Faster Deployment for Afghanistan - CNN

CNN News: Reports that the second Obama surge for Afghanistan will go in to effect faster as to counter the threat from the Taliban. In other words POTUS can see the election clock, he does not want Afghanistan to become a major issue in the Mid Term Congressional Elections of next year. If Afghanistan surge does not work by November next year and the US is taking heavy casualties the left wing in the US will not go and vote for Democrats, thus the Democratic Party could lose the House. If Obama was to lose the House of Representatives his political agenda would be dead on the Hill, but it would allow Obama to move to the centre as Clinton did after the 1994 loss of the House. This could allow President Obama to win re-election in 2012. All events are political folks, even Afghanistan.

30,000 + 10,000 = Afghanistan - Fox News

Fox News: Reports that the second Obama surge for Afghanistan will be thirty thousand US troops, in total the US will have a hundred thousand troops in theatre. Thus if you look at the leaks the US voter can expect that POTUS will send around thirty thousand US troops to Afghanistan and that NATO will have to pull its finger out and back the US. The UK by next year will have ten thousand troops in theatre, lets see the rest of NATO spend some money and send troops to Afghanistan. In total with NATO forces there will be around one hundred and forty thousand troops in theatre, General McChrystal will have a year to win, not two years but a year. After a year if it is still not working then POTUS will have go down the VP Biden line, scale back the troops and use special force to attack Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan. That would be the only choice, it would not be a good choice as you could see the fall of the secular government of Pakistan, and the Taliban of Pakistan taking over a nuclear armed nation. That would force India to attack, yes folks it could get that bad in the region.

The Obama Surge and Exit - Afghanistan

The Washington Post: Reports that President Obama will send thirty four thousand soldiers out to Afghanistan and will ask the Allies to make up the difference between the US surge and the McChrystal request of forty thousand soldiers. As long as the surge is over thirty thousand then President Obama is on the right track, as getting more troops out of NATO and US Allies that depends if its 5 or 10 thousand Obama wants from them, five thousand should be a reasonable request to NATO and US Allies. The idea that somehow you can turn Afghanistan around in to Chicago with the flaws of that state is barmy, Afghanistan is and always has been a nightmare for any power, from the British Empire through the USSR now to the USA under Obama. At the end of the day if the Taliban agree to keep Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and not to support the Taliban of Pakistan they can take Afghanistan back to the stone age, that brutal and honest folks. There is no way on God's earth that you can make Afghanistan in the Western image. Its about grinding down the Taliban, make them do a deal and get the hell out of the place.

UK HOSTAGES in Iran

BBC News: Reports on the five British Yacht crew being held by Iran. I had hoped that someone in Iran had a brain cell when it comes to PR, it seems this time this blog was wrong. The Government in Iran is holding five private British citizens as hostages, it is nothing more that a rogue nation. I am sorry but I have had enough of FCO wanting to appease Tehran, time to show Iran there are limits. This of this as a test run over the nuclear issue, it does not matter if the boat went by accident in to the waters of Iran, any civilized Nation would have helped them out if their was yacht was in trouble, not Iran. This is time for gunboat diplomacy, or even better send in the SAS, Iran will not get the message in till when drop the brick on them, and its better the UK does it than Israel. The totalitarian regime in Tehran sees Obama as weak thus their push for the bomb, lets show them that British have played this game longer, send in the gunboat and teach the lesson on how to behave as a real nation. If we are weak over this they will bush for the bomb, that simple and brutal folks.