Hmmm, USN surrounds the area. British send ships. NATO sends ships. Somali officials authorize the use of force from the intl community against the pirates, Russia sends ships, and-wha? All of a sudden the ship is freed? Gee, how did that happen? No, this is not the Ukrainian ship w Russian tanks on board, or the Spanish ship. It’s the Iranian ship where the pirates who were briefly exposed to “something” suddenly became sick, and 50 reportedly died. Now the ship is on the loose.

On August 21, the pirates seized the Iranian bulk carrier, carrying 42,500 tons of minerals and industrial products.

“The ship Dianat was released on Friday morning after even weeks of negotiations with Somali pirates and all 29 members of the crew are safe,” Said public relations office of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL).

The ship is sailing towards international waters, IRISL added.

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There’s an interesting order of battle listed on this article that you’ll want to check out. Ironic that almost 8yrs to the day after the USS Cole was attacked in the area…the USN and NATO ships are still there, and driven to action.

NATO officials said the seven frigates from a group that were to have taken part in an exercise in the Suez Canal region would arrive off the Somali coast within two weeks in response to a request from the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

The decision to send the ships was taken at a meeting of defence ministers from the 26 NATO member states in Budapest, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

“Piracy is a serious problem for shipping in that area. It is also an immediate threat to the lives of the people in Somalia,” he said. “Substantially more than 40 percent of the population depend on the food aid being delivered by ship.”

The European Union has agreed to start planning for a joint naval force that could be ready for deployment by the end of the year.

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This article comes with a fantastic timeline of links to the recent action along the border area. VERY worth reading!

The US continues to target al Qaeda and Taliban safe houses and training camps in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal areas. The latest attack killed nine, including six “foreign militants” - a reference to al Qaeda operatives.

At least two missiles were reported to have been fired at two known Taliban safe houses in the village of Tati near the city of Miramshah. A Reuters reporter saw an unmanned US Predator aircraft flying in the area and conducting the attack.

“The attack targeted the house of a local Taliban commander named Hafiz Sahar Gul,” The News reported. Three member of Gul’s family and six al Qaeda operatives were killed in the strike, according to Pakistani sources. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been identified as killed.

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Look who came to dinner …

Although the Taliban and al-Qaeda have consistently rejected overtures to make peace with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces until they leave Afghanistan, the latest initiative led by Saudi Arabia, and approved by Washington and London, is on track.

Reports emerged this week that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently hosted high-level talks in Mecca between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban. If a middle road is found, next year’s elections in Afghanistan could be held under the supervision of peacekeeping forces from Islamic countries, rather than those of NATO.

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There was an interesting article out in the NYP that goes back and looks at how Osama Bin Laden escaped Tora Bora in 2001. Most of the article rehashes the fact that the US relied on its allies in Afghanistan to block his escape, and the US relied on its ally Pakistan to block his escape, but now we get an interesting little accusation about how OTHER allies, NATO, allowed Bin Laden to escape.

One, the US unwisely trusted Pakistan to patrol its border. Two, NATO allies objected to the use of “GATOR” mines, which are dropped from planes and could have sealed up the Tora Bora area. But mostly, Fury says the decision to let Afghan allies form “the tip of the spear” was the biggest mistake. “The idea worked like a charm when we faced a common foe, the oppressive Taliban . . . but they were fighting Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden . . . we might as well have been asking for them to fight the Almighty Prophet Mohammed himself.”

In all my reading, research, conversations, etc., I have never heard about NATO blocking the use of GATOR mines. That would have been a great way to prevent Osama Bin Laden’s escape, but America’s allies let them down at every turn in 2001. I believe it, but I doubt we’ll hear Obama talk about how relying on allies isn’t as useful as it was 60yrs ago.

Similarly, I doubt that we’ll see anyone on the political left recognize that Germany and France are looking to pull out of Afghanistan rather than send more troops and do more fighting as the Obama campaign expects (according to Sen Obama, he’ll encourage them to do this by offering more foreign aid, but in the VP debate Sen Biden admitted that the very first thing a President Obama will do is CUT foreign aid.)

Last night and today I’ve been looking at the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan. It’s amazing, and there are three dominating themes to what is happening there:

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On this date in 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The attack was done because Germany claimed Poland had attacked one of its radio stations-that was its official reason. Unofficially, it was a bit more complex. Prior to the invasion, Britain and France had promised that if Germany invaded Poland, it would be an act of war on an ally (kinda like a pre-NATO alliance). When the border was crossed, the war was automatic. A few days later, Russia invaded Eastern Poland as well (at the time, Russia and Germany were quasi-allies after having signed a Non-Aggression Pact which promised they wouldn’t go to war with each other. What is the supreme lesson of this day in history? There are several. Let’s ask Winston Churchill.

There was no moment in these sixteen years when the three former allies, or even Britain and France with their associates in Europe, could not in the name of the League of Nations and under its moral and international shield have controlled by mere effort of the will of armed strength of Germany.
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

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This is not a joke. Within hours of a cease-fire having been declared in Georgia, Democrats raced to get on TV and claim that Senator Obama was the one person responsible for peace because he had asked for it (apparently similar calls from President Bush, Senator McCain, France, Germany, the EU and the UN were all sideshows-what mattered was what The One said).

THEN-when it came out that the Russians never really stopped their invasion, but merely paused to consolidate positions and logistics-Obama’s foreign policy advisor used her MSNBC propaganda outlet to claim that Senator McCain was responsible for fighting in Georgia.

Meanwhile, the DNC’s platform echoes the Bush Administration almost identically, and faux-anti-war groups are showing their true colors by blaming Georgia for the invasion of Georgia rather than the invader: Russia.
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(UPDATED)

Back in April 2008, President Bush requested that Georgia be allowed to apply to join NATO. France and Germany blocked the effort which would have made last week’s invasion turn into a world war. Instead, NATO members quietly agreed to support Georgia regardless. Did that promise work?

Wellllllllll, not exactly. See, right after that NATO conference…Russia started getting aggressive. They built up their military forces in the area, prepped for invasion, and started making probe attacks; doing things like…shooting down Georgia’s unmanned drones which would spot the buildup. Doubt it? whadaya want…video proof? Mmmm, yeah, ok:

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party went into overdrive in forming its platform positions. The DNC Platform takes the same position as those NATO members (the same position accepted by President Bush), and they seem to still think that it would work; that it would prevent a Russian invasion of Georgia and others.

The NEW Democratic Party line is the same as President Bush’s:

We will seek to strengthen and broaden our strategic partnership with Turkey, end the division of Cyprus, and continue to support a close U.S. relationship with states that seek to strengthen their ties to NATO and the West, such as Georgia and Ukraine.

DNC 2008 Platform

So, DID this idea of promising to help Georgia if it’s attacked help?
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To add some facts and historic timeline to the debate going on in the Obama Abandons Commitment to Iraq” thread.

Scott responded to the oft repeated statement, taking “our eye off the ball”, that is one of Obama’s mainstays:

However, Sen Obama’s “we took our eye off the ball” schtick is a lie. It’s a deliberate distortion of the truth; a deliberate misleading of Americans…

Indeed it is an outright lie. And one that personally makes me break out in laughter everytime Obama parrots his regular speech talking point. We did not take our “eye off the ball”. Rather we turned over those eyes to NATO and the UN… just as the DNC screams we do at every opportunity.

So I can only construe BHO’s “off the ball” statement means he distrusts using the int’l coalition under a NATO command. If that’s the case, it might be one of the only things on which I agree with the jr Senator.

Instead the hypocrisy of the left is breathtaking. Per BHO’s speech July 15th on Iraq and National Security:

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