The Prof
DP Veteran
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1. October is already the bloodiest month in the 8-year history of the US war in Afghanistan.
2. For the third month in the last four, US casualites have climbed to record numbers.
3. The distressing deaths of 8 Americans on Tuesday, following the tragic termination of 14 in a pair of helicopter crashes on Monday, raised the rate of requiem in the region to 55, so far, with Halloween still a few days hence.
4. Forty fighters fell in September, after 51 heroes were lost in August of this year.
5. Eight Americans were martyred on October 3, when the enemy made a coordinated, 12 hour assault on our isolated outpost in Nuristan.
6. A couple days later, we pulled out of that mountaintop on the moon.
7. When the whirlybirds went down, the Pentagon promptly proposed they were flying mishaps, though their mission overflapping poppy fields implies otherwise.
8. The president, meanwhile, has decided that he will soon decide, or not.
9. That's sometime between the runoff between corrupt dictator Karzai and offended contender Abdullah Abudllah on November 7 and Obama's November 11 scheduled visit to Asia.
10. It might or might not be coincidental that the decision-to-decide-date comes AFTER the gubernatorials of Virginia and New Jersey next Tuesday, November 3.
11. On March 27, Obama announced his "new, comprehensive strategy" for Afghanistan which looked almost exactly like the blueprint pushed so publicly by General McChrystal.
12. Indeed, by all accounts, the March 27 master plan was molded upon comprehensive information transmitted to the incoming administration by the former team managed by Mr. Meanie, Darth Cheney.
13. Indeed, on August 17, Obama called Afghanistan a "war of necessity," and "not a war of choice."
14. Victory, continued our confidence-challenged Commander in Chief, is "fundamental to the defense of our people."
15. This was THREE DAYS, mind you, before the election in question which returned the dictator subsequently discovered to be corrupt.
16. A week and a half hence, on August 30, McChrystal secreted an inclusive assessment to the White House setting forth all affairs in Afghanistan and suggesting a surge-like strategy for the troubled region.
17. As Senator, you'll recall, Obama energetically opposed the Surge in Iraq which turned the tide there our way.
18. That is, had Obama had his druthers at the time, America would have suffered an extreme set back, loss and dreadful defeat.
19. Three weeks after sitting on McChrystal's assessment, Obama surged FIVE Sunday talks and dissembled: he had not yet received a report, the president prevaricated, and he had not received any request for reinforcements.
20. The NEXT DAY, Watergate wonderboy Bob Woodward leaked in The Post the goods from the general, exposing Obama to extreme embarrassment, and more.
21. Since then, the White House and its Pentagon have engaged in a PUBLIC dispute most unseemly.
22. Obama's Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, sided with his folks in the field.
23. Just this Tuesday it was revealed that the senior Pentagon official in Zabul, Matthew Hoh, stepped down from his position last September 10 out of principle.
24. "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States presence in Afghanistan", related the retiree in a four page correspondence to his superiors.
25. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end," continued the highly qualified consultant.
26. "We took his letter very seriously," recounted Richard Holbrooke, Obama's ultra-experienced overseer of the illicit election, "because he was a good officer."
27. "We all thought that given how serious his letter was, how much commitment there was, and his prior track record, we should pay close attention to it," held Holbrooke.
28. As should we all.
29. Indeed, Hoh was offered a promotion to senior embassy staff in Kabul after a face-to-face with Holbrooke, but the dutiful dissenter demurred.
30. Indications are Obama, keeping with his compromising character, will choose some middle course when his dithering days are done.
31. Word is he'll dispatch half the troops McChrystal calls for, while trying to hold "big cities and infrastructure," leaving the countryside to our cowardly attackers.
32. The only reason we're over there, in the first place, is because of the centrality ceded this "right war" in the candidate's campaign, Obama's need to convince the electorate that, though he incisively inveighed against our involvement in Iraq, he was not your traditional anti-military, blame-America-first democrat.
33. Now he's stuck with it, Afghanistan is Obama's War.
34. Anything less than giving the general all he begs for will be perceived by non-partisans as the president playing politics with the safe keeping of our troops.
35. Barack's base, meanwhile, is badly umbraged.
36. Integrity will impel McChrystal to imitate Hoh's principled example.
37. And others will likely follow along.
38. Afghanistan is killing this president.
October is bloodiest month yet for U.S. troops in Afghanistan - thestar.com
The Prof
2. For the third month in the last four, US casualites have climbed to record numbers.
3. The distressing deaths of 8 Americans on Tuesday, following the tragic termination of 14 in a pair of helicopter crashes on Monday, raised the rate of requiem in the region to 55, so far, with Halloween still a few days hence.
4. Forty fighters fell in September, after 51 heroes were lost in August of this year.
5. Eight Americans were martyred on October 3, when the enemy made a coordinated, 12 hour assault on our isolated outpost in Nuristan.
6. A couple days later, we pulled out of that mountaintop on the moon.
7. When the whirlybirds went down, the Pentagon promptly proposed they were flying mishaps, though their mission overflapping poppy fields implies otherwise.
8. The president, meanwhile, has decided that he will soon decide, or not.
9. That's sometime between the runoff between corrupt dictator Karzai and offended contender Abdullah Abudllah on November 7 and Obama's November 11 scheduled visit to Asia.
10. It might or might not be coincidental that the decision-to-decide-date comes AFTER the gubernatorials of Virginia and New Jersey next Tuesday, November 3.
11. On March 27, Obama announced his "new, comprehensive strategy" for Afghanistan which looked almost exactly like the blueprint pushed so publicly by General McChrystal.
12. Indeed, by all accounts, the March 27 master plan was molded upon comprehensive information transmitted to the incoming administration by the former team managed by Mr. Meanie, Darth Cheney.
13. Indeed, on August 17, Obama called Afghanistan a "war of necessity," and "not a war of choice."
14. Victory, continued our confidence-challenged Commander in Chief, is "fundamental to the defense of our people."
15. This was THREE DAYS, mind you, before the election in question which returned the dictator subsequently discovered to be corrupt.
16. A week and a half hence, on August 30, McChrystal secreted an inclusive assessment to the White House setting forth all affairs in Afghanistan and suggesting a surge-like strategy for the troubled region.
17. As Senator, you'll recall, Obama energetically opposed the Surge in Iraq which turned the tide there our way.
18. That is, had Obama had his druthers at the time, America would have suffered an extreme set back, loss and dreadful defeat.
19. Three weeks after sitting on McChrystal's assessment, Obama surged FIVE Sunday talks and dissembled: he had not yet received a report, the president prevaricated, and he had not received any request for reinforcements.
20. The NEXT DAY, Watergate wonderboy Bob Woodward leaked in The Post the goods from the general, exposing Obama to extreme embarrassment, and more.
21. Since then, the White House and its Pentagon have engaged in a PUBLIC dispute most unseemly.
22. Obama's Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, sided with his folks in the field.
23. Just this Tuesday it was revealed that the senior Pentagon official in Zabul, Matthew Hoh, stepped down from his position last September 10 out of principle.
24. "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States presence in Afghanistan", related the retiree in a four page correspondence to his superiors.
25. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end," continued the highly qualified consultant.
26. "We took his letter very seriously," recounted Richard Holbrooke, Obama's ultra-experienced overseer of the illicit election, "because he was a good officer."
27. "We all thought that given how serious his letter was, how much commitment there was, and his prior track record, we should pay close attention to it," held Holbrooke.
28. As should we all.
29. Indeed, Hoh was offered a promotion to senior embassy staff in Kabul after a face-to-face with Holbrooke, but the dutiful dissenter demurred.
30. Indications are Obama, keeping with his compromising character, will choose some middle course when his dithering days are done.
31. Word is he'll dispatch half the troops McChrystal calls for, while trying to hold "big cities and infrastructure," leaving the countryside to our cowardly attackers.
32. The only reason we're over there, in the first place, is because of the centrality ceded this "right war" in the candidate's campaign, Obama's need to convince the electorate that, though he incisively inveighed against our involvement in Iraq, he was not your traditional anti-military, blame-America-first democrat.
33. Now he's stuck with it, Afghanistan is Obama's War.
34. Anything less than giving the general all he begs for will be perceived by non-partisans as the president playing politics with the safe keeping of our troops.
35. Barack's base, meanwhile, is badly umbraged.
36. Integrity will impel McChrystal to imitate Hoh's principled example.
37. And others will likely follow along.
38. Afghanistan is killing this president.
Roadside bombs – the biggest killer of U.S. soldiers – claimed eight more American lives Tuesday, driving the U.S. death toll to a record level for the third time in four months as President Barack Obama nears a decision on a new strategy for the troubled war.
October is bloodiest month yet for U.S. troops in Afghanistan - thestar.com
The Prof
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