Tag Archives: Afghanistan

Afghan burning

Finishing "A Thousand Splendid Suns" got me interested again in Afghanistan, which I admit had fallen off my radar as of late. Just in time to find out that things look bleak. Nothing like the days when the Taliban was in charge, but apparently sliding back in their direction. NATO isn’t owning up to its promises, Canada is getting antsy, the Bush administration is promising a few thousand more Marines. This is supposed to be the Dems favored campaign, well Hilarity’s. Obama, last we heard, wants to retreat everywhere and invade Pakistan. Nowadays, he says nothing. What would McCain do? Shift troops there as they are withdrawn from Iraq? One brigade at a time? At least we know he won’t give up.

Via Soobdujour. 

Hate disguised as public service

I confess I didn’t pay much attention to the NYTimes’ latest smear on combat veterans–implying without context (statistical or otherwise) that the sometimes dubious violent crimes of 121 returned Afghanistan and Iraq veterans are connected to their combat experiences. The Democrat house organ helped invent the slur on Vietnam combat veterans as "ticking time bombs," making us the forerunners of the actual Muslim suicide bomber. But Ralph Peters doesn’t overlook such things, even if they aren’t news. In "The New Lepers," he describes the latest smear as "an artful example of hate-speech disguised as a public service."

Via Instapundit 

MORE: Beware the brutal veteran journalist, with actual incidents. Humor from Iowahawk. You might need to worry, because a lot of them are going to be laid off in the near future.

Military lessons of Iraq

Why we couldn’t simply replicate the Afghanistan/Taliban approach in democratizing Iraq:

"It is not enough to persuade a Muslim population to reject al Qaeda’s ideology and practice. Someone must also be willing and able to protect that population against the terrorists they had been harboring, something that special forces and long-range missiles alone can’t do."

Read it all

Swiss Afghanistan

Imagine Afghanistan as brown and tan and rubble-strewn? Some of it is, certainly, but not the Switzerland-like 10,000-foot "foothills" of the Hindu Kush in these beautiful photos put up by Blackfive of a 91st Cav air assault. Clean out the jihadis, build some hotels and tourism could really take off.

Maj. Thomas G. Bostick, Jr., R.I.P.

"Thomas Bostick was born in San Diego and moved to Llano after his father, Thomas G. Bostick Sr., ended his career in the Marines. Bostick joined the Army Reserve while at Llano High School, and after graduating in 1988, he made the Army his career."

Winning hearts and minds

This is one of the most balanced reports I’ve seen from the BBC, and it’s a reasonable take on the continuing problems of the Afghanistan campaign.

Army weak

"The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer." –Wired News

A few of the active-duty Iraq and Afghanistan milblogs in my blogroll have not stopped, but their stopping could be just around the corner. In the meantime, find them and go visit while you still can. Instapundit and Blackfive have commented on how politically and militarily stupid this is. Since the MSM rarely covers anything but American deaths, the milblogs are the only way for most civilians to know what’s going on. Were.

Wired News records this comment from a major explaining the new reg, which sounds like it may not stop all active duty milblogs:

"Some units may require that Soldiers register their blog with the unit for identification purposes with occasional spot checks after an initial review.  Other units may require a review before every posting.  A private e-mail message to Family Members is not considered posting information in a public forum, but U.S. Army personnel are informed that unclassified e-mails can be intercepted and that they shouldn’t write anything that they wouldn’t say on an unsecure phone."

But Badger 6, for one, thinks it may be the end, anyway: "Now the way I read that I should be able to continue blogging under our current unit policy. But in truth his explanation goes far afield of what the policy actually reads. I am very concerned that Army milblogs may not be long for this internet."