Sunday, October 04, 2009

Allied for Afghan?

Britain's Army Chief Sir David Richards seems to be sending a message:
"If al-Qaeda and the Taliban believe they have defeated us – what next? Would they stop at Afghanistan? Pakistan is clearly a tempting target not least because of the fact that it is a nuclear-weaponed state and that is a terrifying prospect. Even if only a few of those (nuclear) weapons fell into their hands, believe me they would use them. The recent airlines plot has reminded us that there are people out there who would happily blow all of us up."
Obama once seemed to agree whole-heartedly. Does he still? When in Copenhagen he gave his Afghan theater commander Stan McChrystal less time than he gave the OIC members, so we'll see what they decide, whenever they decide to decide.

One thing is for sure--the Brit Chief is correct. Even the perception of a loss in that region will provide years of horrible dividends for the west (not just America) regardless of whether heath care passes or the liberals successfully blame everything on Bush.

MORE 10/3/09

Pfc Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and trotted out on video in late July but after a slightly encouraging story a few days afterward there hasn't been much news since. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since the military usually keeps a low profile on these things. But the enemy side usually gets all the value they can out of their prisoners so it's somewhat odd subsequent videos haven't been released.

Assuming his capture was on the up and up there are many possibilities, including the group who took him selling him deeper into captivity or waiting to see what Obama does first before releasing any more propaganda. Performing brutality on a US soldier on video can be risky though, not to mention driving home the point of the enemy's complete disregard for Geneva Convention protocol.

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