The Political Conundrum!

The following article covers two Army units that are fighting in the difficult and dangerous Wardak Province, Afghanistan.  I have had the honor to work with both of these units and my prayers go out to them and their families.  Stay strong and keep up the good fight.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/08-Oct-2009/American-troops-in-Afghanistan-losing-heart-report

Live Free or Die Trying!

The Pentagon announced roughly 15,000 personnel in four units that will rotate into Iraq next summer as "advisory and assistance brigades" for 12 month tours.

It was as brash and defiant a move as he could make. British MP George Galloway told a crowd in Gaza (see video here) that “I, personally, am about to break the sanctions on the elected government of Palestine. By Allah, we carried a lot of cash here. You thought we were all fat. We are not fat. This is money that we have around our waists.”

With that, he hoisted a bag filled with cash and handed it to a Hamas minister.

Hamas is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S. and E.U., but Galloway’s Viva Palestina convoy makes a priority of legitimizing Hamas as “the elected government of Palestine.” The Investigative Project on Terrorism has found ample evidence that Viva Palestina's ultimate objective is political – with the elevation of Hamas at its core.

Viva Palestina officials repeatedly said just that. During that March event with Hamas officials, Galloway also said:

"This is not charity. This is politics. The government of Palestine is the best people to decide where this money is needed. We are giving this money now to the government of Palestine. And, if I could, I would give them 10 times, 100 times more."

That sentiment was echoed on the eve of the sendoff of the Viva Palestina USA convoy which left in July. During a rally in Brooklyn, speaker Lamis Deek told the crowd:

"It's not about charity... but in every way that we cut it, it is political."

She added:

"[I]n choosing Hamas, what they chose was one united Palestinian state on all of the 1948 territories from the north to the very south. That is what Palestinians chose. And in supporting Palestinian choice we are saying we support their right to liberation from violent colonialism."

The IPT's findings about Viva Palestina, and its American offshoot Viva Palestina USA, can be read in a thorough report here.
Among those findings:

Viva Palestina USA is not incorporated anywhere. It uses an existing charity, the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizations/Pastors for Peace (IFCO) to collect donations.

During fundraisers and rallies, Viva Palestina members often invoke Hamas. In addition, a Hamas website promoted a pending trip by "European political figures" that quoted a Viva Palestina organizer.

Viva Palestina USA has struck alliances with a number of extremist groups, including La Voz de Aztlan, an organization that advocates the revolutionary overthrow of U.S. territory that it deems to have been stolen from Mexico; the Al-Awda, Palestine Right of Return Coalition, and Code Pink.

Read more about the investigation here. See the full report here. And read how a New York City Council member was told his participation in the July convoy could serve “a City purpose” here.

As lawmakers prepare to debate the military's ban on open homosexuality, they do so with a conspicuous absence of guidance from the president and his most senior military leaders.

An Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a terror attack in New York City contacted accomplices there while making a cross-country drive from Denver, raising concerns among investigators that he was sending instructions to purchase more bomb-making chemicals, officials familiar with the case said.

A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy in the bustling center of the Afghan capital Thursday, killing 17 people in the second major attack in the city in less than a month. The Afghan Foreign Ministry hinted at Pakistani involvement.

Recognizing the U.S. can neither win in Afghanistan nor succeed more broadly against al-Qaida without Pakistan's cooperation, President Barack Obama's war council is weighing a new role for Pakistan in the 8-year-old struggle in the region.

As the Navy takes a fresh look at allegations of widespread hazing in a dog-handling unit in Bahrain, evidence is emerging that some lower-ranking sailors felt scapegoated for abusive behavior that allegedly was masterminded by the man in charge of the unit.

Hamas in the Gaza Strip is under significant stress. As a government it has failed to provide for the needs of its purported constituents, and remains an international pariah under economic siege. At the same time, its credentials as a “resistance” movement lose currency by the day as the movement continues to refrain from attacking Israel for fear of reprisal attacks in the wake of Israel’s Caste Lead operation in December 2008 and January 2009.

Al Qaeda itself, which highlights the Palestinian cause in its rhetoric but gives the issue short shrift in its operational planning, has taken advantage of the opportunity to try to lure Hamas operatives away from the movement’s nationalist focus to the cause of global jihad. In February 2008, the elusive Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, denounced Hamas’ leadership for betraying Islam and called on Hamas’ military wing to break off from the group and join the global jihadist movement.

Recognizing the damage such challenges pose to Hamas’s own jihadist credentials, the movement’s Izz al Din al Qassam terrorist wing posted a paper on its website last month entitled “The Concept of Jihad as the Islamic World Understand” [sic] highlighting the work of Sheikh Yousef Qaradawi, famous for his religious edicts (fatwa) justifying suicide bombings targeting civilians in Israel and Iraq. Qaradawi, the paper stresses, “is extremely careful to distinguish between extremist groups that declare war on the whole world, killing indiscriminately, tainting the image of Islam and providing its enemies with fatal weapons to use against it, on the one hand, and on the other groups resisting occupation.” The effort to cloak itself in the mantle of a noted Islamist theoretician like Qaradawi, who is known for his vocal support for violent jihad, is a telling sign of the pressure Hamas feels it is under in the wake of its poor performance fighting Israel last winter and in light of its relative quiet since. Israeli officials have described the current Hamas policy as “industrial quiet,” which includes a pause in violence for the practical purpose of rearming and the strategic aim of consolidating its control in Gaza.

Hamas failed to inflict significant Israeli casualties over the course of the Caste Lead battles, and instead of protecting its civilian population Hamas hid its leaders and armaments behind civilian structures such as mosques and hospitals. According to a new Washington Institute study, Hamas in Combat: The Military Performance of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, despite the violent threat Hamas poses to regional stability, the movement’s fundamental military strength should not be overestimated.

Engaged in secular politics, failing to institute shariah law, and cracking down on fellow Palestinians who attack Israel or threaten Hamas’s rule, Hamas in Gaza has created a vacuum which salafi-jihadi groups – often populated by disgruntled Hamas operatives – have been keen to fill. To date, however, al Qaeda inspired groups in Gaza have enjoyed very limited success, an issue covered in detail in another, forthcoming Washington Institute study.

U.S. Army Soldiers with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, patrol Kunar province, Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, Sept. 29. The 4th ID Soldiers have been working with Afghan government and security forces to help stabilize the troubled valley since arriving in June. Photo by Sgt. Matthew Moeller