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KABUL -- The U.S. wants to keep nine bases in Afghanistan after American combat troops withdraw in 2014 and the Afghan government will let them as long as it gets "security and economic guarantees," President Hamid Karzai said Thursday in his first public offer in talks about the future relationship between the two uneasy allies. U.S. officials have made no final announcement about how many troops might remain in Afghanistan after 2014, although they have said as many as many as 12,000 U.S. and coalition forces could remain to train and advise Afghans and continue counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and...

Striking at sea: How the Styx strategy paid off January 7, 2013 Rakesh Krishnan Simha The latest in the series of 1971 war stories describes the Indian Navy’s ingenious – and audacious – use of its newly acquired Russian missile boats that played a huge role in India’s victory. In the summer of 1971 when Babru Bhan Yadav returned after a year of naval training in Vladivostok, Russia, he carried with him a secret that he could not tell even his family. Yadav had been made the Squadron Commander of the 25th Missile Squadron based at Mumbai. Under his command...

Congrats to the Bush and Obama administrations for their turn at nation-building. They've created a modern Corruptocracy where once there was only savagery and warlords. Quite an achievement.

Proof Positive - In My Opinion True Source Found For "Innocence of Muslims." (Obama)This is a Youtube video produced by user Montagraph who speculated that "Innocence of Muslims" was a false flag op. So did I. He has done a lot of work tracing numerous websites connected to the original uploading of the now famous video. His narrative starts out very slow but give it a chance. He does explain it all in detail and has sourced it all with URLs below his vid. Montagraph declines to say that his evidence is definitive so you be the judge. The internet...

Geraldo Rivera stopped by the set of Fox & Friends early Friday morning, where he weighed in on the future of our war in Afghanistan — and entered into a heated debate with host Brian Kilmeade in the process. ....................................................... “Are we going to create an ‘Afghanistan, California’?” asked Rivera. “What are we going to do there?” “These are people,” he continued, “for whom the Holy Book is their whole lives, and the deaths of children is just a passing event.” “They will never evolve into Americans,” he added after Kilmeade asked what happens when the people we’ve been trying...

Americans — left, right, Democrats and Republicans — are all sick of thankless nation-building in the Middle East. Yet democratization was not our first choice, but rather a last resort after prior failures. The U.S. had long ago supplied Afghan insurgents, who expelled the Soviets after a decade of fighting. Then we left. The country descended into even worse medievalism under the Taliban. So after removing the Taliban, who had hosted the perpetrators of 9/11, we promised in 2001 to stay on. We won the first Gulf War in 1991. Then most of our forces left the region. The result...

The desperate search for an acceptable Republican Party presidential candidate continues. Republican leaders apparently are pushing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who previously said no, to jump into the race. The GOP's frustration is palpable. Mitt Romney has been running for four years but generates little enthusiasm. Rick Perry was an instant front-runner before losing much of his support after unimpressive debate performances. Michelle Bachmann briefly streaked across the political firmament but now barely registers in the polls. Newt Gingrich committed political seppuku shortly after announcing his candidacy. Ron Paul's support is fervent but limited. However, the real Republican problem...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said misspent and wasted U.S. funds to both Iraq and Afghanistan, where some taxpayer dollars have gone to the Taliban, are "disturbing." "What is disturbing was the recent inspector general's report that some 20 to 30 billion dollars both in Iraq and Afghanistan have been wasted and misspent, and in the case of Afghanistan in some cases the money has actually gone to the Taliban. Now that is not an acceptable use of the taxpayer's dollar," said McCain on Fox News's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" Thursday. McCain clarified that he was unsure of...

The 10th anniversary of 9-11 also marks 10 year of the Bush Doctrine, not counting 2+ plus years of the Obama Appeasement and Contrition Doctrine. The Bush Doctrine, as has every other Doctrine since WWII, was heavily influenced by the Marshall Plan. This is the “nation building” that comes at such a dear cost, both in treasure and blood. The Marshall Plan served our nation and the world well. It prevented anarchy and chaos in the lands of our former foes and helped stem the slide into Soviet domination by much of Western Europe. It gave the world two robust...

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, speaking for his fellow Republicans ten years after the September 11th attacks, denounced President Barack Obama's handling of national security on Saturday. Giuliani, giving the party's weekly address, notably blasted Obama's decision to withdraw some 33,000 US troops from Afghanistan by September 2012 and bring home all combat forces by 2014. "Perhaps the most dangerous impulse we've developed since September 11 is impatience demonstrated by the calls to put our armed forces on timetables," said the former mayor, hailed for his take-charge response to the attacks. ...And he blasted "the inappropriate decision-making and...

The two teenagers met inside an ice cream factory through darting glances before roll call, murmured hellos as supervisors looked away and, finally, a phone number folded up and tossed discreetly onto the workroom floor. It was the beginning of an Afghan love story that flouted dominant traditions of arranged marriages and close family scrutiny, a romance between two teenagers of different ethnicities that tested a village’s tolerance for more modern whims of the heart. The results were delivered with brutal speed. This month, a group of men spotted the couple riding together in a car, yanked them into the...

In a speech at Colorado Christian College earlier this week, Sarah Palin laid out a five-point set of standards by which the United States should commit its troops to military action. Bearing the palpable influence of her new foreign policy adviser -- Peter Schweizer, a scholar at the conservative Hoover Institution who has been on SarahPAC's payroll for less than three weeks -- Palin's criteria for military action seemed at first glance to be less aggressive than the hawkish foreign policy she has consistently espoused. As recently as February, Palin had been among the first prominent Republicans calling for a...

Palin Doctrine? Sarah Palin spoke at a Tribute to the Troops at Colorado Christian University. "The Soldier fights not because he hates what's in front of him. But because he loves those and what's behind him!"....G.K. Chesterton 1. We should only commit our forces when clear and vital American interest are at stake.2. IF we have to fight, we fight to win. We use overwhelming force, we only send in our troop into war with the objective to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible: We do not send in our military to stretch out the mission with an open-ended...

(snip) "I reminded them that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reimbursed us after Operation Desert Storm," McCain says. "They said they'd be glad to discuss that.(snip) "They're very good people," he says. "Mainly well-educated, a number of women in the [Transitional National Council] -- very normal, dedicated people." (snip) McCain dismissed concerns that rebel forces include some veterans of al Qaeda. "I'm sure that there may be some element there, but I guarantee you that they didn't rise up because they wanted to be al Qaeda fighters," McCain says. "They rose up because they wanted to throw off the yoke of...

The U.S. and its allies should provide more air support and financial aid to Libyan rebels, Senator John McCain said in Benghazi after President Barack Obama sent armed Predator on missions over the nation. Those seeking to oust Muammar Qaddafi’s regime are “patriots who want to liberate their nation, they are not al- Qaeda,” McCain told a press conference today in the rebel capital city. The Arizona Republican said North Atlantic Treaty Organization states need to “urgently” increase close air support for rebel ground operations. He also said the rebels’ Transitional National Council should receive some of Qaddafi’s frozen assets...

Former Alaska governor on Obama and coalition strategy against Qaddafi, the bus bombing in Jerusalem and her Middle East trip

The White House suggested Tuesday the mission in Libya is one of regime change, despite emphatic statements from President Obama and military brass that the goal is not to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power. According to a White House readout of a Monday night call between Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the two leaders "underscored their shared commitment to the goal of helping provide the Libyan people an opportunity to transform their country, by installing a democratic system that respects the people’s will." The term "installing" suggests the goal of regime change. In an e-mail, White House...

The White House suggested Tuesday the mission in Libya is one of regime change, despite emphatic statements from President Obama and military brass that the goal is not to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power. According to a White House readout of a Monday night call between Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the two leaders "underscored their shared commitment to the goal of helping provide the Libyan people an opportunity to transform their country, by installing a democratic system that respects the people’s will."

I respectfully dissent from Wendesday’s NRO editorial, which urges that the United States go to war with Libya. The editorial doesn’t put it that way. Indeed, it doesn’t call for President Obama to seek a congressional declaration of war, or at least an authorization for the use of military force, as the Bush administration understood was required before commencing combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this case, complying with the Constitution is almost certain to result in a resounding “no” vote from the people’s representatives — and if you think getting the Patriot Act reauthorized was uphill, figure getting...

It’s a little perplexing looking at the White House today. There was a statement on the horrible earthquake in New Zealand, and certainly our hearts go out to all those affected by this horrible natural disaster. But nothing on the slaughter in Libya? The protests in many places in the Middle East affect regimes that have cooperated with the U.S. on issues from peace with Israel, fighting al Qaeda, hosting our military forces, or cooperating against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Gaddafi’s Libya is different. For four decades, this tyrant has held power. Gaddafi was Osama before Osama hit the scene. He...