It really doesn’t seem that complicated to me.

Faisal Shahzad is an American citizen.

Faisal Shahzad is accused of planting a bomb in Times Squre to kill Americans.

Faisal Shahzad is accused of acting in coordination with an enemy of the United States.

Therefore….

Faisal Shahzad should be tried for treason:

A person commits the crime of treason if he levies war against his state or country or sides to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. Treason is a crime under federal and some state laws. Treason is made a high crime, punishable by death, under federal law by Article III, section 3 of the U.S. Constitution: “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

Yep… sure sounds like treason to me.

Am I missing something?

A sad reminder of the cost of indecision:

This is not to say that casualties of war will end when a decision is made; but keeping troops in Afghanistan with insufficient resources and support to adequately defend themselves will lead to more casualties.

As a result of the President Obama’s now obvious reluctance to make a decision, the loss of lives, whether related to the president’s extended agonizing over a decision or not, is now coupled with a loss of confidence in our president’s ability to lead.

As stated at Thinkin’Bout Stuff on October 30th:

But the question before President Obama requires a decision to be made in the best interest of our country.  If the President does not believe that this war is worth the loss of any lives, then he needs to pull out all of the troops now.

Because if we do not plan to fight to win, if we do not plan to provide enough resources and support for the troops who are already engaged, if the President is hesitating to send more troops because of experiences such as this, he will need to explain to the folks who lose a loved one tomorrow, next week, next month, why their son or daughter died waiting for him to make a decision.

Is pulling out the right decision?  Should he send more troops into harms way?  Ignore the advice of generals and just stay the course?  Frankly I don’t know… that’s above my pay grade, but not above President Obama’s.

Time to stop deliberating like a senator, campaigning like a candidate and reading press clippings… time to start leading like a president.

Time to decide Mr. President.

For someone who supposedly came into office with Afghanistan high on his list of priorities, he really seems to be just now giving it some thought.   Two months ago, an exceptionally long time in the age of modern warfare, we were wondering when he would make a decision:

President Obama is waiting until he has ALL POSSIBLE DATA before making a decision.   That works well in the academia world of hypothetical wars, but waiting to make a decision is a decision to continue on the current path.  If that is the right answer, then say so.  If we need to pull out, say so.  If we need to send more troops, say so.

Leaders do not have the luxury of waiting until all possible data has been gathered before making a decision… the rest of the world keeps moving forward and opportunities, and potentially lives, are lost.

If the correct military strategy and solution is to send more troops into the arena, why are we waiting to consult the civilian, diplomatic and development side; why does it matter what the result of the election is; why do we need to consult everyone before deciding to do the right thing militarily?

Mr. President, this is not about putting the cart before the horse…  the horse is already out there.  Our men and women are already engaged with the enemy, and if you are saying that eight months into your presidency you still do not have a strategy in place for Afghanistan, you still don’t know whether we should send more troops, you still have not even had an opportunity to consult all of the folks you believe you need to consult…  you do realize keeping our country safe is your top priority as president, don’t you?

Maybe you need to set aside your social engineering agenda for a couple of days and take the time you need to make a decision here.  Health care “reform” can wait…

Time to decide Mr. President.

Nearly Three  months ago, an eternity, we were waiting for a decision:

So, is the war worth fighting? If not, great, pull everyone out and move on.  But if yes, isn’t it the president’s job to explain that to the American people? To explain why it is critical to our national security?

Isn’t this the war the Democrats said we should have been fighting all along?  But now that a poll says it’s unpopular, we should just keep it on life support and not provide the necessary resources to win, just to lose slowly?

If it’s all about the polls, guess we can end all of this debate over the Obama’s big plans to take over health care… we don’t want it.

Are Obama and Biden leaders or politicians (silly question)… Biden is concerned about how Americans would respond to sending more troops?  Frankly, we wouldn’t like it, especially if Obama can not explain why, can not explain the path to victory, can not even tell us what victory looks like.  But that doesn’t mean the answer is to not send troops or even discuss the option publicly… the answer is to do your job as commander in chief and tell us what needs to be done and why.

Time to decide Mr. President.

Mr. President… no more academic study, no more polling, no more waiting for something to happen… something is happening every day.

It is time to decide.

While President Obama fiddles with important issues, such as Chicago’s failed bid for the 2016 Olympics, Afghanistan burns.

We hear how we need to develop a strategy before acting, that we can not send troops into harm’s way without careful consideration and consultation with just about everyone… but our president is mistaking the hesitation before sending troops into a new engagement with the need for ensuring the men and women already engaged in combat have the necessary support.

We already have troops in harm’s way and our generals are saying they need reinforcements now, not later.

But that’s OK, nothing to worry about folks, because National Security Adviser Jim Jones is assuring us that the generals are mistaken:

Fox News – “I don’t foresee the return of the Taliban. Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling,” Jones said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“The Al Qaeda presence is very diminished,” he said. “The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.”

Well that’s a relief.

Guess  those eight US and seven Afghan soldiers killed over the weekend when their outpost was attacked by several hundred fighters was the result of a misunderstanding… no one told the bad guys they had no ability to launch attacks.

Obama is considering a range of ideas for changing course in Afghanistan, including pulling back, staying put and sending more troops to fight the insurgency.

Well that just about covers it.  Glad they’ve narrowed down the options to:

1) More troops

2) Less troops

3) The same number of troops.

Brilliant!  Let’s celebrate.   Pass me a cup of that Jim Jones punch.

I thought candidate Obama was very clear where he stood on Afghanistan and on following the advice of military people for military decisions.

Candidate Obama insisted this is a war we must win and that any attack on the US will likely originate from Afghanistan.  He said he would make fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda the top priority it should be (of course he meant after health care reform, the Chicago Olympics bid, Cap and Trade, etc) and committed to sending “at least two additional combat brigades” to Afghanistan:

A very well read speech… a shame he appears to not read with comprehension.

President Obama spoke today about the potential for sending reinforcements into Afghanistan:

Transcribed from the video:

When I came in I had to make a series of immediate decisions about sending additional troops to ensure that the election could take place during the fighting season but I was crystal clear at the time that post-election we were gonna need to do an additional assessment.

General McChrystal has carried out his own assessment on the military strategy but its important that we also do an assessment on the civilian side, the diplomatic side, the development side, that we analyze the results of the election and then make further decisions moving forward.

My determination is to get this right and that means broad consultation not only inside the US government but also with our ISAF partners and our NATO allies and I’m going to take a very deliberate process in making those decisions.

So I just wanna be absolutely clear, because there’s a lot, been a lot of discussion in the press about this, that there is no immediate decision pending on resources because one of the things that I’m absolutely clear about is you have to get the strategy right and then make determinations about resources, you don’t make determinations about resources and certainly you don’t make determinations about sending young men and women into battle without having absolute clarity about what the strategy is gonna be.

So we are gonna proceed and make sure that we don’t put the cart before the horse.

Don’t we already have men and women in Afghanistan?  I could see if this was a decision about whether we should be entering into a war in Afghanistan in the first place, but we already have boots on the ground.  Are we placing these men and women at risk by not providing the necessary support as requested by General McChrystal?

But President Obama hasn’t said no; he hasn’t said yes either;  for now, Obama is voting “present”.

He says we need to have a strategy first?

Wait… you have been president for how long?  And you are just now getting around to thinking maybe you need a strategy for Afghanistan?  And this is number what on your to-do list?

In June 2008, candidate Obama said (From HotAir):

“… it is my job as president, it would be my job as commander in chief, to set the mission, to make the strategic decisions in light of the problems that we’re having in Afghanistan, in light of the problems that we are having in Pakistan, the fact that Al Qaida is strengthening, as our national intelligence estimates have indicated, since 2001.”

So he clearly knew it was his job, so why hasn’t he done it?

President Obama is waiting until he has ALL POSSIBLE DATA before making a decision.   That works well in the academia world of hypothetical wars, but waiting to make a decision is a decision to continue on the current path.  If that is the right answer, then say so.  If we need to pull out, say so.  If we need to send more troops, say so.

Leaders do not have the luxury of waiting until all possible data has been gathered before making a decision… the rest of the world keeps moving forward and opportunities, and potentially lives, are lost.

If the correct military strategy and solution is to send more troops into the arena, why are we waiting to consult the civilian, diplomatic and development side; why does it matter what the result of the election is; why do we need to consult everyone before deciding to do the right thing militarily?

Mr. President, this is not about putting the cart before the horse…  the horse is already out there.  Our men and women are already engaged with the enemy, and if you are saying that eight months into your presidency you still do not have a strategy in place for Afghanistan, you still don’t know whether we should send more troops, you still have not even had an opportunity to consult all of the folks you believe you need to consult…  you do realize keeping our country safe is your top priority as president, don’t you?

Maybe you need to set aside your social engineering agenda for a couple of days and take the time you need to make a decision here.  Health care “reform” can wait…

With 9/11 soon to become just another national day of whatever we can all take comfort in the knowledge that President Obama is fully prepared to protect our country from terrorists with all the resources at his disposal in a way not seen in this country since the days of President Carter:

From Yahoo/Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers:  The prospect that U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal may ask for as many as 45,000 additional American troops in Afghanistan is fueling growing tension within President Barack Obama’s administration over the U.S. commitment to the war there.

<snip>

However, administration officials said that amid rising violence and casualties, polls that show a majority of Americans now think the war in Afghanistan isn’t worth fighting. With tough battles ahead on health care, the budget and other issues, Vice President Joe Biden and other officials are increasingly anxious about how the American public would respond to sending additional troops.

So, is the war worth fighting? If not, great, pull everyone out and move on.  But if yes, isn’t it the president’s job to explain that to the American people? To explain why it is critical to our national security?

Isn’t this the war the Democrats said we should have been fighting all along?  But now that a poll says it’s unpopular, we should just keep it on life support and not provide the necessary resources to win, just to lose slowly?

If it’s all about the polls, guess we can end all of this debate over the Obama’s big plans to take over health care… we don’t want it.

Are Obama and Biden leaders or politicians (silly question)… Biden is concerned about how Americans would respond to sending more troops?  Frankly, we wouldn’t like it, especially if Obama can not explain why, can not explain the path to victory, can not even tell us what victory looks like.  But that doesn’t mean the answer is to not send troops or even discuss the option publicly… the answer is to do your job as commander in chief and tell us what needs to be done and why.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the media, said Biden has argued that without sustained support from the American people, the U.S. can’t make the long-term commitment that would be needed to stabilize Afghanistan and dismantle al Qaida .

He’s probably right… so what are they going to do about getting the country behind winning this war?

“I think they (the Obama administration) thought this would be more popular and easier,” a senior Pentagon official said. “We are not getting a Bush-like commitment to this war.”

Translation…  the commander in chief is a weenie.

Monday’s assessment initially was to include troop recommendations, but political concerns prompted White House and Pentagon officials to agree that those recommendations would come later, advisers to McChrystal said. Although the White House took a hands-off approach toward Afghanistan earlier this summer, Pentagon officials said they’re now getting more questions about how many troops might be needed and for how long.

Say what you want about George Bush, he never abandoned the troops and he never let polls get in the way of making what he believed to be the right decisions…  granted he should have done a better job of explaining why we were in Iraq, but right up until the end the troops knew he was behind them.  Doesn’t look like they have that same confidence with the new guy.

Try, if you can, to reconcile the mixed message from team Obama…

On the one hand:

Obama now feels that McChrystal and his superior, Army Gen. David Petraeus , the head of the Central Command, are pressuring him to commit still more troops to Afghanistan , a senior military official said. The official said that retired Marine Gen. James Jones , Obama’s national security adviser, told McChrystal last month not to ask for more troops, but that McChrystal went ahead anyway and indicated in interviews that he may need more.

On the other hand:

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the Obama administration inherited an under-resourced war in Afghanistan , but he stopped short of promising more troops.

Got that?  It’s Bush’s fault there are not enough troops in Afghanistan and this administration does not appreciate folks pressuring them to send more troops when clearly that would not be very popular.

Administration officials said that the White House is planning a series of “quiet discussions” among top advisers over the next six weeks or so about the way ahead.

“What the president is going to want to do is review the report and then discuss and talk with all of those that have equities in it to get their viewpoints and to ensure that each and every person is heard on this, and that’s what the president intends to do,” Gibbs said Monday.

Uh what?  Discuss and talk with all those who have equities to get their viewpoints over the next six weeks?  Like who… who has “equities” that require six weeks of chat?  Is he commander in chief or committee head in chief?  Take your time, no rush here.

Just curious… if we decide to not send troops, or even pull out all together, where is the front for this war on terrorism?

I’m thinkin’ it may be right here…

From The Morning Call -

President Barack Obama is asking Americans to volunteer on Sept. 11, making this year’s anniversary of the terror attacks the first National Day of Service and Remembrance, organizers announced Thursday.

<snip>

The idea of establishing 9/11 as a National Day of Service was first conceived in 2001 by the founders of MyGoodDeed, a nonprofit started by friends and relatives of 9/11 victims. They are working with ServiceNation, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and New York Cares.

This is actually a pretty good idea and it is appropriate that the president would lend his voice to this cause.

But (you knew there was a but)… it would mean much more if President Obama honored those lost on that terrible day by not stripping our country of resources necessary to prevent another attack, by not allowing a political witch hunt to cripple the CIA and other intelligence services, and by not turning interrogation into something a bit less intimidating than a fraternity hazing.

Here’s how I Remember 9/11…

As we look to shut down Guantanamo and move our country towards a more equitable and fair approach to ensuring swift justice for terrorists or criminals who are more comfortable with Islamic law, we need to look to those who have centuries of experience at providing justice that will hold up under the scrutiny of those in this world who expect better of the United States in the future.  From FoxNews:

“An Islamic court in Somalia on Thursday cut off a hand and foot from each of four men convicted of stealing phones and guns, drawing hundreds of onlookers as the weeping men were punished at a military camp.”

Although they had body parts cut off with a long knife and no anesthesia, the men were reportedly thankful that they were not forced to listen to loud music,  stay awake for hours at a time, deal with the absolute terror of having a caterpillar placed in their cell, or dunked repeatedly in water.