Category Archives: General Interest

June 13, 2014 · 1:15 am

Worsening Violence in Iraq Threatens Regional Security

Worsening Violence in Iraq Threatens Regional Security.

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June 13, 2014 · 1:12 am

Iraqi democracy project implodes

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/iraq-isis-crisis-medieval-sharia-law-imposed-millions-nineveh-province-1452401″

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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam

June 12, 2014 · 6:43 am

Accountability (guess not)

  • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/11/obama-cia-chief_n_5486367.html

    • Another leaker stays on the job, but Obama announces new policies (for no one to follow)….

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    Filed under General Interest, Politics

    June 9, 2014 · 5:46 am

    Some VA information

    Really short on time this morning, so this will be just a few sentences – back to the VA scandal.  G. Murphy Donovan (GMD for short) took aim at the  VA, “Veterans in the Crosshairs”, which is a must read.  He says:

    “Alas, corrupt government is host to many ironies, but three are paramount: success is a liability, failure is an asset, and as long as the intentions are pure in the public mind, better funding follows failure, not success. Once established, bigger civic programs have few measures of effectives. The end game is there is no end.”

    He cites a 2012 Human Events piece with more background on the VA, titled, “Hopelessly Broken” – another must read, but also check out all the links in GMD’s piece, ’cause he always links to interesting stuff.

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    Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Military, Politics

    June 8, 2014 · 12:59 pm

    Abandoned in Afghanistan?

    The always excellent  US security nightly newsletter,  Nightwatch, put out by KGS, offers the following comments on the Taliban exchange:

    “Comment: The mainstream media have covered the increased risk of hostage-taking as the direct and foreseeable result of the hostage exchange. This was not a prisoner of war exchange.

     Two points not mentioned in most mainstream commentary are noteworthy. This exchange invests Omar and his Islamic Emirate with stature that neither had when the Taliban ruled in Afghanistan. It negotiated as an equal with the US and got the better deal. That sets a precedent for potential deals with other NATO members. It is a powerful disincentive for Pakistan to rein in Omar and his cohorts.

     The second point is the release of the five Taliban leaders will boost Taliban morale; help improve their organizational and fighting skills and enhance their operations. It might have a ripple effect on the now divided Pakistani Taliban.

     The timing could hardly be worse for Allied forces. As NATO draws down its forces, the Taliban get an influx of experienced leaders, undermining years of effort to degrade the leadership. These were men Mullah Omar trusted in the early days of Taliban rule.  He now has a seasoned core around which to build a reinvigorated administration and movement.”

    Nightwatch is John McCreary’s baby and his bio is here.  What I like is often the “comments” are delivered with a touch of humor, but rest assured always carefully researched, with the facts differentiated from the opinion.

    Now a subject I haven’t heard any military experts talk about yet and one that I have questions about is:  “What impact does the release of those terrorists, in addition to the troop draw-down have on the day-to-day security situation for those remaining troops left in Afghanistan?  What is the true readiness assessment of the Afghan National security services on whom they will have to rely?   Will a reinvigorated Taliban potentially leave our remaining troops vulnerable?  How does the draw-down affect the resupply and support situation, with an already overstretched supply route?  Has the CINC ever asked about the safety of the troops he is leaving in Afghanistan- vulnerable in such small numbers?  What will their mission be – hunkered down on a base or will they still be out on patrols?

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    Filed under Food for Thought, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics

    June 8, 2014 · 9:46 am

    Spin continues

    So, an unnamed senior U.S.official leaks details of Bergdahl’s condition  and captivity.  With this administration and Bergdahl health updates, wow, pass the salt shaker on that one, need more than a grain (courtesy Huffington Post):

    “The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss what Bergdahl has revealed about the conditions of his captivity.”

    What official – a Obama flunky or a US Army official – that is what I want to know? And also the official spoke anonymously, because he was “not authorized” to discuss what Bergdahl has revealed – yet the official still released this “information” anyway – what do rules mean to these people.  Bergdahl’s fate needs to be decided by the respective command authority – not Obama spinners. The investigators should be allowed to investigate and make a determination on the case. It’s time for people to learn to follow the rule of law. Everyone in the chain of the command, to include the President,  has a DUTY to follow the rules and not try to influence the investigation or outcome.

    Decided to add a bit more.  The “Bowe Bergdahl war hero” trial balloon deflated, next was an attempt to smear his teammates as psychos and blame the command.  An attempt to spin Bowe Bergdahl “the victim/ traumatized captive” is the next casting.  He walked away from his post to find the Taliban, because from his history we can deduce the French Foreign Legion mercenary dream didn’t pan out, his father said Bowe envisions himself as Bear Grylls the British survivalist.  From there he joined the US Army, but that didn’t suit, so he walked away looking for the Taliban.  That is the intelligence a Special Forces Commander, Rusty Bradley, said they received when they were sent to search for Bergdahl,  last night on Fox News.    MAJ Bradley was there, so I believe his first-hand account of the information they received over the radio when Bergdahl went missing.  I believe his teammates too.

    That is what people will have to decide – who is lying about the information they release (anonymously mostly – hiding like snakes in the grass). I am forming an opinion that this troubled young man had dubious loyalties, lived in a fantasy world and was selfish and only concerned about his thirst for adventure.  He reminds me of a young man who came to work at my store a few years ago.  On day one he told me that we don’t know anything about management when I calmly told him what tasks he needed to do.  He was a wanderer (we get lots of those), so I tracked him down and told him that he needed to go to the furniture department and zone (clean up the side counters in the department and put away returned merchandise).  He told me he had been in the Army and we don’t know anything  about management.  I told him, “That’s nice, I was in the Army long ago too, but this isn’t the Army and these are the tasks you need to work on.”  He got indignant and told me his sister works at another store and she told him all about how things are supposed to be.  This young man, like many we get, did not follow the rules, thought he knew everything, did not complete his tasks, was an attendance problem and ended up fired quickly.   Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his unit more than once and I am wondering if he was held accountable for the previous incidents and if that might have led to his disillusionment.  Just something I wondered.

    I don’t know yet, that is why I am weighing the credibility of the sources of the information, the facts that have been corroborated by more than one source, and then assessing them.  I haven’t made a full judgment yet, because I am “analyzing” the information . Here is something I learned from an excellent little booklet:

    “When we deal with information, we sometimes see through prisms – not real ones, made of glass, but “intellectual” prisms, in our minds. In other words, we approach an issue with a distorted view of it.” 

    he adds:

    “In politics, the word for these intellectual prisms is “ideology.”

    Meyer, Herbert E. (2010-10-10). How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill (Kindle Locations 86-87). Storm King Press. Kindle Edition.

    Meyer, Herbert E. (2010-10-10). How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill (Kindle Locations 79-80). Storm King Press. Kindle Edition.

    To get the correct information you have to leave the partisan politics aside and start learning how to analyze information.  This little booklet I found at Amazon.com – kindle edition is $1.99.  Mr. Meyer’s bio frombusinessweek.com includes this information:

    ” Mr. Meyers is widely credited with being the first senior US Government official to forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union–a forecast for which he later was awarded the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Intelligence Community’s highest honor.”

    I found his booklet very informative and helpful.

     

     

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    Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, The Constitution, The Media, Uncategorized

    June 7, 2014 · 11:46 am

    Enemies, both foreign and domestic

    SGT Bergdahl walking away from his post is the public embodiment of President Obama’s  annnounced date to “end the war” in Afghanistan and a bone he tossed to his left-wing, anti-war, close Gitmo base.  The fixation on optics with releasing Gitmo prisoners using the PR cover of “securing the release of an American war hero” backfired.  The Obama administration wanted to use SGT Bergdahl as a political prop – nothing more. This follows the continuing disrespect this President has shown our military – they are props for photo ops –  just like they tried to use his West Point speech, the visit to Afghanistan and every other time he has ever bothered to visit the troops as image-builders to make him look like the CINC.

    That this PR stunt should end up mired in controversy and inflame another public partisan firestorm isn’t surprising.   President Obama came into office still blasting President Bush on the Iraq war, but he proclaimed Afghanistan the “good” war, announced a surge to “win that war”, with the stated goal of bringing enough stability to the Afghan government, whereby we could end our US presence there.  He never fully deployed the full number of troops for his surge policy.  The push to get the Afghan National Army and security apparatus up to snuff became a priority too.  During this phase, attacks on US forces increased: Threat from within, “U.S. military braced for surge in ‘insider’ Taliban attacks” (May 21, 2013):

    “Taliban insurgents recently vowed to carry out new “infiltration” attacks aimed at killing and demoralizing U.S., allied, and Afghan military forces as part of the spring military offensive, according to U.S. officials.

    The expected increase in what the Pentagon calls “insider” attacks by Taliban sympathizers or infiltrators followed an April 27 statement by the Islamist terror group

    It was the first time the Taliban identified insider attacks as a key tactic.”

    The mission wasn’t going well and US casualties in Afghanistan increased, the efforts to ready Afghan security forces floundered too.  We may have a recruit problem in America finding recruits who meet standards, but the Afghan recruit problem is much worse.  I can pull up reports later, but here are some of the recurrent problems with getting the Afghan security forces up to snuff, in no particular order – high percentage of drug addicts (especially opiates) in recruits, illiteracy in recruit pool, dubious loyalty to the Afghan government, a culture of corruption, discipline problems among others.  Getting the Afghan security forces trained has been a huge challenge.

    This White House thinks you can just write a narrative and sell it to the American public, irrespective of the facts.  This is a President who thinks his date to end the conflict in Afghanistan ends the war.  He may have the power to withdraw troops, but our enemies haven’t conceded defeat, agreed to a ceasefire or ended this conflict in any way resembling an end to a war.  This isn’t Vietnam where we pulled out – end of war for us.  And there the aftermath led to someone else winning that war in Vietnam and it wasn’t us.  Although, luckily the North Vietnamese didn’t have a jihad going against Americans to kill us all over the world.

    In Afghanistan, the Taliban, just like the North Vietnamese, will fight on.  The Obama supporters can spin this any way they want, they can cherry-pick military history, a laughable undertaking due to their complete disdain for that topic, but facts exist, events unfold in the world and their spin remains a sad, juvenile PR stunt, not serious foreign policy.  What’s the point of  our vast intelligence-gathering apparatus, if the President is going to ignore his top military leaders advice and alter intelligence reports to fit the spin?    It’s time for Americans to work at untangling the threads.

    SGT Bergdahl may come to be the symbol of all that is wrong with American foreign policy, where the American involvement in a foreign war is hotly contested both by the American public and even within the highest levels of our government.  We’ve gone through the Benghazi dust-up, where Susan Rice became the face of a White House trying to spin the story to deflect responsibility.  The lives of 4 brave Americans were lost in Benghazi and the Obama White House decided to stonewall, doctor (ignore?)  intelligence reports  and rely on a deputy communication director at the NSA to write the script for this White House “narrative” Judicial Watch subpoenaed those emails and it became apparent that Susan Rice was following that script when she went on the Sunday talk shows to sell their internet video narrative on Benghazi.

    Retired Army four-star general, Jack Keane, made some stunning disclosures last night on Fox News.  He stated that President Obama has not followed any of the advice from his top generals in years.  They are props too, apparently.  Intelligence reports, which the left hails as proof that Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction, become irrelevant when top intelligence officials doctor reports to fit the Ben Rhodes and Susan Rice spin narrative on Benghazi and now we come to this Bergdahl situation.   At the highest level of decision-making, if the President ignores the advice of top military leaders, concocts intelligence to fit a “narrative”, then those tasked with carrying out these “missions” are nothing more than expendable cannon fodder.  His desperate supporters are spinning a narrative comparing wartime President Obama to wartime President Lincoln, using the analogy to the biography by Doris Kearns Goodwin, “Team of Rivals”, somehow fitting that they’d find a historian short on the truth (failed to attribute work – more than once)…  President Obama is no President Linclon, but we do seem to have a civil war of sorts going on.

    The American people will have to sort through the FACTS, as they emerge in this latest scandal.  Every member of the US Armed Forces voluntarily raises his/her right hand and swears:

    The Oath of Enlistment (for enlisted):

    “I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

    The Oath of Office (for officers):

    “I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the _____ (Military Branch) of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance tot he same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.”

    The soldiers’ allegiance is to the Constitution, not a President, not a political party, but it’s way past time to emphasize what we swore an oath to protect America from, ENEMIES, both foreign and domestic.  Following the rule of law matters.  In the last big national question with President Clinton, we were fed the spin that lying under oath didn’t matter on matters of a personal sexual issue.  In this Bergdahl situation what is at stake is doctored intelligence reports, lying to the American public about releasing top-tier terrorists, lying to Congress, bypassing Congress and the rule of law. What words mean matters too.

    How the Army handles SGT Bergdahl breaking his oath matters to the morale and future of the US Armed Forces.  How Congress and the American people handle a President breaking his matters to the future of the United States of America – don’t let the left spin this to be all about Bergdahl – it’s about deciding  much more than the facts about SGT Bergdahl breaking his oath

    “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

    The American people and the US Congress will have to come to grips with who is really protecting America and how important is the rule of law, if the rules are whatever President Obama decides they are.  They will have to decide how well they believe a President is protecting them from our enemies when he does not follow any of the advice of his top military leaders on military matters and he lets PR flunkies write the “narrative” of what the intelligence reports indicate.

    Semantics drive American partisan politics, where the largest terrorist attack on a US military installation in history gets spun into “workplace violence” and even the word Islamist has been banished from military language, so they can’t even call these particular enemies by name.  This administration is now selling Bergdahl as a war hero and here’s how the rest of those who did their duty and returned home are categorized in an official DHS report:

    “U//FOUO) Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists.DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities”

    Just suck it up troops and follow your orders from this CINC.  You are  potential right-wing terrorists and Bergdahl is a war hero – I guess that could be true depending who you believe the enemy is…   This one is more serious than saving a disaster of a President and a political party than “that depends what the definition of is, is”.   Like the Obama administration, I too am pondering the meaning of “enemies” – both foreign and domestic.

    And oh, I have never owned a gun in my life – I work at a blue-collar job, I spent my life as a homemaker and Army wife, I belong to no political party.  The most controversial group I ever joined apparently is the US Army,  if I am to believe the DHS report.  As an American who still believes in The Constitution of the United States, the original document (not a “charter of negative liberties),  I know I have the RIGHT to free speech – then and now!!!    I spoke out then,  too on the excite message boards  and wrote a story about it – in the archives of my blog  “Messages of mhere”.   Enemies, war hero, terrorists, all up for redefinition here, but I think what, is, is really is key, so I wrote a story about it.   Add me to another watch list, go right ahead, but really I don’t own any guns or belong to any right-wing extremist group and this time I have taken the precaution of making sure a lawyer has the background to my story and I have given details to a reporter as a precaution.!!!

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    Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Messages of mhere, Military, Politics, The Constitution, The Media