#6
The Taliban HAD a "chance". That's what started the whole "war on terror" thing in the first place. NYT has a memory worse than a stegasaur.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/12/2014 13:18 Comments ||
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#7
"We gave them a chance! In 2001 to hand over bin laden."
Making the Taliban 'share in the terrorists' fate' was the initial rationale for Operation Infinite Justice.
No one officially abandoned this rationale but it was allowed to fade away and along came Operation Enduring Freedom which was about serving the NOBLE people of Afghanistan.
Issuing ultimatums, making blood curdling threats and then not following through, that does not render deterrence any more credible.
The Taliban attacked. The US & NATO went to war. The Taliban won.
We're just beginning to see the consequences.
#1
OTOH see JAPAN TIMES > NATO SAYS RUSSIAN TROOPS POURING INTO UKRAINE AS KIEV READIES FOR COMBAT, MH17 REMAINS FOUND.
Vlad unilater forcibly securing Russia's "land bridge(s)" to the Crimea???
* TOPIX > TURKEY'S [Secular] ISLAMIST PROBLEM IS RUSSIA'S JIHADIST PROBLEM.
VERSUS
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > RUSSIA TO DECLARE THE US A [strategic] "THREAT" AND "ADVERSARY" IN NEW MILITARY DOCTRINE.
"US" - you know, THE [Nuclear?] HARD BOYZ???
* SAME > A FIERY PHONE CALL BETWEEN TURKEY'S LEADER ERDOGAN AND RUSSIA'S VLADIMIR PUTIN ENDS IN MUTUAL THREATS, RUSSIA WARNS TURKEY TO STOP TRYING TO OVERTHROW ASSAD AND INTERVENE IN SYRIAN AFFAIRS.
* TOPIX > [ABC News] RUSSIAN NAVAL SHIPS [Australia visit] A SHOW OF POWER AHEAD OF G20. SAYS FORMER ARMY CHIEF.
* GROONG > [Putin's]EURASIAN UNION RULES OUT POLITICAL INTEGRATION: ANALYST.
* Lest we fergit, TOPIX [old = repost] > [Eurasia Net] CSTO [Russia-led] SAYS ISIS THREATENS POST-SOVIET STATES [Ex Soviet "-Stans" = CENTASIA], BLAMES NATO [ + US].
But blames espec the US.
Given also ... ...
* TOPIX > [The Atlantic] CHINA HAS NOW ASSUMED "GREAT POWER" STATUS, wid success + acceptance of China's preferred FTAAP schema at APEC over that of Obama/US-supported TPP.
FEAR NOTTETH, OWG AMERIKA, IMO OBAMA WILL SAVE THE DAY + TPP FOR THE US WID HIS "EXECUTIVE ACTION(S)"???.
OTOH, iff China is now a post-APEC, official "Great Power", HISTORICALLY SUCH NEWBIE "GREAT POWERS" ATTEMPT TO PROVE OR VALIDATE THEIR STATUS BY ENGAGING IN VARIOUS UNILATERAL AGGRESSIVE REGIONAL + INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS, MOST NOTABLY VEE WAR.
[NYT] Have you heard about the Iran-Ukraine affair?
It goes like this. Vladimir Putin’s Russia makes nice over an Iran nuclear deal. It is helpful in every way. A recent headline on a piece by my colleague David Sanger read, “Role for Russia Gives Iran Talks a Possible Boost.” In return, the United States turns a blind eye to the big Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border and in areas under the control of Moscow-backed rebel separatists.
I am not suggesting there is any such formal Iran-Ukraine trade-off between the Obama administration and Putin. I am suggesting that the Russian leader has a keen eye for American weakness and an exquisite sense of timing.
#2
Champ is equally as flexible as Vlad's old girlfriend...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2014 11:03 Comments ||
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#3
Make huge concessions in Eastern Europe and sell out Ukraine in order to get Russia's permission to make suicidal concessions to Iran and sell out Israel.
I don't think the Obama administration really understands the concept of 'give & take.'
#5
IMO Darth Vlad wants multiple, "guaranteed" Russian strategic access to its Crimea bases, by sea, air, and or overland, hence Russia's support for pro-Russia East Ukraine separatism while demanding a bare "minima/sufficiency" of post-Soviet sovereign Ukrainian territory.
Again, Vlad desires an anti-Islamist/Jihadist, unified Western + Eastern [Judeo?]Christian MilPol bastion in the Crimea + Black Sea region - TO THIS END, VLAD = RUSSIA WON'T MIND IFF THE US + NATO-EU DEPLOYS MORE TROOPS = MIL ASSETS TO EASTERN EUROPE [e.g. Poland, Romania + Baltics] AS LONG AS RUSSIA'S SECURITY + GEOPOL COMPETITIVENESS IS UNABRIDGED, + RADICAL ISLAM STAYS OUT.
Put another way, CHRISTIAN/JUDEOCHRISTIAN OWG "UNION" versus OWG ISLAMIC/MUSLIM "UNION"; + EURO-UNION-VS-MIDDLE-EAST-UNION???
[CRUSADER/CHRISTIANS-VS-MUSLIM DECISIVE BATTLES FOR JERUSALEM, ACRE, + CONSTANTINOPLE here].
[IsraelTimes] The double murders on Monday of soldier Almog Shiloni in Tel Aviv and Dalia Lemkus outside Alon Shvut in the West Bank, perpetrated amid a constant drumbeat of low-level violence in Jerusalem and rising tension on the Temple Mount, raise questions not just about the Israel Police's ability to contain the spread and volume of the violence. They also raise questions about the tactics and true desires of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , who has played at least a partial role in igniting the unrest in Jerusalem.
Israel Police chief Yohanan Danino, speaking at a conference on homeland security on Monday, called the stabbing attack in Tel Aviv "part of a continuum of incidents," which are difficult to stop because "it is hard to know what the lone attacker will do, where he will come from, [making it] hard to provide a response."
The Israel Police, a force of 29,000 officers total, has moved sizable re-enforcements to Jerusalem in an attempt to quell the violence and make sure it does not mushroom into a full-blown armed resistance stemming from the Temple Mount.
The attacks and the unrest, however, have spread like a wavering fire, in bursts, from Jerusalem, to the Israeli Arab sector, to Tel Aviv.
To be sure, the primary fuel for the fire has been Islamist sentiment and incitement.
Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has been calling for, and actively trying to instigate, an intifada for many months.
Additionally, the pulsating power of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... 's barbarism is being felt across the Middle East, veteran defense analyst Ron Ben-Yishai noted on the Ynet website, where he asserted that there is "a direct link" between the stabbing in Tel Aviv and the beheading videos on YouTube.
But Abbas, too, has played a role. And his Fatah faction has also done so, including by posting cartoons and other inciteful material encouraging attacks on Israeli targets.
Dr. Shaul Bartal, a lecturer on Paleostinian affairs at Bar Ilan University and a former officer in military intelligence, described a shift by Abbas in recent months.
During the war in Gazoo, Bartal said, Hamas portrayed Abbas as a traitor, walking in lock step with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "This forced him into a sort of crisis, where he had to prove that he was no less nationalist than Hamas," Bartal said.
Since he was unable to release large swaths of prisoners through the diplomatic channels, as Hamas had done through violent actions, he opted for the other issue around which all Paleostinians can unite: Jerusalem.
Hence his call for a day of rage on the Temple Mount last week, Bartal said, and hence the constant agitation from Ramallah.
Thus far, aside from Monday afternoon's attack in Alon Shvut, the West Bank has been relatively calm. But if the fire continues to spread and intensify, it could well cross the security barrier (which a Likud government started only under the extreme duress of suicidal terror over a decade ago and subsequently left unfinished). There it would lick, to paraphrase IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, at the edges of Abbas's suit.
#2
So she went to school with Holder's wife.
Was she in the 'choom' gang? Did they swap?
Are there credible details of their lives that would suggest there is a conflict of interest that should be investigated? I think we understand the blackiness.
#3
The 'pubs should go talk to all the Democrats that will still be in DC next year and point out that if they try to cram this through during the Lame Duck session they will never get anything next term.
#4
Harry Reid is powerless come January. It might be that enough Democrats can be peeled off now to properly vet this nominee and vote with the Pubs. Of course, I'm in an overly optimistic mood this morning too--but not yet quite in unicorns, tooth fairies or man-made "climate change."
The media have identified the problem with the Obama presidency and want her tarred and feathered.
Or just fired. Or sidelined. Or made an ambassador to some faraway land.
Her name is Valerie Jarrett.
White House aide and longtime Chicago pal of Barack and Michelle Obama has been a target roughly from the day she stepped foot in Washington.
But now, in the wake of the Democrats’ midterm wipeout, the press is really unloading on her. She has become the scapegoat-in-chief.
The notion that a single staff person is responsible for most of the administration’s shortcomings over the last six years is rather far-fetched. Whether it’s ObamaCare or the VA or immigration or ISIS or Syria, it’s the president who is making the decisions and selling them. If the principal problem, as the president told Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation,” was a failure to adequately communicate his policies, then the man with the bully pulpit must take most of the blame.
But the press has a shakeup mentality: all major political defeats must be followed by some kind of housecleaning. And reporters are getting tired of the story line about Obama essentially brushing off the debacle. So the journalistic knives are out for Jarrett.
It’s not hard to understand why. As a personal pal, Jarrett is easy to cast as the embodiment of the insularity of the White House. As the president’s protector, she has a track record of ticking off other administration officials. At the same time, Jarrett has no public successes attached to her name. And when she’s on television, she appears a rather robotic defender of her boss.
Although I’m told it’s a coincidence, it’s striking that Politico and the New Republic have both published tough pieces on Jarrett at roughly the same time. And these arguments brought a vigorous defense from Mika Brzezinski, with the “Morning Joe” co-host calling the attacks “sexist.” More on that in a moment.
White House officials believe the Politico essay has undertones of sexism, given that no questions are being raised about male advisers in similar, far-reaching roles.
The officials also see the criticism as providing a skewed view of Jarrett's role, which includes outreach to state and local officials and advocacy groups. She's hardly the only insider who offers advice outside her official duties, in this view, and keeps her friendship with the First Couple separate. About as close to Fair and Balanced as MSM will be about the issue. Obviously they are still CYA for Obama.
#10
I hear the ambassadorial position to Somalia is open...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/12/2014 13:35 Comments ||
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#11
Librarian and fund raiser for the Presidential library, which will kinda have a skimpy collection. But the audio video department will have the entire collection of speeches, or rather most of them. The golf wing will make up for the rest of the collection. The centerpiece will be "Mulligan" the bullet proof 4,000 lb Presidential golf cart, which flew along with ten backs ups on its own C-17.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The media have identified the problem with the Obama presidency and want her tarred and feathered.
