The Political Conundrum!

I am not sure of the legalities of this or if it can be done, but it is being done. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love the Canadians and think they are true fighters, shoulder to shoulder with our US forces, but to have our troops under their actual command? I guess the Sinai missions, Kosovo, etc. have set the precedent for this but it is allowed by our US laws? I am interested in what you think, so please leave me a comment with your opinion.

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — As Afghan President Hamid Karzai extended an olive branch to Taliban fighters and warlords to lay down their arms in return for money at an international conference in London, another U.S. army unit has received orders to join the war as part of the Canada-led “super brigade” in Kandahar.
The 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division is to be placed under Canadian command in March when it arrives from Fort Drum in upstate New York.
“Their arrival is key for us because they will help us to finalize the ring of stability around Kandahar City,” Canadian Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard said in an interview. “2010 is the year that we have to make it happen. The only way to do that is to stop talking and to go out and protect the population so they have an alternative to the insurgency.”
The incoming unit — between 400 and 500 troops — is to be one of the first U.S. army formations to deploy from the U.S. as part of a surge of 30,000 additional forces that President Barack Obama announced late in 2009.
The Valcartier, Que.-based commander of Task Force Kandahar declined to say exactly where the new U.S. troops would be deployed within his battle space, which includes the provincial capital and three heavily populated adjacent districts.
Menard’s brigade already includes three U.S. army battalions: the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 97th Military Police Battalion, which are both part of the Fort Bragg, Ky.-based 82nd Airborne Division, and the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, from Fort Carson, Colo., which is to be replaced this spring by a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky.
With the addition of the 71st Cavalry, Menard will oversee almost 6,000 troops. Menard’s “super brigade,” as Maj.-Gen. Marc Lessard, who commands all Canadian Forces overseas called it several months ago, also includes about 2,850 Canadian troops. They are mostly drawn from the Alberta-based Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and include troopers from the Ontario-based Royal Canadian Dragoons as well as reservists mostly from western Canada.
There have also been hints that the 71st Cavalry may not be the last U.S. troops to join Menard’s brigade before his tour ends in the fall. It is expected to take at least six months for all the troops surging from the U.S. to arrive in theatre.
The strategy of U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan — which the Canadians have been practising in Kandahar for nearly a year — emphasizes classic counter-insurgency principles such as establishing security by living among the populace.
“That is why we are living in mud houses and compounds given to us by elders,” Menard said. “We live there alongside Afghan army and police.
“What we want to do is make it hard on the enemy by not giving them any place to go because the population rejects them.”
As an example of how the strategy was working, Menard cited a recent case in Sperwan Gar where an elder spotted a youth planting an improvised explosive device under a road.
“He grabbed the guy,” Menard said and told him, “‘You can kill me because I am old and you will not make any point by doing so, but you will not dig an IED on my road that will kill innocent people. You are not welcome in our village.’”
Meanwhile, the Patricia’s battle group led by Lt.-Col. Jerry Walsh confirmed Thursday that its forces discovered a weapons cache in Panjwaii District west of Kandahar City on Tuesday.
Among the weapons seized were a rocket-propelled grenade, an anti-personnel mine and a fully loaded AK-47 assault rifle as well as radios, a mortar tripod and a pressure plate used to detonate mines.
Canadian combat engineers exploded the grenade and the mine.

The recent arrest of an organized cell in the northern West Bank inspired by al-Qaida's ideology is a stark reminder of the expanding nature of the threat facing Israel. Today, threats come not only from the enemies it has long known, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad which target Israel at home, but from new and potentially more dangerous ones, such as radicalized individuals in the West Bank or formalized groups such as Jaish al Islam and Jund Ansar Allah in the Gaza Strip, that are ideologically aligned with al-Qaida and are eager to globalize the assault on Israel.

In the West Bank, where intelligence and law enforcement agencies can keep close tabs on terrorist recruitment in general, and Salafi-Jihadi elements in particular, al-Qaida-inspired terrorism has appeared only sporadically through individuals radicalized from the Internet or traveling abroad. The ability of West Bank Arabs to travel and study abroad creates opportunities for radicalization and recruitment, but the area's relatively strong and growing civil society makes it less amenable to the development of organized Salafi-Jihadi groups. While even small cells or lone wolves could potentially carry out significant terrorist attacks, the threat is minimized by the strong Israeli and growing Palestinian security presence in the West Bank.

The Gaza Strip, however, is another story. In fact, even as Gazan terrorists floated barrel bombs toward Israel last week, a virtual terrorist salvo was also being directed out of Gaza.

The full article, which ran in The Jerusalem Post, is available here.

Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) has launched a web site featuring a full archive of its newsletter The Shield. Since June 2006, HTA members have distributed The Shield outside of Chicago area mosques and at Islamic conferences. Until June 2009, HTA did not operate openly. That month, the group announced its July 2009 Khilafah conference outside of Chicago, and with that officially revealed its existence in the United States.

Shield articles are a roster of HTA's judgments about the U.S. and its foreign policies. The lead article in the June 2006 inaugural issue posits that American Muslims should not feel safe in their own country, and that the U.S. government is their enemy. In later issues, The Shield returns to the same theme; asking Muslims to question their identity as Americans. This is the same propaganda tactic used by HT in the U.K. in 2005/2006. Continually posing the question "Are you British or are you Muslim" was meant erode British Muslims' sense of belonging.

Other frequent topics and themes covered in current and past issues of The Shield include; Jews and Christians are the enemy of Muslims; it is immoral for Muslims to serve in the military; and it is the long-term plot of Americans to continue killing and oppressing Muslims around the world.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a transnational political Islamist movement, with a presence in more than 45 countries. It advocates for the establishment of an Islamic state to be ruled according to Sharia law. Although its stated methods are non-violent, HT does not condemn terrorist acts perpetrated by other jihadi groups absolutely.

HTA is headquartered in the Chicago area, with members in most major cities and university towns all across the country. HTA intends to expose American Muslims to its ideology via overt and covert means. While its presence is now publicly known, HTA will likely continue to use covers to reach its target support audience (school-aged American Muslims).

On February 3rd this country lost a huge asset they had defending it. A man who has dedicated his life to serving this country, who believed in his family and who died doing what he loved, flying his helicopter. His death was barely a footnote in many newscasts as it was simply a “US Helicopter crashed in Germany”. It wasn’t in the mountains of Afghanistan or in the city of Baghdad, so it garnered very little attention. But Gary and his crew (Chief Warrant Officer 2 Clayton M. Hickman and Specialist Matthew E Clark) went down doing their part for this Country in Germany, serving. In fact Gary had more than served his part already with 4 combat tours under his belt (he had two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan).

You can read more about Gary and the crash here (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14348477) and here (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700007599/Soldier-from-Utah-killed-in-Germany-copter-crash.html?pg=1).

Gary left behind not only a wife (Tawnya) and three children (Ashlyn, Ethan, Isabella), but also many family and friends. You can check out the memorial page at http://www.garymarcfarwell.com/ and see just how loved and missed Gary is. There are tons of photos up there and many other tidbits about Gary. They even have links to a Facebook page and a twitter account that is dedicated to Gary’s memory.

Why am I blogging about this? Because like so many other service-members who are lost from our ranks, I think Gary’s passing was lost amongst the headlines. Like those that died on days when other topics are more important to the MSM to talk about (Michael Jackson’s death for example), I think it does a disservice for great men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice.

I got word of this order coming down this morning from contacts in country. In coming up with the perfect title for this blog entry, I felt that CSM Hall’s quote was the best title I could give this. It appears that GEN McChrystal is focusing on warfare and not creature comforts. I can’t say I blame him, because to be honest the people enjoying many of these comforts are not the ones that are directly in the fight. If getting rid of them means providing more resources to the true fighting men and women, then I applaud this move.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has ordered many Army and Air Force Exchange Service facilities closed as a way to focus on the war and to provide space for the U.S. troop buildup.
According to a “fragmentary order” issued earlier this month, concessions such as Burger King, Dairy Queen, Orange Julius, Pizza Hut, the Oakley stores and Military Car Sales must be closed within 60 days, with the possibility that each concession could get a 30-day extension.
“With all the resources and personnel coming in, you just don’t have the space (for the facilities that are being closed),” one U.S. military official said.
The amount of canned goods and bottled goods coming into Afghanistan as well as first-run movie showings and non-United Service Organizations shows will be scaled back as part of the order, U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Hall, the top U.S. enlisted man in Afghanistan, wrote on his blog.
“This is a war zone — not an amusement park,” Hall wrote.
The order does not require the closure of some quality-of-life facilities and programs, the official said. Internet access, including the ability to talk to loved ones on Skype, and library services will remain, he said.
AAFES stores will stay open along with barber and beauty shops, USO operations and services such as checking out recreation gear, movies and board games. The order also exempts Green Bean coffee shops, AT&T call centers, cell phone activation services, alterations concessions and Afghan bazaars that operate one day a week.
The major bases that will be affected by the closings will be Bagram and Kandahar air bases, Camp Phoenix and Camp Salerno, the military official said.

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the European Union (EU) held a joint review of the 2007 U.S.-EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreement on February 8-9, 2010, in Washington, D.C. During the course of the comprehensive, two-day review, an EU expert delegation led by the European Commission observed first hand how PNR contributes to DHS's layered approach to border management and aviation security and how DHS handles PNR data. The EU expert delegation will issue a report in the near future reflecting its analysis.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today called state and local leaders from the east coast region impacted by the current snow storm—relaying the Department’s continued support and underscoring the importance of ongoing partnerships between local first responders and the federal government