This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Military issues

  • Afghanistan decision in living color

    J.P.Friere at the Washington Examiner writes that after 88 days of dawdling on the question of whether and how much to support the troops in Afghanistan, all we get is a crummy picture;

    decisive-obama

    This is the image the White House hopes to see in papers. Similar to previous ones, the president is doing the talking. In this most recent, he is motioning his hand in a decisive way. In the most recent, note how many folks still have the coversheets on. (Maybe they’re cover sheets?)

    During every meeting for the last three months, the president has released photos of himself talking to national security staff about Afghanistan. This is during the three months after General Stanley McChrystal warned the president that if we didn’t take action within a year, the situation in Afghanistan would deteriorate beyond repair.

    Yup, 88 days of dithering.

    Here’s another meeting to which they didn’t invite Hillary;

    fake-meeting

    Somehow, the presence of Joe Biden, The Smartest Man In The World (TM), in a national security council meeting doesn’t inspire much confidence in the ultimate decision.

  • Punishing the sheepdogs

    I’ve received this article about the Navy Seals being punished by the Navy first reported by Fox News from about ten people;

    Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named “Objective Amber,” told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

    Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.

    The Navy Times reports that Abed got his bloody lip from a punch in the stomach;

    Neal Puckett, a defense attorney who is representing McCabe, said the SEALs are being essentially charged for allegedly giving the detainee “a punch in the gut.”

    They are expected to plead not guilty when they appear at their arraignment. “They are all together and they all maintain that they are innocent of these charges,” said Puckett, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and judge advocate.

    The SEALs were on the tail-end of their deployment to Iraq when the alleged incident happened, he said.

    Puckett offered no details about the alleged incident, but said that “in a combat environment, the handling of a detainee … these things happen all the time and can easily be justified as maintaining [control of] a detainee.”

    That’s a heck of a punch. I’m guessing that Abed got to watch an episode of “Law and Order” while he was locked up and got the idea to charge his captors. Of course, Matthew Alexander will use this as an “I told you so” moment and we’ll hear that the SEALs are currently encouarging more terrorists instead of ending terrorism.

    The SEALs are;

    [Petty Officer Julio] Huertas, 28, is originally from Blue Island, Ill., and enlisted in 1999. He has served in special warfare units since 2002. He has an Iraq Campaign Medal and was advanced in June 2006, Navy records show.

    [Petty Officer Second Class Matthew] McCabe, 24 is originally from Perrysburg, Ohio, and enlisted in 2003. He served on the Amphibious Assault Ship Belleau Wood before training in special warfare. He was advanced in September 2007, Navy records show.

    [Petty Officer Jonathon] Keefe, 25, is originally from Yorktown, Va., and enlisted in 2006. He began SEAL training the same year, Navy records show. He was last advanced in June 2008.

    Worst. Decision. Ever. The lesson to take away from this is don’t take any prisoners, I guess.

    Uncle Jimbo weighs in and then smacks Allah Pundit around for not sticking with the troops.

    Thanks to everyone who sent the link.

  • Why does he have to say it?

    I guess Axelrod told President Obama that he couldn’t get elected if he didn’t send some troops to Afghanistan and apparently they’ve just been bickering over the number the last few months.

    finish-the-job

    General McCrystal asked for 40,000 troops and Obama is thinking about 34,000. When I was an infantry platoon sergeant and I needed a crucial part to keep my platoon running, or an important piece of equipment, I’d request 3 – that way I made sure I’d get one. I hope that’s what General McChrystal did when he requested troops.

    Either way, Obama has bought his share of the war whatever the outcome. He wasn’t willing to buy the full boat, so every death, every casualty is fully his – from the day McChrystal submitted his report 3 months ago.

    “It is my intention to finish the job,” he said of the war in Afghanistan….

    It damn well better be.

  • Hasan Updates

    The Associated Press and Stars & Stripes report that Nidal Hasan’s lawyer, John Galligan may try to plead innocent by reason of insanity for his client.

    John Galligan, the civilian attorney for Maj. Nidal Hasan, said he is considering an insanity defense among other options, but that it’s too early to determine his defense strategy.

    “Based on the evidence thus far, his mental status must be raised,” Galligan told The Associated Press by phone from his office near Fort Hood, about 130 miles southwest of Dallas. “Anybody who allegedly engages in conduct that is completely contradictory to his lifestyle and military career – an insanity defense has to be considered.”

    Yeah, except that Hasan wasn’t acting insane when he handed out Korans to his neighbors and spent days giving away his stuff. If he’d shot the guy that keyed his car, well, that might have been insanity. But Hasan drove several miles to Fort Hood, jumped up on a table and shot people he didn’t know after hollering that God is great.

    The Wall Street Journal reports that Galligan is beginning to act like James Branum – it must be the Texas sun or water and the effect it has on the lawyers there;

    Last week, Maj. Hasan was transferred to the 21st Cavalry Brigade, an air-combat unit based at Fort Hood, according to his lawyer. Mr. Galligan said the explanation offered to him was that the new unit “has no known victims or responders to events of 5 November.”

    Mr. Galligan said he is concerned that the rapid pace of the proceedings threatens his client’s due-process rights. “Already on most basic fundamental parts of pretrial process, I am not saying it is totally derailed, but they need to do some maintenance to make sure we stay on track,” he said.

    How slow does it need to go, Mr. Galligan? It’s not like the Army is building a gallows outside his room. I want to see the trial end so I can start ruining careers. If I can wait that long.

  • Diddling intensifies

    The Washington Post reports this morning that after President Obama’s latest meeting (tenth in 86 days) with advisers over whether to properly staff our war in Afghanistan or not, he’ll continue to dawdle at a furious pace;

    For much of the fall, Obama has been meeting with his war council to determine a new strategy in Afghanistan, where 68,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed. Now he has 18 weekdays left to announce his decision — not counting Thanksgiving break — before he leaves for his Christmas-holiday vacation in Hawaii.

    But his schedule for the rest of November and December is filling up with other events and appearances, some of which could create public relations challenges if they happen too close to the presentation of an expanded war effort.

    Administration officials have said Obama will not outline his decision until after Thanksgiving, and it appears increasingly probable he will do so early next week. In addition to McChrystal and Eikenberry, senior administration officials whose support for the strategy is essential are preparing to be in town for possible appearances before Congress.

    So here we sit 87 days (thanks, for keeping count, Claymore) since General McCrystal requested more troops, but Obama’s schedule is filling up with events to which Republicans aren’t invited. It’s really a shame that this war keeps intruding on Obama’s social schedule – I mean he’s dedicated 30 whole hours to the thing in the last 87 days – what else do you guys want?

  • Surrender sounds so easy

    I read this at ThreatsWatch earlier today, but it just sounded so incredible that I didn’t want to believe it, let alone write about it;

    It comes to our attention that the MEMRI Blog highlights an article from the Saudi al-Watan in Arabic that – according to an Afghan source – the United States is talking to the Taliban seeking to trade control of 5 provinces in exchange for the cessation of attacks on US bases. MEMRI summarizes:

    An Afghan source in Kabul reports that U.S. Ambassador in Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry is holding secret talks with Taliban elements headed by the movement’s foreign minister, Ahmad Mutawakil, at a secret location in Kabul. According to the source, the U.S. has offered the Taliban control of the Kandahar, Helmand, Oruzgan, Kunar and Nuristan provinces in return for a halt to the Taliban missile attacks on U.S. bases.

    Kunar province borders the Khyber Pass region where the majority of US and NATO supplies pass enroute from Pakistan. And the remaining four provinces constitute fully the southern 25% of Afghanistan’s territory.

    But the more I thought about it, the more credible it sounded. From Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive;

    Like I said this is a sole source so far, but sadly it fits in with Eikenberry’s strategically leaked messages stabbing Gen. McChrystal in the back by calling for no reinforcements. It also offers President Obama the opportunity to start the exfil from the country and avoid having to attempt to win.

    From Greyhawk;

    The story defies logic and belief, but unfortunately if the US State Department (or the White House) hasn’t responded clearly and forcefully to unequivocally deny the allegations yet, now would be a good time to do that, too. The current administration has elected to conduct its Afghanistan business via leaks and rumors.

    From Cassandra;

    Can you imagine the reaction if George Bush were still in office? Would any sane person give a story like this the time of day? Sadly, Obama’s hands off (to put it mildly) leadership style and ineffectual waffling inspire confidence in neither his grasp of the situation nor his resolve:

    I still don’t want to believe the article, but Obama has put his foreign policy on cruise control while he focuses on taking over the economy. He has Karl Eikenberry providing guidance and I’ve been warning you that Eikenberry was a dickhead, a dangerous dickhead, when he was my PL, and apparently he hasn’t changed in 35 years.

    Like Jimbo pointed out, this is the same kind of deal that the Pakistanis tried to strike with the Taliban last year. Now the Pakistani Army is trying to dislodge the Taliban because they used their territories as a base from which to strike the rest of the country with suicide bombers. Not like they haven’t done that before.

    All of this talk about diplomacy and give-and-take sounds dreamy, but for Pete’s sake, look who we’re talking about here.

  • The veil slips

    So all of this talk about how Obama was going to get us the respect that the world lost for us during those eight dark Bush years seems to have waned and reality is gob-smacking the media. Newsbuster’s Noel Sheppard marvels at Chris Matthews comparisons of Obama to Jimmy Carter (where ya been Chris – we were making the comparison in 2007).

    Laura W. at Ace of Spades takes a look at the awakening in Maureen Dowd who seems less enthusiastic about Obama these days. Also at Ace of Spades, Uncle Jimbo brings up the Saturday Night Live video from last weekend. Suddenly Obama can be the butt of jokes.

    Der Speigel Online’s Gabor Stiengart writes that “Obama’s Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage” – so much for impressing Europe. I guess Obama now realizes that those Germans weren’t cheering for him in Berlin, they were panhandling.

    Claymore wrote to remind us that it’s been 86 days since General McCrystal asked the President for more troops – not to worry, Mr. Decisive is planning to meet more advisors on the subject later today;

    The White House said Obama would meet with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other officials at an 8 p.m. EST/0100 GMT Tuesday meeting in the Situation Room.

    It will be the ninth such meeting as Obama nears a decision on whether to add as many as 40,000 troops to an eight-year-old war that was started after the September 11 attacks and that has begun to try the patience of the American people.

    Wow! Nine whole meeting! That’s almost one meeting every ten days – focused like a laser on our national security. Like a laser.

    Can you imagine what would happen if something requiring immediate attention would happen? Well, by immediate attention, I mean that dithering would cost the lives of Am…, oh.

    Well, we can always investigate those milbloggers for something to distract everybody.

  • Not so reasonable argument

    Last week, dicksmith at VoteVets joined with Jerry “The Waddler” Nadler in defending Attorney General Holder’s decision to try Guantanamo detaineees in New York City instead of by military tribunal;

    Watch as Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) uses facts and reason to rebut Congressman Dan Lungren’s (R-CA) points on trying Guantanamo Bay detainees in civilian courts:

    I think reason won the day over Rep. Lungren’s clear disdain for the rule of law.

    Dicksmith inserted this video from HardLeftBall;

    What dicksmith and Nadler consider “reasonable” is that under a military tribunal, those five terrorists (Nadler calls them “alleged terrorists”) won’t get any justice befitting the American people. Another shot at the military, of course. Good place for dicksmith to come down on this – a pro-military organization taking cheap shots at the integrity of the military.

    But, to kind of stick a finger in the eye of Holder’s supporters, yesterday the lawyer representing Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali announced that, even though his client is guilty, he’ll plead not guilty in New York City;

    Attorney Scott Fenstermaker says his client Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and the others will not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but will tell the jury “why they did it.”

    He says the men will explain “their assessment of American foreign policy.”

    Fenstermaker met with Ali last week at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. He says the men, including professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have discussed the trial among themselves.

    Yes, Holder and Nadler and dicksmith are playing right into the hands of these thugs by allowing them a forum in which they can “explain their assessment of American foreign policy.” I wonder if the victims of 9/11 will get the opportunity to explain their assessment of terrorism to the jury.