Sunday, September 27, 2009

As an endorsement to the Afghan people, none of the winning parties in the election to date were Taliban.

If I had to go through this to vote I doubt I would. The Afghan people want their democracy.


The third place winner in the elections state his vote is clean and only of the people, believing of course, he should then be granted his right place in the Afghan Presidency.

...The EU estimates focused on polling sites (click title to entry - thank you) where more than 90 percent of the vote went to a single candidate. Bashardost scoffs at the notion that he was pulling in fraudulent ballots, saying he lacked the bribe money or government officials willing to falsify his ballots.
"My vote is clean," Bashardost says. "It is absolutely a vote of the people."
During the election, Bashardost did have an advantage with one ethnic voting bloc.
He's a Hazara, a central Afghanistan ethnic group whose people traditionally have been persecuted, and suffered several massacres during the Taliban era.
Bashardost's roots are in Kabul, where his father had a small automobile parts shop. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Bashardost made his way to Iran and finally to France. There, he lived for 22 years, earning a doctorate in political science and law as he published a book about Afghan constitutional law.
Returning to Afghanistan in 2003, Bashardost served briefly as Karzai's minister of planning in 2004.
There, he proudly claimed to have angered his ethnic Hazara constituency by rejecting their pressure to stack his bureaucratic appointments with their ethnic bloc. "I said 'I'm a minister of Afghanistan, not Hazarajat," Bashardost said...

Afghanistan is not another South Vietnam. The stakes are much higher.


U.S Gen. Stanley McChrystal

General McChrystal is honest, forthright, dedicated and the list goes on. I have not witnessed in any other commander or general in the eight years in Afghanistan with this level of pure dedication to country and purpose. I believe he walks the talk and I believe he has the troops in mind when he issues opinion to his staff. He is well credentialed in defeating the men that would see civilization destroyed. He has successfully confronted the 'terrible' and brought them to justice or death.

He's right. I remember an assessment of Afghanistan by Representative John Murtha whom stated it would require 600,000 troops to be successful in Afghanistan. That seemed like such an unrealistic number, but, in his interview on CBS, General McChrystal stated, Afghanistan needs to have a fighting force of 400,000 of their own troops.

A fighting force of 400,000 Afghanistan troops isn't assembled overnight. It takes many people to recruit and train them.

In an interview today, Secretary Gates stated that last time there was a 'strategy' for Afghanistan was 1980. That is a lot of neglect. There was no real strategy for Afghanistan following September 11, 2001. There was a 'holding' pattern to make the Karzai government seem intact.

When President Obama ordered a strategy for Afghanistan little did anyone realize how much the Taliban had reconstituted its opposition to an organized government. President Obama, Secretary Gates went forward with the idea of securing the democracy in Afghanistan by hoping to succeed with elections. Little did anyone realize, the only 'surviving democracy' in Afghanistan was a Constitution and a exoskeleton of an infrastructure. Basically, President Karzai was a figure head to the issues of the country and the sincere structure of this democracy was gutted by violence as the Taliban were allowed to plunder Afghanistan with the cooperation of a very weak President/General Musharraf.

The corruption that besets Afghanistan is a direct result of the violence. Anarchy in a warlord domain is perfect for developing power brokers of 'mini-nations' of ethnic groups within the borders of the country. In order to stop the corruption, the Afghanistan government has to stop the violence. The two entities contribute to each other and one cannot exist without the other.

Afghanistan cannot be abandoned, unfortunately. It is in a sensitive region of the world that allows the nurturing of international criminals among a populous of people that sincerely want a democracy that values many of the qualities of life civilization values. If Afghanistan had a glut of oil between the rocks of the mountains, it would be occupied until every ounce was extracted. That isn't the case and Afghanistan through decades of neglect has devolved from a once reasonably peaceful society into one dominated by a bizarre culture nurtured by al Qaeda and given legitimacy by the Taliban.

The region has to find stability. The last eight years hasn't resolved the violence or dominated the culture by values of civilized countries because the 'real war' was sidelined to Iraq where there is significant oil deposits extracted to the last drop by injecting water into the oil wells at a time when humanity is suffering from a warming Earth and CO2 toxication while experiencing the worst droughts in history. To say the values here is bizarre is an understatement. The 'idea' of using water to inject into oil wells when people at the surface can't find potable water to drink is an unbelievable reality in Iraq.

But, Iraq is not the topic, the stabilization of Afghanistan is the reason for this entry. I believe we are committed to this conflict, it does have a resolve and we have the best talent in the military heading the effort. If the Congress of the USA can't see the forest for the trees than they have failed AGAIN to resolve turbulence that will revisit the USA. If politics defeats General McChrystal and his assessment I will think less of those that act against his dedication and his remarkable abilities. He is one of the bravest men I have ever witnessed in regard to these last eight years, able to stare down international criminals, hunt them down and insure their demise. He is a rare talent at a time when it is needed most.

At the United Nations this week we witnessed incredible cooperation between countries. We had the exceptional pleasure of witnessing the one and a half hour speech by a Libyan leader that stands testament to the power of non-proliferation. No different than the abandonment of Afghanistan since 1980, the USA diplomatic corps have abandoned a denuclearized nation in efforts to further the outreach to the Libyan people and its economy.

The rhetoric of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi is a result of the in appreciation of the disarmament of his nation without conflict and the realization he did authorize a horrible crime of murder of over two hundred people. All that is taken for granted that The West had a right to accomplish such a feat without appreciation that it was actually accomplished without confrontation and with realization the Libyan people needed to be further included in the world of openness and peaceful resolve. The rhetoric of al-Gaddafi is due to the lack of forgiveness.
When efforts to secure the world away from violence and nuclear armament succeed there needs to be more than a flag of victory planted, there needs to be connectedness of the people of any nation willing to commit to peace and mutual economy. The war strategy for Afghanistan cannot end with simply stating 'we tried' or 'we won' it needs someone to change the face of the nation that is so willing to go where we lead. Libya was willing to go where The West lead it, but, abandoned appreciation of the effort by the people to cooperate.

If the USA had not abandoned Afghanistan in 1980 there wouldn't be the level of violence within that country and we would never have experienced the attacks of September 11, 2001. By abandoning Afghanistan now that we realize how powerful a violent and oppressive regime that is the Taliban can become, we are only setting up the USA to be endangered by those same elements again and the Afghan people to lives of servitude to international criminals again.

If the USA believes it can simply turn its back and walk away hoping Afghanistan will simply remain a containable haven for these criminals, realize that Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi at the age of 67 is not finished with his focus. He headed up the African Union for a long time and saw it develop into an organization with economic realities and potential. He is not a stupid man that simply bends his knee to The West. He is now asking for a 'one state' solution to unite Africa and South America. I remind South America has its own 'world bank' now. Col. al-Gaddafi isn't settling back to rest his former priorities in an easy chair into retirement, quite the contrary. He sees a bigger picture and one that might manifest in the destruction of Western culture should the opportunity present itself and 'the need' arise. There is no good feeling when leaders are faced with 'illegal' invasions by a certain political party in the USA.

For the USA to abandon these accomplishments and allow fear to breed hatred is a foolish game. To commit to Afghanistan to make the reality of stability of the region a success will add to the legitimacy of the intentions of the USA on a scale that no one can ignore under the leadership of a Secretary of Defense and a general of exceptional ability. To turn our backs on the victory that is guaranteed by such exceptional men at this point will be to lose every potential of repeating the ability of securing the USA.

There is the chance there will not be another General McChrystal. If that is the case and the 'freshness' of his ability to 'know' the enemy and defeat them is lost to political concerns will be to lack the ability to insure the best outcome for the USA and its allies in the future.
If we consider the world burgeoning on a path to sustainable peace with non-proliferation a reality, it is all regions of the world that will have to be stable and not just those that suit the wealth merchants of Wall Street. I am confident strong alliances can be sustained with Pakistan and nurtured again with Russia bringing all pressure to bear to stabilize Afghanistan. Both of these countries are cooperating with all the requests of the USA and seek a region more secure and more democratic.

The Afghan people are wonderful people who are willing to accept our leadership, we can't betray them and allow them to be disposable lives falling again victims to oppression and violence. I stand with General McChrystal and his assessment. I believe in him. It isn't easy for me to make that commitment either. I believe there will be less causalities with a stronger military force under his leadership.

The ACORN issue will be dismissed in any legal action. There is nothing to the allogations.


Bertha Lewis, the CEO of ACORN.

The exploitive film of a fired ACORN worker is not admissible evidence in court. It was planned that way.

Steven Crowder and his associate Hannah Giles took it on themselves to mastermind a 'scenario' to provide something that looked like a system wide corruption of ACORN. One incident does not a systemic problem make.

The victimization was organized in Maryland to further embarass 'government' as an entity to trust. Maryland requires two party consent for taping. The entire mess is to create a Right Wing Circus for media exploitation that hopefully will tarnish the Democratic Party.

Any and all pursuits to this 'hideous' scenario should be dropped. If ACORN has suffered losses due to this 'Made for Republican Politics' movie it should pursue relief through the courts, including the media that facilitated it.

This is outrageous already. This is the Republican Right Wing media at its best. It was a completely fictious pursuit and someone at ACORN fell into the trap. The scenario should be investigated as should any potential corruption of ACORN, but, to allow this kind of 'game playing' to provide political volleys when nothing substanitive ever existed before is simply outrageous.

If the FBI has the time to investigate under age prostitution and finds instances where any organization has assisted same then they should do so. I mean are there kidnappings in the country by pips? But, in all honesty I would rather the FBI pursue justice to 'real life' realities such as angry men intent on killing others and destroying infrastructure to satisfy some strange ideological philosophy.

This is another one of those 'census' issues. Does ACORN report its successes to the federal government? If any entity is receiving federal or state monies, the results of their programs should be reported to the agencies receiving the services. I am assuming ACORN has reported on all its programs to someone. Are the ACORN projects successful?

Census should cut SEIU ties because of ACORN, Kirk says (click title to entry - thank you)
September 25, 2009
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH
Political Reporter/apallasch@suntimes.com
Since the U.S. Senate voted 83-7 earlier this month to cut off funding for ACORN, the activist/voter registration group has become so controversial that some are calling for sanctions against groups associated with it.
The debate is invading the race for U.S. Senate in Illinois.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk announced Friday he will hold a news conference calling on the U.S. Census Bureau to sever its ties to Illinois’ largest union, the Service Employees International Union, because, Kirk says, the group is too close to ACORN.
The union endorsed Kirk’s front-running Democratic rival for the Senate seat, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, the previous day.
Up until ACORN became controversial for alleged vote fraud during last year’s presidential election, even Republican administrations funded the group.
Kirk himself voted in 2005 to approve a $140,000 earmark for ACORN’s New York office to fight teen delinquency, SEIU's political director Jerry Morrison said....


The 'idea' behind the Republican Right Wing media is to 'revolutionize' government and prove its inability to function and therefore legitimize private enterprise over government run anything. Of course, like Medicare Advantage all the private enterprises receive tax dollars as their primary income.

The Right Wing assault against ACORN is no different than their other media events. They are contemplated and staged to appear legitimate. They aren't and this 'episode' with the Right Wing Media is simply another example of them creating 'an issue' where none existed before. I want to know how many prostitution houses ACORN has financed.

Iran's strategy is to strike Israel with its first test of its long range missiles. Nothing can be left to chance, stop Iranian aggression.

The Iranian government has proven it has never acted in good faith toward the International Community. It is covert and its aggression is obvious. While 'calm' surmounts reality in an understanding that sanctions will work, even tougher sanctions than has worked to date, there is an element of risk that has to be faced regarding the potential for a 'risky' first strike at the opportunity to test Iranian long range missiles.

In my opinion, the USA has no other choice but to maintain a nuclear submarine presence within striking distance of Iran. The Iranians under its current leadership are too unpredictable, which brings all to clear the uproar following the last elections. The Iranian leadership of the opposition would know of the aggressive strategy against Israel and knows all to well the response by The West and potentially Russia and China in retaliation.

The elections resulted in riots due to the impending doom the opposition realized is inevitable under the current regime.


Sept. 25: A view of what is believed to be a uranium-enrichment facility near Qom, Iran, is seen in this satellite photograph. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday the United States, Britain and France would "regret" accusing Iran of hiding a nuclear fuel facility, saying it was not a secret site (Reuters).

Iran plans to test-fire missiles capable of hitting targets (click title to entry - thank you) across the Middle East tomorrow, in a show of defiance before Thursday's pivotal talks on the country's nuclear programme.
The test of the Shahab-3, following trials of short-range missiles today, is likely to raise tensions across the region. Iran claims the missile, based on a North Korean design, has a range of 1,500 miles – far enough to reach Israel and Iran's other Middle East rivals Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey....


The only way the Iranians should be tolerated in allowing any missile testing is for complete and immediate inspection of all its nuclear facilites. The Iran regime in power is completely untrustworthy and all safeguards to prevent confrontation are necessary. Iran cannot be contained without the dismantling of their nuclear intentions. It doesn't need nuclear power for peaceful purposes. Its energy needs can be obtained through solar and wind projects.



If Iran was to be the saviors of the Shi'ite acting in peace they should have never covertly conducted expansion of their nuclear facilities. This is NOT the way to secure a 'Shi'ite' presence on Earth, it is sure to destroy any of its chances at survival.
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