Afghanistan, Iraq and the Reverend Al

The Reverend Al (Tawana) Sharpton is helping Obama choose a new AG.  I expect that there will be a recess appointment that will carry through to the end of Obama's term.  IMO the woman AG of Calfornia would be Obama's first choice.  She is far enough to the left for his taste and that of Michele.

The Afghan government is dead flat broke.  This is to be expected since the government has little in the way of "organic" home grown income.  The huge armed forces and police are 90% funded by direct US government subventions.  The Afghan government is yet another ghostly apparition masquerading as a real government.  It will either disappear when the US stops funding it or find another sponsor, China, maybe?

At the same time the Afghan government is losing ground steadily to the Taliban in both eastern Afghanistan and SW of the capital.  There are now fighters carrying IS's flag.  They have beheaded quite a few captives to demonstrate their fealty to the Caliph Ibrahim.  Tell me again what it is that we think we are doing in Afghanistan.

In Iraq there are no incumbents for the posts of Minister for Defense and Interior (police).  Farid Zakariya had guts enough today to say that the meme recited by the Children's Crusade that there is now an inclusive government is simply a lie.  He is correct.  He should be careful.  Someone is hunting his scalp in Washington and New York.  pl 

http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2014/september/sep262014.html#a7

Comments

[jr786]

"Someone is hunting his scalp in Washington and New York."

I guess the revolution really does eat its young - I would have reckoned him immune from his own side, if I infer correctly. Orthodoxy must prevail, I suppose.

[tircopolier]

JR786

Always. He is trying to do some CYA. He had Shimon Peres, one of the slickest BS artists I have met on today as well as well as Chelsea Clinton to discuss the Ebola epidemic. This sop to the Clintons political hopes for their daughter was quite sad. Chelsea has a Ph. D. from Oxford? When did that happen? pl

[Robert44]

Good article and update on Afghanistan. Yet another US created failed state in the Middle East.

[Haralambos]

Col. and all,
Your rhetorical injunction, “Tell me again what it is that we think we are doing in Afghanistan” is relevant much further afield as you certainly know. It applies to Iraq at present in its dysfunctional state, the earlier announcement of “Mission Accomplished” there, and the Ukraine and the neocon instigated coup in February. The Saker has a very long piece up today here: http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.gr/2014/09/the-russian-response-to-double.html
I do not mean to jack this thread, but I would be interested in the analyses or responses of those more knowledgeable than I. Please tell me, any and all, if you would like me to cease and desist.

[bwilli123]

A interesting review of contemporary Mecca.
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/books/the-reconfigured-utopia
"The skyline above the =Sacred Mosque is no longer dominated by the rugged outline of encircling mountains. It is surrounded by the brutalism of hideously ugly rectangular steel and concrete buildings, built with the proceeds of enormous oil wealth that showcase the Saudi vision for Mecca. They look like downtown office blocks in any mid-American city."
It would seem ISIS has reasonable grounds for complaint.

[curtis]

"...When did that happen?"

In May apparently.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Clinton

[toto]

"Chelsea has a Ph. D. from Oxford? When did that happen? pl"

Only just now, apparently:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0510/Chelsea-Clinton-gets-PhD-from-Oxford-For-what

http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:657c56dd-82cc-42c1-8453-33993a4a760f

[The Beaver]

Colonel

She began her doctorate degree program in 2011 and completed most of the coursework from New York in IR.

Woah it must be great when you can work for NBC for $600000 /yr whilst studying ( distant learning) for a PhD from Oxford .
Well Gaddhafi's son got his from the LSE.
I guess it must be fun to be an alum of those institutions when Daddy and Mummy are POTUS, Head of State and potential POTUS.

[Duncan Kinder]

Re: Afghans carrying ISIS's flag:

According to the LA Times, Egyptian Islamists are copying ISIS at least to the extent that they now are videotaping beheadings.

http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-egypt-sinai-islamists-20140928-story.html#page=1

Reportedly, Libyan insurgents are discussing modeling themselves upon ISIS; while Nigeria's Boko Haram may be attempting to establish a caliphate.

[shege]

pl, no chance of a recess appointment. The Senate is always in session--there was recently a case about this regarding the NLRB and the courts ruled that whatever procedures were in place were sufficient for the purposes of eliminating recess appointments.

More here: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-recess-appointments-case-supreme-court-nlrb-2014-6

However Mr Obama may have an AG confirmed in the lame duck session under the new majority rules for confirmations put in place by Mr Reid. Contrary to the calls of some Republican Senators who want the confirmation to wait until the new Senate is sworn in in January 2015, this is entirely appropriate: the current Senate will be in session regardless who gets a majority in the November elections.

[Jose]

I thought you had to be in residence ti get a degree there:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0510/Chelsea-Clinton-gets-PhD-from-Oxford-For-what

[Jose]

This is a better article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625125/Chelsea-Clinton-graduates-doctorate-program-Oxford-proud-parents-cheer-crowd.html

[Aka]

dear col.,
so the end of US stay in Afghanistan would be Taliban members having US/NATO made weapons (and equipment) instead of old Soviet/Chinese ones? Same way ISIS is now carrying M4 and M16s.

Farid Zakariya; a good reason why people should remember that just because a name sounds middle-eastern (or any nationality for that matter), that does not mean that person really knows about that region (or any region for that matter). And he is a stick in the mud. First supporting Iraq war (2003), then opposing it, then opposing Syria bombing and now again supporting a Syria bombing.

His belief that US can some how put Humpty Dumpty back together again (when Humpty Dumpty probably wasn't meant to be together) in middle-east.

[Haralambos]

Juan Cole has an interesting piece up today: http://www.juancole.com/2014/09/obama-underestimated-syria.html
The thrust of the article is this:
'At one point in the interview, Obama lays out what he thinks the underlying problems are:

“They have now created an environment in which young men are more concerned whether they’re Shiite or Sunni, rather than whether they are getting a good education or whether they are able to, you know, have a good job. Many of them are poor. Many of them are illiterate and are therefore more subject to these kinds of ideological appeals. And, you know, the beginning of the solution for the entire Middle East is going to be a transformation in how these countries teach their youth. What our military operations can do is to just check and roll back these networks as they appear and make sure that the time and space is provided for a new way of doing things to begin to take root.”

'This point of view is just old-fashioned modernization theory, and I think it puts the cart before the horse. It depicts Iraqi and Syrian youth as putting sectarian considerations before ones of rational economic well-being. I don’t believe this is an accurate characterization of what has happened. That Obama sees these Arab young men as merely acting irrationally, and that he doesn’t seem to understand the profound crisis of joblessness behind the turmoil, helps explain why ISIL surprised him and his intelligence officials.'
I believe he makes a good case for what has driven the younger folks to their outrage.

[PirateLaddie]

Some California AG of the female persuasion? Well, sure -- why not? I'd bet you that one criteria will be "will she make her predecessor look better?"
There, THAT should keep some of us awake well into the night!

[Babak Makkinejad]

He is a Muslim from India and one could argue that he has some insight into Muslim sensibilities that Christians lack.

Furthermore, he is an electronic journalist; which basically means that he is in entertainment business. So him changing his position is not as important as getting the audience to come in and sell the advertisement dollars.

[turcopolier]

Haralambos

"...It depicts Iraqi and Syrian youth as putting sectarian considerations before ones of rational economic well-being. I don’t believe this is an accurate characterization of what has happened. That Obama sees these Arab young men as merely acting irrationally, and that he doesn’t seem to understand the profound crisis of joblessness behind the turmoil," Dare I hope that this is but another troll attack intended to provoke me? Are you really just another economic determinist who does not believe in the power of ideas, religion or sectarian identity as a kind of nationalism? Say it isn't so. pl

[Haralambos]

Col., it isn't so. I am not an economic determinist, but I see events and movements as the product of manifold forces that are not universally determinate across cultures, geography, economic conditions and/or other influences like demography, educational background, and exposure to others whose backgrounds are different from one's own. I read your site daily to gain further insights into such issues from the threads and comments.

[Tyler]

We of the DHS persuasion thought once King Janet was gone, it couldn't get worst.

It got worst.

"Onwards to Hell - what will tomorrow bring?" indeed. I imagine the most important thing ever for this AG will be to circle the wagons around Holder to make sure that he never faces justice for the blood on his hands for the death of BPA Brian Terry.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

Colonel and all,

Well, the Clintons have been busy over the last few years, moving on from merely national-level grifting, to TRANSnational grifting. These next few lines, and the link that precedes them, were from an email I sent around to family and friends in February of this year:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article182303.html

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

As for the rest of humanity, well, they can just go scratch.

Apparently, from the latest poll, 82% of Democrats polled wanted Hillary to run. I am of a different frame of mind; when she does run, I'll run too. In the opposite direction. [End]

Ah, but now there is even more information on the Clinton clan, and on the interlocking directorates of transnational grifters in which they are enmeshed, to be seen in this article from John Helmer:

http://johnhelmer.net/?p=11442#more-11442

Holy mackerel, what an exhibition of polymorphous perversity.

[Cee]

Jr786,

I suppose any one of us would become weary of death threats and resign.

Someone made me aware of this recently and it certainly makes me think about these security lapses at the WH and recently in Atlanta when an ARMED MAN was in the same elevator with President Obama. WTH?!

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/01/publisher-of-the-atlanta-jewish-times-suggests-mossad-should-assassinate-obama