Friday, July 18, 2008

Video: U.S. Troops in Retreat in Afghanistan

As Casualties in Iraq decline the number of deaths of Americans in Afghanistan has risen dramatically. And the Bush administration once again has been caught with it's pants down. They are stumped as to how to get more troops into Afghanistan without jeopardizing the war in Iraq. All they can do is blame the Pakistani government--which they should've never trusted in the first place. Now they are talking about entering Pakistan to pursue the insurgents fleeing into that country. Does that sound like the Vietnam War all over to you?

Video: Gore and Pickens Offer an Alternative Energy Policy

Here are two major political and economic figures, on both sides of the political spectrum, whom are united in their belief that we need a national energy strategy. They are putting America and humanity above profit.

Foreign Jihadis Flock To Afghanistan

And we were told that al Qaeda was finished. They've just moved shop back to Afghanistan, where they started. It is true that Bin Laden, Inc. was essentially forced out of Iraq. But now they are back in business in Pakistan/Afghanistan. We've come full circle. The incompetent Bush gang, after overthrowing the Taliban, have allowed them to come back. But now we no longer have the resources to defeat them this time around. The only way we can defeat the Taliban/al Qaeda in Afghanistan is with more troops. And the only way we are going to get more troops is with a draft. Do you want that? Because it is going to happen during the next administration, regardless of who the President is.

Afghanistan has been drawing a fresh influx of jihadi fighters from Turkey, Central Asia, Chechnya and the Middle East, one more sign that al Qaeda is regrouping on what is fast becoming the most active front of the war on terror groups.

More foreigners are infiltrating Afghanistan because of a recruitment drive by al Qaeda as well as a burgeoning insurgency that has made movement easier across the border from Pakistan, U.S. officials, militants and experts say.

For the past two months, Afghanistan has overtaken Iraq in deaths of U.S. and allied troops, and nine American soldiers were killed at a remote base in Kunar province Sunday in the deadliest attack in years.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned during a visit to Kabul this month about an increase in foreign fighters crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where a new government is trying to negotiate with militants.

A former high-ranking member of the pre-2001-invasion Taliban government, who spoke to CBS News' Sami Yousafzai on condition of anonymity on Monday, said the Taliban was benefiting hugely from a massive influx of foreign fighters.

The former minister, who presently lives in Pakistan, told Yousafzai that the attack on the U.S. troops in Kunar province was made possible by the new techniques and skills brought to the country by outsiders, and he admitted that Afghan Taliban were not previously capable of carrying out such daring attacks.

He called it a "well planed attack, and the start of a new resistance in direct combat with the invaders."

Private Contractors Endanger U.S. Troops in Iraq

It's adding insult to injury. Our troops are being made to fight and die in a pointless war in Iraq while living in substandard conditions that further endangers them. And, of course, the company responsible for the shoddy electrical work comes from Texas.

Inferior electrical work by private contractors on U.S. military bases in Iraq is more widespread than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to a published report.

A Senate panel investigating the electrocutions of Americans on bases in Iraq was told last week by former KBR Inc. electricians that the contractor used employees with little electrical expertise to supervise subcontractors in Iraq and hired foreigners who couldn’t speak English. The Pentagon has said 13 Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq since September 2003. It has ordered Houston-based KBR to inspect all the facilities it maintains in Iraq for electrical hazards.

The New York Times reported on its Web site Thursday night that many more people have been injured, some seriously, by shocks, according to internal Army documents. A log compiled this year at one building complex in Baghdad disclosed that soldiers complained of receiving electrical shocks in their living quarters almost daily, the paper reported.