An Open Letter To The Pakistani People

To the Pakistani People,

You are angry over the death of your soldiers in an attack from NATO forces. We are angry that this occurred just as you are. Your forces called in an air strike and the mission went horribly wrong. The suffering of your people, the families of the dead and your nation is understandable. We mourn with you.

There is another facet of this story and it is simple. Your government knew bin Laden was living in Pakistan. Your government also harbors many other terrorists. Many of your citizens also sanction terrorists, terrorism and the mission to kill innocent people as well as those Americans fighting terrorism.

You cannot want peace and sanction murder. You cannot hate us and ignore the actions of your government and civil and religious leaders for they are involved in terrorism. Terrorism is murder.

If you want the killing to stop, stop sanctioning terrorism and the murderers involved in carrying out terrorist acts.

It is that simple. Stop supporting terrorism. Stop supporting murder.

If you do so, the killing will stop and peace and prosperity will come to Pakistan. If you do so, terrorists will know they are not welcome in your country. Until that time, stop blaming America for fighting those that want to kill Americans.

Your acceptance of terrorists and terrorism caused these deaths.

Accept that and you will start the stopping of tragedies such as this. If you do not move to stop the support of terrorists, murderers and terrorism then you will see more death.

It is your call. Make it wisely.

Nicholas D. Kristof: Smarmy As Ever And So Totally Wrong As Usual

Nick's got him a good gig as the pontificator of disaster on the media's Titanic, the New York Times. Unfortunately, being the paper of record isn't what it used to be now that people have found the record a lie, but Nick has got to do what Nick as got to do. So he goes for the low blow again aimed at the Tea Party. Wow, was that predictable.

Our Fantasy Nation?

To save you the tedium of reading such tripe I’ll recap for you.

If you’re religious, want less government, lower taxes, a strong military and conservative values try Pakistan as your ideal country. You stupid morons. Oh, and even though “Sarah Palin and John Boehner don’t intend to turn Washington into Islamabad-on-the-Potomac. And they are right that long-term budget issues do need to be addressed. But when many Republicans insist on “starving the beast” of government, cutting taxes, regulations and social services — slashing everything but the military — well, those are steps toward Pakistan.”

He then goes on to give us a travelogue of the countries he has reported on. Gravitas personally delivered underpinning his brilliance, no doubt.

Yep, I’ve got to admit that we want women pregnant, barefoot and back in the kitchen or else we’ll backhand them right across the mouth. That’s what conservatism is all about. And racist!

Unfortunately, Kristofians get all upset with their perceived notions of how conservatives think, but not so much how Islamofascists actually think. That is unimportant in their smarmy and wrong world. 

Pakistan's Sindh Province Flood Victims

I was perusing photos that Ann Althouse linked to in her post about spooky spider webs due to the floods in Pakistan (they are worth viewing) where I found a photograph of a Muslim man who dyed the hair on hs head and chest with henna as is that region's religious habit. Maybe I'll carry such a photograph to whip out everytime I get odd looks for my Ash Wednesday smudge.

Department for International Development. 

Obama Must Succeed In Afghanistan Because He Refuses To In Iraq

Obama cannot further succeed in Iraq because that would prove George W. Bush right. That's a given. If Obama proves Bush right, then what is left of the shreds of his base will simply disappear into the chimera covering the door named disappointment.

So, what is Obama going to do in Afghanistan and the region?

Well, he quietly added 13,000 support troops to the 21,000 he approved in March for service in Afghanistan. His generals want an additional 40,000, but Obama is fiddling for his "base" and for the morons that make up the leadership in congress. Add into the mix a bureaucracy that permeates everything from food servers, elevator operators that operate computerized elevators and all the way up to analyzers and the leadership of our covert operations. One is left with a president worse off than Bush because the bureaucracy openly hated of Bush, but cannot do so with Obama. That bureaucracy has become the true decision maker in our government, not the elected officials that we vote for and who doesn't listen to us anyway, but in a different way that the bureaucracy doesn't have to listen.

Obama needs to show he has some vision, any vision beyond community organizing, concerning Afghanistan and terrorism or he will fall to more ridicule than the ghost of Alphie "TNT" Nobel.

I have a nominal idea of what has to occur in Afghanistan, in fact I believe I'm right, but my phone ain't ringin' so I'm assuming it ain't him. So, from afar and in fly-over country I will offer this.

Why not win?

The United States helped the Mujaheddin to win over the Russians, but squandered that victory by no follow through allowing crude forces to tame the vacuum left over and then pacify the citizens of Afghanistan by allowing simple goods to be delivered and sold so people could feed their families. Napoleon. Food. A chance of victory.

Now, the U.S. military appears to be going through phase II of the late Mr. Johnson's war which allows bureaucrats and Obama to direct the effort in Afghanistan from thousands of miles away through the prism of political needs, not military necessities.

If the military asks for 40,000 more troops, why doesn't Obama ask back, why not 60,000? If 40,000 is good, why isn't 60,000 better? What will it take to militarily defeat the Taliban and to bring the Afghani citizens into the effort of helping us bring stability to the country and to some degree, the region.

Most Americans don't know, and don't know whether to care, that Afghanistan and Iraq are just the advertised disaster specials for upcoming stories that are are designed to drive fairly inconsequential political desires here in the United States. Inconsequential when compared to having limbs cut off, wives and daughters raped or killed and villages enslaved to ideologies they don't want or understand. I'm not sure if a cash for clunkers program was considered a necessity in Afghanistan, but I do know feeding a still alive family is a necessity for what's left of the adults in Afghanistan. New cars, not so much.

How inconsequential is Iran or the Chinese military buildup on a nuclear India's northern border? What could be the consequences of a blundering bully from Russia trying to resurrect its once not so-greatness in the region by clumsily stomping throughout? Is it consequential that SoS Clinton appeared to recap the nuclear genie in Pakistan or has she really put those weapons out of the reach of terrorists? How resolved are we to following and resolving these threads that do not fit the narrative that this president got elected on?

Does Obama understand that resolve is a value that transcends language?

One can say what they will of Israel, but Israel's resolve has impressed even their enemies. The United States enjoys no such respect. Once again, looking back to the late Mr. Johnson's war in Vietnam, the United States offered no and gave no follow through to the Republic of Vietnam's government. We left them holding the ball, hence, all of Vietnam is now communist and a model used to ridicule and defeat the United States in other theaters. Mr. Nixon's pinpointing of priorities in southeast Asia was a poor as Mr. Johnson's bombing target lists were in Vietnam. No resolve.

Our current lack of resolve in eastern Europe is squandering historic gains for freedom in the region made by past presidents, ergo the world. Poland wouldn't believe Obama if he said 'good morning' and they'd be right to believe as such. I'm hoping Obama understands the difference between resolve and back stabbing, but I wouldn't believe him if he said he did. Maybe Obama would get a better feel for the political reality outside the United States if Axlerod or someone would inform him that eating a Chicago Polish sausage is not an education in the needs and trust of the Polish nation. And sauerkraut on the wiener is not evidence of advanced thinking on such a situation.

We're in Afghanistan and Iraq for a long time.

The need to win militarily so we can win, thus stabilize, the hearts of Afghanistan to a truly safe and free Afghanistan is a long term necessity. It is a necessity to the emergence of freedom across the world, thus the spreading of peace, and it is a necessity to prove to potential allies that the United States can be trusted in the short and long term. Resolve in Afghanistan means not just winning militarily and then building roads, schools and hospitals, but resolve also means protecting Afghanis from a re-emergence of a Taliban by any other name and by bringing as many Afghans, as possible, into our current century of knowledge and the free flow of information.

What Obama is going to do in Afghanistan is unknown and that scares the hell of of me. It should scare you too. I know it scares the people of Afghanistan.

Taliban, al-Qaeda Lose More Local Support

Don't tell the Democrats that now there are more people willing to oppose the Islamofascists. Unlike Pelosi, etal, these people know what it means to believe.

Taliban bitten by a snake in the grass

The Taliban and their al-Qaeda associates, in what they considered a master stroke, this year started to target the Western alliance's supply lines that run through Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Their focal point was Khyber Agency, in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a key transit point for as much as 70% of the alliance's supplies needed to maintain its battle against the Afghan insurgency.

The spectacular blowing up on March 20 of 40 gas tankers at Torkham - the border crossing in Khyber Agency into Afghanistan's Nangarhar province - sent shock waves through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led (NATO) coalition. So much so that it made a deal for some supplies to transit through Russia, a much more arduous route.

The Torkham success was followed by a number of smaller attacks, and the Taliban's plan appeared to be going better than they could have expected.

Then came this week's incident in which the Taliban seized two members of the World Food Program (WFP) in Khyber Agency, and it became obvious the Taliban had been betrayed, and all for the princely sum of about US$150,000.

Their Khyber dreams are now in tatters.

Read the rest. It is a very interesting story of the Taliban and al-Qaeda running into problems when locals are offered a choice. They lose if the locals believe they, their families and villages will be protected. It's also called trust. Something the Democrats and liberals cannot understand. Trust in America and our allies. Rough concept for them.