I can not tell you the dejection I feel when I log an item in from the Globe on Saturday afternoon and it doesn't make my Sunday paper.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Afghanistan Censorship
I guess they REALLY DON'T WANT YOU KNOWING about the WARS once they have begun -- they just LIKE STARTING THEM!!!
"Rocket hits outside luxury hotel in Afghan capital" by Elena Becatoros and Amir Shah, Associated Press Writers | November 21, 2009
KABUL --A rocket hit outside the luxury Serena Hotel in Afghanistan's capital late Saturday, wounding two people, the Interior Ministry said.
The heavily guarded Serena regularly houses visiting diplomats, officials and international workers. It has been the target of attacks before, most recently in late October when a rocket slammed into a courtyard. In Saturday's attack, a rocket hit low on the outside of a compound wall that rings the hotel, just behind a guardhouse, according to an Associated Press reporter who saw the impact spot. Rubble surrounded the area, but there was no large crater.
Dozens of police and army officers worked to secure the site. There was no immediate claim of responsibility....
STINKOLA!
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And FURTHER STENCH upon what I DID FIND in my AGENDA-PUSHING SUNDAY PIECE!!
"Afghan militias are sprouting up to take on Taliban; US officials hope groups will help stop insurgents" by Dexter Filkins, New York Times | November 22, 2009
Oh, no, toilet, readers!!!!
ACHIN, Afghanistan - American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban.
At a certain point you get tired of the propaganda of the NYT!
Yup, OBAMA'S SONS of the SURGE in AFGHANISTAN!
The emergence of the militias, which took some leaders in Kabul by surprise, has so encouraged US and Afghan officials that they are planning to spur the growth of similar armed groups across the Taliban heartland in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
US and Afghan officials say they are hoping the plan, called the Community Defense Initiative, will bring together thousands of gunmen to protect their neighborhoods from Taliban insurgents. Already there are hundreds of Afghans who are acting on their own against the Taliban, officials say.
How odd that the U.S. GOVERNMENT seeks to ARM TALIBAN to PROTECT THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS while DISARMING US hear at home!!!!!
The endeavor represents one of the most ambitious - and riskiest - plans for regaining the initiative against the Taliban, who are fighting more vigorously than at any time since 2001. By harnessing the militias, US and Afghan officials hope to rapidly increase the number of Afghans fighting the Taliban. That could supplement the US and Afghan forces already here, and whatever number of US troops President Obama might decide to send. The militias could also help fill the gap while the Afghan army and police forces train and grow.
But.... all Afghans are corrupt!
The US officials hope the militias will encourage an increasingly demoralized Afghan population to take a stake in the war against the Taliban. “The idea is to get people to take responsibility for their own security,’’ said a senior US military official in Kabul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “In many places they are already doing that.’’
Why would they be "demoralized" after we "liberated" them?
And again, the security issue with two solutions.
The growth of the anti-Taliban militias runs the risk that they could turn on one another, or against the Afghan and the US governments, as has happened in the past. The Americans say they will keep the groups small and will limit the scope of their activities to protecting villages and manning checkpoints.
Well, the TALIBAN ARE ALREADY DOING THAT throughout the 75% of the country!!!!
In fact, WE ARE PAYING THEM so they WILL NOT ATTACK US!
For now, they are not arming the groups because they already have guns.
Sigh!
You know, the MORE YOU READ of this NYT TURD, the WORSE it STINKS!!!!
I'm almost afraid to continue!
The Americans also say they will tie the groups to the Afghan government and tightly control their activities so they do not create more warlords, who have defied the government’s authority for years.
Well, you know, as long as they are OURS!
The first phase of the Afghan plan, now being carried out by US Special Forces soldiers, is to set up or expand the militias in areas with a population of about a million people. Special Forces soldiers have been fanning out across the countryside, descending from helicopters into valleys where the residents have taken up arms against the Taliban and offering their help....
Yup, THINGS are GOING GREAT in Afghanistan as the AmeriKan angels descend on a rope from heaven!!!!
Afghan and US officials say they plan to use the militias as tripwires for Taliban incursions, enabling them to call the army or the police if things get out of hand. The official assistance to the militias so far has been modest, consisting mainly of ammunition and food, officials said. But US and Afghan officials say they are also planning to train the fighters and provide communication equipment.
How do you "INCUR" on a place where YOU LIVE, world?
“What we are talking about is a local, spontaneous, and indigenous response to the Taliban,’’ said Hanif Atmar, the Afghan interior minister. “The Afghans are saying, ‘We are willing and determined and capable to defend our country; just give us the resources.’ ’’
In the Pashtun-dominated areas of the south and east, the anti-Taliban militias are being led by elders from local tribes. The Pashtun militias represent a reassertion of the country’s age-old tribal system, which binds villages and regions under the leadership of groups of elders.
Yup, and WE ARE IN THERE F***ING AROUND over a DAMN LIE!!!!
This AFTER we BROUGHT the "terrorists" there to screw the Soviets!!!
The tribal networks have been alternately decimated and co-opted by Taliban insurgents. Of course, when the US buys people off with bribes that is not "co-opting."
Nor are missile strikes that flatten villages called decimation.
Local tribal leaders, while still powerful, cannot count on the allegiance of all of their tribes’ members. Militias have begun taking up arms against the Taliban in several places where insurgents have gained a foothold, including Nangarhar and Paktia provinces. So far, there appears to be some divergence in the American and Afghan efforts. While US Special Forces units have focused on helping smaller militias, Afghan officials have been channeling assistance to larger armed groups, including those around the city of Kunduz.
There several armed groups, led by ethnic Uzbek commanders as well as Pashtuns, are confronting the Taliban.
So either the Northern Alliance or "Al-CIA-Duh" is being aided, that's what that means!
“In Kunduz, after they defeated the Taliban in their villages, they became the power and they took money and taxes from the people,’’ Atmar, the interior minister, said. “This is not legal, and this is warlordism.’’
Yeah, and it is the SAME in EVERY NATION!!!!
Of course, GOVERNMENT gets MAD when someone muscles in on THEIR JOB!!!
Kolenda said, “In the long run, that is destabilizing.’’
I think you are at the end of the marathon, America.
One of the most striking examples of a local militia rising up on its own is in Achin, a predominantly Pashtun district in Nangarhar province that straddles the border with Pakistan. In July, a long-running dispute between local Taliban fighters and Shinwari tribe elders flared up. When a local Taliban warlord named Khona brought a more senior commander from Pakistan to help in the confrontation, the elders in the Shinwari tribe rallied villagers from up and down the valley where they live, killed the commander and chased Khona away.
It could be true; however, why should I believe a lying AmeriKan war rag?
The elders had insisted that the Taliban stay away from a group of Afghans building a dike in the valley. When Khona’s men kidnapped two Afghan engineers, the Shinwari elders decided they had had enough. “The whole tribe was with me,’’ one of the elders said. “The Taliban came to kill me, and instead we killed them.’’
Can we please stop with the killing!
Figures the NYT would be trumpeting it the loudest!
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For all the friends we have, there sure are a lot of attacks, NYT!!!!
"4 US soldiers among 12 killed in attacks in Afghanistan; Violence rises as US, NATO study new deployments" by Elena Becatoros, Associated Press | November 24, 2009
KABUL - Bombings and shootings killed 12 people across Afghanistan, including four American service members and three children, adding to the growing toll as NATO and the United States consider whether to send more forces to the war. Three US troops were killed in southern Afghanistan on Sunday - two in a bombing and a third in a separate firefight - and another was killed in the east in a bombing yesterday, NATO said in a statement....
But we have friends, says the NYT and BG Sunday pick-up.
To the north, insurgents attacked German soldiers and Afghan national police with grenades and gunfire as the troops drove through an area northwest of Kunduz city, wounding two Afghan police officers. Air support was called in and the insurgents fled, the German military said in a statement.
So who was standing under those bombs, NATO?
I mean, they know all about the internal politics of tribal elders and villages.
WTF?
A suicide bomber also struck the same province, which has seen a spike in militant attacks in recent months. The bomber, who was targeting a police convoy, killed five civilians, including three children, the Interior Ministry said. Five other people were wounded in the attack, which missed the convoy, it said.
Then I'M NOT BUYING IT!!!!!
"Now stop and think here for a moment. All revolutions depend on public support. Revolutionaries try to first win the people before they take on the government. So, no revolutionary goes out and murders civilians in cold blood. Did Washington and his men just mow down a marketplace of their fellow colonials for the heck of it? No, they did not. Washington and the Founding Fathers knew that their revolution to build a new country needed the support of those who would live in that country. This is true for every revolution in history. Therefore, these acts of terror being blamed on the insurgency must all be fakes, committed by intelligence agencies working for the governments to be blamed on the insurgents in order to destroy public support for the revolution." -- Wake the Flock Up
Either that or Afghans are lousy drivers, right?
Separately, three Afghan soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand province, in the Musa Qala district, the Defense Ministry said. It did not give further details. The violence has continued unabated despite the tens of thousands of foreign troops already in the country since the 2001 US-led invasion.
Or BECAUSE OF, right, MSM?!!!
President Obama convened his war council again yesterday to fine-tune a strategy to respond to the intransigent violence. Obama is considering sending tens of thousands more soldiers to fight an increasingly virulent insurgency, and pressure has been mounting for action. He is expected to announce a decision in the next few weeks. NATO is also calling on allied nations to add to their military presence. NATO has about 71,000 troops in Afghanistan, nearly half of them American. The US military also has another 36,000 troops in Afghanistan who serve outside NATO under independent command....
Yup, ABSOLUTELY NO TALK of ENDING IT and COMING HOME!!!!
An alliance spokesman in Brussels, James Appathurai, said yesterday that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is negotiating for more troops, equipment, funding, and other resources for the newly established NATO Training Mission, which is tasked with building up Afghanistan’s nascent army and police force.
Not the direction I want to be going.
WASHINGTON - The White House braced for a tough sell of President Obama’s long-awaited decision on whether to commit tens of thousands of new US forces to the stalemated war in Afghanistan, even as the president met yesterday with top advisers for possibly the last major deliberations before an announcement.
Yeah, "new" forces on their FIFTH TOUR! As if they are "fresh" troops!
Military officials and others expect Obama to settle on a middle-ground option that would deploy 32,000 to 35,000 US forces to the eight-year-old conflict....
Well, if 10,000 was the minimum and 40,000 the maximum, that is NOT the MIDDLE, MSM!!! Hey, what is ONE MORE DECEPTION, 'eh, readers?
The meeting was arranged for the unusual nighttime slot to accommodate Obama’s packed public schedule and the fact that many of his top advisers were leaving town for the holiday. No more war council meetings are on the calendar....
The White House is aiming for an announcement by Obama next week, either Tuesday or Wednesday. Military officials, congressional aides, and European diplomats said they expect Obama to deliver a national address laying out the revamped strategy....
Just like Bush would have done!
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that the subject of a war tax on the wealthy, proposed by a handful of leading Democrats, has not come up in the war council meetings....
How about ENDING the WASTEFUL MASS-MURDERING WAR CRIMES INSTEAD!!!!???
And this was the REWRITTEN and REEDITED PORTION of my article:
The force infusion expected by the military would represent most but not all the troops requested by Obama's war commander, for a retailored war plan that blends elements of General Stanley McChrystal's counterterror strategy with tactics more closely associated with the CIA's unacknowledged war to hunt down terrorists across the border in Pakistan....
The war, which began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has worsened on Obama's watch, and public support has dropped as US combat deaths have climbed....
I can see why this was censored now.
Get a call from the WH did you, AP?
Some key Democrats in Congress are raising more concerns about the war's cost, which they fear could drown out domestic priorities.
I don't take that fart mist seriously. Been sniffing it for years while the wars get full funding.
David Obey of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is suggesting a surtax to help fund the war....
Yup, now -- after the treasury was LOOTED for BANKS you are going to get a WAR TAX, America!
How about CUTTING OFF the FUNDING and BRINGING THEM HOME, Dave?!!!
Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said last week that higher-income Americans -- those making more than $200,000 or $250,000 a year -- should be taxed to pay for sending more troops.
Then A) The TAX is going NOWHERE, and B) END the DAMN THINGS THEN!
Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, has estimated that each additional soldier in Afghanistan could cost $1 million....
So, 35,000 thousand troops will be $35 BILLION, America!
Good thing you do not have any economic problems at home, huh?!!!!
Is the MESSAGE worth it?
Gibbs said that while the idea of a war tax hasn't come upin Obama's discussions, the president has told the Joint Chiefs of Staff that "we have to take into account how much all of this is going to cost over a five-year, 10-year period."
TEN MORE YEARS?!!!!
Are you effin s***ting me?!!!!
Obama doesn't want a second term, does he?
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WASHINGTON - President Obama said yesterday that he was determined to “finish the job’’ in Afghanistan, and his aides signaled to allies that he would send as many as 25,000 to 30,000 additional troops there even as they cautioned that the final number remained in flux.
The White House said Obama had completed his consultations with his war council on Monday night and would formally announce his decision in a national address in the next week, probably on Tuesday. At a news conference in the East Room with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, Obama suggested that his approach would break from the policies he had inherited from the Bush administration....
(Blog editor dejectedly remarks to himself that 'bamer has turned into as big a liar as Bush)
He said that he would outline his Afghanistan strategy after Thanksgiving, adding, “I feel very confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we’re doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supportive.’’
He's sounds JUST LIKE BUSH and he is JUST AS WRONG!!!!!
WE WANT an END to the WARS and an END to the LIES, SIR!!!!
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Obama offered no details....
He was also silent on precisely what would constitute finishing the job in Afghanistan or how soon he envisioned being able to begin extricating the United States from the war there....
NO NEED TO WAIT, guy! DO IT NOW!!!!
One reason for Obama’s disquiet might be discontent among the members of his own party on Capitol Hill over the prospect of escalating the war and paying for it....
That is covered above and is all BS! He will get the troops and $$$ he wants; they always do!
If Congress was TRULY INTERESTED in the war they would CUT OFF the FUNDING and BRING the TROOPS HOME!!!
Related: Soldier with Mass. ties killed in Afghanistan
DID NOT MAKE my PRINTED PAPER!!!!
