Free Republic

WEST POINT -- President Obama's address here last night was the single finest moment of his presidency. It was also the worst. For one of the first times, Americans saw Obama faithfully fulfill his first duty as commander-in-chief. Having rocketed from obscurity to the presidency on an antiwar platform, Obama made the courageous and politically selfless decision to escalate the unpopular war in Afghanistan because he knows it is in the best long-term interests of his country -- no matter the political consequences. It was far and away the most difficult decision he has made in the White House Obama...

I have word from an informed source that a top representative of the Muslim Brotherhood arm known as the Islamic Society of North America -- Louay Safi -- is at Fort Hood this week training the army brigade getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan. At about 1800 EST today, Safi gave a check to families of the victims of the Major Hasan jihad killings. The Fort Hood leadership was overheard commenting that Safi was "really nice." The Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated in its own words to "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within...

The Persian Community by Ari Bussel In Israel there are jokes from every conceivable origin, for Israel is a country made up of a diversity of Jews. They returned from the Diaspora and joined the few that have been here throughout time. The Persian community is thus no different than any other. These jokes have a grain of truth and help us laugh at ourselves and at the variations we all bring to this melting pot of Israeli society. The Persian community is characterized, in my mind’s eye, by three traits: close-knit, the value it places on education and its...

Note the date of this article. Now ask yourself: How many times since then have we caught Marxist Muslim lying to America in particular?

Counterinsurgency is a marathon, but President Obama wants to sprint. The most troubling aspect of Mr. Obama's strategy for Afghanistan is the cramped timeline for his surge. He wants a quick in and out. The 30,000 new troops he is sending as reinforcements will be rushed into theater in the spring of 2010, and the drawdown will commence in July 2011. The message to Afghans is that this president lacks the will to sustain the fight.

The media reports about an incident aboard an AirTran flight from Atlanta to Houston on November 17 sound pretty innocent. At least until you get the rest of the story and learn that the "group" on the plane that were so disruptive were Muslim men! And another passenger confirms the details of the seeming effort to test the defenses of the flight crew. We will talk to Dr. Keith Robinson, one of the passengers on the AirTran flight, on the Steve Gill Show on Thursday! Here is more about Keith. (at site) http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/faa-to-investigate-cell-202143.html http://espositosmusings.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/air-tran-flight-297-incident1.pdf (Keith Robinson, Chaplain that is credited...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Police (IP) arrested 11 suspected members of the al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) terrorist group during two joint operations yesterday in northern Iraq. Near Sadiyah, northeast of Baghdad, IP and U.S. advisors searched several buildings for an alleged AQI member believed to have ties to senior leadership. Based on preliminary questioning and evidence discovered on the premises, IP identified and arrested the AQI member and six suspected criminal accomplices without incident. During a separate security operation conducted near Duluiyah, northwest of Baghdad, IP arrested a suspected AQI member and three suspected criminal associates. IP and U.S. advisors searched...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2009 – The 30,000 additional troops President Barack Obama is sending to Afghanistan will focus on reversing the Taliban’s momentum, a senior Defense Department official said last night during a “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable following the president’s announcement of his new strategy. “What we are sending into Afghanistan by the end of next summer will be more troops, more quickly than any other proposal before the president,” said David S. Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia. “What we are doing here is we are putting in the hands of General McChrystal more...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq, Dec. 2, 2009 – A soldier who was badly wounded in a 2005 roadside-bomb explosion is serving in Iraq again, and he’s finding deployed life easier this time around. Army Spc. David Broome is back in Iraq after receiving a Purple Heart for injuries he suffered in 2005. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Neil Gussman  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The road back to Iraq has been arduous for Spc. David Broome. In all, he was a patient in four hospitals for nearly two months before going home to begin the rehabilitation process. After...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2009 – Iraqi police arrested eight terrorism suspects today, and an air strike during one of the operations killed an enemy fighter, military officials in Iraq reported. A Salahuddin provincial police unit and U.S. advisors searched two buildings in a rural area north of Baghdad for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member coordinating suicide bombings in the region. Based on preliminary questioning and evidence discovered, police arrested four criminal suspects. In a separate operation near Sadiyah, northwest of Baghdad, Iraqi police arrested four suspected al-Qaida in Iraq members. Intelligence led police and U.S. advisors to the home...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2009 – Tens of thousands of additional U.S. forces slated for deployment to Afghanistan will be employed to target and eliminate terrorist leaders and assist the Afghan government to better safeguard and provide a brighter future for its people, the commander of U.S. Central Command said today. President Barack Obama last night announced the deployment of 30,000 extra U.S. forces to Afghanistan over the next several months, which would bring the total U.S. troop strength there to about 100,000. Officials are finalizing plans as to exactly where in Afghanistan the additional troops will be deployed, Army Gen....

NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Dec. 2, 2009 – U.S. soldiers and their Afghan partners bedded down for the night at the Afghan National Police Achin District Center here Nov. 18 in preparation for a meeting with Shinwari tribal elders and Afghan security personnel. Draped in the architectural history of Afghanistan, 108th Cavalry soldiers share a meal with local government, security force and tribal leaders in Nangarhar province, Nov. 15, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Tracy J. Smith  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The meeting at the compound was something never done before, and it proved historic for the soldiers...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2009 – A combined Afghan-international security force detained several suspected militants in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province today at a compound known to be used by a Taliban financier and facilitator, military officials reported. The force searched the compound, about five miles southwest of Kandahar City, without incident and detained the suspected militants, including the Taliban financier and facilitator. No shots were fired, and no one was injured. In other news, international forces conducted an air strike against a Taliban commander in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan yesterday, officials said. The Taliban commander was the target of the...

<p>CINCINNATI (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is praising President Barack Obama for showing political courage on Afghanistan.</p> <p>The Georgia Republican said Wednesday that Obama's plan to send 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan is the right step, and that Tuesday's speech at West Point showed the president was facing reality.</p>

Rumsfeld to Obama: What Requests For Troops in Afghanistan Are You Talking About? [UPDATED] Congress Should Investigate Those 21 Words In Obama's Speech by Dan McLaughlin Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 One line in President Obama’s orgy of blame-Bush-for-everything speech last night has prompted former Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, who managed the Afghan war for five years, to call for the President to back up his assertions. Secretary Rumsfeld’s statement, issued in a press release this morning: “In his speech to the nation last night, President Obama claimed that ‘Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence...

President Obama May Not Remember Vietnam Turmoil WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama insists that his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in 30,000 more troops is not Vietnam all over again. Well, it sure reminds me of the perils and the price of that unwinnable war in Southeast Asia and the political chaos it wreaked at home. In Afghanistan, the designated enemies are remnants of the weakened al-Qaida network and the native Taliban, which has been growing in strength despite the eight-year war started by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 catastrophe....

Train recruits openly in the lawless nation, pose a global threat MOGADISHU, Somalia The recruits gather in scorching desert hideouts, use portraits of President Obama for target practice, learn how to make and detonate bombs, and vow allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Training camps in the lawless nation of Somalia are attracting hundreds of foreigners, including Americans, and Somalis recruited by a local insurgent group linked to al Qaeda, according to local and U.S. officials. American officials and private analysts say the camps pose a security threat far beyond the borders of Somalia, including to the U.S. homeland. In interviews...

Afghanistan: The West Point setting gave goose bumps to the millions watching, but the president's claims Tuesday night that he's dispatching the cavalry just in the nick of time aren't so. We're waving goodbye. When the president asserted in his long-awaited speech announcing a strategy for Afghanistan that he had set a goal of "disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaida and its extremist allies," he should have added "until July of 2011." When he promised that "we will pursue a military strategy that will break the Taliban's momentum," he again should have followed it with "until July of 2011." As far...

“The 18-month timeline … is not absolute. It’s not an 18 months: everybody leaves. The president has expressed on numerous occasions a long-term strategic partnership with Afghanistan, and that includes all manners of assistance,” McChrystal said… Just as I’m writing this, CBS is reporting that The One responded tonight to Gates’s ambivalence at this morning’s Senate hearing by declaring that 2011 is “locked in” as the starting date for withdrawal. Er, does McChrystal know that?

WASHINGTON - Civilian partnerships, in combination with military efforts, are crucial to success in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Senate Armed Services Committee, Dec. 2. The current civilian effort would expand through a "civilian surge" if Congress approves Obama's strategy for the way ahead, Clinton said. "Civilian experts and advisors are helping to craft policy inside [Afghan] government ministries, providing development assistance in the field, and working in scores of other roles," the secretary said. "When our Marines went into Nawa this July, we had civilians on the ground with them to coordinate assistance the next...

British troops in Iraq had to let attackers go free British troops in Iraq had to let 40 armed men who had just ambushed them “walk away” under “constraining” and “frustrating” rules of engagement, papers leaked to The Daily Telegraph show.   Andrew Gilligan Published: 8:00AM GMT 24 Nov 2009 British soldiers take up positions as they guard outside the presidential palace during a handover ceremony in Basra in 2007 Photo: REUTERS Despite fighting “the most sustained conflict since the Korean War”, the rules left troops with one hand tied behind their backs, the secret documents said. Ministers refused to...

....What has struck me most about Obama's Afghan enterprise—and his speech did not cause me to alter my view—is how obvious it is that he doesn't really want to do it. He wants to do health care. Obama has tried every delaying trick in the book—waiting for three months after Gen. McChrystal's request for more troops, having meeting after meeting after meeting, sending Gen. Jones to tell McChrystal not to ask for more troops, having his economic team say it will cost too much, framing the venture in terms of "exit strategies" rather than victory, etc. His ambivalence was on...

f you accept, as I do, the premise that President Obama is an Alinskyite, last night’s speech was totally predictable. From 2003 forward, he and his party cynically raised the Afghanistan mission into a noble calling — not because they thought it really was one, but because it made their political attack on the war in Iraq more effective. Now, Obama is cratering in the polls and his party is in even worse shape. Politically, they can’t afford to abandon the noble calling at this point: Even the legacy media couldn’t protect them from the fallout, which would intensify when...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- A crack U.S. unit from the 82nd Airborne Division has been placed under Canadian command in order to "create a ring of stability" around Kandahar City before "the fighting season" kicks off again next May. The 2nd battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division is to be deployed in the Taliban-infested district of Arghandab by Christmas, Canadian Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard confirmed Wednesday. However, the move into one of the most volatile parts of Afghanistan, which has been widely tipped for weeks, will come at a price. Brig.-Gen. Menard predicted that it would "easily...

The Taliban say they will step up their fight in Afghanistan, after pledges by the US and its allies to send large reinforcements to the country. A Taliban commander told the BBC that if more US troops came, more would die. US President Barack Obama, announcing a long-awaited strategy on Tuesday, said another 30,000 American troops would be deployed quickly in Afghanistan. Defence Secretary Robert Gates told the US Congress that curbing the Taliban was essential for regional security. Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr Gates stressed that the US goal in Afghanistan and Pakistan was to defeat...

KABUL (Reuters) – Thirty thousand more U.S. troops for Afghanistan? Esmatullah only shrugged. "Even if they bring the whole of America, they won't be able to stabilize Afghanistan," said the young construction worker out on a Kabul street corner on Wednesday morning. "Only Afghans understand our traditions, geography and way of life." U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement of a massive new escalation of the eight-year-old war seemed to have impressed nobody in the Afghan capital, where few watched the speech on TV before dawn and fewer seemed to think new troops would help. Obama said his goal was to "disrupt,...

Trying to Thread the Needle, Obama Falls between Two Stools.After dithering for her nearly 100 days, longer than was required for the initial successful invasion of Afghanistan, Obama typically exploited a photo opportunity at West Point to stage-manage the disclosure of his decision to support his hand-picked general's request for troops, but only to the extent of 75%. In doing so, Obama has antagonized the base of his party who are already upset that he is not fulfilled his pledges to openly integrate the Army with homosexuals, close Gitmo, and pull the troops out of Iraq. Rather than ending the...

A North Caucasus Islamist group has claimed responsibility for a bomb that killed 26 people on a Moscow-to-St Petersburg train, a website says. The website claim on Kavkazcenter.com said last Friday's attack was carried out by the "Caucasian Mujahadeen" on the orders of its leader, Doku Umarov. He is described as one of Russia's most wanted rebels, but it was not possible to verify the claim's authenticity. Moscow had earlier described the Nevsky Express attack as an act of terrorism. Doku Umarov, a Chechen, is considered the leader of the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus. He says he is...

Defense Attorney Hints at Army's Possible Conflicts of Interest Galligan said he is also concerned about the composition of the "Sanity Board," since it would be likely to include Army psychiatrists. Major Hasan is himself a psychiatrist, and his alleged actions have raised questions about his training and about whether warning signs were missed by the Army's medical personnel.

John F. Burns, the chief foreign correspondent for The Times, responded to a common theme among the readers of At War — that the United States should learn from the Soviets’ experience in Afghanistan and withdraw its troops. Q. In Afghanistan, both the Russians and the British, at the height of their power, completely failed to bring the place to heel. So we’re going to succeed? Uh huh… Colin Wright Richmond, Calif.Q. The NY TIMES has the archives of the Soviet experience in Afghanistan. Go read them. If you do, then there is just nothing left to say except.. GET...

The ladies (and I use that term sparingly) at Code Pink are calling Obama’s escalation of the Afghanistan War a “devastating announcement”. Looks like maybe President Obama’s attempt to smooth things over by blaming Bush just isn’t going to cut it with the radical left. Yeah, they hate Bush, and they’re willing to let him shoulder the blame for just about anything, but that doesn’t mean their stance on the war has changed just because Obama’s now in charge. The following quote is from the Code Pink website, and yes I needed to shower after going there: Let’s tell Obama:...

Klaus von Clausewitz, the famed Prussian military historian and theorist, defined war as being “an extension of politics, using violence to constrain the enemy to accomplish our will.” While that may have been a perfectly sound concept in Clausewitz’s time, the early 19th century, the destructive power of modern weaponry tells us that things are no longer that simple or clear cut. Something new has been added. Never in his wildest dreams could Clausewitz ever have imagined global real-time television and the influence that it has in world affairs. In an era when our most deadly enemies are no longer...

Rumsfeld Responds The statement from Rumsfeld: “In his speech to the nation last night, President Obama claimed that ‘Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive.’ Such a bald misstatement, at least as it pertains to the period I served as Secretary of Defense, deserves a response.” “I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006. If any such requests occurred, ‘repeated’ or not, the White House should promptly make them public. The President's assertion does a disservice to the truth...

Iran said Wednesday it will enrich uranium to a higher level on its own, the latest indication the country was rejecting a U.N.-backed proposal aimed at thwarting any effort by Tehran to make material for a nuclear weapon. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comment after expressing frustration with the ongoing negotiations over the proposal that Iran exchange the bulk of its low-enriched uranium for more highly enriched fuel rods to be used in a medical research nuclear reactor.

Last night, President Obama announced his decision concerning U.S. policy and strategy in Afghanistan. It was a mixed message - and that does not bode well for those who believe we must prevail on this critical battlefield. On the positive side, Obama announced that he was authorizing the deployment of some 30,000 additional U.S. troops and requesting another 5,000 or so troops from our NATO allies. This would be a viable force if the additional troops were properly employed. But as was the case with the "surge" in Iraq, it is not just the number of troops deployed that matters,...

BEIRUT (AFP) – Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Daniel Bellemare said on Wednesday his investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri was moving at "full pace." "The investigation is making progress and is proceeding at full pace," said a statement released by his spokeswoman, Radhia Achouri. ... Earlier, Bellemare met President Michel Sleiman on his first trip as prosecutor to Beirut, where he arrived on Tuesday for a seven-day visit during which he also will meet members of the new government. The Hague-based tribunal was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007...

...I've never seen a Commander in Chief so defensive. That defense was not aimed so much as trying to calm the Afghans (most likely not tuned in with the lack of HD TV's and satellite dishes), as it was trying to explain away his behavior to both our military, and to his own party. And to do that, Obama had to rewrite his own history back to pre-Congressional Senate days. But first, let me say this. I applaud the POTUS for sending troops, and not just acquiescing to his Michael Moore extreme left base by picking up American troops and...

Having urged the president to honor his commitment to the Afghan war, we Republicans must honor our commitment to support him as he fights it. Given the public unenthusiasm for the conflict, there will be political temptations to “go rogue” on the president, if not now, then in the summer of 2010. That will be our test, for us to pass as the president has passed his. I know many Republicans and conservatives will say: “Hey – the Democrats did not give President Bush support when he most needed it.” Correct. They didn’t. And the country suffered for it. The...

Fresh off her national “Louisiana Purchase” outrage, Sen. Mary Landrieu has a full dance card back in New Orleans over the next few days. Her companions for the Crescent City one-night stands on the calendar are, shall we say, interesting. On Saturday, Landrieu is set to give the welcome speech at a rather out-of-the-mainstream event – this time, she’ll be addressing the New Orleans premiere of Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. So as we can see, Landrieu is largely supporting a propaganda film in making her appearance and speech at Saturday’s premiere. And her neighbors at the...

The president was underwhelming at West Point. On one of the gravest strategic issues of our time, the golden orator of our political scene labored through his compulsories to make the case for why we should win a war that if we lose will invigorate the jihadist cause, put untenable pressure on the governments of Pakistan and India (to say nothing of the tragedy for Afghanistan), potentially put al-Qaeda in possession of nuclear weapons, and increase the risk of future attacks on our homeland. It was not a performance that will give heart to Afghans, countries in the region whose...

Americans look to their wartime leaders for clarity, not ambivalence. The President began his Afghanistan war speech by implicitly promising to say what it will take "to bring this war to a successful conclusion." Not victory, but a "conclusion"...a "successful" one at that. But he didn't do it. It will, though, take 18 months of continued U.S. military action, soon to be escalated by 30,000 troops. Plus, a responsible President Hamid Karzai government that oversees the building of an Afghan nation that can take over the fight, along with the continued and increased involved of a Pakistan that should know...

There's something about these big events that cause MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews to go off script and say something seemingly ridiculous. Matthews has publicly admitted President Barack Obama has given him a thrill up his leg after a campaign speech in Feb. 2008, and uttered "oh God," earlier this year after an Obama address to Congress, prior to the Republican response from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal earlier this year. And on Dec. 1, he referred to West Point as "the enemy camp" in coverage following a speech from Obama announcing his intentions to increase troops in Afghanistan. And, later...

They slipped away quietly, not telling family or friends where they were going or why. Days later, the young Somali men turned up in their homeland to bear arms with Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaida. Counterterrorism officials worried that they might return to carry out an attack on U.S. soil. A year ago, that was the disturbing scenario unfolding in Minneapolis. It spurred the largest federal anti-terrorism investigation since Sept. 11, and investigators spent months connecting the dots to determine who recruited about 20 local Somalis to jihad. Now it's clear that the Twin Cities disappearances were far...

That was such a strange speech. Deploring partisanship while serially trashing Bush at each new talking point. Sending more troops, but talking more about when they will come home rather than what they will do to the enemy. There was nothing much new in the speech, yet apparently it took the president months to decide whether even to give it. Ostensibly the talk was to be on Afghanistan; instead, the second half mostly consisted of the usual hope-and-change platitudes. Still, the president, to his credit, is trying to give the best picture of the Afghanistan war. Obama started well in his...

Obama cuts the baby in half when we need a plan for victory. More troops are going now and then they are coming back in 19 months. He's trying to kiss up to both sides. The donkeys and elephants have both allowed the Taliban to have safe haven in Pakistan for too long. I see patriots who want to win a war. I see leftists who want to lose a war. I see Republicans and Democrats who want to argue over who can best fight a limited war against the Taliban in the Vietnam style. Douglas McArthur said: "in war...

There is a lesson here. KSM & Co. do not have to be brought to the United States — a move that would make it significantly more likely that other Gitmo detainees, trained terrorists, would be transferred here. Similarly, KSM & Co. do not have to be given a civilian trial — a move that would make it far more difficult to justify military commissions for lesser terrorists. This is not a fait accompli. It is still possible to block these developments and to induce the Obama administration to reverse itself. But doing so will require the same two things...

I voted for Barack Obama just over a year ago, not because I expected that his policies would be far different from those of his predecessor, but because I had hope that they would be substantially different...

On Sunday, Swiss voters supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets in their country. Official results show more than 57 percent of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favor of the ban. Building more minarets - in addition to the four existing ones - was seen by many Swiss as a sign of Islamization of their free country. The government opposed the ban, saying it would harm Switzerland's image, particularly in the Muslim world. A poster showing a woman wearing a burka against a background of a Swiss flag with...

A Royal Marine who rugby-tackled a Taliban suicide bomber was among five military personnel to receive the Military Cross from the Queen today. Sergeant Noel Connolly, 41, saved more than 100 lives last November when he spotted the teenager trying to detonate 70kg of explosives on a motorbike he was pushing towards British forces and locals near Kandahar. Sgt Connolly, from Plymouth, hauled the bomber from the bike before he could hit the detonator. He said: "I got him by the scruff of the neck. I can't tell you what was going through my head. I just didn't want him...

Barack Obama made his debut as a war president last night -- and didn't inspire confidence, but almost a sinking feeling. The policy he unveiled after months of agonized deliberation is basically a sound one. He'll send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan so Gen. Stanley McChrystal can pursue the counter-insurgency campaign the general maintains is desperately needed to turn around the war. Obama deserves credit for making this call, which wasn't easy given the inherent difficulties of Afghanistan, his own instinctive reluctance to use military force and the fierce opposition of his political base.