Time Magazine got it wrong

Their no longer so eagerly-awaited “Person of the Year’ issue is out and they’ve chosen President Obama. That’s a FAIL.

Look, I’m an Obama fan. I think he’s acquited himself quite well as president and I continue to hold a little bit of hope that he might do more this term. But still, FAIL.

US Presidents are always consequential. Always. But this year, I think the most consequential person on the planet was a 14-year old girl.

Person of the Year should be Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who stood up for women’s rights, for human rights and continued to do so even as the Taliban threatened to kill her. Still she stood as tall as a person can stand.

What Malala did, what she now stands for, might be as consequential as the Arab Spring is. She’s the Arab Rosa Parks. She’s a hero.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. (Margaret Mead) 

Afghanistan, cost of war and money to the Taliban

It’s been way too long since I posted an Afghanistan update, something I used to do frequently. Perhaps it’s because we’ve been there so long now that it’s receding into a background noise. The news media barely mentions Afghanistan any more unless more than a few Americans are killed.  (As for Iraq, it’s not mentioned at all.)

But I did continue my Afghanistan calendar and can tell you that today is the 292nd day of the tenth year of the war. That’s 73 days short of the 11th year. And we’ve spent almost $500 billion there. Add in Bush’s war, Iraq, and we’ve spent $1.3 trillion.

Here’s a little something from the Washington Post this morning – breaking news: we’re wasting money in Afghanistan and bunches of it are going to arm Taliban fighters:

. . . money was traced from the U.S. Treasury through a labyrinth of subcontractors and power brokers. In one, investigators followed a $7.4 million payment to one of the eight companies, which in turn paid a subcontractor, who hired other subcontractors to supply trucks.

The trucking subcontractors then made deposits into an Afghan National Police commander’s account, already swollen with payments from other subcontractors, in exchange for guarantees of safe passage for the convoys. Intelligence officials traced $3.3 million, withdrawn in 27 transactions from the commander’s account, that was transferred to insurgents in the form of weapons, explosives and cash.

So it’s okay I guess.

Freedom for some! Sometimes!

Them Mooslims ain't getting near me!

King: Obama needs to put his foot down on Muslim Brotherhood

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Friday that it’s essential that the U.S. try to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from having a part in Egypt’s new government.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said on Fox’s “Hannity” that Washington has six months to work with the military leaders guiding the democratic transition in Egypt. . .  As Americans we have a strategic interest in the Middle East. We cannot just sit back and say that the Muslim Brotherhood can work itself in . . . as Americans we cannot take the risk of allowing a group that fraternizes with terrorists who talks radically to have them get any power in the Middle East,” King said.

Okeydokee Pete, let’s go with that. A question: How?

(Maybe by building on our success with Al Qaeda and the Taliban? Oops, they  blew up a great big bomb in Kandahar today – Baghdad yesterday).

Pete King is has a bit of a temper and is really really skeered of Mooslims. He says so all the time.

The Tenth Year: welcome Pakistan!

C-Span this morning tells me my calendar is off by two days, and that in fact it is today that is the first day of the tenth year of the War in Afghanistan.

Here’s a little something from the Wall Street Journal front page:

Pakistan Agency Urges Taliban to Fight

Members of Pakistan’s spy agency are pressing Taliban field commanders to fight the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan, some U.S. officials and Afghan militants say, a development that undercuts a key element of the Pentagon’s strategy for ending the war.

The Pakistani spy agency, the ISI, has always been the power behind the Taliban, at least since the 1980’s. To understand how it all began, there’s not a better book than Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Reagan meets the Taliban and refers to them as Afghanistan’s founding fathers, despite their remarkable ability to deny even the most fundamental of human rights.*

Ronnie Reagan loved his Founding Fathers (Mujahadeen, aka the Taliban, in Afghanistan) and his Freedom Fighters (the Contras in Nicaragua). The ‘Fathers’ were fighting the Communist ‘menace’ and the ‘Fighters’ an elected leftist government. In Afghanistan, where the Soviets invaded to grab property for a natural gas pipeline, the Taliban prevailed and then Afghans died in the tens of thousands at their hands. In Nicaragua, our chosen right wing dictator and his Contras ultimately were run out by the people and the left wing government, headed by Daniel Ortega – came back into power by election. But Reagan (and his manipulators) got to play lords of the universe. (That ole’ military-industrial complex played a role too . . .)

Blogger futile democracy  has some interesting history on American empire, something that got a long airing here a few days ago. Worth a read.

And given the subject here, let’s remember that today is the 341st day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan.

*Pix and caption from his post.

Good morning

The action this week seems to have been in Pakistan, with bombings in populated areas (one killed three American soldiers). So perhaps it’s a good thing that talks with the Taliban are being pursued in Afghanistan, where it is the 120th day of the ninth year of the war there.