Whither Afghanistan? Defense and foreign affairs in the hands of Democrats

Obama’s Afghanistan Withdrawal  "Nation-building at home might be the President’s ideal job, but he has a responsibility abroad. As Curtis notes, the President’s decision to rapidly withdraw from Afghanistan will “further discourage Pakistan from cracking down on the Taliban leadership that finds sanctuary on its soil” and “reinforce Islamabad’s calculation that the U.S. is losing resolve in the fight in Afghanistan and thus encourage Pakistani military leaders to continue to hedge on support to the Taliban to protect their own national security interests.”"

Abandon all this?

From STRATFOR: Obama's Afghanistan Plan and the Realities of Withdrawal  "One of these will be the impact on not just situational awareness on the ground but intelligence collection and particularly exploitable relationships with local political factions. As the withdrawal becomes more and more undeniable and ISAF pulls back from key areas, the human relationships that underlie intelligence sharing will be affected and reduced. This is particularly the case in places where the Taliban are strongest, as villagers there return to a strategy of hedging their bets out of necessity and focus on the more enduring power structure, which in many areas will clearly be the Taliban."
This article reprinted with permission from STRATFOR

Afghanistan, Obama, and Revolution  "President Obama found a way to slip in, during the second half of his speech, comments pertaining “clean energy,” Libya, and support of Revolutionaries. The latter half of his speech contributed to many full e-mail inboxes."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/bobgorrell

Obama Flinches   "A front-page New York Times article reported how the Taliban had been reduced to tiny bands and how it had failed so far to regain its footing despite desperately trying to fight back. The boys in the Quetta Shura must be delighted at the opening President Obama is handing them." National Review

MICHAEL RAMIREZ,NRO

Alinsky Does Afghanistan   "Obama's radical inspiration would have loved his speech on the war."

Alinksi Does Afghanistan, Part II  "What I said 18 months ago remains true today: Obama’s plan “would be preposterous if it were actually a national-security strategy. But it’s not. It’s a political strategy.” It doesn’t need to be coherent or effective. It needs to get Obama through 2012."

Michael Yon: Afghanistan is making undeniable progress, but it could all unravel "The bottom line is that there are unmistakable signs of progress in Afghanistan, and Gen. David Petraeus is about to make a very important recommendation.
"His judgment should be trusted".

Jon Huntsman

Jon Huntsman’s first step toward oblivion  "I wish Huntsman luck in this noble pursuit, but the high road almost always leads to political oblivion. For Huntsman to maintain his course all the way to the Republican presidential nomination would turn politics on its head. More likely, he will join other decent men — Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch — whose presidential campaigns were quickly forgotten."  Dana Milbank

Huntsman 2012: Against Name-Calling, Anger—And For Them  "It seems to have taken Huntsman mere moments to understand that a strategy of chastising the Republican base was unwise. So in an interview with Sean Hannity, recorded right after his speech and aired last night, Huntsman praised the “anger and outrage” of the Tea Party as the proper functioning of American democracy and the pressure on lawmakers its creating as “a good outcome.”"

Levin on Jon Huntsman

How did we get here? A little reminder

Nealz Nuze  "A listener pointed me to this paper published by Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from California.  It’s about the housing crisis and it is the best explanation that you will ever read on the subject.  Don’t be scared by the footnotes.  Don’t be scared by the length.  Read it because you need to know what got us into this crisis, so that we are not doomed to repeat the mistakes that got us here."....
"The moral of Issa’s story is that government, not Wall Street or evil banks, but government policies are what lead us to our current financial crisis, and half-assed government solutions from Barack Obama aren’t going to lead us out of it."

The article:
UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING AND POLITICAL
KICKBACKS ROCKED THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

A big slobbering thank you to the unions

Neal Boortz  "Unions did to Detroit what that tornado did to Tuscaloosa and what Hugo did to Homestead, Florida.  Homestead was rebuilt, and Tuscaloosa will be.  This because they know that there is little likelihood that these storms will return with this ferocity – and they will be rebuilt stronger. Businesses – particularly the auto industry – will not be so anxious to rebuild Detroit because these businesses know that the unions are still lurking in the shadows in Michigan ready to strike – ready to throw sand into the gears of any engine of economic recovery. "

The President's Speech

Reaction to the president’s speech  "In contrast was the bold statement of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), which read in part:

“This is a part of the world where leaders always hedge their bets. Even the slightest impression that the United States is looking to get out is devastating. It is one of the reasons why Pakistan continues to undermine our efforts to target Al Qaeda. It also discourages tribal leaders in Afghanistan from cooperating with us to defeat the Taliban, and it encourages the Taliban to keep on fighting.

“Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It is about the bigger fight against Al Qaeda and radical Islamic terrorism.

Video; Governor Tim Pawlenty on The Bill O'Reilly Show to discuss Afghanistan

Jonathan S. Tobin:  End of Surge Has to Encourage Taliban  "The withdrawal of the surge forces against the advice of our military commanders, may wind up breathing new life into the Taliban cause after the setbacks it has suffered they have suffered in the last two years. If, as a result of this decision the Taliban regains the ground it lost since the surge then we will look back at this speech as a victory for America’s enemies, not a political coup for Obama."

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly  

Full Text of President Obama's Afghanistan Speech

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/ericallie

Here are some pre-speech comments from Blackfive (an exceptional milblog):

Obama to give Re-Election speech on A-Stan tonight  "Obama has dim-wittingly reinforced every weakness that al Qaeda and the rest have properly stated about us; we don't have the will or intestinal fortitude as a nation to fight them as they do to fight us. They don't have to beat us to win; they simply have to outlast us... They have now done so for the second time in Afghanistan."

30,000 troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan
"But to the point – “listening to the generals” is apparently only something Republican Commanders in Chief should do. Obama has decided, for entirely unmilitary reasons, it is time to pull the plug on any hope of holding our gains in Afghanistan. Note, I didn’t say get out of A’stan. 30,000 troops isn’t even close to a full withdrawal (100,000 there now). However, it is a margin of difference between consolidating and keeping what we’ve driven the Taliban out of and being too thinly spread to do that. In fact, that was the whole purpose of the surge (just as in Iraq) – take and hold."

Path to the nomination: Michele Bachmann

Bachmann

Jennifer Rubin  "The New Hampshire debate, therefore, was a shock to many who had lumped her in with Sarah Palin or were unaware of her background as a lawyer, legislator and small-business woman. Gaining credibility in the eyes of the chattering class is an important step that will allow more serious coverage, consistent fundraising and expansion of her appeal beyond core Tea Partyers. But how can she jump from “credible” to first place in the presidential primary?
"She has at least four tasks ahead of her."....

rollingstone.com

The New Democrat Target...Now It's Michele Bachmann's Turn To Be Demonized   "To those of you who thought Sarah Palin was too damaged by the Obama media hit teams to be a viable candidate, my response has always been that they were going to turn their guns on anyone and try to destroy them just as they did Governor Palin if they felt they were threatening President Obama's re-election. It's how the Angry Left operates.
"Proof of the point surfaces today as Rep. Bachmann surges in the polls, with a barely literate, hate crazed rant in Rolling Stone that focuses on Michele Bachmann's religion her family, and her 'batsh*t crazy views" by one Matt Taibbi. The illustration [left] should save you the trouble of actually reading this trash."

Two by Ann Coulter; "N.Y. Times: Fraught Nexus of Lies, Stupidity, and Bigotry"

Ann Coulter  "Liberals despise the rule of law because it interferes with their ability to rule by mob. They love to portray themselves as the weak taking on the powerful. But it is the least powerful who suffer the most once the rule of law is gone."....

"Liberals' relentless attack on the judicial system is yet another example of their Jacobin lunacy in opposition to calm order. You will note that they never ask: Who did what in this case? All they want to know is which class of people are on trial. Social justice is the only justice that interests the Left because it's the only justice that can be delivered by the political agitation of a mob."

Hatred For Conservative Women Much Deeper Than Hatred For Conservative Men  "Ann Coulter gives us her theory about why conservative women are hated by the left more than conservative men."
Via Katie Pavlich, Townhall

Tunnel Dweller on the road again

Blogging will be a bit sporadic the next few days as Mr. and Mrs. Dweller take US 40 to California. First it's Santa Paula, then up to Placerville in the beautiful gold country. Last is the trip up US 101 through the Redwoods to beautiful Tillamook County and my boyhood home of Garibaldi, where nothing is left of the local timber industry but a lone smokestack sitting in a grassy field. All due to the EPA back in the 70's.
Somehow Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown" comes to mind.   TD

Our Reactionary President

zappatrust

Victor Davis Hanson "Barack Obama is the most reactionary president in the recent history of the United States. Obama seems intent on turning back the clock to the good old days of the 1960s and 1970s, when rigid political orthodoxy, not an open mind, once guided government."....

"It turns out that the US may be the world's new Saudi Arabia when it comes to known reserves of all forms of gas, oil and coal. As our president still harps on solar panels and windmills, private enterprise on its own is exploring new ways of powering industries, homes and cars with cheap and plentiful natural gas — hoping to free us from dependence on OPEC."


 

Keep this for reference: 2011 Budget Chart Book

Heritage 



Federal Spending per Household Is Skyrocketing

National Debt Set to Skyrocket

More at Heritage

understandingfiscalresponsibility.org

Shock: Dept. of Defense Vindicates Fort Hood Killer

Pajamas Media  "U.S. Army tacitly endorses a religiously bigoted position: it is fine for Muslim service members to kill non-Muslims, but killing Muslims is grounds for an honorable discharge."
....
"By granting PFC Abdo’s conscientious objector claim, the Army may have created trouble for themselves in the court martial of Major Hasan for the murder of his thirteen fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. Hasan’s attorney can now claim that by refusing to acknowledge Major Hasan’s claims under Islamic law as a conscientious objector and granting him an honorable discharge, the Army created irreconcilable conflict that prompted the Fort Hood massacre. And they can use the secretary of the Army’s decision in the Abdo case as proof."

American Muslim organization asks U.S. Army to deny Pfc Nasser Abdo Conscientious Objector status and for Abdo to be punished to the full extent of the Uniform Code of Military Justice

Photo: TheIslamicStandard

"The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) takes deep exception with claims from PFC Nasser Abdo regarding his application for Conscientious Objector (CO) status from the U.S. Army. Abdo claims that his faith precludes him from serving “in Afghanistan, Iraq or any war the U.S. Army would conceivably participate in.” Such a claim is patently false. Muslims serve with distinction throughout the United States Military and AIFD sees Abdo’s traitorous public assertions as a slap in the face to all American Muslims especially those Muslims who fight in our armed forces for the liberty and freedom guaranteed by the American Constitution." (Emphasis respectfully added)

More here.

Anatomy of Congressional Narcissism

Victor Davis Hanson  "Apparently Mr. Weiner believed that his position as a relatively high-profile congressman made, literally, all of him of interest to almost anyone. Someone somehow had apparently convinced the rather geeky Mr. Weiner that he was quite attractive, to the point that he assumed others would wish to join such a Narcissus in fixating at the pool of his own rather sad reflection."

Less tawdry, but as self-absorbed might be the two Obama autobiographies and Bill Clinton's My Life.