One U.S. soldier commits the crime of murder and all Americans are blamed?

The U.S. soldier who went nuts and appears to have murdered 16 Afghan civilians this past Sunday is causing everybody in Washington and the entire network of liberal intelligentsia and leftwing internet hate sites to go nuttier than the guy was when he committed the crime.

Is one murderer now to be made a symbol representing all Americans who unselfishly serve, who put their lives on the line to protect the people of Afghanistan ?  That’s absurd.  Worst: it is an outrage.

But this is the party line of the new alliance of  President Obama and the Taliban – the new anti-America, anti-US military line where we are supposed to once again apologize endlessly.  This is not liberalism run amok – it is the left doing business as usual – what Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick long ago called the “blame America first crowd.”

President Obama took the time to apologize most recently for the perfectly legal destroying Koran’s which had the handwritten messages between terrorist prisoners held by America.

This illegal, in-house, secret prison communications system between captured terrorists – scribbling notes as the Korans were passed back and forth – was stopped when their American captors caught them.

But now it is the Americans who should be punished?

It is the Americans who had to apologize?  It is our highest ranking official – the President himself – who had to apologize?

And now with this crazed lunatic shooting 16 people – which is a low murder rate if you compare it to what the Taliban does routinely, regularly and purposely – the President apologized YET AGAIN – as if you and me and all of America has again done something wrong.

Mr. President, I want an apology too.

I want an apology for all of your apologies including this most recent one.  And I want an apology for all of the lunatic-leftist friends of yours who are USING this as just another issue to tear down America and insult all Americans and especially American military and their families who have paid such a terrible price for their sacrifice.

Apologize to me, Mr. President.

It isn’t even “legal” under Sharia Law to hand write in your Bible.

So why does America have to apologize instead of the captured terrorist prisoners who violated their own religious law to violate the American prison rules forbidding any type of communication between prisoners?

Shouldn’t America’s President by on America’s side in this argument?

Now “here we go again” as President Reagan said long ago.

What sense does it make to blame all Americans for the murder of one person by a criminal or deranged lunatic?  How are all of us guilty of something that needs such an apology?

If an American walks thru the city streets of any middle East country unarmed and unescorted and is then murdered, do we blame the entire country?

Actually as an aside I think that any American who does this is remarkably brave or else insane – I’d prefer any such walking to only be done accompanied by a a platoon of Marines bristling with heavy weapons and flak jackets.

When (not if) an American is murdered in Paris, France, in London, Great Britain, in Frankfurt, Germany – do Americans blame the entire country for that murder?  If an American is robbed abroad does the entire country get the blame?

It is only when there is a MASS of such killing of Americans that our State Department will issue a WARNING on their website alerting us of the danger of travel to that country.

And there ARE in fact, countries in which it isn’t safe for Americans to travel.

Who would want to visit the Middle East or Mexico after all the stories we have seen of attacks on their own people and on Americans, over and over?

If any apology is in order I’d like to see them coming our way from abroad, addressed to all Americans.

I do not feel that we should be compelled to apologize each time a visitor from abroad is victimized by crime while visiting America, for two major reasons.

First, who the heck are THEY to speak of crime in America?  Have you visited other countries?  Do you KNOW how bad the crime is in other countries, particularly against visiting Americans?

Second, to put things in perspective, the crime rate against foreigners is SMALL compared to the crime rate against Americans abroad.

What about apologies for Americans who travel abroad and are victimized by crime, cheated, robbed, attacked?

You have to be NUTS to think you are going to get an apology note from their President or from anybody if you are victimized while traveling abroad.

Yes, since I have been forced to read about and watch this newest anti-America story I have learned the terrible details of how a Staff Sergeant took his gun and went house to house murdering 16 Afghans – mostly women.

But do the people writing these articles and reading the script of these stories on TV have no ability to put this into perspective – how many women are murdered as a matter of policy by the terrorist Taliban, every day, every week, every month, year after year?

How many Vietnamese who cooperated with America and defended their own country from invasion by Communist North Vietnam, were murdered or sent to prison “reeducation” camps after America cut the legs off the Vietnamese defense forces with a cut off and our retreat and they collapsed under invasion?

If the President wants to apologize how about issuing one to the Montagnard tribesmen who are still being “ethnically cleansed” by the angry North Vietnamese Communist regime still mad at them after 40 years because they worked closely with American Green Beret?

If anybody on earth ever deserved an apology it would be the few American citizens of Montagnard ancestry who managed to make it to America after they had trusted us and we abandoned them to the Communists, who continue to persecute them.

I have yet to see a single news report on this story which puts any kind of perspective into the story of the soldier accused of murdering 16 Afghan civilians.

So once again Americans are getting a one-sided, anti-America story and critics of U.S. involvement in ANY foreign efforts are having a bonanza focusing attention on this.

The entire Democratic Party and one small sliver of the Republican Party led by Ron Paul, are literally “on the warpath” with their usual anti-America, “bring the boys home” rhetoric.

Never missing a chance to apologize for America, especially to foreigners, President Obama said “I am deeply saddened by the reported killing and wounding of Afghan civilians.”

If he had added (my suggestion): “… by terrorists trained and equipped by Iran, who aim to kill them and maim their own countrymen, and now by one single soldier acting alone” that would have been fine.  Be sorry for the whole list of tribulations being forced on Afghanistan with foreign assistance in order to control them and destroy their sovereignty.

That would be putting things into perspective.

If he had added “and I hope everyone understands that this one act is an isolated instance, and not at all representative of the 99.9% of Americans who unselfishly serve the people of Afghanistan to help them be secure and sovereign in guiding their own affairs free of force or threat from the Taliban or any other foreign controlled force” that would have been outstanding, and putting things into perspective.

And it would have made us all cheer him on if he had also reminded both Afghans and Americans, that this terrible and isolated murder by one individual, will be used by our enemies to obscure the terrible sacrifice that both American and Afghan armed forces and their families have made as they fight people who do this same thing on purpose and by design every day, every week.

Unlike those terrorists, we have captured, imprisoned and will put on trial the person who appears to have committed this terrible crime.   Do the terrorists do this to those who murder civilians?

Unlike the terrorists, we will give him a fair trial with due process and we will punish him if under the fair laws of our Military Justice system he is found guilty.  Do the terrorists know what due process of law is, instead of the terrorist attacks they visit on their victims, especially including civilians?

Instead we have hand wringing and whining by the usual suspects in the liberal mass media which have once again, led by the President, engaged in mass hysteria and mass whining and now a fresh new round of anti-America bashing.

The New York Times, CNN, the U.S. government funded National Public Radio, and of course all the most extreme websites of the anti-America left are going all out to tear America down.

No apologies of President Obama will silence them or stop the Taliban from using this latest incident for their anti-America purposes.

I appreciate that people are weary of war – but that is exactly what our enemies are encouraged by.

American policy should not be set by an alliance of the anti-war New York Times/liberal media and the Taliban, which never let any excuse go by to tear America down once again.

As for me I’d like an apology from President Obama, at the very least.

He promised to be a President for all Americans, even took an oath of office.

But President Obama is serving the liberal media elite, the intelligentsia, far left hate websites and the Taliban and betraying the American people.

Especially when he does those never ending apologies to people who kill Americans and want to kill more of us.

How about an apology to American servicemen who have to hear this insult from their own Commander in Chief, and an apology to me for helping our enemies, encouraging them in their newest recruiting,  constantly rewarding instead of rebutting anti-America hate attacks?

And if you feel like “venting” on this topic you can sign an online petition that came to my attention here (I have no connection whatsoever to this group).

I think this is a teachable moment.  An opportunity for our President to show Afghanistan and the world one of the many differences between our system and the Taliban.

In America, we punish a murderer after a fair trial.  They make murderers of unarmed civilians into heroes, and in the case of suicide mass murderers they pay cash to their families.

More people feel contempt for America today in this world because our own President leads the parade.

Apologize to me, Mr. President.

HanoverHenry is Pat Henry on Facebook, and I’m on the lookout for new friends there, https://www.facebook.com/HanoverHenry

JUST WEEKS AFTER the attacks of September 11, 2001, a small number of elite special were inserted into northern Afghanistan.  The Degüello, by Special Forces veteran Scott Zastrow, tells the story of the first unit to deploy: ODA 555, or ‘Triple Nickel,’ an A-Team from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky’s 5^th Special Forces Group (Airborne).  Accompanied by an Air Force combat controller, the ten-man team infiltrated northern Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley by helicopter shortly after the 9/11 attacks.  Their mission was to link up with Northern Alliance fighters, train and prepare them for an eventual advance on Kabul, and prep the battlespace for a follow-on invasion of coalition forces.

Though titularly a work of historical military fiction, The Degüello‘s content is made up almost entirely of truth hidden behind a paper-thin veneer of slightly altered events and identities (a necessity for operational security reasons).  Within the relatively short (238 pp.) text, Zastrow recounts Triple Nickel’s exploits and experiences, from 9/11 to the capture of Kabul, in the fast-paced and personal style of a writer who personally experienced the events he is writing about.

THE TEXT IS broken up into two parts, each of which is made up of several short, highly-readable chapters, and which primarily take place in two geographic locations. The majority of the first 89 pages takes place on Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and encompasses the events of 9/11 and the team’s isolation and preparation for deployment.  Zastrow delivers a detailed recounting of team members’ reactions as they learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as of the rampant speculation that resulted from a handful of A-Teams, Triple Nickel among them, being sequestered in 5^th Group’s Isolation Facility (ISOFAC) in preparation for mission briefing and deployment.  In addition, the departure scenes he includes – one of a single soldier, and one poignant scene of a soldier who is leaving behind a young family – afford the reader a brief look inside the personal lives of the men who make up the ranks of this elite career field.

Part 1 concludes with the team’s departure from Karshi-Khanabad (K2) air base in Uzbekistan in MH-47 helicopters bound for Afghanistan, where the remainder of The Degüello takes place.  Triple Nickel’s struggle to communicate with and train Northern Alliance fighters is realistically and often humorously portrayed, as are the team’s efforts to eliminate key Taliban targets and personnel in the vicinity of Bagram air base – efforts that include everything from air strikes and small arms to a cleverly-implemented improvised explosive device (IED).  Zastrow vividly describes several combat scenes, recounting everything from the sights and smells of close quarters combat, to the risk of friendly-fire casualties, to calls for emergency close air support. Part 2 culminates in the assault on Kabul, the rescue of foreign missionaries who had been taken captive by the Taliban, and the retaking of the long-abandoned U.S. Embassy compound.

THOUGH THIS SUBJECT matter has been covered in differing depth by other writers, the first-person knowledge and passion Zastrow brings to the narrative makes this portrayal of Triple Nickel’s exploits unique.  One particular area where the author excels is his depiction of Special Forces soldiers as people – incredibly competent and deadly people, but people all the same.  In an interview with Digital Book Today, Zastrow characterized the team’s members as “a group of guys from the ‘Isle of Misfit Toys’ who can go from Jackass to Professional at the drop of a hat when the situation calls for it.”  By not shying away from his characters’ relationships, interactions, strengths, and frailties, he successfully demonstrates the range of roles and behaviors that Triple Nickel’s members were capable of.  The end result is a portrayal of these elite soldiers that almost any reader will be able to relate to in some form.

The few issues with The Degüello largely stem from its status as a self-published book.  Typos and small punctuational and grammatical errors that would have been caught by a professional editor are present, and the absence of pictures and maps noticeably contrasts with the book’s visual nature, geographic references, and specific mentions of photographs being taken by and of team members.  Such errors and omissions, which are products of the limited budget with which self-publishers are frequently saddled, would likely be remedied in the event of a second printing or of the book’s purchase by a major publishing, and they do not take away from the story itself or the skill with which Zastrow tells it.

FAST-PACED AND engaging, The Degüello is a must-read  for anybody who is interested in Special Forces, the war in Afghanistan, or the events immediately following the 9/11 attacks on America.  It is available in both hard copy and Kindle formats, and is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime war story that readers will not be able to put down until the last page has been turned.

The Degüello by Scott A. Zastrow (ISBN 055781541X; $32.99 hardcover, $9.99 Kindle) is published by Lulu.

JUST WEEKS AFTER the attacks of September 11, 2001, a small number of elite special were inserted into northern Afghanistan.  The Degüello, by Special Forces veteran Scott Zastrow, tells the story of the first unit to deploy: ODA 555, or ‘Triple Nickel,’ an A-Team from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky’s 5^th Special Forces Group (Airborne).  Accompanied by an Air Force combat controller, the ten-man team infiltrated northern Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley by helicopter shortly after the 9/11 attacks.  Their mission was to link up with Northern Alliance fighters, train and prepare them for an eventual advance on Kabul, and prep the battlespace for a follow-on invasion of coalition forces.

Though titularly a work of historical military fiction, The Degüello‘s content is made up almost entirely of truth hidden behind a paper-thin veneer of slightly altered events and identities (a necessity for operational security reasons).  Within the relatively short (238 pp.) text, Zastrow recounts Triple Nickel’s exploits and experiences, from 9/11 to the capture of Kabul, in the fast-paced and personal style of a writer who personally experienced the events he is writing about.

THE TEXT IS broken up into two parts, each of which is made up of several short, highly-readable chapters, and which primarily take place in two geographic locations. The majority of the first 89 pages takes place on Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and encompasses the events of 9/11 and the team’s isolation and preparation for deployment.  Zastrow delivers a detailed recounting of team members’ reactions as they learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as of the rampant speculation that resulted from a handful of A-Teams, Triple Nickel among them, being sequestered in 5^th Group’s Isolation Facility (ISOFAC) in preparation for mission briefing and deployment.  In addition, the departure scenes he includes – one of a single soldier, and one poignant scene of a soldier who is leaving behind a young family – afford the reader a brief look inside the personal lives of the men who make up the ranks of this elite career field.

Part 1 concludes with the team’s departure from Karshi-Khanabad (K2) air base in Uzbekistan in MH-47 helicopters bound for Afghanistan, where the remainder of The Degüello takes place.  Triple Nickel’s struggle to communicate with and train Northern Alliance fighters is realistically and often humorously portrayed, as are the team’s efforts to eliminate key Taliban targets and personnel in the vicinity of Bagram air base – efforts that include everything from air strikes and small arms to a cleverly-implemented improvised explosive device (IED).  Zastrow vividly describes several combat scenes, recounting everything from the sights and smells of close quarters combat, to the risk of friendly-fire casualties, to calls for emergency close air support. Part 2 culminates in the assault on Kabul, the rescue of foreign missionaries who had been taken captive by the Taliban, and the retaking of the long-abandoned U.S. Embassy compound.

THOUGH THIS SUBJECT matter has been covered in differing depth by other writers, the first-person knowledge and passion Zastrow brings to the narrative makes this portrayal of Triple Nickel’s exploits unique.  One particular area where the author excels is his depiction of Special Forces soldiers as people – incredibly competent and deadly people, but people all the same.  In an interview with Digital Book Today, Zastrow characterized the team’s members as “a group of guys from the ‘Isle of Misfit Toys’ who can go from Jackass to Professional at the drop of a hat when the situation calls for it.”  By not shying away from his characters’ relationships, interactions, strengths, and frailties, he successfully demonstrates the range of roles and behaviors that Triple Nickel’s members were capable of.  The end result is a portrayal of these elite soldiers that almost any reader will be able to relate to in some form.

The few issues with The Degüello largely stem from its status as a self-published book.  Typos and small punctuational and grammatical errors that would have been caught by a professional editor are present, and the absence of pictures and maps noticeably contrasts with the book’s visual nature, geographic references, and specific mentions of photographs being taken by and of team members.  Such errors and omissions, which are products of the limited budget with which self-publishers are frequently saddled, would likely be remedied in the event of a second printing or of the book’s purchase by a major publishing, and they do not take away from the story itself or the skill with which Zastrow tells it.

FAST-PACED AND engaging, The Degüello is a must-read  for anybody who is interested in Special Forces, the war in Afghanistan, or the events immediately following the 9/11 attacks on America.  It is available in both hard copy and Kindle formats, and is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime war story that readers will not be able to put down until the last page has been turned.

The Degüello by Scott A. Zastrow (ISBN 055781541X; $32.99 hardcover, $9.99 Kindle) is published by Lulu.

Peter Dow’s “no” to Taliban’s surrender terms. Afpak strategy for victory in war on terror. (YouTube)

CBS News: Divisions within Taliban make peace elusive

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made news Wednesday when he said the combat role for U.S. troops in Afghanistan could end next year instead of 2014. On Thursday, he took a step back — insisting U.S. forces will remain combat ready — even as they transition into their new role of training Afghan troops.

Another part of the U.S. strategy involves getting the Taliban to hold peace talks with the Afghan government. CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward spoke with some top Taliban representatives where they live in Pakistan.

They call Sami ul Haq the “Father of the Taliban,” one of Pakistan’s most well-known and hard-line Islamists.

Ward visited ul Haq at his religious school near the Afghan border. Many Afghan Taliban leaders and fighters studied there, earning it the nickname the “University of Jihad.”

Ul Haq said that top Taliban figures are receptive to the idea of peace talks, but that three key conditions must be met first: The Americans must leave Afghanistan, he told Ward. Secondly, Taliban leaders should be released from Guantonamo. The third demand is there should be no outside interference in Afghanistan.

It’s unlikely that American negotiators will accept these terms, though a release of some prisoners from Guantanamo Bay has been discussed.

While some elements of the Taliban’s leadership may be supportive of peace talks, there are clear signs that divisions exist within the group. Many of the younger, more militant foot soldiers insisting that they are not ready to stop fighting.

At a small guesthouse on the outskirts of Islamabad, CBS News had the rare chance to sit down with a young Taliban commander from Helmand province. For security reasons, he asked that his face be not shown.

“If these talks in Doha are successful and Taliban leaders tell you and your fighters to put down your arms, will you do it?” asked Ward.

“No, it will not happen,” he said. “And those who are talking to the political wing of the Taliban should understand that real peace is only possible by talking to the ground fighters.”

“So the bottom line is you’re not willing to compromise, you’re not willing to collaborate? Is there any chance of peace?”

“If the Afghan government announced tomorrow that strict Islamic law would be reinstated, we would accept that,” he said, “but those in power now will never go along with that.”

For the moment, there is a huge gulf between what the Taliban and their backers want and what America would be willing to accept.

So the Deans of Jihad have dictated terms to the West, the terms they propose of the West’s surrender to the Jihadis in the war on terror.

So what should the response of the West be? Should we surrender to the Jihadis, or should we fight to win?

This guy Sami ul Haq should be a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp along with his University of Jihad colleagues, his controllers from the Pakistani ISI and his financial backers from Saudi Arabia.

The US and Western allies ought to name Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as “state sponsors of terrorism”.

There ought to be drone strikes on the University of Jihad. (Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak, Pakistan)

We ought to seize control of Pakistani and Saudi TV satellites and use them to broadcast propaganda calling for the arrest of all involved in waging terrorist war against the West.

It just seems very poor tactics for our military to be risking life and limb in the minefields of Afghanistan yet at the strategic level our governments and businesses are still “trading with the enemy”.

As the Star Trek character Commander Scott might have said -

“It’s war, Captain but not as we know it.”

Republican Intelligence forum of the For Freedom Forums

Rice for President Yahoo Group

Are American citizens and government officials unknowingly supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan? An  article in the Pakistan press raises some troubling questions:

Imran Khan is a frequent flyer to the US and shortly before his Lahore rally he raised $ 140,000 for PTI at two events in Florida. Now what the PTI USA does is perfectly legitimate and according to the US law as they operate under a US tax identification number and maintain a bank account in the US. But the waters become murky when the US taxpayers’ (in this case predominantly Pakistani-Americans) money is channelised to PTI Pakistan and potentially used for whipping up anti-American hysteria there. Chiding the US Secretary of State, as “Chaachi Clinton” can be conceded as just political theatre. However, it gets trickier when the PTI puts US servicemen and women at risk by blocking the NATO supply lines in Pakistan, which it has done at least twice this year.

If one red US cent goes towards putting a US soldier in harm’s way, that does not reflect well on the US officials who had been cosying up to Imran Khan and had a meeting with him just before the Lahore rally.

Pakistani journalist Amir Mir has called Imran Khan a “Taliban without a beard,” and, in fact, the ex-cricket star has made a habit of referring to Taliban terrorists as freedom fighters engaged in a just war against an occupation. Moving from words to actions, Imran Khan has been trying to organize a blockade of NATO supply lines, essentially cutting off our troops and leaving them at the mercy of terrorists.

If Imran Khan’s political movement is being funded by US citizens, that’s troubling. It’s even more troubling to think that US officials are being cozy with this “Taliban without a beard.” We owe it to our troops to find out.