Here we go again! Looking at yet another candidate with a resume'-lite, done nothing, and has even less understanding and perspective than Bush! Atleast Bush probably knew where the toilets were in the White House!

Barack Obama's judgment has NOT been scrutinized by the press. They have annointed him as "Golden Boy" and just like the press's piss-poor position regarding the invasion of Iraq, we can't count on the press or the media to now come back and say, "Oops we did it again."

Everytime Obama has to sit with average people for a photo op you can almost see him cringe. He picks at food like it's poison. His "hugs" are contrived. He's not interested in these people. They are distractions to him. He just wants to be President - by any means necessary including duping the American people to get there.

Don't vote for Obama. He's nothing short of being a political opportunist. He's never been about making America great. He's only been about making himself great.

I think any notion that we are in somehow less trouble in Afghanistan is a fantasy foisted upon us courtesy of the Bush Administration. Because Afghanistan has been left to basically fester, the renewed focus there is going to be problematic in any case, and if not managed properly, another quagmire for an Obama or a McCain administration. We're not going to be able to ride in cowboy style and quickly bring the Taliban and others to heel. Not without help. And given the lingering wounds to our relations with our allies, we may not get the help we need so readily. With that said, I still believe Obama has, or will come to the better judgement about how to fight this war. To the degree that he can get Pakistan and others to cooperate with us to catch (or kill) Osama bin Laden, root out al Qaeda, and defeat the Taliban, he has a chance to end this in relatively smooth fashion.

off the hook. For this to be even considered the public would first have to be convinced that "letting the CURRENT incarnation of the Afghan taliban go" would NOT be letting 9-ll perpetrators "get away with it". Even if this is possible Obama is certainly not now in a position to make this case.

Let's see.

First of all, even if I take this at face value, and I did have a fair amount of respect for Cole's judgment until I saw this, it means that McCain is wrong on both Afghanistan and Iraq, but Obama is wrong only on Afghanistan. And only one of those two can win the election. One more reason to vote for Obama.

However, Afghanistan is a far more complex issue, as, in fact, there is a connection between the Taliban and Al Qaeda attacks, including not only the WTC, but the USS Cole, and the African embassies as well. The Taliban did officially condemn the WTC attack, but at the same time, all of the worst unprovoked terrorist attacks on US targets (and unlucky African bystanders) have been by OBL and AQ, with Timothy McVeigh and buddies a moderately close second. The Taliban did wink and provide a fairly official place for people to train to commit those kinds of attacks. Whether invasion was appropriate is arguable, but this isn't Iraq. There was very much a connection between the Afghani government and repeated unacceptable (except to maniacs or idiots) attacks on US citizens.

On a broader level, there is virtually no criticism of McCain on Salon except the occasional one paragraph piece in War Room, YET every single move Obama makes is taken to task. Much of the criticism of Obama is valid, but we do already have the mainstream media to provide one-sided attacks on Obama while praising or benevolently ignoring McCain.

It is amazing how authors on blog sphere and TV pundit just jump on one staetement made Obama on Afghanistan and run with it as if it his entire strategy. Obam has made it very clear on more thtn one occasion, that he would meet with Pakistan's leaderhisop to discus the situation. He also has stated he would negotiate with NATO to bring in more troops. As far as Iknow teh paln is to bring in higly special U.s. forces.

The best way forward would to bring together the leaders of Pakistan and Afgahistan, then negoitate a new strategy.

At least Obama knows how to pronounce Pakistan correctly.

(modeled seemingly after Fallujah) is unlikely to be sustainable by us or by the Iraqi nation or tolerable to any civilian population.

Baghdad and Iraq appear to be ALREADY waiting us out. What's another 6 months? a year?

By some reports, Afghanistan appears to be ahead of Iraq in forming a national army ... not perfect... there are all those ungoverned hinterlands. Underfunded and blamed for corruption, Karzai's government may not survive the next election ... are we prepared or are we preparing for the NEXT Afghan government?

I don't trust us either.

Obama has to know that there are hidden agendas going on here. This arena is far too easy to play publicity spins on, millions of dollars going out to little warlords and factions, arms being supplied, covert operations by elite or private forces.

Any time things are settling down too much in Iraq to suit Bush's occupation agenda it's too easy to fire some handheld missiles or plant a package of C2 at any good target of opportunity.

So called "Terrorist" activities in the middle east are not the terrorist acts that are a threat to the US if we are not there to be actively involved. Activity there which is nothing more than skirmishes has nothing to do with organized terrorist activity. The occupation in Iraq defies any definition or correlation to a "war on terror" as would mean anything to our national security. If we weren't there we wouldn't be losing soldiers, spending over a billion a day, or trying to justify the real agenda which is to support and protect the operations of private corporations making billions of dollars of public funds in an unorganized feeding frenzy of wasted and stupidly spent money.

we aren't doing anything except supporting the excuse to fritter tremendous funds on useless infrastructure we won't be needing if we aren't there.

Unaccountable money over there is being spent on secret bases that aren't approved or budgeted with approved funds. Billions in actual cash has gone over there to be poorly tracked, close to 10 billion dollars can't even be accounted for.