Orangekite1’s Weblog

No end in sight, no plan for an American victory in Afghanistan it seems while the Secretary of Defense Gates has cemented the “Victory Through Apology” plan by going to Afghanistan himself a few weeks ago and issuing apologies and the general in charge made the rules of engagement even more restricted for our troops. Parents and family sending their loved ones to war in Afghanistan should be made fully aware that their sons are at extreme risk, not only of attack by the Taliban, but are put at extreme risk by our own government who undermines their chances for victory. Heaven help them if they have to shoot and defend themselves, then have to hire an attorney to keep them out of jail, while the generals, under order from the Secretary of Defense Gates, issue quick apologies and give money to Afghans who claim they had “civilian” family members killed or wounded, and Gates ordered this be done even BEFORE the troops have the benefit of a full investigation or trial. Whatever happened to due process, and innocent until proven guilty? Will Gates and the generals promoting “Victory Through Apology” explain to the American people and the service members whatever happened to spreading democracy to Afghanistan and the rule of law, which they are not doing by using undue command influence to undermine any chance an accused American soldier or Marine may have for a fair trial when accused of the crime of injuring or killing a “civilian”? Story links follow on the situation in Afghanistan today. If the link does not click through, copy and paste it into your browser. Links follow and some comments. Please pray for our U.S. troops.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_afghanistan_nie_100908/

Afghanistan: A country locked in a spiral of doom. A chilling front lines story by a reporter on the ground, reporting it as she sees it. MUST READ! EXCELLENT!!! Link below:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4925036.ece

Marine attack helicopters doing their job in Afghanistan: Killing the enemy. LInk below:

http://www.marines.mil/units/marforpac/imef/1stmardiv/7thregiment/2ndbat/Pages/TF27fightswith%E2%80%98ACEinthehole%E2%80%99.aspx

Mullen sees Afghanistan worsening into next year:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081010/pl_afp/usafghanistanintelligencemilitary_081010012310US

Report sees Afghanistan rapidly worsening: (Short sighted generals should have seen this coming when they threw the special ops Marines out of the war in 2007)

How bad the situation is in Afghanistan: 30 years’ war: Excellent take on what it will take to WIN!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20081010/cm_thenation/1096370975_1

Unwinnable war in Afghanistan: I might add-inept US generals don’t win wars by throwing out Marines! This story tends to want air strikes stopped, which I don’t agree with, but worth reading.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7c7a1aa2-96f9-11dd-8cc4-000077b07658,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F7c7a1aa2-96f9-11dd-8cc4-000077b07658.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=&nclick_check=1

CBS News take on Afghanistan; it’s a downward spiral. From the story, “Bush administration officials say privately that Afghanistan is now the single most pressing security threat in the fight against terrorism.” It is amazing that in 2007 the Bush administration did not feel this way and allowed 120 highly trained Marine Special Ops to be thrown out of Afghanistan.

More from the story: “Military figures show that Afghanistan has become far more dangerous for American troops than Iraq. More than twice as many Americans have died in Afghanistan than in Iraq since May, even though there are more than five times the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/09/terror/main4512442.shtml

NATO to go after drug trade in Afghanistan:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/10/asia/11nato.php

Another story on the “civilian” deaths in Afghanistan, from Stars and Stripes:

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65170&archive=true

Sec. Gates wants to talk to the Taliban:

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65168&archive=true

Dialogue with the Taliban is one-sided:

http://www.thestar.com/News/Columnist/article/515217

Link to article on Bill Ayers, the pal Obama did not know founded the Weather Underground radical domestic terrorist group!

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1430/pub_detail.asp

Obama and national security risks:

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1429/pub_detail.asp

“Enablers” needed in troop scarce Afghanistan:

http://features.csmonitor.com/monitorbreakfast/2008/10/09/joint-chiefs-head-%E2%80%98enablers%E2%80%99-needed-in-troop-scarce-afghanistan/

More stories coming out of Afghanistan this afternoon, I will link several below. I might also find a few more stories about Iraq, and our military, and if I do, will post them. Of course, there is a lot in the news about the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Barack Hussein Obama. (If Obama does not like his middle name, he can change his name like Miley Cyrus did. He could change it to Barack Henry Obama, Barack Harry Obama, Barack Homer Obama, etc. if he wants to keep the middle initial H). Story links follow:

Pakistan rips US attacks on terrorists: (Remember when Bush said either you are for us or you are against us?)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/10/10/2008-10-10_pakistan_rips_us_attacks.html

NY soldier dies in Afghanistan:

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/warzone/2008/10/honoring-a-fallen-soldier-1.html

Gates allows US Marines to be thrown out of Afghanistan (they were later exonerated) yet now, instead of giving them an apology in his VICTORY THROUGH APOLOGY tour and admitting the mistake of throwing Marines out of a war, he goes and begs Europeans to go do the fighting. They see how he treated his own special ops Marines, why would they even consider going in to fight when we persecute our own Marines for fighting? They saw what the weak generals did in throwing these Marines out, and Sec. Gates not supporting them and keeping them in the fight in Afghanistan, and they don’t want any part of this. Story link follows:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/10/08/2008-10-08_defense_secretary_robert_gates_asks_alli.html

Iraq pops back into the news. Christians are having a rough time there, pray for them. Story follows:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/11/iraq.violence/index.html

U.S. soldier murdered in Iraq. Let’s hope his murderer is found, arrested, tried, and executed as Iraq has the death penalty. I have asked my congressman for a list of arrests in the murders of the over 4,000 U.S. troops killed there, but they say they cannot produce a list. I think there should be a list of each service member who is murdered in Iraq, whether it is solved, unsolved, or a cold case and if solved, and the murderer faced execution, the name of the convicted murderer and the date of his or her execution for the crime. I gave my reps slack on a data base of the over 30,000 attempted murders of our troops, who face horrible injuries and amputations, traumatic brain injuries, etc. With the 4,000+ murders though, there should be a database available which tells if the murderer of our troops have been arrested, convicted, and executed. That can’t be that hard to compile with the computers we have today and databases we use. Anyway. I hope they find the murderer of this soldier, try, convict, and execute him or her. That would be a start, and after the 4,000 murder cases are solved, they can move on to the 30,000+ attempted murder cases which will keep them busy for some time. Link follows:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/10/11/iraq.main/index.html

US tries to figure out what went wrong in Afghanistan:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081011/pl_afp/usafghanistannatomilitary_081011203112

Did we talk to the Nazis during WWII?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081011/wl_nm/us_afghan_violence_2

Brits: No Victory in Afghanistan, and Prince Harry and WIlliam should be sent to the front lines:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081011/wl_uk_afp/afghanistanunrestiraqbritainmilitary_081011085208

BACK TO THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, OBAMA ADMITS WRONG TO MEET WITH ACTIVIST MUSLIMS:

http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/09/1525564.aspx