Protracted War, the Center of Gravity and "Hearts and MInd" in Afghanistan

There is one thing you must understand when anyone talks about Afghanistan; it is not a real country.  "Country" as a "nation-state" is a modern idea just going back about two hundred years.  The idea of country for the native was a place where "your people" live and speak your language.  Given Afghanistan has 49 languages, it would be difficult for these people to share a common culture.  Afghanistan is the creation of European "statesmen" of the 19th century who drew boundaries on maps to clarify the properties of those European states.  It was only much later that the natives were informed of this action.  In many parts of the world the natives of these regions have no regard for governments outside of their tribal associations.  It is because borders are conceptual that our soldiers are having a hard time.  Despite the fact, we've been there 8+ years, there is ever the fear that the Taliban and Al-Queda, will re-emerge the moment we leave.  

So what are we up against?  Let me lay out what the obvious strategies would be for the Taliban: plan to fight against the invaders for generations if necessary.  Such a practice would be very fitting given the existence of the blood feud and honor killing.  The death of a tribal fighter by NATO, would in fact invite a vendetta killing on foreign forces.   The second part of the of their strategy is keep the insurgency in the news, just as George Washington in keeping his army intact, symbolized resistance to the British.  Their object would be to sustain periodic attacks or bombings targets which symbolically defile Islamist teachings.  Those targets would be anything Western or is tainted by their influences. 

What do we have against them.  We do seek and destroy and try to win "hearts and mind' and build an Army of underpaid but brave fights, serving underneath unskilled and inexperienced commanders.  In our current operation, where the enemy fades, suddenly to pop-up and then fade again.  We have classic guerrilla war. The enemy slinks into villages, their weapons go down to hidden bunkers and we are none the wiser.

If this sounds like another Vietnam, it's because it is.  Oh by the way, just when we leave, they'll roll back in with tanks.

My Crazy FB friends and Barry Sotero.

Yes, I have a Face Book Account and FB friends, some are a little nuts.  But certainly not as crazy those on the left.  I separate the crazies into two categories: of paying their own way and probably have guns and those insist that the government feed and protect them.  My preference is for the former.  So here's a taste of a typical thread of discussion.  (The names are changed, because I love them) 

Thread initated

Andy Burton: Doesn't anybody wonder why he changed his name from Barry Soetoro to Barack Obama? I haven't seen one interest piece in any media. I always thought journalists were curious.

Yesterday at 9:58am · Comment ·LikeUnlike

3 people like this.

Deborah Anderson: This MSM today wont because they know it will expose him for the fraud he is and they wont have an ally (nor will he)!!!!

Yesterday at 10:03am Bob Lumpkin: He has not leagally changed it back at all. His signature is fraudulant on everything. Barry Soetoro is his adopted name from when Lolo Soetoro adopted him in Indonesia.

Yesterday at 10:08am Gail Kearny: One of the many, many things that make us go hmmmmm??? The MSM is worthless. I see them as the enemy. I have been watching the Olympics on NBC. The local news (that they stick in) and the NBC idiot talking heads are killing me!! I can't stand it.

Yesterday at 10:10am  Dan Pflouffe: Way too many unexplored, unchallenged inconsistencies with Obama. Both the media and current Republican reps get an epic fail for this one.

Yesterday at 10:20am  Quentin.Hayes: When you convert to Islam, you have to change your name to an Islamic name. Until Barrak RE-converts to Christianity (which he NEVER was anyway) and changes his name BACK to Barry, I won't listen to his rantings that he's NOT Muslim!

Yesterday at 10:25am Taylor Young: you've probably seen this... but I don't get why Republicans aren't screamimng from the top of the Capital Building.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FlEbBZLzo0

Yesterday at 10:39am Sam Goody: He has admitted that he is Muslim. I don't know why there is ever an agruement that he is not.

Yesterday at 10:42am Sam Goody: Dan...I agree!!! The Republicans should be all over them...and I do not understand why they are not!

Yesterday at 10:43am Dan Pflouffen :  Because our current lot of Republicans are nothing but cowards and thieves.

Yesterday at 10:45am  Kenny Macquinn: don't forget gutless too!

Yesterday at 10:50am  Bob Lumpkin: Republicans = Democrats in differant suits. They are all the same treasonist bastards.

Yesterday at 11:24am  Joyce Jones:  Have they ever proven that he legally changed his name from his adopted name of Barry Soetero? If not, then legally he is still Barry Soetero. and still an imposter.

Yesterday at 12:07pm Bob Lumpkin :He is still legally Barry Soetoro. He does not even try to hide it very well. His personal website is directed to the Whitehouse.

http://www.barrysoetoro.com

Yesterday at 12:14pm  Aby Tutweiler: Research the hebrew meanings of all parts of his name.. ADD that to everything.

Yesterday at 1:48pm Shay

Don't wonder. Mainstream journalist forget about it. I have a non-European name. I remember some other "foreign" kids couldn't stand being different so they changed name. Ramesh became Pat, and Anupe became Chris. Barry tried to fit in. Barry wanted to be loved, and at the insane asylums they call univeristies, he became radicalized and Barack. He was then and is now seeking authenticity, love and power. He suffers from inferiority complexes. His books reveal a confused man, stuck in his childhood and formative years. The boy had a screwy childhood and believes he can compensate by being the "father of the nation". His world view does not fit reality. Put it all together and you have a very strange man, with a finger of a trigger of the world's largest gun. He is very dangerous on this account. Obvious and unoriginal psychoanalysis.

Hurt Locker, Comments To "The Piss" blog Review - http://the-piss.blogspot.com/2010/02/hurt-locker-platoon-leader-of-iraq-war.html

This is a movie by the ex-wife of James (Avatar) Cameron.  Cameron on "Fresh Air" said he's still buddies with his ex.  Hollywood makes weird things a reality.  He and his ex are suppose to hate each other as God designed them.  But in Hollywood, fantasy happens and real people emulate it and they get messed up. 

So, that said.I don't know why any sane person would make this movie.  I love war movies and I don't plan to see it.

Look, this is a movie about people who are by definition crazy, they defuse bombs.
People who deal with bombs are crazy.  If you build/design a bomb (terrorist or industrialist) or if you think you're smart enough to defuse a bomb, you're crazy.  Why would I want to watch a movie about crazy people, the character know if they will be alive the next moment and we're suppose to empathize?  Wanting to make a movie about people on the verge of getting blown up is crazy. People who go to see movies, where the object to incite emotions of viewers to sympathize with crazy people is crazy.  If this movie wins, best movie, it will only reinforce what we know about the "Academy", their crazy.

http://the-piss.blogspot.com/2010/02/hurt-locker-platoon-leader-of-iraq-war.html

Programming Believers - Talking Points to Defend Climate Change

http://www.grist.org/article/series/skeptics/

Educate Yourself About Climate Change.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/about/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/climategate/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/about/

http://climatechangeskeptic.blogspot.com/

Smart Cars,Smart Roads : Not High Speed Waste

Dear Senator Martin,

You may have noticed there's not much enthusiasm for High Speed Rail. What there is, reminds me of the Monorail Frenzy Song on the Simpsons.

I know you are passionate in your opposition to High Speed Rail, per your piece on FaceBook (we're friends). I am in complete agreement. The future of transportation should be "evolutionary" and reflect how we live, rather than inserting inappropriate and terribly technology. Government has role in the development of infrastructure, this is the historical precedence from the Appian Way to the Kings Highway. HS Rail will actually be a duplication and competitor to airplanes and development and production will be foreign.

My background in summary, I am a retired Army Officer, I've worked in technological futures concepts at Fort Lee from 1996 to 2001. Successful development and insertion of technologies is dependent on business models, which is "how do we live". You spotted in this, in asking happens to high speed rail travelers at the terminus? Taxis, buses, rental cars aren't practical and are not financially prudent for day trips. The real answer is Smart Cars & Smart Road. Their development is organic and the benefit of this private public partnership will create a bonanza and challenge every American. I am not looking for job, I teach JROTC and I'm fine.
I just don't want to see a financial sink hole.

Let's get this funded. Technology has to be appropriate for the society it enters.

Excellent link.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/2862586.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123447510631779255.html

http://www.roadstothefuture.com/Smart_Road.html

http://www.vtti.vt.edu/virginiasmartroad.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700009394/Smart-roads-Driving-technology-accelerates.html

http://green.autoblog.com/tag/smart+roads/

WWII Japanese Barbarities Revealed

After WWII, the allied leaders, sought to make life easier for its people tired by years of war.  So the allies and their defeated foes turned to rebuilding.  Yes, the allies prosecuted the the most blatant leader of atrocities and moved to unite with old enemies against new ones.  Yet those old horrors keep coming back.

Here's tidy of WWII horrors recently brought to light.  A little more proof that man is a beast only restrained by a properly informed morality.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/7236099/Human-bones-could-reveal-truth-of-Japans-Unit-731-experiments.html

Stossel on Hayek's Road to serfdom

townhall link

letters@time.com

Obama now says Wall Street bonuses are just swell

bloomberg link

What About a People's Bail-out

Dear Editor, Letters Richmond Times Dispatch.

A year ago the Richmond Times-Dispatch was kind enough to publish my letter, first denouncing Beltway economists and then recommending government give citizens their money to let them decide who gets the bail-outs.  Simple concept, let the citizens spend their money as they like and not the winners and losers chosen by politicians, many of whom are owned by special interests.   After the election of '08 the people wanted change Washington, yet it's "still business as usual", only worse.   Take for example that assurances that bonus payments would not go to executives in bailed out companies. We've yet to staunched the flow of bonus money to the clowns who screwed up in the first place.  Additionally, stimulus monies have not "created" not or saved enough jobs to reduce the number of unemployed persons.  Talking about the unemployment rate at this point is meaningless. In October '09 there were 15 million unemployed and it's only worse now.
Sadly, government has borrowed trillions and has little to show for it, except possibly more federal jobs.  Fraud has stolen billions.  The only consumer oriented bail-out "cash for clunkers" went primarily to foreign automakers and not the government owned General Motors, for which it was intended.  Tell me again why we own an automobile company?   So, if we're going to borrow on our collective futures let's have a fling that will go down in history books.  Give the money back to the people.  This last waltz will jump start the economy and will certainly stimulate businesses large and small.   If that stimulus fails, we're in far more dire straits than anyone can imagine, and I know that we're already entering into the Enron style of accounting.  The worst that can happen is a reset of the entire economy, which may happen anyway, when the Chinese call our debt. 
Perhaps a reset will ultimately force us to rediscover the idea of self-reliance, the importance of family, civic and social virtue and even religion (you fill-in which).  We may rediscover that there is more to life than making a buck.  

Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Federal Wedge of Homosexual Marriage

Now that everyone is confused about the idea of homosexuals in uniform and about the nature of marriage and how we got to where we are, let me put some perspective on it. 

First of all, we've always had homosexual warriors.  This goes back to Sparta, Rome, Native Americans and the Nazi Brown Shirts prior to the "Night of the Long Knives".   We've had them all along in this country too, William Manchester talks about them in "Goodbye Darkness."   The military is by nature a strange thing, that no one outside the service will ever know.  We all know what the rules are, but the level to which they are enforced is another thing.  We are of all things practical people.  Yes we have the crazies, but on the whole we are not robots to be ordered to our deaths. 

The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and its predecessor codes prohibited all practices of sex outside of marriage.  Did that mean we didn't have adulterers or pederasts, hardly.  The best drill sergeant of my Infantry AIT company turned out to be a predator of recruits.  No fanfare or publicity, he was set away after a courts martial to Fort Leavenworth.   By the time we got to Don't Ask, Don't Tell, heterosexual sexual mischief was rampant in society and the military was no exception.  Prudent and thoughtful commanders always wanted discretion of sexual matters by his subordinates for the maintenace of good order and discipline.  In my 30 years of service I've never witnessed a sexual orientation witch hunt.  Though I've counselled members in favor of more discretion. 

The removal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", may seem a minor acknowledgement of a persons sexual orientation to be "gay" but it is more.   Acts which dishonor the uniform, will continue to be in force.  Predatory acts by both homosexuals and heterosexuals will continue to be banned, as will fraternization.  Discretion will still be the rule, nobody wants to hear about sexual conquests in polite society, and nobody wants a flaming homosexual giving a SITREP.  No one can dispute heroic and honorable service by homosexuals in uniform, but this is not to ignore problems that we've had with predatory behaviors that were punished under UCMJ for both hetero and homosexual members.  Sexual license will always be a problem.  

The problem ultimately is that the normalization of homosexuality in the military and will necessarily become a Federal wedge into the recognition of same sex marriage in all states. It works this way. All that is required by the military today, is to submit a notorized copy of a marriage certificate to the proper offices and your spouse is issued an ID card for all their federal spousal benefits.  The recognition of a spouse, essentially says that the federal government has blessed your union and now every state must recognize your standing. 

With federal recognition of spousal rights, a gay couple wed in a state with gay marriage, need only submit the document and because, self disclosure as a homosexual is permissible, homosexual marriage will now have federal standing, the issue of a state constitutions becomes irrelevant. 

So without popular will or legal rangling gay rights, is a fait accompli.   And everyone who thinks differently is just too dumb to know what happened. 

Time for the Tea Parties and States Rights to mobilize public opinion during the year that the military will study the issue and for Admiral Mullen to retire.

Criminal Trials For Terrorists - A Pay Off to Trial Lawyer Lobby

For 8 years in this war we've employed an odd, assortment of  practices to deal with enemy combatants in our war against "terror."  The legal quibbling of the Bush administration lawyers didn't help nor did renditions and quasi-torturing.  Worse, this change of adminstrations, puts the issue into the hands of Democratic lawyers, who by tradition are silly prevaricators extra-ordinaire (remember Elian Gonzalez, Ruby Ridge and Waco) .   There is still the possibility that we will spend hundreds for millions to criminally prosecute and defend Sheik Kalid Mohadmed in a show trials to make OJ Simpson's trial look like TV's "Law and Order".

We got ourselves into this mess because of some odd words we called it a "war on terror" and the enemy called themselves "Holy Warriors" but didn't want to treat them as soldiers,   So let's treat them, for what the are, enemy soldiers.   So, we will have to put them in prison camps until the end of the war, and so we will wait it out, comes 10 or a hundred years.   Those soldiers we take will not see freedom.  They will rot in jails, without special meals, big screen TV's or special prayer rooms and no chance of a martyrs death.  So let's see if that is a deterrent, because that the idea of spending a life time alone, scares the hell out of me.

If and when the compatriots leaders surrender and the war is finally ended, and there are no attacks for say ten years, we begin war crimes trials for the most blatant war criminals.  These new POW camps will have features unlike like those of Stalag 17 or Hogan's Heroes Stalag 13, they will be maximum individual isolation camps, Supermax prisons.  There our prisoners will be deprived of the human touch, sight or word.  No hope of escape and total isolation as their reward for going against us.  Changing hearts is far more difficult than changing minds.

In depriving these Holy Warriors of their matryrs deaths, our enemy will wither as their fate is televised to the world from which they came, as a reality TV series and the would be martyrs are dissauded by the boredom promised. 

Americans want to end wars quickly, but this war is not going away, and we must employ our own concept of "protracted warfare"  and mercilessly employ the boredom to kill the will.

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Politicians say what they say to get votes. This one doesn't even bother to cover his tracks, he thinks we're that stupid.

 16 Lies in 7 minutes: State of the Union Video Breakdown

"The day I'm inaugurated...the world looks at America differently."