Biden

Afghanistan, al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Biden, India, jihadists, Pakistan, Taliban

WaPo tells Obama, ‘Taliban has gone from struggling for survival to aiming for control over both Afghanistan and Pakistan’

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This morning’s editorial, ‘The Taliban Threat,’ in the Washington Post, must have shocked Vice-President Joe Biden:

“I think the Taliban are, obviously, exceedingly bad people that have done awful things,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said last week. “Their capability is somewhat different, [from al Qaeda] though, on that continuum of transnational threats.”

That analysis — which is being used by many who oppose sending additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan — made some sense in the first years after Sept. 11, 2001. Now it is badly out of date. Al-Qaeda, though still dangerous, has suffered serious reverses in the past several years, while the Taliban has gone from struggling for survival to aiming for control over both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Though it is not known to be planning attacks against the continental United States, success by the movement in toppling the government of either country would be a catastrophe for the interests of the United States and major allies such as India.

For years the United States has been trying to persuade Pakistan to fully confront the threat of the Taliban, even as its government and army dithered and wavered. Now that the army at last appears prepared to strike at the heart of the movement in Waziristan, the Obama administration is wavering — and considering a strategy that would give up the U.S. attempt to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan.

After all, VP Biden only suggested that General McChrystal step up attacks in Pakistan on al Qaeda and add Mullah Omar’s shura council in Quetta to the target list, using drone strikes and ground troop raids.

The WaPo’s editors summarized it with this:

Adopting such a strategy would condemn American soldiers to fighting and dying without the chance of winning. But it would also cripple Pakistan’s fight against the jihadists. With the pressure off in Afghanistan, Taliban forces would have a refuge from offensives by Pakistani forces. And those in the Pakistani army and intelligence services who favor striking deals or even alliances with the extremists could once again gain ascendancy. After all, if the United States gives up trying to defeat the Taliban, can it really expect that Pakistan will go on fighting?

When the lights went on inside the chicken hawk house at the Washington Post, somebody was actually at home. An unholy alliance of violent Islamic jihadists — the Taliban, al Qaeda, and senior officials within Pakistan’s government — seek power in Pakistan and control of its 60 nuclear weapons.

Maybe tomorrow the WaPo’s editors will advise President Barack Obama to broker a four-way winning strategy between India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the United States to both end the dispute over Kasmir and destroy this threat to all nations.

Biden, Joseph Biden

So what if Joe Biden dodged draft, Vietnam War?

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In response to my wondering if VP nominee Joseph Biden dodged the military draft after Vietnam’s bloody Tet offensive, in part a reader wrote:

May Have”, “What if” — [t]his article is presuming much.
…
It is a bit refreshing though to see the same B.S. tactics employed against Biden as were/are against Sara Palin, who does have Foreign Policy experience, for no other reason than her State shares borders with two Sovereign Nations. Maybe B.S. is a bit strong — yet it appears to be over reaching at the moment. I honestly can’t say I got my draft board notification in 1968 immediately after I turned 18 or not. I don’t believe I did because I wasn’t summoned for a physical until the winter of 69. I know I wasn’t dodging the draft for that year and half. My B.S. comment was in regards to the treatment Palin is getting, and if that happens to Biden, So (sic) be it … tit for tat.

Overreaching? Perhaps. The reader’s point is well taken, the delays between registering and classification physicals were often lengthy.

Yet let’s remember the Associated Press’ report:

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden received five student draft deferments during the Vietnam War, the same number of deferments received by Vice President Dick Cheney, and later was disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager… “As a result of a physical exam on April 5, 1968, Joe Biden was classified 1-Y and disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager,” said David Wade, a campaign spokesman.

In “Promises to Keep,” a memoir that was published last year and became an instant best-seller after he was tapped as Obama’s running mate, Biden never mentions his asthma, recounting an active childhood, work as a lifeguard and football exploits in high school.

My point here was not to suggest that we should drag out the records of the millions that received deferments or disqualifying classifications and grill them all on this subject. That said, Senator Joseph Biden is running to be a “heartbeat” away from becoming the Commander-in-Chief.

What is not clear from media reports, past and present, is how Joseph Biden was initially classified, medically fit or unfit, and whether that information was provided to the media by the Obama-Biden campaign. They say he was sent a questionnaire and then received four school years of student deferments, which would have ended when his law school did in the spring of 1968. But, on April 5, 1968, he suddenly received a physical from some unnamed doctor.

Which leads back to the question of whether he was initially classified as 1-A, physically eligible for the military draft.

If so, why did another doctor in 1968 find Biden’s asthma made him 1-Y — when the Vietnam War was at its peak? That same alleged asthma did not stop him from playing football in high school or apparently make him 1-Y at anytime back when Senator Biden was 18, 19, or 20-years of age, when relatively few American troops were in combat.

Those are fair questions, are they not?

If not, why was it fair for a political hack to forge military documents in order to smear President George W. Bush with them? Why did now infamous reporters continue to further the story even after the documents were found to be fake?

Why was it fair to question Richard Cheney and other prominent conservatives on their lack of military service during Vietnam?

The cheap shot attacks by Nancy Pelosi (who never served in the military) and liberal media that repeat such tripe have different rules for the D’s and R’s in or running for political office.

Tit for tat, as the reader pointed out.