Out of Town

 I will be out of town testifying in  a trial from 31 august to 5 September.  I will try to participate here during that period as time allows.  pl 

Comments

[DH]

Sir, please remember not to yell, "You can't handle the truth!"

[Fred]

DH,

The guy doing the yelling was guilty. (And Tom Cruise still portrayed an idiot.)

[Jose]

Be careful with earl, looks like a monster.

[b]

Recommended: William R. Polk's report on a travel to Afghanistan:

Impressions of Afghanistan

Pat Lang may like this confirmation of his view:

Did we learn anything from this [Marja] experience? To get another opinion, I met with Dexter Filkins, an “old” – that is not in my terms but at least a decade old -- Middle East hand, who has spent years in repeated assignments here, in Iraq, India and Pakistan and who is one of the few who really gets about the country, on his own, not “embedded,” and not loaded down with flak jacket, body guards and minders. He is just young enough and daring enough to see a different picture, I thought. I was right.

First, he said, the Kandahar operation is already in full swing. It isn’t just the assassination squads of the “Special Ops” (aka Special Forces) but large-scale regular army action although the Military here, known as ISAF, are not talking about it. And it is essentially, as I wrote in June on “changing the guard but not the drill,” the same as the Marja operation, just bigger. The failed Marja campaign is the template for the Kandahar campaign. And it too will fail, Filkins predicted. Filkins said that Petraeus was essentially trying to apply what he did in Iraq to Afghanistan without much thought that the two countries are very different. I disagreed, as I have in print: Petraeus is replaying not only what the Americans did in Vietnam but even the French in Vietnam.

[Bart]

Thanks, B. The other night the News Hour attempted to have guests compare Iraq with Afghanistan. As Filkins suggests, Viet Nam could be compared in the sense that there we attempted to succeed where another country had already failed, and so we do the same in Afghanistan.

[optimax]

Col.,
Our block is having a garage sale this weekend, and, since you're in Portland, stop on by for a free Hawaiian shirt or Chrismas hand towel, whichever you prefer. Everything must go.

[DH]

Fred:

"The guy doing the yelling was guilty."

Yeah, I caught that.

"(And Tom Cruise still portrayed an idiot.)"

Never a big Cruise fan. Or Demi Moore, for that matter.

[optimax]

KQEC, 89.9, best station in the world, plays classical.

http://www.allclassical.org/

KMHD, 89.1, plays Dixieland weekend mornings.

[Patrick Lang]

All

I'm in Eugene now. pl

[Spafford]

Col Lang, If you have time for a day hike, consider the trail that's east of Eugene up into the Rosary Lakes and Pulpit Rock. About a 2 hr hike up and into. Very tranquil beautiful area.