Obama Lands in Afghanistan

Forget the security leaks from John McCain, Obama is in Kabul

Senator Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan early Saturday morning, opening his first overseas trip as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to meet with American commanders there and later in Iraq to receive an on-the-ground assessment of military operations in the two major U.S. war zones.

Mr. Obama touched down in Kabul about noon, according to a pool report released by his aides. In addition to attending briefings with military leaders, he hoped to meet with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan before flying to Iraq later in the weekend.

His trip was cloaked in secrecy, which advisers said was due to security concerns set forth by the Secret Service. His whereabouts have been unknown since he departed Chicago. He left Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on Thursday afternoon, according to a pool report, and turned up in Afghanistan on Saturday.

This is the trip Obama needs for his foreign policy resume, but it will really amount to an extended dog and pony show, the kind McCain has specialized in ever since his stroll through the marketplace.

--WS

The PR is surging along just fine

Even the most ardent supporters of this clusterfuck will have a hard time defending this.

Or maybe not.

Let's set aside for a moment that I think those juggernauts to the war zone on the taxpayer dime are a ridiculous waste of money, security and time and should be ceased immediately. The bottom line is that idiotic Senators and Representatives are going to keep traipsing in and out of Iraq to take in Dog-and-Pony Shows™ until a congresscritter dies over there.

But the Kabuki doesn't stop with the performance for the critters and the camera - oh no, baby.

The Psy-Ops heathens are also manipulating the perceptions of the lawmakers that the Iraqis and the American forces walk away from the meetings holding. (CENTCOM, of course, disavows all knowledge of the smear and manipulation campaign.)

War supporters get their official bios pulled off the House and Senate websites. War critics....not so much.

Representative James Moran (D-VA) was one whose record and bio were cherry-picked:

The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out.

In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."

The bio of Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) -- "TAU (rhymes with 'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates -- was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in sight," the bio quotes.

"This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio.

Tauscher is right to be pissed - her record was distorted and manipulated. And that is putting it kindly. On Tauschers info sheet, under "latest Iraq vote" it was noted that she had voted in favor of legislation requiring a withdrawal from Iraq to start within 120 days of the bills enactment. And she did indeed vote that way - last May, during the battle over the supplemental funding bill. But on August 2nd, she voted for her own bill, which mandates that G.I.'s receive as much dwell-time as they spend in the war zone before they can be returned to battle.

They conveniently left out that bit , as it would likely have been a bit too popular with the soldiers she was meeting with.

Somewhere, Goebbels is smiling.

A small taste of reality for a plane load of potentates

A C-130 leaving Baghdad with a clutch of potentates aboard came under fire shortly after takeoff, and had to take evasive maneuvers and fire flares to get away unscathed.

Sens. Mel Martinez (R-FL), Richard Shelby (R-AL) and James Inhofe (R-OK), and Rep. Bud Cramer (D-AL) were leaving the country after popping in for a quick peek and to take in a (Dog-and-Pony) show.

"It was a scary moment," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who said he had just taken off his body armor when he saw a bright flash outside the window. "Our pilots were terrific. ... They banked in one direction and then banked the other direction, and they set off the flares."

"We were jostled around pretty good," said Cramer, who estimated the plane had ascended to about 6,000 feet. "There were a few minutes there where I wondered: 'Have we been hit? Are we OK?'"

Close call be damned, the predictable potentates aboard were quick to add that they still fully support the troop buildup (ridiculously marketed to a gullible public as "Teh Surge™") and that they believe in the reality that was presented, not the one that lit up the sky outside their plane as they trundled off toward home.

Petraeus and the Summer of Kabuki™

The natural born cynic in me has a lot to work with these days, and the material is an embarrassment of riches – in addition to just being embarrassing.

Next Tuesday the Government Accountability Office is scheduled to present to the Congress a 70-page report on the prospects for political reconciliation in Iraq. Insiders who have seen the report say it paints a very grim picture. It seems to confirm the “scorecard” of the status of Iraqi security forces that was released yesterday that concludes the Iraqis are years away from assuming responsibility for the security of their own country.

Congress is wasting no time. Indeed, they are starting hearings on the reports in the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees in advance of the Petraeus - Crocker Happy-talk Express that is supposed to be delivered the following week.

For the cynic in all of us, they have invoked clichés that would be edited out of a dime novel – Petraeus is scheduled to appear before Congress on September 11.

The atmosphere is sure to be charged, and enough congresscritters have Petraeus' number to make his appearance contentious. Especially in light of the fact that Petraeus tampered with the integrity of last weeks NIE.

The NIE, requested by the White House Iraq coordinator, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, in preparation for the testimony, met with resistance from U.S. military officials in Baghdad, according to a senior U.S. military intelligence officer there. Presented with a draft of the conclusions, Petraeus succeeded in having the security judgments softened to reflect improvements in recent months, the official said. (emphasis added)

For his part, the Resident continued to spin yesterday. He was rhetorically high-fiving Iraqi politicians for reaching some minor agreement on Sunday, but so what? The Cabinet still does not have a quorum so it doesn’t matter. Without a quorum, it’s just so much rowing with one oar.

Politicians traipsed to Iraq all summer long in an endless parade of self-important potentate puffery, as if a few hours of being shown what you are meant to see and nothing more is an honest assessment medium!

This Summer of Kabuki™ has provided Petraeus with the opportunity to do what he does so well…stage productions. It has been like summer stock theater over there, and let's give credit where credit is due! His production values have been spectacular!

Some of the Dog-and-Pony-Shows have even been somewhat effective, as in the case of Brian Baird, Representative of Washington. He came back after a one-day fact finding fact free trip to the war zone, where, by golly, he saw enough to convince him of the necessity to give Petraeus another Friedman Unit! This did not go over well with his constituents, and at a town-hall meeting, he got a face full of claws and faced a rhetorical lashing at the hands of an angry electorate that apparently stopped just short of burning him in effigy. One constituent pulled no punches and reminded him just who the hell he works for. "We don't care what your convictions are," said Jan Lustig of Vancouver. "You are here to represent us."

Petraeus will be appearing before a congress that has been provided details about what they have done that pissed us off, and that has been told in explicit terms just what the hell is expected of them, so he is not in for a Sunday stroll to the ice cream parlor, or even an open-air market in Indiana. He has been hinting around at a decade of combat involvement in Iraq – will he mention that in his testimony before a hinky congress?

And will Congress listen to those of us who control whether they keep their jobs or not? Or will they furrow their brows and scratch their chins in a most studious manner, and then do what ever the little idiot wants, while the killing continues apace?

[Crossposted from WTWC]

Let’s talk about those Dog-and-Pony Shows™ for a minute

Today on the pages of the Washington Post Johathan Finer echoed something I have been screaming about for ages – that the dog-and-pony shows that potentates are treated to when they make a quick trip to Iraq are nothing more than bad kabuki theatre.

I have been pointing out that it is a pain in the ass and a disruption of normal business when these jackasses visit a base stateside during peacetime, and in a war zone these productions are a fucking obscenity.

If it was up to me, every last politician that makes one of these sojourns would have to stay for 15 months and go on patrol. No regular showers, no air conditioning, no special security…if they want to know the score from the "boots on the ground" they can fucking live it like a soldier, or stay their asses at home.

Visits by these self-important chumps are bad enough stateside – they prompt all manner of stupid shit be undertaken. Kids get their bikes confiscated and locked in the garage – can’t have evidence that normal kids are living in those family housing areas, after all. But the thing that sticks out in my mind as perhaps the stupidest thing I ever saw in advance of a dignitary visit was picking all the oranges off the trees on base at Davis-Monthan AFB so none could fall and litter the ground. Seriously.

Yes. Even the fruit trees were in 35-10.

People in the military go to work every day just like everyone else, and they perform jobs. They just happen to perform jobs vital to national security, and they can’t just call in sick when a potentate decides to drop in. When everything gets dropped for a visit by one of these chuckleheads, it disrupts everything. (I have NEVER cast a subsequent vote for anyone who disrupted my life with one of their self-important little trips to grace us little people with their presence. On principle. And I can tell you with certainty I am not alone in this regard.)

A stake should have been driven through the heart of these bullshit trips to see the war when Lindsey Graham got five rugs for five bucks, and six American soldiers a mile away – that didn’t have those Apache gunships and Blackhawk helicopters and an entire company of soldiers fortifying their position – got dead.

It is time that the taxpayers – who foot the bill for these stunts – and friends, that is all they are – stunts – staged productions, set up for the cameras – put a stop to this bullshit. Start calling them on it. Hold them accountable. I know that the Constitution has taken a beating under Resident Evil™ and his minions, but so far as I know it still starts with the three most powerful words I know…We, the people.

And We, the people, have the power to take them to task and hold their perfect perfidy up for public review. So let's get on that, whadya say?