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POPSMcCain Showed Best How to React to Russian Force
Obama’s initial reaction was to urge both the rapist and the victim to show restraint , while McCain spoke forcefully to denounce the invasion and to call for specific actions, including withdrawal from “sovereign Georgian territory,” an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, action by other official bodies and the creation of “a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force.” Ten days later, McCain’s first response appears to have been the right one. Obama reflected uncertainty in part because of inexperience and in part, too, because he was responding as events unfolded. He is far more comfortable, as indeed the administration’s critics are, in letting President Bush act and then declaring that he or they would have been smarter, wiser and righter had they been making the decision. President Bush’s strongest response was to reach agreement with Poland last Thursday to base 10 interceptor missiles to protect Europe from those fired by Iran or Nort
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POPSHands Off Mohammed!!! Fear seems to have censored the publishing of a book about Mohammed. As the author of the piece points out: "It is condescending to treat Muslims like excitable children who cannot cope with the probing, mocking treatment we hand out to Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism. It is perfectly consistent to protect Muslims from bigotry while challenging the bigotries and absurdities within their holy texts." Doesn't seem like too much to ask.
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POPSMcCain: 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq not International Crises Perhaps this is why McCain's ideas on national security are so terrible. Forget about Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and REAL Al-Qaeda. That isn't a major conflict. Let's not dwell too much on figuring out this Iraq problem. It isn't an international crisis. And maybe he was just having a "senior moment" and completely forgot about the Gulf War, apartheid, and genocide in Darfur, Rwanda and the Balkans. If you are reading this and are currently deployed or about to deploy, which at the current OPTEMPO should include anyone who is active duty, keep that chin up. Its not like this is a crisis or anything. And if you're a loved one of someone who made the ultimate sacrifice, remember that Senator McCain seems to think that your loved one died for something so trivial that it doesn't even break the "crisis" threshold.
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POPSNo bikes allowed at 'greenest convention in history' A group called Bikes Belong, is looking forward to promoting their idea that bicycling is a good alternative to cars for downtown areas. Bikes are provided free to anyone with a credit card and drivers license. Convention organizers gave no reason why bike usage was not considered in their 'green' plan.
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POPSRussian Offensive in Georgia Jeopardizes Ties With U.S. Condoleezza Rice rushed to the former Soviet republic with a new cease-fire plan offering concessions to Moscow. The new document would allow Russian peacekeepers who were in the disputed South Ossetia region before the fighting broke out a week ago to stay, and they would now be permitted to patrol in a strip up to six miles outside the area, the officials said. "The United States spent 45 years working very hard to avoid a military confrontation with Russia. I see no reason to change that approach today," Gates said at the Pentagon. Standing alongside, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. James Cartwright, said it appeared Russia was "generally complying" with the truce. But then Georgian leaders said a convoy of more than 100 Russian tanks and other vehicles had moved from the western city of Zugdidi deeper into their nation before stopping. Cartwright had said Russian forces appeared to be forming up in Georgia in preparation for withdrawal.
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POPSIsrael Backs Georgia in Caspian Oil Pipeline Battle with Russia until a "durable peace" is reached. "As soon as a durable peace takes hold we need to move forward with dialogue and peaceful negotiations." DEBKAfile’s geopolitical experts note that on the surface level, the Russians are backing the separatists of S. Ossetia and neighboring Abkhazia as payback for the strengthening of American influence in tiny Georgia and its 4.5 million inhabitants. However, more immediately, the conflict has been sparked by the race for control over the pipelines carrying oil and gas out of the Caspian region. The Russians may just bear with the pro-US Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambition to bring his country into NATO. But they draw a heavy line against his plans and those of Western oil companies, including Israeli firms, to route the oil routes from Azerbaijan and the gas lines from Turkmenistan, which transit Georgia, through Turkey instead of hooking them up to Russian pipelines.
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POPSDemocrats Plan To Reduce Gas Prices: Buy OPEC Oil? "Releasing oil from the Reserve is a tool to manage our national and economic security, and when judiciously used will in no way jeopardize national security," the California Democrat wrote. Thus, Democrats favor exploration of the SPR, which is supposed to be used only for catastrophic shortages, but believe that drilling for oil in the U.S. is "a hoax". Can someone explain to me why Democrats only hate oil that's made in America? Update: "Obama releases Exxon ad and hopes no one notices it's a lie"... You just can't make this stuff up... Despite his new TV ad, Barack Obama has received more money from Exxon and Mobil employees than Senator John McCain. Update II: "Tire-Gauge Industry Pumps Up Obama Campaign Coffers."
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POPS Answering Russia 10. Announce the creation of a new information network, much larger and better funded than Voice of America or Radio Free Europe to deliver Internet, TV and radio broadcasts into neo-Soviet Russia so that Russians can learn the truth about their country.
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POPStheir greatest crime of all--ignoring the climate change
He added that they should, in his opinion, "be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature… I anticipate testifying against relevant CEOs in future public trials." That's a novel thought in our nation's capital. Oh, and while he was at it, he probably should have thrown in George W., Dick C., and crew. What they haven't done (and what they've blocked from being done) over these last eight years may turn out to be their greatest crime of all. Talk about smoking guns... or is it melting ice? And here's the sad thing, as with so much else in these last years, the only way global warming has gotten the slightest respect in Bush's Washington is as a national security issue. Big surprise. The Navy, for instance, was already holding a symposium entitled "Naval operations in an Ice-Free Arctic" in April 2001; now, it seems that by 2010, or 2015 at the latest, it may have its wish -- an iceless Arctic Ocean in the summer for the first time in perhaps one million years and a scramble for
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POPSMystery to Ponder John McCain’s top campaign officials on national security issues, Randy Scheunemann, actually worked as a lobbyist for the Georgian government so that’s his excuse for not thinking this through more thoroughly. But how about everyone else?
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POPSContinuing coverage of the Georgian situation from Eurasianet Some reportage on the bombing of Tbilisi airport. I can't foresee this ending well. From the story: "In a conference call with reporters, Lomaia outlined what he believed to be the remaining options for Georgia in its struggle against Russia: a deployment of military equipment 'not to fight, but to deter them'; and, the arrival of 'a very, very high representative of a foreign government for a few days' to demonstrate international support for Georgia. 'Frankly speaking, we do not see any other way of stopping these people,' he said."
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POPSGeneral Barry McCaffrey (ret) Says More Troops Aren't The Answer In Afghanistan More ominously, the general says, we can expect a Taliban drive to erase Afghanistan's border with Pakistan in the wild frontier provinces of Pakistan that have provided sanctuary for Taliban and al Qaida leaders and fighters since Osama bin Laden escaped there in 2001. Military means, he writes, won't be enough to counter terror created by resurgent Taliban forces; we can't win with a war of attrition; and the economic and political support from the international community is inadequate. The battle will only be won, McCaffrey says, when there's a real Afghan police presence in all of the country's 34 provinces and 398 districts; when the Afghan National Army is expanded from 80,000 troops today to 200,000 troops; when we deploy five U.S. combat engineer battalions with a brigade of Army Stryker forces for security to begin a five-year road building program that also trains Afghan Army engineer units and employs Afghan contractors and workers.
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POPSHow Tenet Betrayed the CIA on WMD in Iraq Habbush explained to the British official that Saddam tried to maintain the impression that he did have such weapons in order to impress Iran. Suskind writes that the head of MI6, Richard Dearlove, flew to Washington to present details of the Habbush report to Tenet, who then briefed National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Soon after that, the CIA informed the British that the Bush administration was not interested in keeping the Habbush channel open, according to Suskind’s account.
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POPSRussian Tanks And Troops Move Into South Ossetia Georgian interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said last night Georgian troops would observe a three-hour ceasefire beginning at 3pm local time (9pm AEST) to allow civilians to leave Tskhinvali. The International Committee of the Red Cross appealed for a safe passage for the wounded. The European Union, US, NATO and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe called for a halt to the fighting in South Ossetia, which broke away from Tbilisi's control in the early 1990s. Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili said: ``Most of South Ossetia's territory is liberated and is controlled by Georgia.'' Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin condemned Georgia's ``aggressive actions'' and said his country would have to retaliate.
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