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Friday, January 12th, 2007
Archive for January 12th, 2007
2007 RADIUS NSC Velodrome Series
Friday, January 12th, 2007It’s on.
Saturday evenings: June 16, August 4, September 8.
More details to come. It’s going to be très awesome.
Surge
Friday, January 12th, 2007Plan B asks:
What if they could get enough combat troops to do a real counterinsurgency? Would you support the “surge” in that case?
You might as well ask if I would like to be named King of Australia. Hell yea, that would be awesome, but it’s never going to happen.
An additional 150,000 combat troops would be required to even start to do an effective job at fighting the insurgency. These troops would have to stay “in theater” for at least two years to get everything pacified and gain the trust of the Iraqi citizenry. Add to that another 75,000 troops minimum for logistical support as well as all the “mechanics” that will be required to get the troops into the field and keep them supported. Add to that the hundreds of billions of dollars that this all will cost.
The troops ain’t there, the cash ain’t there and the will of the American public ain’t there. It was there at the start of this thing, but it is all dried up now.
It’s never going to happen.
What the F___ is going on!?
Friday, January 12th, 2007Bush blamed both Syria and Iran in helping radical insurgents within Iraq.
“These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq,” he said.
He then singled out Iran, adding that she “is providing material support for attacks on American troops.”
Bush made an implied military threat against both nations: “We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”
Word that Adm. William Fallon will move laterally from our Pacific Command to take charge of Central Command - responsible for the Middle East - while two ground wars rage in the region baffled the media.
Why put a swabbie in charge of grunt operations?
There’s a one-word answer: Iran.
My concern is we’re gonna see a ginning up situation whereby we fall in hot pursuit any effort by the Iranians to interfere with Iraq. We take a couple shots at them, they react, then we bomb the hell out of them and hit their nuclear installations without any without any action by Congress. That’s the scenario I fear, an extra-constitutional war is what I’m worried about.
UPI:
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warned the Bush administration that it does not have congressional authority to attack Iran.
“That will generate a constitutional confrontation in the Senate, I predict to you,” Sen. Joseph Biden, D- Del., told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Thursday.
Is the media just ginning something up here or does the Bush Administration have some screwed up plan to escalate the entire middle east?
Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.
The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.
I don’t feel so good…
Meanwhile in Afghanistan:
Already, a U.S. Army infantry battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks in order to deploy to Iraq.
According to Army Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata and other senior U.S. commanders here, that will happen just as the Taliban is expected to unleash a major campaign to cut the vital road between Kabul and Kandahar.
The war of choice is once again taking priority over the war of necessity. Except now there may be two wars of choice.
How much longer do we have to put up with this crew of incompetent fools?
