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.)
Recall how in Kenneth Timmerman’s The Shadow Warriors, the author describes how State Department officials, as well a some in the CIA and political appointees held over from the Clinton Administration, have worked to undermine the Bush Administration out of political partisanship over professionalism and patriotism. Read the rest of this entry »
When Charlie Gibson interviewed Sarah Palin he did his absolute dead level best to pin her to the wall by using her comments about God and prayer against her.
This video puts her comments into perspective with a little bit of historical review.
Sadness. Grief. Words cannot express my disappointment, my shock, and my sense of awe. Yes, Edward R Murrow’s wannabe has been pulled from the RNC convention so that he may cover the hurricane….from New York City.
Looking back that DNC convention there are all sorts of memories. One of them was the sight of Karl Rove surrounded by Democrats. Political courage, personal courage, or just some sort of mettle that MSNBC’s sole money-maker/rabble-rouser doesn’t have.
Keith Olbermann was pulled from St. Paul to anchor MSNBC’s storm coverage from New York, with his seat beside Chris Matthews filled by David Gregory. Capus said political considerations had nothing to do with that move; Olbermann has been sharply critical of the GOP.
With NBC Universal’s purchase of The Weather Channel, all of The Weather Channel’s meteorologists and correspondents dispatched to cover the storm will appear on NBC and MSNBC, Capus said.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Boys and girls,
Cats and dogs,
Forget the Olympics…THE REAL GAMES ARE IN DENVER!!!!
I thought of all kinds of ways to make a quick movie snippet or something multimedia, but in my YouTube raw meat search…something caught my eye, flipped my trigger, and just seemed SO PERFECT for the occasion. So please, press play on this 1992 ode to confusion, chaos, and searching rather than accepting. It’s a throw back to a time when Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Jessica Simpson, and so many others were still playing with their Barbie girls. A time when Saddam had just had his ass kicked and people believed he was contained (yeah, ’cause dictators learn their lessons and never hold grudges). A time when the Clintons were taking DC, and a generation was realizing those student loans had to be paid some day….and that someday was approaching fast. Read the rest of this entry »
His photos reflect his passion. U.S. Congressman Walter Jones R-NC has a picture gallery at his official website. Displayed prominently are dozens of images of the congressman alongside uniformed U.S. military personnel and concerned veterans. Among them, scenes of his opening dedication of a memorial to fallen solders stand out in the context of the newest House controversy.
Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein wrote in an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle that a poster (seen in the video below) kept on the wall in the hallway next to the Congressman’s office had been removed. That poster had displayed the photos of U.S. Marines from Camp Lejeune, based in his district. All of them had been killed in Iraq. Jones has claimed that it was a memorial to those Marines.
Why remove it? The Congressman (a Republican) is against the success in Iraq).
The official reason given by the House was that it violated policy on advocacy material.
The Speaker of the House, Rep Nancy Pelosi (D) believes that it’s wrong to advocate, honor, and pay tribute to fallen American Marines.
How’s that sit with you Marines?
Curt, you’re a former Marine. Does this make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
How about you Marines-or people from any service-who have served in Iraq? Do you feel more or less supported by the Democratic Party’s Congress….the Congress that keeps funding your operations, but protesting the funding, threatening to cut off your food, fuel, and ammunition, and claims to “SUPPORT” you?
People of the world, Americans, friends, neighbors, divided citizenry…we are but days away from the Democratic National Committee Convention in Denver, and the most important issue remains a centerpoint of disagreement between all of us.
It’s 3am.
The phone rings.
It’s the red phone.
Russian military forces have invaded a place called South Ossetia in support of Abkhazani seperatists
Georgian military forces that have recently returned home after fighting side by side with American troops in Iraq are racing to the front, but most have been overwhelmed.
Villages are being burned
Men and boys are being seperated out, forced to watch their wives and sisters be raped before they themselves are executed
America and NATO allies told Georgian officials that they’d come to Georgia’s aid if attacked
Who will pick it up the phone?
Who will answer it?
The Democratic Congress’ leadership is on recess and busy with book tours
The DNC is confused after having just published a platform that promises to support Georgia
The Democratic Party base that was so fervently anti-war for years is silently refusing to recognize let alone oppose the atrocities
Senator Obama is on vacation in Hawaii
Senator McCain, however, saw this coming, and has led the pack in calls for international diplomacy, condemnation, and resolve. He’s sent his friends as envoys to the American ally, and he’s been monitoring the situation closely.
Who will pick up the phone? That’s irrelevant because John McCain was already on it-even at 3am.
….Um, anyone from the RNC looking for an ad writer the answer is YES, I am available.
Surely he must have meant REDEPLOYMENT instead of “running away.”
“The border has been along this river for 1,000 years,” separatist official Ruslan Kishmaria told AP on Wednesday. He said Georgia would have to accept the new border and taunted the departed Georgian forces by saying they had received “American training in running away.”
AM I the only one who’s noticed the silence? Mere months ago, left-wing bloggers and demonstrators were wailing Support our troops, bring them home! seven days a week. Now their presidential candidate has announced that he won’t bring all those troops home, but will simply transfer combat forces from Iraq to Afghanistan - expanding that war. (He’s discussed possibly invading Pakistan, too.) And the left’s quiet as a graveyard at midnight.
Hmmm, it is awful quiet all of a sudden.
Bush is on the way out - are your principles leaving with him? Have you stopped to wonder if BHO might not be your LBJ? You told us that “War doesn’t change anything,” and “War is never the answer.” Shouldn’t you be lobbying your candidate to give peace a chance? Shame, shame, shame. You’ve elevated hypocrisy to an art form.
This piece was spot-on-the-money. The anti-war movement’s mantras are silent, and the only explanation is that they were never sincerely anti-war; just political catalysts for expressing an anti-Bush sentiment.
Yes, I know The Daily Show is a comedy. My cable guide specifically says, “A humorous slant on recent news stories.” The point Joe makes here however is that across the board, there is a liberal slant that isn’t based on kickbacks from the DNC, but (to quote his guest New York Times journalist John Harwood),
I don’t think they are hacks for the Democratic Party. People write about what’s funny to them. And the stuff that’s funny to them is, is the stuff that comes out of what they see that they want to make fun of from Republicans.
The point Harwood mistakenly makes is that yes, people in the media (from Harwood to Stewart) only see Republican “stuff” as worth covering.
Joe’s point of course is that we should all look at both sides-not just the “Republican stuff” or the “Democrat stuff.” Americans need to open their eyes, and see which side is selling the worst used cars.
Ok, I know the following video is scripted (Oh GAWD do I hope it is!), but the fact is that it reflects the discussions that are most commonly held in regards to the election, and those re-occuring presentations of punditry clearly (even if accidentally) do favor Senator McCain. Watch, listen, and consider that-even though this is dated back to the primary season. If you don’t understand, the text is in the description at YouTube.
Senator John McCain has made a name for himself as a Maverick in Congress because he’s gone against his party line so often. Senator Obama has always voted along with his party line, but he’s campaigned successfully by portraying himself as a man who can unite the nation and end partisan divisiveness. Long before Senator Obama’s efforts to paint himself as a “uniter,” President Bush ran in 1999 and 2000 as a “uniter” who would end the deep partisan divide that had been created in Congress and the nation.
For the past six years the core of America’s political divide has been national policy regarding Iraq; the invasion, occupation, and reconstruction of Iraq. Very soon, all three men will find themselves in a strange position-dictated no longer by the political expediency and potential gain from politicizing the war one way or the other, but rather by the conditions on the ground, and the actions of American forces as well as allied and enemy forces. This strange position is one of a new unified Iraq policy that will alienate political bases, but it also threatens to pull the core crutch issue for both Republicans and Democrats off the debate floor.
1215 American troops re-enlisted in the military on July 4th. They know they’ll be sent back to Iraq. What do they know that Democrats and others who continue to oppose the war don’t? Will opponents of the war ever recognize that the arguments fueling the opposition to the war have always been and continue to be lies, and that those lies are mere political tools for professional politicians seeking to gain or hold power?
1215 Americans who have been there, who are there, and who will either stay there or return…those 1215 Americans know something that the most fervent opponents of the war do not. They know something that the mainstream media apparently isn’t reporting. They know that regardless of a six year old debate, the enemy-a death cult of faux Islamic Holy Warriors-is waging a terrorist war in Iraq, and that if America leaves the fight, there will have to be a 3rd invasion.
My personal thanks to all those who serve, served, and particularly to those who re-enlisted in Saddam’s old palace yesterday, on July 4th, 2008.
chameleon @Wow: Yes…what about the Keating 5? You should read the actual history of that case. The attorney who tried that case (a Democrat b/t/w - Bob Bennett) after reviewing...
--------------
Anna Puna Actually the US, UK, and Russia should all order the ship to heave to for safety and navigation inspections. After all spending weeks and weeks without proper maintenace,...
--------------
rawdawg wonder if America is ready for a black president, or will it show the true racial legacy of the icemans inheritance
--------------
Missy Chadwick, thanks for including Mike Gavel’s column from the Counter punch link, his perspective regarding Sarah Palin is well worth the read. Thank God, She Has No Foreign...
--------------
SilverSpoon Newspaper Article from 1990 - Obama Putting Down America http://www.nakedemperornews.co m/youngObama.pdf
--------------
Aye Chihuahua @Real American Patriot: Is your cluelessness genuine? If so, is it willful or genetic? Do you really not understand or are you attempting to gaslighting us? Mike...
--------------
sedonaman Rocky_B: Re: “So please explain to this Independent Johnny and the rest of the fly-by socialist posters here, why the hell I should put their poeple in power.”...
--------------
Buckeye Tony there are no MSM tools only MSM fools. BTW we traveled to an open air veggie market yesterday which was about 15-18 miles away. Along the way we were surprised to see a...
--------------
Scott Malensek I understand Rocky. Perhaps the question you raise re UBL heading to town should be looked at in another light. In the cities, the Pakistanis have tended to actually...
--------------
Real American Patriot I suppose the next thing you are going to say is this picture actually has something to do with the trooper gate investigation..
