The Real Reason Obama Is Escalating In Afghanistan | World | AlterNet

Chris Parenti suggests "The real purpose of these 30,000 soldiers is to make Obama look tough as he heads toward the next U.S. presidential election." I think he's forgetting the things Obama said about the two wars. He called Afghanistan the just war, the one we should have fought, rather than the delusionary distraction war in Iraq. Parenti suggests "It is political theater, nothing else" and I suggest that Parenti should reread Obama's speeches from 2007-8. I think many people projected onto Obama the hopes they had for what could be and pretended that Obama promised everything they hoped should be true. Maybe that's why people are disappointed with him now, that he isn't fulfilling all their wishes.

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/144421/the_real_reason_obama_is_escalating_in_afghanistan

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan Revealed | World | AlterNet

An elite division of Blackwater plans targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. And everyone's denying it. At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

Article Reference: 

http://www.alternet.org/world/144153/blackwater's_secret_war_in_pakistan_reveale...

The Taliban Strikes Back

Taliban capture two Afghanistan towns: Hey, waitaminnit, didn't we declare Mission Accomplished? Wasn't the Taliban thoroughly stomped upon?

What's going on? Can anybody explain this?

Well, okay, enough with rhetorical questions. Basically the war in Afghanistan was an underfunded crock. Despite Afghanistan being the location of the cuplrits of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the major war focus was not on Afghanistan but on Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with that attack, yet the major focus was on creating a war in Iraq.

And.. now... we see Pakistani's helping the Taliban to reestablish itself. Wait, isn't Pakistan the Friend of the United States? Well, these Pakistani's are of the border tribal areas, as are the Taliban themselves. I get the impression that along the Pakistan and Afghanistan border is a tribal area that isn't fully integrated with either country, and possibly is its own culture separate from both Pakistani and Afghan cultures.

Scores of Taliban militants chased police out of two southern Helmand districts near the border with Pakistan.

... Afghan officials have said scores of Taliban fighters, many crossing into Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan, fought Garmser's small contingent of policemen -- holed up in a concrete compound -- for 16 days before the police withdrew.

While Taliban militants have long operated freely in former southern stronghold provinces, their capture of two towns highlights the weakness of Afghanistan's police forces in remote areas, and the challenge ahead faced by international forces to restore order in the country.

"The Taliban have reconstituted and dispersed, but this is certainly not about the Taliban being strong. The reality is that the government has not yet extended to the far-reaching areas of the country," Collins said.

Col. Collins is proving himself to be a master of spin.