Obama removes the top commander in the war theater because of an interview; the man who has been leading the war against terror since 2001. Is this a fair penalty? More with links as soon as available.
10-40am PT: Reports are McChrystal may be joining Obama in Rose Garden, speech now 10 minutes late.
Thank goodness we have Patraeus, and I mentioned yesterday I welcome McChrystal being out, it now frees him up to make more of a difference as opposed to being held back by a Commander-in-Chief who, IMHO, sympathizes with the enemy.
The sinking of a South Korean warship by a North Korean submarine has been played down in the media. At some level this is understandable. To acknowledge the incident properly is to acknowledge a war in progress, and a big war at that. Maybe if we close our eyes, it will all go away. Or at least the “peace” scenario may be less unpleasant than war would be. And even if a war were to be easily won, the aftermath of victory would leave South Korea and China to deal with a collapsed North Korea and an entire nation full of starving brainwashed lunatics. Yes, I can see why an option short of war is sought.
Whoever failed to erase the words “Number One” in blue Korean script etched inside the propulsion shaft of a deadly torpedo may well be in deep trouble in Pyongyang. On May 15th a ship dredging the site of the attack on a South Korean warship in March that killed 46 seamen made a spectacular find: propellers, motors and a steering section that international investigators say “perfectly match” those of a CHT-02D torpedo that North Korea sells abroad. What’s more, the blue marking was similar to one on a previously captured North Korean torpedo. This was as close to a smoking gun as the South Koreans could have hoped to find.
The discovery, combined with intelligence reports indicating North Korean submarines were out of port during the attack, allowed the investigators to conclude on May 20th that the Cheonan “was sunk as the result of an external underwater explosion caused by a torpedo made in North Korea.” Or as one person close to the investigation succinctly put it: “It was either the North Koreans, or it was the Martians.”
The article notes that these revelations put the onus on China, since China is North Korea’s biggest lifeline. Until this point, China could shrug off the incident as a mystery. This is no longer a viable excuse.
(I assume The Economist’s analysis is authoritative; however here is an article from The Korea Times suggesting that the “smoking gun” discovery still leaves open questions. But then, there’s always another theory…)
As an aside, keep in mind that the mad regime of North Korea is entirely the creation of China, which sent its army to fight America in the Korean War after the Korean Communists had lost. If not for that, all of Korea would be what South Korea is today. The tragedy of an Executive Branch apologizing to China for Arizona, considering the context of China’s blood-soaked recent history, is ludicrous beyond belief.
Some good news in increasingly chaotic times. All three of the SEALS accused of “punching” the most wanted terrorist in Iraq have now been exonerated. That is good news, but they should never have been in this position in the first place. These brave young men did their job, captured a mass murderer. And what is our thanks? We arrested them. We’re sick and tired of this obscene abandonment of American principles. Our wrath must be expressed in November. Enough is enough.
Oh, the prosecution was so pathetic it took the jury just one hour and 40 minutes to find this young hero not guilty.
Virginia military jury found a Navy SEAL not guilty on charges of punching a suspected Iraqi terrorist.
Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), was facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.
Navy SEAL Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe was found not guilty Thursday evening on charges of assaulting detained terrorist Ahmed Hashim Abed, dereliction of duty, and impeding an investigation based on a false statement.
A seven member military jury deliberated for an hour and forty minutes before reaching a verdict. For McCabe to be found not guilty, two-thirds of the jury had to agree on each charge.
Upon hearing the verdict, McCabe’s mother gasped in jubilation, covering her mouth with her hands, while his father and sister smiled. McCabe and his counsel shared a few hugs and pats on the back.
Last month in courts martial in Baghdad, Petty Officers Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe, also Navy SEALs, were acquitted of charges that they failed to safeguard Abed. McCabe was the only SEAL charged with actual assault.
Apparently there is enough evidence for the Army to be “investigating” an alleged attempt by (maybe possibly) Muslim soldiers to poison the food supply of their fellow soldiers, but not enough evidence to say there is, uh, any evidence.
Kinda like how John Brennan noted after the Christmas Day bomber attempt that there have been no terrorist attacks on US soil. Interesting how an adviser to the president somehow forgot about the murder of Private Long by an Islamist and, of course, the mass murder horror at Ft. Hood.
Army Investigates Alleged Attempt by Soldiers to Poison Food at Fort Jackson
The U.S. Army is investigating allegations that soldiers were attempting to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.
The ongoing probe began two months ago, Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, told Fox News.
The Army is taking the allegations “extremely seriously,” Grey said, but so far, “there is no credible information to support the allegations.”
Five suspects, detained in December, were part of an Arabic translation program called “09 Lima” and use Arabic as their first language, two sources told Fox News. Another military source said they were Muslim. It wasn’t clear whether they were still being held.
Grey would not confirm or deny the sources’ information.
Yep, another good, solid B+ for our Dumb Bastard-in-Chief.
A post by Pat
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Study: Fake military parts on the rise
Already heavily taxed by two wars and repeated worldwide deployments, the U.S. military is facing yet another challenge: the increasing intrusion of counterfeit electronics and other parts into its supply lines.
And a new Commerce Department study finds the Pentagon is barely addressing the problem.
When it literally comes down to the nuts and bolts or electronic parts, the Federal mega-bureaucracy is vulnerable. The Navy Air Systems Command asked for a Commerce Dept. study to track counterfeit electronics coming in from Defense Dept. contractors and found a growing trend over a three year period. The study revealed a flawed system and a lack of accountability. The Pentagon has virtually no policies in place to deal with counterfeit parts.
“There is an assumption that others in the supply chain are testing parts. Organizations within every sector rely on others in the supply chain to test and verify the authenticity of parts and, therefore, conduct little testing themselves,” the report said. “Based on survey data, this confidence in the testing behaviors of the supply chain is unfounded.”
It’s a problem that affects the entire federal government.
One industry official said the problem isn’t limited to electronics. Foreign suppliers using substandard materials could be producing rivets, bolts and screws that hold together everything from missile casings to ship ladders.
“If we make it, they can fake it,” the official said.
The Defense Dept. disputes the Commerce Dept. study insisting they do have measures in place to detect counterfeit parts. The Defense Logistics Agency says they do testing.
“When these studies and tests have identified incidents of counterfeit parts, those parts are extracted from the system, documented, analyzed, and the appropriate actions are taken quickly,” [Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Wendy Snyder ]said. “The department has not found any cases where counterfeit parts have caused failure of DoD missions, equipment or placed our troops at risk.”
I hope so. There appears to be too much trust in contractors once they win approval. Whether dealing with unscrupulous businesses or mortal enemies, there is nothing too small that can be overlooked to protect our military capability.
Watch your back if you are putting your life on the line for this country. No one who is placed in a hostile environment doing work for our country can count on their own government’s loyalty.
In 2007 the accused Blackwater security guards were guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq. A shootout occurred and seventeen people were killed. The incident spurred anti-American sentiment among Iraqis. Five of the guards were charged with manslaughter and a guilty plea taken from the sixth. The men had their day in court. The evidence was murky. The judge ruled the justice department mishandled the evidence and violated the men’s Constitutional rights. The dismissal angered Iraqis so now, for misguided malicious policy reasons, the men may face another trial.
The U.S. will appeal a court decision dismissing manslaughter charges against five Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday.
Biden’s announcement after a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows just how diplomatically sensitive the incident remains nearly three years later.A lawyer for one guard, noting that word of the intended appeal came in Iraq, accused the Obama administration of political expediency and the U.S. was pursuing an innocent man, rather than justice.
Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a crowded Baghdad intersection, on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq.
Biden expressed his “personal regret” for the shooting and said the Obama administration was disappointed by the dismissal. “A dismissal is not an acquittal,” he said.
White House officials said the U.S. Justice Department decided on the appeal and that Biden’s trip was not intended to be way it would be announced.
Once again Big Mouth Bigger Ego Biden has to blurt out something. I’m glad he did. You know darn well Obama and Holder knew this is dynamite and were trying to figure out how to handle it. Didn’t they just see what happens when the American people get angry? Do they really want to make us crazy?
We already severely limited the rules of engagement in Afghanistan to avoid civilian casualties. Now we’re restricting them even further by eliminating night raids on private homes so we won’t irritate them.
NATO forces in Afghanistan are preparing to limit night raids on private homes, even if it means losing some tactical advantage, to curb rising public anger.
NATO spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory Smith told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that a directive would be issued soon to set down the new rules.
Nighttime raids on private homes have emerged as the Afghans’ No. 1 complaint after Gen. Stanley McChrystal limited the use of airstrikes and other weaponry last year. The U.S. and allied nations have made protecting the population a priority over the use of massive firepower as they seek to undermine support for the Taliban.
“It addresses the issue that’s probably the most socially irritating thing that we do — and that is entering people’s homes at night,” Smith said Wednesday at his office in Kabul. He would not elaborate pending a formal announcement.
I guess a good night’s sleep soothes irritation over daytime car bombs. (Photo from San Francisco Sentinel)
The aftermath of a bomb attack in Kabul: The war is increasingly dominated by asymmetrical attacks with remote-controlled car bombs, buried land mines or suicide bombers on soft targets such as schools, hospitals, mosques, kindergartens and markets.
You may remember the beginning of this persecution of Blackwater, an entity made up primarily of ex-military, contracted by the US government to provide security in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other theatres of war. They are, IMHO, one of the hero groups which has helped to keep this nation safe. Well, we have some very good news about an all too familiar prosecutions by our own “justice department” against those who have the courage to face down the enemy and simply do their job. This time, like the majority of other times, a judge has dismissed all charges and includes very harsh words for the prosecutors.
Judge dismisses all charges in Blackwater shooting
A federal judge on Thursday threw out charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing 14 people in a 2007 shooting in downtown Baghdad.
In a 90-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled that the government violated the guards’ rights…
“The explanations offered by prosecutors and investigators in an attempt to justify their actions and persuade the court that they did not use the defendants’ compelled testimony were all too often contradictory, unbelievable and lacking in credibility,” Urbina wrote.
The President in his West Point speech stressed getting out of Afghanistan, even going so far as to set a date for the beginning of the “transition”. A lot of people (and probably the cadets in the audience judging by their faces) thought this was a dumb ass thing to do. Clinton, Gates and Gibbs among others are scrambling around now trying to reassure everyone we aren’t planning an abandonment of Afghanistan. They point out that Obama did mention “conditions on the ground”. He mentioned dates more than conditions and said nothing about a December 2010 reevaluation.
McCain got his mug on the news asking Gates if it was a date certain or conditions that would determine events in Afghanistan:
McCain: Will the date of withdrawal of 2011 be based on an arbitrary date of July 2011 regardless of conditions on the ground?
Gates: I think it is a judgment that we will be in a position where we will be able to begin the transition. …We will have a thorough review in December 2010. If it appears the strategy is not working, then we will take a hard look at the strategy itself.
So we won’t leave if things are going badly a year from now, just a few months after reinforcements arrived? I think Robert Gibbs let the cat out of the bag on this one.
After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.
…there are those who oppose identifying a timeframe for our transition to Afghan responsibility. Indeed, some call for a more dramatic and open-ended escalation of our war effort — one that would commit us to a nation-building project of up to a decade. I reject this course because it sets goals that are beyond what we can achieve at a reasonable cost and what we need to achieve to secure our interests. Furthermore, the absence of a time frame for transition would deny us any sense of urgency in working with the Afghan government. It must be clear that Afghans will have to take responsibility for their security, and that America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan.
As president, I refuse to set goals that go beyond our responsibility, our means or our interests. And I must weigh all of the challenges that our nation faces. I do not have the luxury of committing to just one. Indeed, I am mindful of the words of President Eisenhower, who — in discussing our national security — said, “Each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs.
…our troop commitment in Afghanistan cannot be open-ended — because the nation that I am most interested in building is our own.
If tradition stands, the details of the guest list will be revealed only a few hours before the Obama administration’s first state dinner tomorrow. The welcome for India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the biggest social event of the Obama White House. Already the Washington DC press corp is buzzing about the “got-to-be-there” fever…
Yeah, well there are 4 fewer people who can be there, the only 4 who truly deserve to be in the White House, American heroes who died needlessly because their Partier-In-Chief hasn’t found time to get them the support they needed.
Bomb attacks and a firefight killed four U.S. troops in 24 hours in Afghanistan, the military said Monday, adding to the growing toll as NATO and the U.S. consider whether to send more forces to the war.
Three of the Americans died in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, NATO said in a statement. Two of them were killed in a bomb attack and the third in a separate firefight.
The statement said a bomb killed the fourth American in the east Monday.
The deaths bring the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan in November to 15. October was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in the eight-year war, with 58 dead.
Maybe he’ll wear it when he picks up the Nobel on December 10th.
Obama to Receive Honorary Taekwondo Belt
U.S. President Barack Obama will be given an honorary taekwondo belt to mark his first visit to Korea on Wednesday and Thursday. A government official said that President Lee Myung-bak will present Obama with an honorary taekwondo [...]
Excellent. I’m especially pleased Debra Burlingame is involved in this new effort.
Liz Cheney’s group ‘Keep America Safe’ takes on ‘radical’ White House
Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s eldest daughter Liz will launch a new group aimed at rallying opposition to the “radical” foreign policy of the Obama administration which it says has succeeded only in undermining [...]
