New US Troops for Afghanistan ?

CNN: Reports that President Obama could decide on more troops for Afghanistan before the second round election in Afghanistan. This is counter to the view as stated by his Senator John Kerry (D) and the White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, what is interesting is that this news came after the critical comments by the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who stated that the US didn’t have the time to wait for second round. It can be argued that Mr Emanuel is a great political operator, he gained the House of Representatives back for the Democrats but he is a lousy Chief of Staff, he is acting like he is back in the Windy City and Washington D.C is some ward that he has to control by fear, does recall the mind set that lead to Watergate. On the domestic front President Obama could declare he is Marxist and that would not on the whole bother me, its what he does on Foreign Policy that is my main concern, thus his sell out of Poland and the Czech Republic on the idea that he had a deal with Russia over sanctions for Iran. That deal didn’t last, Moscow has no real urge to place sanctions on country that it wants to deal with from military to economic. Thus the move by the Obama Administration of late to do a new deal with Poland to place its new missile defence in Poland, also for the VP Biden to fix the impression that Obama would sell out Eastern Europe for fools gold, a deal with Russia. Thus we come back to Afghanistan, the UK will have 9,500 troops in Afghanistan later this year, thus as long as President Obama follows the recommendations of General McChrystal I would not care what he does on the domestic front, as long as he is a hawk in Afghanistan and Iran.

Assassination in Pakistan

The Times: Reports on the assassination of Brigadier Moenuddin Ahmed of the Army of Pakistan. Thus as was expected the Taliban of Pakistan have decided that since the Army of Pakistan has gone in to the badlands of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in South Waziristan the Taliban will use terror tactics on the political, military, and civil elite of Pakistan. As noted on previous post the Army of Pakistan has tried military action in the badlands before, it didn’t work, the terrain does not help a Western Army model, also the Army of Pakistan is trained to fight India not its own people. Thus expect more attacks on the cities of Pakistan, the aim is simple, weaken the will of the people and the government, this time its different, if the Taliban are allowed to win this time they pose a threat to the secular state of Pakistan and more important they could get their hands on the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan, thus the Army of Pakistan has to fight, this War they cant lose, or the region might go up in flames.

Cheney on Obama and Afghanistan and 2012

The New York Times: Reports on a critical speech by former VP Cheney on Obama's policy towards to Afghanistan, the NYT writes the following, " The Obama administration is dithering on a decision about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, former Vice President Dick Cheney said..." One can almost get the impression that Cheney might be thinking about 2012 and running for the Presidency, its not that out there folks, think about it, Cheney was a Chief of Staff to President Ford, supported Reagan in the House of Representatives, Defence Secretary to Bush 41 and Vice - President to Bush 43. Lets be honest folks what is Obama's CV, in the real world folks, doubt he would get an internship in a blue chip company overall, but this is not the real world, its a world that gives a Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing, so is a Cheney run really out there folks, Cheney 2012 does have a ring to it folks.

Death in Afghanistan

MOD: Reports another British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, the soldier was from the " Royal Military Police ". Thus in total since 2001 the UK has lost 222 of its Armed Forces Personnel in Afghanistan, of that total 191 have died in combat operations, while the other 31 have died due to illness, accident or other incidents. How much more soldiers will the UK lose with this second election in Afghanistan, we know that President Karzai will win, so what is the point, to make the UN happy, well that does not make me happy, if there has to be another round let the US run the security. If it down to the US President Obama might get off the dime and agree to send more troops.