For the past couple of weeks there have been two BoBs. This one and one with a new look, easier to read, easier to post comments, and a way to let the blogger know if the post was useful or not. However, some of you have been missing out on the new one, and we finally figured out why and what can be done about it.

To get the old BoB that will cease to function with new posts in short order, the url is www.bestoftheblogs.com.

To get to the new BoB, go to bestoftheblogs.com, no www. Give it a try. 

On the new BoB you can leave a comment without registering. Or you can register. If you register your comments get posted immediately and your name is associated with the comment. Timr has been doing it. If you don’t want to register (it’s a software thing, no use of the names is made by anyone or any purpose) then your comment needs to be approved, actually okayed by the administrator/editor, in other words, me. Please join us over there.

Also, Max and John, you should start posting on the new BoB.

One strategy that I have seen bandied about for Afghanistan, is to arm local tribesmen to fight the Taliban. OK, I will say that it is a big stretch to assume that someone will fight the Taliban on our behalf if they are not doing so already. We have been bombing the smithereens out of all and sundry, and I think we can say that we have been killing regular non Taliban tribes people at rapid pace like every other kind of person in Afghanistan.

I do not think we can look for succor from them. Oh, they will certainly take our weapons and money, but they will not fight for us. They will fight who they please for their own reasons.

This idea comes from the myth that America turned Iraq around and defeated Al Qaeda in Iraq by creating the Sunni Awakening councils.

This is complete myth. The Sunni Awakening Councils created themselves when they realized they were losing the civil against the Shia in Iraq. There never was a group in Iraq that was truly Al Qaeda. There was a bunch who called themselves Al Qaeda, but they never had any connection to Osama bin Laden’s group. They just took the name. In fact, this was OBL original intent, to create a movement that would be imitated, and cause chaos. In any case, AQ in Mesopotamia (Iraq) never amounted to more than some 1,500 individuals. Half of these were foreign fighters, half Iraqi’s. As the foreign fighters were basically used for suicide missions, we can understand that they did not control the Iraqi Resistance in any way.

When the Awakening Councils asked the US for arms and pay, there were some 300,000 fighters. It was nothing more than an agreement to stop killing Americans, (basically, sometimes they just couldn’t resist) for arms and pay. In other words, a sort of fraud.

But American generals in Iraq, and now the Bush administration, took credit for this and proclaimed it an American victory. And now some generals are saying we should use the same tactic in Afghanistan.

Well it was not our tactic in Iraq, and it won’t work in Afghanistan. The truth is, other than throw troops at the problem, nobody in the US military seems to have a clue what to do there. Well, historically nobody has ever succeeded there, so we are not an exception. There is no viable military strategy for Afghanistan.

The only thing we can possibly do to influence events, is find a branch of the Taliban we like, and covertly support them. And then withdraw for real.

So where do I start? OK. President Obama looks serious about keeping his campaign rhetoric about fighting the war in Afghanistan, as the right war. I am sorry, it cannot be done. And for all this talk about President Bush having ignored the place, we lost our opportunity, I really think that it would have been impossible for America to reform the country in any way. Those people are just too independently minded. The only thing we could done to win the appreciation of the people of Afghanistan would have been to leave as soon as we helped the Northern Alliance forces take Kabul.

And they would have fought it out, but that is the way it is.

The Taliban has Kabul surrounded on three sides, up to the city gates. In the rest of the country, we can only say were control the land where a NATO trooper stands. The Karzai government is totally non functional. And there is no way we can make it better.

We have to understand that the people there will create their own lives, no matter what we do. Even if we stayed for 100 years, we would not defeat the Taliban. And I doubt that the American economy and the difficulties of supply will allow an effort of more than three years before it collapses.

There is only one thing that America can achieve in Afghanistan, and that we have already done amply. We should tell any future government in Kabul, no mater what kind of society they create, don’t ever, ever, again think of hosting some organization that wants to wage terror on the world.

I think we have trashed the place enough to convince them of our power to do that.

And we must remember, America was attacked by Al Qaeda, not the Taliban. And Al Qaeda has been dispersed into insignificance, and that feat happened by good old police work. The infiltration of cells, tracking the finances, that sort of thing. The application of military force only made more problems.

The only reasons I can for America to still fight in Afghanistan is pride, to show that American weapons work.

Well that is really stupid. President Obama has quite enough on his plate with a collapsing US economy, Global Climate Change out of control, and a world about to run out of oil, leaving America helpless. Far better to concentrate on the problems at home, rather than vague military ventures overseas.

This morning’s Japan Times reprints a Washington Post article by Sally Quin titled “Pastor Rick’s Evolution.” In her lead paragraph she writes,

Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration has been characterized as — at best — a giant blunder. But it might turn out to be just another canny move from this supremely confident politician.

I found myself liking this article and not just because of its evidence that Obama may have more influence on Warren than vice-versa. Reflecting on my response, I realized that it spoke to a lifelong conviction that judging people for what they are, or rather what we perceive them to be, assuming that we know what they are and that they will never change, is fundamentally wrong.

I have spent my life reacting to people’s attempts to put me in this or that box and infer some “therefore” about my life’s possibilities by showing them otherwise. I am, after all, so American, the descendant and heir of people who left behind who they were to recreate themselves. I am not naive. I recognize full well how so many of us get stuck in our self-definitions or face obstacles in prejudice. I know that we we are physical beings with strengths and limitations in our bodies and more of the latter as we age. I know that we have histories and have made choices that may have created situations that are, indeed, irretrievable. Still,whenever I hear someone say, to me or to someone else,  ”You are X, therefore Y,” my immediate response is, “Says who?”

And why shouldn’t I believe that Rick Warren, a man of his time and tradition, could nonetheless be open to change? The major and minor crises of faith are part of my own experience. Had my life’s trajectory been just a little different, I might have wound up as a member of Pastor Rick’s congregation, or a rival with a church of my own.

Can he change? Can we change? Yes, we can.

It is very good to see the listing of executive orders and memorandum that have begun to accumulate after the first two days in office for the new President.The deadline to close Guantanamo, the lobbyist regulations, FOIA access, halt to Bush’s last-minute EPA actions, and most especially, the reversal of Executive order 13233 of November 1, 2001, which essentially reinstates the National Archives regulations regarding Presidential Papers passed by Reagan. This should mean, I hope, that further information about Iran-Contra may come to light, even though the key criminals in that slimy scheme were pardoned by Bush 41 immediately upon taking office. Of note is that Obama’s executive order specifically includes the Vice Presidential papers (something left out of Reagan’s original orders.) Of course, the original law provides a wait of 12 years after any President leaves office.

Here’s the White House web site with all the orders and memoranda. Transparency appears to be a reality for the new President.

Eric Holder’s nomination is apparently being held up over the question of torture–apparently in a last-ditch effort by the Republicans (John Cornyn and Arlen Spector)–to get him to back off on proceeding with investigation of war crimes. I don’t think they have to worry. I will be very surprised, despite Harry Reid saying that he is funding an investigation by Carl Levin into torture, if the investigation gets off the ground. I know there is sentiment here for ‘moving on” but I truly feel that this is a watershed moment for whether or not we are “a nation of laws not men.”

Some commentator–I can’t remember who–pointed the night before the Inauguration, that President Obama’s credibility would be weakened in his future trips abroad when he asserts that we were back to being a nation of laws, if we had failed to carry out our obligations under treaties fully approved by the Senate and one domestic law. These clearly impose on us the obligation to investigate, prosecute, and punish those who order and/or perform torture

President Obama is saying that US forces will completely withdraw from Iraq quickly, within 16 months. The Status of Forces agreement says that every American soldier must leave by 2011.

General Ray Ordienero says maybe.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/01/21/gen-odierno-iraq-elections-key-to-us-pullout/

He is saying that the withdrawal depends on the success of two Iraqi election happening this year without incident. He has also said that the SOFA, in which the Iraqi’s insisted America leave, can be renegotiated, it really means nothing.

General Odienero was a darling of the Bush Whitehouse, and his very heavy handed tactics helped set off the Iraq insurgency when he was commander of the 4th Infantry Division.

So, are we coming up on another Trumanesque episode here?

Nothing was was more disturbing or more characteristic of the Bush administration than its obsessive secrecy. So, talk about a breath of fresh air. See what our new president says. 

This is a must see, but many of the photos are quite graphic.

http://www.countercurrents.org/gazapics.htm

The photo essay compares photos of Nazi atrocities to Israeli ones.

“You shall become what you seek to destroy”

My computer here in Yokohama says 2:46 a.m, Wednesday, January 21, 2009. Barack Obama is now President of the United States! My eyes are damp, I’m feeling choked up. I haven’t heard a single line that will ring through history. I have heard a serious assessment of where the country finds itself and a sober confidence that, yes, we can rebuild. That’s our responsibility. Can we rise to the occasion? Can we be responsible? That my friends is the question.

Well, this link explains in one of the best ways that I have seen.

http://justworldnews.org/archives/003334.html

The supposed deterrence effect of smashing Gaza was just to make Israeli’s feel better about themselves. They are oblivious as to any other opinion. OK, well they did stop a few days before Obama becomes President.

But militarily, they accomplished nothing. All they did was kill a lot of people and destroy homes and infrastructure for no purpose. Hamas is still there, ready to go. I think they have shown us an Israel that cannot be talked to or trusted. They will always break agreements and destroy at the slightest whim.

So forget the two state solution, the only solution will be one state. And Jewish people will end up being a minority in the land between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean. Politically, I do not see the Obama administration having the desire to support Israel to the hilt as Bush did, and financially I no longer see America has having the ability. The US of A is broke, and will have to make some serious choices as to where to throw money overseas.

Israel has crippled itself.