Rahm Emanuel OUT?

Telegraph: Reports that President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel could leave after the Mid Term Congressional Elections of 2010. This story follows a trend, of late one has seen stories that are favorable for Emanuel at the expense of the President Obama, the theme is that Mr Emanuel is pragmatic and willing to cut deals while the inner team of Obama from the Campaign of 08 only see their Agenda, thus the present southward trend in the polls for the President. As noted in this blog Mr Emanuel is a political animal in his own right, he wants a career after Obama, if Obama does not run or goes down to a 48/49 state defeat Mr Emanuel does not want go down on the Obama EGO Titanic. The 2010 Mid Term Congressional Elections are expected to be tough for Democrats, if the Obama White House lose the House Mr Emanuel does not want to be round when the Republicans start to investigate the job offers by the Obama White House to candidate is state races, Mr Emanuel was around for the Bill Clinton Impeachment, he does not want that hanging over his head, it has been suggested for some time that Rahm Emanuel will run for Mayor of Chicago, well a bad Mid Terms would be a good way to get out, also to restart his own political career, does Mr Emanuel see Obama as another Jimmy Carter, thus he wants out?

The Reaction to the 300 Death in Afghanistan

It’s a sad benchmark folks, the UK has lost its 300 Soldier in Afghanistan, the Secretary of Defence Dr Liam Fox stated the following on reason that the UK was in Afghanistan, “ British forces in Afghanistan are protecting our national security as part of an international coalition of more than 45 nations….will bring security and stability to Afghanistan and prevent it from once again becoming a base from which terrorists can attack the UK and our allies around the world.” The UK PM David Cameron has stated the following, “ Of course the 300th death is no more or less tragic than the 299 that came before….We are paying a high price for keeping our country safe, for making our world a safer place…The truth is that we are there because the Afghans are not yet ready to keep their own country safe and to keep terrorists and terrorist training camps out of their country. ” The problem is when will the Kabul Government ever be ready, the US has a 2011 timetable for the US to start to withdraw some troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban/Al Qaeda can hit NATO forces safe in the knowledge that at the end of the day the US and the UK will leave, so as we lose our brave soldiers the question has to be asked are we throwing their lives away for nothing, so far it its hard to justify the War in Afghanistan, even harder if we are not winning.

Death in the UK - Afghanistan

MOD: Reports that a British Soldier died today in the UK of wounds suffered in Afghanistan. The Soldier was a " Royal Marine from 40 Commando Royal Marines ". Thus since 2001 the UK has lost 300 of its Armed Forces Personnel in Afghanistan, of that total it has lost 266 in combat operations and 34 due to illness, accidents or other incidents.