Target Centermass

Category: Politics

  • Kerry Praises Poland’s Help in Iraq

    Having already screwed them over by neglecting their valued contributions to date in Iraq, self-implied diplomat extraodinaire John Kerry has decided to belatedly offer the brave people of Poland a reach-around for their troubles.

    Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry thanked Poland in a newspaper interview published Monday for its military involvement in Iraq and promised Polish businesses a chance for lucrative reconstruction contracts there should he win the Nov. 2 election.

    The comments, published in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, came after President Aleksander Kwasniewski criticized Kerry for allegedly playing down the Poles’ contribution to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

    “I am grateful to Poland for standing by the Euro-American partnership these last few years and for its courageous contributions to Iraq,” Kerry said in the interview, which was also carried by Nowy Dziennik, a Polish language paper published in the United States. “I will not forget that.”

    ….

    Polish troops took part in the invasion last year, and the country now commands an international security force in central Iraq.

    By “not forget that,” I’ll assume Kerry means “not forget that again.”

    Nice of him to include the promise of a bribe of “a chance for lucrative reconstruction contracts” to a nation he included in his derisive “coalition of the bribed and coerced.” If one ignores such areas as diplomacy, military, history, international affairs, domestic policy and economics, Kerry might not be the total jackass he seems to be.

  • North Korea Times Four

    Just as Sept. 2 was Syria’s big news day on Target Centermass, so too is today a big day for North Korea, as news swarmed all around the dictatorship.

    First, its sister to the south is ratcheting up security on its border.

    South Korea is stepping up security along the Demilitarized Zone frontier with North Korea after a hole was found cut in a border fence, the South Korean Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

    A ministry spokesman told a televised briefing the military could, if necessary, also mobilize reserve forces along the border, which is the most fortified frontier in the world. Any gap in the fence could mean North Korea agents have been infiltrated into the South.

    Because of this border breach, South Korea is also on the hunt for possible infiltrators from North Korea.

    South Korea imposed “Jindogye-1” around Yeoncheon, the highest level of vigilance the military can issue before an actual sighting of a communist infiltrator, said another ministry spokesman, who also refused to be named.

    Domestic media carried similar reports. Jindogye-1 reportedly requires military units to move troops for patrol and combat readiness. Soldiers also join police at checkpoints.

    Ministry officials refused to discuss details of the measures taken Tuesday.

    Police and soldiers tightened inspections in 54 checkpoints on the roads north of Seoul and established 16 temporary checkpoints, South Korea’s national news agency Yonhap reported.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. is working on a resumption of talks concerning North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

    US Secretary of State Colin Powell has wrapped up a three-nation Asia tour after having won vows from China and Japan to press North Korea to resume stalled talks on its nuclear weapons programs.

    Powell met President Roh Moo-Hyun and other top officials on the last leg of a three-nation Asian tour aimed at forging a joint strategy with Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul to get Pyongyang to return to the table unconditionally.

    Despite success on his first two stops, North Korea shows no sign of dropping its boycott of the talks and is threatening to bolster its military deterrent to counter “hostile” US acts.

    As a show of force for North Korea’s sake, the U.S. and others are conducting a saber rattling by sea.

    Ships from Japan, the United States, Australia and France steamed out to sea under cloudy skies on Tuesday for Asia’s first naval exercise to clamp down on weapons of mass destruction, a drill that communist North Korea has called hostile and provocative.

    The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) drill in waters off Tokyo is the 12th of its kind in the U.S.-led initiative but the first to be held in the backyard of North Korea, a clear focus of the exercise.

    ….

    “What we’re trying to do is safeguard our innocent civilians from rogue states and terrorist groups trying to acquire WMD (weapons of mass destruction),” [Washington’s main anti-proliferation point-man John] Bolton said as the ship headed for Sagami Bay southwest of Tokyo.

    “We’re sending a signal to everybody who wants to traffic in WMD that we have zero tolerance for that,” he added.

    The anti-proliferation initiative, under which ships and aircraft suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction can be intercepted, has the support of more than 60 countries, although some legal experts say it could contravene international law.

    Regarding the talks, do not expect any budging on North Korea’s part until the U.S. presidential election is resolved and the commies see what they will be facing over the next four years. Will it be continued international pressure under Bush or bilateral talks (and probably another round of gifts and promises) with Kerry? Powell is playing the game he has to, but certainly he holds no hopes of progress before the electoral cloud has settled.

  • Carter Says Bush Exploited 9/11

    Jimmy Carter, former president and lily-livered commander-in-chief, is trying to exploit the 9/11 attacks by accusing President Bush of exploiting the 9/11 attacks.

    President Bush has exploited the Sept. 11 attacks for political gain, former president Jimmy Carter said in an interview published on Monday.

    Asked in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper why U.S. polls were split over the war in Iraq, the former Democrat president said:

    “I think the basic reason is that our country suffered, in 9/11, a terrible and shocking attack … and George Bush has been adroit at exploiting that attack and he has elevated himself, in the consciousness of many Americans, to a heroic commander-in-chief, fighting a global threat against America.”

    “He’s repeatedly played that card, and to some degree quite successfully. I think that success has dissipated,” he added.

    “I don’t know if it’s dissipating fast enough to affect the election.”

    Is Carter jealous because he was never and could never reasonably be considered a heroic commander-in-chief? I think not, as I don’t think Carter believes that war can produce real heroes. That is the domain of propping up new housing and despots. For Carter, there is never a conflict so pressing that the U.S. cannot avoid if it only offered up the right acquiescence.

    Carter is so weak on defense that the idea of Bush rallying America to fight for its security disgusts him. Imagery of Bush after 9/11, albeit Bush’s finest hour and of great import to our nation’s morale at the time, are only exploitation to Carter, as were the battle cries of “Remember the Alamo” and “Remember Pearl Harbor.” Because of this, Carter feels fully justified in exploiting the supposed taboo of 9/11 to attack Bush immediately prior to the election.

    Carter cannot exit the international stage fast enough.

  • Kerry: the Ultimate Monday Morning Quarterback

    If John Kerry had been president after 9/11, the U.S. would’ve already had Osama bin Laden behind bars or in a body bag. Just ask him.

    Kerry accused President Bush of allowing bin Laden to escape by relying on Afghan warlords to try to hunt the al-Qaida chief down in the caves of Tora Bora in December 2001.

    “Can you imagine trusting them when you have your 10th Mountain Division, the United States Marine Corps, when you had all the power and ability of the best-trained military in the world?” Kerry told a rally at the University of Nevada-Reno. “I would have used our military and we would have gone after and captured or killed Osama bin Laden. That’s tough.”

    Yes, that is truly a tough stance. It is so easy to picture the glory-clad senator, standing on that tall hill and framed by a magnificent sunrise in America, strongly guiding our fine country with his perfect hindsight.

    Of course, there’s no reason to believe there’s any truth to his assurance of a success that could’ve been. In fact, there’s every reason to scoff.

    Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt said the Democrat’s claim was “another exaggeration of John Kerry, saying anything no matter how untrue it is.”

    “During the time of when the United States was engaged in offensive operations in Tora Bora, John Kerry praised that strategy and tactics,” Schmidt said.

    Also, the Kerry’s accusation of Bush’s failure stands contrary to not only his own words at the time, but also to the current stance of the U.S. commander during the action in question.

    “As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora and I can tell you that the senator’s understanding of events doesn’t square with reality,” retired general Tommy Franks wrote in The New York Times.

    Kerry has repeatedly accused US President George W. Bush of surrendering the job of hunting for bin Laden to allied Afghan tribal leaders, who were unable to find the Al-Qaeda leader in the caves of the mountainous Tora Bora region in late 2001.

    Franks said he did not know to this day whether bin Laden was in Tora Bora in December 2001 to begin with.

    “Some intelligence sources said he was,” he wrote. “Others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time. Still others suggested he was in Kashmir.”

    According to Franks, the US military relied heavily on Afghan forces in that battle because they knew Tora Bora after fighting there for years against the Soviet occupation.

    “Third, the Afghans weren’t left to do the job alone,” the retired general continued. “Special forces from the United States and several other countries were there, providing tactical leadership and calling in air strikes.”

    Franks, a declared Bush supporter, said the president had “his eye on that ball” in conducting the “war on terror” while Senator Kerry did not.

    This is not leadership on Kerry’s part. Rather, this is some couch potato watching his team on Sunday giving up a shutout on the last play of the game, only managing a 42-7 victory. Said potato cheers at the time, then bitches the next day that, had he only been coach, that last touchdown would’ve certainly been prevented by a sack. This would be GOP candidate Thomas Dewey in 1944 promising that, were he president instead of FDR, the Americans would’ve handled Kasserine Pass differently and better, brashly claiming on the campaign trail that he would have secured victory in the action and the disastrous battle was Roosevelt’s fault. Dewey didn’t do that, because it would have been a disgusting tactic in a wartime election. Then again, Kerry has never been one to be overly concerned with using disgusting tactics in his choice of words while American troops were still in the field.

  • Senator Says Pentagon Office Massaged Iraq Data

    Creating an opportunity for political gain was apparently too tempting to resist, even if it has the potential side effect of undermining our troops on the ground.

    A Democratic U.S. Senator on Thursday accused a senior Pentagon official of distorting intelligence information to back claims of links between Iraq and al Qaeda in the run-up to last year’s U.S.-led invasion.

    A report issued by Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, also questioned assertions of pre-war links between Baghdad and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who since the invasion has emerged as a leader in the anti-U.S. insurgency.

    The report, compiled by the committee’s Democratic staff, criticized the Office of Special Plans, which operated under the auspices of Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy.

    It was released less than two weeks before the U.S. presidential election, in which President Bush’s handling of Iraq is a major issue.

    The report said Feith’s office looked at evidence “through a different lens, one that was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.”

    Democrats have frequently accused Feith and other hawks in the Bush administration of manipulating data supplied by the CIA and other sources to bolster the case for invading Iraq.

    The 46-page report argued that Pentagon assertions of a link between al Qaeda and Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein were not supported by intelligence reports on which they were purportedly based.

    Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a Virginia Republican, said it was too early to draw conclusions on these issues because the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking into these issues and its work was not complete.

    Levin said he released the report shortly before the presidential election because Congress was working on drafting an intelligence reform bill.

    Hmmm, let’s see. Two weeks before the election. A report compiled by Democratic committee staffers without the review of their GOP counterparts. Not political, my ass! The timing stinks all to Hell for the election and for the public support of our troops’ efforts in Iraq.

  • Kerry Team Slams Reports Cheney Had Flu Shot

    Okay, now the Kerry camp is just pathetic.

    Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign slammed Vice President Dick Cheney, a heart patient, over reports he had a flu shot, despite a shortage of the vaccine.

    The campaign complained that Treasury Secretary John Snow and Senate Majority leader Bill Frist also had jabs, despite Bush’s advice that the young and healthy did not need to get an injection.

    “Once again, the Bush administration proves that it is the ‘do as we say, not as we do’ White House,” the campaign said in a statement issued in Pittsburgh where Kerry was campaigning.

    “The very week that (health) secretary (Tommy) Thompson is telling Americans to keep calm, Dick Cheney, John Snow and Bill Frist are getting flu shots.”

    “It is unfortunate that the Bush administration failed to do the work necessary to ensure that all Americans, including those most at risk, had been able to get shots as well.”

    Cheney would fit into the government’s definition of those most vulnerable to a looming influenza epidemic as he has a long history of heart disease.

    John Kerry may become our president. It would be a travesty if it comes to fruition, as it would be the based on the sleaziest campaign I can remember, a campaign of lies, innuendo and defeatism, seemingly sanctioned and propped up by the mainstream media. Now, are they actually trying to garner political gain from a flu vaccination administered to a 63-year-old key government official with a history of heart ailments? I repeat, pathetic.

  • Blog-Debate Post Three

    Debate over, spin begins.

    If you score this as anything other than a push or slight win either way, you’re probably a little too partisan. The question is, though, which of these two men do you believe in your heart has any sincerity. Kerry said a lot, and I believed little or nothing of it except that he married up (repeatedly). Also, this is the first debate where I thought the questions were an obvious case of softballs to the left, curves and sliders and fastballs (oh my!) to the right.

    I call it even, but I may change my own opinion after looking at the transcript. It should be remembered that the typical voter is not going to look at the transcript but is going to let the post-debate spin and spammed internet polls guide their opinion. Call me a cynic. I thought the first debate even and the second a blowout for Bush, so I feel my cynicism is justified.

    Oh, and the Astros are now down 10-4, still struggling to get out of the sixth. I had hoped for another strong showing from the young Backe but expected a loss tonight. The important game in the early part of this series is game two.

  • Blog-Debate Post Two

    Damn debate is almost over, which is good. Astros are tied 4-4, bottom of the sixth, but they’re in trouble and the recent strain on their pitching staff is showing.

    Make that 5-4 bad guys.

  • Limited Debate Blogging Tonight

    For two reasons.

    First, my attention is torn between Bush v. Kerry, round three, and ‘Stros v. Cardinals, game one. Second, to be honest, I’m a little beat down by the debates right now, and this election should be about our security. I’m kind of disinterested in this domestic crap and am sick of hearing Kerry say things I know he doesn’t believe. Hell, I’m not too sure he really believes in anything other than we should be more like mainland Europe, both in the scope of government and the lack of testicular fortitude in our military. Tonight, as has been the case every other day in this campaign, Kerry will only say anything he thinks is politically beneficial to him at the time. There will be no signs of leadership, only promises and promises of plans.

    Oh, and the Astros are up 4-2 right now.

    EDIT: If you do need your debate-blogging fix, I recommend the VodkaPundit. And it’s still 4-2 Houston going to the top of the fifth.

  • Australian Troops to Stay in Iraq

    I said I had faith in the Aussies as they began going to the polls Down Under, and they redeemed that faith.

    Now, fresh off his victory, Prime Minister John Howard has firmly entrenched his country as one of our staunchest allies.

    Australian troops will stay in Iraq (news – web sites), Prime Minister John Howard declared Monday, as the stock market in Sydney hit a record high following the conservative leader’s election to a historic fourth term.

    At his first news conference since Saturday’s election increased the parliament majority of his center-right coalition, Howard said his priorities were guarding the nation’s security, working with allies to fight terrorism and maintaining the booming economy.

    The victory was a resounding vote of confidence in the government’s handling of Australia’s economy, which has low inflation, unemployment and interest rates, a budget surplus and low government debt.

    All this despite the antics of John Kerry’s sister.

    It should be noted that not all of Howard’s opposition have decided to take the results gracefully.

    Voter ignorance, greed and apathy returned the Coalition to government, a South Australian Greens MP said today.

    Kris Hanna, a former state Labor backbencher who joined the Greens last year, today said he was disappointed with the majority of Australian voters.

    “(Labor Leader Mark) Latham did his best to offer an alternative but too many Australians were not discerning or caring enough to vote (Prime Minister John) Howard out,” Mr Hanna said.

    Mr. Hanna missed his true calling as a Florida Democrat.