Washington Accepts the Lie.
The dogged, dangerous diplomat, Peter Galbraith, former deputy of the UN mission in Afghanistan that was in charge of the recent presidential elections, has now launched a frontal assault on the UN, his former boss in Kabul, the Norwegian UN diplomat Kai Eide, and on the US envoy Richard Holbrooke as well, by declaring in copy and on TV in London and Washington that Hamid Karzai stole the election, that the election results are fraudlent, and that the UN, NATO and the US are going along with a disgraced lie. Karzai is not the elected president of Afghanistan. Ann Marlowe told me in August, the weekend of the election, that preliminary results shows that Karzai had taken up to 72% of the vote and that Dr. Abdullah, the major rival, was down to 24% -- with the other dozen or so canditates showing minute results. All a fraud, Ann Marlowe reported. She pointed to the province of Khost, with one million residents all told, where the intial results show one million votes for Karzai. Laughable, disgraceful. Since then there have been adjustments to Karzai's vote total (reduced to the less ridiculous 54%, as the Karzai machine can claim any number it wants) yet there have been consistent and widespread and documented reports of ballot-stuffing after a low voter turnout. Galbraith made his charges of fraud in September and was fired by the Norweigian Eide in retaliation. Last week, before Galbraith wrote in London and Washington, the Obama Politburo decided to accept Karzai as the winner of the fraudulent first round of voting. The Politburo needs Karzai in place so it can go ahead with its plan to buy off the Taliban, using Saudi Intelligence and Pakistani Intelligence, and then leave Afghanistan to the offices of the UN and NATO and other international bodies. The Obama administration's needs are for the mid-term election of 2010, not for Afghanistan or Pakistan, not for the hunt for Al Qaeda and the completion of the mission in the region, not even for the integrity of the American military mission. The Poliburo's mission is for the Politburo's success -- to get out of the Gulf and get the power to reshape the American economy to its imagination.
Now Comes Galbraith.
Peter Galbraith stands in the way of the Politburo, because he insists, as above, that the election was fraudulent and corrupt and a lie and is therefore useless for legitimacy. Peter Galbraith's charge is not in a vacuum. The so-called second-place candidate, Dr. Abdullah, has written UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon that Eide was "giving a green card for fraud to determine the outcome of the election." Abdullah wants a second round of voting, with him and Karzai in a run-off that is monitored correctly by the UN. Will Abdullah get his run-off? Not likely. The Politburo needs Karzai now. I am told again this day, after Galbraith's salvos, that the Politburo will ignore the corruption and force its will on the UN and NATO and Kabul, because it believes it must have a viable government in place now. Because of the winter weather, no new election can be held until the Spring, which is much too late for the Politburo's desires to get out of Afghanistan before the 2010 election. The UN is caught now between three immovable voices -- the truth-teller Galbraith, who will not back off and has now been given the forum of ABC "Good Morning" with Diane Sawyer; then there is the Karzai mob in Kabul, that has been handed the presidency and its renewed license to steal aid and run the narco-trade, and will not back off; and then there is the Obama Politburo, that continues to rethink and rethink and rethink its strategy on Afghanistan. Of these three immovables, Galbraith is the most vulnerable to attack and smear and dismissal. There is the complication that Galbraith published a blistering attack on the Bush administration's policy in Iraq, "The End of Iraq," and is therefore not easily stuffed in a box labelled "right-wing critic." Galbraith does not look vulnerable this day. Also, there is the detail that he is speaking a truth that is widely known.
Rotten.
The veteran American aid worker and observer Rufus Phillips, author, "Why Vietnam Matters," told me again on Saturday 3 that the election was a well-known fraud (he was an observer in Kabul) and that Karzai is not legitimately the president. Wise men like Rufus Phillips, who mentored the young Richard Holbrooke in Saigon in the 1960s, have potent voices in American foreign policy. Rufus Phillips told JFK the grim, complex, discouraging facts of the Saigon Delta in the summer of 1963, before the disaster of the Diem Brother murders; and Rufus told JFK during a Cabinet meeting in front of Maxwell Taylor, Dean Rusk, Ted Sorenson, McGeorge Bundy, Robert McNamara and other luminaries of the Vietnam war. From the description of the scene in Rufus's book, it was a message that made everyone unhappy, especially Rufus's boss at AID . Peter Galbraith's message to the UN makes everyone unhappy in Washington, in the UN, in NATO -- in the Politburo. It is a direct blow to POTUS. Galbraith's statment comes to a simple formula that fraud is fraud. A presidency built on fraud stains and weakens any democracy that tries to negotiate with it. Karzai at Kabul does and will weaken the Obama administration at Washington if and when the Politburo puts Karzai in the Dayton Accord-like deal to appease the Talban and exit Afghanistan. Rotten fruit from the poisoned election. Bad policy and bad times and bad ends. Not Vietnam. Not yet. Pakistan has not spoken. Pakistan can make a bad situation much, much worse.
>"Bad policy and bad times and bad ends."
Agreed, but not necessarily bad for Obama. The same way our president has sought to discredit 'capitalism', he is working on discrediting 'democracy'. Wherever he can demonstrate electoral shortcomings anywhere in the world, he can use it as an object lesson to show that 'democracy' does not work. This is one of the arguments he'll be banking on when the time comes for him to make the necessary moves to extend his own tenure in the White House beyond two terms. (And don't think that Castro and Chavez are not helping him with it.)
Look for our mid-term elections to be a complete mess. It will be deliberately so. The strategy is to get the American people so disgusted that the last thing they want to think about is another election. Will it work? No. But it should make for some high drama.
Dear John.
What actually happened was, I believe, that we (the US) relied on Galbraith to enforce the election rules but when he called foul we didn't know what to do and let Eide come back to fold the UN tent and fire Galbraith. As a sycophant for Karzai, Eide should have been replaced long ago. Secondly we should have interfered ourselves more directly in ensuring fair and free elections. I picked up personally that things were not right with the Election Complaints Commitee several weeks before election day and can give you the details.
I do not agree with your characterization of the Obama Adminsitration as some kind of politbureau which sounds like a bunch of apparatchiks making decisions. There is obviously a split in the advice he is getting but the Defense Dept is supporting McCrystal and that's a powerful push. I don't mind him taking some time to make the decision (a lot of LBJ's decisions were made too fast and in secret).Admiral Mullen who is really a solid guy has called for a national debate and I think we need one to clarify in the minds of our public what we are trying to do out there. It is not easy to make the kind of committment needed when we have a huge deficit and the real jobless rate is above 15%. Historically, this is when public sentiment is for pulling in our horns just as it was back in the 30's when Rossevelt was trying to get us to begin facing up to the rising Nazi and Imperial Japanese threat. Lastly by way of comparison there was a split in the Bush administration over the Surge and I believe it took almost three months for him to make a final decision on that one.
I hope the final count will show Karzai at less than 50% and there will be run-off. There is still time as the snows don't really shut things down until November, not October and the Consitution allows only two weeks for a runoff. This time enforcement should include the use of ISAF troops to provide poll security against the Taliban and to observe the voting where necessary to keep it honest. After all,such intervention will be on behalf of the rights oif the Afghan people and on behalf of the Ametican people who paid for a large share of the cost of the original election and will probably have to do so for any runoff since the Afghans have no funds for that.
Rufus
Bathroom break a ploy for Pakistan suicide attack
By CHRIS BRUMMITT (AP) – 1 hour ago
ISLAMABAD — A suicide bomber who killed five staffers at the U.N. food agency's headquarters in Pakistan on Monday was dressed as a security officer and allowed to enter the heavily guarded building after he asked to use the bathroom.
The United Nations announced it was temporarily closing all its offices in Pakistan after the noontime bombing, which blew out windows and left victims lying in pools of blood in the lobby of the three-story World Food Program compound.
"This is a heinous crime committed against those who have been working tirelessly to assist the poor and vulnerable on the front lines of hunger and other human suffering in Pakistan," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Geneva.
Despite the office closures, the U.N. said its Pakistani partner organizations would continue distributing food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance. The world body said it would reassess the situation over the next several days.
Pakistani authorities launched an investigation into the major security lapse, saying they would question guards who failed to stop the bomber from carrying out the first suicide attack in Islamabad in four months.
The attack came a day after the new Pakistani Taliban leader met reporters close to the Afghan border, vowing more attacks in response to U.S. missile strikes on militant targets in Pakistan. Ending speculation he had been killed, Hakimullah Mehsud denied government claims the militants were in disarray and said his fighters would repel any army offensive on their stronghold in South Waziristan.
Authorities blamed Islamic militants for Monday's bombing but did not single out the Taliban.
It was unclear whether militants targeted the World Food Program because of its work in Pakistan or were simply looking to kill foreigners or those working with them. The dead were four Pakistanis and an Iraqi.
Extremists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq seeking to attack high-profile Western targets have shown no hesitation in striking foreign humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations, regardless of the work they are doing in relieving the suffering in the countries. A blast in June on a luxury hotel housing many foreign aid workers in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed two U.N. staffers and wounded others.
Sometimes the very nature of their work invites attack. In Monday's bombing, insurgents may have believed that by feeding refugees from the fighting in the Swat valley, the World Food Program is propping up a Pakistani government they view as a U.S. puppet or somehow supporting the army offensive there.
The U.N. and various humanitarian agencies, including those funded by the U.S. government, have been expanding in Pakistan over the last year to help support its elected government.
The United Nations considers itself a major target in Pakistan. Many of its offices are surrounded by 12-foot-high blast walls. Its staff members are driven in bulletproof cars and not allowed to bring their families with them on assignment in the country.
The World Food Program compound, which employs more than 70 people, is surrounded by square metal cages filled with sand and small stones used to protect against blasts and projectiles.
"This was one of the best-protected U.N. centers in all of Pakistan," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters at the world body's headquarters in New York. "We were really quite heavily guarded at least at that compound. How that person got in — that is still being investigated, and we're trying to find out from surveillance cameras."
Asked whether security had been bolstered following last month's attack that killed 12 African U.N. peacekeepers in a U.N.-authorized mission in Somalia, Montas replied: "Not that I know of."
Taliban and allied militants have carried out scores of suicide attacks in Pakistan over the last 2 1/2 years. Under U.S. pressure, Pakistani security forces have recently had some success combatting the extremists. Hakimullah's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in August.
Monday's bombing was one of at least four major strikes in the past three weeks that would appear to show Pakistani militants are regrouping and have retained the capacity to carry out attacks. It took place in a well guarded, upscale residential area close to where President Asif Ali Zardari has a home.
Hassan Abbas, a former official in the Bhutto and Musharraf governments, said the attack is significant because it shows militants can still breach high security zones. "Probably, terrorists were able to penetrate the local security infrastructure," Abbas said.
Police official Bin Yamin said the bomber detonated his explosives in the lobby. Typically, visitors to U.N. buildings in Islamabad are screened and patted down for weapons and explosives in secure chambers some distance from the entrance to the building. It was unclear whether the attacker went through that process.
Security camera footage broadcast on local TV shows the bomber walking through a door into what appears to be the main building carrying a 2-foot-long cylindrical object — possibly a detonator — in one hand. Seconds later, a bright flash fills the screen.
"There was a huge bang, and something hit me. I fell on the floor bleeding," said Adam Motiwala, an information officer who was hospitalized with wounds to his head, leg and ribs.
Medical officials at two hospitals said five staff members were killed, including two Pakistani women, two Pakistani men and an Iraqi. Several others were wounded, two of them critically, the WFP said in a statement.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attacker was wearing the uniform of the paramilitary police unit guarding the outer perimeter of compound. He said the bomber, who was in his 20s, asked if he could go inside the building to use the bathroom. He was carrying around 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of explosives.
"We are investigating those security officials who were present and on the duty and who allowed him inside," he said.
Malik said the bombing proved the militants were growing desperate in response to recent government offensives against the groups.
"These terrorists," he said, "they are injured snakes."
Polls show the Pakistani public has been losing patience with the militants this year — a point emphasized in a speech Monday by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at Rice University's Baker Institute in Houston.
"Today when people see that there are innocent people dying, when they see all the major urban centers of Pakistan being hit, when they see that the economy of Pakistan has suffered and job creation and investment have been compromised because of these extremists, I think the public opinion has changed," Qureshi said.
Associated Press writers Ishtiaq Mahsud in Sararogha and Edith M. Lederer and John Heilprin at the United Nations contributed to this report
>"These terrorists," he said, "they are injured snakes."
Wrong!!! It's we who are injured. They are winning! They will succeed in bringing down a nation of good people and turning it into a place without even the most basic of what we understand to be human rights. There is no evidence that the brutality will end after terrorists have taken full control. No, it will intensify and spill its borders into India and beyond.
All this cancerous hatred toward the West has been generated by only one thing: Israel's presence in the Middle East. Western nations (particularly America) are seen as supporting Israel. The terrorists at their (out of cell phone range) training camps have not yet absorbed the news that Israel has been more or less left abandoned by the West. And even if the news had gotten out, they would then demand that the West itself crush the Jews.
They know that it wouldn't take much more to get the West to do their bidding in this regard. They also know that if the West could be enticed to pull the trigger on the Jews, it could be classified as a murder-suicide; that the once haughty Western imperialists would never again dare to raise any objection to any outrage committed in the name of their permanently angry god.
Isn't it ironic that the party that took a few hanging chads all the way to the Supreme Court, and has screamed "FOUL" ever since, is the same party that now supports Karzai, Ahmadinejad, and Zelaya, aka the Manny, Moe and Jack of election rigging? Democrats are fascinated by corrupt elections. Jimmy Carter used to travel halfway around the world just so he could see them up close and be an integral part of them.
"All this cancerous hatred toward the West has been generated by only one thing: Israel's presence in the Middle East."
Peter - You are just wrong here. Al Qaeda was, primarily, against the US because of its presence and troops on the 'sacred' Saudi Arabian peninsula. It took several years for Al Qaeda to realize it would get more support if it embraced the Palestinian issue, so it has -- but, again, only in the last few years. Also the West, in particular the US, has been an object of hatred because of its support of dictatorships in Muslim countries. The dictatorships wouldn't allow criticism of themselves, but would allow it of the US -- so, in some cases, attacking the US was a way of attacking their own gov'ts. This, of course, is an oversimplification -- but your thought that Israel is the cause of all the Mideast problems is just an excuse used by many to abandon Israel -- even if that wasn't your intention.
WSJ
y PETER SPIEGEL and ANAND GOPAL
Associated Press
A foreign worker of the Afghan Election Commission, second right, counts the suspicious ballots with her Afghan colleagues during the recounting possess at the main election office in Kabul on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday called on the U.S. government's civilian and military leadership to keep their advice to President Barack Obama on Afghanistan private amid an increasingly public debate over a White House review of war strategy.
Mr. Gates said that Mr. Obama's decision on Afghanistan, expected by the end of the month, will be "among the most important of his presidency" and that the president should be given time to consider how to proceed.
"In this process it is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations -- civilian and military alike -- provide our best advice to the president candidly but privately," Mr. Gates said.
The comments come just days after the U.S.'s top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, made a public appearance in London in which he said he was opposed to narrowing the military's strategy to focus on unmanned drones and elite forces to target al Qaeda.
Geoff Morrell, Mr. Gates's spokesman, said the secretary's remarks were not aimed at any individual. "This admonition was aimed at anyone and everyone who is involved in these debates with the president," he said.
Supporters of Gen. McChrystal have said that his address Thursday to the International Institute for Strategic Studies has been widely misinterpreted as an effort to press for an increase in troops when it was a restatement of the importance of a counterinsurgency -- a policy backed by Mr. Obama in March and one Gen. McChrystal has advocated in public comments repeatedly.
View Full Image
Associated Press
A worker hauls a ballot box for recounting at the main election office in Kabul on Monday. Officials expect to announce the final result in less than a week.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs appeared to join those supporters on Monday, saying that he did not believe Gen. McChrystal was actively campaigning for a troop increase.
Retired Gen. James Jones, Mr. Obama's national security adviser, on Sunday appeared to suggest Gen. McChrystal had gone outside normal channels when he gave the speech. "Ideally, it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command," Gen. Jones said on the CNN program "State of the Union."
Meanwhile, Afghan election officials on Monday began recounting votes from the disputed August presidential elections. Officials said they were expected to announce the final results in less than a week, and incumbent Hamid Karzai remains poised to emerge the victor.
Investigators from the United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission launched the recount after receiving numerous reports of ballot stuffing and voter intimidation, mostly in favor of Mr. Karzai.
Commissioners have divided the most suspicious results into categories, including those in which one candidate received more than 95% of the vote, and those where votes cast outnumbered voters. That amounts to nearly 12% of all polling stations. Investigators will examine a fraction, and if those votes are found fraudulent, votes for the whole category will be thrown out.
Since the majority of questionable votes are for Mr. Karzai, this could bring him down from his preliminary vote total of 54% to under 50% and force a runoff. But observers and analysts say that Mr. Karzai is still the heavy favorite to emerge as the winner. "He has too many important institutions on his side," says Habibullah Rafeh, a policy analyst with the Kabul Academy of Sciences.
The ECC is relying on Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission, which conducted the elections, to identify fraudulent ballots. The IEC, whose leadership is appointed by the president, has been widely accused of supporting Mr. Karzai, though the commission says that isn't the case.
Peter Galbraith, a high-ranking American diplomat in the U.N. who was removed from his post, has accused the U.N. of covering up the electoral fraud to favor Mr. Karzai. There "has been no such cover-up," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Monday.
—Joe Lauria contributed to this article
Write to Peter Spiegel at peter.spiegel@wsj.com
Interesting last point. Maybe those of us who favor attacking Afghanistan are really doing it instead of calling for an attack on Washington.
This is from Dick Morris. Thought I'd pass it on.
US CEDES ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE TO IMF
Dear Friend,
In this video commentary, I discuss how the United States, at the G20 conference, put itself under the guidance and, ultimately, control of the International Monetary Fund even as it succeeded in turning more power in that organization over to debtor nations. The Declaration of Independence is being repealed before our eyes.
To access the video - Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbTCmSdHvrk
Mike - If you've been reading me now and then, you probably know that I have been a supporter of Israel all along - and not necessarily because I like Jews. I continue to believe that if we were to deliver Israel into the hands of its enemies, we would literally lose our souls. It's that serious. (Sorry Lou, but that's what I believe.)
You are right, Mike; there are all kinds of reasons for why Islamists hate us. The one you mention is no doubt the most relevant (even if they themselves don’t know it). But now that the ball has been put in motion, it seems only to be gathering steam. From where does it draw its energy? What is the fuel that powers it? Why do there seem to be unlimited numbers willing to sacrifice themselves and their children - and for what?
It always comes down to Israel. That’s the weakness to which their propagandists always keep returning. Even the Mumbai attacks had that particular component. Were Israel gone, the spring would wind down; the pressure would lessen - at least for a time. I'm convinced of it.
This does not mean that abandoning Israel would solve all (or even any) of our problems. I believe it would create new, bigger and even more profound ones for us (especially if our abandonment of Israel should result in genocide).
It would likely take years to find the words to articulate the consequences, but consequences would be with us nonetheless (whether we acknowledge them or not), like millstones - or a whole flock of albatrosses - tied around our pathetic, cowardly necks.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
HTTP BELOW IS THE "FIGHT THE SMEARS" WEBSITE/ "THE TRUTH ABOUT BARACK'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE" THAT WAS ADVERTISED ON DICK MORRIS'S YOUTUBE VIDEO.
Normally, I wouldn't get involved in this -- but it was advertised on the YouTube video from Dick Morris above (and, I'm guessing not by DM). I went there and saw a Certificate of Live Birth, which I understand is not the same as a Birth Certificate (for example, my birth certificate has a finger print/foot print on it.) I also read somewhere that even Hawaiian officials don't accept a Certificate of Live Birth in lieu of a Birth Certificate. However, I will try to use some Dick Morris logic here: This is a trap to get us to attack POTUS, who at some later time will whip out the real Birth Certificate and make 'Birthers' look ridiculous. On the other hand ObamaCrimes.com seems legit. Who can figure this one out?
http://fightthesmears.com/articles/5/birthcertificate.html?source=SEM-RR-google-content-birth&gclid=CLm9zZusp50CFado5Qod6gNMiw
"Were Israel gone, the spring would wind down; the pressure would lessen - at least for a time. I'm convinced of it."
Sorry, Peter, I think your logic is fuzzy. Haters hate. If Israel were gone, they'd still hate and envy us at the same time. The disappearance of Israel would not change the fact that almost all Muslim countries are dictatorships -- which the haters hate because they are too liberal, too conservative, not religious enough, too religious, not free enough, too free, etc. I can't explain hatred.
As to "a whole flock of albatrosses", apparently, you've never seen the French documentary, probably "Shoah", where an interviewer asked people in Poland if they missed the Jews. The overwhelming response was 'No'. Although, they all remembered the names of the Jews who used to live in the houses they were currently living in.
JB once mentioned a '30s news article he came across while doing other research. It showed anti-Jewish sentiment in Palestine before the State of Israel -- which showed that Israel, itself, was not the cause of such hatred. (Sorry, John, if I botched your point -- but I think I'm close).
No need to apologize to me, I'm quite used to being a lone voice in the wild. In fact, I'm always surprised when somebody agrees with me.
Since I'm an atheist, I don't believe in a soul to begin within. So your saying that if I don't do something, I'll lose my soul registers in my mind like hearing a mother telling a child that if he's not a good boy, the Easter Bunny won't come this year. Oh well.
Generalizing in all seriousness, the problems most nations face in modernity arise from economics and the opportunities (or lack of) to be productive and maintain a family unit. Where there is no hope for a future then that despair translates into the search for an alternative and to assign blame onto others. This is a human trait that hasn't been exorcised by evolution to date and it's a driving force behind every imperialistic vision throughout history. No tribe on Earth is excluded from making war on another, however remote they are or might have been.
If we look, we can see here, there, and everywhere how the Big Fish is named WAR... it fills bellies and keeps people occupied.
SSSHH... be quiet, you'll scare the Fish away.
Peter:
This week, October 7th to be exact, marks the 438th anniversary of the naval battle of Lepanto, an improbable Christian victory that helped stem the tide of the Ottoman Turkish project to completely subjugate all of Europe. Peter, we must note that there was no Israel in 1571, no allegedly imperialistic Jewish political entity of any kind, as the Jews in Palestine and elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire existed in dhimmitude. Yet the Muslims were bending every effort to reduce Western Christendom to that same oppressive state as they had already done to so much of its Eastern branch. My point is that "were Israel gone, the spring would wind down; the pressure would lessen - at least for a time. I'm convinced of it" is not correct; the Islamists would continue to come at us hammer-and-tongs, just as they did in, say, 1571, 1683, 1716, and, yes, 9/11/2001, not so much because of Israel but because of ourselves. To be sure, the Islamists use Israel as their big excuse, but we must always keep in mind who they think is the Little Satan and who is the Great Satan.
That said, Peter, I do understand what is your actual, oft-expressed attitude towards Israel. Moreover, you may well be prophetic in anticipating that the West might cravenly do her in to appease our Islamic attackers. After all, Zbig Brzezinski has supposedly advocated that the US armed forces shoot down Israeli jets who might dare to fly over to Iran and bomb their nuclear installations! If we were seriously to countenance such a crime and such a folly, yes, Peter, we in the West will have lost our souls; even Neville Chamberlain did not advocate sending the RAF to bomb Czechoslovakia in 1938.
As for Afghanistan, the October 7th date figures there also -- it was on 10/07/2001 that on President Bush's orders our people -- largely special forces and CIA commandos -- began to take out the Taliban regime there. We were highly successful then so perhaps we might learn some lessons from that particular strategy. As I recall, we worked closely with indigenous forces, especailly the so-called Northern Alliance, so that might be a clue as to how we should proceed now. Admittedly, that would require us to work hand-in-glove with tribal "warlords," but we have to remember that, in Afghanistan, they might be the closest thing we can get to the tribal leaders in Iraq who were of such critical importance to the success of the Petraeus "surge" strategy, which was about much more than mere numbers of reinforcements. Besides, any Afghan warlords we could buy or at least rent could not be more unsavory than the corrupt Karzai brothers back in Kabul, to whom we have foolishly hitched our star.
Tom in NJ--
Well said and well researched! I too see Israel as simply red meat (not pork of course) that islam's rabble-rousers use to stir up support. No different than BO's guys vilifying the insurance companies as the root of all medical evil.
The furor over BO's taking time to "get the strategy right" is getting way too much criticism--rigtht-wing red meat. AfPak is a serious issue to consider, unlike W's excursion into Iraq. Let's look realistically at the immediate and tertiary effects, costs, implications of which of several approaches we take from hasty withdrawal to recreation of Afgan in the image and likeness of US.
The term of debate is "strategy." But hopefully this is not the debate most important--that is the debate of GOALS. Why are we there? Why would we stay there? Now that we are there, what advantages can we make of it, what liabilities do we sustain?
what is in the best interest of the USA? the options are many as they obviously go well beyond the future of Afgan as a country. That has to be far down on our real set of objectives. Other items that mean something to me are: stay close to Pak's nukes, stop TAliban from forming bases we cannot destroy w/o physical presence, etc.
But for me there better be a damn good reason grounded in the interests of the USA. I don't give a tinker's damn about Afgan's political future in and of itself.
But I do believe we cannot kick the can down the road, grind our troops into the cemetery 5-6 at a time, spend what little we have etc. because we are uncertain, embarrassed, keeping up appearances. Find, define, broadcast our interests and then proceed with all available resources to get it quick. D-Day is OK; VietNam is not. Easy 2x2 set of options--"ends":in our interest/not in our interest; "means--holding action vs all out destruction of the enemy.
So good for Barry is this is what he is actually doing. It would surprise me however.
As we know, the successes of the current strategy being employed in Afgha are not being openly communicated to the public, even though they far outweigh any of the setbacks that garner widespread coverage.
Just as the most recent suicide mission that brought hundreds of militant fighters against the outposts in the Northeast, the result of the firefight was actually a defeat for the Taliban with the militants taking heavy casualties and forced to withdraw. Granted, they were able to initially do damage in a surprise attack and they eventually took some hostages, but, they were turned back and now they are getting pounded and pummeled.
How many people are aware of the complete story? How many realize that it is false to state that the Taliban resources for supplies and fighters are unlimited? The militancy doesn't register even a noteworthy mention in relation to the overall populations. They are murderers and criminals trying to intimidate so as to impose their will on others who do not have the wherewithal to counter their brutality and theivery.
In general, the common thread in the region is of desperate peoples, who have been held captive by their own societies for generations, and cannot immediately come to terms with being freed from their prison. And the guards are smart enough to know that the prisoners, once freed, will be coming after them... looking to tan their hides.
The responses generated by my remarks on Israel suggest that questions raised in this regard point to something considerably more sensitive than what is readily apparent. Most comments were designed to mitigate the problem by perpetuating the myth that Israel is fully capable of defending itself; when, in fact, it has been Israel’s strategy all along to align itself with a supportive ‘big brother’ to ensure its continued survival. This tacit understanding has never been questioned until the present administration came to power – and with good reason.
The balance of comments were designed to support of a second myth - promoted by Israel itself – designed to convince the ‘big brother’ that more than just the fate of Israel is at stake.
Both these are myths because they are not grounded entirely in reality. Israel will not be able to defend itself without our help when the hoards are finally unleashed. And the threat is existential to Israel alone. All others will be able to muddle through in a post apocalyptic world.
Israel is a test for western civilization. It is the ‘canary in the coal mine’. What happens to Israel will eventually happen to us (manifold). No question about it: fate has fashioned Israel into the crucible that determines the future of western civilization. Look at what’s happening as we speak: Israel is under threat; the West (and western interests everywhere) is under threat. Israel stands divided about what to do about it; the West stands divided. Each has powerful voices within its own borders giving aid and comfort to the enemy. If Israel is permitted to fall, the West falls. Pure and simple.
With all due respect to your scholarship, Tom; I doubt if your average jihadi fighter understands or cares what happened 500 years ago. All this ’knowledge’ is our torment and distraction to sort out. All they know is ”hate the Jews; kill them, if possible; as well as all those who support their effort to remain among the living.” (Don’t look at me; I didn’t write this script. It is what it is.)
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
hmmm... let's see, when has Israel actually asked US to militarily come to their aid when they were being attacked?
Hmmm... I'm drawing a blank. I know we placed some Patriot systems in their country when Saddam was lobbing SCUDS at them, though. Does that count as being a big brother?
One thing is for certain, the Israelis are not being underestimated by any of the ones who are regularly trying to intimidate them and I doubt that none of them really want to test the devotion and commitment of Israel's friends.
1:29EST- Update 10/6/09--KABUL (Reuters) - NATO forces said Tuesday they had killed more that 100 fighters in a huge weekend battle in eastern Afghanistan in which eight Americans died, the deadliest firefight for U.S. troops in more than a year.
The revised enemy death toll gives an idea of the scale of the battle, one of the biggest of the eight-year-old war, in which hundreds of fighters armed with machine guns, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attempted to storm remote outposts.
"A more detailed battlefield assessment following the October 3 attack in Nuristan has determined that enemy forces suffered more than 100 dead during the well-coordinated defense, significantly higher losses than originally thought," NATO said in a statement.
The fighters launched their assault on two remote outposts in Nuristan province Saturday, triggering the 13-hour battle in a part of the country U.S. forces had already planned to abandon under a new strategy calling for a focus on population centres.
At least two Afghan soldiers died in the battle and authorities said they had lost contact with police in the area and did not know if they were captured or deserted.
The NATO statement said Western forces had concluded the attackers were local militants operating with the help of the Taliban and the Hezb-i-Islami group led by former anti-Soviet Mujahideen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Since the weekend assault, Afghan authorities say U.S. and Afghan forces have mounted a number of operations to retake areas held by the Taliban. U.S. officials say operations have taken place in the area but have not give further details.
Spencer--
If I was sure we were in this Afgan deal to actually win, dominate, crush permanently eliminate the enemy, I'd fine your reporting fairly good news. But I don't know why we were fighting in the first place. Behind you positive review of the action there is at least a tacit rationale for being in Afgan.
Can you share it with us? Seriously. Right now I can't see the rationale--and secret rationales are not on my list of OK's. W used up the last supply in Iraq.
One other observation--this ambush tells me some commander on the ground really screwed up. How could you NOT see that many scumbags coming at you?? "ambush" really isn't descriptive--this was a surprise attack by large numbers of people.
Ram
SECURITY OF PAK'S NUCLEAR ESTABLISHMENTS: A WAKE-UP CALL
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR: PAPER NO. 561
B.RAMAN
On April 1,2009, a pilotless plane (Drone) of the USA's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attacked with a missile the house of Hakimullah Mehsud in the Khadezai area of the Orakzai Agency in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. Twelve persons were killed. Hakimullah himself, who was apparently one of the targets, escaped unhurt and warned of a retaliatory strike by the Pakistani Taliban in Islamabad.
2. The retaliation through a suicide bomber came within three days. Late on the evening of April 4,2009, a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the barracks of a company of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), which was deployed in Islamabad on VIP security duties. At least eight members of the FC were killed by the explosion.The FC consists almost entirely of Pashtuns recruited in the NWFP, the FATA and the Pashtun majority areas of Balochistan. The FC has been in the forefront of the operations against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the Pashtun belt.
3.On October 4,2009, Hakimullah Mehsud, who has taken over as the Amir of the TTP after the death of Baitullah Mehsud in a Drone strike on August 5,2009, invited five Pashtun journalists to a hide-out in South Waziristan to dispel rumours spread by the Pakistani authorities after the death of Baitullah that at a shoora of the TTP held to choose the successor to Baitullah, fighting broke out between his followers and those of Waliur Rehman and that Hakimullah was killed in the exchange of fire. These rumours persisted even after two persons claiming to be Hakimullah and Waliur Rehman had rung up some journalists to repudiate these rumours and announce jointly that the TTP had elected Hakimullah as its Amir and Waliur as its Amir for the South Waziristan area. These rumours revived again recently through reports circulating in Pakistan as well as orininating from the US.
4 Talking to these journalists, Hakimullah reportedly pledged to take revenge against the US for the Drone attacks and reiterated the previous TTP claim that the Pakistani Government was cooperating with the US for carrying out the missile strikes by Predators. However, he added that the TTP wasn�t against Pakistan or its people as its fight was with the pro-US rulers of the country.
5.On October 5,2009, at least five UN officials, a foreigner and two women among them, were killed and eight others injured when a suicide bomber dressed as a Frontier Constabulary soldier managed to enter the Islamabad office of the World Food Programme without being checked by security guards from a private company as well as an FC unit deployed in Islamabad to provide security to VIPs and important establishments and blew himself up. The FC personnel guarding the building reportedly came from the same unit which was attacked by a suicide bomber of the TTP on April 4,2009.
6. The "Dawn" of Karachi reported as follows on October 6,2009: "Senior investigation officers said they had not ruled out the possibility that the bomber was an FC man.The investigators detained an FC man on duty and a private security guard posted at the office�s gate. An official said it was premature to say anything about the bomber�s identity, but the possibility that he was a serving or ex-member of the paramilitary force could not be ruled out. Another top security official said if it was established that the attacker belonged to the FC, it might change the entire dynamics of not just the investigation, but the counter-terror operation."
7. If it is established that the suicide bomber was in fact a serving member of the FC, it would be an indicatior of the success of the TTP in penetrating FC units deployed outside the Pashtun tribal belt. In the past, there had been many instances of the TTP penetrating FC units deployed in the tribal belt and winning over its personnel. There had also been instances of FC personnel deployed in the tribal areas deserting from their units and joining the TTP.
8. If the TTP has succeeded in penetrating FC units deployed in Islamabad and other places, it should set an alarm bell ringing because the Pakistan Army uses FC units for physical security duties at nuclear establishments. This could provide an opportunity for the TTP and Al Qaeda to penetrate these establishments with the help of their moles. ( 6-10-09)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
Part of my frustration with Afghanistan at the moment is that I think that the socialization of medicine in this country is a far more riveting story and is being almost totally ignored in favor of all this talk about Afghanistan. I think you're all (notice I didn't say "we") falling for Obama's trick of diverting the attention away from his continued socialization of the U.S. by making everyone much more worried about the ineptness of his foreign policy. It's like a mother bird feigning a broken wing (withdrawal from Afghanistan) to draw the predators (right wing talk show hosts and conservative bloggers) away from the nest with the chicks in it (Obamacare.)
Excuse me while I vent: THE FREAKING PRESIDENT IS TRYING TO NATIONALIZE OUR HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY AND YOU'RE ALL ARGUING OVER SOME SMELLY COUNTRY HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD THAT NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS SHOULD CARE ABOUT!!!!
Thank you. (Sister Mary Elephant)
Peter:
As always, I read your posts with interest and profit. Your image of Israel as the West's "canary in the coal mine" is right on target -- while the USA can survive an Israeli demise, our reprieve will be merely temporary. That's quite enough for me to consent to our playing "big brother" to the Jewish state.
You are also probably right about average jihadis not knowing a damned thing about a particular battle 500 hundred years ago, but then they were not my intended audience. I was only trying to suggest a historical framework in which we in the West can place our centuries-old and continuing confrontation and struggle with Islam, especially in its most radical and aggressive forms, without the liberal guilt trip that it's all the Jews' fault or all our fault -- which is not to say that none of it is our fault. That said, I think it is also true that one way in which jihadis are revved up by their controllers is through a sharp, instilled sense of historical grievance against Jews and Christian "Crusaders," even if specific dates and events are left murky or omitted altogether.
Honestly, I think we are in Afghanistan to establish a presence aimed at countering the influences that practice rule by intimidation. Whether at the village level or on a regional level the tactics are the same. A few heavily armed henchmen take control, dictate policy, impose laws, levy taxes, and use extreme measures to empower the organization's leaders and perpetuate their survival.
This simple projection into a village or an area easily translates into the strategic regional aspirations of the regime in Tehran and they have made their intentions very clear. So, in answer to your question, I would say we are in Afghanistan to check Iran, hone our skills, prove out new technologies, and destroy the ones (Al Qaeda included) who will just not stop attacking US, our friends, and the innocents. Of course, there is also the Pakistan movement against their militants in which we participate and provide support for.
Most everyone accepts that the coalition that went into Iraq to remove Saddam was wholly justified. It remains for a counter to Iran, too.
I think the question is, if there were relative peace and calm and we were not assaulted for a couple of years, would we leave the region? To me, that is the real question.
The surprise attack on the remote outposts were organized and queued from a Mosque and the terrain is such that militants might very well seem to appear out of nowhere. I think foot patrols in the mountains and valleys have been deemed too dangerous to undertake for years, so, it is feasible that a planned sneak attack against a fixed location could occur without being discovered.
>THE FREAKING PRESIDENT IS TRYING TO NATIONALIZE OUR HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY AND YOU'RE ALL ARGUING OVER SOME SMELLY COUNTRY HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD THAT NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS SHOULD CARE ABOUT!!!!
Cognitive dissonance is the hallmark of Neoconservatism, Mr. Filliger.
Neoconservatives ponder how to graft uniquely American values onto the alien tissue of Iraq and Afghanistan, then celebrate the destruction of those same values here at home by the PATRIOT Act. Neonconservatives advocate endless foreign wars abroad so that "we won't have to fight the terrorists over here," then resolutely oppose any serious measures to control the security of our borders. Neoconservatives advocate a new Cold War with China, then pursue fiscal policies that assure our indebtedness to that supposedly expansionist country. Neoconservatives prattle among themselves about the misunderstood notion of comparative advantage, then blithely ignore the stark reality that we no longer have anything of value to trade because our industrial base has been outsourced. Und so weiter.
Update from Nasarine Gross re Abdullah's protest of fraud:
Friends & Colleagues,
I have just returned from Kabul. And I am shocked how little the extent of fraud in the presidential elections is understood outside Afghanistan - - although fraud is well understood. In this regard I have some data that I would like to share.
During the summer and up until I left a few days ago I worked as a volunteer for Dr. Abdullah’s campaign. I was impressed with how well the campaign was being conducted with so many experienced, educated and prominent Afghans as well as eager and dedicated young men and women, but I was really stunned by how much people were seeking Dr. Abdullah. In Kabul alone, on a daily basis, around 10,000 persons came to the campaign headquarters in Char-rahi Shahid, and when Dr. Abdullah was in the office, in Char-rahi Ansari, he met with about 2,000 people. The office was open twenty-four hours and campaign workers and Dr. Abdullah himself saw people and/or attended to other work, very often until after 3 a.m. I was enormously proud of my people, most of whom only have the experience of the last two elections (presidential 2004, and parliamentary 2005) to be so gun-ho on this process of democracy and instinctively doing it right.
I worked in Dr. Abdullah’s office and so the multitudes that I ran into, and I really mean multitudes, gave me a new perspective on my country: From every part of Afghanistan, from every ethnic, religious, linguistic and locality group, from every political persuasion, from men, women, old, young, poor, rich, educated and illiterate, people came in droves. In those hot summer days, especially when electricity would go off and the fan would stop running, sometimes there were more than fifteen people in my office waiting to see their candidate, in a space of no more than 14 feet by 9 feet! They were also in every corner of that house turned office, in the corridors standing, in the lawns sitting and squatting, in the rooms in the outhouses lying on mattresses, on chairs in the waiting rooms inside the building, in the dining area, in the utility room, in the cook’s quarters, there were human bodies, turban’ed, burqa’ed, veiled, suited, in groups, chaperoned, or in single file, but there were people - - as if all of a sudden all of Afghanistan had realized there was a real choice and flood gates had burst open, they were rushing to see Dr. Abdullah! I could not hear my own thoughts; such was the din of their presence! I got to learn a lot more Pashto, some Uzbeki, heard a lot of Noorestani, many dialects of Hazaragi, and many other languages. I met so many more people from so many other places and provinces and of course so many women! Ah, it was tiring but also a real treat to be part of this wonderful sea of humanity stumbling over itself to do something right!
And then there was the campaign trail that I did not participate in but heard about from my office mate who was in charge of the foreign press and went to every pit stop with the candidate - - and brought me stories and photos for the website. When we had Jalalabad, we thought ‘oh wow!’ and upon his return, gave our candidate a standing ovation over lunch (at 3:30 pm!) But then Herat happened where it took him more than two hours to go a distance that normally takes twenty minutes and for several subsequent days, the cuts and scratches on his fingertips to his upper arms were witness to the pull of the thousands who had thronged his motorcade and had clasped him in welcoming gestures! Well, we were elated and could not find words for it and knew that this was a turning point in the campaign, that our dreams were going to have more flesh, that the foreign press was really talking about it. And then, the thousands in Paktia, Paktika, Bamiyan, Ghor, Pul-e Khomri, and in Kandahar three thousand men and one thousand women met him in separate rallies, the same city where Mr. Karzai was received by 500 mostly complaining people! By the time Mazar rolled around with over one hundred thousand persons, we had gotten used to it: Dr. Abdullah had transcended all molds of Afghan leaders, candidates and elections, people were rallying around him like their long lost guiding light, embodying all their hopes for change, for the future, for dignity that trust in tomorrow brings. It was giddying and we did not mind the twenty hour days - - I remember one night - - actually morning at 3:30 am, my brain had gone to mush but Dr. Abdullah was still going strong!
On Election Day and afterwards I worked specifically on 8 provinces: Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Ghazni, Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Urozgan. It is in regards these 8 provinces that I am enclosing some of my findings.
1) For my base data I used the data provided by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) for each province. Because I had received many calls during the Election Day from these provinces about problems with polling areas and people not participating, I used the IEC province and polling center data and met with our representatives from these provinces. Specifically, I wanted to know whether a polling center was open or closed, and what the problems were in the polling centers regardless of their being open or closed. To make sure that I had good data, I met separately with different people from each province and double checked and triple checked what they reported (I am speechless that these people worked with me in the most professional manner despite the fact that the sense of betrayal, insult, anger, humiliation, shame and disbelief was eating away at their very soul and many of them, grown men and women alike would uncontrollably shed tears when reporting the situation to me echoing what one of them had said ‘I only had my vote and he (Karzai) stole it from me; I feel like my person has been violated!’
The results of these verifications I have compiled in large Excel tables for each of the 8 provinces. I also made a smaller aggregate table. It is this table I am sending you, which shows that in these 8 provinces there were over 1,680 polling centers (each consisting of many polling stations) and 56% of them were closed and 73% had problems. The table also shows the problems in each province, as reported by these witnesses and workers.
2) After the IEC started posting the results of the polls I took one of the IEC partial data (I think it was at 71% of total polling stations) and subtracted the votes reported from closed polling centers. The results were phenomenal. Only a very partial list of polling centers in each province, totaling 120 centers, showed the extent of fraud clearly: a) in terms of total votes for Mr. Karzai, b) the percentage of votes for Mr. Karzai vis-à-vis the total votes cast, and, c) in terms of the total votes reported cast versus the total estimated voter population in any polling center.
Here, I am sending the partial list of only one province, Kandahar, where you can see that the IEC Pro-Karzai votes are over 45,000 and those reported from closed polling centers amount to over 31,000 of them! You can also see that in several of the polling centers the votes reported are more than 100% of the total estimated voter population of the area. How can that be when there was such a bad security situation in all of Kandahar that day? In several polling centers you can see that the percent of the vote for Mr. Karzai is above 70%. We know that extremely few women, perhaps as little as one hundred women in the whole of the province went to vote. Assuming that not every woman in that center had registered to vote, this is an impossibility to have over 70% of an entire population consisting of males! You can also see that in several places 100% of vote went to Mr. Karzai. Again, how could there be not even one vote against Mr. Karzai in a province that has seen so much conflict and where so much criticism of Mr. Karzai’s family exists? These trends are very evident both across the entire province and in all the other 8 provinces that I dealt with.
3) I also have a copy of a letter the campaign headquarters sent to the Election Complaints Commission (ICC). This letter describes the types of systematic fraud we had uncovered until then including the computer fraud. In this particular type of fraud, through hard core programming of the system, all candidates were beneficiaries, only that Mr. Karzai was by a much larger multiplier than the rest - - so some of the fraud attributed to Dr. Abdullah is actually Mr. Karzai’s people trying to be smart! (I can send you a copy of this letter if you so wish.)
4) Finally, since one day after the election, droves of people from each province of Afghanistan have been coming to Kabul to present evidence of fraud, report their eyewitness and meet with Dr. Abdullah regarding a course of action to redress the wrong that has been done to them. Sometimes they come in tens, but most often they come in hundreds. Usually, they hold press conferences. Dr. Abdullah keeps asking these disgruntled voters to keep calm, to wait for the ICC to complete its work, to have faith.
A few days ago, more than six thousand of these people coming from 33 provinces of Afghanistan (for the 34th province, Kabul, people were already there) met with Dr. Abdullah at Kabul’s Uranus Hotel. Together they passed a resolution. I have translated it and am sending it to you as well. You will see that these people are reasonable, rational and intent on success for Afghanistan and its friends and allies.
I hope that this documentation will shed better light not only on the extent of fraud and the premeditated and planned nature of it but also on the desire of Afghan people to see their voice recognized, and to help the international community make the right choice - - for Afghanistan and for the world at large. My people want that we must not discard the real votes; that we must not sanction fraud; that we must honor the right of the people to choose. This is the sure way to building security, stability and peace!
I assure you that no calamity would befall Afghanistan or the world if the right, democratic path is taken: There will be no rejection or revolt by the Pashtun population (Working with Pashtuns from these 8 provinces I know for a fact that a majority of the Pashtuns did not vote for Mr. Karzai; their vote was stolen from them for one candidate). The non-Pashtuns will not feel that their vote was squandered. The enemies of Afghanistan will receive a loud and clear message that the world is on the side of Afghanistan as are the Afghans. And, those countries and organizations aiding the enemies of Afghanistan will realize that their advantage is to approach Afghanistan in a different manner.
I know it is my right I am talking about; but make no mistake, it is also the path for peace and success for all our friends around the world, not the least of whom are the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States and other countries fighting the Taliban, Al Qaida and who knows who else in Afghanistan! Here’s to victory of democracy over fraud, lies and corruption!
Should you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
With all good wishes, ng
Got to cast the mote out of our own eyes first.
In the book "The Assassin's Gate" the author (?) makes the very interesting point that neocons are really recycled hippies from the 60s that decided to get short haircuts and turn their attentions abroad. It's no wonder that their policies nauseate me as much as do the policies of the hippies who supposedly grew up and stayed true to their asinine beliefs and are now governing the country and inhabiting the Obama White House. Taken as a whole, the Baby Boom generation is a scourge on the planet.
There is a considerable amount of hand-wringing on this board about the failure of the Republican party. I strongly believe that in order to lay a strong platform you have to examine each plank of the platform first to make sure there are no inconsistencies, either inter-plank or intra-plank. Inconsistencies abound, unfortunately, in so much of what I read that passes for conservatism these days. It all boils down to a lack of self-discipline.
Thanks for sharing this voice of Afghanistan!
It's in strong contrast to the incessant humdrum of futility and defeatism.
Might we all be so enlightened!!! Thank you for the clarity!