Re the “good war” in Afghanistan:  The Associated Press reported January 24 that “Hamididan Abdul Rahmzai, the head of the provincial council in Laghman, said village elders arrived at his office hours after the early morning operation to complain that the 15 killed were innocent civilians. 

During a call from an Associated Press reporter, Rahmzai relayed questions to the village elders directly, who angrily shouted that they would swear on the Quran, the Muslim holy book, that all those killed were civilians. The elders claimed that women and children were among the dead.  The villagers told Rahmzai that they are shepherds and have no ties to militants.”

The New York Times reports that village elders and the pro-US central government agree that 13 civilians were killed and 9 wounded, commenting, “Afghan officials say that when U.S. forces raid villages in their hunt for Taliban fighters, they end up killing civilians and ultimately undermine their cause.”

Pakistan: Unmanned drones made two strikes into Pakistan, killing women among what the Obama administration says were Taliban.  Juan Cole, in Salon.com in an article headed “President Obama, meet Lyndon Johnson” writes, “The Bush administration launched 30 air attacks on targets in Pakistan in 2008, killing 220 persons. The strikes seem to have started in the summer, during the presidential campaign, about a year after candidate Obama began urging this policy. Bush may have instituted the aerial attacks to deny Obama a campaign talking point and to prevent him from out-hawking John McCain. That is, Obama may have pushed Bush — who had earlier been wary of alienating Pakistan — to the right.”

As a friend just wrote me, the people in Pakistan don’t have the luxury of adopting a “wait and see” attitude about Obama’s intentions in pursuing the so-called “war on terror”.

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THE WAR OF TERROR

“The catch-all phrase – The War on Terror. In all honesty, has no more meaning than if you wants to wage a War on criminal gangsterism. Terrorism is a Tactic. You can’t have a War against a Tactic. It’s deliberately vague and nondefinable in order to justify and permit perpetual War anywhere and under any circumstances.” – Dr. Ron Paul

In a scant four days as President, I fail to recall any public attempt by Obama to reach out to the Pakistani government and discuss this before attacking its sovereign soil. Similar to his predecessor Bush, the Barackcuda just went into this country with his guns blazing. I remain curious to see if we will hear about the deaths of any “high-level terrorist targets.”  Perhaps we killed Osama, as we continue our eight-year child’s game of “Where’s Waldo?”  Although it is sacrilegious, some commentators are even claiming that Al-Qaeda does not exist. Their evidence? Just well-documented interviews with a key Oh-Bomb-Ah foreign policy advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and footage of him extolling a bunch of muhajideen to fight for their god before the Soviets even invaded Afghanistan. However, Obama did promise this to the American people for quite some time, so this is yet another “Change” he is executing. His ignorance in foreign affairs will no doubt be cured by Hillary Clinton, our shiny new Secretary of State whom I welcomed here “Words of Advice for the next Secretary of State“.

So once again, we must ask the question. What are we doing over there? Is it a “police action”? Clintonesque “nation-building” like Somalia and Yugoslavia? Or Bush-style “nation-building”? Are we at war? Well, with military forces occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, continued attacks on the sovereign nations of Afghanistan and Syria, and a full blockage on Iran, it is quite clear to me that the United States remains at war against “Terror” (whatever the heck that means.)  Now we hit upon a small detail.

Even though he swore the oath twice, Barack Obama is in violation of the Constitution of the United States of America, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 which states that only Congress can declare War. Only because it takes only a few seconds (they don’t listen and have never replied to hundreds of my emails, even those that are not on such sensitive issues), I fired off a note to my representatives in Congress via DownsizeDC to move for the impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama. Yes, attacking the “tribal areas” in Pakistan is a little complicated as I wrote in July.  Yes, he made a decent first step with his decision to close Gitmo within a year, and yes, I am a little quick with the trigger, but  please forgive me – executing war is a very serious matter, especially if you are getting shot at.  And I have very little patience left after King George II’s reign. Plus, Obama has forgotten the Keys of Kidwai.

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BEWARE THE KEYS OF KIDWAI

As this NY Times article relates, an old British fort stands on the outskirts of the Islamabad airport. Inside, General Khalid Kidwai protects quite possibly the earth’s riskiest nuclear arsenal (can’t forget Israel’s!) from Islamic militants, terrorist scientists, Indian saboteurs, American commando teams, and those pesky sleeper agents. Kidwai, son of an author and schoolteacher, captured POW by India for two years, has not only the nuclear keys, but quite possibly the lives of an American city or two is in his hands.

Those Americans who lambaste the nuclear security of Pakistan should be careful they do not break any glass walls with their sticks; in 2007, I remind you, a B-52 bomber unknowingly flew for three hours from North Dakota to Louisiana while armed with six live nuclear warheads.

Oops, watch out, our wise, all-powerful government is on the job here!

Oh, and the Obama-Biden Stimulus Plan? IT WON”T WORK, TRY THIS.