Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, December 15, 2010


Country music is America!

I love you, Kim!
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4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/world/asia/15policy.html?_r=1

As President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there...

* THE OPERATIVE WORD HERE BEING "CLAIM." (*LOOK OF DISGUST*)

...two new classified intelligence reports offer a more negative assessment and say there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border.

* BUT THEY WON'T - SO THAT'S THAT.

The reports, one on Afghanistan and one on Pakistan, say that although there have been gains for the United States and NATO in the war...

* NOTICE THESE SUPPOSED "GAINS" AREN'T BEING OUTLINED. (*SMIRK*)

...the unwillingness of Pakistan to shut down militant sanctuaries in its lawless tribal region remains a serious obstacle.

American military commanders say insurgents freely cross from Pakistan into Afghanistan to plant bombs and fight American troops and then return to Pakistan for rest and resupply.

* SO WHO WANTS TO EXPAND THE WAR INTO A LAND INVASION OF PAKISTAN? O.K., NOW THAT THE CHICKEN-HAWKS HAVE SPOKEN, ALLOW ME TO ASK HOW MANY PLAN ON VOLUNTEERING FOR THE ARMY OR MARINES WITHIN THE NEXT MONTH? (*SMIRK*)

The findings in the reports, called National Intelligence Estimates, represent the consensus view of the United States’ 16 intelligence agencies, as opposed to the military, and were provided last week to some members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees. The findings were described by a number of American officials who read the reports’ executive summaries.

American commanders and Pentagon officials say they do not yet know if the war can be won without more cooperation from Pakistan. But after years and billions spent trying to win the support of the Pakistanis, they are now proceeding on the assumption that there will be limited help from them. The American commanders and officials readily describe the havens for insurgents in Pakistan as a major impediment to military operations.

“I’m not going to make any bones about it, they’ve got sanctuaries and they go back and forth across the border,” Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, the commander of NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan, told reporters last week in the remote Kunar Province of Afghanistan. “They’re financed better, they’re better trained, they’re the ones who bring in the higher-end I.E.D.’s.” General Campbell was referring to improvised explosive devices, the military’s name for the insurgent-made bombs, the leading cause of American military deaths in Afghanistan.

American commanders say their plan in the next few years is to...

(*MIGRAINE HEADACHE*) LET'S JUST END IT HERE. WE'RE SO SCREWED... SO FRIGG'N SCREWED...

December 15, 2010 at 4:55 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-blumenkopf/post_1417_b_795005.html

* OP-ED BY JAY BLUMENKOPF

After 9 years, what are we now fighting for in Afghanistan?

We entered Afghanistan because al-Qaeda leaders, sheltered by the Taliban, planned the September 11th attack from there. Washington's goal is to keep terrorists from planning new attacks from Afghanistan. There is, however, no single al-Qaeda headquarters. It is a worldwide enemy with autonomous cells in some 100 countries. Al-Qaeda's members prowl the rim of hell and can materialize anywhere: Bali, Madrid, London or New York. We are spending more than $320 million a day on the war in Afghanistan. Is that the best use of these resources? Can they be better utilized for national security?

Can we really fortify the pervasively corrupt government of Hamid Karzai through the reintegration of Taliban soldiers into Afghan society, the strategy recently proposed but not yet implemented? Reintegrating Taliban soldiers will be paid money to lay down their arms. How big a "cut" Karzai government officials will carve out for themselves is yet unknown. The Taliban who do receive payments will be required to honor the new Afghan constitution, which encompasses the respect of human rights. What do the Taliban care about human rights?

[The Taliban] are wandering corpses; ragged men with vacant eyes - eyes that have witnessed the horrors of war their entire lives. The Taliban developed from orphans and refugees who knew nothing of life but the Soviet bombings that destroyed their homes, killed their parents and drove them into Pakistan where they studied in madrassas religious schools to become militant Islamists. Of course, they will lay down the weapons they have held for as long as they can remember in exchange for "cash money" from foreign infidels. Then they will go out and buy bigger, more powerful weapons. The Taliban will do whatever is in their best momentary, monetary interest. Have we forgotten that America supported the Taliban before warring with them?

A mere 5 years before we invaded Afghanistan, the State Department expressed hope that the Taliban would "move quickly to restore order and security... and begin the process of reconciliation in Afghanistan." Now we want to reconcile with the Taliban.

If we are going to ask young American women and men to stare death in the eye, to barter their lives or their futures to reintegrate Taliban soldiers, shouldn't we know what that means; what they are really fighting for?

How much "reintegration" will be sufficient [to justify the losses of] our soldiers' lives?

Are we unmoved by the mutilation and death of young Americans, by the devastation of their families? Why do we not cry for them? If more of us cried for our soldiers in Afghanistan - really cried - our soldiers would be on their way home now.

Instead, day after day our soldiers' names appear in cold black ink in The New York Times.

December 15, 2010 at 5:03 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/5b9d6508-085a-11e0-9eec-001cc4c03286.html

Authorities have apprehended an illegal immigrant they say fits the description of the a fifth suspect in an overnight gunbattle that killed a Border Patrol agent.

Agent Brian A. Terry, 40, ... was killed when he and fellow agents exchanged fire with a group of five people believed to be border bandits about 11 p.m. Tuesday in a remote area west of Rio Rico, said FBI spokeswoman Brenda Nath.

Born in Flat Rock, Mich. Terry served as a Marine, went to college and worked for two different Michigan police departments before joining the Border Patrol three years ago.

Terry was strong-willed, very focused and "lived to protect his country," said his older sister, Michelle Terry-Balogh via phone from her home in southern Detroit.

The shooting occurred in a remote area near Forest Service Road 4197, west of Interstate 19 , said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.

When deputies arrived at Peck Canyon Drive and Circulo Sombrero in Rio Rico, they found Terry dead from gunshot wounds, Estrada said.

The remote area where the shooting occurred is an area frequently used by drug traffickers and people-smugglers.

"All these canyons in Santa Cruz County are notorious for smuggling humans and drugs," Estrada said. "Obviously, it is a very dangerous situation for anyone patrolling those remote areas, particularly for Border Patrol. There is always that threat."

* THIS IS THE RESULT OF THE POLICIES OF EVERY U.S. PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS SINCE THE 1960's. GOD DAMN THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. GOD DAMN THEM IN GENERAL AND GOD DAMN OBAMA AND HOLDER IN PARTICULAR.

December 15, 2010 at 5:25 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6BD2FH20101215

Greek protesters clashed with police and set fire to cars and a hotel in central Athens on Wednesday as tens of thousands marched against austerity measures aimed at pulling the country out of a debt crisis.

(*RAISING MY HAND*) HEY, FOLKS... REFRESH MY MEMORY... AREN'T THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - INDIVIDUALLY AS WELL AS COLLECTIVELY - DEEPLY IN DEBT...?

(*SMIRK*)

Striking public and private sector workers grounded flights, shut down schools and paralysed public transport and about 50,000 marched through the capital. Some shouted: "Revolt! Overturn government measures!"

As the march reached parliament, about 200 leftists attacked former conservative minister Kostis Hatzidakis with their fists, stones and sticks, shouting: "Thieves! Shame on you!"

His face was covered in blood as he took shelter in a building,

Three cars on Syntagma Square were in flames, while one luxury hotel balcony was on fire after petrol bombs were thrown.

December 15, 2010 at 5:26 PM

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