General McChrystal Goes Off the Reservation: His Afghanistan Speech Was Unfortunate

I've been watching and waiting for the axe to fall on the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and it looks like it's started.

General McChrystal sent his troop request to the Pentagon, then took his plan and his views to the media, which I didn't think was a very good idea. And sure enough, instead of motivating the Obama Administration to send more troops, all it's done is infuriate the Commander-in-Chief.

It's very unfortunate that General McChrystal didn't bide his time and speak privately with his boss.

I'm no fan of the Obama Administration, but there are written and unwritten rules between the military brass and the President, and it appears that a few lines were crossed. This is very unfortunate, and I hope that he and President Obama are able to get through this and move on to addressing what needs to be done to destroy the enemy.

Feds Tour Michigan Prison: Possible Location for Gitmo Detainees

Federal officials began touring a soon-to-be-closed maximum security prison in Standish, MI, to see if that's where they want to ship al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.

I am in favor of sending them here to Michigan, but not to Standish. It IS too near a population center that could be used as terrorist target (ie a hostage situation to entice the government to release the prisoners.)

Here's my thought: send all the prisoners currently being held in Alger Maximum Correctional Facility near Munising, MI, to Standish instead, and send the al-Qaeda prisoners to Alger Max.

The military will need to establish a base nearby; there's much more space in the Upper Peninsula to do that, if it is to be a joint military/civilian operation.

The local population WOULD be at risk, no matter where the al-Qaeda prisoners go.

If that's to be the standard, then here's another thought: distribute the prisoners throughout the country. There are enough maximum security prisons throughout the nation that we can send 3-4 prisoners to each, and not publicize who's going to which prison. That would eliminate a single target for terrorists to go after.

Our prison system can handle these people. There's a lot of NIMBY going on around here, nothing more.

We held Nazi prisoners in this country for years; in fact there were 400,000 German and Italian soldiers held in POW camps in the continental U.S. during World War II; there were close to five hundred POW camps in the following states: Ohio, California, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Nebraska. According to one article that I referenced, Texas alone had seventy camps.

People ought to get over their apprehension. This is nothing new.

Woodward Makes Brief Mention of New Technique for Tracking Terror Leaders: Media Should STAY OFF This Part of the Story

Bob Woodward's new book makes mention of a new system of tracking and targeting terrorist leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan that the military is taking great advantage of. But when questioned about it in an interview, Woodward declined to explain further.

Smart move, Bob. I hope the media follows his example and leaves this part of the story alone. Whatever the military is doing, it's working.

The last time that the press revealed that the military was able to track al-Qaeda's use of particular electronic devices, the group stopped using them, which made the system useless and lead to more American lives being lost on the battlefield. We don't want a repeat of that experience.

If there are any reporters out there who already know the details about this "system" that Woodward mentions, ZIP IT. Don't take another tool out of the hands of the military.

Predictions on Pakistan Appear to Be Coming True Sooner Than Expected: This is Not Good News

Uh oh.

I had written last week about Senator Obama's rash words promising to send U.S. troops into Pakistan without permission to hunt al-Qaeda down. I had written that it could easily expand into a mission to secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons ("Some Candidates Want to Substitute One War for Others: What's the Point?" once U.S. forces crossed the border to start hunting al-Qaeda.

Look at what was on CNN's web site today.

The Pakistani issue that I raised may become moot if President Bush decides to secure Pakistan's nuclear arms before he leaves office. What are we getting into now??!

Looking Forward: Pentagon Needs to Carefully Plan Withdrawal of U.S. Forces, or We'll Lose a Ton of People on the Last Day

The recent clashes between Congress and the White House over withdrawal dates for U.S. forces from Iraq have me worried that the government may err on how they go about actually doing it, when the time comes to leave Iraq.

One nightmare scenario that I can see happening is that the U.S. military will be on the move under cover of darkness to their pre-invasion positions in Kuwait, as well as heading for Saudi Arabia. No one will realize what exactly is going on, until one of the networks put two and two together and announce that the U.S. pull-out is underway.

When it goes on the air, you can bet that al-Qaeda and many insurgent groups will head to the American withdrawal routes and start staging ambushes.

The same kind of thing happened to the Soviets when they withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989; they lost a lot of soldiers to snipers and ambushes; Soviet President Gorbachev bitterly complained that they were leaving and they shouldn't be shot at, but the mujahideen didn't care. Bullets and bombs continued to hit the Red Army as they headed back into Soviet territory.

Hopefully the Pentagon is looking at this carefully and determining how they will get our troops out. I think a gradual quiet withdrawal is the way to go, instead of having tens of thousands of vehicles and 140,000 troops on the move at the same time. That's a disaster waiting to happen.

We don't need tons of casualties on the last day simply because the withdrawal of troops from Iraq was planned in the same way as the occupation was. We don't need to go there.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq Proves War Critics Over Here Wrong: They Will Bring the Battle to Our Own Streets

Remember the debate over the statement that "if we pull out of Iraq now, the terrorists will come over here and start killing us in our own streets?"

Critics of the war said "nope. Won't happen. That's pro-war propaganda."

I came out in support of the above statement on November 12, 2005, on this blog, saying that ..."and yes, if we leave before the job is done, we may as well put armed troops into our own streets because that's where al-Qaeda will show up next. Once American and foreign troops are gone from Iraq, the war will shift to Europe and North America and those parts of the world where Westerners have a presence.

The peaceniks can go bury their heads in the sand if they want, but the problem will NOT go away that easily. Bin-Laden has said that he wants four million dead Americans before he will even consider stopping his jihad. Where, pray tell, might he find four million Americans? Not in Iraq. Not in Jordan or Indonesia. Not anywhere else in the world, but here in our own country. Duh!!

So for those stupid enough to believe that ending the Iraq War will appease bin-Laden, or any of his followers into not launching suicide attacks on the United States, think again. Get your heads out of your butts!"

The media is reporting today that al-Qaeda in Iraq tried to get terrorists into this country on student visas for the purpose of launching attacks on our civilian population.

Excuse me, but what more proof do the nay-sayers need, thousands of dead American civilians in body bags at their feet? Like I said before...they need to get their heads out of their butts!