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POPSHow to Lose a War: The American Way An American military spokesman denied that the request for American forces to leave was ever made, either formally or otherwise, or that they had caused most of the casualties. But the episode underlines differences of opinion among NATO and American military forces in Afghanistan on tactics for fighting Taliban insurgents, and concerns among soldiers about the consequences of the high level of civilians being killed in fighting.
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POPSWorld wants Obama as president: poll Will Americans choose to lead the world, or will they once again squander the goodwill that the world would love to heap on the USA. What will they do? The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were America's NATO allies, including Australia (62 per cent).
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POPSGiuliani Plans for Eternal War in the Name of Israel And how do the majority of Americans feel about this, well to quote from the article on last year "Summer War" this is the American reaction: "In the current conflict, do you think the United States should take Israel's side, take the side of Hezbollah, or not take either side? Israel's - 31% Hezbollah's - 0% Neither - 65%"
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POPSFalse Flags you may know about? Should we learn from what we now know of these incidents from our recent past and what we now know to be the truth, that we should not trust what our governments about what appears to be the situation. We only seem to have achieved to give away the rights that our citizen gained. For what? Increased security? What increased security and at what cost in money and loss of liberties? The security fascist who were the bottom of the labour chain, now control our every move. The lunatics are running the asylum! No wonder the citizens were never more afraid!
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POPSWishfull Thinking Will Not Win Afghanistan
First, to be clear: I firmly believe that the Taliban should be wiped from the face of the world. I was talking about this before 9/11 because I don't believe we should wait until Americans die to put an end to crimes against humanity. But, anyone who thinks we are making progress in Afghanistan is lying to themselves. Afghanistan is the rock against which Empires break themselves. You simply can't win a war in those moutnains. Although I hear people say that our cause is just, or great, or that we are making progress, I have not heard a single person tell me what strategic reasons we have for thinking that this conflict is winnable. History is against us here. The present is against us as well. The future holds no hope for a decisive military victory. It's not good news, but it's the way it is. We can't develop a military strategy if we aren't honest with ourselves first. Wishful thinking from thousands of miles away is not enough to win a war.
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POPSHistory Repeats ? How feasible is a divided Iraq ? Cut back to 1947. Ethnic riots had broken out across India, and its leaders decided the best course of action was to divide the country. Cyril Radcliffe drew a line across a map dividing communities that had lived together for hundreds of years. Result: a million deaths and 14-16 million people displaced. Neither was that the end of the story. India and Pakistan didn't stop fighting, Pakistan imploded violently into two nations, and the mayhem still goes on in Kashmir. It's only a unified, multicultural Iraq that can preserve some semblance of independence and decency.
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POPSWill Turkey invade northern Iraq? This has been talked loudly in Turkey since last month and it became a key subject of political parties & leaders, when there are less than two weeks to the early general elections. Many intellectuals, thinkers and columnists expressed their worries that such a "beyond-the-borders" military operation could disrupt the political processes and could even cast doubts on the elections.
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POPS NATO Has Acquiesced To The Kremlin Writing in the Times of London, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband even opposes expelling Russia from the G-8 -- a perfectly calibrated and long-overdue measure. And a German diplomat says the Georgia issue should not have been brought to NATO in the first place, but instead to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a completely toothless consultative body, and to the United Nations, where inaction is guaranteed by the Russian veto. To their credit, the French tried to do something. Unfortunately, President Nicolas Sarkozy was snookered by Moscow. Article V of the cease-fire agreement he brokered, allowing Russia the right to "implement additional security measures" within the borders of Georgia, is a blank check for Russian occupation. Eastern Europe understands the stakes in Georgia. It is the ultimate target. Russia's aims are clear: (1) sever South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia for incorporation into Russia;
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POPSTurkey is Centre of the World Despite the fragile situation, if Turkey were to organise autonomy for Kurds in its own borders, northern Iraq, Syria and Iran it would be a heroic act of enormous historical import.
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POPSAfghanistan is “becoming a sort of surreal hunting estate" War Gone Bad There is no mystery as to why things have gone increasingly badly for the United States and its allies. As the United States steps up its air war, civilian casualties have climbed steadily over the past two years. Nearly 700 were killed in the first three months of 2008, a major increase over last year. In a recent incident, 47 members of a wedding party were killed in Helmand Province. In a society where clan, tribe, and blood feuds are a part of daily life, that single act sowed a generation of enmity. Anatol Lieven, a professor of war at King’s College London, says that a major impetus behind the growing resistance is anger over the death of family members and neighbors. Lieven says it is as if Afghanistan is “becoming a sort of surreal hunting estate, in which the U.S. and NATO breed the very terrorists they then track down.”
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POPS Former NSA Director: "By any measure the US has long used terrorism"
More Moreover, recently declassified documents show that in the 1960's, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan to blow up AMERICAN airplanes (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. If you view no other links in this article, please read the following ABC news report; the official documents; and watch this interview with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings (click link entitled "Joint Chiefs Guilty-Northwoods"). In addition, the FBI had penetrated the cell which carried out the 1993 world trade center bombing, but had -- at the last minute -- cancelled the plan to have its FBI infiltrator substitute fake power for real explosives, against the infiltrator's strong wishes (summary version is free; full version is pay-per-view).
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POPSWas He Lying Then Or Now? I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator—when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time. I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. I have been proud to be a part of a strong, bipartisan consensus that has stood by Israel in the face of all threats... I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself in the United Nations and around the world. Lie: In January 2008, a Palestinian activist named Ali Abunimah described Barack Obama’s overnight switch from Pro-Palestinian activist to supporter of Israel.
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POPSRUBBISH! Don't Read. More LIES. Apocalyptic Crap. "Washington is still negotiating with Poland and the Czech Republic over the proposed "third site" - after Alaska and California - for the system. The plan is for 10 interceptor missiles to be based in Poland and a long-range "X-band" radar similar to that at Fylingdales to be based in the Czech Republic. US officials today described Russian objections to the plan as "geopolitical" which in the long run would amount to "much ado about nothing". There remains widespread scepticism in Nato about Washington's claims regarding the need and capability of a missile defence system and the intentions of the Iranians, alliance officials admitted today. There is concern in particular about who would control and decide the firing of anti-missile interceptors situated in Europe. The issue will be on the agenda of the NATO summit in Bucharest in early April. ...Guardian
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POPSHow To Stop Putin What we can do is alter Putin's cost-benefit calculations. We are not without resources. There are a range of measures to be deployed if Russia does not live up to its cease-fire commitments: 1. Suspend the NATO-Russia Council established in 2002 2. Bar Russian entry to the World Trade Organization. 3. Dissolve the G-8. Putin's dictatorship long made Russia's presence in this group of industrial democracies a farce, but no one wanted to upset the bear by expelling it. No need to. The seven democracies simply withdraw. (And if Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who has been sympathetic to Putin's Georgia adventure, wants to stay, he can have an annual G-2 dinner with Putin.) Then immediately announce the reconstitution of the original G-7. 4. Announce a U.S.-European boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi. The most crucial and unconditional measure, however, is this: Reaffirm support for the Saakashvili government:
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POPSPutin on Bush: Bush "Not in Charge" of US Affairs This is real interesting. Three things at least can be learned: 1. Putin is on to the neoconservatives, who have Bush's ear, and control him to a great degree. Putin is right: Bush is a Puppet President 2. Putin knows Cheney's influence over Bush, who is driving the Georgia-Russia and NATO-Russia neocon led conflict. Bush is stupid and easily manipulated to a large degree. 3. Putin is naive and stupid to separate Bush the man from Bush policies. He speaks against Russia now, therefore against Putin. Reason? Bush has the ability to make light and "charm" (for lack of better word) others into frivolity and laughter, but which is a decoy from his serious crimes and corrupt actions. I wrote earlier in regard to Russia, Bush treated Putin well at his ranch in Texas after 9/11 (which was an excuse for Putin to trample Chechnyans by branding them "terrorists"), but now he will stab him in the back (missile treaties around Russia for NATO).
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POPSMessiah Lies About His Senate Committee Assignment John explains the rest: But Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Obama just made that up so he could count the committee's action as one of "my deeds." If committed by a Republican, this would be a gaffe of historic proportions. Even a Senator as inattentive to his duties as Obama certainly knows what committees he serves on. For him to fabricate the claim, out of whole cloth, that the Senate Banking Committee is " committee," strikes me as another sign of Obama's megalomania. That, plus more evidence that he is totally at sea without a teleprompter. Illinois Senator's Record Of Inaction Leaves Him Discredited WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by the Republican National Committee: As Chairman Of The Subcommittee With NATO Oversight, Obama Has Failed To Hold Any Hearings On Afghanistan:
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POPSA signal to NATO "Russia. This is about Georgia being competitive with Russia for the European market and Georgian moves to try to enter NATO. This is Putin saying "back -off" NATO." Russia is creating problems for many of it's break-away states. Usually, as in the case with Ukraine recently, it centers on oil. And we can see that Russia is working very hard to buy and claim oil reserves all over the world, they use their resources as weapons against it's former states, and reassert it's will in the region and the world. These motivations are even more troubling when you consider that many journalists consider Russia to be a modern fascist police state.
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POPS Castrated U.S. Media Remains Obediently Silent On Bilderberg 
David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, the secretary general of NATO, CEO’s of the world’s biggest corporations, U.S. politicians and European royalty were all there in Chantilly, but the U.S. media failed to show and did not even mention that the meeting was taking place, despite Bilderberg themselves issuing a press release! Central Bilderberg member David Rockefeller’s infamous quote about the castrated U.S. media and its sycophantic support for Bilderberg’s agenda has never been more prescient. “We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the light of publicity during those years. But now the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government." Rockefeller can thank the ideological pros
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POPSEastern Europe Can Defend Itself
The small number of interceptors are designed to shoot down an equally small number of Iranian missiles -- not the overwhelming numbers that Russia deploys. Poland and other states should be under no illusion they can count on the U.S. in a crisis. In the past we left Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the lurch. More recently we haven't done much to help Georgia. We have already seen how the tiny Georgian armed forces -- with fewer than 30,000 men -- were routed by the Russian invaders. According to the CIA's World Factbook, Georgia has over 900,000 men between the ages of 16 and 49. It could easily create a larger military force than it has, but that would require spending more on defense. By the CIA's estimate, its defense budget was just 0.59% of GDP in 2005. According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, one country in Eastern Europe spends more than 2% of GDP on defense. Bulgaria at 2.2%. Romania is in second place at 1.9%, followed by Poland at 1.8%.
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POPSChutzpah, With a Capital "CH" Can you believe the audacity of McCain? First he manipulates Obama into taking his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, which also resulted in a successful European tour. When that worked out too well for Obama, McCain declared that his opponent was being presumptuous, and acting as if was already president of the United States. Now that Russia has stormed into Georgia, McCain decides to send Lieberman and Graham to Tblisi to try to work something out. On what authority will the traitor Lieberman, and Howdy Doody Graham discuss anything of substance, with any officials in Georgia? On top of which, Condie Rice, Madam Secretary herself, is on her way to Georgia to assess the situation. She, at the very least, speaks for the president. For whom do these two McCain puppets speak?
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POPSThe Gray Scale between East and West Understanding that there is no clear distinction between east and west is one of the most important changes we need to make in 21st century diplomacy. Failing to see east and west as a cultural continuum with significant commonalities across the board is one of the main reasons for the rise of terrorism and our failed Russia policy. Clinging to old nationalist divisions blinds us to what the world has become and what the world has always been: cultures in flux across borders and mutating as different people interact.
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