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To: Broken_Clock who wrote (215122)	8/10/2009 4:36:06 PM
From: John Chen	Respond to of 306849

" the Obama administration is radically ramping up the stakes in the "war on terrorism," which, though renamed, has not been revised downward " 2014 campaign in action. AWESOME.

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (215122)	8/10/2009 4:45:19 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Respond to of 306849

>>The Celente thesis: war as the "solution" to economic depression<< Hey, it worked for Hitler, Churchill and Roosevelt. But Celente's not the first to come up with this, Edwin Starr said it better: WAR! HUNHH! GOOD G*D Y'ALL! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? (Curing the Depression) SAY IT A'GIN!

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (215122)	8/10/2009 8:12:47 PM
From: DebtBomb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

US commander warns Taliban gaining upper hand Mon Aug 10, 4:57 pm ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – The top US commander in Afghanistan warned in an interview published on Monday that the Taliban had gained the upper hand after the bloodiest month yet for US and British troops. "It's a very aggressive enemy right now," General Stanley McChrystal told The Wall Street Journal from his office in a fortified NATO compound in Kabul, referring to the Taliban insurgency. "We've got to stop their momentum, stop their initiative. It's hard work." The story carried the headline "Taliban Now Winning," prompting a spokesman for McChrystal to "clarify" that the general never said the Taliban was winning. McChrystal "explained that International Security Assistance Forces are facing an aggressive enemy, employing complex tactics that is gaining momentum in some parts of Afghanistan," said Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, communications director of the NATO-led force. "During the course of the interview he also observed that insurgents in Afghanistan face their own problems in terms of popularity, cohesiveness and ability to sustain morale and fighting capacity." As McChrystal's comments reached print, a Taliban suicide bomber and armed militants attacked Afghan government and police headquarters near Kabul -- an audacious assault that killed two policeman just days before nationwide elections. McChrystal indicated several strategic shifts in his interview with the Journal, including plans to shift more troops to the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, where the insurgents are believed to have set up shadow government offices. "It's important and so we're going to do whatever we got to do to ensure that Kandahar is secure," he said. A big decision facing McChrystal, appointed in May to replace General David McKiernan, is whether to endorse a request by his predecessor for an additional 10,000 troops, primarily for training Afghan police and security forces. McChrystal told the Journal he would direct a "very significant" expansion of the Afghan army and national police, which would double in size under plans being finalized by senior US military officers. The shifting US strategy in the country, where 75 foreign troops were killed in July alone -- the bloodiest month for coalition troops since the 2001 invasion -- also involves pressure on the country's massive drug trade. A US Senate committee report obtained by AFP Monday said that 50 alleged Afghan drug traffickers with suspected ties to the Taliban have been placed on a Pentagon "kill list" of people targeted for elimination. "Major drug traffickers who help finance the insurgency are likely to find themselves in the crosshairs of the military," the report said. "Some 50 of them are now officially on the target list to be killed or captured." McChrystal, meanwhile, said Taliban attacks were becoming increasingly sophisticated, often combining roadside bombs with ambushes by small teams of heavily-armed fighters. He added that Taliban forces were increasingly moving beyond their traditional strongholds in southern Afghanistan to threaten formerly stable areas in the north and west. To counter this US troops would be redeployed into some of the most heavily-populated parts of the country to better protect Afghan civilians from rising levels of Taliban violence and intimidation, he said. McChrystal is due to lay out a new strategic assessment in Washington after Afghanistan's August 20 vote. President Barack Obama has made Afghanistan a central foreign policy concern and is building up US troop levels to a record 68,000 by year's end, more than twice the number stationed there at the end of 2008. Taliban attacks, now at record levels, threaten to overshadow the upcoming polls, billed as a key benchmark in Afghanistan's progress since the 2001 US-led invasion. Electoral authorities said Monday that voting might have to be suspended in 10 districts unless the necessary security is in place. news.yahoo.com