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Petraeus Pledges to Continue McChrystal's "Great Work"
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Diana West
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 11:13 AM
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Diana West
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I'm not kidding with that headline up there, although I can't say I've read one like it anywhere else. But here's what Gen. Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee to earn it yesterday during his confirmation hearing (99-0) when fatal ROEs came up:
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A Vietnam Vet's Ideas for McChrystal
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Diana West
Saturday, January 16, 2010 4:11 AM
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Diana West
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From the mailbag -- a letter to the general.
Hey, McChrystal,
It’s Tom Stone again, that pesky old Vietnam vet. Remember me? I wrote you some time ago with the suggestion that perhaps it would be more fitting to rename some of our armed forces to more accurately reflect the strategy that you espouse in Afghanistan. Remember? The Marine Corps becomes The Peace Corps, the Army becomes The Warmy, The Air Force The Air Farce, and The Reserves The Reserved. Yes, you remember now. But as I wrote to someone once before, “alas, no response forthcoming, a query to no avail.” No one contacted me or took me up on it. But now I think I understand why.... |
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Questions No One Will Ask General McChrystal
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Diana West
Friday, December 11, 2009 6:22 AM
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Diana West
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Last week, a friend of mine on the Hill invited me to suggest some questions for Gen. McChrystal prior to Tuesday's hearing. His invitation finally prompted this somewhat hasty list here (which prompted this not-to-be-missed Marine vet's list here).
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Obama vs. McChrystal?
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Diana West
Saturday, October 10, 2009 7:32 AM
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Diana West
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Reading Gen. McChrystal's Afghanistan assessment is easier than reading tea leaves, but judging by the murkiness of the debate about Afghanistan, few... |
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Gen. McChrystal, Meet Abu Qatada
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Diana West
Sunday, September 27, 2009 7:46 AM
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Diana West
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One overlooked nugget of pure gold from the Afghanistan assessment by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal (what, is he still here?) appears in an article by Walter Pincus in today's Washington Post. Having determined that the failure to win Afghan "hearts... |
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Sangin 2015
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Diana West
Monday, December 21, 2015 7:36 AM
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Diana West
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US Marine marksman, Sangin district, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, June 2011
Sangin is falling or has fallen.
What is Sangin? A 200-square-mile... |
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Missing Islam
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Diana West
Thursday, September 17, 2015 4:51 AM
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Diana West
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US Army soldier at Saddam Mosque, Al Zarai, Iraq, 2008 / DVIDS photo.
Four months ago, when "Iraq" first popped up as an... |
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No Men Left Behind?
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Diana West
Friday, June 06, 2014 5:11 AM
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Diana West
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This week's syndicated column
One day, I predict, the fate of Bowe Bergdahl will prove to be the least important aspect of the Bowe Bergdahl story.... |
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My Last Syndicated Column of 2013
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Diana West
Thursday, December 26, 2013 7:14 PM
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Diana West
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In the interest of tying up some loose ends, here are a few updates before the new year.
Principle, what principle?
Remember how 2013 began with much ado over Al Gore’s unseemly $500 million sale of Current TV network to Al Jazeera, aka “the Muslim Brotherhood channel”? Even anything-for-a-buck Time Warner Cable saw fit to drop the Qatar-owned “news” organization from its package. Well, TWC this month announced that, yes, it will be bringing Al Jazeera America into 55 million American homes after all. “Financial terms weren’t disclosed,” USA Today reported.
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Year-Ender: COIN's Casualties Must Be Reckoned With
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Diana West
Wednesday, December 26, 2012 8:39 AM
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Diana West
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On August 2, 2012, while many millions of Americans were either on, refreshed from or perhaps contemplating their summer vacation, Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Sitton and another US soldier stepped on an IED in a mine-riddled field in Afghanistan. They were both... |
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The Petraeus-Kagans-COIN-Complex
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Diana West
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 6:12 AM
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Diana West
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Long frontpage takeout taking out the Kagans today in the Washington Post. The so-what-else-is-news headline -- "Civilians Held Petraeus' Ear in War Zone" -- almost caused me not to read it, given this obvious fact has driven so many posts and columns... |
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A Nation Betrayed
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Diana West
Friday, September 21, 2012 4:03 AM
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Diana West
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SSG Matthew Sitton (1986-2012)
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Below is an extraordinary, heart-stopping and historic letter. It... |
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"They're Killing Us Because We're Infidels"
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Diana West
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 2:53 AM
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Diana West
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AP Photo: Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley Jr.'s father Greg, foreground, and mother Marina are escorted from St. Agnes Cathedral after his funeral Mass, Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012, in Rockville Center, N.Y.. Buckley Jr. was barely 21 years old when he was killed in... |
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Fire General Allen
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Diana West
Friday, August 24, 2012 4:32 AM
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Diana West
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One word for General John R. Allen's recent explanation for the spate of Afghan murders of our men is despicable. Ramadan fasting,... |
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Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl: Prisoner of COIN
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Diana West
Monday, May 14, 2012 4:06 AM
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Diana West
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From today's New York Times, a story about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the lone American POW in Afghanistan. We still don't know the circumstances under which he was captured in 2009, but we do know something about his outlook on the counterinsurgency (COIN) disaster... |
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Uncle $ucker, Karzai & His Capos
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Diana West
Tuesday, April 03, 2012 4:56 AM
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Diana West
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Would this man lie?
No -- better question: How will we feel if/when we find out we wasted all that blood and treasure standing up a Hezb-i-Islami government in Afghanistan?
From The Wall Street Journal :
American officials are pressing... |
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How Do They Sleep at Night?
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Diana West
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 3:03 AM
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Diana West
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Panetta addressing disarmed troops at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan last week
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Writing at Big Peace, Paul Hair adds a crucial point about the incident last week in Afghanistan where DefSec Panetta addressed an audience of disarmed Afghan... |
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Old Soldiers Don't Fade Away ...
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Diana West
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 6:58 AM
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Diana West
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From the WSJ:
German engineering giant Siemens AG is adding heft to its campaign to win more business with the U.S. government by appointing former U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to a supervisory role.
The company is expected to announce Monday that the retired four-star general will chair a board overseeing a newly created unit aimed at securing more and bigger contracts with the federal government.
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The Tunnel Vision of the COIN-bots
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Diana West
Saturday, August 06, 2011 6:16 AM
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Diana West
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Marine BG John Toolan: More stuff for Afghans ... or else.
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At the very end of this story lies the money quote on the thunking bankruptcy, military and political, of the American strategy in Afghanistan. It is the bankruptcy of Petraeus-McChrystal-Bush-Obama-Petraeus... |
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What Do You Get When You Mix Rose Petals, Pentagon Brass and Too Many Cups of Tea?
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Diana West
Saturday, January 29, 2011 4:26 AM
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Diana West
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Mark Durie has a must-read article today -- "Aslim Taslam, Three Cups of Tea and Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws" -- which flags the phenomenon of Pakistani Christians converting to Islam to protect themselves and their children from the nation's blasphemy laws. "Blasphemy" -- crossing or critiquing Islam in any way -- is a capital offense in fabulous "ally" Pakistan, as many Americans are now finally learning. So, in paying out billion$ a year to Pakistan, mostly Christian Americans are also in effect subsidizing such blasphemy laws.
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"Execution" Chic
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Diana West
Wednesday, December 01, 2010 6:58 PM
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Diana West
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I've never heard quite so much chatter, if you can call it that, about "execution" before WikiLeaks.... |
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Hail to the Junta?
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Diana West
Friday, October 01, 2010 6:55 AM
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Diana West
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This week's syndicated column:
Bob Woodward's latest publishing event, "Obama's Wars," includes maybe the most significant scoop of his career: Directing not only Obama's wars, but also America's, is a veritable military junta.
I exaggerate --... |
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What Price "Leadership"?
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Diana West
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 4:13 PM
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Diana West
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Brand new Yale teacher Stanley McChrystal will be hitting the lecture circuit and bringing in between $30,000 and $60,000 a pop, says CNN, when he isn't lecturing not exactly for free in a seminar called "Leadership," says the YDN blog Cross Campus.... |
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Basic Training as Basic Submission
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Diana West
Sunday, August 22, 2010 6:50 AM
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Diana West
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Winning hearts and minds means losing your own. It involves teaching defenders of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to "respect" an Islamic tribal culture (as advocated by Admiral Mullen and other leaders) that... |
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Desperately Seeking a Wedge in A-Stan
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Diana West
Thursday, July 22, 2010 2:58 AM
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Diana West
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From the Wall Street Journal:
"Petraeus Sharpens Afghan Strategy"
WASHINGTON—Gen. David Petraeus plans to ramp up the U.S. military's troop-intensive strategy in Afghanistan, according to some senior military officials, who have concluded... |
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Overdue GOP Reckoning
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Diana West
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 2:17 AM
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Diana West
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Ann Marlowe of the Hudson Institute considers "the war over the war" among Republicans sparked by Michael Steele, arguing we're due for a belated "reckoning" on controversial if prevailing counterinsurgency policy. She also cites recent comments by Newt Gingrich on the cultural disjunction between us and Afghans that is at the flawed heart of the matter.
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Steele's Trap and Petraeus' "Human Terrain"
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Diana West
Friday, July 09, 2010 2:30 AM
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Diana West
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This week's syndicated column:
I've sworn off predictions, having guessed wrong that a deeply apologetic Gen. Stanley McChrystal would keep his Afghanistan command. But what about GOP chairman Michael Steele? So far, at least as I write, he is... |
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Four-Star Heaven
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Diana West
Wednesday, July 07, 2010 3:58 AM
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Diana West
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Catchy cover story by Mehdi Hasan in the British weekly the New Statesman.
Opening question:
David Petraeus,... |
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The COIN Nightmare Continues
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Diana West
Friday, June 25, 2010 1:46 AM
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Diana West
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This week's syndicated column:
So Gen. Stanley McChrystal lost his job. Does it matter?
Aside from the fact that with Wednesday's announcement the nation's capital could finally exhale for the first time since news broke about the profanity-laced... |
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Kandahar Farmer on Taliban: "They Are Our Own People"
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Diana West
Saturday, June 05, 2010 4:08 AM
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Diana West
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Contemplating the military objective of Kandahar, John Bernard has written an excellent essay at Let Them Fight pointing out, one more time, the mote in our leaders' eye, Islam, which no amount of COIN snake-oil can heal. He writes:
Again; there... |
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Dear Contentions
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Diana West
Thursday, April 08, 2010 7:08 AM
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Diana West
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While we're on the subject, I think today is as good a day as any to post a letter I emailed last Wednesday to Commentary magazine's blog Contentions, where Max Boot posts amok. I had hoped for some form of a public correction attesting to my reportorial... |
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Finally, Someone's "Skeptical"
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Diana West
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:42 AM
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Diana West
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Photo: A U.S. soldier returns fire as others run for cover during a firefight with insurgents in the Badula Qulp area, West of Lashkar Gah in Helmand... |
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Questions for Pentagon: Why Was There a COP Keating, and Why Was It a "Kill Pit"?
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Diana West
Friday, February 12, 2010 6:13 AM
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Diana West
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Asia Times map via Long War Journal report on post-Keating Taliban rule in Kamdesh.
This week's column is about an age-old story, how Big Fish sacrifice small fry to stay Big Fish. The story the column was triggered by came out last Friday, when the Washington Post reported on military investigations into battles at Wanat, Ganjgal and Kamdesh, all in Afghanistan.
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Kamdesh Was an Intelligence Failure, All Right
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Diana West
Thursday, February 11, 2010 8:14 AM
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Diana West
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Touching down at COP Keating, March 2009
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The battle of Kamdesh on October 3, 2009 is the focus of this week's upcoming column -- specifically, the Pentagon's reported decision to punish mid-level commanders for intelligence failures that preceded the brutal battle that left eight Americans dead. According to an investigation, commanders ignored local intelligence indicating that a large attack against COP Keating was likely andfailed to take appropriate defensive measures.
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Meanwhile, Back in Afghanistan ...
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Diana West
Saturday, January 23, 2010 3:31 AM
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Diana West
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Stars and Stripes photo: Pvt. Abdulaziz Alqahtani, who serves with the special security force from Bahrain, is among 125 troops from the Muslim nation deployed to Helmand province, Afghanistan.
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Jihad Genius
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Diana West
Thursday, January 14, 2010 8:37 AM
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Diana West
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While Gen. McChrystal leads an army growing to some 100,000 US troops in an increasingly irrelevant corner of Dar al-Islam (to measure"how people feel"), people are feeling just great in Dar al-Harb, Parisian sector -- if they're Muslim. Below is a video shot... |
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Ganjgal Update
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Diana West
Friday, December 11, 2009 6:49 AM
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Diana West
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One of the things Congress wasn't interested in asking General McChrystal about was the September incident at Ganjgal, a hamlet in eastern... |
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What If We Had Fought the Nazis the Way We Are Fighting the Taliban?
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Diana West
Friday, December 04, 2009 6:10 AM
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Diana West
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In refining and repacking (for size) some of the "How Important Is Marjeh?" material for this week's column, I came to a new definition of "counterinsurgency" (below). It's worth emphasizing how very important our understanding of "counterinsurgency" is. Why, just today, Charles Krauthammer points out that "the 2009 U.S. military [is] the finest counterinsurgency force in history."
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How Important Is Marjeh?
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Diana West
Wednesday, December 02, 2009 4:33 AM
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Diana West
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Prezident Obama gave his big Afghanistan speech last night, and it was, of course, a mess.
It was rhetorically deceptive -- what with the 9/11 jihad further attributed to "men" from al Qaeda, a "group of extremists who have distorted and defiled Islam, one of the world's great religions" -- and it was symbolically diabolical, what with the lives of those dewy-faced cadets in the audience in the balance. The point of it all? The 44th POTUS ordered up 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to begin bringing them all home by 2011.
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To Our Great Detriment Redux
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Diana West
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 4:00 AM
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Diana West
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Maj. Stephen Coughlin (USAR) is a lawyer and reserve military intelligence officer who used to be the Pentagon's sole specialist on Islamic... |
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Tammany-stan
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Diana West
Thursday, October 22, 2009 3:11 PM
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Diana West
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Let's Make a Deal: Afghans register on Oct. 14 at the first Afghan Business Conference to learn how to bid for military contracts in Helmand Province.
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COIN Blues
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Diana West
Thursday, October 22, 2009 7:45 AM
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Diana West
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I wish I agreed with Dick Cheney but I don't. How could I? He, along with the rest of the conservative... |
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Drink Up, It's Ramadan?
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Diana West
Monday, October 19, 2009 2:26 PM
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Diana West
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Searching for updates (couldn't find any) on the Afghan soldier who fired on US troops in Afghanistan early this month, killing two and wounding two before escaping, I came across this September 12 story from the AP:
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Nation-Building in Afghanistan: It Didn't Work the First Time
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Diana West
Sunday, October 04, 2009 7:25 AM
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Diana West
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Gen. McChrystal in London last week:
“We don’t win by destroying the Taliban,” he said. “We don’t win by body count. We don’t win by the number of successful military raids or attacks, we win when the people decide we win.”
That would be the Afghan people, naturally, McChrystal's unseemly and increasingly unhinged obsession. He continued:
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Self-Sacrificial Lambs
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Diana West
Friday, August 07, 2009 6:10 AM
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Diana West
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Today's column is, at root, an expression of horror at the extent to which pandering dhimmitude characterizes our military strategy... |
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Our Piece of the Pie
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Diana West
Monday, August 03, 2009 4:50 AM
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Diana West
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Time for some arithmetic, folks.
Behold the pie chart, which comes from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). It shows... |
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Copenhagen: Free Speech Central
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Diana West
Thursday, June 18, 2009 4:39 AM
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Diana West
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On Sunday, June 14, I joined (from L to R) Ann Fishman of the Liberty Legal Project, Wafa Sultan, author of the upcoming "A God Who Hates," Mrutyuanjai Mishra of the Danish... |
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