Recently President Obama decided to relieve General McCrystal from overall command from US forces in Afghanistan. The move comes not because of the continued rising violence in Afghanistan. It comes not as a result of a stalled offensive in Helmland province or a delay in even beginning an offensive in Kandahar province due to lack of "local support." It comes not as it becomes more and more known that the ROE that our forces are operation with over there are making us a joke. No, none of these are the reasons for General McCrystal's removal. The reason the man is getting canned is because of a Rolling Stone article in which General McCrystal and his aides were noted not saying very nice things about people in the Obama administration.
Now while I will not defend what was in the article, it is ridiculous on the Generals part that he allowed this piece to be published, there were numerous reasons for the General to be canned. The biggest reason IMO was that the man either sucked at implementing a counter insurgency strategy in Afghanistan or he was forced to implement a policy he didn't himself believe in. In either case he should have been canned and Americans should be upset of the half hearted nature in which the Afghan war appears to have been waged during his time. If you can't do your job than man the hell up and resign so that someone else can and so that fewer of our men and women come home in boxes.
While I could go on and on about this subject I will cut it short for now because it's the morning and darn it, I'm hungry. I will only also note that the President has asked the head of CENTCOM and brains behind the Iraq surge policy, the one that President Obama refused to credit with success during his 2008 campaign, General Petreaus to step in and command the forces in Afghanistan and implement an insurgency strategy that will work. I am hopeful that the General will be able to get the job done both because of his proven ability and sway in Washington to make changes on the ground without much risk of being undermined by civilian bosses back home. It's already become known that Petreaus is reviewing the ROE which hopefully will be revised to allow our forces to actually go after insurgents when we find them.
-Zach
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The Obama Adminstration's Lawsuit against Arizona
Recently it became known that the Obama administration has decided to file a federal lawsuit challenging Arizona's recently passed immigration law on the grounds that enforcing immigration is a federal responsibility and not a state one. On a personal note this is disappointing because IMO, this is a "issue" that should have been dead and gone inside of a week. The other thing that is very disappointing is that this lawsuit will likely be unsuccessful, which the Obama administration knows, but they will waste the federal dollars anyway in an obvious ploy meant to rally the liberal base and distract from Obama's sinking poll numbers.
Talking about the Arizona law as an issue, the first thing that many opponents yelped about was that it would lead to the targeting of a certain group of people. Following up on this these same proponents of inactivity made inaccurate statements that this would lead the Arizona police to likely just walk up and ask any random Hispanic about their legal status. Even President Zero made this mistake when he lamented how some Latino grandfather who has lived in the US his whole life could now take this grandkids out for some icecream and be subject to harassment should the gestapo Arizona PD feel the need to "check up" on the old man.
The truth is that the Arizona law only allows for local police to check into a person's legal immigration status provided that the person is already subject to arrest and their is reasonable suspicion on the police officer's part that the person is an illegal. So the old Latino grandfather and take heart. Unless he has robbed a bank to pay for that expensive ice cream the dreaded Arizona local PD cannot just randomly question him or his grand kids.
The truth above is easily found by those that look into the law, but those that oppose it have and likely will maintain the position already mentioned about the poor immigrant now being a target in Arizona. It is unfortunate that the truth does not matter in this instance, but when dealing with the masses you need to make radical comparisons to the worst case possible scenarios, and as in this example, even lie in order to draw out opposition or support on a issue. For anyone who actually looks at the law there is no basis for this opposition which is likely why the Obama administration's lawsuit was over federal responsibilities and not over any supposed discriminatory practices by the Arizona state government.
Even so the lawsuit is likely to fail. Even though it is the federal government's responsibility to set up immigration laws it is up to the states to decide how best to enforce these laws. The only way this lawsuit would have a chance for success is if the law allowed for Arizona to create a different immigration process different from the federal government. Since it only allows for the state to enforce federal laws already in place there is little basis for this lawsuit. IMO the obama administration knows this and this is nothing more than a political ploy on their part in which they hope this lawsuit will serve to rally the liberal base in boost Obama in the polls after consistent sinking in the face of the oil spill in the gulf. In the end this will be just another waste of tax dollars all thanks to a couple of liberal morons who don't even take the time of day to read and understand the law they oppose.
Talking about the Arizona law as an issue, the first thing that many opponents yelped about was that it would lead to the targeting of a certain group of people. Following up on this these same proponents of inactivity made inaccurate statements that this would lead the Arizona police to likely just walk up and ask any random Hispanic about their legal status. Even President Zero made this mistake when he lamented how some Latino grandfather who has lived in the US his whole life could now take this grandkids out for some icecream and be subject to harassment should the gestapo Arizona PD feel the need to "check up" on the old man.
The truth is that the Arizona law only allows for local police to check into a person's legal immigration status provided that the person is already subject to arrest and their is reasonable suspicion on the police officer's part that the person is an illegal. So the old Latino grandfather and take heart. Unless he has robbed a bank to pay for that expensive ice cream the dreaded Arizona local PD cannot just randomly question him or his grand kids.
The truth above is easily found by those that look into the law, but those that oppose it have and likely will maintain the position already mentioned about the poor immigrant now being a target in Arizona. It is unfortunate that the truth does not matter in this instance, but when dealing with the masses you need to make radical comparisons to the worst case possible scenarios, and as in this example, even lie in order to draw out opposition or support on a issue. For anyone who actually looks at the law there is no basis for this opposition which is likely why the Obama administration's lawsuit was over federal responsibilities and not over any supposed discriminatory practices by the Arizona state government.
Even so the lawsuit is likely to fail. Even though it is the federal government's responsibility to set up immigration laws it is up to the states to decide how best to enforce these laws. The only way this lawsuit would have a chance for success is if the law allowed for Arizona to create a different immigration process different from the federal government. Since it only allows for the state to enforce federal laws already in place there is little basis for this lawsuit. IMO the obama administration knows this and this is nothing more than a political ploy on their part in which they hope this lawsuit will serve to rally the liberal base in boost Obama in the polls after consistent sinking in the face of the oil spill in the gulf. In the end this will be just another waste of tax dollars all thanks to a couple of liberal morons who don't even take the time of day to read and understand the law they oppose.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Random comments
Well it's once again been a long time since I posted anything on my blog. I hope my many fans will excuse me as I have been a very busy person over the past few months.
Looking over the news it looks like it's been all oil spill all the time for the past two months which really makes me thankful for my current situation witch allows for a limited intake of the national news media. We as Americans seemingly always need something to cry fowl over or to create drama. We are addicted to it and the news media lives off it and we as the gullible classless droolbots that we are lap it up and move from one "crisis" to the next. In the mean time the real world faces much bigger challenges.
In Krygystan I must say that I am surprised by the violence and chaos that has erupted in the southern part of the nation following the overthrow of Bakilev's(sp?) government which was replaced not by a dictator, but by a caretaker government that is busy drafting a new constitution and which hopes to hold elections sometime next year. I say I am surprised because the coup itself came and went rather quickly without much opposition in Bishkek. With that in hand I felt there maybe some opposition but figured that it would be disorganized and that it would go away quickly. It seems not though, in the south where there is a significant amount of Uzbek citizens, Krygs who had been supporters of Bakilev targeted the Uzbeks and have been systematically attacking and killing what appears now to be a couple thousand people and quickly creating a crisis in central asia. The interim government has failed to establish security in the south and has requested Russian military assistance, which the Russians have declined. How amazing it is that a group of people could live together for so long, be each others neighbor and than so quickly turn on one another for really nothing. Frankly it's just another situation that makes me shake my head at the callous and selfish nature of mankind.
That's about it for now, will post more later.
-Zach
Looking over the news it looks like it's been all oil spill all the time for the past two months which really makes me thankful for my current situation witch allows for a limited intake of the national news media. We as Americans seemingly always need something to cry fowl over or to create drama. We are addicted to it and the news media lives off it and we as the gullible classless droolbots that we are lap it up and move from one "crisis" to the next. In the mean time the real world faces much bigger challenges.
In Krygystan I must say that I am surprised by the violence and chaos that has erupted in the southern part of the nation following the overthrow of Bakilev's(sp?) government which was replaced not by a dictator, but by a caretaker government that is busy drafting a new constitution and which hopes to hold elections sometime next year. I say I am surprised because the coup itself came and went rather quickly without much opposition in Bishkek. With that in hand I felt there maybe some opposition but figured that it would be disorganized and that it would go away quickly. It seems not though, in the south where there is a significant amount of Uzbek citizens, Krygs who had been supporters of Bakilev targeted the Uzbeks and have been systematically attacking and killing what appears now to be a couple thousand people and quickly creating a crisis in central asia. The interim government has failed to establish security in the south and has requested Russian military assistance, which the Russians have declined. How amazing it is that a group of people could live together for so long, be each others neighbor and than so quickly turn on one another for really nothing. Frankly it's just another situation that makes me shake my head at the callous and selfish nature of mankind.
That's about it for now, will post more later.
-Zach
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