No Public Option for Health Care Reform ?

Fox News: Reports that the US Senate Democratic Majority Leader, Senator Harry Reid might pull the idea for a public option in the health care reform bill due the lack votes to close down a Republican opposition. As stated in previous post the present battle in the Senate is more to do with the political career of Harry Reid, he needs Liberal support for is re-election run in 2010 and thus is giving the liberal base what it wants, the public option, well the votes are not there, and thus we should have a few days of this shadow boxing before the Senate can have a real discussion about the health care reform without the public option. Poor Harry NOT!

The Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan

BBC News: Reports on the murders committed by the Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the recent hours. One can postulate that there was some coordination between the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the recent attacks, the attack on the UN was to make a point due to its overview of being in charge of the Afghan Election, thus with the second round its in the interest of the Taliban to cause havoc for the West and the UN. Lets recall the effect of Tet offensive of the Vietnam War, its not the actual military result that matters its the PR. The Afghan War in not popular in the USA, thus to be brutal this attack on the UN is more about the political context in the USA. The Taliban want to put the fear of God in to Obama, they want him to think that he is the next LBJ and that Afghanistan is his Vietnam. The attacks in Pakistan are aimed to work on two levels, the Taliban of Pakistan want the Army of Pakistan out of the badlands of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, that is their base, thus they want to show that they cant hurt Pakistan by attacks the political, economic and civic centres of Pakistan. They also want to put the fear of God in to the people, they want to turn the people against the government, they want to people to force the government to appease the Taliban. Also the attacks while Hillary Clinton is in Pakistan is a message to Obama, not follow the advice of VP Biden, the VP wants to move the US strategy from Afghanistan to Pakistan, by the use of drone attacks on Taliban and Al Qaeda, this could cause more problems for the secular government of Pakistan. At the end of the day these attacks are more about PR than actual results, the question is does Obama have the backbone to stand up to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, we shall know the answers soon to that question.