Free Republic

We must confront our enemies, using whatever force is necessary. We cannot try to “shoot in the shoulder” people who are trying to blow us up, knock down our buildings and cut our throats. We cannot temporize with fanatics who are building nuclear weapons. We cannot be both “firm and flexible.” We cannot set a date to end a “war of necessity.” We cannot ignore what George Orwell taught us: “The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.”

Perhaps more than any other open-source outfit, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments has put serious intellectual muscle into examining the implications of waging war in an environment where potential enemies don’t just threaten to use nuclear weapons, they actually detonate a nuclear device. While nuclear disarmament remains a noble aspiration, the world is going in the other direction, that is, more states with more nukes, says CSBA President Andrew Krepinevich in a new report, US Nuclear Forces: Meeting the Challenge of a Proliferated World. From four nuclear states in the 1960s, there are now double that number (adding...

Sacrificial Health Care Lambs The health care con, perpetrated by the White House, is well under way. The intent is to keep all attention on every morsel of “news” as it is allowed to leak. The very fact that Americans, by a vast majority, have made their opinions known, yet the incessant push for health care reform continues. It is designed to keep the White House in something of a superior posture to the little people, the voters, who are at the mercy of our all-knowing, omni-present Ruler. Since he has no integrity or moral standing to fall back on,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has been presented intelligence estimating Taliban-led forces battling U.S. troops in Afghanistan have nearly quadrupled since 2006 and are increasingly independent of leaders in Pakistan, officials said on Friday. A U.S. intelligence assessment, showing the number of fighters in the insurgency has reached an estimated 25,000 from 7,000 in 2006, spotlights Taliban gains and the tough choices facing President Barack Obama in trying to reverse the trend. Some of Obama's advisers see a more concerted crackdown by Pakistan on militants on its side of the border as key to turning the tide in Afghanistan,...

The White House has told the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan to delay a planned trip here Friday to brief President Obama and his senior advisers on his recommendation for a major troop increase. Officials had hoped to have Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and what national security adviser James L. Jones called "all the key players" speak to Obama in person by the end of this week, leading to final deliberations over a forward strategy. But "we're not finished," Jones said Thursday, and meetings may extend beyond next week. When the White House is ready, he said, McChrystal...

OBAMA LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT STRATEGY, FOR THE RIGHT REASONSBy Cynthia Tucker Sat Oct 3, 7:58 pm ET Given the outrage from certain precincts of the conservative establishment, you'd think President Obama had signed a peace treaty with Osama bin Laden. The armchair generals are apoplectic over the president's decision to have a series of serious and thoughtful discussions with his national security team about sending more troops to Afghanistan. "Al-Qaida's propaganda machine is quickly seizing on this weakness," military affairs pundit Bill Roggio blogged at The Weekly Standard, the neocon house organ. Ultra-conservative pundit Michelle Malkin denounced Obama's "waffle"...

Coalition forces in Afghanistan are going to have to adopt a "dramatically different" strategy to ensure success, the top US general there says. In his first speech since submitting a report calling for more troops, Gen Stanley McChrystal also said the operation had been "under-resourced". The success of the military operation could not be taken for granted in the face of a growing insurgency, he said. Meanwhile, a Nato strike in Helmand has killed at least six civilians. Women and children are believed to be among the dead. Nato has said it will investigate the incident. It said it had...

At its conclusion, Obama reminded the crowd that he hadn't reached a decision and that his war council should return twice next week with more details and ideas, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. The talks revealed the emerging fault lines within the administration, with military commanders solidly behind the request for additional troops and other key officials divided. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Afghan and Pakistan envoy Richard Holbrooke appeared to be leaning toward supporting a troop increase, the official said. White House chief of staff Rahm...

The White House unexpectedly decided to review its strategy in Afghanistan after a series of recent setbacks in the war, including allegations of fraud following last month's presidential elections and surging violence throughout the country. It begins just days after Gen. McChrystal submitted his request for as many as 40,000 additional troops to the Pentagon. Some in the administration, notably Biden, have argued for a smaller military footprint and a tighter focus on counterterrorism as the best way forward. Advocates of such a shift point to the effective use of Predator drone strikes to kill Taliban leaders in Pakistan. Two...

Throughout last year’s presidential campaign, Barack Obama lambasted the Bush administration for fighting “the wrong war” in Iraq and ignoring the right one in Afghanistan. Iraq was a “war of choice,” Obama claimed, while Afghanistan was a “war of necessity.” Repeatedly, he claimed that, if elected president, he’d unveil a new “stronger, smarter and comprehensive strategy.”

President Obama has not set a deadline for determining a new strategy or for committing more troops to the war in Afghanistan, despite an urgent request from his top commander, his national security adviser said Saturday. In a lengthy telephone interview, retired Gen. James L. Jones outlined Obama's plans for reassessing the war effort. Asked why al-Qaeda, which is comparatively safe in its current sanctuaries in Pakistan, would want to return to Afghanistan, where more than 100,000 U.S. and NATO troops are stationed, Jones said, "That's a good question. . . . This is certainly one of the questions that...

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is message-testing with a web ad going after former Hewlett Packard boss Carla Fiorina -- highlighting her huge severance package and the 18,000 staff reductions she instituted to bolster profits and HP's stock price. Fiorina has filed papers with the California elections board and is expected to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) next fall. Her cash, name recognition and ease on TV have gotten Democrats good and worried. A July Rasmussen Survey [take it with a grain] shows Boxer leading Fiorina by a 45-to-41 percent. The first quote is from Fiorina herself from a recent...

BRIDGETON - A national immigrant rights leader on Saturday urged undocumented workers in South Jersey to boycott the 2010 national census. Rev. Miguel Rivera, head of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC), made his case to roughly 45 to 50 attendees at a meeting of local migrant workers and sympathizers held at the Salvation Army facility on West Commerce Street. The meeting was hosted by the Farmworkers Support Committee (CATA, or Comite de Apoyo a Los Trabajadores Agricolas). The stated goal was to unite immigrant organizations and supporters behind a plan pushing Congress to pass legislation...

Since the democrat congressmen/congresswomen are hiding behind the teleconference it's our time to seize the day.

The president rolled out the new strategy of scapegoating insurance companies during his town hall meeting in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday,

White House retooling message, strategy on health careBy Ceci Connolly The Washington Post Published: Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009 10:29 p.m. MDT WASHINGTON — From the start of his presidency, Barack Obama made clear that his plan for enacting comprehensive health-care reform came down to three words: fast, broad and bipartisan. That was then. Now, as lawmakers begin to flee Washington for a monthlong recess, the White House team is retooling its message and strategy, hoping a more modest approach will reinvigorate Obama's signature domestic policy initiative and give him a first-year victory for Democrats to carry into the 2010 midterm...

Link only - Right-Wing Harassment Strategy Against Dems Detailed In Memo: ‘Yell,’ ‘Stand Up And Shout Out,’ ‘Rattle Him’

When the war on terrorism began, the task seemed straightforward -- deter, disrupt and destroy the terrorist network threatening the United States. Through the years, however, as our awareness of the nature of the threat has grown, our strategies have not kept pace. Today, there are significant gaps in American counterterrorism strategy, a problem that my colleague, Ilan Berman, seeks to address in his new book "Winning the Long War."

KABUL, July 16, 2009 – Patience and time are keys to success in Afghanistan, the commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan told reporters here yesterday. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal discussed his views on what it will take to bring and maintain security in Afghanistan and the importance of helping the Afghans establish governance throughout the provinces. McChrystal became commander of U.S. and international forces in the country last month at a time of increased violence. President Barack Obama nominated him to replace Army Gen. David McKiernan due to McChrystal’s counterinsurgency success in Iraq and his special operations...

GARMISH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany, May 1, 2009 – The focus on civil matters as well as security that is part of the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan strengthens the reconstruction mission that has been the focus of Germany’s efforts there, German Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung said here yesterday. Jung discussed the mission in Afghanistan with students at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. Teamed with the United States and other nations, Germany’s efforts are turning Afghanistan into a success story, Jung said. “The terror regime of the Taliban has been ended,” he said. “Among other things, education for...