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Trade Issues

Colombia Free Trade Agreement

If President Obama would sign the pending Colombia free trade agreement, U.S. exports would rise $1.1 billion, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission...

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

Economic Issues

The Folly Of Subsidizing Unemployment

The jobless rate could be as low as 6.8 percent, instead of 9.5 percent, if jobless benefits hadn't been extended to 99 weeks, concludes Robert Barro, an economics professor at Harvard University and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution...

WALL STREET JOURNAL

Economic Issues

Record Number In Government Anti-Poverty Programs

Expanded federal safety net programs won't contract after the economy recovers. In fact, they're much harder to unwind in the long term, says Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute...

USA TODAY

Crime

The Government Can Use GPS To Track Your Moves

You do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway -- and no reasonable expectation that the government is not tracking your movements, says Adam Cohen, a former member of the New York Times editorial board...

TIME MAGAZINE

Government Issues

Public Pension Records Release Denied

Information needed to assess Ohio's pension systems and its cost to private citizens is being denied to news organizations, says think tank...

BUCKEYE INSTITUTE

International Issues

Bury The Graveyard

Afghans have long understood the tendency of foreigners to view them as untamable savages and have been happy to leverage the stereotype to their advantage, says Thomas Barfield, an anthropologist at Boston University...

FOREIGN POLICY

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US CENTCOM Press Releases


Marine gives life trying to save Afghan policeman

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 05:29 AM PDT

PATROL BASE JAKER, Afghanistan (Aug. 24, 2010) — Cpl. Joe L. Wrightsman gave his life trying to save an Afghan policeman drowning in Afghanistan’s Helmand River July 18. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/news/marine-gives-life-trying-to-save-afghan-policeman)
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US CENTCOM Press Releases


U.S., Pakistani militaries bond in disaster relief

Posted: 26 Aug 2010 07:32 AM PDT

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 26, 2010) — The Pakistani military has shown tremendous cooperation, support, and friendship toward U.S. forces providing flood relief in northern Pakistan, the U.S. general in charge of troops there said Aug. 25. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/news/u-s-pakistani-militaries-bond-in-disaster-relief)

Insurgent morale low in face of security ops

Posted: 25 Aug 2010 04:39 AM PDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (Aug. 25, 2010) — Intelligence reports indicate some pockets of low insurgent morale, with some insurgent fighters reluctant to keep fighting and some refusing to assume district commands when commanders are captured or killed. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/news/insurgent-morale-low-in-face-of-security-ops)

U.S., allies train for disasters

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 08:08 AM PDT

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (Aug. 24, 2010) — The U.S. and allies in Central and South Asia are training here Aug. 19-28 to coordinate and improve their response to man-made or natural disasters. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/news/u-s-allies-train-for-disasters)

JTF-435 provides computer equipment to Afghan courts

Posted: 24 Aug 2010 06:38 AM PDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (Aug. 23, 2010) — To assist the Afghan government's rule of law capabilities, Joint Task Force 435 transferred computer equipment here Aug. 21. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/press-releases/jtf-435-provides-computer-equipment-to-afghan-courts)
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US CENTCOM Press Releases


Petraeus: Progress made, but challenges continue

Posted: 23 Aug 2010 02:05 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Aug. 23, 2010) – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan today cited encouraging signs of progress in Afghanistan during an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention and in a BBC interview. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/news/petraeus-progress-made-but-chllenges-continue)

Commander describes road march out of Iraq

Posted: 23 Aug 2010 04:43 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Aug. 20, 2010) – The redeployment of the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Iraq demonstrated the changes that have happened in the country. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/news/commander-describes-road-march-out-of-iraq)
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It's what we need to win in Afghanistan, and we don't have it.

Remember right after 9/11, when we knew damn good and well that Pakistan's ISI was the Taliban's patron and therefore an accessory to al Qaeda's attacks, and were so undeterred that Richard Armitrage (yes, the Wilsons' leaker, in case Sean Penn - good casting, I gotta admit - starts leading your recollection of "Yellowcake Joe" and his non-spook moll astray again) told Pervez Musharraf that we'd "bomb his country back to the stone age" if he didn't switch sides RIGHT F'ing NOW?  And Musharraf complied with such alacrity that the only reason nobody noticed was that Pakistani army uniforms come with brown pants?

Now THAT was clarity.  And that clarity remained, more or less, for the next six years, or as long as Musharraf remained in power, because only Musharraf had the clout to control the Pakistani army and at least keep the ISI on a moderately tight leash.  Ergo, realpolitik demanded that President Bush put aside his Wilsonian democracy fetish until the Taliban on both sides of the Af-Pak frontier could be crushed once and for all.  Deposing Musharraf prematurely would inevitably lead to Pakistan's re-destablization, free the Islamist ISI to openly support the Taliban, and therefore oppose us in Afghanistan, muddlize the whole theatre, and create such a hopeless mess that victory would become well nigh impossible.

And that's exactly what happened.  So when King Hussein whines about having inherited this particular problem, it's his metaphorical stopped clock.

Musharraf was the lynchpin holding everything else together.  Once he was gone, it all pretty much went to hell, to where it became little wonder that Hamid Karzai began to doubt NATO's ability to hold down the Taliban (particularly when it would pretty much require invading Pakistan to cut off ISI's support), hedge his bets, and suddenly see "peace partners" in the faces of his enemies.

The hell of it is, we know how this road ends, and so does he:

The same is likely to happen in Afghanistan if those Taliban leaders who have committed the worst atrocities are given control over the communities they terrorized. Images of abuses against women are likely to be broadcast around the world, raising the painful question of whether this is what foreign and Afghan troops sacrificed for. There could be retribution against perceived U.S. and government collaborators, and people fleeing areas where insurgents are given power. Afghanistan’s ethnic minorities (who together constitute a majority) are especially fearful of a deal that increases the Taliban’s influence; many Afghans believe that a hasty process could lead to a broader civil war.

The short of it is, Afghanistan, after nine years of war, will be returned to the pre-9/11 status quo ante: Taliban-controlled, a safe haven for al Qaeda, allied with Pakistani Intelligence, only this time without the check that used to be provided by the Pakistani Army.  All that time, blood, and treasure sacrificed so that bin Laden could wind up CLOSER to controlling Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

How does it make y'all feel that your very lives might be riding on the outcome of pathetic hijinx like this?:

“We picked up Baradar and the others because they were trying to make a deal without us,” said a Pakistani security official, who, like numerous people interviewed about the operation, spoke anonymously because of the delicacy of relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. “We protect the Taliban. They are dependent on us. We are not going to allow them to make a deal with Karzai and the Indians.”…

A senior NATO officer in Kabul said that in arresting Mr. Baradar and the other Taliban leaders, the Pakistanis may have been trying to buy time to see if President Obama’s strategy begins to prevail. If it does, the Pakistanis may eventually decide to let the Taliban make a deal. But if the Americans fail — and if they begin to pull out — then the Pakistanis may decide to retain the Taliban as their allies…

The Pakistanis refused to allow the C.I.A. to interrogate Mr. Baradar or even to be present when they spoke. Another Pakistani official said Mr. Baradar was taken to a safe house in Islamabad, where he was debriefed. It was only several days later that the C.I.A. learned of his identity and were allowed to question him.

The Pakistani official even joked about the C.I.A.’s naïveté. “They are so innocent,” he said.

Eeyore asks, rhetorically (or at least he SHOULD):

Why that isn’t instant grounds for recalling the U.S. ambassador from Pakistan, I have no idea; if they’re releasing men into the field who are angling to kill American troops and destabilize the Afghan government, they’re basically operating parallel to how Iran is operating with some of the Shiite militias in Iraq. And yet, no consequences.

That answers both questions, actually.  The Bush Administration, quite simply, did not want war with Iran, even though Iran waged war against us in Iraq for years and a showdown with the mullahs is inevitable.  The same, of course, holds infinitely moreso for the Obama regime in both theaters.  And even if they did seek victory, the price they'd have to pay - a wider war, especially if we brought in our Indian allies to counterbalance the Paks, as Eeyore suggests - would be a dead-on-arrival non-starter.

And so we cut weak-assed deals with the enemy that will guarantee precisely the wider war we want to avoid, at far greater ultimate cost to ourselves.  A two-front war, as a matter of fact.  A war that we have refused to fight and refused to fight, until the time approaches when we will no longer be able to fight it, much less win.

In the back of my mind, knowing that America doesn't do long wars, I've always harbored this doubt.  Because the cost of what it would take to refocus public determination might be more than we can imagine.

That's one instinct whose clarity I wish I could keep ignoring.  Because more than ever it seems like only a matter of time.

And time is running out.

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townhall magazine


Islamist Infiltration: A Threat to Our Survival

Editor's Note: With the growing controversy surrounding the proposed Mosque at Ground Zero we felt this article, featured in the May issue of Townhall Magazine, should be revisited.

America is under attack from within.

If you're like most Americans, you're likely unfamiliar with the Muslim Brotherhood--their history and their agenda.

Our fellow citizens need to know that the Muslim Brotherhood is leading the way for radical Muslims to infiltrate American society and government. Their goal is simple: control the United States and impose Shariah law.

Don't think this is a realistic threat? Well, they've already started.

Get Townhall Magazine today and receive Laura Ingraham's The Obama Diaries free!



Here's an excerpt from "Islamist Infiltration":
[M]any serious observers of America’s war with militant Islam see reasons for alarm. A case in point—the Fort Hood Massacre. It was shocking enough to learn that the American domestic military establishment cannot even protect its own troops inside the United States. But what seemed even more shocking was the fact that the country’s most senior Army officer, Gen. George Casey, publicly stated that the attack caused him to be more worried about harm to the military’s diversity than the disgrace that failed to prevent such an appalling waste of lives.

Many fear our superpower status is rapidly ebbing away and, shockingly, at the behest of our own government. … Given the escalating Islamic threat, it seems appropriate to ask: Why is this diminution of American power happening? Are there Islamic jihadists influencing our government? Who are the jihadists influencing? What have they accomplished? And what is their end game?

In the mid-20th century, the Brotherhood began its campaign to infiltrate and impact the direction of the United States.

During the 1960s, the Brotherhood began sending vast numbers of students to American universities.

In 1973, with massive Saudi funding, they formed the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), an investment vehicle that enabled them to acquire 300 mosques and schools in the United States.

Get Townhall Magazine today and receive Laura Ingraham's The Obama Diaries free!

In 1987, Hamas, the Palestinian wing of the Brothers with the stated goal of destroying Israel, was founded and largely funded by American Muslims.

In 1990, the Brotherhood formed the American Muslim Council (AMC) with Abdurahman Alamoudi as its boss and the new capo di tutti of the entire syndicate.

Then in 1994, the Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) was founded.

In 1980, there were 481 officially recognized Mosques in the United States. Today, there are 1,209, with an estimated 80 percent of those funded and controlled by Saudi Arabia, where the official religion is virulently anti-Western Wahhabi Islam.

Paul Sperry and David Gaubatz’s book “Muslim Mafia” exposes the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities in America using declassified FBI documents, FBI agent interviews, transcripts of telephone wire taps and thousands of internal documents smuggled out of CAIR headquarters by Gaubatz’s son, Chris Gaubatz, who posed as an American convert to Islam and was hired by CAIR. They demonstrate that the Brotherhood is now a worldwide central clearinghouse for virtually all Sunni terrorist groups, is operating inside U.S. mosques across the country and is in complete control of CAIR and its myriad subsidiaries.

And while the House of Saud attempts to portray itself as a loyal U.S. trading partner, the authors prove that it is actually financing and partnering with the Brotherhood, that it is actively undermining our national security, and that it controls CAIR and at least 46 other supposedly moderate Muslim front groups in the United States, along with countless other subsidiary shell companies. And for the first time, they expose the Brotherhood’s five-phase plan for dominating America:

• Phase I: Establish an elite Muslim Leadership and raise Islamicist consciousness in the community;

• Phase II: Create Islamic institutions that the leadership can control and form autonomous Muslim enclaves;

• Phase III: Infiltrate America’s political and social institutions forming a shadow state; escalate conversions; manipulate mass media to remove language offensive to Islam;

• Phase IV: Open hostile public confrontation over U.S. policies, riot, make militant demands for special rights and accommodations;

• Phase V: Wage final conflict and overthrow (jihad).

According to Sperry and Gaubatz, the consensus among counterterrorism officials is that the North American Brotherhood is already in Phase III.
Want to find out who some of the Muslim Brotherhood players are who have successfully gained access to the highest levels of our government?

Are you curious who in our government has been compromised?

Read the entire article then order Townhall magazine today to ensure you will be up to date on any new developments.
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US CENTCOM Press Releases


Marines, Afghan Army combat IEDs in Trek Nawa

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 07:56 AM PDT

TREK NAWA, Afghanistan (Aug. 17, 2010) — It was only six hours into the first day of Operation Thresher and the Marines were already seeing success. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/news/marines-afghan-army-combat-ieds-in-trek-nawa)
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US CENTCOM Press Releases


Insurgent rocket attack kills 3 children

Posted: 16 Aug 2010 07:20 AM PDT

DAM ABAD, Afghanistan (Aug. 16, 2010) — An insurgent rocket landed here Aug. 14, killing three small children and injuring their mother. Read more... (http://www.centcom.mil/news/insurgent-rocket-attack-kills-3-children)
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US CENTCOM Latest News Feed


Gen. Petraeus sends Ramadan greetings to people of Afghanistan

Posted: 11 Aug 2010 05:29 AM PDT

I’m General David Petraeus, Commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force. And on behalf of all the members of ISAF, I want to extend very best wishes to you and your families as you celebrate the holy month of Ramazan. Read more... (http://www.centcom.milindex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2018&catid=13〈=en)

Petraeus praises Afghans for reaching defense goals ahead of schedule

Posted: 11 Aug 2010 04:23 AM PDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (Aug. 11, 2010) - ISAF Commander General David Petraeus today praised the Afghan Ministry of Defense for reaching its goal of 134,000 trained Afghan National Army soldiers two months ahead of schedule. Read more... (http://www.centcom.milindex.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2016&catid=13〈=en)
 
 
 
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