A New Cash Crop is Found in Afghanistan

Jules Crittenden:

One Trillion More Reasons

… not to screw it up in Afghanistan. NYT: US Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan. Not exactly a huge surprise. That place always looked a lot nothing but minerals in all the breathtakingly beautiful shots of godforsakenness. OK, minerals and dust. Minerals, dust, mud and opium, with some tree-y parts.*

“The Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Haven’t read the extended commentary yet but I’m going to go out on a limb and assume certain parties are already suggesting this is what it is all about. Blood for cell phones. In fact, like the oil under Iraq, it just underscores the pressing need to do it and do it right. Now the risk is not just a rogue state hosting global jihad, but a wealthy rogue state hosting global jihad with ky UN Security Council backers.

How long will it be before the "progressive" line becomes that the evil cabal of Bush/Cheney/Rove/Hitler invaded Afghanistan in order to take the country's vast wealth in minerals for Haliburton?  I can almost imagine the middle age hippies out in the streets with their signs: 

No War For

Oil Lithium!

"Locked In?"

Great news! The Taliban will lay down their arms and become peace loving hippies on July 20, 2011.

White House: July 2011 Is Locked In for Afghanistan Withdrawal

During the Senate Armed Services hearing today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was pressed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. on whether the July 2011 date for beginning to withdrawal troops is "locked in."

Gates seemed to suggest there was some flexibility, that "it was a clear statement of his strong intent" and that "the president always has the freedom to re-evaluate his decisions." After the hearing Graham said he took that to mean the date is "not locked in" and will depend on conditions on the ground.

It was a point of contention at the White House briefing today – I asked White House spokesman Robert Gibbs if senators were incorrect calling the date a "target."

After the briefing, Gibbs went to the president for clarification. Gibbs then called me to his office to relate what the president said. The president told him it IS locked in – there is no flexibility. Troops WILL start coming home in July 2011. Period. It's etched in stone. Gibbs said he even had the chisel.

So it is settled. What a wise man our leader is. One word from him and viola! the war is over. I don't know how he got the Taliban to agree but it was a masterstroke.

/snark

Who is advising this guy?

Michael Moore Wants the President to Get Busy

Via Memeorandum:

Michael Moore thinks that with a Nobel Peace Prize under his belt, the President should get in gear and earn it. Of course, by getting in gear he means get the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, wasn’t that the Nobel committee’s point?

Obama knows full well that if he were to do everything the Left (and the boys in Norway) wants, that he, not they, would be held responsible for the results. No doubt that Obama’s personal positions are far more aligned with the Left than the people he serves but his oversize ego trumps all. Obama will be spending the next several weeks trying to decide the best way to play both sides against the middle so that he comes out in the best possible light. Unfortunately, while Obama dithers Afghanistan burns.

Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal recognizes the idiocy of the awarding the prize to Obama but thinks he can still “redeem” himself:

Assuming the White House did nothing to encourage or lobby for the award, it is
not Barack Obama's fault that he has been embarrassed by this honor. And it may
possibly hold for him an unanticipated benefit. It may give him pause: Look what
idiots my biggest international supporters are. I may have to rethink a few
things.

How to redeem this? That is a hard question, but here is
one idea. The president will deliver a big speech in Oslo Dec. 10: white tie and
tails, a formal, bound statement. The world, as they say, will be watching. He
should deflect the limelight. (Can he?) He should make his subject bigger than
himself. (Is there a subject bigger than himself?) He has been accused of
traveling through the world on an extended apology tour. That isn't fair, but
the tag is there. How about an unapologetic address, a speech, with the world's
elites leaning forward and listening, about the meaning of America? A speech
that shows a grounded and sophisticated love for his country and its great
traditions and history. Not a nationalistic speech, not a prideful one, but a
loving one.

I wouldn’t hold my breath.

The Nobel was awarded with the hopes of changing American policy. It is a test for a young and inexperienced President. Will he pass it?

Other commentary:

And So it Goes in Shreveport
Left Coast Rebel

Code Pink: When it Comes to Their Position on Afghanistan There is No "Redo"

Donald Douglas, writing at American Power:

It's stupidly transparent, but leftist media outlets have launched a
campaign to rehabilitate Code Pink, the hardline neo-communist protest group.
The Christian Science Monitor quotes group co-founder Medea
Benjamin as saying:

We would leave with the same parameters of an exit strategy but we
might perhaps be more flexible about a timeline ... That's where we have opened
ourselves, being here, to some other possibilities. We have been feeling a sense
of fear of the people of the return of the Taliban. So many people are saying
that, 'If the US troops left the country, would collapse. We'd go into civil
war.' A palpable sense of fear that is making us start to reconsider that.

Douglas, as always, is spot on. His post was written before Code Pink's Medea Benjamin's appearance on the Bill O'Reilly tonight. I watched and as expected, Benjamin called for our immediate withdrawal from, well, everywhere. In fact, I got the impression that Code Pink would like to see the United States military expelled from the United States.

Was I surprised at Benjamin's attitude? Pulease! But when O'Reilly asked her if Afghan women are safer due to the American presence she tried to side-step the question and when she couldn't, answered in the negative. Does Benjamin understand that prior to our soldiers entering Afghanistan that it was punishable by death to teach a female to read? Is Benjamin and Code Pink aware of genital mutilation, honor killings, forced marriage, and the rapes and beatings that our soldiers try, and sometimes succeed, to protect the Afghan women from?

No one has ever "won" in Afghanistan and a alot have tried. If the United States turns out to be the exception to the rule, women will be the biggest winners. I don't think that Code Pink is ignorant of that fact. I think they don't care.

Code Pink does nothing for women in the world. They get nothing from me.

I Have More Military Experience Than Obama and Biden

It's true. No, I've never served in the military but I was an Air Force dependent and as such, I did spend fifteen months in Turkey. So what? Being a former dependent certainly doesn't make me an expert on military operations but apparently, unlike the President and Vice President, I know that I don't know better than a General.

Being a leader means making difficult decisions. While no one can be an expert at all things, a good leader surrounds himself with experts and then makes decisions based on the expert's advice. Gen. McChrystal is the President's expert in Afghanistan. Obama put him in that position. Yet, when Gen. McChrystal tells the President that we need more troops on the ground, does Obama take his advice? Who knows? The only thing we know is that while Obama is dragging his feet, our men our being killed.

Another Black Conservative quotes Sarah Palin:

For two years as a candidate, Senator Obama called for more resources for
the war in Afghanistan and warned about the consequences of failure. As
President, he announced a comprehensive new counterinsurgency strategy and
handpicked the right general to execute it. Now General McChrystal is asking for
additional troops to implement the strategy announced by President Obama in
March. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have sons, daughters, fathers,
mothers, sisters and brothers in harm's way in Afghanistan right now. We owe it
to all those brave Americans serving in uniform to give them the tools they need
to complete their mission.

Now that candidate Obama is President Obama he seems to be walking back his commitment to Afghanistan. He serves the far Left, not the country as a whole, and the Left want us out of Afghanistan. Obama, who believes that he can solve all ills by scraping and bowing, wants us out of Afghanistan. If Obama isn't going to fight this war to win and he isn't going to give our soldiers the support they need to stay alive, I want us out of Afghanistan.

Gen. McChrystal isn't saying that all is lost. He is saying that this war is winnable but there are steps that must be taken if we are to win. But he cannot do one thing until the President gets off the pot and makes a decision. No matter what he decides not everyone will agree. Every day that he stalls while Vice Pres. "Grima" Biden whispers bad advice in his ear brings us a day closer to defeat. This country needs a leader and sooner rather than later.

The Deaths of Marines in Afghanistan are Inexcusable

Doug Ross is reporting on the deaths of four brave United States Marines in Afghanistan:

McClatchy's Jonathan S. Landay posts a first-person account of a deadly ambush in Afghanistan.

We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket
barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortress-like village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition."We will do to you what we did to the Russians," the insurgent's leader boasted over the radio, referring to the failure of Soviet troops to capture Ganjgal during the 1979-89 Soviet
occupation...(emphasis mine)

**************************************************************************

U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected
repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and
tree lines — despite being told repeatedly that they weren't near the
village. (Emphasis mine)

"We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We've lost
today," Marine Maj. Kevin Williams, 37, said through his translator to his
Afghan counterpart, responding to the latter's repeated demands for
helicopters.

Four U.S. Marines were killed Tuesday, the most U.S. service members
assigned as trainers to the Afghan National Army to be lost in a single incident
since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion... Three Americans and 19 Afghans were
wounded...

This is beyond outrageous. If we are going to fight this war than we must fight it. We can not send our precious troops in to Afghanistan or any other country to be slaughtered because WE have tied their hands behind their backs. What kind of commander leaves his own men to be slaughtered? Is this Commander and Chief intentionally put our soldiers in harm's way?

William Jacobson says that we should support President Obama on the war in Afghanistan. I want to Professor, but not if this is how he intends to prosecute this war. It is unconscionable for a Commander and Chief to send our troops in to a war zone and then refuse to provide them with the backup and fire power that they need.

If we are going to fight, then we must fight to win.