Free Republic

Perhaps more than any other open-source outfit, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments has put serious intellectual muscle into examining the implications of waging war in an environment where potential enemies don’t just threaten to use nuclear weapons, they actually detonate a nuclear device. While nuclear disarmament remains a noble aspiration, the world is going in the other direction, that is, more states with more nukes, says CSBA President Andrew Krepinevich in a new report, US Nuclear Forces: Meeting the Challenge of a Proliferated World. From four nuclear states in the 1960s, there are now double that number (adding...

Sacrificial Health Care Lambs The health care con, perpetrated by the White House, is well under way. The intent is to keep all attention on every morsel of “news” as it is allowed to leak. The very fact that Americans, by a vast majority, have made their opinions known, yet the incessant push for health care reform continues. It is designed to keep the White House in something of a superior posture to the little people, the voters, who are at the mercy of our all-knowing, omni-present Ruler. Since he has no integrity or moral standing to fall back on,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has been presented intelligence estimating Taliban-led forces battling U.S. troops in Afghanistan have nearly quadrupled since 2006 and are increasingly independent of leaders in Pakistan, officials said on Friday. A U.S. intelligence assessment, showing the number of fighters in the insurgency has reached an estimated 25,000 from 7,000 in 2006, spotlights Taliban gains and the tough choices facing President Barack Obama in trying to reverse the trend. Some of Obama's advisers see a more concerted crackdown by Pakistan on militants on its side of the border as key to turning the tide in Afghanistan,...

The White House has told the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan to delay a planned trip here Friday to brief President Obama and his senior advisers on his recommendation for a major troop increase. Officials had hoped to have Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and what national security adviser James L. Jones called "all the key players" speak to Obama in person by the end of this week, leading to final deliberations over a forward strategy. But "we're not finished," Jones said Thursday, and meetings may extend beyond next week. When the White House is ready, he said, McChrystal...

OBAMA LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT STRATEGY, FOR THE RIGHT REASONSBy Cynthia Tucker Sat Oct 3, 7:58 pm ET Given the outrage from certain precincts of the conservative establishment, you'd think President Obama had signed a peace treaty with Osama bin Laden. The armchair generals are apoplectic over the president's decision to have a series of serious and thoughtful discussions with his national security team about sending more troops to Afghanistan. "Al-Qaida's propaganda machine is quickly seizing on this weakness," military affairs pundit Bill Roggio blogged at The Weekly Standard, the neocon house organ. Ultra-conservative pundit Michelle Malkin denounced Obama's "waffle"...

Coalition forces in Afghanistan are going to have to adopt a "dramatically different" strategy to ensure success, the top US general there says. In his first speech since submitting a report calling for more troops, Gen Stanley McChrystal also said the operation had been "under-resourced". The success of the military operation could not be taken for granted in the face of a growing insurgency, he said. Meanwhile, a Nato strike in Helmand has killed at least six civilians. Women and children are believed to be among the dead. Nato has said it will investigate the incident. It said it had...

At its conclusion, Obama reminded the crowd that he hadn't reached a decision and that his war council should return twice next week with more details and ideas, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. The talks revealed the emerging fault lines within the administration, with military commanders solidly behind the request for additional troops and other key officials divided. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Afghan and Pakistan envoy Richard Holbrooke appeared to be leaning toward supporting a troop increase, the official said. White House chief of staff Rahm...

The White House unexpectedly decided to review its strategy in Afghanistan after a series of recent setbacks in the war, including allegations of fraud following last month's presidential elections and surging violence throughout the country. It begins just days after Gen. McChrystal submitted his request for as many as 40,000 additional troops to the Pentagon. Some in the administration, notably Biden, have argued for a smaller military footprint and a tighter focus on counterterrorism as the best way forward. Advocates of such a shift point to the effective use of Predator drone strikes to kill Taliban leaders in Pakistan. Two...

Throughout last year’s presidential campaign, Barack Obama lambasted the Bush administration for fighting “the wrong war” in Iraq and ignoring the right one in Afghanistan. Iraq was a “war of choice,” Obama claimed, while Afghanistan was a “war of necessity.” Repeatedly, he claimed that, if elected president, he’d unveil a new “stronger, smarter and comprehensive strategy.”

President Obama has not set a deadline for determining a new strategy or for committing more troops to the war in Afghanistan, despite an urgent request from his top commander, his national security adviser said Saturday. In a lengthy telephone interview, retired Gen. James L. Jones outlined Obama's plans for reassessing the war effort. Asked why al-Qaeda, which is comparatively safe in its current sanctuaries in Pakistan, would want to return to Afghanistan, where more than 100,000 U.S. and NATO troops are stationed, Jones said, "That's a good question. . . . This is certainly one of the questions that...

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is message-testing with a web ad going after former Hewlett Packard boss Carla Fiorina -- highlighting her huge severance package and the 18,000 staff reductions she instituted to bolster profits and HP's stock price. Fiorina has filed papers with the California elections board and is expected to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) next fall. Her cash, name recognition and ease on TV have gotten Democrats good and worried. A July Rasmussen Survey [take it with a grain] shows Boxer leading Fiorina by a 45-to-41 percent. The first quote is from Fiorina herself from a recent...

BRIDGETON - A national immigrant rights leader on Saturday urged undocumented workers in South Jersey to boycott the 2010 national census. Rev. Miguel Rivera, head of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC), made his case to roughly 45 to 50 attendees at a meeting of local migrant workers and sympathizers held at the Salvation Army facility on West Commerce Street. The meeting was hosted by the Farmworkers Support Committee (CATA, or Comite de Apoyo a Los Trabajadores Agricolas). The stated goal was to unite immigrant organizations and supporters behind a plan pushing Congress to pass legislation...

Since the democrat congressmen/congresswomen are hiding behind the teleconference it's our time to seize the day.

The president rolled out the new strategy of scapegoating insurance companies during his town hall meeting in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday,

White House retooling message, strategy on health careBy Ceci Connolly The Washington Post Published: Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009 10:29 p.m. MDT WASHINGTON — From the start of his presidency, Barack Obama made clear that his plan for enacting comprehensive health-care reform came down to three words: fast, broad and bipartisan. That was then. Now, as lawmakers begin to flee Washington for a monthlong recess, the White House team is retooling its message and strategy, hoping a more modest approach will reinvigorate Obama's signature domestic policy initiative and give him a first-year victory for Democrats to carry into the 2010 midterm...

Link only - Right-Wing Harassment Strategy Against Dems Detailed In Memo: ‘Yell,’ ‘Stand Up And Shout Out,’ ‘Rattle Him’

When the war on terrorism began, the task seemed straightforward -- deter, disrupt and destroy the terrorist network threatening the United States. Through the years, however, as our awareness of the nature of the threat has grown, our strategies have not kept pace. Today, there are significant gaps in American counterterrorism strategy, a problem that my colleague, Ilan Berman, seeks to address in his new book "Winning the Long War."

KABUL, July 16, 2009 – Patience and time are keys to success in Afghanistan, the commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan told reporters here yesterday. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal discussed his views on what it will take to bring and maintain security in Afghanistan and the importance of helping the Afghans establish governance throughout the provinces. McChrystal became commander of U.S. and international forces in the country last month at a time of increased violence. President Barack Obama nominated him to replace Army Gen. David McKiernan due to McChrystal’s counterinsurgency success in Iraq and his special operations...

Since the deadly attacks in Mumbai, counter-terrorism experts worldwide, particularly those based in democracies in the crosshairs, have been drawing long-term conclusions as to the forthcoming type of operations which may hit cities and interests on more than one continent. Today, we are in the post-Mumbai era where the expectation of recidivism and copycats is eerily high. Indeed, the jihadists who seized a few buildings in India's financial centre and who wreaked havoc at several locations in the city have brought to the attention of national security analysts a concept for the future: Urban jihad. I have predicted these scenarios...

GARMISH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany, May 1, 2009 – The focus on civil matters as well as security that is part of the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan strengthens the reconstruction mission that has been the focus of Germany’s efforts there, German Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung said here yesterday. Jung discussed the mission in Afghanistan with students at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. Teamed with the United States and other nations, Germany’s efforts are turning Afghanistan into a success story, Jung said. “The terror regime of the Taliban has been ended,” he said. “Among other things, education for...

Kerry: Administration lacks 'real strategy' for handling Pakistan Kerry says no Adequate Plan for Pakistan By DENNIS DILANIAN April 22, 2009 WASHINGTON  Just back from a visit to Pakistan, Sen. John Kerry says the Obama administration's plan for that volatile country, rolled out last month with great fanfare, "is not a real strategy." "Pakistan is in a moment of peril," Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during a session with USA TODAY reporters and editors. "And I believe there is not in place yet an adequate policy or plan to deal with it." In...

The Six Principles from Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare “The United States faces many potential adversaries, both in the form of nation states and terrorist organizations. Each day, as technology progresses, the ability of these adversaries to inflict harm on the U.S. military units, national infrastructure, or civilians increases.” (p187) So writes Mark McNeilly in chapter seven, “Ancient Principles for Future Battlefields,” of his new book, Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare. http://www.suntzu1.com/content/sun_tzu_and_the_art_of_modern_warfare/ Using historical examples that span the centuries, McNeilly applies the six principles he developed from Sun Tzu's classic treatise on strategy, The...

We aee am emering pattern in the Obama administrration, Napolitino defining conservatives as "right wing extremists, Includiing Oliver North;So called Non-prosecution of CIA Agents for doing their duty, unilateral executive action trampling individual rights, manipulation of banks through TARP imperatives,establishing a neighborhood watch system, setting up a "Give" law volunteer service which is defacto compulsory ( tied to student loads and grants), statng untruth as fact ( eg the US supplies guns to the Mexican drug cartels , untrue, only 17% of Mexico's criminal arms come from the USA),Geither policy recommending "aid programs" to foreign nations applied by a defunded...

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2009 – Executing President Barack Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan is the U.S. military's top priority, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told defense leaders from Central Asia who met here today. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to defense leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan at a conference sponsored by U.S. Central Command. Mullen said the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan requires Americans to look at the situation through the eyes of the people in the region. “This is why conferences like...

Inside Obama's Sunday show strategyMike Allen – Sat Mar 28, 12:07 pm ET President Barack Obama is personally leading a White House blitz of network Sunday shows, reenergizing one of the most traditional of Washington platforms at a time when his agenda is facing rising scrutiny from capital insiders. Obama’s communications strategy has turned heads for its reliance on YouTube and edgy social networking tools. But this weekend’s outings—an array of administration heavies led by Obama on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” along with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on both NBC’s “Meet the Press” and ABC’s “This Week” and Defense Secretary...

The new Afghanistan policy that President Obama unveiled at the White House today was pretty much all that supporters of the war effort could have asked for, and probably pretty similar to what a President McCain would have decided on. The major difference between what McCain probably would have said and what Obama did say is that this president never used the word "surge" and -- more importantly -- never cited the success of the surge in Iraq as evidence that we can succeed in Afghanistan where the situation is far less perilous.

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2009 – The U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan must “put the Afghan people at the center,” as the United States and coalition provide them the support they need to build their country, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said during a Pentagon Channel podcast interview he applauds the comprehensive strategy review under way and expects it to wrap up “in the next week or two at most.” “We have to recognize where we are in Afghanistan,” Mullen said. “We are in a position where the security for...

New election data suggests Republicans have more potential Democratic targets in next year's congressional elections, giving the GOP a chance to begin a comeback after two disastrous election cycles. Democrats have picked up 54 House seats in the last two cycles – 30 in 2006 and 24 in 2008 – leading Republicans to believe their status in the House can’t get much worse. Because of that, Republicans believe that if GOP members made it through the last two cycles, they should be safe in 2010, allowing the National Republican Congressional Committee to turn its focus from defending incumbents to trying...

SNIPPET - QUOTE: 10 March 2009 COUNTERING ONLINE RADICALISATION: A STRATEGY FOR ACTION Available from The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. From the executive summary: Any strategy that hopes to counter online radicalisation must aim to create an environment in which the production and consumption of such materials become not just more difficult in a technical sense but unacceptable as well as less desirable. Elements of this strategy include:

As a former Eastern European who spent 22 years of his life behind the Iron Curtain, my own perception of people's vigilance in the western countries for the security of their freedom, and most of all to safeguard their Catholic Apostolic Faith from the influence of, and possible destruction done by, the atheistic communism, is somewhat blinded by a clearly erroneous belief that people who lived in freedom all their lives want to continue living in it, and will not allow anything so criminal, hideous and ultimately satanic as communism is, to enter their society and take it over, and...

Michael Steele has just dipped his toe into the water and is already in over his head. Steele has been the chairman of the Republican National Committee for only about a month, and already there is speculation that he may be on his way out.

Call it a pipe dream come true: When members of the Conservative Working Group held their weekly strategy meeting on the Hill on Tuesday morning, they were joined by none other than Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher, who had come to offer his thoughts on the economic recovery bill. The Senate staffers who showed up at 9 a.m. for the closed-door meeting refused to leak the contents of their discussion with the tradesman-cum-strategist, but Wurzelbacher himself revealed that the advice they soaked up was just good, old-fashioned “common sense.” Wurzelbacher opposes the stimulus and said he questioned why the government can’t...

The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff W.W. Norton £16.99, 512 pages Was Solomon wise for suggesting a baby be split in two, or just lucky? Lucky, say the authors – two jovial American business school gurus – of The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life. The fake mother should have anticipated Solomon’s cunning. She should have feigned self-sacrifice. His judgement would not then have extracted the truth. The authors then describe ‘the simplest of the devices that would have worked’....

For outsiders, the contest for Republican Party chairman seems to have consisted of various side stories about race -- from the sublime (two black candidates in former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and former Maryland Lt. Gov.. Michael Steele) to the ridiculous (ex-Tennessee chair Chip Saltsman distributted a CD of song parodies -- including "Barack Obama the Magic Negro" and South Carolina chair Katon Dawson only recently quit a whites-only country club. (Saltsman ended his candidacy Thursday evening.) All that said, the real battle for the RNC is who is best to lead a conservative party that finds itself...

WASHINGTON — President-elect Obama says his policy on terrorism strategy will be to uphold high ideals.

There are three ways to react to an organizational crisis. One way is to turn your head to ignore the situation and hope that it will fix itself (best of luck!). Another way is to run around in a panic-induced cost-cutting frenzy that could seriously impair the organization’s long-term growth potential and future state. The third and, of course, smartest method is to recognize the impending threat to both your top and bottom line, and quickly adapt the organization’s strategic outlook and business model to the new environmental conditions. So, the question to answer is this: “what are the decision...

Among Liberals and Conservatives there is a certain amount of bafflement at Obama's cabinet appointments, which are being characterized as center-right. On the left there are clashing calls of "Give him a chance" and "What the hell is going on here", and some on the right are displaying idiotic glee at Gates remaining on the job and are even prepared to embrace Hillary Clinton, little understanding what any of it means. They don't get it because they are looking at Obama's appointments from an American political perspective. But Obama is not an American, and his political strategies are not what...

Simple, but not obvious. In her state - Wisconsin - with a Democratic governor and state senate, as well as an assembly that has just "turned blue" after 14 years as a Republican strong-hold - what could be done by conservatives to: make headway on their agenda, revive the morale of their adherents...raise their stature in the public eye, and develop and sustain the momentum needed to renew their drive to take back the legislature and Governor's mansion?

This is a prime example of the media trying to push their viewpoint and manufacture consensus rather than reporting the news. Obama before the election was running web ads and the first page of his website was devoted to you seeing how much money you would "save" under an Obama administration because of his tax plan. Now of course comes the huge, extravagant swearing in, and then we will have the lip biting State of the Union Address where we will be told HOPE™ and CHANGE™ involves us not asking what Obama can do for us, but what we can...

Ok, I want to clear my conscious a little. Hopefully you could make a blog post to help some fellow Clinton supporters out. I work for a campaign and can't wait for this week to be over. I was doing it for a job. I was not a fan of any candidate but over time grew to love HRC. The internal campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you. We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and "play the part of a Clinton or McCain supporter who just switched our support...

We all know more than a few-- Dems who support 0. Reasoning makes them stubborn. Warning them angers, begging reassures them. But, there may yet be a way to breech the walls. Try this: "So you're voting for Obama?" "Oh yes, (blah blah blah)." "Well, he might win. That's too bad for Hillary." "Why so? " "Well you know, if Obama wins he'll probably get two terms, and then the pendulum will swing back. Or he might get booted after one, it's going to be a rough four years no matter who is in there. If Obama's fixed the economy,...

Hamas could have pretended it wanted a political solution and the whole world would have recognized this. The Quartet posed to Hamas only three conditions: recognize your neighbor, recognize the peace agreements, and avoid terror. But Hamas said, no, Israel has no right to exist. They have a dream - to join the other Islamic forces, to revolutionize the whole Middle East. · The Palestinian Authority is doing better at maintaining law and order in its territory in the West Bank. However, it has far from demonstrated any level of performance in dealing with terror. · Today there is unprecedented...

'The United States is not just a superpower. It is a super-dooper power," I was told shortly after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was considerable truth in this claim. Never since the Roman Empire, under the Emperor Augustus 2,000 years ago, had one state appeared so strong and invincible. America had not only seen off the Soviet Union. Its military capability, even without allies, was far greater than that of any conceivable combination of its enemies. Furthermore, it led Nato, the most powerful military alliance the world has ever known and...

Win or lose, many marketing experts agree that Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency will provide the blueprint for political campaigns to come. There is the message and design discipline, the embrace of social media, and—most importantly—an openness to the idea that candidates, like brands, are built from the bottom up rather than the top down. As Scott Goodson, founder of agency StrawberryFrog says, "He is not a brand in the traditional sense, he is a cultural movement." Call it Politics 2.0. Headed by chief strategist David Axelrod and manager David Plouffe, and with help from new media director Joe...

Here's what David Axelrod is up to as we approach the finish line. First off, there is an unprecedented number of "undecideds" remaining who will cast a vote on November 4. David Axelrod is employing a two-part strategy designed to sway the "undecideds" to Obama. 1. Moving beyond the election. Axelrod is employing all of his surrogates to promote the idea that the results of this election are already determined. He is leaking to the press the fact that Obama has already prepared his post-election inaugural address. Plans have already been made for the election night ceremony at Grant Park...

No job cuts in India's IT industry: Infosys co-chair 22 Oct, 2008, 1304 hrs IST, IANS Print EMail Discuss Share Save Comment Text: TOKYO: There will be no pink slips in the Indian information technology industry as it has countered the impact of the current global financial tsuna mi well, according to Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies. "The fundamentals in the information technology sector are strong. I do not see any job cuts," Nilekani, who is a member of a business delegation accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here, said on the margins of a meeting here. "At Infosys, we...

Hurray for McCain & Palin both using the S word! It's socialism- Stupid! Now they need to define Socialism in a HUMOROUS way (see below) and bring their socialism theme to the CLIMAX by PROVING that Obama is a card carrying SOCIALIST and that virtually every socialist , Marxist group in America are rooting for Obama! Not hard to prove! I emailed earlier to McCain people and talk show hosts to consider adopting as new campaign slogan to "Yes to Reformation! No to Socialism!" The following are highlights of what they & us could say to the voters, the undecided....

I wrote this blog post and put it on my friend's website. Maybe I am crazy but I think this is political gold. If you agree or can come up with a better strategy please email the McCain campaign, if you think I am wrong or crazy that is fair, on little sleep so maybe this is off base: You need to have McCain on the stump right now, demanding that Obama answer and explain what in the hell Biden is talking about, and why Biden is projecting weakness to our enemies. I AM referring to the Biden speech on...

if we were to think of the economic crisis the way commentators on the left usually do...it would be hard to escape the conclusion that - they themselves, along with Islamists and anti-Semites, were foremost among those to whom "credit" is due for the...meltdown affecting America and the rest of the world. "Follow the money [or power]." Indeed.

I REALLY believe this is the BEST strategy and hope in remaining days! About 10 days ago, I begged the McCain people to let Gov. Palin speak in TV/radio spots! Can they ignore thousands of supporters, donors? Tell them you are willing to donate money if they will do this! I will! It's a no-brainer! In an earlier thread,”Eight powerful Ads for McCain-Palin”, i wrote,” I strongly urge Gov. Palin to speak in these ads, her folksy & feisty voice resonate with millions of the disillusioned, disenchanted and disenfranchised! IMAGINE if you watch her speaking the follow message! 1. Script:...