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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (325320)	2/10/2007 5:25:02 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575181

McCain criticizes Europe on Afghanistan By Kristin Roberts Sat Feb 10, 11:08 AM ET MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record), a Republican contender for the White House in 2008, chastised Europe on Saturday for failing to supply the troops and money to win in Afghanistan and said NATO's future was at stake. In tough comments that singled out specific countries, McCain told NATO allies to move beyond the "false debate" over security and development priorities in Afghanistan -- a dispute that dominated a defense ministers' meeting earlier this week. Instead, Europe should follow Washington's lead and put more forces and resources into the war effort. "Military recommitment must begin with NATO countries providing an adequate number of troops for the fight," McCain told the Munich Security Conference of senior world politicians, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "... Yet the international community still falls far short in meeting its prior pledges and in committing the resources Afghanistan needs to avoid failure," he said in prepared remarks. The senator's comments were more pointed in their criticism of Europe than other public statements from President George W. Bush's administration. But they reflected growing frustration among some U.S. officials and others in Washington over what is seen as Europe's unwillingness to pay its fair share for involvement in Afghanistan. Germany and Italy were singled out in McCain's speech. He said Germany must significantly increase police trainers in Afghanistan and Italy, responsible for judicial reform in the country, should raise more funds internationally for reform efforts he said were needed to curb government corruption. REVIVED TALIBAN More than five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, NATO and U.S. forces face revived Taliban forces vying for control of parts of the country. It is exploiting the porous, undefined border with Pakistan, using the region as a safe haven and recruiting soldiers from refugee camps. "Failure in Afghanistan risks a reversion to its pre-9/11 role as a sanctuary for al Qaeda terrorists with global reach, a defeat that would embolden Islamic extremists, and the rise of an unencumbered narcostate," McCain said. "...The future of our alliance is directly at stake ... If NATO does not prevail in Afghanistan, it is difficult to imagine the alliance undertaking another 'hard security' operation -- in or out of area -- and its credibility would suffer a grievous blow." NATO defense ministers closed a meeting in the Spanish city of Seville on Friday without making major commitments to fill gaps in military capabilities identified by the alliance's top commander, U.S. General Bantz Craddock. Craddock and U.S. officials stressed the NATO meeting was not meant to secure troop commitments for Afghanistan. But they also said allies needed to deliver quickly to ensure NATO could launch an effective early year offensive against the Taliban. news.yahoo.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (325320)	2/10/2007 5:29:16 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1575181

Quiet Coup by digby TPM , The Carpetbagger Report and others including yours truly wrote recently about this bizarre new theory that the VP's office has cooked up apparently granting him some sort of special, unaccountable status as an office that is both Executive and Legislative and so reports to nothing and no one. Steve Benen reports tonight that this is actually a working theory they are using in other circumstances: An important legal ruling is pending over Vice President Cheney’s refusal to disclose statistics on document classification and declassification activity. The Information Security Oversight Office, which is responsible for the policy and oversight of the government’s security classification system, has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to direct Cheney’s office to disclose these statistics. Cheney’s office provided the information until 2002 but then stopped doing so, J. William Leonard, the director of ISOO, told U.S. News. At issue is whether the office of the vice president is an executive branch entity when it comes to supporting the activities of the president and the vice president. The reporting requirements for disclosing classification and declassification activity fall under a presidential executive order. “Basically the definition says that any entity of the executive branch that comes into possession of classified information is covered by the reporting requirements,” says Leonard. “I have my understanding of what the executive order requires, and I’m going to the attorney general to ascertain if my reading of the executive order is correct.” However, Megan McGinn, Cheney’s deputy press secretary, says the vice president’s office is exempt. “This matter has been thoroughly reviewed,” McGinn told U.S. News, “and it has been determined that reporting requirements do not apply to the office of the vice president, which has both legislative and executive functions.” Benen says: "At the risk of sounding intemperate, this is insane." At the risk of sounding even more intemperate, Dick Cheney may need to be removed from office. This makes Dick Nixon's theories of presidential power look like childsplay. When I asked if Cheney had "found" a fourth branch of government in position that until a decade or so ago was considered a seat warmer for a presidential run and the designated state funeral stand-in for the president, I didn't realize they were actually setting this forth as a legal argument. Dear God. This means that he considers himself even more "unitary" than he considers the president, beyond all reach of either branch, answerable to no one. Cheney is refusing to comply with a presidential executive order. What do you suppose the Empty Codpiece feels about this? Does he know that his Vice president believes he has an independent office that doesn't answer to him or anyone else? But maybe Junior likes being publicly humiliated by Dick Cheney. He seems to have a very high tolerance for looking like one of history's most memorable horses asses, so who knows? digbysblog.blogspot.com