Iran and the US Congress

The Hill: Reports that Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress are coming together to place pressure on the Oval to take tough action with Iran. One can postulate that the Israeli lobby after the humiliation of the Israeli PM by the Obama White House has sent word out to supporters of Israel to start to place pressure on President Obama. As stated both Carter and Reagan understood the power of the Israeli lobby in its support of Israel. Thus with the win over health care reform and the deal with Russia the White House should not throw their political capital way by going to war with Israel over buildings in its own country.

Is Afghanistan the NEW South Vietnam ?

CNN: An interesting opinion article that looks at what happened once the US left South Vietnam and how this might be the future for Afghanistan. In essence folks once the US military left South Vietnam the South fell to the North, once the US and NATO leaves Afghanistan will Afghanistan fall to the Taliban. After the two Obama surges the War in Afghanistan is Obama's War, the President has stated that he will start to withdraw the troops in 2011 depending on conditions on the ground, well folks if Obama think the Taliban are blue dog Democrats he is in for a nasty shock, this year has seen an increase in US and UK casualties, the first three months of this year has been more bloody than the same time last year for the US and the UK. In 2009 from January to March the UK lost 15 of its Armed Forces Personnel, in 2010 in the same time period the total is now 33. This breakdown does not include those that have been hurt but have not died, the US plan is to get closer to the Afghan people, with all due respect to the Afghan people I would rather our troops had a big guarded fort, and kept their distance from the locals. At the end of the day the Western Forces will leave, victory or no victory, the voters in the UK and the USA might get one fact that the their Governments don't get, YOU CANT WIN IN THE BLOODY PLACE, its a lesson that the UK keeps having to learn over and over again, we have the bloody t-shirt from previous Afghan Wars. The old British Imperial policy was to get a non threat to UK interests, let him rule Afghanistan but keep an eye over the border. The conditions on the ground might have changed, we no longer have India ( yes its modern Pakistan ) but the Government still uses Imperial Law from the period in some cases, it can be argued that we could loan a military base from Pakistan, lets face it the badlands are not under the control of Pakistan anyway, clear out the Al Qaeda from the region of the base and keep an eye on Afghanistan. Any new threats and use the old Imperial policy of dropping bombs on the threat, in today's terms send it a drone with a hellfire missile and take out the threats and protect our troops and UK national security. The above is the most likely result of the Afghan War.

24 and 9/11

Telegraph: Report on the end 24, the series that represented the 9/11 world on television. In many respects 24 was the series that bought the issues that both Bush 43 found and Obama has to deal with every day in to the homes of the US voter. While West Wing had to shift to the issue of terrorism, a jolt that was not that easy, it was a very liberal show, with 24 our World but more extreme was there from the start, it dealt with the issues of terrorism and the rights of the individual and how far the US Government had to go in the protection of US rights. Also have to admit have a soft spot for the first African - American TV President, David Palmer, Palmer was tough, while Obama is an appeaser in the mold of Neville Chamberlain. Palmer was not afraid to order the torture of close aides to protect the US voter, one gets the impression that Obama would ask KSM if his chair was comfortable. One can argue that with the tough Bush 43 polices to fight terrorism the issue of terrorism was less of an issue for the voter, in only came back up with the attempted terror bomber over Christmas, thus the election of President Obama and his liberal agenda and his take that terror was not a war but police matter, thus as the times change the fate of 24 was tied to the Bush era, new era and no major attacks on the US has made 24 redundant in till the next time, the one thing history shows there is always a next time.

The Threat from Iran

The New York Times: Reports on the proposed build up of Iran's nuclear facilities, the article states that Iran is proposing to build two new facilities in mountains to prevent them being attacked. This is why its never good for the US to have a weak President folks, the Tehran Regime must know that Obama will never attack and that he wants to be liked so much he will never take any action without UN support, thus expect Iran to go nuclear in less action is take by Israel. As reported of late the Obama Administration has drawn back from tough sanctions on Iran due to the fact that Russia and China have close economic links with Iran and don't want any negative effect on their economic development in this recession period. In many respects Obama is turning in Jimmy Carter in the front of your eyes, Carter looked old by the end of his Presidency, Obama is starting to look old, he has lost that star quality that gets the young out to vote, thus recent election losses. The 2010 Mid Terms will be a nightmare for the Democrats.