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POPSAfghan army 'in need of US funds' All govts suffer corruption to some extent, so Afghanistan is the same as all of us. What gives Obama the right to ignore what happens in his country, while preaching to others, can only be hypocrisy. Maybe it is a codename for the drugs and Karzai has to deliver them all to the invaders.
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POPSGates Bars Torture Photos' Release 
The administration first sought to change FOIA in June, shortly after deciding to contest a ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that ordered the photos' release. The resulting bill, championed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), was specifically designed to nullify the effect of the appeals court's ruling. Since the court had ruled that the photos couldn't be withheld under an existing FOIA exemption, the Obama administration simply asked Congress to carve out a new exemption. Despite objections from liberal members of the House, Congress obliged. The new exemption's requirements are stunningly lax. In order to withhold the photos, Gates simply had to certify, as he did in the court filing, that "public disclosure of these photographs would endanger citizens of the United States, members of the United States Armed Forces, or employees of the United States Government deployed outside the United States." In other words, their release had to endanger someone, somewhere. And i
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POPS "dumb" Well, they’re falling down on that score in Afghanistan. Hang on, Gates gets it. USA Today: ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY JET (AP) " The Obama administration needs to decide on a war strategy for Afghanistan without waiting for a government there to be widely accepted as legitimate, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday. Gates’ comments put him at odds with top White House and NATO officials who are balking at ordering more troops and other resources to Afghanistan until the disputed election crisis there is resolved. The Pentagon chief called the Afghan elections " and the larger issues of curbing corruption in its government " “an evolving process.” “We’re not just going to sit on our hands, waiting for the outcome of this election and for the emergence of a government in Kabul,” he told reporters en route to Tokyo. That part of the O admin doesn’t sound as dumb as the other part.
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POPSTop Ten Reasons to Give Back the Peace Prize Reason Number Three: The US Continues to Ignore Israeli nukes, while it acts as banker, diplomatic cover, and armorer its brutal Israel's sixty year occupation of Palestine. Reason Number Two: The US is Funnelling Billions Into Expanding Its Military Presence Across the African Continent. Reason Number One: It just ain't right.
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POPSObama Quietly Deploying 13,000 More US troops to Afghanistan
In addition to the deployments under way, McChrystal has also requested an extra 40,000 troops he says are necessary to prevent the country falling into the hands of the Taliban. The Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, today expressed support for McChrystal's request. "I'm fully behind him for what he's seeking in this report," Karzai told ABC's Good Morning America. As part of the internal debate, the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, who is cautiously supporting McChrystal, is due to meet later today the vice-president Joe Biden, who is opposed to the troop increase and favours a shift in priority to tracking down al-Qaida in Pakistan. A decision on McChrystal's troop request appears to have been postponed for a few weeks. Any extra troops will come as a result of a parallel reduction in the number of US troops in Iraq. A US military planner told the Army Times: "We've increased forces in Afghanistan before we've reduced forces in Iraq in a meaningful way.
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POPS Afghan War Units Begin Two New Efforts The moves underline the military's efforts to remake itself in response to the Afghan war despite the Obama administration's signals that it is far from committed to the current counterinsurgency approach. President Barack Obama met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates Monday as part of the ongoing White House review of Afghanistan policy, which is being re-evaluated in light of the country's flawed presidential elections and the Taliban's recent gains. A senior military official acknowledged that the Afghan Hands initiative, the most important of the new efforts, could be modified or scaled back if the White House decides on a new strategy. "None of this is inflexible or set in stone," the official said. The strategic review comes amid worsening violence across Afghanistan. At least 16 U.S. troops have already been killed in October, matching the entire American death toll for October 2008. Mr. Gates, speaking to an Army gathering on Monday . . .
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POPSObama to Meet High-Powered Aides for Afghan Review were the top ranking civilian officials expected for a bracing session on a war some supporters fear could swamp Obama's presidency. War commander General Stanley McChrystal, who warned in a leaked report that the conflict could be lost within a year without more troops, was also due to to take part, either in person or by video link-up, the White House said. Other top military brass included were General David Petraeus who heads US central command, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair. CIA chief Leon Panetta was also due to take part, along with Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the US ambassadors to Islamabad and Kabul. Obama warned after meeting NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday that the United States could not fight the battle in Afghanistan alone, in remarks apparently aimed at European partners.
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POPS Obamlet What any prosecutor or defense attorney will tell you about jury deliberations … how long they’re out doesn’t necessarily tell you anything. It could mean they are trying really hard to convince themselves that abandonment will work … and to find a way to convince America and the world that an easy out is the considered, sensible thing to do. Or it could be that they know what they need to do, they are just afraid to do it. Afraid of the consequences of angering their anti-war lefty base, afraid of remaining committed to a war with a horizon past 2010 and 2012. But that’s about as charitable and optimistic a view as is possible, and assumes they actually want to find a way to do the right thing. Unfortunately, there has been little to indicate that is what they are interested in doing. What makes this less like jury deliberations and more like a Shakespearean tragedy, though, is that every now and then, a major player sticks his head out to shout something.
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POPS Retreat! In a briefing at the Pentagon, Mr Gates said that the new system could be operational six or seven years before the Bush-era shield would have come online, more effectively replying to future threats. Mr Gates said that the initial stage of the new American plan would see the deployment of Aegis-equipped ships, armed with interceptors, giving the military the ability to move the system around. Another key to the near-term network would be new, more mobile radar used to detect and track short- and medium-range missiles if they were launched from Iran. Mr Gates said that a second phase of the plan would add a modified version of a land-based missile that is still being developed. He said that the United States had told the Czech Republic and Poland that they would be part of that stage of the system, which will not be in place until 2015 - but could still result in American missiles being based in Eastern Europe.
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POPSSmarttough diplomacy at work? I certainly hope so. For the US to get Russian concessions on its support of Iran would practically mean that missile BMD would be superfluous. I don't think we're abandoning allies like the Czechs and Poles either. We don't need BMD to be loyal to them. At least, this is what I hope US authorities are assuring them today. It's not too much to expect that at least this much common sense is on display. It's past time to push Iran into a corner. It's the key insurgency in the region. The Islamic movement had its first success there and it must end there for it to end at all. If this is what it takes, then I say my hat's off to Obama. I'm changing my opinion 180 degrees. Bush would never have dared such a move.
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POPS'Bin Laden' tape harangues Obama "If you stop the war, then fine. Otherwise we will have no choice but to continue our war of attrition on every front If you choose safety and stopping wars, as opinion polls show you do, then we are ready to respond to this," it says. In the message, the al-Qaeda leader accuses the new president of failing to fundamentally change foreign policy because of his decision to retain key figures from the previous administration, including Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
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POPSOsama bin Laden Message Surfaces in Wake of 9/11 Anniversary Bin Laden also links President Obama to the Bush Administration, saying "the sour reality is that the new administration is still covering you in the shroud of darkness. So how's that "appeasement" working out for you Dems? The 11 minute audio message was released in a video from al Qaeda's as-Sahab's propraganda arm. The title, "Message to the American People" is superimposed over an artist's rendition of the New York City skyline with the World Trade Center towers still standing. Oh yeah, but Bin Laden is dead, right?
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POPSA new Vietnam quagmire? Today, Washington’s hallucinations rival those during the Bay of Pigs fiasco—when U.S.-backed Cuban exiles were allowed to fend for themselves on the beach during their failed invasion, because President John F. Kennedy denied them the use of their own and U.S. air cover in order to keep U.S. involvement a secret. No matter that everyone in the hemisphere already knew the U.S. was training the invasion force in Central America, because the New York Times had done several stories on it. Not only is the U.S. occupation force in Afghanistan incensing Afghans, it is fueling the resurgence of the Taliban there and aggravating the rise of Islamist militancy in nuclear-armed Pakistan. In both cases, the perceived meddling of “infidels” on Muslim soil is stoking resistance.
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POPS 9.11 Remembered 9/11: Timeline of Terror Special Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 at 10 p.m. ET http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,548605,00.html "We love you, Dad, and we miss you," said Philip Hayes Jr., whose father, long retired from the Fire Department, rushed to the site that 2001 morning and ultimately gave his life. President Barack Obama, observing his first Sept. 11 as president, had signed an order declaring it a day of service. He and first lady Michelle Obama marked a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House as a bugler played taps at 8:46 a.m., when the attacks began. Obama has distanced himself from many of the anti-terror policies of former President George W. Bush, but his remarks recalled Bush's speech to Congress in the immediate aftermath of the attacks: "We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail." Defense Secretary Robert Gates oversaw the ceremony held Friday at the Pentagon memorial.
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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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POPSCrazed Oklahoma Republican lies to constituents, later admits lying "conceded that President Obama requested more military spending" Arguably the greatest embarrassment to U.S. politics - Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe. Cry baby. Pet project removed from increased defense budget under President Obama. Resorts to lying for payback. Another typical rebubbacan
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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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POPSCongressional Jets Hurt Defense President Barack Obama sent Congress a Pentagon budget of $640.1 billion, which the House adjusted and scaled back to $636.3 billion. During that process, members requested $550 million to purchase eight passenger jets. Obama originally sought only $220 million to buy four planes.
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POPSJohn Bolton Expects Israel To Take Iranian Matters Into It’s Own Hands He vaguely promises to offer the country the carrot of diplomacy"followed by an empty threat of sanctions down the road if Iran does not comply with the U.S.’s requests. This is precisely the European Union’s approach, which has failed for over six years. There’s no reason Iran would suddenly now bow to Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts, especially after its embarrassing election in June. Under the worst-case scenario, Iran will continue improving its nuclear facilities and Mr. Obama will become the first U.S. president to tie the issue of Israel’s nuclear capabilities into negotiations about Iran’s. Israel understands that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent commitment to extend the U.S. “defense umbrella” to Israel is not a guarantee of nuclear retaliation, and that it is wholly insufficient to deter Iran from obliterating Israel if it so decides. In fact, Mrs. Clinton’s comment tacitly concedes that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, exactly the wrong message.
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POPSUS Military Plans for H1N1 Flu Outbreak--Martial Law or State's Rights? Major pentagon planning for this new flu. Necessary? And who would decide such? Due to a Bush Executive Order (which Obama did not rescind) just one man, the President (not even Congress, or the States), has the authority to declare National Emergency and Martial Law for either economic or health "crisis" reasons . The Constitutional implications of this preparation have not been debated or discussed, particularly about State's rights. Each state has their own controlled "National Guard", and could decide for themselves, instead of a Federal power-grab over this very controversial issue. However the Federal government believes the MEHPA (Model Emergency Health Powers Act) trumps the 10th amendment. But does it? Not according to the Constitution.
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POPS Military planning for possible H1N1 outbreak Civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts in the event of a major outbreak, the official said. The military, as they would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients. As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called “execution order” that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan. Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said. Source: CNN
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POPSU.S. Drive For Middle East Peace Gathers Pace 
"That is our objective, and it is to that which we have committed ourselves fully." Mitchell earlier was in Damascus, where he took another step toward bringing Syria in from the cold. Speaking after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Mitchell said restarting peace talks between Syria and Israel is a "near-term goal." In Washington, a White House spokesman said the Obama administration is moving to relieve the pressure of U.S. economic sanctions on Syria. Pressure On Iran Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates had talks with Jordan's King Abdullah about the perceived threat of Iran's alleged nuclear-arms program. Iran is emerging as one of the biggest obstacles to a Mideast settlement, in that Israel says there is no point reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians until the question of a nuclear Iran is resolved. After talks with the king, Gates warned Iran that Washington would seek tough new sanctions unless Tehran responded to its invitation to a dialog
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