Afghanistan

30th Anniversary Of The End Of The Iran Hostage Crisis: Its Long Range Effect!

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On this day thirty years ago, Inauguration Day of President Ronald Reagan, the Iran hostage crisis, which destroyed any hope of President Jimmy Carter to win re-election, came to an end.

The nation was kept literally captive for 444 days from November 4, 1979 onward, as we all worried about the safety and survival of the 52 Americans held hostage at US Embassy in Teheran.

We were gripped by this crisis, and it became the constant news story for all of 1980, an obsession we could not overcome.

It created fame for Ted Koppel of ABC News, who originally covered the crisis day by day at 1135PM weekday evenings, and then expanded the news coverage at that odd hour to create Nightline, which he anchored for 26 years!

Iran became the biggest foreign policy headache of the United States, and in many ways, remains that 32 years later!

We basically were unable to resolve the issue satisfactorily as a great power, and yet Iran has continued to tie us in knots, and we still cannot figure out how to deal with the threat of this Islamic terrorist nation which has complicated our lives more than any other nation in the past three decades!

With the Soviet Union, as evil as they were, reason and measured response could work, and the Soviets had their limits.

Unfortunately, with the combination of Islamic extremism and resentment at US support in the past for the Shah of Iran, there is a concern that the Iranians today have no limits and might be ready to sacrifice themselves rather than cave in or concede in any way to the United States or other Western nations.

And by this nation getting deeply involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, ironically, Iran has become emboldened and stronger than ever before, and they clearly have no intention of compromise or concession, while the old Soviet Union was willing over time to make agreements and concession.

So in this second decade of the 21st century, Iran remains the center of strategic planning, intelligence estimates, and sleepless nights for many in the American diplomatic and military community! 🙁

In the Midst Of Domestic Political Debate, Growing Concern About American Foreign Policy! :(

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It is evident that the Tucson, Arizona tragedy of last week has been dominating political discussion and debate in the past few days, but it has become obvious in the past two days that American diplomacy is at a possible crucial moment that might affect the long term future of American foreign policy.

At the same time, we have the following realities:

Vice President Joe Biden went on an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to take stock as to what is being accomplished there, in what is now the longest foreign war in America’s history.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting the Gulf States, and warning the Arab nations of the need to unite against the possible deployment of nuclear weapons by Iran in the near future, which would endanger them, as well as the nation of Israel. At the same time, Iran is gaining more influence in Iraq after all of our nation’s sacrifices there.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is now in China, just as they demonstrated a stealth airplane model for the first time, and he has expressed concern about US-Chinese relations, a week before the Chinese President is due for a visit to the United States. Gates has also expressed concern that North Korean development of nuclear power is a potential threat to the security of the United States.

When has a Vice President, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense all been overseas at the same time, pursuing foreign policy issues? Without being certain, the author would tend to think it has never happened.

So it is clear that foreign policy issues are starting to come back toward being the key problems that President Barack Obama must deal with, in the midst of an environment in which there is no civility or cooperation between the political parties and with elements of the media.

How this nation is to deal with Afghanistan, Iran, China, and North Korea are crucial to the future of America. And this is without thinking about relations with Russia, Pakistan, Venezuela and other nations that we must not take our attention away from, as they all represent challenges to the United States!

Arizona Does Something Right: Banning Of Westboro Baptist Church Hate Demonstration At Funerals Of Tucson Victims Of Mass Shooting!

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Finally, Arizona has done something right, by its state legislature passing in record time today a ban on demonstrations or picketing by the hateful, sick Westboro Baptist Church at the funerals of the victims of the Tucson shootings last Saturday.

That despicable, so called religious group, which has picketed and demonstrated at the funerals of soldiers who died in Iraq or Afghanistan, because of the group’s hatred of gays, is finally being limited, as what they want to do is shameful! 🙁

So they will be allowed no closer than 300 feet, the equivalent of a football field, and additionally, there will be counter demonstrators dressed as angels who will stand in the way of these hateful crackpots, remaining silent, but blocking the vision of these sick, perverted members of what is primarily a warped group of family members of the so called Reverend Fred Phelps! 🙁

This action has already been followed in Ohio over a military funeral, although the case is now in the Supreme Court, has been argued, and we are awaiting their decision at some point later in this term of the Court.

It is hard to imagine that the Supreme Court would give license to this group by the argument of freedom of religion and assembly and speech, since they have no purpose other than to disrupt and cause emotional harm and suffering upon people who have suffered a loss of a loved one.

To think that the specific purpose of their demonstration is to condemn the Catholic faith of the nine year old child victim makes one want to mourn the loss in this group of what religion and Christianity are all about–to love thy neighbor!

If these are truly Christians, then they are a mockery of the faith!

Senator Lindsey Graham And Afghanistan: Horrible Advice! :(

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South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham yesterday suggested that the United States build and retain a permanent military presence on Afghan soil, and that we recognize the need for our involvement in that forsaken nation for the long run.

This suggestion comes upon evidence that the Afghanistan War is not going well, and that the struggle on the ground against the Taliban is deteriorating rapidly, and that the nation is being given “a bill of goods”, that is a bunch of lies, similar to what we were told in 1966 and 1967 about the Vietnam War!

Joe Scarborough on MSNBC this morning made it clear that he had strong doubts about the wisdom of such a commitment, and being a former conservative Republican Congressman from north Florida, his words ring with brilliance.

As has been stated before on this blog, it is time for the nation and President Obama to stop manipulating the truth, and face the reality that Afghanistan is a lost cause, that NATO allies are rapidly leaving, and that we cannot afford a permanent presence, when we are rapidly losing our economic supremacy in the world.

Instead of talk about cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, health care, the environment, and other essential domestic needs, the way to cut spending dramatically is to leave Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as possible, and stop unsustainable military adventures!

Otherwise, we are on the road to destruction, and the decline of what many are now calling the American Empire! 🙁

What If The Republicans Had Won The Presidency And Control Of Both Houses Of Congress In 2008? :(

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Let’s just imagine for a moment that the Republican Party had won back both houses of Congress in 2008, and that John McCain and Sarah Palin had become President and Vice President on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009.

How would the United States be different?

1. There would be no movement toward health care coverage for more than 30 million Americans.
2. Credit Card reform would not have occurred.
3. Student Loan reform would not have become law.
4. Wall Street reform would not have been passed in any form.
5. The domestic auto industry would be gone, except for Ford Motor Company, causing miilions of job losses, both direct and indirect.
6. Unemployment would be closer to 17 percent, instead of 9.8 percent, as there would not have been any economic stimulus.
7. Two Supreme Court nominees, much more like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, would be sitting on the bench.
8. Major Food Safety legislation would not have become law.
9. The end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for gays in the military would not have happened.
10. John McCain would have been hostile and antagonistic toward the news media to a greater extent than even Richard Nixon, displaying his anger and fury on a regular basis.
11. Sarah Palin would have made so many errors in statements and actions that people would have longed for the days of Dan Quayle as Vice President.
12. There would be growing concern about the possibility of Sarah Palin as President, were John McCain to have a health crisis, reminding many of the fear of Dan Quayle when George H W Bush had a health crisis in office.
13. Relations with the rest of the world would be far more confrontational, nationalistic, and belligerent.
14. Open war with Iran and Pakistan, adding to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would have been likely.

There are other scenarios to imagine and to discuss, but is not the above enough to make one want to wake up from this NIGHTMARE? 🙁

Vice President Joe Biden On Way To Becoming Most Influential Vice Presidency In History! :)

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The Vice Presidency has been growing in authority and influence since the days of Richard Nixon in that office, the first Vice President to have a great impact on a Presidency.

After Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Mondale, George H W Bush, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney added to the office in so many ways.

But it looks likely now that Joe Biden may eventually be seen as the most influential and powerful Vice President, even surpassing the role of Dick Cheney under President George W. Bush.

Originally a rival of Barack Obama for the Presidency, Biden is rapidly becoming more significant, particularly now that the Congress will be divided for the first time since 1987.

Biden, with his contacts on Capitol Hill, and good relations with members and leaders of both political parties, is the perfect person to negotiate for the administration, and comes across as a more “affable fellow” than Rahm Emanuel was, or really, any other person around President Obama.

Biden has been involved in the negotiations over the tax package, and also is working hard on the START Treaty that is soon coming up for a vote, and requires GOP support to pass with a two thirds vote.

Biden and Obama have truly bonded over time, and while Biden might not win every battle, as with Afghanistan policy, who can say that Obama will not eventually go Biden’s direction and lower our involvement in that forsaken nation?

Biden is totally loyal to Obama and a great team player, and he is proving to be a tremendous asset in so many ways.

And his big plus is everyone likes Joe, while many detested Dick Cheney.

Personality can get one far in politics, and Joe Biden has always been a “nice guy” who can get things done, and proves that it is not always true that “nice guys finish last”.

Tragic Passing Of Richard Holbrooke, Premier Diplomat And Peace Maker! :(

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The death last night of Richard Holbrooke, one of the greatest diplomats in American history, after the occurrence of an aortic tear while visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department last Friday, is a tremendous loss to American diplomacy. 🙁

A career diplomat since the late 1960s, Holbrooke worked on the problems of Vietnam, Bosnia, Cyprus, Afghanistan and Pakistan.   He was also Ambassador to Germany, and also was Ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton.

Holbrooke was often considered a potential Secretary of State, and many thought he should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for having negotiated the Dayton Accords in 1995, which brought peace to the Balkans and ended the Serbian war on Bosnia.

Also having prevented a war between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus in 1996, Holbrooke was known as a tough negotiator who would not let anyone intimidate him, and he was known for not suffering fools or villains, staring down Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

It will not be easy to replace Holbrooke, so American diplomacy has suffered a major loss hard to measure!

Will “Permanent War” Lead To Decline Of America As A Superpower? :(

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A retired colonel in the US Army, Andrew Bacevich, has written an important book about perpetual war, which makes one realize that such a situation, as we have now in Afghanistan, and with continued involvement in Iraq, and now possibly a war in Korea renewed, is a tragic situation which will lead to the downfall of the United States as a superpower! 🙁

Bacevich, a former West Point instructor, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a professor of international relations at Boston University, has published a book about the Vietnam War and the opposition, at the time, of Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman.

Bacevich utilizes this book on Fulbright to point out that we now have a situation that is being made permanent with the unwillingness of President Barack Obama to decide to withdraw from a war in Afghanistan which cannot be won, is bleeding our economy, and preventing us from dealing with the domestic crisis we face as a nation since the collapse of Wall Street in 2008! 🙁

Pointing out that we spend $700 billion per year on defense, more than all of the other nations of the world combined, Bacevich warns that we are going down the road of disaster, and that Obama is caving in to the defense establishment by continuing the involvement in Afghanistan at a time when many NATO nations are cutting back, and others, such as Great Britain, are making clear their limits on future commitment!

Bacevich asserts that we need to rebuild our own society, and that we cannot afford the financial cost for “permanent” war, and have limits on troops available for constant warfare! We cannot be global policemen, and occupy dozens of countries with our military so many years after World War II and Korea! Bacevich concludes that the Founding Fathers would be shocked to see us as much involved overseas as we are now in the 21st century! 🙁

Of course, others come out in support of what our government is doing, and call Bacevich an old style isolationist, but when one realizes that a great portion of our national debt has been for war and defense, and that we are hemorrhaging so much funding for the military at a time of desperation at home, Bacevich just seems to make a lot of sense, and causes one to have to sit and reflect on his message in a serious manner! 🙁

Barack Obama And Afghanistan: Wrong Direction! :(

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President Obama is going the wrong direction on Afghanistan, and it could affect his re-election opportunities, as well as his historical reputation as President! 🙁

At the NATO summit in Portugal, the US government has made clear that while the summer of 2011 shall see the start of withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan, that combat will not end until 2014, and the President left it open that if the situation required it, we might see American combat troops beyond four years from now! 🙁

This is absolutely the WRONG thing to do, and it is interesting how many NATO nations are withdrawing their involvement, with the Netherlands and Canada already in the process of withdrawing, and Italy not far behind, and Great Britain making it clear that no later than 2014, they will withdraw their troops!

Already, American forces are over two thirds of all troops, and the percentage will be growing in the next four years!

The combat deaths are rising rapidly, and the expenses on the American budget are also rapidly adding to the national crisis over the deficit and the national debt!

For anyone to believe that NATO and the United States are somehow going to win in Afghanistan defies common sense and the history of that forsaken land!

Alexander the Great, the British Empire, and the Soviet Union failed to win in Afghanistan!

Do we really want our nation to be affected in the same negative fashion as what was visited on the old Soviet Union, leading to its economic and political collapse? 🙁

And does Barack Obama really want a left wing challenge from a Russ Feingold, a Michael Bloomberg, or someone else that will weaken his candidacy, and lead to a right wing Republican becoming President by default in the 2012 Presidential election? 🙁

It is clear that the American people want our sons and daughters to come home, as this constant warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan over this past decade has done great harm to American society and accomplished almost no progress, while killing and wounding thousands of the younger generation, with no results worth defending!:(

George W. Bush: Two Years Later, Is He Delusional? :(

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George W. Bush has been out of the White House now for two years, and has been avoiding the public spotlight, while preparing his memoirs, which will come out next week!

But excerpts of the memoir have been leaked to the press, and it does not make Bush look very good! In fact, it makes one almost wonder if he has taken to drinking again, something he writes about in his memoir!

Well known as an alcoholic, joining the short list of Presidents who are defined as such (the others being distant relative Franklin Pierce, and Ulysses Grant), Bush reveals a great deal about himself in his memoir!

He tells us that he thought of replacing Vice President Dick Cheney with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, an interesting scenario, because had it happened, Frist might very well have been the Presidential nominee in 2008, rather than Senator John McCain!

He feels that Barack Obama has not been a success, forgetting the mess that he left for the new President, the worst situation since Herbert Hoover handed over the Presidency to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933!

Even more interesting is his assessment of his greatest failure: the inability to privatize Social Security in his second term! This would have led to the total destruction of the whole system had it occurred, with the stock market crash in 2008!

But somehow, Hurricane Katrina, September 11, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War–all of these are not depicted as failures, as compared to Social Security privatization! What planet is George W. Bush on? 🙁

Also, what was his greatest disappointment and upset? Not any of the above events, but when recording artist Kanye West called him a racist for his slow reaction to the horrors of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, particularly the flooding of New Orleans! Not the hurricane, but Kanye West calling him names, is the greatest upset Bush experienced!

By this statement of Bush, President Obama should be constantly upset over the crazy, loony verbal attacks on him by the “wingnuts” and the talk show hosts who don’t give him a pass on ANYTHING! 🙁

George W. Bush seems to the author to be a very troubled man who fails to face reality, and can too easily be “upset” by words of criticism!

Bush needs to learn the following: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” He needs to get off liquor and have some serious psychiatric help!

The question is how will the American people be able, finally, to overcome the damage he has wrought on this nation! 🙁