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Can anyone make sense of this?
DNI Blair on Iran and Afghanistan in Washington:
Blair’s description of Iran’s relationship with one of those actors, the Taliban, is most interesting. He said the intelligence community’s judgment is that "Iran distrusts the Taliban and its return to power." …
But Blair also said Iran is providing the Taliban some "lethal aid," to help keep pressure on U.S. and NATO forces, to gather intelligence on what is going on, and as insurance in case the Taliban ends up controlling the country.
General Petraeus on Iran and Afghanistan in Doha:
Iran is helping Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, said General David Petraeus, who is in charge of U.S. forces in the Central Asian nation and Iraq.
“There is a willingness to provide some degree of assistance to make the life of those who are trying to help the Afghan people difficult,” Petraeus told a conference today in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Petraeus gave no details of the Iranian assistance, which he described as taking place at “a small level."
Envoy Holbrooke on Iran and Afghanistan in Kabul:
“It is absolutely clear that Iran plays an important role in Afghanistan,” Mr. Holbrooke said during an interview on Sunday with Tolo TV, a private Afghan television network. “They have a legitimate role to play in this region, as do all of Afghanistan’s neighbors.”
He also passed up an opportunity to criticize Tehran about allegations — some made by NATO officials — that it has provided help to Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan.
“I heard those reports,” Mr. Holbrooke said. “I talked to the military command about them. I did not have enough time really to get into the details yet, but I will get into it on future trips.”
Image: Google Earth ©2009 Google
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knowing these traitors, they’re probably referring to Iranian NGOs’ participation in the UNHCR-IOM humanitarian assistance program, which aims to keep refugees from starving.
oh wait. that was so last war…
how am i doing?
As odious as the Taliban practices might be. Why are they considered to be my enemies? Why is it my problem to see who, how and what the government over there looks and acts like?
Second verse: same as first.
IIRC Myanmar has a rather oppressive thing going on General. Do you think we need to send thousands of US troops over there too?
And why is OK for the US to meddle and not the Iranians or the Russians or the Chinese. Who gets medding rights?
generally speaking, the Russians and the Chinese get meddle rights too. Iranians don’t. Life’s not fair.
Petraeus gave no details of the Iranian assistance, which he described as taking place at “a small level.”
Oooh, tantalizing!
Hey, stop giving them ideas.
In 2001 the Iranians gave assistance to the NATO forces and the US until they became part of the axis of evil.
on a more serious note – am i dreaming or didn’t we just go through several years of petraeus et al. making unsubstantiated claims about iran supplying IEDs etc to iraq fighters?
so maybe it’s not an issue of getting those peskey Qs and Ns confused but instead just more of the same in blaming for our latest clusterfuck on iran?
We are never going to “win” (whatever that means) in Afghanistan. Alexander the Great failed and his odds were better. However we keep at American exceptionalism despite having been proven wrong as in Vietnam. Even if we are prepared to kill every Afghan, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some in our government might go that far, we can’t pull it off.
Yet, and here’s a problem with Obama-the damn lapel pin. Obama initially said, correctly, that patriotism doesn’t spring from a lapel pin. There was this hew and cry. Now he wears one a lot. Most Americans think their patriotism and their nation’s interest trumps all. We have a double standard. One for us and one for the rest of the world. Vanity will do us in.
The DoD needs a reason to keep funding the next generation of weaponry.
I’m almost finished reading The Limits of Power by Bacevich. A large part of it is about how policy makers (and that includes the military as they are given a great deal of autonomy) exaggerate small matters into large, and also how incompetent the higher generals are. (Title of that section is: Does Knowing that Douglas Feith Is Stupid Make Tommy Franks Smart?)
The rules are different for empires.
ROTFLMAO!
that chapter title alone ought to sell the book.
The empires only think they are. That’s why empires have always gone down. Unless we change our ways, we won’t be any different.
Back to finish the book. bbl
Alexander the Great, whose epitaph reportedly goes something like this:
And now a grave sufficeth him for whom the whole world was not enough.
Eventually, it always comes down to that.
enjoy!
Interesting Chalmers Johnson piece.
Excerpt:
Oh. h/t LeftyMN who sent the Chalmers Johnson piece my way.
And no mention of who all we arm (past and present)… including Taliban and their ilk.
Wow, it is as if the election didn’t happen, as if Versailles can just lie us into another war.
It does all seem way too deja vu – but it also seems they might all like to get their stories straight.
“…, already fighting in Afghanistan — insurgencies led by non-state actors. While the Department of Defense produces weaponry meant for such wars”
Wand we need more than light infantry when? Light infantry = soldiers on foot with guns. And police, engineers, doctors & teachers.
Vehicles are targets. Bases are targets.
Meanwhile, there seems to be no viable window to peace. Can’t see it, can’t image it, can’t hear it for the roar of weaponry. Byukk.
I believe this falls under the category of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” So long as the US keeps busy with the Tali and AQ next door(s), Iran is not the sole focus of US mischief, just a major focus.
No problem making sense.
It’s called nuance. That Iran is a player is simply being stated. This seems to me to be designed to allow Obama to make overtures to Iran without sounding weak. You need to recall the Iranians distrust the US which they think has medded with them for many years. They are of course right.
Good knock about stuff, but any undertsanding of the US position needs to start by accepting that the US armed forces are in fact the largest and best equipped, by quite a way. I’m not saying this is good, just it’s true.
and even “the most invincible” whatever that means
It means exactly that. Them others are way more vincible then us!
I deliberately left that out! The jury’s out on the Afghans.
We can turn a country into a parking lot courtesy of the US Air Farce yet we can’t whup a bunch of ragtag guerrillas.
OT Joshua from TPM to be on Shuster @ MSNBC after break
Can’t hit what you can’t see.
We were winnin when I left :)
Don’t think we can really call them ragtag guerrillas. They have confronted avery sophisticated military that has all kinds of toys.
The core issue seems to be the stated policy is for the US to have “unchallenged power” militarily and to oppose any nations who “ignore, defy, or challenge” that dominance.
Holbrooke has a history of disregarding the NIE report regarding Iran’s nuclear program. His stance has been that the Iranians cannot be trusted to have a domestic nuclear power program and he assumes they are developing material for bombs. He has stated in the past that the option of military strikes against Iran should be on the table.
His positive past positions include a recognition that the US must leave Iraq in order to restabilize the power relationships in the Middle East, i.e., to weaken the support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the militants in Pakistan. He also was an early advocate for direct talks with Iran. (circa 2007)
When all ya got is a weapon and a desire to defend yer country against an invader, that’s ragtag. Doesn’t mean you aren’t any good. We could prevail in a setpiece action with the NVA regulars but Charlie was a horse of a different colour. You ain’t winnin’ if you control the roads during the day and the guerrillas control them at night.
we’ll all go down
together
Maybe I shoulda left while we were ahead.
Guess the Brits must have felt the same way as regards the Minutemen.
Of course, those ‘insurgents’ were ‘different’.
And it is monumentally unfair to even mention such things, in the context of today’s world.
(Wink, wink)
;~D
Reminds me of an old, old Cosby routine where the rules for the Revolutionary War were
The British had to wear red coats and march in a straight line in the field.
The Americans got to fight from behind trees, rocks, everywhere.
siun–
couldn’t believe this one–from cnn ‘breaking news email’ this morning, turned my stomach inside out-thought you would want to know.
======================
From: “CNN Breaking News”
Date: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:18:04 AM US/Eastern
To:
Subject: CNN Breaking News
– Pakistan agrees landmark deal with Taliban allowing strict Islamic law to be implemented in troubled province.
WASHINGTON – - New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who argues her pro-gun stance aims to protect hunters’ rights and the Second Amendment, last week said she and her husband, Jonathan, keep two rifles under their bed to protect their upstate home.
Gillibrand said neither she nor her husband is a hunter, and in a general discussion of gun control said, “If I want to protect my family, if I want to have a weapon in the home, that should be my right.”
The mother of two young children has taken “gun safety procedures to ensure family safety,” an aide later said, but declined to say what steps.
Sweetheart, if you have them under the bed and they are “safe” they are useless for protecting anything.
They make good clubs. Nothin’ like takin’ a club to a gunfight.
Especially in a confined space. Samurai carried two swords, the long katana and a shorter wakasashi. The katana was too long to fight with inside, hence the wakasahi. That said, neither one very good in a gunfight.
” Iran’s strained relations with the United States have not prevented Tehran from strengthening its economic and trade cooperation with Kabul. Iran was a key factor in the overthrow of the Taliban and has since helped revive Afghanistan’s economy and infrastructure.
Iran has built roads, power transmission lines, and border stations, among other infrastructure projects which would better link the two nations. Furthermore, trade between the two nations has increased dramatically since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. “
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A….._relations
Yea, I have a WWII Japanese rifle that won’t fire but that 30′ bayonet is a mofo.
” Young Iranians are paying the price for Nato’s “failure” to curb opium production in neighbouring Afghanistan, according to the Iranian government.
” He said the volume of opium-based drugs being smuggled through Iran from Afghanistan – the source of more than 90% of the world’s opium – had increased fivefold over five years, and the drugs themselves had become far more potent.
British diplomats acknowledge, however, that Iran has borne the brunt of the Afghan drug trade, and has played a significant role in attempting to close the smuggling routes across its borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan. “
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…..tworkfront
Why would Iranians do dope, they are sooooo fucking happy in the Islamic Paradise?
Petraeus, seems to me, is rather General MacArthur like in his ego and self aggrandizement, disdaining facts not supporting is agenda. If he in his heart of hearts compares himself otherwise to MacArthur, he falls far to short in intellect and strategy. The Peter Principal was worked overtime in the last 8 years in Bushco, no where more so than the DoD and especially Central Command. Iran, being shia, worked against the Taliban, sunni and doesn’t want its return to power. Petraeus isn’t to be trusted, and one hopes (BFD) his firing, as well as Odierno, is in the offing.
My katana is a WWII officer’s sword. Not forged by hand (a million hammer blows for each blade) but as good as it was 60+ years ago.
Sometimes the masses need just a little more than religion.
1 other really good book by Bacevich is “The New American Militarism-how americans are seduced by war”
I agree, the book “Limits of Power” is also an excellent book.
From Oct /08..
*********
” U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus said on Wednesday that negotiations with some members of the Taliban could provide a way to reduce violence in sections of Afghanistan gripped by an intensifying insurgency.
“If there are people who are willing to reconcile (with the government), then that would be a positive step in some of these areas that have actually been spiraling downward,” said Petraeus, who will soon take up responsibility for U.S. operations in Afghanistan. “
http://www.reuters.com/article…..IT20081008
It would seem Iran has a lot at stake in their relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Drugs, nukes and conventional war are high stakes issues. I can easily imagine them being very tentative in everything to do with those countries. Not knowing who to ’support’ or who to ‘oppose’ might lead them to double-dealing or anything. Of course, what they might like is just to be left alone and to not have any relations with those countries. But, that isn’t always possible.
Barbara; It is a known fact dems. and repubs. alike use wars to stimulate our economy, and if we don’t have one, they’ll try to start one. Fortunatly Obie had one already for him when he took control. Unfortunatly he can’t think for himself, He must have all his people by his side on day one, this one is winging it.