coalition including China and Russia to tighten sanctions against Iran,
overseen a major agreement between Turkey and Kurdistan,
turned around a host of Bush policies on the environment including sale of oil leases in Utah,
started over 2,500 badly needed highway projects through the stimulus budget,
the DOW is up over 53%,....

Exactly what magic wand does Hillary have that could have done better?

The biggest problem right now is a wishy-washy Senate that can't agree on any thing. At least the Republican senate passed Bush's initiatives, even if they did pass a lot of their own pork.

1944 John Densmore Los Angeles CA, drummer (Doors-Light My Fire)

The Doors - Roadhouse Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwfmfMBLZiM

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272619

Don1 -
One more for your list , he got China to move on Climate Change.

"In accordance with the principles of double-think it does not matter if the war is not real. For when it is, victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, but it is meant to be continuous." -- George Orwell

Boy I don't always agree with Craig but when I do, it's like we are sharing the same head space SMILE.

don, those rose colored glasses must make the world look wonderful. Obama has done more than the repugs would admit and less than the progressive dems would like.

I think he's done OK in some areas, considering the challenges he faced - especially with respect to the Recovery Act and keeping the economy from tanking completely. I think his record on the Patriot Act extension, Iraq and Afghanistan, and keeping the veil of secrecy between us and the government is reprehensible and looks like Bush Lite. He's been a wuss on Gitmo, but he's making some progress there - but it ain't closed. Leaving healthcare reform heavy lifting to Harry Reid instead of working up support himself shows a lack of leadership on his part - until a bill that does something other than reward the same bastard insurance companies who have driven the system into the frickin' ground actually gets to the floor of the Senate, passes both chambers and is reconciled I wouldn't crow quite so loudly.

But the fundamental problem for folks here who don't support him as strongly as they had hoped they would be able to is that the change he promised is what has gone lacking.

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ahD2WoDAL9h0

"But the fundamental problem for folks here who don't support him as strongly as they had hoped they would be able to is that the change he promised is what has gone lacking. "

That's exactly it, Pogo. And Don -- it is incredibly stupid to call any criticism of Obama as hate speech. That's GOP-think.

The Art of War

http://www.chinapage.com/sunzi-e.html

And we are in the part of the world where they have refined it to an art. They drained the Soviets treasure, they call the Soviets occupation of Afghanistan their Vietnam. Alexander couldn't do it. Afghanistan "abandon all hope ye who enter here"

The people we are fighting are not playing checkers, they are playing 3D chess and they are Chess Masters.

One of the concepts in Art Of War is to force your enemy to keep an army far from their home and force them to sustain that army at a distance to drain the enemie's coffers. We are already in a recession.

The article I posted from the Economist gives a fairly balanced view of Obama....
that's why I posted it.

I don't think we really want a president.... I think we want a super hero....
someone who can reverse all the bad stuff the super villain, George W. Bush, did while he played president. Too bad real life isn't like the movies....

Posted by: RebelliousRenee Author Profile Page | December 1, 2009 12:00 PM

I just wanted a centrist that wouldn't cause to much social shock to the country. I am an Independent. I wanted someone who doesn't scare easy Obama is deliberate maybe to a fault. Otherwise he is too far to the left for me. I need him steady and willing to change when needed. George W Bush was stubborn about ever changing course after he initiated a direction to take the country SEE DON RUMSFELD. Events are constantly changing a President needs to be able to pivot also that requires some flexibility. I know that Obama is playing several levels of chess at the same time he is the head of the Democrat Party so that's one level with in his own base. He is playing a level domestically and another level internationally. I think Afghanistan has wide reaching repercussions - It's a tough nut. I am going to support his decision in the case of Afghanistan because it is plainly a Herculean undertaking he didn't ask for. That doesn't mean I am going LIKE it, I have zero interest in Nation Building.

We have people in our own country with needs, the Hopis could use some electricity and Indoor plumbing, and Appalachia could use some attention too...that's just a couple of examples anyone been down to the gulf coast lately and viewed the progress after Katrina hit?

Renee - not sure whether it's the link, my computer, operator error, or whatever - but my IE freezes every time I try to open that article.

Patsi, that's certainly it for me, and I really don't mean to speak for others. I remember well the primary arguments we had here, which resulted in a bunch of good folks(and some I'm not sad to see gone) leaving to go to the backchannel blog - (and I still think that was disloyal, but hey, who am I anyway?) - and I felt like the basic difference between the two were that Hillary was running as a pragmatist versus Obama's idealist - and we ended up with Obama the pragmatist. And so it goes.

lunch

Pogo....
IMO.... your 11:51 is excellent....

I think Obama is weak on leadership too..... but I hold out some hope that he's smart enough to learn and make adjustments. I didn't think he had enough time in government to understand what he was taking on. But he's our president. Refighting the primaries makes as much sense to me as refighting the civil war. However.... IMO,substantive criticism of him is healthy and necessary.

Ree.... IMO... your 12:18 is excellent also....
I am an independent also..... but I definitely lean left.... I want universal healthcare.... and I too have zero interest in nation building.

I don't think Obama is very weak at all...Just like Bush; he is very strong...but for the wrong people. Certainly not for main st..........

Lunch? What did you bring back for me Pop's?

"Shortly after the scandal broke, the Florida Democratic Party returned $200,000 in contributions from Rothstein and his law firm. The state Republican Party gave back $150,000, and Gov. Charlie Crist returned $9,600 that Rothstein and his wife, Kim, had donated to Crist's campaign for the U.S. Senate."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091201/ap_on_bi_ge/us_lawyer_millions_missing

What is Obama going to say to all of the people losing their homes now? He is going to tell us that he will make it easier for the first time home buyers to buy a home...and wall st. say's that now is the right time to buy one...He doesn't think that you need a job, in order to buy one....

You have to pay the Mortgage...that is if his bank buddies lend money to buy one....they are not...he gave them the money that they asked for; and they still won't lend any out..There are people with perfect credit ratings..that are having trouble finding a bank that will lend them money..

It is more profitable for the banks to foreclose on homeowners that are behind, than it is to re-negotiate thier existing ones...where is the help he promised..(after he was electrode, and before also) for these people...I seem to remember him saying that he would give judges the power to decide the outcome of foreclosures......he is no different than Bush..just a little better..even the Tarp money did some good ..if you want to say that the stimulus did..they both did a lot of good for the big corps...a complete collapse would have been better...as things are...we are going to be in the same place anyway...things will not be getting better anytime soon...

.they need all of our money for the wars...that they started...and don't know how to get out of....that is if they want to get out.....all the D's and the R;s are making a...KILLING.... in one way or the other...thru the wars that they both voted for.....

The only people that is working due to spending some of the Stimulus Money..are government employees, soldiers, and a few big construction Corps.......oh and the prisons should see a rise in correction police hiring...will be a lot of people stealing food so that they can eat.....regardless of who started these wars..he has been continuing them......and the only ones that are going off to get killed are the unemployed......

I have family and friends that have lost homes, Im real pissed off..he said that he knew how to fix it all,,,hired the best that the Clinton Administration had in order to help him with resolving our problems.... and now he is going to have a job's confrence with the same people that put us int this position...wtf?? Just throw some of the fn money out the windows of thier limousines...while driving thru the cities..just give it away....it will be spent......and circulated....find an easy way for us to use it.....but all he will end up doing...is giving more tax breaks, just like Bush to the corps..and give incentives....all bs...that won't help those that are drowning right now.....sorry to have bothered you...later.!!

1. A. I think we'll be out of the fighting in Afghanistan, but perhaps not out of the country by mid October, 2010 = an October surprise.

B. After 9/11, the bushcheneytenetrumdum junta's propaganda raised osama bin laden to the equivalent of a national leader. Therefore, bagging the bastard would be a major rack to display on the gun room wall.

2. Look for Alec Baldwin to either run for office or become a FT lobbyist.

3. The huckster could still become the republican vp candidate to neutralize willard's religious disability.

It's too bad that he's out of the running, because he's the closest thing to a man that the republicans have running.

4. ron paul was mentioned supra. I never saw an answer from the paulistas to my Q, as to whether or not Dr. paul refuses to treat vets. I believe he has said that he NEVER treats anyone who has gov insurance, like Tri Care for Life or Medicare. What's the answer ?

Right now, my dream republican ticket is willard and cheney.

solar, it's a [insert expletive that rhymes with clucking here] crime and the mortgage bankers should be lined up against a wall and shot.

But I love rose colored glasses Pogo.
I think you're right Renee, people really over estimate the power of the presidency. When I was in Turkey there was a story about Kennedy ordering all nukes taken out of Turkey in compliance with the Cuban Treaty with Russia. Supposedly the military took them right back in and thumbed their noses at Kennedy.

Personally, I wish he'd get rid of the entire Geithner/Summers crowd and bring in someone from somewhere other than Wall Street Banks. A few successful CEOs in major cabinet positions would be nice too.

The domestic financial proposals are Clinton era beliefs that caused a lot more damage than Bush ever did. Other than that I'm pretty happy with what he's accomplished in 10 months with the light staffing he has thanks to the Senate Republicans putting freezes on every nomination.

Would I like his projects through faster, or more focus on some areas? Sure. (i'm asking myself the questions, shades of Rumsfeld for the people that miss him). I also don't want him to get through everything he's proposed.

I think he's working simultaneously on a lot of things and he's getting a lot of policies and laws through that people don't notice. I'm willing to give him more than a year to fix the screw ups of the last 12 years.

Don,

I sorta of agree with you, that it will take a long time to fix all of the wrong that has been done. But even the most ardent Obama defenders.....have to feel a little stupid..like me...cos I believed all...well not all..but most of his bait and switch...BANKS....and the most for this minority..is the bait and switch..of him being the first minority to become POTUS......he is just one of the Good Ole Boy's...he is no different..just cos he has different skin color...the DNC,, and him are just the same color as the RNC....GREEN= GREEDY......

Solar, your 1:50 gets my vote for post of the day.

Thanks; Pogo. did you taste many of those 150 different kinds of tequila?

Oh, I never thought Obama was a saint, just better than the alternatives. He's part of an entire system that's broken, and no one is ever going to fix that. I think the empire is falling, the only variable is how fast.

Solar, I tasted some (for once not too much or too often too often) - but not there. My favorite tequila restaurant/bar L Destileria was closed for renovations. Rats. Luckily, in Cancun you can't (as the old saying goes) swing a dead cat without hitting a tequila bottle.

Pogo,
Used to love a Cuban cigar and a mexican beer on the beach. They have some great beers as well, and I feel a whole lot better the next day.

I hope one can, in cancun, swing a dead tequila bottle without hitting a cat............

Posted by: newpogo.myopenid.com | December 1, 2009 1:36 PM : "mortgage bankers should be lined up against a wall and shot."

Well, ok. But, how about putting a bounty on them ?

Or, one could mount a tv 'reality show' ala the 10th victim, that might make enough money to pay off 1/10 % of the money they lost or more. $5B!LL!ON is nothing to sneeze at.

Set the license fee for hunt the bankers at $250,000 each ($500,000 for foreign hunters). That alone could raise $1/4 B!LL!ON in a couple of weeks. Pretty neat, eh ?

We could then earmark the revenue for affordable housing construction, or subsidizing 1/2 the cost of plug-in hybrid e85 engines. Or, if you prefer solar electric and solar/geothermal heating and cooling (made in America !). How snazzy is that ?

don, roger that. I'm a fan of Negra Modelo - but then I like darker beers. I used to like one of those good Cuban cigars with either a beer or a bit of tequila, but I haven't had one in years - for some reason I don't think it sends a good message to LP.

sturg, indeed you can, but it's hard not to hit a drunk American...

XR,

"We could then earmark the revenue for affordable housing construction, or subsidizing 1/2 the cost of plug-in hybrid e85 engines. Or, if you prefer solar electric and solar/geothermal heating and cooling (made in America !). How snazzy is that ?"

If you remember, about a year ago..we came up with (TM rs) with these type of solutions.....just to show priority ....the latter is what is needed right now...with my home building on hold for another 6 months or so..what happened to the weatherization program that was bragged about..if followed thru...this would have put a lot of people to work..

2nd idea of building affordable.housing is a good one...but energy efficient ones..that will be done with some sweat labor involved..from the homeowner....instant equity for re-fi's..

How about getting the steel companies back running, and making some steel for these homes.,and for the bridges, and for all of construction projects....trillions of tons of steel that can be done here with the buildings that have been empty..and ready to go......lots more..but .....

Hunting for bankers Huh?? let me go and get my M-16 ready...been a while...since I went skunk hunting.!!..oops just insulted the skunks...sorry pepe le pew

xr, I like the way you think. Ever considered becoming a TV producer?

solar, skunk must be the word of the day.

"Unlike many beers, Corona is bottled in a clear bottle, increasing the opportunity for spoilage. Exposure to sunlight or light from fluorescent bulbs such as those used in refrigerated display cases significantly damages the taste of beer, yielding a taste that is often described as "skunky". This is the result of the essential hop oils spoiling due to UV exposure."

Literally from pot to bankers to beer. :-)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wires/2009/12/01/sen-coburns-message-to-se_ws_375459.html

Speaking of skunks - Tom Coburn.

"Literally from pot to bankers to beer. :-)"

Yeah, I just mellowed out a little....

Depends on the weather pogo. But the domestic beers in general seem to be pretty good. US Import laws really screw up some great beers.

I'm not against Obama criticism. I do it a lot. It's the "If Hillary had been elected" hand wringing crowd I was taking a pot shot at.

Obama outmaneuvered her and by the time she recovered she was too far behind. Which makes Obama and his team better strategists. The Clintons owe a lot of people favors, I think Obama's list is a lot smaller. There is still the realism of dealing with power brokers, but I think he starts out better off. And it was Bill Clinton's team that did most of the bank deregulating, with Bush's contribution mostly the hands off Cox SEC. I think she'd sink us deeper in debt.

I hear with no hope the glass-steagall act will ever be put back in to place banks are borrowing at no interest overnight rates and investing in overseas stock markets helping their companies get started with US dollars for free. Even if the banks lose money the Fed will then turn around and loan them money to cover the bad loans they gave them in the first place. What a country.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272601

On MoJo this AM they were saying this is Huck's second Willie Horton. I must have missed the first one.

Pogo, the first "Willie Horton" was a rapist named Wayne DuMond, who was released from prison after Huckabee commuted his lengthy sentence to "time served." (There were claims that DuMond had been railroaded because one of his victims was a distant cousin of previous governor Bill Clinton.) DuMond was released in 1999 with the condition that he leave Arkansas. He relocated to Missouri, married and was arrested in 2001 for rape and murder. Convicted on those charges in 2003, he was found dead in his cell in 2005. At the time charges were pending against him in a second Missouri rape-murder, that one of a pregnant woman.

There was a video made about the murder of Carol Sue Shields, the Missouri woman DuMond was convicted of killing, in which Shields' mother was quoted as saying DuMond wouldn't have killed her daughter had Huckabee not released him. The effect of the video is uncertain, although had Huckabee been a serious threat to McCain's nomination in the late stages it would almost certainly have gotten wider play (it first appeared on YouTube, and later on a site called HuckabeeFacts.com).

These two cases in particular--DuMond and now copkiller Maurice Clemmons--have brought Huckabee's judgement into serious question--enough that a 2012 run might not be an option.

About the only thing "new" about Obama is that he is not George W. Bush.

I'm glad we havea Democratic President of the United States, even if he was not ready on Day 1 to be President.

Also,when the national evening news shows are spending lots of time on Tiger Woods, we are in trouble.

Thanks Fairweather - I actually did a little surfing and found that out this morning - I shoulda said so.. When I saw the name DuMond the old synapses fired, got back in the game, and I remembered the controversy. Since Huckleberry pardoned over 1000 cons, and recidivism being what it is - this should surprise no one. He had the idiotic bent to release cons convicted of violent crimes - I wonder if he had the same compassion for mere drug offenders.

Oregon State University fans were pleased that the Obamas saw the Beaves at George Washington University.

Michelle's brother is very much appreciated out here..

Solar,

Absolutely, very energy efficient. And built with the original Model T and Liberty Ship idea = simple, modular, and standardized, fast and easy to assemble, easy to maintain, and durable.

Maybe they could even be easy to dis-assemble for moving. The durable requirement leaves out mobile homes as we have come to know them. I like the idea of concrete poured in moulds w/heavy insulation on the inside and solar cells on the outside, w/geothermal tubing on the underside, and sunoriented roof overhangs to shade windows in summer & let sun in during the winter, plus relective window sills to bring cooler reflected light into rooms, to lessen the need for daytime lighting.

acronym for today's title "Obama's Afghan Folly" = oaf

hidden message, craig?

After pressure from the alleged "weakling" Obama, benjy netanyahu declared the building freeze for West Bank 'settlers'. The settlers are refusing to let building inspectors in to enforce the freeze.

The plo rejects it. The plo says they won't settle for anything less than the '67 boundaries. Although they haven't made it perfectly plain, I'll bet that they mean the boundaries from before, rather than after, they joined the Arab League's unprovoked and genocidal attack on Israel.

If I were benjy, I would tell the 'settlers that they have 24 hours to let the inspectoers in or find themselves isolated in the West Bank, their roads and water lines destroyed. Then, In would announce to the world that Israel is declaring the West Bank Independent, and recognizing the Hamas regime. The 3d step : exactly 2 weeks later, when Hamas had raised it's head, and was in a bloody civil war with the PLA, I'd offer Israeli assistance to the highest bidder, and get it all on video. Then I'd declare war on the group that didn't come up with the best offer, recognize the other and help to extirpate it. An acceptable and durable peace would then be available to both Israelis and Palestinians on the basis that otherwise the videos of the Pal sell-out would become public, and the regime's leaders would have a life expectancy of minutes.

Thank you mr. macchiavelli. Unfortunately, for all his poli sci booklearning, benjy is as dumb as a post about international affairs & high hugger mugger. His policies look like the forever war a lot more than President Obama's do.

Xrep,
The settlement freeze is a red herring. They haven't built new settlements in years. It still allows expansion in the old settlements and finishing current projects, plus doesn't touch any building in East Jerusalem at all.

It looks like the US is doing an end run around Abbas and might be getting a moderate Hamas member to negotiate with. Forget where I read that. The unusual thing is that this is the first time the US has mentioned the '67 boundaries.

Obama is ratcheting up pressure, and bringing more liberal J-Street in to strategy sessions which has the traditionally conservative Israeli lobby groups fuming.

I really like Hillary as DoS, she has the hammer needed for negotiating with tough foreign governments. I just wish we had the same in Treasury.

Buzkashi - now I know why we're in Afghanistan - to preserve this sport.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-11-18-afghan-goat_N.htm

From USAToday:

"Afghans love the game. On a recent Friday on the outskirts of Kabul, spectators begin arriving midmorning to watch a practice match. An old man sells peanuts from a wheelbarrow. A policeman sits on the hood of his car, his AK-47 across his knees.

"The object of the game is to carry the carcass, which can weigh as much as 100 pounds, toward the other end of the field and around a flag before heading back to drop it in a circle marked with chalk. Players occasionally end up with broken bones or even trampled to death.

"It looks like chaos and pretty much is."

I can hardly remember the last time I saw a good Buzkashi match, or game, or whatever. Of course it's very difficult to get a good headless goat carcass around here.

I have been struggling to figure out why in the hell we have been and will be Afghanistan longer than we were in WWI & WWII – and now I know. Buzkashi - now I know why we're in Afghanistan - to preserve this sport.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-11-18-afghan-goat_N.htm

From USAToday:

"Afghans love the game. On a recent Friday on the outskirts of Kabul, spectators begin arriving midmorning to watch a practice match. An old man sells peanuts from a wheelbarrow. A policeman sits on the hood of his car, his AK-47 across his knees.

"The object of the game is to carry the carcass[traditionally a headless goat carcass, but now commonly a small calf carcass], which can weigh as much as 100 pounds, toward the other end of the field and around a flag before heading back to drop it in a circle marked with chalk. Players occasionally end up with broken bones or even trampled to death.

"It looks like chaos and pretty much is."

I can hardly remember the last time I saw a good Buzkashi match, or game, or whatever. Of course it's very difficult to get a good headless goat carcass around here.

"I really like Hillary as DoS, she has the hammer needed for negotiating with tough foreign governments. I just wish we had the same in Treasury."

Don..... AMEN!

I remember when Carol used to say how much she didn't trust Geithner and how he was like the fox guarding the hen house..... she was soooooo right on....

sorry for the duplicate post - it said the first was rejected. -- but I did make a couple changes to the first paragraph.

well, all, have a good one. I'll be a road warrior for the next few days and may or may not be able to drop in.

Hillary and Bill have been spending some time recently trying to thwart Abbas gone wild. He has walked away from negotiations to press the world to recognize the State of Islamic Palestine.

As far as tonight's speech by Obama, here are some thoughts for what ever they're worth.

As Obama announces his AFPAK strategy deploying more than an additional 30,000 troops, the situation in the Middle East is precarious.

Our chief concern is Pakistan and Iran, not Afghanistan. Afghanistan however is an important element in the struggle going on in the heart of Islam.

Whatever Obama’s game plan in Afghanistan tonight (and I think stability is in order), Iran and Pakistan (and the proxies they support or harbor) present the greatest danger to the world and America.

As predicted by many, Iran is playing for time as they anticipate increased isolation and pressure by the West. Their behavior now compounded by hostage-taking shows where this might lead. In light of the active resistance of Iranians themselves to their religious government, these are certainly historic times, but for more reasons than Democratic resistance. While Iranians protest their oppression, the Sunni governments of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan are now fighting Iranian backed militants whose indirect mission is to topple their governments. In other cases, Sunni leadership ({Palestinians excluded) is actively fighting a Machiavellian collaboration of AQ and pro-Iranian militants.

In another historic first, the Egyptians and Saudis have allowed passage of at least two of the three Dolphin class nuclear subs now deployed via the Suez Canal by the Israeli navy. Joint US-Arab/Us-Israeli naval missions are presently seeking to interdict Iranian illegal weapon and material shipments. Joint US-Israeli operations using drones and naval force have already interdicted or destroyed illegal arm convoys and shipping. Joint US-Israelis missile defense tests have been performed in the Pacific and Israel proper. The results are mixed. For the immediate present, only a combined missile attack by Israel’s enemies on several fronts would force the Israeli government to choose between defending their own civilian or strategic targets.) Thus, the Israelis have publicly declared all targets in Lebanon and Syria would be at risk should either Hizb’Allah or Syria participate in Iran pre-emptive or retaliatory attacks. Israel is upping the ante as hundred thousands of tons move into Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Afghanistan. The threats are numerous with a global network of Sunni and Shia militants supplied by a few regimes. They make clear through action and words they are prepared to die delivering WMCs. There is no doubt collaboration between North Korea, Syria and Iran in regard to WMD, particularly delivery systems and nuclear weapons.

The Western Powers know what is unfolding. They and “we” in particular, should not get caught in the mud while China and others enjoy the free ride. Our political leadership must navigate the politics of terrorism wisely or when terror strikes or a new dread appears on the radar, they won’t survive. We have been quite lucky, so far.

Obama can suggest an exit in Afghanistan, but I rather doubt “peace” is anymore local to Afghanistan as it is as simple as Israeli settlements or Palestinian unity the key to peace. Afghanistan should be viewed in the context of the more dangerous picture of Iran and Pakistan. This is the leading edge of tomorrow’s terror. The ideology within reach of nukes in Pakistan via the Taliban/AQ and elsewhere in the world under the direction of Tehran is the most pressing issue.

One can always look back and read Kennedy’s inauguration speech on the subject of war and peace. We are at a cross road in history that 9/11 only foretold. Fortunately, Obama has bettered our image, if not our strategic position. He offered his hand for a year plus the year of campaigning. Now tonight, he will deliver his passion about war and peace as Kennedy had done before him. I am curious if tonight, I see any parallels. Afghanistan is a piece of the puzzle in the narrative of terror and tyranny now perpetrated most by an Islamic militancy. How long we guard that “piece” in Afghanistan depends of the greater geopolitical struggle with Sunni and Shia extremism in a regional powder keg.

Obama IS a war President. He always was. We argued here during the campaign about his “bring the battlefield to Afghanistan” speech. He was quite the cowboy, but only time will tell what Obama has thus far won. As to the future, all eyes should be on Iran and Pakistan and the various tentacles that stretch around the world.

Mr, One,

My understanding is that traditionally builders (Israeli or Arab, Jewish, Muslim, or Christian) begin construction while waiting for permits. Now, there is a freeze on new building in the WB, if it does not have permits, and if the project has not yet begun permitted construction. Permitted work that is already under way may continue. New work and work that does not yet have permits is strictly (?) prohibited.

New construction in "East" Jerusalem is exempted from the freeze, as it is not part of the WB according to Israel. A large portion, if not most, of "East" Jerusalem was a Jewish neighborhood before the1948 War of Independence and the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the victorious Arab Legion in Jerusalem and "East Jerusalem".

One of the reasons the Arabs keep yakking about the (pre) '67 borders is that under the 1948 UN proposed Partition, the Arabs didn't get Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not a big city, but was chock full of Jews in those days, as it had been since Jews allied with Saladin to take the town from the barbaric crusaders. After the Arabs conquered Jerusalem in 1948, driving all the Jews out (except from Mt Scopus) they still weren't satisfied, so they worked themselves into a frenzy and attacked again in 1967, and lost. Then they worked themselves into another frenzy and attacked a third time in 1973, and lost again.

Since the late '90s, Israel has more or less been under continuous attack by Arabs from suicide bombers, gunmen, and rocket propelled bombs. Even if this were a war, the use of unrestricted attacks on civilians is a violation of all the laws of war, and a crime against humanity of the sort for which we used to hang Germans and Japanese admirals and generals.

If you were to offer the Arabs the old pre-1948 UN Partition, they would reject that, too. Because in the end, nothing reasonable ever satisfies them. Remember how enraged they were when Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza ? The big gripe was that Israelis had unfairly left without getting defeated. This is not a joke, Palestinians would have preferred a continued occupation to being robbed of the chance to experience victory. This emotional 'need' to defeat and exterminate another people is a crazy macho psychosis - so says the unlicensed and bogus shrink in me.

Anywhat, only victory and the subsequent extermination of all the Jews is sufficient for them. However, If they could get that task done, they would find that their lives are still shitty, because their actual problem has never been the Israelis. Their big problem is their failure to take responsibility for what they actually have and do, and for who they actually 'be' in the matter of their lives. This irresponsibility is at the the core of Victimism. There is no people on earth who are more slavishly devoted to Victimism and the evasion of responsibility than the Palestinians. They don't even accept the semi-responsibility implied in karma. All my opinion. Take it or toss it.

Cheeses cries,

I write a mega volume, and the guy still out-produces me.

He writes a lot but I've never seen anyone get the obvious so backwards.

I think you're right on many points xrep. I think there's a big difference between leaders and the general populace. It's actually Israel that has repeatedly violated cease fires with their targeted assassinations. I put blame on both sides equally, I don't see the Israelis as just victims either.

Netanyahu just released 900 new permits plus he's allowed the continued construction of 3,000 housing units. That's a lot of new construction. He seems to announce new permits every few months, I think he's incrementally allowing new construction rather than allowing en masse.

Israel has been freezing Arabs out of new building permits in Jerusalem for a while now. They won't give Arabs permits to build and bulldoze anything that is built without permits.

I gave Craig a shout out and he isn't the only one that thinks this is a bad idea and not all from Democrats.

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2009/12/afghanistan-america-gets-ready-to-ante.html

This is from a more biased group, but has the essence of what I read the other day.

"Netanyahu also repeated the totally (meaningless)commitment of no new settlements or land confiscations (meaningless because since 1993, the official policy is no new settlements yet via expansion, new neighborhoods and outposts, the West Bank settler population has grown from 111,000 then to over 300,000 today, and because although the built-up area of settlements constitutes only 2% of West Bank land, double that amount is slated for growth, and a total of 40% comes under the Settlement Regional Councils, therefore land confiscation issue is a red herring).

While it is technically true that this “restraint” is a new Israeli commitment, its practical relevance is of very limited significance – building 3000 units in ten months neatly dovetails the regular annual settlement construction rates. Moreover, Netanyahu made sure to assertively mention all these caveats in today’s announcement – in effect, poking the Obama administration, the international community, and the Palestinians in the eye."
http://www.bit.ly/7PQt3N

Barak also just announced the building of 10 new public buildings, so there's no real meaningful moratorium.

Well, he's pissed me off already. Didn't appreciate him invoking 9-11, "we didn't ask for this fight". He trashed Hillary for her vote, and she was a Sen. for NY. Guess he is singing a different song now.
And I wish he would try some economizing too and stay home for his broadcasts. I've seen the way he rolls, can't be cheap. 1 trip to West Point probably costs more than what I'll earn the next 10 years anyways.

I,I,I,I,I,I,I,I...........

There are ex cia whistle blowers that said, that we made Osama B. and was working with him..up till 9/11 and after 9/11 ....these people are not even heard from, or interviewed hardly...they are taken as wing nuts....just like the Generals that were against the Iraq bs...

We are t here b/c off oil , keep the oil away from others..and because the Neo-cons in Israel want us there....

Both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have been on the CIA payroll. Hussein while he was a law student in Egypt. Not rumors Solar.

Don,

Just read the rest of the post's...your 7:14, and your 7:20 are great....

Just wondering. What would happen if we pulled out and left Afghanistan to the Taliban. Taliban increases production of opium then uses the money to build a large, well trained army.

New well trained army invades Pakistan and gains control of government along with keys to nuclear weapons. Gets mad and fires nukes at India and Israel.

What then? We say oops?

And the "news" about Tiger is just old-fashioned over-the-backyard-fence gossip. Some new lows in so-called journalism. Craig, Time for you to call out your colleagues the way you did about the negative comments re Hillary!

Well, it is going to happen so I hope it accomplishes something - at least, there are some hedges.

What if, when we're nation-building, we impose our constitutional organization on the Afganis? Tell Hamid he's president, hold elections for a bi-cameral legislature, and create a thin judiciary. We would'nt have to use our own words for them - just give them the template and make it worth their while to follow. Have the warlords be the heads of various parties/states and each group to elect their own reps.

Don,

There are different kind of taliban...those don't want anything to do with us..or with anyone else...they want to be left alone..I forgot where i read that there are about only 100 real taliban there...the rest..we made..by killing relatives....maybe while they were dancing at their daughter wedding....i know that I would be pissed....if my daughter, or sister got killed by drones..or black water mercenaries...what would we do with them?

We are the problem in the Pak area's:

What if China came by way of Canada..and started bombing us..telling us what we had to do, and had to conform to their way of thinking.....I don't think that we would like that very much.!!

There are Taliban, terrorist, in Africa, and brutal warlords there..why aren't we liberating them? If we are going to Police the world...let's do it...for the most needy ones...

"Well, he's pissed me off already. Didn't appreciate him invoking 9-11"

Ditto, OSH.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272612

Oh Pat,
I was waiting for this to happen!!

"http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272680"

Oh Christ. Here we got with another Domino Theory.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272619

Don,
Good posts today,but this one,no!!!
Too call some of us who criticize the President "hater's"well that just sucks..Why bring Hillary into this??I voted for Obama and that gives me every right to criticize him.Rose colored glasses,oh ya..I sometimes wish I could put on a pair....

Open Left: some damn good questions about Afghanistanistan.

http://www.openleft.com/diary/16271/some-questions-after-obamas-speech

WWHD?

Patsi, You mean like what would happen if we go into an invaded Afghanistan and armed a young Osama bin Laden to fight the Russians and then walked out leaving an abandoned Taliban government who would host an Al Queda group that hates the US and funds a terrorist operation in the US?

Or how about what would happen if we go into Iran and overthrow a beloved ruler and install the Shah and then when he creates a police state refuse to turn him over to a popular revolution for trial?

Or maybe what happens if we nurture a young Ba'athist named Saddam Hussein while he's a law student in Egypt and then help overthrow a popular government and to install the Ba'athists so said Hussein takes over and rules with an iron fist and starts a war with the help of said US government and then crosses us when he threatens an oil supply even though Kuwait was side drilling into their reserves?

It's called cause and effect and history. It happens.

Not sure Solar, I'll look into it. I know a lot of the Taliban currently in Afghanistan is a popular revolt against the Americans. Not sure I'm ready to say they won't support war efforts in Pakistan, and that makes me really uneasy. They've already been one of the few countries to have been on the edge of nuclear war.

If you can't invoke 9/11 over Afghanistan and Al Queda, then when can you? You seem overly sensitive.

Calm down tony, I said I criticize Obama too. I criticize his use of the same Clinton group that ruined our economy in the first place all of the time. Not real happy with their stance on several Supreme Court issues either, the Siegelman being the latest. I can give you a list.

I don't think delving into the unfairness of how Hillary was treated is meaningful, especially her vote on Iraq. Obama has always said he was going to strengthen the efforts in Afghanistan, and now he's done it. Why is anyone surprised?

What would Harry do?

Harry fired the grandstanding general and implemented sound sustainable policy.

1. The rumor Solar writes about is not that o b laden was a CIA 'asset', for that is an incontestable fact. Rather the rumor Solar refers to is that obl remained on the payroll until 9/11, and perhaps even later.

2. A.It is a mistake to dismiss the Pal Arab crimes against humanity and terrorist acts because they were the leaders' work. The Palestinians follow those leaders quite willingly, otherwise they wouldn't be leaders. The people, not the leadership, make the hideous crimes possible. Separating the
Pal people from the leaders is like separating Southern Whites from the Confederate leaders, or the blood-thirsty citizenry from Marat and Robespierre. It is a bootless daydream.

B. I will never equate the acts of the Israelis and the acts of the Palestinians. There is no comparison whatsoever. Pal terrrorist 'soldiers' wear no uniforms, their rocket teams launch from the roofs of hospitals; their gunmen attack from ambulances, they use children as shields. A Hamas gunman dies and the Pals rage that a civilian was murdered. A busload of Israeli kids is blown to bits of hamburger and the Pals claim they struck a blow against the Israeli power structure. All of these acts were crimes against humanity, and supported by the majority of the Palestinian people.

C. When Pals high-jacked American planes, Italian ships, murdered Japanese tourists, and Puerto Rican pilgrims in Rome, the acts were not equivalent, but far beyond to anything the Israelis ever did. For one thing, this is war againswt the world, not just against an alleged forweign enemy.

D. On 9/11, when the Twin Towers were attacked, Palestinians danced in the streets. What kind of people celebrate the murder of three thousand fellow human with whom they are NOT at war ? I contend that this was a celebration of an ancient Roman type, the equivalent of the fans at the Colisseum eating fritters while a pride of hungry lions disembowels maidens.

Btw, I make a distinction between mujahedin and terrorists. The Northern Alliance destroyed an entire russian division in the Solang Pass Tunnel in a few minutes, but they attacked the military, not school children. Of course the N.A. are not angels, but they did not perpetrate the sort of atrocities that the Pals have and do, and never acted in such a way as to get an air strike called down on a school or hospital, just for propaganda value. That is the kind of war crime the Pals and al qaeda specialize in.

E. Even so, the Palestinian people have been badly and cruelly misled by leaders who taught them to act like the NKVD and SS. A fellow I met years ago said that the Pals were a nation of shopkeepers led by an elite of shoplifters. It seems no different 15 years or more later.

At first, the Pal on the street must have thought it was funny that the leaders claimed a people who had lived in the land for 3,800 had just arrived with a carpet bag. But then the school books were written to tell that lie, and now even a few ignorant Westerners are saying that Jews only came to Israel because the British wanted them as a tool to control the Middle East. Wadda buncha illiterates.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272675

But didn't Hill look nice tonight - the color of her outfit blended in so well with the cadets' uniforms. :-^)

Posted by: don1one | December 1, 2009 9:07 PM
"What then? We say oops?"

Wish I'd said that.

bethyboo,

Re forcing our political org onto the Afghans,

What about the repeal of Prohibition ?

2d Amendment ?

What I find amusing about both the Palestinian and Israeli supporters is the way they bend historical facts to delegitimize each other.
I also, find it amusing how many Americans repeat the lies. But not suprised, when it comes to history americans have crap for brains.

When legend has become fact print the legend.

Jack

Don

Out of these wars there are also people we use for convienence that we will in time disown. No choir boys, any of them.
The Shah was cold war politics, he gave us an island of stablity for a while in that region. Much like Saudi Arabia does now. But when he became troublesome and was no longer needed we dumped him.

Jack

The ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed is somewhere around 1,000 to 1 Xrep. Not to mention the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons with no right to trial. Israel has no habeas corpus.

I disagree with you on all counts. Yes, I don't think it's right they kill civilians. But the Israelis kill real Palestinian civilians as well. As an occupying force they have a higher responsibility. To say it's all Palestinian terrorism is to be totally blind to Israeli actions or suffering from the worst kind of bigotry.

Stop all US aid to Israel and I'll say they can do anything they want. But as long as we're paying for their arms, I want to see Palestinians treated humanely, not slowly starved to death.

I doubt OBL was on the CIA payroll that long, he was one of the richest people in Saudi Arabia and had access to a lot of Saudi money and had taken a pretty strong stance against our bases in Saudi Arabia. I take it we mostly supplied him arms.

Though nobody would admit it, I wonder how many of the cold warriors in the CIA and State department were more comfortable with the mullahs being in power in Iran than have the leftists come to power.

Jack

True whisky, but in that area they have a real sense and knowledge of history. They hold grudges for centuries, we have trouble with 4 years ago.

I think I've mentioned I guarded the plane that they used to evacuate the Shah. Froze my tail off on a pad on the backside of Incirlik.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272691
"Obama has always said he was going to strengthen the efforts in Afghanistan, and now he's done it. Why is anyone surprised?"

Don'
I'm not surprised!! Let us not forget this is the second escalation in Afghanistan by President Obama..The President already has sent 20,000 more troops to Afghanistan since becoming President..I don't see any difference in this Administration than the previous one..

I don't think 30,000 troops will make a real difference without a major change in strategy. I'm really more interested in what the civilian side of the effort will be. The military surge won't make a bit of difference in the long run without a strong push to build infrastructure. The Bush efforts in Iraq were nothing but handouts to his friends and the Iraqis were left with nothing but building to tear down.

My brother has been over there and volunteered several times to go back. He's sharp on foreign policy and has convinced me the Afghani's are worth the effort.

I'd really like to see the European theater pulled back to the US. We're closing bases and destroying communities here in the US while we pump billions into foreign economies in places we don't need to be. Russia isn't going to invade Germany if we leave.

Found it: from Raw Story..but won't let me link.

Whistleblower: Bin Laden was US proxy until 9/11

Published: July 31, 2009
Updated 4 months ago

In an interview last month with blogger Brad Friedman, whistleblower Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell when a caller asked a question about 9/11.

The former FBI translator carefully replied, “I have information about things that our government has lied to us about. I know. For example, to say that since the fall of the Soviet Union we ceased all of our intimate relationship with Bin Laden and the Taliban - those things can be proven as lies, very easily, based on the information they classified in my case, because we did carry very intimate relationship with these people, and it involves Central Asia, all the way up to September 11.”

Australian blogger Luke Ryland has now filled in more details of the Central Asian operations to which Edmonds was referring, quoting Edmonds as saying on other occasions that al Qaeda and the Taliban were used by the US as proxies in “a decade-long illegal, covert operation in Central Asia by a small group in the US intent on furthering the oil industry and the Military Industrial Complex.”

Turkey acted as the primary intermediary in this operation, with assistance from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The intention was, on one hand, to avoid creating a direct confrontation with China and Russia and, on the other, to prevent popular resistance to US influence by appealing to Central Asian aspirations for an Islamic and Turkic resurgence.

Ryland also points out that Uighurs from the western Chinese province of Xinjiang were receiving training from al Qaeda in Afghanistan before 2001, with the expectation that they might serve as guerrilla forces in the event of US conflict with China. Edmonds has recently stated that “our fingerprint is all over” recent Uighur unrest within China.

There are certain factors, touched on lightly by Ryland in this article, which provide further support for Edmonds’ shocking allegations. One is what is sometimes known as the “Bernard Lewis Project,” an effort first espoused thirty years ago by Middle East scholar and Neocon guru Bernard Lewis to pursue “the fragmentation and balkanization of Iran along regional, ethnic and linguistic lines.”

Although this plan involves several different ethnic groups within Iran, including Arabs, Kurds, and Baluchis, its most ambitious component involves the use of pan-Turkic (or pan-Turanian) nationalism to shift power in the Middle East away from both Iran and the Arab states and towards Turkey, a US ally which is linguistically and ethnically close to the oil-rich states of Central Asia. Pan-Turanism often has fascist affinities, which makes its encouragement particularly problematic.

Another anomaly of US policy in the region has to do with its support for terrorist groups, many of them engaged in the heroin trade, that are also strongly suspected of having ties to al Qaeda. This was the case in the 1990’s with groups in Chechnya, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and there is some evidence that it continued to be the case in Central Asia even after 9/11.

For example, a profile of the Kosovo Liberation Army at HistoryCommons.org includes numerous mainstream citations from 1998-99 indicating that the KLA, working together with the Albanian Mafia, had taken control of Balkan heroin trafficking routes and was funneling the profits into its political activities. The United States continued supporting the KLA during this period and even removed it from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations, despite statements from US officials that it was a terrorist group with strong evidence of links to al Qaeda.

The extent to which al Qaeda may itself have played a role in the Afghan heroin trade is a matter of dispute, but there is no question that al Qaeda provided training and financial support to some of the same terrorist groups that were being supported by the US — a situation in sharp contrast with the usual assumption that the United States and al Qaeda were deadly enemies even prior to 9/11.

Edmonds’ latest remarks appear intended to draw fresh attention to these anomalies, as well as the role played by Enron and other Western oil companies and weapons suppliers in Central Asia in the 1990s.

Actually, Solar, the taliban and their allies alqaeda attacked America, hijacked airliners and crashed them i to American buildings. So, the China-bombing-us from-Canada metaphor works very well, where China represents alqaeda/taliban and we represent ourselves. Another good metaphor would be Japan bombong Pearl Harbor, or the Kaiser burning a city in New Jersey.

Re the suggestion that we left Afghanistan w/ a taliban government, it never happened. We (senile bush/cheney/baker) left a government that was soon overthrown by the taliban.

Some people criticize the president for certain acts or failures to act. There is some (or a lot) of logic in their complaints.

The haters just hate everything, and their gripes are usually illogical to non-sensical. They are the sort who complain illogically that nothing has changed and he's going too fast. Or, who gripe about high taxes, yet flay the President for not invading Iran and Venezuela. Or, the people who were fine w/ baby bush playing kissy-face with the Emir of saudi Arabia, but spew venom over Obama's bow to Japan's Emperor or the Pope. Several such folks post on the Trail, but none of the folks since I first lurked in around 9am fall into that category. IMO

Don,

I say we stop giving money to all countries....that is if we want peace....when the bullets dry up ( stop giving, selling weapons) we will have peace,,,and the troops home....

Right now..the taliban, is killing our own soldiers with our own weapons..and ammo...they buy them from crooked dealer, steal them, or get them as gifts..etc..

Oh and not sensitive...im enjoying your feedback..some is 100% on the spot..and some is not....but I have learned a little from you tho...specially in the middle east....

XR,

I always learn a little here and there when you talk about history..but not when You take sides...I really do think that both the Pals..and the Israelis' are both guilty of the same things....but there can't be no denying of the civilian suffering the most...is on the Pal side...I don't care what anyone say's...starving little babies for the fun..having a bounty on pregnant Pal women...some how doesn't sound right to me.....and all the stupid shit that the Pal do..are just as bad...pull our money out of that area..and the bullets..and we will have peace....

"He writes a lot but I've never seen anyone get the obvious so backwards."

Don't know how I missed this...until now. Funny.!

Bethy

What did the Afghans do that was so bad you want to foist our form of government off on them.
;-)

Although it might work, we could load up all the senate:The Senators, aids , staff , lobbyist, everything> Then send them all over to teach the Afghans how to filibuster the Taliban into defeat..

Jack
Who doesn't think much of our form of government right now.

Hear Hear Solar. We need to stop policing the world. I'd like to see the arms dealers going out of business.

You're being pedantic xrep.

Sorry, Solar,

Bernard Lewis is no neocon. From Wikipedia on a recent Lewis book :
"Lewis's latest book is called Islam: The Religion and the People.[14] From his research, Lewis draws the following conclusions regarding the history of Islamic culture:

"At no time did the (Muslim) jurist approve of terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism (in Islamic tradition)."
"Muslims are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged; not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners; to give fair warning of the opening of hostilities; and to honor agreements."
"The emergence of the now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition. It is a pity that those who practice this form of terrorism are not better acquainted with their own religion, and with the culture that grew up under the auspices of that religion."
"The fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible."
"Generally speaking, Muslim tolerance of unbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom, until the rise of secularism in the 17th century"

This is light years away from the twaddle and/or hate marketed by bush, feith, cheney, jim hagee, rumdum, pipes, oreilly, perl, muckain, imhofe, libby, limbaugh, and wolfowitz.

So, xrepublican, who's getting blown to bits in this video? Who are the aggressors here? Who values human life judging solely from this little three minute clip?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTquvjypfK4&feature=player_embedded

Further, I don't believe for a minute that Lewis formulated a plan to dismember Iran.

Ya, I'm being pedantic, and I am also correct. And, you might want to reread what I wrote, because your criticism of it is way off.

I never said that Israelis were pure. What I said was that the crimes are not at all comparable. There is a vast difference between individual soldiers making stupid statements, or putting money in a kitty that'll go to for the 'biggest bag', or offering enemy ears for sale (US soldiers in Viet Nam) or what you wrote about a few Israeli soldiers, and an organizational or national policy to mass murder civilians on the basis of their religion.

XR,

Terrorism had been around since King David pattaned it.

An act against the existing government was done by Jesus when he took all of his men, and other followers into a city square and demand that they were not doing what the his lord was against..and his apostles were dagger men...thats what they called terrorist in those day's......thanks ...later.

No xr, I was talking about you correcting me on the government left behind in Afghanistan. I was speaking in generalities.

You're completely wrong on the equivalence of crimes. You're obviously ignoring all of the news reports of isreali crimes if that's all you can list. It's called cognitive dissonance, a common problem during the bush years.

Mr. Johnson,

Is your point to ask who set off the blast and injured those people? Some of the comments below the video suggest that it was a caused by a Qassam rocket that missed it it's target.

So, you tell me, just who are the aggressors ?

I've got to go. You guys hash it out among yourselves.

XR.

just re-read your 11:28. and my bad for not understanding it..Yes to it now...

Very condescending of you, Mr. One.

I was replying to the very few examples that Solar listed @ 11:19, so if you have a complaint about "that's all you can list", bring it up with him, for heaven's sake and leave me out of it.

Btw, 1000 - 1 is so grossly exaggerated as to be an untruth, another common problem of the bush years.

Also, btw, re your insinuation that I am a bigot. Since you are totally anti-Israeli, and since you argue that staging a raid after being pounded by 4,000 rockets is criminal, I guess the same goes for you. People who live in glass houses and all that.

G'night

Thanks, Solar,

I like you too. You keep saying David was the first terrorist. But, didn't you claim last winter that he was a myth written up in 5th Century BC Mesopotamia ? I think he was a song writer.

Is David older than Rama ? Or, is it Krishna ? I mean the dude who destroyed the entire universe in the Bhaghavad Gita ?

Seeya. G'night for sure.

Sorry , it's around 100 to 1. I was a zero off. http://bit.ly/6VZHco

Bulldozing homes, burning crops, cutting down olive trees, cutting off oil and water, shooting children, cutting communities in half with the wall, refusing ambulances access through check points, I can go on. And again, Israel has violated every truce that the Palestinians have agreed to, not the Palestinians.

Yep.

Funny, seeing my father's family is Jewish and his family left Russia during the pogroms.

I'm not against Jews, I'm against a very immoral Israeli government and its policies. Which has nothing to do with race. I think Carter called it right as apartheid.

If the Dark Lord was here, he'd be enjoying this!

...but he's not, and isn't.

Hey Champ.! How U doing buddy?

Hey X, this one's for you.

http://www.slate.com/id/2236951/

As I said its all about Pakistan and Iran. Given Obama can always find a reason to recalibrate, the rhetoric tonight was sufficient. His closest approach to Kennedy was explaining why we must stay in Afghanistan for another 18 months. With this logic I see Flatus has the best idea. I believe he said something like burn down the poppies, powerful strike forces along the border and rebuilding the tribal relationships that ousted the Taliban in short order with fewer than a few thousand US troops. Still 18 months is a laugh...

Digression: Maybe its just my imagination but something is rather odd...

Hillary and Bill were requested by Obama to lead the fight against Palestinian Statehood recognition. Meanwhile, Hillary was sucessful in getting the US to accept the results of the Honduran election (results as predicted) and thwart an onerous UN reslution on Free Speech. She has been sucessful in pushing plan B on Iran (stuff the media doesn't report) and isolating Syria seeing her vision of joint US operations with a "strategic alliance of Arab governments AND Israel" within reach. SO far, I second the idea of Hillary as SoS. The Clintons have mediated several disasters.......

Back from digressing, as far as Obama's speech, gravitas is not "pleasing everyone", but rather rational conviction in a serious judgement. A great speech rallies above all. See Reagan or Kennedy. The speech was political more than passion based on reality. There was little said about Pakistan X, not even the inability of the moderate regime once hailed as the solution to eradicating extremism, which is why Hitchens above makes sense.

China, India, even Turkey and Russia can play a huge role in stabilizing the growing storm.......

When we see who gains by instability, we see the obstacle to peace.

There were a number of statements Obama made not entirely supported by facts. I'll leave that for others, but there was a strange narrative working at cross purposes with Obama's attempt at unity involving deficts and economic recovery. The whole point in going to Afghanistan was to prevent future attacks costing us dearly. The sad thing is that many within Obama's base do not think this threat is either clear or present. I shudder to think of the situation with Saddam defying the world had he not been removed.

Only one member of the House voted not to go to Afghanistan.

When the months went by and people regained their sense of normality, we had a second chance to preserve our way of life. If we were smart we could prevent future terror and secure our liberty. I got the impression from Obama that security has a price we might not be able to afford.

Maybe there should be an Afghanistan war tax on excessive bonuses, or is there already one for healthcare?

...oops, I can't link (nor do I need to), but I am fair to middlin', and unable to shut up for more than a week, it seems.

Re: Afghanistan: We broke it, we bought it!

I read some comments and I note Old Sea hag..-ain't that the truth. Obama talked about the huge consensus on 0/11 although most of Obama's base weren't for that. What I meant to say about about Hillary, is that her strategy is plan B and Obama is already at plan B. I'm not sure whta deal was made for pulling missile defense out of Eastern Europe, but at the moment. events are playing out as she predicted, so her options are far more realistic. I can point out the trashed policies on Iran, Israel, Syria, Honduras. Columbia, Cuba, etc. where Hillary's ideas are now the fall back position. Under reported is the huge flap with Abbas. So far Iran, Hamas, Hizb'Allah, Syria, Chavez and North Korea have rebuked Obama's gestures. I say this not to bitch about Obama but to point out the salient features of this year ending shift in administration policy.

I suggest all read the Slate article on premium increases for individua and group policies. Hell, I thought Wilson was wrong when he called Obama a liar. Slate says illegals will get healthcare after all....

X, your digression into Israeli Arab relations applies to what? The price of fifty years of war lead Clinton and those before him to accept some annexation of captured territory. Like the deportation of millions of Jews from arab lands, settlements are for the final negotiations, you know, the talks that follow recognition and civility. Frankly, even the Egyptians and Saudis are tired of this conflict distracting Arabs from Iranian hegemony. They fell that until the spell of the Mullahs can be broken the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas will follow their tune of obstruction a thousand fold more pernicious than Gilo. A 4% approval rating from a people that support land for peace is a shame for a US President. Bill and Hillary are earning points for Obama with Israelis in their blocking Abbas amd preparing the credibility to US military pressure on Iran. As I said earlier, Afghanistan sends a signal to Iran and Pakistan, the two real dangers.....besides the nuts in North Korea.....

Now I've talked myself out....lol

later you all

Right Wing Blog Little Green Footballs has a change-up:

Why I Parted Ways With The Right

Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 6:49:45 pm PST

1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)

2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)

3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)

4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)

5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)

6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)

7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)

8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)

9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)

10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)

And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.

I won’t be going over the cliff with them.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272720

The Palestinian leadership under the years you say Israel broke every truce was a direct extension of the Nazis imported into the Middle East by the Grand Mufti himself. Arafat shares this blood with Saddam.

The Iranians are very impressed with Palestinian resolve. In an attempt to thwart student rebellion in Iran, the Mullahs plan to copy the indoctrination of hatred and obediance the Palestinians instill in nursery and elementary school. Then young Iranian students can rat the older ones out. Now coming from Russia Don, doesn't that sound like Stalin or Hitler? The PLO advocated a new lind of hatred towards the Jews as did the Brotherhood the Mufti created when he fled from a French jail after the war. He should have been hung.

But don't fret, Hamas just declared it illegal for women to dance or ride motorscooters. How dandy...

Saw that sturge, I'm hoping the religious right corners themselves into obscurity and allows the libertarian wing to regain power.

Hi, Jack, I just keep giving you straight lines. don't I? But I think I know what you mean, and XR, also. See, this is what happens when I don't try hard enough to explain what I mean.

I don't want the rest of the world to look like us, which a lot of people accuse the US of doing. What I want is for nations and their governments to be stable enough that internal problems can be worked out internally and not spill into other nations causing wars. I think our immigration problems could be handled easily if most people did well in their own lands, and just wanted to travel. Our immigrants have no chances at home and that's why they want to come here.

I don't think our laws would work in other countries necessarily, so prohibition and our bill of rights don't have to come into it.

I also know, Jack, how frustrating our form of government is and how angry one can get with it.

What I meant (and I hope I do a better job this time) is that I do think our essential setup as federalism and local power being accomplished by the citizens themselves could be tailored to any ethnicity and history.

It's pretty simple - 3 sections, one to make laws, one to carry them out, and one to interpret them. 4 sections
are too easy to divide, and 2 is already divided. The most important thing is to delegate one unit of power to each adult citizen, and recognize the legality of each person's right to his/her power.

I don't not know how the make-up of Iraq's "new" government was decided, or what other "hurting" nationshave as their governmental organizations.
I don't know re Afghanistan's. I would never want us to tell anyone they had to be like us because I don't want them to be like us - variety is the spice of life, after all.
Formica doesn't look right in just every kitchen.

We can go crazy dealing with our government, but we can also work to change it. I think our government structure, the basic structure, is the most logical that has ever been constructed. There's not another one I want to live under. If ours fails, it won't be because of it - it will be because of un-restricted capitalism, which is both an economic system and a religion.

A good system has to be built on all people having equal power and equal rights and choosing their own representatives according to the rule of law. Semantics don't have to be a problem.

All wealthy and stable governments have something like this, I think, and the up-and-comers are working on it, it seems to me. The only alternative is a benevolent dictatorship, which is a time bomb.

One last thing - I know I got a little zealous, and I hope I haven't made a fool out of myself. It's not patriotic, it's real awe at the work those people did over 200 years ago, and how supple and pliable it is, capable of being stretched without losing its real shape. How did they manage to go so far, but still not too far? They even gave us a way ti fix it way ahead of time!

To hell with Scalia. I'm thankful was born here, even if he's here, too.

From 1929 to 2009, the Arabs have been violating ceasefires. The Israelis left Gaza. The Gazans said for 40 years that they wanted the Israelis to leave. Then the Israelis left. Eveything that followed was the gazans responsibility.

The Gazans should have been happy as clams. Finally free of the people they blamed everything on, including the Arab male penchant for beating women up, and the fact that their kids weren't in school. Instead of being overjoyed, they were more angry than before, because the Israelis didn't surrender. So, the Gazans spent 4 years launching an average of 3 rockets per day into Israel. Everything that followed is the responsibility of the hamas and the Gazans.

When terrorists and war criminals hide behind children, children get hurt. Heaven only knows how many of these alleged victims of Israelis were actually
victims of 'friendly' fire.

Regarding the ridiculous 100-1 ratio, we know from neutral reporters operating in the West Bank, and Pals who blabbed later, that the Jenin 'massacre' of "hundreds" was exaggerated by about 2000%. hamas killed 2 dozen fatah members in Gaza, when they took over the turf. hamas attributed the murders to fatahs having treasonous agreements with Israel, so although hamas gunmen pulled the triggers, some how Israel's supposed to be responsible. A video of a dad and little boy caught in a cross fire, wherein the boy was allegedly killed turned out to be a fake. You just cant' believe their reportage.

While some people fault Israel for starving Gaza, In fact, the bulk of humanitarian aid going to Gaza comes from Israel. If they need food, why is hamas wasting their credit and starving their people by importing rockets ? If Gazans need water, it is not helpful when a main breaks and Israelis repair men can't get to it because hamas gunmen shoot at them. News report Israelis withhold water. All propaganda lies.

It's nice that you guys have sympathy for under dogs, but you could pick a needier and less culpable population to feel sorry for. The Eastern Congo for instance. Darfur. Myanmar. Chechnya. Somalia. Zimbabwe.

To hell with scalia. & may he experience it soon. In fact, this week would be quite convenient for the nation. May he take tomorrow off to go hunting with cheney. He's a loud mouthed, low talent, pompous, fussy, smug, and dim bulb of a twerp. grumble grumble.

I'm glad you're here too, Ms Bethyboo. G'night. I'm going back to bed.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/obamas-afghan-folly.html#comment-272728

Thanks for the post, sturge.

SolarCrete,

Sibel Edmonds maybe is the real deal? I say maybe because individuals like her and her story only surface after they been terminated. Of course she can not produce any supporting documents, or point to other corroborating individuals to support her statements. This doesn't mean her story isn't creditable, but her version of the truth is after all only coming from her, and the fact that she was terminated from the FBI after only working for them for 7 short months, plus the more she talks the larger the story becomes doesn't add any credence to her story. She was hired by the FBI to translate and transcribe recordings of conversations between suspected Turkish intelligence agents and their American contacts. One can build a very believable story over time with just a few verifiable facts.

The American Conservative's interview with Sibel Edmonds.

http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/nov/01/00006/