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POPS Veterans Day 2009: Thank you
They are casualties of war… and as far as I’m concerned, Sergeant Kimberly Munley, who took their cowardly attacker down, is a veteran today. The terrorist enemy doesn’t have a formal chain of command that can sign an armistice, they don’t muster on clearly defined battlefields, and they’re quite happy to benefit from the efforts of deranged fanboys. If we don’t stand behind our professional soldiers, and give them the tools to do their jobs now, we will all become soldiers before this enemy is defeated. Somewhere in the world tomorrow, an American soldier will ring in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day with gunfire. Another will arrive home after an honorable tour of duty, perhaps passing brothers and sisters in arms saying farewell to their families. A mother’s tears will fall on a letter from the far side of the world. Old veterans will spend a beautiful afternoon watching children play beneath the flag they raised at Anzio, Guadalcanal, Incheon, or Khe Sanh.
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POPSMurderous US drones condemned by UN. Americans who are confused by the grotesque transformation of the modest aim of capturing a few bad men into a conflagration that has destroyed the lives of millions echo the Guardian of the 1920s, which asked why the British government had to send "all this machinery, all these forces...if we were establishing a political system on the basis of popular consent?" Without distinguishing between drones that protect our troops and those that drop bombs and hover menacingly over an occupied people, The Economist taunts, "like them or not, drones are here to stay." Now, who are the terrorists here and which is the rogue state ?
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POPSAfghanistan: 'No Democracy~Just Islam' and Burn Obama Effigy Afghan university students shout anti-US slogans and hold a banner reading 'No Democracy; We want just Islam!' during a demonstration in Kabul on October 25, 2009. ISLAMIZATION WATCH More than 100,000 foreign troops are battling a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, where violence this year reached its highest level since the austere Islamists were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001. Thick plumes of smoke rose above the crowd as protesters set fire to a large effigy of what they said was U.S. President Barack Obama. "Death to America. Down with Israel," chanted one man at the rally, which was organized mainly by university students. Others threw stones and clashed with police but no casualties were reported. "No to democracy. We just want Islam," said one banner carried by protesters, many of whom shook their fists in the air. Captain Elizabeth Mathias, a media officer for U.S. and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan,
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POPSOct. 23,1983 Lebanese Terrorists Bomb the Marine Barracks in Beirut . . with Syria. Although the United States had mounted two previous successful peacekeeping operations in Lebanon in 1958 and earlier in 1982 (to facilitate the evacuation of P.L.O. forces from Beirut that had been defeated by Israel), the ignominious end of the MNF intervention brought disastrous consequences. The failure of the peacekeeping mission led to renewed fighting between Lebanese factions and the ascendancy of Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria. Moreover, the Marine barracks bombing, which was the deadliest terrorist attack against Americans before the 9/11 attacks, later inspired Osama bin Laden, who viewed the United States as a “paper tiger” because of its rapid withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from Lebanon and Somalia after suffering casualties. Al Qaeda members were later dispatched to Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon, according to the 9/11 Commission Report (p. 68). Posted October 23rd, 2009 in American Leadership.
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POPSThe Other Thing Obama Inherited But rapidly deteriorating conditions and a widely disputed and unresolved election in Afghanistan gave the Obama administration pause and led to the current policy review. “Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission,” (Cheney) said, calling on Obama to fulfill a promise he made in August to armed forces in a speech at the VFW to give them the support and resources need to get the job done. “It’s time for President Obama to make good on his promise,” he said. “The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger.” “Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries,” he added. “Waffling, while our troops on the ground face an emboldened enemy, endangers them and hurts our cause.”
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POPSRights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast The organization is expressly concerned mainly with how wars are fought, not with motivations. To be sure, even victims of aggression are bound by the laws of war and must do their utmost to minimize civilian casualties. Nevertheless, there is a difference between wrongs committed in self-defense (Israel) and those perpetrated intentionally (Hamas and Hezbollah).
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POPS Hammer Wants An Anvil Fawning “Inconvenient Truth Teller” article inside paints him as a sort of goof savant … a bit like Chauncey Gardiner of “Being There,” he’s been in Washington DC his entire life, everyone likes him, and suddenly they think he’s a genius. The three-decade gaffe-and-reverse record requires some acrobatics, though. The Newsweek scribblers clearly like his go-lite, wack-a-mole strategy though they are big enough to admit at the end that people who actually know what they are talking about say it won’t work. It’s not exactly the Joe Biden embed that I wished out loud NYT’s Dexter Filkins would do as a counterbalance to his McChyrstal piece earlier this week,* but close. Some administration officials, led by Biden, appear to hope that American forces can rely more on counterterrorism operations"attacks by Predator drones and small elite units on terrorist hiding places"to hold Afghanistan together and defeat Al Qaeda. But critics call this “splitting the baby" and say . . .
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POPS Photos of Military Deaths in Afghanistan Banned The NATO-controlled International Security Assistance Force, which handles embeds elsewhere in Afghanistan, allows press photos of casualties as long as some conditions are met. For example, photos that identify a dead service member cannot be released before the service member’s next of kin have been notified of the death.
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POPSAnother Russian Plane Goes Down If there is a plane crash in Africa, 95% of the planes turn out to be Russian aircraft or airplanes that have been deemed non airworthy by other countries..
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POPS8 Troops Killed In Afghanistan; Remote Outposts Attacked Nuristan, bordering Pakistan, was where a militant raid on another outpost in July 2008 claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to allegations of negligence by their senior commanders. Army Gen. David Petraeus last week ordered a new investigation into that fighting, in which some 200 militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars pushed their way into the base, which is no longer operating. The region was key for Arab militants who battled alongside Afghan warriors during the 1980s U.S.-backed war against invading Russians because it is a rare place in South Asia where the Wahhabi sect of Islam is practiced – the same sect followed by Osama bin Laden and most Saudis.
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POPSFlashfloods hit Metro Manila Rains remained heavy as of 5pm 26th September 2009. Typhoon Ondoy is expected to continue to bring rains tonight, although at less intensity. Typhoon is expected to be out of Luzon by Sunday, but rains are still expected, according to PagAsa. Metro Manila remained under signal number 1 as of 5 pm. For emergency assistance, contact the following:
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POPSDemocrats Never Meant What They Said About Afghanistan even when the president has declared: Al Qaeda and its allies " the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks " are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the United States homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban " or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged " that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can. That's not the last president; that's the current president, an entire six months ago. Notice this only applies to the use of military force and violence overseas; as we've seen, these same folks have a very different reaction when they hear about a town-hall protester having his finger bitten off. The base of the Democratic party is fundamentally pacifist and isolationist and has extraordinary, although not complete, leverage over this White House.
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POPS"World Trade Has Collapsed... Shipping Lines Have Become Graveyard Archipelagos" Yet all of this is beyond the land, and thus far from sight. Of course, who needs trade when you have a speculative market trading in its own bubble, hitting yearly highs day after day, thanks only and exclusively to the Chairman's printing press. It is a pity these ships can not sail in the sea of hundred dollar bills that is being created each and every day at the Federal Reserve, whose only use these days it seems is to buy junker stocks and to feed the algos that lift whatever offers are stupid enough to float in the equity market." Thousands Of Rusting Ship Hulls Are A Fitting Tribute To The Speculative Market Bubble To view enlarged images please visit website (green indicates operating ship, red denotes a ship out of spot/charter and currently unused) http://www.zerohedge.com/article/thousands-rusting-ship-hulls-are-fitting-tribute-speculative-market-bubble
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POPSAfter 9/11 imagine there is no backstabbing liberal media.......i wonder if you can.....
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POPSObama Policy Causes Death of American Soldiers Once again the Obama administration has shown whose side he is on in our fight against terrorism around the world. No it is not the side of America or the American soldier but rather the side of those who wish us harm. Current Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan have hampered our efforts to rout out Taliban insurgents bent on killing American soldiers. The sooner we rid our country of Islamic sympathizers the better off we will be in the end. Is it too soon to call for IMPEACHMENT of this present administration?
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POPSUS Hypocrisy Astonishes the World The exceptional “virtuous nation” does not think it is insensitive for America’s bombs to blow innocent villagers to pieces. What does the world think of the United States? The US government is like a criminal who accuses the police of his crime when he is arrested or a sociopathic abuser who blames the victim. It is a known fact that the CIA has violated US law and international law with its assassinations, kidnappings and torture. But it is not this criminal agency that will be held accountable. Instead, those who will be punished will be those moral beings who, appalled at the illegality and inhumanity of the CIA, leaked the evidence of the agency’s crimes. America uber alles! No one counts but us (and Israel). The deaths we inflict and the pain and suffering we bring to others are merely collateral damage on the bloody path to American hegemony.
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POPS It's Bush's Fault "This was underresourced, underfunded, undermanned and ignored for years," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. "The president is focused on ensuring that we meet measurable benchmarks. ... It's going to take some doing." Related... Team Obama says they have protected America from terrorists better than Bush. Posted by Gateway Pundit
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POPSConservative George Will calls for Afghanistan pull-out Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked Monday by Peter Cook of Bloomberg TV: “Are we winning in Afghanistan?” “I think it's a mixed picture in Afghanistan,” Gates replied. “I think that there aren’t too many people with too rosy a view of what's going on in Afghanistan. I think there are many challenges. But I think some of the gloom and doom is somewhat overdrawn as well. … I think that there are some positive developments. But there is no question our casualties are up and there's no question we have a very tough fight in front of us, a lot of challenges.” Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26628.html#ixzz0Pocw7LWI
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POPSA grief like no other: listening to the families of murder victims More: The increase in the U.S. murder rate has been accompanied over the past few decades by a rising incidence of crimes once considered rare. Mass murders, serial murders, and murders committed by strangers have become more commonplace.… Since 1966 hundreds of books have been published that follow murderers along their paths of destruction… And yet just a handful of books have looked at murder from the victim's perspective.… During the past twenty-five years hundreds of articles in psychiatric journals have examined the homicidal mind. Fewer than a dozen have explored how a homicide affects the victim's family. In a study of murder in Romantic literature the theater scholar Laurence Senelick used a phrase, "the prestige of evil," that goes a long way toward explaining why our culture has become obsessed with the murderer while ignoring the victim.
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