Defense Secretary Forecasts Two or Three More Years of Combat Operations Before U.S. Can Transition to Advisory Role, By Julian E. Barnes, WSJ, 4 Sept 2010, p.12..

“COMBAT OUTPOST SENJARAY, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he envisions two or three more years of combat operations in Afghanistan before the U.S. transitions to an advisory role, a mission likely to last years more.”

Gates’s comments came Friday at a military camp outside Kandahar were his most decisive to date on the war’s timeline. His comments came as he made a vigorous, public case that the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy would prove to be working by the time the administration begins its next review of the war in December.

The surge of 30,000 U.S. troops in December 2009 has brought the current American force to about 100,000. But the U.S. has pledged to begin drawing down the surge troops in July 2010. The timeline outlined by Gates on Friday appeared to be an attempt to set expectations that combat will continue in Afghanistan, without making it appear that he supports an endless war.

So, Gates has probably determined that he is a short timer so he has to set his record straight no matter what the spin comes out of the rest of Washington, D. C.

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 Afghan Leader Condemns Air Strike As Gates Arrives
(Reuters.com)…Phil Stewart and Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters
…Civilian casualties caused by foreign forces hunting militants have caused major tension between Karzai and his Western allies. The latest incident came at a bad time as Defense Secretary Robert Gates landed for unannounced talks.

Karzai Calls Aide’s Arrest ‘Exactly Reminiscent’ Of Soviet Times
(Washington Post)…Greg Jaffe
…The president’s remarks, delivered at a news conference in the capital, are likely to fuel criticism that he is unwilling to crack down on the pervasive corruption within his administration. But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who appeared with Karzai on Thursday, did not publicly challenge him on either the corruption issue or the Afghan president’s contention that the arrest represented an abuse of human rights.

 Karzai Kin Asks U.S. To Bolster His Bank
(Wall Street Journal)…Matthew Rosenberg and Maria Abi-Habib
A top shareholder in Afghanistan’s largest bank called on the U.S. to shore up the lender after depositors withdrew about a third of its cash reserves in two days, while the country sought to avert a destabilizing crisis at a crucial moment in the fight against the Taliban.

 And saving the best for last:

Karzai: Obama’s 2011 Pullout Timetable ‘Boosting Enemy Morale’
VOA, August 27, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticized a plan by U.S. President Barack Obama to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan next July.
Mr. Karzai told a visiting U.S. congressional delegation Thursday that Mr. Obama’s July 2011 deadline for the start of a troop pullout has given insurgents a “morale boost.”

Does anyone see a pattern here?

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The annihilation of Western civilization and the establishment of an Islamic caliphate, ruled by Sharia Law, is the goal of the Islamic extremist.

There is some validity that the present administration has not come to grips with what is a terrorist but under current law, an Islamic terrorist and what may be called an environmental activist can be classified as a terrorist. Yes, anyone burning a logging truck may commit a terrorist act as  opposed vandalism.

The Supreme Court has ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 2006, that the Geneva Conventions do apply to terrorist in U.S. custody including Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees.

Not open to interpretation.

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Department of Justice Lists 

Public Intelligence

A recent Department of Justice guide for investigators of criminal and extremist groups lists “constitutionalists” and “survivalists” alongside organizations like Al-Qaeda and the Aryan Brotherhood.  The 120-page, “Law Enforcement Sensitive” guide to “Investigating Terrorism and Criminal Extremism – Terms and Concepts” describes itself as “a glossary designed primarily as a tool for criminal justice professionals to enhance their understanding of words relating to extremist terminology, phrases, activities, symbols, organizations, and selected names that they may encounter while conducting criminal investigations or prosecutions of members of extremist organizations.”

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The Washingtonpost.com, August 31, 2010, has an interesting headline: Gates: All Is Not Well As Combat Role Ends, By Anne Gearan, Associated Press.

All is not well –what an understatement.

All is not well in Iraq as the U. S. formally closes down its “combat mission” there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday, warning that political paralysis and continued sectarian violence cloud the Iraqis future.

Gates said conditions in Iraq are much better; however, as the United States shifts to an advisory role seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

“I am not saying all is, or necessarily will be, well in Iraq,” Gates said, noting the lack of a new government more than six months after national elections, and continued sectarian tension.

“This is not a time for premature victory parades or self-congratulation, even as we reflect with pride on what our troops and their Iraqi partners have accomplished,” Gates told an American Legion audience.

Cannot understand how 50,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq will not be in “combat missions.”

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Is it just me that doesn’t get it or do we have serious gaps in our human intelligence collection in all agencies?

First it was a former senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Ana Belen Montes, who on September 21, 2001, was arrested and subsequently charged with Conspiracy to Commit Espionage for Cuba. Montes eventually pleaded guilty to spying, and in October, 2002, she was sentenced to a 25-year prison term followed by 5 years of probation. Montes was head of the Cuban desk at DIA.

Now we have Walter Kendal Myers and his wife Gwendolyn, who spied for Cuba for nearly 30 years. YES 30 YEARS.

Walter was a State Department analyst in the State Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and he is the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell.

In July 2010, Walter Myers, Code named Agent 202 and his wife was Agent 123, who said that she found Fidel Castro to be the “…most …incredible statesman in… a hundred years, for goodness sakes,” were unrepentant. Walter got life and Gwendolyn got only 82 months. She can be out in four to five years.

They said that the highlight of their career was being flown to Cuba in 1995 for a four hour meeting with Fidel Castor. YES – 1995!

With Aldrich Ames at the CIA, Robert Hanssen at the FBI, Ana Montes at DIA, and now Walter Myers at State, one has to wonder what the Cubans have at the National Security Agency (NSA).

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My copy of the Marine Corps GAZETTE arrived today and as usual had a number of very interesting article even for an old retired grunt like me. One article caught my interest right away: “The Medal of Honor, An era of overprotection,” by Capt Wes J. Deaver. Actually, a photo with an errant caption caught my eye. There was a photograph of a display case with the MOH: “Col Jefferson DeBlanc won (sic) his Medal of Honor during World war II.”

If there had been a contest I would have won one. The MOH is earned and the men who receive it are MOH recipients NOT winners.

Then in reading the full article I found the most peculiar information. It has been nine years since the first Americans assaulted Afghanistan and as of 1 Dec 2009, 5,299 American servicemen and women have died. Yet of all these honorable men and women ONLY an unbelievable six have earned the MOH. Of these six MOHs awarded since the Global War on Terrorism began, all were awarded posthumously.

During the fiasco in Mogadishu in 2001, two members of Army Special Forces posthumously were awarded the MOH.

So, doing the math we have eight who has earned the MOH and all died to earn it.

Is death a requirement today to earn the MOH? Surely out of the thousands who have fought in Iraq or Afghanistan and earned the Distinguish Service Cross or the Navy Cross, one or two must have been of the “above and beyond the call of duty” for the MOH.

Then I read the most shocking story about a Marine Sgt Rafael Peralta who on 15 Nov 2004, was shot in the head and fell to the ground and as he laid there the insurgents threw a grenade where Sgt Peralta grabbed it and pulled it under his body thus saving the lives of his fellow Marines. The entire chain of command including the Commandant of the Marine Corps and Secretary of the Navy approved the award recommendation.

In an extremely unusual event, the Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, returned the recommendation requesting more information. Wait there’s more.

In June 2007, SecDef Robert M. Gates assigned five individuals to review the case. After Gate’s review he decided that Peralta would not receive the MOH but would instead receive the Navy Cross.

It is most unfortunate when all the top leaders on the goverenment have no military experience what so ever. They have no idea of the hardships and tribulations of the members of the Armed Forces.

LtCol H. T. Hayden USMC (Ret)

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The so called “tightening sanction” against Iran is not going to work. Iran easily thumbs its nose and carries on as before. Sanctions plainly will not work.

The nuclear program will not stop and there will be no softening of the hardliners in Iran.

The Iranian government can get all it needs from supporting Islamic states like Syria.

Additionally, threaten military action from the current administration is a non-starter. It is highly likely that a military strike against Iran by the Israelis or the US together will not work. Any strike cannot get all the targets necessary for a successful strike – air defense suppression, electronic warfare, air-to-air defense, etc. Then there is the problem of harden targets.

Nothing is guaranteed – so what is plan B?

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Wikipedia reports Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (“Movement of Warrior Youth”), more commonly known as al-Shabaab (“The Youth” or “The Lads”) is an Islamist insurgency group in the ongoing war in Somalia. As of summer 2010 the group is said to control most of the southern and central parts of Somalia, including “a large swath” of the capital, Mogadishu, where it is said to have imposed its own “harsh” form of Sharia law. Estimates of al-Shabaab’s strength, as of December 2008, vary between 3,000 to 7,000. Some moderate Somali paramilitary groups, or Sufis such as Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a are opposed to this radical Wahabi movement.

Recently Al Shabaab launched a major assault on Mogadishu but does not appear to have taken any new territory in the city, as their forces were repelled by both the government-allied Islamist militia Ahlu Sunnah Waljamaah (ASWJ), as well as a counterattack by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeepers. However, the offensive indicates an increase in the scope of attacks by the jihadist Al Shabaab in the Somali capital.

According to stratfor.com fighting appears to have quieted down as of now, but is likely to resume. While an AMISOM spokesman denied Aug. 24 the reports that reinforcements had begun to arrive, he also vowed that they were still on their way, and that AMISOM would “tell the world” when they got there. Al Shabaab is likely to respond by demonstrating its strength in targeting multiple areas of Mogadishu. It also means that plans to relocate Somali parliamentarians and United Nations offices from Nairobi to Mogadishu will likely be set back.

The struggle for Somalia continues

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Saw  an interesting letter on the Internetin from the Australian Shooter Magazine, which I quote: 

“If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington, DC is 806 per 100,000 for the same period.

That means you are about 25 per cent more likely to be shot and killed in the US capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion:  The US should pull out of Washington.”

Author unknown but do we need an “Exit Plan” for Washington, D.C.?

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