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The Crisis in Afghanistan. Do We Really Understand?

 
 

The new administration has kept its promise to bolster the troop level in Afghanistan. The new 17,000 troops will consists of 8,000 Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C., and 4000 Soldiers from the Army’s 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, WA, and remaining 5000 from several National Guard Units who are to be called upon at a later date.

We all know that this is just the beginning. In the end, the troop level can be as high as 50,000 or more, the tour may last over a year, and our mission may not be completed in the next five years.

Most active members of the military top brass try not to disagree with the administration, especially after having served the country for 20, 30 or even 40 years of their lives. They try to fade away like old soldiers without any incident and keep their pensions and ranks intact. However, their reluctance to speak out will result in more casualties among the young soldiers and Marines.

I believe in strong military action, and I also believe in preemptive strikes where it is necessary. However, I also believe that it is critical to use diplomatic strategies where it is called for so that we can best utilize our military resources.

For the past 60 years, US foreign policy has been dictated by our love and trust for other so-called democracies. However, this approach has in fact been blind, occasionally deaf, and frequently ignorant.

Just because a nation holds frequent and somewhat fair elections does not make it our friend, ally or blood relative. There are fundamental ideological difference between our way of life and that of the people in many other nations. The United States was founded on a Judeo Christian principal and has encouraged a policy of free trade, capitalism which has in turn not only created individual wealth but also protected individual’s rights to accumulate and secure wealth, which consequently has created prosperity for our people and inevitably brought upon ourselves the envy of other countries. As reality being such, in order for The United States to continue to be the Shining City of Gold that spreads the light of civilization to dark corners of the world, our foreign policy should focus primarily on assessing and defending our geopolitical and business interest and not holding hands and dancing around with other nations simply because they claim to be democracies.

Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent has been a hot bed of terrorism, conflicts, social discourse and human suffering, which has been complicated by a few dozen nuclear bombs and a few thousand US and NATO soldiers. Recently Pakistan made peace with the Taliban in SWAT Valley Region. This incident certainly stole the headlines, yet no one seemed to understand why and what was behind it and what should be our reaction.

In the past 60 years the disputed borders between India and Pakistan in the region of Kashmir have caused enormous headache for the diplomatic and intelligence community, which is therefore worth our close examination. Kashmir is a predominantly Muslim province occupied by Hindu India, and the majority of the people have been continuously suffering from the military skirmishes in this region for the past 60 years. As the humanitarian crises continue in this region, militant groups like Laskar-e -Taiba and other groups backed by Pakistanis tend to provide people in that region with humanitarian aid as well as recruit operatives among the people who accepted the aid. 

Meanwhile, the disproportionate military might India posses in that region has caused alarm not only among the Pakistani military and intelligence community but also among civilian populations. In fact majority of the moderate, westernized Pakistanis are afraid of Indian invasion or at least limited nuclear strikes into Pakistani territories. Since Pakistan is a bankrupt nation and lacks the ability to arm their conventional forces, in order for them to defend themselves, they will have to try to over-compensate their elite commando units such as SSGs. In addition, most of the Taliban operatives are well trained by various terrorists who, prior to their affiliation to terrorist groups, have served in the Special Forces in Chechnya, Egypt, Jordon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and even places like Myanmar and therefore, they could provide the Pakistani commandoes with training and techniques to fight larger conventional forces from India. In fact most Pakistani Army Units have trained with the Taliban prior to their deployment in Kashmir Valley.

Accordingly, our strategy should be to help Pakistan disengage from India and redeploy their forces in the Waziristan Area so that none of the terrorists from Afghanistan can slip out nor any of the resupply from Pakistan can come into Afghanistan.

The ideal way to do that is to call in UN observers in the Kashmir region and call for UN resolution to make the Kashmir region a military-free zone patrolled by the UN forces. As the UN lacks combat capabilities, they would be ideal as self-proclaimed civil nation like India will not preemptively engage UN forces in combat. This will force the Pakistanis to disengage and will bring ease to the general population who in turn, can be used by us to persuade their government to truly be an active participant in our war against terror.

It is also a stark fact that, no matter how many or for how long our troops are deployed in Afghanistan; we will never win against the ideology of the people. For the past 2000 years people in Afghanistan have lived in a tribal society, and unfortunately, they will not change in any time soon. Therefore, our manpower and resources cannot go on indefinitely, and along with our military strategies we need a political and diplomatic solution. Until we disengage India from their overtly aggressive policies we will not solve the regional crisis there.

We also need to keep in mind that throughout the 1980’s, it was Pakistan who stood by us against the Soviet Union, or today we would be begging for oil in Soviet controlled Karachi and the Middle East. 

In conclusion, we need to keep in mind a small political move can pay enormous dividend for us and save many lives.

  

 

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What the Media Missed

 

The liberalism has always denied the existence of God and directed us to Darwinism. However, they forgot the survival of the fittest part, which reverses back into God and conservatism.

Our society has a way of rewarding the failure and the loser and penalizing the success and the winner. This kind of attitude has brought down mighty empires of Europe. Now the recent beneficiary is the United States of America.

No it is not just the $700 Billion Dollar Bailout where honorable people taking responsibilities and paying their bills on time are penalized while the irresponsible freeloaders are rewarded, neither am I talking about the auto bailout where just to keep the union and corrupted democrats in power we the tax payer has to sell ourselves into slavery.

I am talking about the Thanksgiving weekend when the world watched in horror, how 10 lightly armed men without any body armor took down the second largest army, the Indian Army, along with countless anti-terrorism commandoes, local and Federal Police and other paramilitary forces, and killed nearly 200 people and maimed another 300, and brought a nation of billion people to its knees.

Of course, the sheer failure of Indian Army brought sympathy and even praise by the media. Our government forgot our war on terror and sent OUR FBI on OUR tax dollars to investigate terrorism in Mumbai as if OUR cities do not need any protection.

While the world was glorifying this colossal failure, there were some 30 US Marines in Afghanistan, who fought against heavily armed numerically superior Taliban and Al Qeada forces and won without any serious injuries. The news never made it to the public as the media was pre-occupied with Mumbai.

I have added the press release to honor the memory of my fellow Marines and my country men who did not seek refuge behind public opinion but served this nation with pride and valor. This is their story.

 

November 25, 2008

Afghanistan: 30 Marines vs 250 Insurgents - Marines Win(AP)

FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan — In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.

Inshallahshaheeds "friends" are a bunch of chicken shites when faced with our finest and bravest:

“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”

During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.

“I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.”

After calling for close-air support, the small group of Marines pushed forward and broke the enemies’ spirit as many of them dropped their weapons and fled the battlefield. At the end of the battle, the Marines had reduced an enemy stronghold, killed more than 50 insurgents and wounded several more.

“I didn’t realize how many bad guys there were until we had broken through the enemies’ lines and forced them to retreat. It was roughly 250 insurgents against 30 of us,” the corporal said. “It was a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured.”

Wow, just wow.

 

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Lessons learned from the Mumbai attacks

 

Today, exactly one week from the attacks in Mumbai, India.  

We in the United States are more shaken up than the people in India who by now are used to terrorist attacks and bomb blasts in their cities.    But the question we need to ask in the US is what lessons we need to learn from this horrific event and apply in our society? The answer is simple, “Nothing”.

Let us dissect the events and compare them with the scenario in the US, in the sense of how we would have differed in our response.

Intelligence report clearly indicated that our eavesdropping capabilities had recorded the terrorist chatter which had given clear indication as to a seaborne attack into the financial and tourist district of Mumbai. It went on to clarify that it was likely to be carried out by individual or individuals with assault rifles and fragmentation grenades. It also clearly named Taj Hotel as one of the likely targets.   Had this been in the US, our Homeland Security would have raised the level of alert and prepared for this eventuality.

In order to execute such a precision attack, the terrorists must have had a year or more of reconnaissance and surveillance, but somehow that never triggered any attention among the law enforcement or security personnel there. This type of gross negligence is not possible in the United States where even our most careless civilian population would have noticed this type of inappropriate and out-of-ordinary behaviors.

When the first attacks started in the CTS station formerly known as  the Victoria Terminus, the two gunmen with no body armor but in simple soccer jersey and jeans managed to open fire at the passengers. They had calculated and surveyed the Police response time and the arrival and departure of the trains, which itself would lead to more chaos and confusion.

Eye witness report confirmed that the two gunmen laid down suppressive fire alternatively almost as if they are well trained commandoes. In return, however, the Mumbai Police, the CRP (Indian Federal Police) froze, took cover and never even unholstered their weapons. While all this mayhem was going on, the New Delhi Television showed up to make a direct coverage of what they had initially thought was gang violence, until the gunmen successfully walked out of the station unaffected and unscathed and proceeded onto engaging their secondary target location. 

This type of incident will never occur in the United States as the existing violence in our society has made our law enforcement and first responders aware of the necessities to fire back should they see an immediate threat of life. They will never hesitate to respond effectively especially if the perpetrators are without protective body armors.

While the CTS shooting was underway, simultaneous attacks were taking place at multiple locations in Mumbai, including assassination of the Anti-terror Squad Chief and top police officials. This shows the accuracy of the inside information and quality of surveillance by the terrorist.

As the evening proceeded in Mumbai, numerous law enforcement agencies responded, but if anyone observed, most of the first responders were in total disarray. Some Police units responded carrying World War I vintage Lee Enfield bolt action rifles.  They failed to control the situation and more importantly failed to provide recon and intelligence on the terrorists. They kept on reporting that over 100 men with AK47 had attacked numerous locations, while simple visual confirmation should have indicated that roughly no more than 20 individuals with assault rifles and grenades were executing these attacks. 

In this situation most US cities would have responded with their Police SWATs and would have effectively diffused the situation.

However, in Mumbai the authorities responded with the deployment of the Federal Paramilitary Forces BSF and called in the Indian Army and their anti terror special unit the NSG.   NSG was formed in 1985 after the rise of the Sikh terrorism, they are normally armed with H&K Mp5 submachine gun, sig Sauer 9mm pistol, and 12 gauge shotguns. They wear black balaclava and rumor has it that they have trained with other elite anti terrorist units such as the German GSG9 and  the Israelis. However, this time they failed to respond as they could not manage to find a flight from their base in New Delhi and their arrival was delayed by good 12 hours.

In the mean time, the Army units responded along with Indian Navy Commandoes (the ‘Marcos”). The clear lack of leadership among the ‘Marcos”, inter services rivalry,  and  the lack of presence from the civilian authorities created chaos. The Army’s deployment lacked professionalism and showed their unpreparedness for a close quarter battles as most of the conventional units responded with their behemoth FN FAL Rifles instead of something more compact such as a MP 5 or the M4 to effectively execute CQB.

The arrival of the NSG added to the confusion and chaos and made inter services rivalry even more severe. During this entire incident, the civilian authorities were nowhere to be found, there was lack of intelligence and reconnaissance, and the senior military and counter terrorist officers went into hiding at a safe undisclosed location.

Anyone has watched the continual coverage in NDTV would have noticed the different colored uniform personnel running around aimlessly or taking cover.

By the time the situation was fully contained almost 200 innocent people had lost their lives, over 300 innocent people had been injured and thousands had been left with permanent emotional scars which they will live with for the rest of their lives.

Now had this been in the United States, our Police and SWAT would have effectively contained the situation. Had this been where we had to deploy our National Guardsmen or even deploy FBI HRT, they would have functioned effectively under one military authority and our officers would have led from the front. 

As we all know terrorism is a fact of life, and we can delay it, postpone it, but sooner or later we can all be attacked. We as a society need to be constantly vigilant and observe for any unusual behaviors. Our law enforcements should be fast in responding to any and all credible threats.

Our military has been engaged in an asymmetrical warfare since the late 1970’s and we are quite capable of avoiding situations like the one in Mumbai.

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Warren Buffett, Obama's economic puppetmaster

Warren Buffett has earned the admiration of many for his extra ordinary ability as an investor. He has successfully navigated his investments through uncharted territories we call equity investment.

No one disputes his ability to pick a good investment or his sound judgment when it comes to identifying an opportunity.   His recent association with Barrack Obama has prompted many people to question his motive and reasoning.  

Some tend to believe that Mr. Buffett, as many so called independent voters are being repulsed by McCain negative ads or by the shear greed of our capitalistic society, is seeking an alternative therapy for America through Barrack Obama.

The time I have spent among investors and financiers trained me to observe for financial incentives behind every action. So reasonably so I question Mr. Buffett’s intentions and what prompted a statesman such as him to associate with Barrack Obama whose association so far has been exclusively confined to individuals of shady, radical and unscrupulous characters.

After examining several facts, my conclusion is that Mr. Buffett wishes to use his massive wealth to change the American system. In spite of his exterior modesty and diet of Cheeseburger and cherry coke, he has established himself among the ruling elite. As a ruling elite he understands that more transparent the Government is, more accessible the opportunities are; and fewer regulations involves our day to day operations, we will soon see someone climb up to the ladder of financial prosperity and challenge him, Mr. Buffett, for the claim of the throne as ‘the richest man of the world’ or ‘the most talented investor’.   We have seen what capitalism coupled with fewer regulations and less government intervention can do: today we see industrialists in India, China and even Mexico challenges Mr. Buffett standing on the Forbes list.

I do not see Mr. Buffett as a sinister antagonist to our capitalist society but I do question some of his strange intentions.

Let us examine his idea for higher inheritance taxes. Today majority of baby-boomers are counting on inheriting something from their parents who are the same elders often referred as ‘the greatest generation’, and who has lived a very moral life, stayed within their means, saved, invested and now they may pass on the fruit of  their  sacrifice and hard labor to the next generation.

Mr. Buffett has no evidence to show that, should the baby boomers inherit from their parents; the society will become a plutocracy and lose every ounce of meritocracy that has been the guiding beacon of this great nation.   In fact if we eliminate the inheritance tax that will prompt more fresh money into the market and more money which otherwise is stagnant will be in the circulation. This economic crisis can use the much needed capital infusion.

Mr. Buffet’s motive to raise taxes will hinder the overall growth of this nation, and it will wipe out all new investment, and eventually dissuade foreign investors.

Mr. Buffett has always bought cheap, maybe his intention is to buy all of our fate and future at a bargain price but question we need to ask ourselves, ‘ARE WE FOR SALE? Are we willing to sell our future, our destiny and our country and embrace the so called fair society so that likes of Mr. Buffett can be the puppeteer and Barrack Obama can act his puppet? We all know Mr. Buffett’s ideology about Fair Society in America and Obama’s intention of seeking Mr. Buffett’s advice.

America is not a social experiment and the founding fathers did not designate Mr. Buffett as our guardian. Rather, we are master of our destiny no matter how large or small that is. This election day we are not only voting for or against a candidate but the 3000 appointees the new President will be responsible for. Can anyone guarantee despite what Obama says, a few of his radical friends and extreme ideological characters will not be placed in key cabinet positions?

We need to keep in mind that through hard work, innovation and with true American value,  we do not need to re-visit old achievement of Warren Buffett but to create many wealthier Warren Buffett  who will stay true to the principles of this great nation. Now that is true hope.

God Bless America!

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Re-Branding the GOP

Less than four weeks left leading to the general election, GOP's fate hangs on limbo. The question remains: Will ultra liberal Al Franken beat Sen. Norm Coleman? Will Sen. Mitch McConnell lose his re-election? And where does Elizabeth Dole Stands in her re-election effort.

It seems like all of their fate has been sealed and Obama has already won the white house and will grab the helm of this nation with his three amigos Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Dick Durban. Only thing now left is the formality of the election and John McCain’s concession speech.

We as a republican and conservative need to ask ourselves: how did we fail so miserably.

But before we can do that we need to understand what is the 21st century version of the Republican Party and who do we have as our membesr and how they got us off the reservation.

Back in 1988 when G. H. W Bush ran against a weak candidate Mike Dukakis, GOP was a conservative through and through; and right after Ronald Reagan, GOP members knew and appreciated the core fundamental values of capitalism, free market economy and originalist interpretation of the Constitution.

Today with Barrack Obama an even weaker candidate than Dukakis and virtually unelectable is leading in the polls. Fortunately for us, Electoral College is not an average of Gallup, Zogby or Rasmussen polls and Obama and democrats still have to wait until the Election Day.

What we need between now and then is to understand our roots and modify our strategies. Today true conservatism is diluted by the mass induction of so-called conservative and moderate democrats who joined us for one or two conservative issues such as immigration, gun rights, or abortion, but they have never fully subscribed to the core fundamental values of the conservative philosophy of capitalism, national security, and free trade. Majority of these new GOP members contributed fuel to the flame ignited by the liberal media and brought about the insurrection against President Bush. In the name of dissent, they openly oppose to the measures required to secure our nation even at the expense of a prolong war. The same group opposed free trade, and ran to the government for help at the first sight of economic down turn.

These are the characteristics of socialism and not the Reagan conservatism or free market economy.   The people of this country are not stupid when they realize that the difference between the GOP and the Dems are all but vanished and they are nothing but virtually two sides of the same coin “Socialism”, then it may be a good idea to vote for the side that promises more welfare and subsidies. 

If the John McCain wants to win, he immediately needs to stop calling the Wall Street Executives greedy. He must be reminded that no one chooses Wall Street as a career because they were the top students out of a theological seminary. The greed of Wall Street brings shareholder value that is passed on to the main street and so the wheel of capitalism keeps rolling forward. 

He needs to come out and oppose the pork filled bail-out plan, and promise to cut every spending bills he sees. He needs to remind the voters that, government in our life means going to bed every night with people like Barney Frank, Larry Craig, William Jefferson, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi.   He must remind the voters that these people will not be trusted with our car keys or credit card numbers then why should we hand our country and our children’s future to them. John McCain and the GOP needs to, not run away from our conservative values but embrace them. And our responsibilities as conservatives are to educate our new members that registering as a GOP does not make us conservative but it’s the core fundamental values that we live by day to day make us who we are.

God Bless America!

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Obama a Fallen Mesiah?

  Is the mass hysteria with Barack Obama over? Does it mean Chris Matthew no longer feels tingling sensation in his legs?   It seems Obama phenomena has started to cool down a bit or maybe the first group of primary voters and Obama fans started to regret their earlier decisions and questioning Obama’s true qualifications. 

Should the earlier primary voters had known about Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezco, and Obama’s unscrupulous friends, would they have still chosen him over Hillary?

Why can’t these voters see through Obama’s intellectual capacity or lack there off or his inexperience. 

In addition to his earlier gaffes, recently Obama started to show that he is not the type who can walk and chew gum at the same time. In all his recent unscripted interviews, Obama failed to convey a single message, be it about his energy, economic or national security policies.

During one of his recent TV interview, Obama suggested that we apprehend the terrorists and put them in prison, which should be an effective approach to incapacitate the terrorist organizations. Did he not know that, while being incarcerated, the Blind Sheik and Ramsey Yousef somehow managed to coordinate the attacks of 9/11, only this time with a new set of terrorists. 

Obama does not understand the threats we are facing from Islamic Fundamentalist. Rather, Obama was a community activist and has no military experience. In addition to his liberal views and his wife’s hatred for this nation, I do not think he is capable of making rational or sound decisions on national security.

Obama’s domestic policies are equally misleading. His plans to raise the payroll taxes will have devastating impact on small businesses, and his overall higher taxes will drive away all investments.

I do not disagree that Barack Hussein Obama is man of vigor and leaves a great first impressions, but the country needs a leader, a man of substance and not a teleprompter reader. Fundamentally Obama lacks the intellectual capacity to hold the Office of the President of the United States, no matter how well the liberal media packages him.

God Bless America!

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Drilling is national priority not an option

 

Living in liberal Los Angeles, I am exposed to mostly aspiring individuals with no accomplishment but being brain washed by liberal media: they aspire to be everything and everyone other than a productive citizen, or a proud American or a Patriot.

I do get into frequent arguments, some are more heated than others, depending upon whether they are complaining about the Global Warming or President Bush, or they are blatantly anti-America. 

It took me sometime to understand the bias of the mass media, and how the left has almost completely taken over our airwaves and print media. I can only imagine how confused American public have been when they are bombarded with disinformation and intentionally edited sound bites spread by the liberal media, which is further backed by occasional appearances of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel, Henry Waxman, to name a few, all of whom are standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol like Dirty Dozen, and blatantly lying to the American people about the price of gasoline, the cost of food and the reason why people are feeling the crunch.

I want Speaker Pelosi and all liberal political hacks to know that we, American people, are not dumb, we are here a silent majority that did not appear in the past Zogby, Rasmussen or Gallup Polls, but we know who is lying to us and who is responsible for the oil price hike.

The message to the conservatives are to get some courage, to stand on the same steps of the Capitol and to pull out a map and tell the American people how much oil we truly have under the Rockies, ANWR and outer continental shelf. People need to know how much coal we have and, with the existing technology that convert regular coal into liquid coal. All the energy resources along with nuclear power plants, we can, not only be energy self-sufficient, but lower the price of oil. After all, energy independence is our national priority and not an option that is up for endless debate at taxpayers’ dollars.

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