Af-Pak: Good News from the Front(s)

Only 35% of International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) logistics for this occupation or war are dependent on Pakistan.

Suspected militants in southern Pakistan set ablaze more than two dozen tankers carrying fuel for foreign troops in Afghanistan on Friday, highlighting the vulnerability of the U.S.-led mission a day after Pakistan closed a major border crossing.

And on the same day, another supply route to Afghanistan was closed by the Pakistani government after fighting that led to the deaths of three Pakistani soldiers.

The story behind this was that Pakistani soldiers manning a post fired upon American helicopters. Fire was returned and obliterated the outpost.

But the really good news is that only about half the cargo that flows into Afghanistan comes in via one of the two gates from Pakistan. Another 30 percent uses two major routes through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, one via Russia and the other via the Caucasus. The remaining 20 percent -- mostly sensitive items like weapons, ammunition and other critical equipment -- comes in by air.

Whew!

Petraeus or Betrayus?

What was that? What did he say? In his newest tome of yellow journalism, Obama's Wars, Bob Woodward quotes General David Petraeus as saying,

You have to recognize also that I don't think you win this war. I think you keep fighting. It's a little bit like Iraq, actually. . . . Yes, there has been enormous progress in Iraq. But there are still horrific attacks in Iraq, and you have to stay vigilant. You have to stay after it. This is the kind of fight we're in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids' lives.

That's what he said and that's why we are where we are: Baraquagmire.

The San Bruno Catastrophe Goes to the State of Infra-Structure in America

Why I Don't Listen to Obama Any More (Part II)

News Item: Tony Blair

Culled from various headlines:

Blair cancels book launch party over protest fears

London, England (CNN) -- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair canceled a launch party for his new book in London Wednesday because of planned protests, his spokesman said.

Of his second London cancellation this week, the unnamed Spokesman said, Blair

did not want to put guests through the unpleasant consequences of the actions of demonstrators of what should have been an enjoyable evening for friends and family .... The party has been postponed indefinitely, (and) will be held sometime in the future. Guests were informed yesterday evening.

Blair's decision came after police made some arrests Saturday in Dublin, Ireland, where he was due for another signing event for his book. A crowd of people, some of them anti-war demonstrators, had gathered outside the shop to protest Blair's role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there were unconfirmed reports of eggs and shoes being thrown at Blair.

Blair said in the statement Monday,

I very much enjoyed meeting my readers in Dublin and was looking forward to doing the same in London. However, I have decided not to go ahead with the signing as I don't want the public to be inconvenienced by the inevitable hassle caused by protesters.

Lindsey German, convener of the Stop The War Coalition, which had planned the protest, said

it was a big victory ..... It shows he is running scared. The people who say we should not protest are denying us the right to persist in asking questions about the war and denying the rights of Iraqis who are still suffering because of Blair's policies.

He will not now attend a function at the Tate Modern gallery in London later, having already pulled out of another book signing in the city.

Paul Conrad, R.I.P.

Obama: Don't Turn the Page Until You Have Read (Out Loud) What's Written On It

90 months of war in Iraq come to an end for America? Maybe. Just to open the endless occupation to follow? I don't think so!

Let's review the pages Barack Obama wants to turn:

• A Bush-neoCon stampede into war, based upon the mythology that Saddam was tied to al-Qaeda and had a role in 9/11, that he had VX gas, botulism, mustard gas, sarin and anthrax, and was acquiring nuclear weapons.
• An American invasion of nation that did not attack us, did not threaten us and did not want war with us — to strip it of weapons it did not have.
• 4,416 American KIA, 35,000 WIA, more than 25,000 with life-changing injuries and life-long disabilites.
• $700 billion in treasury squandered with the meter still running on funding the 50,000 troops still garrisoned there..
• Estimates - conservative - of Iraqi war dead run from 70,000 to 100,000.

The new myth is that the surge worked. It has not.

• Terrorism has returned.
• Iraq’s casualties are back up to where they were before the U.S. surge.
• Electricity is off much of the time.
• Six months after elections, no government exists; no political consensus has emerged. Iraqi statistics dead, wounded, widowed, orphaned, homeless and exiled continue unabated.

But Purge Success is the myth that Obama wants to perserve. That's why he is in a hurry to turn the page. He is a major stakeholder in mythogizing a surge for Afghanistan.