The statement below posted on behalf of my friend Zoya, who as both an anti-Taliban and anti-Karzai government activist in Afghanistan merits the title of One of Bravest Women in World, along with her sisters in RAWA. The website is graced by a photo their "martyred" founder, meaning, murdered by the Taliban. Zoya sleeps in a different safe house every night and covers her face when she is on speaking engagements in the US. Every moment standing next to her was humbling, a 5'1" giant of a woman.
In other news a bipartisan group is emerging in Congress which is asking the president to give Congress a chance to debate war funding before deploying any more troops to Afghanistan. Feingold, McGovern, and Walter Jones (R-NC) make a statement. And on Bill Moyer's blog Michael Winship is calling the surge an "Ambush" by Republicans for Obama, guaranteed to kill health care and all the other good he might have done, plus cost Democrats seats in 2010. Ever wonder why those Republicans are so eager to get Obama stuck in Afghanistan?
While Democrats are looking at it like a rattlesnake about to bite?
Lastly, stumbled across this interesting nugget. Did you know Obama's Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn gave a speech to aerospace defense contractor executives claiming:
"The situation [in Afghanistan] is serious. New terrorist attacks against our homeland are being planned there now, including a recent plot disrupted by American authorities. Those facts compel us to act."
Huh? I thought there were fewer than 100 Al Qaeda fighters there to begin with, according to the Pentagon's own estimates. Couldn't we just put a million dollar bounty on each of their heads and save "9 billion, 900 million dollars? ($40 billion is the current estimate for the escalation.) I didn't hear about disrupted plots in Obama's speech, though it would have strengthened his case. Could it be Obama just said no, I'm not going to choke that whopper down no matter what you all say? Lo and behold, it is in the White House's "Fact Sheet" on the "new strategy." Those 100 Al Qaeda must be some nimble and busy guys, dodging Special Forces, Afghans who would prefer them dead, and planning attacks on the US "homeland" all at once! There's a scoop for you, reporters. How about those disrupted plots by these terr'ists who walk, fight, run, plot on the American homeland, juggle, and chew gum at the same time?
Lynn was in town to tell the military contractors that goodies were on the way. Here's my starter-castle for sure, dad-blame-it!
Defense.gov:
Aerospace assets will be critical to the success of stepped-up operations in Afghanistan – from delivering troops to ferrying logistical support to providing lifesaving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to ground forces, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn told industry executives here today.
This in turn follows coverage of new military operations as if they were commercials for war planes, in this case the troubled Osprey program:
AP:
U.S. Marines swooped down behind Taliban lines in helicopters and Osprey aircraft Friday in the first offensive since President Barack Obama announced an American troop surge....
Hundreds of troops from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and the Marine reconnaissance unit Task Force Raider dropped by helicopters and MV-22 Osprey aircraft in the northern end of the valley while a second, larger Marine force pushed northward from the main Marine base in the town of Now Zad, Pelletier said.
A U.S. military official in Washington said it was the first use of Ospreys, aircraft that combine features of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, in an offensive involving units larger than platoons.
That means they're getting ready to vote for more pork for the contractors, with our troops as the props for these billion dollar contracts. To see how much money your congresscritter gets from defense-aerospace, go HERE.
Zoya's statement, "Afghan Women Say No More Troops"
"I'm a representative of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), which was established in 1977 as a women's organization struggling for women's rights. But, after the former Soviet Union's invasion, RAWA got involved in resistance against the Soviets and the puppet regime of theirs. After 1992, RAWA started to focus on anti-fundamentalist struggle, which is continuing today. . . . We are still suffering in the chains of fundamentalism – from one side, the Taliban, from the other side, the Northern Alliance and the occupiers. So we have a long way to go to achieve our goals of democracy, freedom, and secularism. I think eight years is quite enough time to prove that the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan, under the banner of bringing democracy, women's rights, and war on terror, has completely failed. . . . The Taliban have 80% of Afghanistan under their control. They are increasing, day by day, in number, and they are also getting stronger politically and militarily. So, we see that this so-called war on terrorism has just affected our innocent civilians: our women and children are being killed, attacked by US bombs, by NATO bombs. It seems that the US invaded Afghanistan not to get rid of terrorism but to punish our people who were already suffering from three decades of war. . . . RAWA strongly believes that throwing more troops in will not solve the crisis of Afghanistan. It will even make the situation worse than before." -- Zoya