Congress approves war funding

Top news: The U.S. House of Represenatatives approved a bill yesterday to provide an additional $37 billion to fund the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure, which had strong Republican support after a series of domestic spending programs was stripped from it last week, passed 308-114 despite the fears of many Democratic lawmakers that the war in Afghanistan has become unwinnable -- a fear amplified this week by the leak of thousands of sensitive war documents. The bill will now go to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The debate over the bill highlighted a growing divide between the president and many members of his party over Afghanistan policy. "What has changed in my mind is I am so discouraged at the chances of our commitment in Afghanistan succeeding that I think it's time to say, no more," said Congressman Henry Waxman of California. The congress also spent several hours debating a measure sponsored by Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul calling for the removal of U.S. troops from Pakistan, which was eventually defeated.

In addition to funding the two wars, the bill -- $59 billion in all -- also provides funding for Vietnam War veterans affected by Agent Orange and increases funding to the relief effort in Haiti.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, lawmakers questioned Gen. James Mattis, who has been appointed to replace Gen. David Petraeus as commander of CENTCOM. Regarding the trove of documents revealed by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks this week, Mattis said, " “One of the newspaper headlines was that war is a tense and dangerous thing.... Well, if that is news, I don’t know who it’s news to that’s on this planet.”

President Obama also discussed the documents at the White House, saying the problems they identify have long been known. “Indeed, they point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall,” he said.

Adios toro: Catalonia became the first Spanish region to outlaw bullfighting.

Asia

A bomb blast killed 25 people on a bus in Southern Afghanistan.
British Prime Minister David Cameron visited India to promote new trade links.
China's Three Gorges dam is nearing its maximum water level after massive flooding.

Middle East

In a new tape, a man reported to be al Qaeda no. 2 Ayman al Zawahri makes reference to the failed Times Square bombing attempt, the French veil ban, and Israel's botched flotilla raid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II met in Amman for security talks.
An explosion, possibly deliberate, damaged a Japanese oil tanker in the Persian gulf.

Europe

According to a new U.S. State Department report, Russia may not be acting in compliance with international treaties on chemical and biological weapons.
A British court has blocked the extradition of former Bosnian leader Ejup Ganic to face war crimes trials in Serbia.
Iceland is continuing to defy EU fishing rules as its accession talks begin.

Africa

Eleven people were killed by fighting near Mogadishu's largest outdoor market.
Four white South African university students pleaded guilty to a widely publicized incident of humiliating black staff on video.
Two German aid workers, kidnapped in Darfur five weeks ago, were freed.

Americas

Police found eight human heads left by the side of roads in the northern Mexican city of Durango.
Four journalists have been reported missing in northern Mexico.
Venezuela has arrested six alleged right-wing Colombian paramilitaries.

MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images)

MARTY MARTEL

10:34 AM ET

July 28, 2010

US deserves to be duped by Pakistan

After having poured billions of dollars in aid, US deserves to be treated with such contempt by Pakistani establishment (Pakistani Army, ISI and Government) since US has intentionally ignored Pakistani complicity in Afghan insurgency until now.

Files leaked by Wikileaks more or less corroborate ‘The sun in the sky’ report published by Harvard Professor Matt Waldman from London School of Economics on 6/13/2010.

That report states that “support for the Afghan Taliban is ‘official Pakistani ISI policy’ and is backed at the highest levels of Pakistan’s civilian administration. Pakistan appears to be playing a double game of astonishing magnitude. There is thus a strong case that the ISI orchestrates, sustains and shapes the overall insurgent campaign in Afghanistan.”

According to Afghan Taliban commanders’ interviews with Matt Waldman, the Pakistani ISI orchestrates, sustains and strongly influences the Taliban insurgency movement. The Afghan Taliban commanders also say that ISI gives sanctuary to both Taliban and Haqqani groups, and provides huge support in terms of training, funding, munitions, and supplies. In the words of these Afghan Taliban commanders, this is ‘as clear as the sun in the sky’.

The ISI is said to compensate families of suicide bombers to the tune of 200,000 Pakistani rupees, claims the report. Thus US AID TO BANKRUPT PAKISTAN FINANCES THE DEATH OF US/NATO SOLDIERS in Afghanistan. So in a way, US is financing the death of its OWN troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistani government issued its usual denials just as it had denied umpteen times the existence of Mullah Mohammed Omar’s ‘Quetta Shura Taliban (QST)’ in the provincial capital Quetta of Baluchistan. But General Stanley McChrystal called QST as the biggest threat to US Afghan mission in his report to President Obama in August, 2009.

Pakistan has denied presence of Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil umpteen times and just yesterday Adm Mike Mullen repeated in Islamabad that Osama is hiding in a very secure place in Pakistan.

The most breath-taking part of this sordid saga is that US is NOT holding Pakistan responsible for sheltering, protecting and supporting Haqqani’s HQN network and Mullah Omar’s QST network all these years while those networks have been causing daily deaths of US/NATO soldiers ever since 2002 even though Pakistan was SUPPOSED to have joined US fight against same Taliban back in 2001!

Can American CIA not know what Matt Waldman knows? How come Obama administration is continuing Bush’s mollycoddling of Pakistan with such incriminating evidence against Pakistan’s double game? How can US mission in Afghanistan succeed if Obama administration continues to ignore such Pakistani duplicity like Bush had done it before Obama? How long will US continue to evade what is as obvious as a ’bright sun’ in the sky on a summer day?

ENGUZEL

11:23 AM ET

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Botched use of "botched'

For Joshua Keating:

Interesting that your Middle East segment included:

"In a new tape, a man reported to be al Qaeda no. 2 Ayman al Zawahri makes reference to the failed Times Square bombing attempt, the French veil ban, and Israel's botched flotilla raid."

First, the "Alleged al Qaeda message" used the words "A man identified as al Qaeda's No. 2 official issued a eulogy for a slain comrade and made reference to a few hot-button events in recent months: the botched Times Square car bombing, the Israeli commando flotilla strike and the proposed burqa ban in France." Clearly, you transferred the adjective "botched"!

Secondly, while no one can state that Israel's interception of the blockae-running "flotilla" went smoothly as expected, it was certainly no failure. The flotilla was indeed stopped and diverted, and, had it not been for the armed resistance mounted aboard the largest ship, no casualties would have been incurred on either side.

I'm aware that "botched" has become the standard reference to this Israeli operation, but that simply reflects a standard MSM rush to judgment, rather than accurate reporting.

In this case, I find it ironic that the CNN Wire Staff could get it right in their article — but not you.

Foreign Policy Magazine

Morning Brief: Congress approves war funding

Posted By Joshua Keating Wednesday, July 28, 2010 - 8:00 AM

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