In an article by John Horgan, July 27, 2010, in ScientificAmerican, “Obama’s Choice For Warrior-In-Chief, Gen.  James Mattis,” Horgan wrote that Gen. Mattis “Calls Iraq Invasion ‘The Dumbest Thing We Ever Did.’”

It should have been no surprise that Gen. Mattis said that the 2003 invasion of Iraq “was the dumbest thing we ever did.” He is absolutely right.

He nevertheless insisted that the U.S. must now win the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He went on to say on America’s enemies: “There are real enemies out there. I’ve dealt with 
them. There are people who really believe girls don’t have the right to go to school… [They] try to bring those views forward in some form of tyranny.  That’s all it is. We are dealing with tyranny today, and there are very few people in Brussels or London or Washington, D.C., who are willing to call it what it is. In false religious garb, we have people who are continuing the same thing we fought in World War I when it was militarism. World War II was fascism (and) the Cold War and hot wars when it was communism. This is just another form of tyranny, is all it is. …This enemy must continue to kill and kill and kill.”

While the “WikiLeaks” published by Julian Paul Assange, seemingly a man with no country who has to sleek from country to country with his lap top computer under his arm, has made some generally know facts, become more public knowledge.

Particularly disturbing to some is the report of Pakistani support for the Taliban.

Personally, I have read or heard nothing I did not know before Assange. Including the Pakistani intelligence service ISI helping the Taliban. Can anyone blame them – the Pakistanis?

The Pakistanis will be around the area along after we are gone. They’re simply covering their bases.

Who can blame them? But, as Gen. Mattis said, we must now win or end the war with some semblance of stability in that war ravaged area of the world.

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New additions to the Taliban armory are the 12.6mm DshK heavy machine guns mounted on trucks, and new IEDs strapped to legs rather than to the waist ­hiding them from soldiers who demand suspects show inside their top clothing.

It has been reported that a surface-to-air missile strike by the Taliban that shot down a Chinook helicopter over Helmand in 2007 and killed seven soldiers. Recent reports have indicated a number of near misses.

The U.S. is particularly interested in retrieving unused Stingers from the stockpile of up to 2,000 distributed in the 1980s to the Mujahedeen. Afghan intelligence chiefs are authorized to pay $5,000 for former Soviet SA-7 missiles and $15,000 for a Stinger.

The New York Times, in its normal uninformed or ill-informed reporting, is reporting that the U.S. has been keeping it secret that the Taliban has used Stinger type missiles.

DefenseTech.org reported that during an April 2009 press conference, Lt.  Gen. Gary North, U.S. Air Forces Central Commander, acknowledged that the Taliban do in fact use IR MANPADs (heat-seeking, shoulder fired missiles) in  response to a reporter’s question on the subject.

An Intelligence report from January 2009 says an Iranian agent had arrived in Marjah in Helmand carrying four Stingers.

Additionally, the noted author James Patterson wrote in his latest book with Maxine Paetro, PRIVATE, that a character who served in Afghanistan was shot down by a Stinger type MANPAD.

It seems that everyone from Air Force generals to fiction writers, except the New York Times, knew that man portable anti-air missiles were being used by insurgents in Afghanistan.

RPGs remain the most lethal weapon system used in theatre accounting for the majority of aircraft losses.

The improvised explosive devices (IEDs) remain the main killer of NATO troops on ground patrols and in road convoys it is also an indiscriminate terror weapon killing and injuring thousands of civilians.

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DRUG WARS MAY HAVE COME TO TEXAS

by H. Thomas HaydenJuly 27, 2010

Local Texas authorities were concerned about a report on the Internet that Mexican drug gangs seized two ranches in South Texas.
Here is the story that made the rounds over the weekend:
According to www.examiner.com, Atlanta, GA, and San Diego County Political Buzz Examiner, Kimberly Dvorak:
“Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 U.S. ranches in Texas”
“In what could [...]

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BRITISH MORE PRACTICAL THAN U.S.?

by H. Thomas HaydenJuly 26, 2010

David Cameron, new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said he hoped British forces would be withdrawn from the Afghanistan within five years. However, he said that he found a mood of determination to get on with the job. But this was coupled with a strong sense that few Britons really understand what the UK [...]

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TERRORISM HAS NOT GONE AWAY

by H. Thomas HaydenJuly 24, 2010

For almost nine years now the U.S. has waged a Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). The information from the most recent terrorist, from the enraged Army major to the hapless Christmas bomber to the bungling New York City bomber, is being reported to be individual acts to terrorize the American population.
Unfortunately, there are those who [...]

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NON SEQUITUR REDUX

by H. Thomas HaydenJuly 23, 2010

When it was announced at West Point, U.S. Military Academy, that there was a new strategy for Afghanistan it was argued that by setting a deadline of next summer to begin drawing down troops he would create a sense of urgency for the Afghan government to take the lead in the fight, while acknowledging the [...]

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ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

by H. Thomas HaydenJuly 21, 2010

Below is a description of a video that is must for all Americans.
Read the information that I took off the website from the Center for Immigration Studies and then go the website at the end.
“Hidden Cameras on the Arizona Border 2: Drugs, Guns and 850 Illegal Aliens”
By Janice Kephart, Bryan Griffith
July 2010
Videos
“Hidden Cameras on the Arizona [...]

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WASHINGTON POST HYPE?

by H. Thomas HaydenJuly 20, 2010

Quote from the Washington Post: “…some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the [...]

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MEDIA FRIENDLY FIRE?

by H. Thomas HaydenJuly 19, 2010

American news reporters, TV news political talking heads, and politicos either clamor for withdrawing from Afghanistan or pursuing a more aggressive military campaign.
A recent The Wall Street Journal had an article that had a lead with: “McChrystal’s Fall Because of News Article Sends Shudders, Through (Though?) Strategy Dictates Good Relations With The Press.”
The article went [...]

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U.S. & SOUTH KOREA MILITARY EXERCISES

by H. Thomas HaydenJuly 17, 2010

The U.S. and South Korea have been conducting bilateral exercise for over 40 years.
While stationed on Okinawa in the 1980’s we saw the year started off with a Bear Hunt Exercise which was primarily and artillery shoot up near the DMZ. Then later the Team Spirit Exercise on the East Coast of South Korea was [...]

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