I Hate Cats

Why The Obama Doctrine In Afghanistan Won't Work

THIS IS AN INTERESTING PIECE. I think if you read it carefully it clearly shows the conflicting ideas toward a solution within the administration.

excerpts from America.gov
OBAMA

In his December 1 remarks outlining the new strategy, President Obama said the United States “will support efforts by the Afghan government to open the door to those Taliban who abandon violence and respect the human rights of their fellow citizens” and assured the Afghan people that the United States has “no interest in occupying your country.”

Hillary Clinton

Speaking before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee December 3, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told U.S. lawmakers that the Obama administration understands that some who are fighting international and Afghan government forces “do not do so out of ideology, theology or conviction, but, frankly, due to coercion and money.”

She said the United States believes that the average Taliban fighter “receives two to three times the monthly salary [of] the average Afghan soldier or police officer.”

Among much of the Afghan population, “there is no appetite for the return of the Taliban whatsoever,” she said, adding that many within the Taliban do not share the overall goal of the core group. The Taliban have “morphed” from a homegrown Afghan nationalistic and Islamist group that rose up in response to the Soviet invasion and chaos under the country’s warlord era into a group that now espouses establishment of a united caliphate across the Muslim world, she said.“A lot of the people who have been conscripted, in effect, into service on behalf of the Taliban have no real allegiance,” the secretary said.

However, many Afghans increasingly have been wavering between supporting the government and supporting the Taliban insurgency. “People are understandably nervous,” Clinton said, over what the outcome of the fighting will be and which side they and their family should be supporting.

Defense Secretary Gates

According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Afghans fear that choosing the wrong side could lead to their getting killed. “They are waiting to see where the momentum is shifting,” he told the lawmakers at the committee hearing.

“Frankly, it’s this shift of momentum that we think is important, and that is a fundamental purpose behind this surge of troops to push that Taliban back.” Part of the goal is to create a more secure environment “in which these people … [can] decide which way they want to go,” he said.

The 30,000 additional U.S. forces President Obama is sending to Afghanistan will deploy in the first part of 2010 and will be targeting the insurgency, securing key population centers and training Afghan security forces.
Gates said the president’s strategic concept “aims to reverse the Taliban’s momentum and reduce its strength while providing the time and space necessary for the Afghans to develop enough security and governance capacity to stabilize their own country.“The essence of our civil-military plan is to clear, hold, build and transfer,” he said.

The defense secretary said the concept of reintegrating Taliban fighters is focused on the foot soldiers who, under better circumstances, would prefer to return to their homes.“We think that there is some significant percentage of these foot soldiers who actually are doing this for pay, or who have been intimidated into doing it,” he said.

Part of the president’s strategy also calls for an increase in civilian assistance programs. Gates said providing more people with economic opportunities, including in agriculture, would allow the soldiers better alternative ways of earning a salary.But the security component of the president’s plan is “absolutely central” to the effort, he said, because of “too many stories of people who have wanted to quit the Taliban, who not only themselves have been killed, but all of their family have been killed.”

Gates said that along with reintegrating some Taliban fighters, there is also the concept of reconciliation with Taliban leaders “to get these guys to think differently about the future” and “bring them over” from violent resistance. However, “until the momentum shifts against the Taliban, the likelihood of significant reconciliation in those terms is not very bright,” he said.

end of excerpt



My Opinion......

Obama is in a dreamworld. The taliban will not give up their affinity for violence. It's part of who they are. Nor will they respect the rights of human dignity. Toward women, toward children, toward education, or any form of a democracy outside of their commitment to a radical form of Islamic heirarchy amony the elders. The few "Taliban" that may "change sides" and give up the struggle, will either return to their ranks or be killed once the US "re-integrates" the Taliban" back into Afghan society.

Hillary Clinton seems to be saying on one hand that all it will take is a little money to co-erce some taliban fighters into giving up their ways. Great. Welfare for the taliban. Classic Clinton. She goes on to say that most of the Afghanis have no appetite to see the return of the Taliban. This statement flies in the face of Obama's desire to see the Taliban re-integrated back into positions of power in the Afghan Government. She also said the Afghanis are nervous since they are unsure which side they should be supporting. That's understandable given the history of what has transpired in Afghanistan over the last 30 years and is underlined by the obvious conflicts and disagreement over Afghanistan's future within the administration itself today.

Gates is walking a tightrope. His comments not only have to placate Obama and Hillary, who, from what I can see are diametrically opposed., he has to somehow give the Generals some semblence of what they need to pursue a defined mission successfully. He has a tough, tough, job. The military, as we know, has been very public about what they require and just recently have settled fon a compromise agreement to at least move forward. However it is clear to anyone with eyes and ears that the compromise left the military wanting. Gate's seems to try and agree with both Hiillary and Obama while adding his own assesment for a "solution". However, at least to me, it seems that none of them are on the same page.

Gate's remark “The essence of our civil-military plan is to clear, hold, build and transfer,” is a mouthfull. It sounds like the blueprint for Iraq after the "Awakening: and "The Surge". It also sounds like nation building. Build and Transfer? In reality if we don't simply obliterate the region and walk away, Gates is correct on that point. However, that's going to take a heck of alot longer than 18 months and the dems have an election coming up in 2012. The commitment for that plan is sure to fade. Also, so much for Obama's assurance of not occupying Afghanistan. Unfortunatley, Gates is also under the impression that the Taliban can successfully be reintegrated into Afghan society. For me, that's like putting cancer cells back in a patient that has just gone through Chemo.

In short, what I think we have here is a failure to communicate. I think it's an ill thought plan destined for failure. I believe that if by some miracle the plan even shows a glimmer of hope, the whole thing explodes with the fall of Pakistan to the internal struggles they are waging, a conflict with Iran, which can be sparked in any number of ways, nuclear concerns certainly being one as has been reported. Iraq falling back into turmoil, which it's beginning to show signs of doing, or, the under reported story of the build up of Hizbollah and the stockpile of new, more deadly weapons being positioned in Southern Lebanon. To call the situation there tense would be an understatement. Israel is geting close to pulling the trigger this time around and all it will take is a few Iranian supplied Hizbollah fired missiles for Israel to not only respond in Lebanon but to take out the Iranian Nuke sights. Netanyahu is not at all content with the Obama Administration's position with Israel  and won't think twice about unilateral military action against Iran. Then, we have a real mess, but I suppose, that's almost inevitable.

30,000 more troops? 18 months? Good Luck with that. I have a feeling Obama's Peace Prize after all is said and done will carry less weight than a third place bowling trophy.



In my opinion.

Sunday Funnies

Sunday Picture-No Words

Stones Saturday

Double Shot Friday Night For My Baby !!!!!

                                           

Letterman Admits To Sex With Staffers

                                                                           

TOP TEN EXCUSES DAVID LETTERMAN HAS FOR BOINKING THE STAFF

10.   IT'S  RESEARCH FOR MAKING FUN OF OTHER PEOPLE'S SEXUAL AFFAIRS
  9.   MOST OF THEM JUST OPTED FOR THE LATE NIGHT T-SHIRT
  8.   TIRED OF PEOPLE REFERING TO ME AS "THAT OLD GUY"
  7.   I THOUGHT THEY WERE CHEAPER THAN HOOKERS
  6.   MY WIFE IS REALLY A BITCH
  5.   TIRED OF THE BAND GETTING ALL THE BROADS
  4.   I HAVEN'T BEEN THE SAME SINCE DREW BARRYMORE WAS A GUEST
  3.   MISTOOK MY HEART MEDS FOR VIAGRA
  2.   IT JUST PROVES I'M NOT GAY
  1.   HEY, I'M DAVID LETTERMAN DAMN IT AND I CAN BOINK WHOEVER I WANT
  

Oh, what the heck, ten more

10. Why let John Edwards have all the fun?
9. Trying to take the spotlight off that Palin chick
8. Couldn't find anything else for my personal assistant to do.
7. What was I to do, she tapped my foot under the bathroom stall.
6. In this economy it's better to get laid than laid off.
5 In any economy it's better to get laid than laid off.
4. You just wouldn't believe how boring the writers strike was.
3. The Beatles were wrong about that money thing.
2. I never consented to sexual relations with that woman.
1. It's so damn lonely at the top.

The Color Of Shadows

                                                                          

  Last night I took a ride on Dolphin, a friend and competitor's boat. We have sailed together for about 25 years. As the sailing season draws to a close, so does the window of opportunity to share evening or weekend sails with  people who I will always hold close. Gone already are the Wednesday night races that always offered their weekly dose of competition and laughter. I will miss them. This post wouldn't be complete without aknowledging my own crew, the crew of Special K, and all of the people who I have had the wonderful opportunity to have shared the deck of that gracefull yacht with over the past 16 years. People who will always be with me everytime I step on the deck of any boat for the rest of my life. The gray shadow I cast on Dolphin's sail hides all the color all of you have brought into my life. I hope you'll all carry a piece of my shadow with you in the years to come. Thank you all.

Who Dat ??????????????

Obama's Health Care Czar - "It Takes A Village"

                                                                           

     President Barack Hussein Obama's new appointee, Dr. Tseste Fly as Health Care Czar is unfazed by the stir he is causing in both conservative and liberal camps. Critics are quick to point out that Dr. Fly has no experience with the health care system in the US. In addition, allegations are surfacing that the Kenyan National's Witch Doctor's license had been revoked after an investigation revealed he had been administering performance enhancing drugs to the Kenyan Olympic Track and Field team.

    "Dems jus vicious attacks", Fly stated in an interview with the Kenyan Kronicle. "I have entered de lion's den", Tseste said, "De big insurance companies ah like de mother lion and de mother lion is jus tryin to protect her cubs. Dey tink I am goin to kill away all de cubs but dey doan see dat in ahda to save de pride de weak ones must die."

    That philosophy is adding fuel to the fire over Obama's purported "Death Panel", where government will decide who get's the life or death treatment they need.

    "Dat is jus crazy screams from de hyenas", Dr. Fly continued, "Dare is no one mon or no one panel who will make de choices". Borrowing a line from another failed proponent of Universal health care Fly went on to state, "It takes a village, ahl peoples mus come togetha to make dis wok. Dare ah many hungry animals in de jungle and we mus fight dem wit our spears and minds"

    It remains to be seen if Dr. Fly can summon the right voodoo chant to bring everyone together on this issue. The chasm between the two sides at this point certainly seems unbridgeable. Dr. Fly will be flying in to address a gathering of health care professionals in New York next week. The minutes of that meeting will be forwarded to the Congressional Subcommitee for Socialist Healtcare Reform sometime in January.

UPDATE:  PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSIEN OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE CZAR DR. TSESTE FLY, WAS TRAMPLED AND KILLED TODAY BY A ROGUE ELEPHANT. DOCTORS WERE UNABLE TO SAVE MR. FLY IN TIME SINCE REDI-HUT WAS SHUTTERED ON THE HEELS OF GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE, AND THE EXPRESS EMERGENCY HUT WAS ELIMINATED IN FAVOR OF THE PREVENTATIVE CARE CAMP. THE WHITE HOUSE IS EXPECTED TO BE NAMING A REPLACEMENT BY THURSDAY.

  

Bridge to Babylon

                                                                             

    The Verrazano Bridge linking Staten Island to Brooklyn will soon become my bridge back home. At the foot of it, on the Brooklyn side, lie both my childhood and my future. As I travel back in time across it's span over turbulent waters,  I will walk forward , side by side, with my friend, my lover, my partner, Betty.

Betty, I can't wait to come home.

French Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

    Three French soldiers have been killed in a violent storm in north-eastern Afghanistan the BBC quotes French military officials as saying. The soldiers, serving with a parachute regiment, "died accidentally" at night in Kapisa province, officials said. Army spokesman Christophe Prazuck said one of the soldiers was hit by lightning and the other two were swept away by a fast flowing river.


                                                                          

    The rest of the French regiment appears to be ok after immediately surrendering to a local DOPPLER RADAR station.

Weekend Music

Barack Hussein Obama Heads UN Security Council

What Could Possibly Go Wrong ?

Study Finds Most NYC Cabbies Illegal Aliens

    Having trouble communicating with your cab driver lately? Well, we're not alone. Up to 85% of NYC cabbies are aliens, many of them illegal. Ben Better, a clinically depressed out patient at Bellvue Hospital is not surprised. "I'm bummed," Ben said. " The other day I was having a particularly bad day. It was raining and I was really tired, I've been sick you know, and well, I just didn't want to go outside but I had to because I had an appointment with Dr. Gladly. Dr. Glady says he's always happy to see me but I don't believe him. Anyway, I hailed a cab and it was one of these, these aliens, you know, and I ask him to take me to Bellvue. Next thing I know I'm in Philly standing in front of the Liberty Bell with a bunch of school kids from Iowa asking me where the bathroom was. Do you think these shoes look OK? I don't like them. They're too tight and and the laces,... oh I can go on about the laces!"

    Unfortunately, Mr. Better's experience is not unique. On any given day, thousands of New Yorkers are either taken to the wrong address or forced to endure extended rides because the alien cabbies don't understand the directions. Gad Zooks, an alien cabbie from the Libera Galaxy thinks the aliens are getting a bad rap. "I think rap is bad", Zooks said. "All us Liberals want to do is come to your place here and qualify for free health care. In our Galaxy, we have to pay for our own health care but I heard that your President is giving out Universal health coverage to everyone, even aliens. So we come for that. I'm especially interested in the dental coverage."

    The study didn't address whether or not the situation would change should Universal Health Care be defeated in Congress. Researchers are currently trying to determine if the influx of aliens will help expedidite former President Bush and NASA's plan on moving the rest of us to Mars by 2012. Meanwhile the current administration is going ahead with plans to build a spaceport since financing has already been approved as part of the Stimulus Bill in the Galaxy Recovery Act.

Lose in Afghanistan ????? (huh, what, why, what did I miss? ...Or to put it another way, What did THEY forget?))

    Lately there has been alot of talk about the war in Afghanistan and polls showing that most Americans now believe that it is a fruitless endeavour. Some are even suggesting that we cut and run, we have no business being there. Oh really.

 
    If we shouldn't be in Afghanistan, then where should we be? I have an opinion. Not one most people like or care to hear but I believe it to be true. You know, hindsight is both the arguement of fools and the best teacher. It's easy to look back on an event and find fault, then lay blame at the feet of the men and women who HAD to make the tough decisions. Men and women who stand on both sides of the aisle. Men and women who believe in their heart, just as strongly as you and I believe,that they are doing the right thing. Our press today is content eating caviar ladened toast points washed down with champagne with one hand while the other hand writes about the disparity between the rich and the poor. They decry every manuever our leader's make to try and keep us safe, but are the first to cry that more should have been done when a tragedy (or the inevitable) happens. Imagine if Wolf Blitzer did a live remote from the beaches of Nornandy on June 6th 1944 when THOUSANDS of American kids (men) lost their lives. I suppose the arguement may be made that if we'd have had the type of instantanious news coverage we have today, Hitler would have been stopped in Poland. Perhaps, but I doubt it.

    We stand by idly today and watch the murder of hundreds of thousands from every corner of the globe on cable then scramble to the store to make sure we have enough Parmesan cheese for tonight's meal. We are spoiled. We, despite the loss of 2996 innocent people on 09-11-2001, have again become complacent. It's brutally apparent in the threads on many websites and in conversations, or  lack of them,  at social gatherings. For months after we were attacked, finding dissent or complacency in a thread with any relevence to 9/11 would have been almost impossible. Now, the few that do participate in a dialogue are so polarized that the only way they will ever reunite will be over the bodies of more innocent dead Americans, in the days following the next attack.

    So what do we do? Where should we be fighting? Why fight? After all, fighting is bad isn't it? War is evil, isn't it? Of course it is. However, unfortuntately, to quote a cliche, "Those that don't remember history are doomed to repeat it". Whether we want to fight or not, we have to because there are forces in the world that are intent on our demise. Unless we can summon the courage those kids had on the beaches of Normandy, unless we in the homeland can lend them the support they need to carry out and win the fight, wherever our enemies are, we will lose, because our enemies will be coming for us again,.....in hindsight.

First Day of Fall

    Today is the beginning of a new season. Some say it's the end of Summer, the end of good weather, vacations, planted fields and gardens. The end of the the robin's songs riding the warm summer morning breeze as it brushes past the curtains of open windows. However for each end there is a new beginning and Fall is a season replete with a myriad of wonderful experiences. It is the sound of children's voices as they head back to school, eager to meet new friends, teachers, and discover new things. It is the season when nature's canvas turns from emerald green to blazing red, yellow and orange. It is the season when the chill in the air brings us a little closer together on walks we take with the ones we love. It's the season of harvest and a time for thanksgiving.

    I decided to start this blog today because this change of seasons mirrors changes in my life. You see, I'm about to embark on a journey through another season in my life, and despite the warmth and beauty that I leave behind, I look forward to being part of a vibrant, colorful season in my life where the chill in life's air is is warmed by the gentle embrace of the one I love, and for that, I am thankful.

I Love You Betty