For the first time (to my knowledge) U.S. troops made a significant ground attack on Pakistan territory. This will create a backlash either for the Pakistani government or for the occupation forces in Afghanistan:

The governor of North West Frontier Province, the chief administrator for the tribal belt, said three coalition helicopter gunships and commandos carried out an "outrageous" attack on a village.

"At least 20 innocent civilians of Pakistan including women and children were martyred," Gov. Owais Ahmed Ghani said in a statement.

…

Cont. reading: An Invasion of Pakistan

Your news and views …

Open thread …

Given that the Republican Party is, first and foremost, the party of white people (even in 2006, the year of the great Democratic congressional landslide, the GOP still managed to hold on to a majority of white votes) the question becomes: How many voters will tune into this year’s RNC and be reminded that, as disgruntled as they might be with the party and its corrupt ways, those are still "their" people?

In other words: Just how tribal is American politics these days? Enough to give McCain and the Republicans a significant bump up in the polls?

Obviously I don’t know, although I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. But McCain better hope there are plenty of them out there. Because from what I’ve seen so far, they don’t have much else going for them in St. Paul.

Billmon: In Your Heart, You Know They’re White

On August 15 Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Russian Federation of having used cluster bombs in the conflict with Georgia. These accusations were widely repeated in the ‘western’ media. The Russian Federation consistently denied any use of cluster ammunition. As it now turns out the repeated HRW accusations were wrong. The ‘evidence’ provided by HRW was based on pictures and misidentified ammunition in those.

The ammunition in question is of Israeli origin and was used by the Georgian military. The Georgian Ministry of Defense has now admitted as much. HRW now also acknowledges this in a new press statement. But it continues to claim Russian use of such weapons. It does so by pointing to its own older reports which clearly misidentified Georgian cluster ammunition as Russian made. HRW has still to show any proof for its continuing accusations against the Russian Federation.

While reviewing the story as documented below, notice the special role of HRW’s ‘senior military analyst’ Marc Garlasco in this propaganda effort.

An August 15 HRW press release claimed:

Cont. reading: HRW Continues False Cluster Bomb Accusations

It’s already clear that Palin offers an embarrassment of riches for the Obama campaign, and a wealth of embarrassments for McCain’s. There’s no need to get greedy — or cruel and vindicative, which is the one thing that could cause this whole freeding frenzy to circle back and start munching on the Democrats. McCain’s people wanted to toss the pregnancy story into Hurricane Gustav? Good. Let it be buried in the muck.

Except for one obvious point: When Sarah Palin praises her 17-year-old daughter for "choosing" to give birth to a baby conceived out of wedlock (and assures us that she is doing it of her own free will) it should never be forgotten that she (and her party) would, if they could, deny that same right of choice to every other American woman, without exception.

Billmon: Ready, shoot, aim

From a 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire

[Q:] Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

[Sarah Palin:] Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

Those founding fathers?

Anyway: The Pledge of Allegiance – A Short History

Francis Bellamy (1855 – 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist.

…
In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, ‘under God,’ to the Pledge.

Founding fathers? 1954?

There are at least three different commands running foreign military in Afghanistan. ISAF is under NATO command. U.S. troops  in the south are under U.S. CentCom command and U.S. special forces running all over the country are under Who Knows’ orders. (Additionally there are CIA units working with Afghan army freelancers, warlords and contractors.)

The result of such a disunity of command is stuff like this:

In a separate incident, foreign and Afghan forces killed a man and his two children and during a raid near Kabul, police and witnesses said. Angry men gathered at the victims’ house in the Utkheil area east of the capital, where the three bodies were displayed inside a mud-walled compound. The man’s wife was wounded in the operation, said Yahya Khan, a cousin.

…
The raid in the eastern outskirts of Kabul was conducted by U.S. troops backed by Afghan intelligence agents, said police officer Qubaidullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name. He said the raid killed a man and two of his children and wounded his wife.

…
U.S. coalition spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry said no American troops took part in the operation. NATO-led forces said they had no information about the raid and could not confirm their troops participated either.

So neither NATO nor the U.S. regulars have any idea what happened a few miles from their headquarters? (BTW – since when is a 1st Lieutenant allowed to be a official spokesperson on such a sensitive issue?)

This again seem to be some special operation folks who work together with Afghan special operation folks on ‘special’ targets and regularly screw up. Nobody who matters in the overall Afghanistan endeavor is informed of what they did.

Note that the recent bombing that killed 90 civilians, confirmed by the UN and is still denied by the U.S., was also a mixed special operation mission.

While I think that all foreign forces should leave Afghanistan, even the folks who think otherwise must see that such a disunity of command and hodgepodge of various operations is a recipe for disaster.

‘Unity of command’ was hammered into the heads of junior officers and NCO’s as sine qua non when I was in the military. Any other structure leads to chaos.

But the U.S. is blocking any effort to achieve command unity in Afghanistan. Why any non-U.S. country’s politician and senior military officer submits forces to Afghanistan unless that point is solved is beyond me.

At that point, the media pack is going to be ravenous for fresh political meat, and I doubt gnawing the old bones of Rev. Wright’s sermons or Joe Biden’s old speeches will be enough to sate the hunger impulses in those tiny, shark-like brains.

In other words, the McCain camp better come up with some fresh slices of Obama slander PDQ, or Alaskan mooseburger could be replaced on the media menu by Alaskan Hockey Mom – delicately roasted over the coals of her small-town, family-friendly brand of GOP corruption.
…
Palin is supposed to be a passionate fisherwoman. But if this story catches on as I think it might – emphasis on the might — she’s be about to find out what it feels like to be the fish – or even worse: the chum.

Billmon: Shark Bait

Billmon updates:

If I had graphics capabilities here, I’d photoshop Palin into that Jaws poster: The one of the girl swimming in the water while the shark noses up from underneath.

b adds:

I’ve chosen a different poster but it is still Jaws.

(or this one)