AfPak

General McChrystal Out – General Petraeus In

Congrats Patraeus! Now I think we might just have a shot of serious impact!

I agree with South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham -the switch of hands of Commanding Officer  in Afghanistan is the perfect time to reevaluate our strategy in AfPak and ’start over’.

We all know we won’t ever ‘win’ this war – this isn’t even a war really anymore. This is just an endless battle. If it were really a war -it would insinuate there could realistically and viably be a side that wins.

But in this fight – no side does. The Taliban and Al Qaeda extremist are never going to wipe us all out…and the USA is never going to wipe them all out.

It’s an idealistic strategy that doesn’t even rank in worthiness for the time to do the probable/possible test. It’s quite clear to see the answer anyway.

But – if we are going to pretend this is war – and we are going to have US Military engaged in battle overseas- now more than ever, we need to give a Serious Sustainable Kick in the Butt to these terrorists!!

Now more so than ever  - McChrystal doing the fine job of making some of the top  US  leaders & US Government look even more like a bunch of jokes (more so than what maybe we all have our personal opinions on anyway). We are now even more the laughing stock to the Taliban and Al Qaeda members…I can only imagine how long and how loud they were laughing when they heard McChrystal’s daring words.

At this point it is crucial, McChrystal’s stupidity or not. It’s been 9 years now and we haven’t made really an ounce of progress. We can’t keep doing this as we approach our 10th year at war. We need to send Petraeus overseas with a serious and dynamite blow-you-up plan to really shake these Taliban out of their hiding cells!!!

He needs to arrive with explosive umph and such power, that the fear we are trying to put upon these terrorists actually works for a change – and not only works – but works instantly – completely taking them off guard!

His presence needs to shake the ground so hard they fall to their feet and say ‘uncle’. He needs to whip massive transformation across the remote training camps, hiding villages and roadside bombs and stop at nothing – going full force 24/7- until our US military is actually the dominant fighter -not the tail chaser we have been for 9 years (not their fault, they are following orders).  General Petraeus needs to do a complete 180 of how things are done there if he wants to bring himself and our soldiers home alive, early and victorious.

We now have an open window of opportunity to seriously shake things up & make significant progress – as our soldiers will be lead by one of the best. So we should take complete advantage of this in every way we can. If anyone can do this – General David Petraeus can! But don’t send Petraeus over without a new strategy, without a new plan. It’s pointless if you do.

Maybe McCrystal committed professional suicide for a reason. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise.

He obviously did this purposefully. No one of his experience, age, stature, ranking is that stupid to make mistake after mistake after mistake in what you say to a magazine reporter. It was too instant and too easy for it to be a mistake. To me, this was akin to having drinks with Bin Laden himself. Mocking the US to the enemy.  No General is that careless – drinks or no drinks.

Makes ya wonder if McChrystal’s a double agent. Not too far fetched — there was so much disloyalty not only to those specific individuals he mocked, but to the US in general, to the US Military in general. I wonder if he realizes the actual reprecussion his words had in more ways than one.

Either way, McChrystal, Petraeus, Snoopy – this is AfPak fight is still what I call an mission impossible – and it really doesn’t make a difference who is Commanding General.

We Should Thank the Terrorists

An odd statement I know. But if you think about it, the terrorists -Al Qaeda specifically – tells us where we are weak in focus in stopping them.

In the beginning of December 2009, after a very long and intensive decision process with his National Security Team, President Obama let the American people know his final decision to tackle the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was to send 30,000 more troops by the Spring 2010.

Not one peep about Yemen.

Now, Al Qaeda isn’t as large in numbers in Yemen in comparrison to the AfPak region, however, Al Qaeda recently (2008) attacked our embassy there. How come he didn’t consider beefing up troops there as well?

I mean if he is going to ponder troop numbers and his lofty and ideological plan to ‘disrupt, dismantle, and defeat’ Al Qaeda, you would think he would cover all countries where Al Qaeda has a decent size, and more importantly has recently (within 3 years or less) attacked a US establishment.

And it’s not even just the Embassy. Al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen have attacked Western hotels and restaurants in the past as well – as we have come to learn via his 1st Weekly Address speech of 2010 on http://www.whitehouse.gov.

Three weeks after Obama’s December announcement, he is celebrating the holidays with his family in Hawaii. He learns that on Christmas, a 23 year old Nigerian attempts to blow up a plane headed from Amsterdam to the U.S. (Detroit  - Northwest flight 253). That Nigerian got the bomb materials and the instructions of how to successfully do this in Yemen.

Now, all of a sudden, all attention is on Yemen and everyone is scrambling to beef up training, security and military there. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is backing the USA 100% with the same.

So, if it wasn’t for this attempted terrorist attack, we wouldn’t be doing a thing in Yemen. It wouldn’t even be in print. I would take a shot to say that I am sure it wasn’t even a discussion during all these long and intense sessions with his National Security Team.

I am aware that those discussions were focused on the AfPak region, but remember Obama was working his team off the theory of his overarching goal – to ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda’. He wanted a plan of how to do that best.  In that case, Yemen should have been on the table.

So, we should really thank the terrorists.

I would never really, obviously…I think you get my point.

It also furthers my constant point: since 9/11 that the US is always chasing it’s tail when it comes to Al Qaeda. I laugh very hard when Obama tells the global world he is out to ‘disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda’ when they are just always very ahead of us.

They out number us by so many, and that’s the ones we know of (which are never correct statistics exactly),  let a lone all the Al Qaeda trained individuals we don’t know about yet. Al Qaeda is in virtually every country in some aspect, if not by trained killers, then by people who fund it or help orchestrate the situation for funding (organized crime, drugs, etc). This is an infinite number that is unchaseable, as it grows each day.

They dictate what we (global governments) do. They dictate how we act. They hold a constant threat over us everywhere. And they are incorporated into almost every decision being made today on a global scale in all facets of government. Even Corporate America is influenced by terrorists. Almost every business since 9/11 now has a Homeland Security department or something akin.

Their power is 10x the size of our biggest global players combined (America, Canada, UK, Europe, Mexico, etc.)

With that said, how does President Obama really believe he can make a dent in this organization? I constantly ask this.

You are dealing with individuals whose mindset is pure hatred against America and western countries, where human lives mean nothing to them (they behead and kill like we kill a mosquito) and more importantly when they themselves are willing to die to kill us. Their religious belief almost begs them too – the virgins on the ‘other side’, their families protected, etc. (reference the Koran).

There is absolutely no way we can even come close to stopping them unless we become like them. Where we put all ethics, morals, aside, and say ‘no holds bar”. Where we stop protecting civilians and we just fight and fight dirty until we can’t fight anymore.

The way we fight right now is wimpy. Not because our military is wimpy. Our militaries are incredible! It’s because our leaders have the false belief we can fight an enemy that is both visible and hidden with grace and constitutional law, empty words of trying to scare them, and without giving up our steadfast values, ethics and principles.

This is why the terrorists still succeed. They know this. This is actually our weakness when it comes to them. It’s our strength in other situations, but not with Al Qaeda and our fight against them.

When we alter our course of destruction against them because there are too many civilians in that area, we loose chances to win.  The terrorists know this and they use the civilians as their advantage.

Ex: Count the number of airstrikes, attack plans, etc. over the past 8 years that could have wiped out hundreds of thousands of terrorists that didn’t happen because civilians were in the vicinity.

So Obama can do all the troop increasing he wants. Unless he changes the rules of engagement, Al Qaeda will not only stay strong, they will get stronger.

We are no where near disrupting them, let a lone dismantling and defeating them. This was clear on Christmas 2009.

Keep in mind, just 3 weeks prior to this attempted attack, Obama bellowed out this power phrase proudly and confidently – how 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan was the strongest answer he could come up with for his strategy of ‘disrupting, dismantling, and defeating Al Qaeda’.

Yet, their attack plan still went through. Yemen didn’t flinch. It didn’t even deter them enough for them not to try to implement this attack. Because they know America doesn’t know what they are really supposed to do in this fight against Al Qaeda.  They just proved that even more. So much for Obama’s powerful statement.

The global governments, US especially, are focusing on all the wrong things. All we simply have to do is change the way we fight. And then I surmise, we will really see significant results. But we all know that will never happen – that’s just my ideological thinking I guess.

Since I would not advocate killing innocent civilians, and Obama wouldn’t engage in this either, then there just needs to come to the point of common sense of this all and realize that we  will never be able to ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda.’

Moreover, we can’t do the 3 D’s simply because we rely on the terrorists to tell us where we need to go next! It’s sad, but true.

They point out where we aren’t strong enough to have stopped them from an attack already, as in all the attacks (and failed attacks) that have taken place since before 9/11 even.

We wait until they try (or do) attack us, then we all react to the situation. We are a passive nation. Amazing a superpower is so demeaned by a bunch of men who live in the mountains and have no education.

When you are constantly reacting, and really have no clue of how to handle this (the words just sound great),  you are certainly not in the position to state we will ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat’ anyone or anything.

If we aren’t waiting for the attempted attacks to guide us, then I guess we are waiting for the day when our US President or global governments think 100 Al Qaeda members in Yemen is 100 too many and we should have taken those 100 out 2 years ago when they bombed our embassy, or just earlier overall.

I am aware we had Bush W. as a president then, who did zilcho on terrroism but create a conglomerate mishap of an organization (DHS). But that is no excuse now.

When Obama came into office he could have done more when he reviewed all Al Qaeda attacks on US establishments in the past decade (this is presuming he did this knowing we had a president for 8 years who didn’t handle anything).

Interestingly enough, when Obama first stepped into office in January 2009, he sent more troops to Afghanistan. It’s a hot topic, he acted appropriately.

He should have sent more troops to Yemen too.

Why? Because of the 2008 embassy attack and the others the President mentioned.

Why? Indeed because of the October 2000 USS Cole bombing that was devised and executed in Yemen!

This is a country that should have never left our site as much as it did. It went to the wayside simply because numbers of Al Qaeda members we larger in the AfPak region.

If they really understood Al Qaeda (which it’s obvious they don’t), they would grasp that numbers don’t matter with a terrorist group like Al Qaeda. They don’t need hundreds to be powerful.

The United States benchmark for how we assess where Al Qaeda is strong and where we should take action is based on numbers. We constantly make the same mistake with that assessment qualifier.

So, Al Qaeda taught us again. Yemen has about 100 Al Qaeda terrorists. Apparantly that wasn’t justifiable enough for us to take stronger action – until now, when an attack almost happened, parts of which originated from Yemen.

The terrorists just keep teaching us lessons, and I state that we should thank them because it reveals our weaknesses.

America has this theory that they are so smart with ‘power phrases’ that have zero substance behind them.

In the meantime, the terrorists just keep dangling our weakness in our faces, keep laughing at us, keep plotting more, and show the world we are no less prepared today than we were in September 2001 – yet we have we spent billions of dollars on each year on this.

If it wasn’t for the bomb malfunctioning, and for the passengers jumping to take action (since when are passengers responsible for US security) then we would have a tragic situation on our hands.  The US got lucky.

So why should we thank the terrorists?

It made the U.S. wake the heck up and realize that Al Qaeda doesn’t have to be large in numbers to be successful. And it made the US and UK realize that Yemen is a stronger haven for a powerful Al Qaeda than what they have currently given focus and manpower on.

This is why I laugh when Obama says we will ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda’. That would require we are ahead of them already. But we aren’t.

We can’t ‘disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda’ without them helping us. And Al Qaeda ‘helping us’ means they are always closer to being more successful than before.

And then the cycle continues….we react, send more troops….etc etc etc.

Best Kept Secret for 13 Years

This new announcement the Osama bin Laden tried to assassinate former President Bill Clinton when he was at the APEC meeting in the Phillippines in 1996 is just oh so appropriate…as this week, the troop increasement officially begins with the first 1,000 US Marines heading to Afghanistan with a less than favorable support from the American public.

Sounds like Obama is getting a bit more heat than anticipated and they need to pull out all the tricks they can now to gain support of this insurgency in Afghanistan. No better than to show this ace card!

The event: The terrorists were actually minutes away from success as Clinton’s motorcade was set to go over a bridge in Manila that had explosives on it, when Secret Service got a quick message from intelligence sources saying ‘bridge’ and ‘wedding’ — wedding is the terrorist code word for assassination.  They quickly rerouted. American intelligence sources later found explosive devices under that bridge. It wasn’t Osama bin Laden himself of course, it was one of his affiliates in Al Qaeda acting on his behalf.

Now, Bill Clinton at the time of his presidency chose to keep this assassination attempt quiet. I am sure he had his reasons.

Key Secret Service and Intelligence officials in many agencies knew and seemed to be good to keep this quiet for 13 years.

All of a sudden, it’s worthy to be known.

So what do you think changed everyone’s mind, all of a sudden?

Do you think it’s just because Professor Gromley’s book is set to release? He’s the one who writes about this.

I doubt it.

My theory – Obama needed this edge to remind people of how important it is to spend our taxpayer money to get good ole bin Laden and to stop his globally conglomerative organization.

Obama’s justifications for this insurgency  - or what he calls reasoning – are weak, if at best, and he and his Administration believe this piece of information might relate to more people.

Big chance to take – hoping people will be sucked into this one because they liked Clinton – and now all of a sudden will be okay with our taxpayer dollars funding this almost 9 year ridiculous war.

Gotta hand it to our crafty govy folks – this one’s a goody to pull out of the bag!

For one second, they almost got me even (as I liked Clinton).

An extra umph to this strategy –  this now helps Secretary of State Hillary Clinton justify her support of Obama’s plan even more so.

Afterall, this is her husband, our former US President for 8 years, who outside his sex scandal, did a phenomenal job, and a man who is continuing to make significant contributions globally through his non profit, The Bill Clinton Foundation.

I am sure Hillary knew of this assassination attempt right after it happened, but still, this ‘news flash’ gives her umph in her position today even more so, as to why she stands behinds Obama’s decision.

Keep in mind, Obama’s polling rates dropped a lot since the beginning of December on multiple issues, the war being one.

Indeed, his team needed to think of something quite clever to have these numbers move back up before 2010 rolled in.

Outside those 3 working weeks in December, there wasn’t much time, as the President is on vacation in Hawaii for the holidays, so he wouldn’t be doing much ‘heroic’ presidencing between Christmas and the New Year.

If this works, one would say it’s perfect timing —-and everyone knows timing is everything in politics and war.

Savvy authors and publishers won’t release a book until a certain time when they know a subject matter will be hotter than any other time of the year to increase a higher chance of sales quicker in a shorter amount of time.

The government invented this strategy years ago (as a way to manipulate the American citizens).

Our elected officials and those in our government agencies not only invented this strategy, but over the years, they have perfected it. They are quite slick  - always picking the ‘appropriate times’ to release classified information to the American citizens and/or global world.

Believe me, they don’t just wake up one day and say, “hey, how about we release xx info today to give the media something to write about in case it’s slow for them”.

This ace…this best kept secret for 13 years…well, there is a heck of a lot of political, military and presidential strategy behind this one – and I am sure there is more about this strategy than just this war and Obama’s ratings. More will be revealed in 2010, no doubt.

I surmise numerous interviews with Bill Clinton will be first. Bill obviously knew once this book was released and this precious secret was revealed, that interviews would be requested.

Perhaps there is a bigger Democratic reason why Bill Clinton needs to be in the spotlight more so now than he already is.

Poor Hillary, overshadowed by her husband, yet again.

I am very glad Bill Clinton wasn’t assassinated, but this doesn’t change my opinion at all. No matter what way you color it or state it, I don’t support this AfPak war. So this didn’t work on me. How about you?