For an administration whose political party proclaims itself the guardian of civil rights, they hang around a lot of shady characters.
ACORN willing to help folks out setting up a child slavery prostitution ring? Aw, only rightwing conspiracy nuts believe that. Who are you gonna’ believe, the Democrats or your lying eyes?
And hey, how about that Taliban? They’re now our very special friends, pose no threat to America, and will help us fight al Qaeda. What could be more awesomely awesome?
Obama is adopting the preposterous assumption that the Taliban can play a role in running Afghanistan and, if we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone. Of course, Obama doesn’t want the Taliban to totally govern Afghanistan, but, you know, they can help out and stuff. Meanwhile, our troops, who will supposedly only have to keep al Qaeda weak (not destroy them), will be working with our new friends.
While our troops are being slaughtered, Obama will find all sorts of good news, abetted by his media cheerleaders, that will allow him to totally pull out of Afghanistan. This will pacify his extreme left base who, after the 2008 election, have suddenly decided that we really don’t need to fight in Afghanistan after all. Declare victory and run away.
God help us. There will be blood on Obama’s hands.
In case anyone has forgotten how brutal the Taliban are, how they have helped al Qaeda in the past, and how they ignore the most basic of human rights, check out the links in this story from About.com:
The Taliban’s long lists of edicts and decrees took an especially misogynistic view of women. Schools for girls were closed. Women were forbidden to work or leave their homes without verifiable permission. Wearing non-Islamic dress was forbidden. Wearing make-up, sporting western products like purses or shoes, was forbidden. Music, dancing, cinemas, any form of non-religious broadcasting and entertainment were banned. Lawbreakers were beaten, flogged, shot or beheaded.
In 1994, Osama bin Laden moved to Kandahar as a guest of Mullah Omar. On Aug. 23, 1996, bin Laden declared war on the United States and exerted increasing influence on Omar, helping to fund the Taliban’s offensives against other warlords in the north of the country. That lavish financial support made it impossible for Mullah Omar not to protect bin Laden when Saudi Arabia, then the United States, pressured the Taliban to extradite bin Laden. The fates and ideology of al-Qaeda and the Taliban became intertwined.
At the height of their power, in March 2001, the Taliban demolished the two enormous, centuries-old Buddha statues of Bamiyan, an act that showed to the world in ways that the Taliban’s wanton massacres and oppression should have much earlier the ruthless, distorted Puritanism of the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam.
From FOXNews.com:
WASHINGTON — President Obama is inclined to send only as many more U.S. troops to Afghanistan as are needed to keep Al Qaeda at bay, a senior administration official said.
The official, in an interview with The Associated Press, also added that the president is prepared to accept some Taliban involvement in Afghanistan’s political future, reiterating what Obama said in March.
The assessment comes from an official who has been involved in the president’s discussions with his war council about Afghanistan strategy.
Aides say the president’s final decision on Afghanistan strategy and troop levels is still at least two weeks away, but the emerging thinking suggests he would be unlikely to favor a large military ramp-up of the kind being advocated by his top commander in Afghanistan.
McChrystal’s troop request is said to include a range of options, from adding as few as 10,000 combat troops to — the general’s strong preference — as many as 40,000.
Obama’s developing strategy on the Taliban will “not tolerate their return to power,” the senior official said. But the U.S. would fight only to keep the Taliban from retaking control of Afghanistan’s central government — something it is now far from being capable of — and from giving renewed sanctuary in Afghanistan to Al-Qaeda, the official said.
Recognizing the U.S. can neither win in Afghanistan nor succeed more broadly against Al Qaeda without Pakistan’s cooperation, Obama’s war council is weighing a new role for Pakistan in the 8-year-old struggle in the region.
Obama’s national security team marked the war’s eighth anniversary on Wednesday with a three-hour session in a secure room in the White House basement. The focus on Pakistan, the suspected hiding place of Usama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda terrorists as well as Taliban leaders, could provide a hint into the president’s leanings.
Members of the president’s national security team argued that the Taliban in Afghanistan do not pose a direct threat to the U.S., officials told The New York Times. It was unclear if everyone in the war council accepted the premise.
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