Ralph Lopez's blog

On June 9, 2010 American citizen Fahad Hashmi was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a U.S. court for "material assistance" to Al Qaeda, allegedly helping to pass a pair of waterproof socks and some ponchos, through an intermediary, to an operative in Pakistan. The intermediary was a "friend of a friend" who stayed for two weeks in Fahad's London flat while Fahad was a graduate student. Fahad didn't know the man, who brought two suitcases which remained unopened in a corner for his whole stay. Fahad says he didn't know what the suitcases contained, never mind what it was for, and certainly not that they contained "material assistance." The government's charges did not allege anything else had been passed, no weapons, no cash. Just socks and ponchos.

From our good friends at Democrats.com

Tomorrow (Thursday) is the vote on the war funding supplemental for Afghanistan. Save yourself about $35 billion tonight. In 2009, House Progressives had two chances to use the "power of the purse" to end the wars by opposing the $97 Billion War Supplemental. On May 14, 51 Progressives voted against war funds. But on June 16, when 32 true Progressives voted No (1) and we needed just 7 more Progressives to end the wars, 21 sorely disappointed us.

They were: Yvette Clarke, Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, Jerry Costello, Barney Frank, Luis Gutierrez, Jay Inslee, Steve Kagen, John Lewis, Edward Markey, Doris Matsui, Jim McDermott, George Miller, Grace Napolitano, Richard Neal, James Oberstar, Jan Schakowsky, Mike Thompson, Edolphus Towns, Nydia Velázquez, and Anthony Weiner...

Women wore miniskirts in Kabul under the short-lived Marxist government in the 70s

Afghans are some of the most bombed-out, shot-up, messed-with people in the world.  It started when Zbigniew Brzezinski decided to give the Soviets "their own Vietnam."  The Afghans were in the midst of growing pains into a modern, moderate Islam, nominally socialist society, when Brzezinski heard the word "SOCIALIST?!"

With her denial of President Obama's budget request for $4.4 billion in development assistance to Afghanistan, citing corruption, Rep. Nita Lowey has opened an opportunity to examine the principle forms of assistance to the country, what works and what doesn't. The fact is that all Afghan development programs are not alike. Lowey would do well to redirect the funds which were destined for USAID, which would be most of the funds in question, to Afghanistan's widely-hailed National Solidarity Program (NSP), which thus far has managed to elude Karzai government rapaciousness, and begun to lift this population 40% of which is malnourished into their own economic destiny.

NOTE: IT'S THE REST OF IT THAT IS WASTE. We can either spend another quarter-trillion to a trillion over the next few years for this phony, economics-driven insurgency, or we can do what works and get out now. The little girl starving in the video below is in Kandahar in 2007, five years after we arrived. It is still happening.

In an unprecedented move which directly challenges a president's war strategy, Rep. Nita Lowey has axed Obama's request for $4.4 billion for programs which would result in greater jobs and development for Afghans, citing concerns over corruption. By doing so Lowey has challenged President Obama's analysis that Taliban is a mix of "hardcore ideologues and kids who sign up because it's the best job they can get."

Now that the McChrstal Affair looks more like a combination of theater and high-command hari-kari in which McChrystal has removed himself from the role of General William Westmoreland in the history books, it would be a shame to lose what else McChrystal's team was telling us in all drunken frankness. Evidence is building that McChrystal knew perfectly well what was going to go into the Rolling Stone article. Editor Eric Bates said on Morning Joe on June 22 that "everything" had been run by McChrystal and his aides during the week-long fact-checking process, and McChrystal did "absolutely not" push back or voice any objection. Hastings told CNN:

"I had a tape recorder and notepad out the entire time, so it was all very clear that it was on the record." 

GlobeNews24.com reports:

As we hear more of the breathless fallout over the McChrystal interview and his staff's foot-in-mouth, you might want to keep in mind the following fact: McChrystal was given the chance to voice objections to the controversial parts of the Rolling Stone article in which drunken aides were quoted, but he signed off anyway.

GlobeNews24.com reports:

If even a small fraction of what former Bravo Company 2-16 soldier Ethan McCord is saying is true, that orders were given at a battalion level in Iraq for "360 rotational fire" against civilians in order to "kill every motherf**ker in the street," upon being hit by an IED, then it is incumbent upon Congress to investigate a possible war crime which far surpasses errant bombs or overzealous individual soldiers in the heat of battle. This is the mass execution of civilians. Further funding for the wars, presently being courageously stalled in the House Appropriations Committee by Chairman David Obey for other reasons, should be withheld until a full report, including subpoenaed witnesses, has been made to full House and Senate. Halted funds should not include civilian assistance.

Still breaking as there is no MSM reportage so far. Please Facebook/crosspost

The shock waves are still filtering down, a "bagger" winning in Kaintuck and beating the GOP's establishment candidate of choice, but the reality is far more subtle and complex.

Those who wish to understand the Tea Party movement should understand that there are really two of them: the Sarah Palin, pro-war, pro-torture Neocon wing and the Ron Paul-based Libertarians, who both employ the same small gubmint rhetoric while arriving at it from vastly different perspectives.

"Waking from a dream as she slept comfortably in a remote Kurdish village in Northeastern Iran, Karla Hansen stared wide-eyed at the ceiling. Across the border in Afghanistan, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), controlled by American pilots sitting in front of video screens inside the U.S. were dropping bombs on the poorest of Afghanistan’s poor. Hundreds of children, beautiful children, like those who welcomed her every day during her visit to Iran, had already perished. On that night, Hansen made a promise to herself. She would make a film to document the effects of the drones through the eyes of innocent children and families with no place left to run." -- From the website of the new documentary "Silent Screams"

On the eve of President Karzai's visit there is a debate taking place over whether the Obama administration should support talks with Taliban leaders or wait until military action further "weakens" the Taliban. The problem is, if anything, military action tends to strengthen the Taliban, as it places US forces in the position of the foreign invader which must be driven out, and draws recruits. Overstaying our welcome has resulted in reawakened feelings of national pride among young men who have seen no economic good come out of the American presence. So you work with whoever is around and whoever pays a wage in the invader-driving-out business. It should also be remembered that the word "Taliban" is a very broad term which includes gangs of hungry men who put on the black turban and haul out the old AK just for an excuse to go around robbing people.