Tomgram: Engelhardt, General Petraeus's Two Campaigns

Giving thanks for our men and women in uniform
Navy Corpsman Nicholas Rudy of Ohio, applies dressing to Afghan boy's injured foot, 2009. Far from home on this Thanksgiving Day there are more than 350,000 American men and women serving in the Military to protect and defend us. They serve in more than 135 countries. Many have served multiple deployments. The highest concentrations are in Iraq and Afghanistan, Europe and East Asia.  Recent reports indicate the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating: the government is corrupt and increas...

Obama Calls For Bipartisanship
(NewsCore) - US President Barack Obama said many Americans were "hurting" and called for Bipartisan politics to "keep The Economy moving forward" in his Thanksgiving Speech Thursday. In the weekly address delivered Thursday, Obama said Thanksgiving this year was "not the hardest ... America has ever faced." However, he said, "as long as many members of our American family are hurting, we've got to look out for one another." Obama urged Americans to remember US Troops serving overseas this Thanks...

New Way Open to Afghanistan Peace Accord?
We’re wise to you, “Borat”: A high ranking official with the U.S. State Department expressed optimism this afternoon that new top-to-top diplomatic negotiations between the United States government and an elusive moderate Taliban warlord would bring a speedy end to the conflict in Afghanistan, paving the way for the Obama adminstration to withdraw American Troops ahead of its 2011 plan . The dramatic revelation was widely hailed as victory for Administration diplomatic effort...

The great game impostor
And we wonder why we haven't found Osama bin Laden. Though we're pouring billions into intelligence in Afghanistan, we can't even tell the difference between a no-name faker and a senior member of the Taliban. The tragedy of Afghanistan has descended into farce. In the sort of scene that would have entertained millions if Billy Wilder had made a movie of Kipling's "Kim," it turns out that Afghan and NATO leaders have been negotiating for months with an imposter pretending to be a top...

U.S. satellite tracks Taliban
Published: Nov. 24, 2010 at 5:39 PM Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- While the United States covertly pursues talks with the Taliban it is intensifying its Military efforts again them. Taliban who participate in talks are tracked with the U.S. 37B satellite, which was specifically deployed May 15 for spying on the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Korean Peninsula, an analyst for Jang newspaper reported Wednesday. This satellite intelligence tracking Taliban negotiators is used w...

Give thanks to our troops today ... and then answer these questions
This is a good day to reflect on what we are doing for our Troops.  They have and are making enormous sacrifices for us....every day, every hour. We appreciate what they are doing for us -- but what are we doing for them in return? Are we doing our troops justice by our current policy in Afghanistan? What is our current mission in Afghanistan? If we have no clearly defined goal or mission, is that fair to the troops to have them in Afghanistan?  What can we hope to achieve in Afghani...

Afghan, Pakistan agree on coordinated anti-drug raids
By Kamran Haider Islamabad | Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:49am EST Islamabad (Reuters) - Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed on Thursday to coordinate their efforts against drug traffickers, officials said, a sign of growing ties between the two neighbors fighting Islamist insurgencies on their borders. The agreement was clinched at an annual meeting of the Triangular Initiative facilitated by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Islamabad. Iran was also a part of the meeting. "Now Pakistan and Af...

Leah Anthony Libresco: Remembering Ingratitude on Thanksgiving
Early this week, The New York Times gave front page coverage to a Tragic Death. Target, a stray dog that had saved the lives of Military personnel in Afghanistan, had been mistakenly euthanized after running away from his new family. Target's death was covered on every major news channel, a follow-up to the round of press appearances (including a spot on Oprah) that Target made soon after his well timed bark. Target's death was front page news, while American Military Deaths remained buried i...

Obama places Thanksgiving calls to troops overseas
Associated Press (AP) - WASHINGTON President Barack Obama has called 10 members of the armed services stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan to wish them and their families a happy Thanksgiving. The White House says Obama thanked two each from The Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy for their service and sacrifice. He made a similar series of phone calls last year. The calls came as the president, his wife Michelle and their daughters Malia and Sasha spent the holiday at the White H...

Happy Thanksgiving
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. Troops in Afghanistan and Iraq to eat "244,854 pounds of turkey, 4,308 cans of cranberry sauce and 38,292 pies." Rich Lowry thanks heroes. David Gelernter: "Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving: Of Puritans, prayer, and the Capitol dome." The New York Post reprints the "prayer [that] was offered in 1789, in appreciation of the hard-earned independence of the United States of America." Joseph Bottum's Dakota Thanksgiving memoir. Fouad Ajam...

Happy Thanksgiving
We hear the whining every year, don’t we?…And not just from pimply faced teenagers, but from their parents, too: Aunt Nan’s going to be there? …Can’t waaaaaait….. For too many of us, the idea of breaking bread with some of our more annoying siblings/inlaws/aunts/uncles etc at our annual turkey-fests, can instill feelings of dread and revulsion. So this cartoon is a good reminder that there are worse places we can be on Thanksgiving. And that we have a lot to b...

Magnitude 5 earthquake rocks Afghanistan
Published: Nov. 25, 2010 at 8:41 AM Peshawar, Pakistan, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Pakistan was rocked by a 5.0 magnitude Earthquake near its Afghan border Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, an official said. The temblor, centered in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, lasted 10 to 12 seconds when it struck at 2:27 p.m. local time (4:27 a.m. EST), Chief Meteorologist Arif Mehmood said. It triggered panic among local people, he said. ...

Proud Thanks
Russ Vaughn, one of my two or three favorite writers in the world (I'll leave that ambiguous so I don't insult Greyhawk or any of my other valued efriends), has granted me permission to publish the Thanksgiving Day greeting he sent me. I haven't written much since the election except for "Swift Justice" and "The Last Battle of Vietnam." [Links added -- BF] I haven't been able to shake the respiratory infection that I've had for over a month now and the doc says I now have wa...

US presence in Afghanistan as long as Soviet slog
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Soviet Union couldn’t win in Afghanistan, and now the United States is about to have something in common with that futile campaign: nine years, 50 days. On Friday, the U.S.-led coalition will have been fighting in this South Asian country for as long as the Soviets did in their humbling attempt to build up a Socialist state. The two invasions had different goals — and dramatically different body counts — but whether they have significantly di...

NATO after the summit: Harmony—for now
BARACK OBAMA’S satisfaction on leaving NATO’s two-day summit in Lisbon on November 20th was palpable. After his “shellacking” at the hands of the voters and a tour of Asia that yielded little in the way of positive results, the embattled president found Europe’s leaders going out of their way to show solidarity. Even Russia presented a smiling face at the summit. But for all the pleasing mood music, more jarring notes are in prospect for the alliance. Take the &ldqu...;

White House: What's on the Thanksgiving menu
After calling 10 members of the Military deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Barack Obama and his family planned to spend Thanksgiving with friends, family and staff at the White House. The first family's Thanksgiving Dinner menu includes: Turkey Ham Cornbread stuffing Oyster stuffing Greens Sweet potatoes Mashed potatoes Green bean casserole Macaroni and cheese Dinner rolls And for dessert: Apple pie Pumpkin pie Sweet Potato pie Banana Cream pie Cherry pie Huckleberry pie ...

S.Korea boosts defences as North warns of new strikes...
YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea (AFP) – South Korea said Thursday it would send more Troops and guns to frontline islands, as North Korea warned it could follow up this week's deadly shelling with more attacks. Pyongyang's fresh warning came as a US Aircraft Carrier headed for the tense peninsula to join war games to be staged as a show of force to the nuclear-armed Communist state. The North's unprecedented artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island on Tuesday killed two marine...

Petraeus: U.S. Skeptical All Along About Fake Taliban Negotiator
Fox News: The top commander in Afghanistan suggested Tuesday that the United States suspected all along that a man leading Peace Talks on behalf of the Taliban was an impostor, even though the bogus Militant was allegedly receiving payments from the West while he was duping them. Gen. David Petraeus, speaking in Berlin, seemed to confirm newspaper reports that said the man claiming to be senior Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour during negotiations was an impersonator. The gener...

Advance team from Wiesbaden unit returns from Iraq
WIESBADEN, Germany — An advance party of 1st Armored Division Soldiers returned to Wiesbaden Tuesday night following a near-yearlong Deployment to Iraq. Family and friends welcomed the 96 Soldiers from the "Old Ironsides" headquarters at a brief welcome home ceremony at te Wiesbaden Fitness Center. Most of the approximately 700 remaining Soldiers will return by mid-December, according to 1st AD spokesman Maj. Bryan Woods. The headquarters served in an advisory and training role f...

Holiday gifts for troops overseas
Mailing Santa a letter this Holiday Season may be easier than sending a package to a loved one in the Military. As we all know, Kris Kringle will receive most any mail addressed to him, whether it’s sent to the North Pole or a U.S. court house. (Remember the piles of mail delivered to Santa at the court house in “Miracle on 34th Street.”) But writing the country name on a package addressed to a soldier in the Middle East may delay its arrival. And packages containing any materi...

Giving Thanks for Our Military
During the Thanksgiving holiday, as we gather with friends and family, it’s easy to become focused on our own little worlds, whether in the political arena and the recent Elections or on our troubled economy and how much effort it takes just to pay the bills or on our kids and their needs. This year, I want to urge us all to say a prayer of thanksgiving and protection for those men and women who are making great sacrifices for all of us — our U.S. Military. As the saying goes, “...

Warrant against WikiLeaks founder upheld
Published: Nov. 25, 2010 at 10:34 AM Stockholm, Sweden, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A Swedish appeals court upheld an Arrest Warrant for Wikileaks Whistleblower Web site founder Julian Assange over allegations of Rape and sexual molestation. Assange, 39, an Australian Internet Activist believed to be in Britain, denies the accusations and had appealed a lower court order that permitted an international Arrest Warrant remanding him into custody. The Svea Appeals Court in Stockholm rejected his appeal Wednes...

Afghanistan's election results: The fix is not quite in
HAMID KARZAI could be forgiven for wishing he had stayed in Lisbon after the NATO conference. His return to Kabul has coincided with a blizzard of bad news. First there was the humiliating revelation that the president had been duped by an enterprising conman who had come to Kabul posing as a senior Taliban leader keen to engage in Peace Talks. Mr Karzai and his aides held clandestine talks with a man they believed to be the Taliban’s second-most-powerful leader. But their mullah, who at o...

Afghanistan's election results: The fix is not quite in
HAMID KARZAI could be forgiven for wishing he had stayed in Lisbon after the NATO conference. His return to Kabul has coincided with a blizzard of bad news. First there was the humiliating revelation that the president had been duped by an enterprising conman who had come to Kabul posing as a senior Taliban leader keen to engage in Peace Talks. Mr Karzai and his aides held clandestine talks with a man they believed to be the Taliban’s second-most-powerful leader. But their mullah, who at o...

Pashtuns lose Parliament, Violence up 70% in Afghanistan
Most of the results of the disputed parliamentary election in Afghanistan were announced on Wednesday. Altogether 24 Candidates were disqualified from parliament because the Independent Electoral Commission found them guilty of Fraud. Some 1.3 million of the 5.6 million votes were tossed out as invalid. The southern Pashtun Ethnic Group appears to have lost its majority in parliament, a development that could presage further dissatisfaction with the government in the Pashtun south and east of th...