30 Americans Killed in Taliban Chopper Attack

Horrible.

The details are sketchy even a day later but 30 servicemen were killed when their Chinook helicopter was shot down by what is claimed to be an RPG. Most were members of the vaunted Seal Team 6 that took out bin-Laden a few months back:

The death toll would surpass the worst single day loss of life for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001 -- the June 28, 2005 downing of a military helicopter in eastern Kunar province. In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. Three of the SEALs being rescued were also killed and the fourth wounded. It was the highest one-day death toll for the Navy Special Warfare personnel since World War II.

The Taliban claimed they downed the helicopter with rocket fire while it was taking part in a raid on a house where insurgents were gathered in the province of Wardak late Friday. It said wreckage of the craft was strewn at the scene. A senior U.S. administration official in Washington said the craft was apparently shot down by insurgents. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the crash is still being investigated.

Obama Sells Out New Europe to Appease Putin

It's official; Obama has destroyed any and all good will we have left in Europe.

First he sold out Gordon Brown over the Lockerbie bomber affair and now has made good on his promise to get rid of the missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland:

The White House is scrapping a Bush-era plan for an Eastern European missile-defense shield, saying a redesigned defensive system would be cheaper, quicker and more effective against the threat from Iranian missiles.

"After an extensive process, I have approved the unanimous recommendations of my secretary of defense and my joint chiefs of staff to strengthen America's defenses against ballistic-missile attack," President Barack Obama said in an announcement Thursday morning.

Obama's military team has become a crutch when it comes to foreign policy initiatives. He has a nice out by saying it was their idea to sell out two nations whose leaders expended enormous political capital in pushing for the shield in the first place.

So who benefits? Only the reddest son of a bitch in the region: Vlad Putin. His cronies are lining up to praise the president for his lapdog stance:

Russia on Thursday welcomed the news but said it saw no reason to offer concessions in return. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called the plan a "responsible move." He threatened last year to station tactical Iskander missiles on Poland's border if the U.S. system was deployed.

"We appreciate this responsible move by the U.S. president toward realizing our agreement,'' Mr. Medvedev said Thursday. "I am prepared to continue the dialogue."

That's great news you commie prick. Obama sells out two nations that languished under the thumb of Soviet oppression for decades. Bush didn't build the missile shield for protection against Iran as is often claimed, it was to let the Russians know that we are paying attention and their shoddily built weapons systems would be shot out of the sky if they got a little cagey. Obama just Lewinskied Putin in front of the entire world and will push wary nations back into the Russian sphere.

Fitting it happened almost 71 years to the day that Neville Chamberlain brought "peace in our time" by selling out Czechoslovakia to Hitler in what has grown to become the very symbol of cowardly appeasement.

Update: In the bad timing department, Iran has the The Bomb. Thanks Obama.

Obama Makes First Foreign Policy Error

President-elect Obama is getting a rude welcome to the world of international diplomacy and the wide-reaching effect his decisions will have:

President-elect Obama has spoken to the president of Poland about relations between the two countries but didn't make a commitment on the multibillion-dollar missile defense program undertaken by the Bush administration, an Obama aide said Saturday.

That contrasts with a statement by Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who said Obama told him the missile defense project would continue.

The U.S. and Poland signed an agreement in August for basing American missiles in Poland as part of a shield against possible missile attacks from Iran.

A missile shield set up so close to its borders has been a sore point with Russia and has served as another dent in its battered relationship with the U.S.

So here we are with Obama telling a world leader one thing and the public another, very much like his statements on NAFTA during the election where he slammed the treaty on the campaign trail while simultaneously winking at the Canucks and saying it was just for the consumption of the gullible American electorate.

But this is not Canada, this is Russia, the former Soviet Union, the Bear who was our enemy for decades and who will be again soon. Medvedev is the puppet while Putin pulls the strings and Putin is getting a measure of just who Obama is. Russia wants to regain its influence in the region and it starts with Poland, a fierce ally and a nation that dearly needs us to be very clear about our intentions. Instead we get mealy-mouthed rhetoric from Obama.

Putin is paying attention and he's gauging the make up of the man who will replace Bush. I'm sure he's smiling with Obama's response to this issue. He's rebuilding his military (a sorry military at present) in hopes of becoming the power broker in Eastern Europe, Southwestern Asia, the Northern Pacific and the Arctic. The Bush administrations aim with placing the missile shield in Poland was to assure our ally that we are paying attention plus to force Russia's hand. Obama has essentially laid all that work to waste by his dithering.

This was not an easy plan for Lech Kaczynski to get his country to accept and he probably spent massive political capital to do so and Obama leaves the man hanging on an issue of great import.

This is no longer a campaign, that's already been won. This is not speaking in front of adoring fans who mindlessly scream "Yes we can" after every sentence. No, this is the real deal where decisions (or none decisions as the case may be) have immediate and far-reaching effect. If Europe finally likes us again as liberals are so happy to point out, it sure seems strange to leave a major European country (and one that suffered first under the Nazi's then under the Soviets in recent history) twisting in the wind.

A troubling start to say the least.

News and Notes

Around the web on a Tuesday manana:

-P.J. O'Rourke has been diagnosed with cancer and handles it exactly as you'd expect (via Glenn):

I have, of all the inglorious things, a malignant hemorrhoid. What color bracelet does one wear for that? And where does one wear it? And what slogan is apropos? Perhaps that slogan can be sewn in needlepoint around the ruffle on a cover for my embarrassing little doughnut buttocks pillow.

Furthermore, I am a logical, sensible, pragmatic Republican, and my diagnosis came just weeks after Teddy Kennedy's. That he should have cancer of the brain, and I should have cancer of the ass ... well, I'll say a rosary for him and hope he has a laugh at me. After all, what would I do, ask God for a more dignified cancer? Pancreatic? Liver? Lung?

-Obama is starting to run away from McCain in swing states.

-President Bush assures Lithuania that NATO will back them against Putin and the Bear.

-Mortgage Meltdown--Minorities Hardest Hit! It's always about race with libs.

-The NY Sun succumbs to the inevitable. A great read that was struggling in a tough environment.

US Navy Dares Russia in Black Sea Port

The US Navy is doing what they are designed to do, project US power to all corners of the map. They have decided to test just how much Vlad Putin and the Russians want to hang out in a Georgian port city and figured they stop on by and see for themselves":

A US navy flagship has steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region.

A previous trip by American warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand off could erupt in the Black Sea port of Poti.

The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US vice-president, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi yesterday, in which he vowed to bring Georgia into the Nato alliance. Russia sees any such move as a blatant Western encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney will get heat on this from Democrats who will accuse them of ratcheting up tensions or some other such nonsense but the simple fact is that we have to make a stand in support of our allies.

If we were going to really antagonize the Soviets Russians, we'd have sent a guided missile cruiser or a destroyer, not a command ship, albeit a command ship that is able to defend itself quite nicely.

Confronting the Russian Bear Again

With Russia's offensive actions last week against former satellite state Georgia, other former liberated states are acknowledging that it may be in their best interest to cozy up to the US regardless of the potential downside:

The proposal, made amid growing outrage among Russia's neighbours over its military campaign in Georgia, could see Ukraine added to Moscow's nuclear hitlist. A Russian general declared Poland a target for its arsenal after Warsaw signed a deal with Washington to host interceptor missiles for America's anti-nuclear shield.

...Ukraine said it was ready to give both Europe and America access to its missile warning systems after Russia earlier annulled a 1992 cooperation agreement involving two satellite tracking stations. Previously, the stations were part of Russia's early-warning system for missiles coming from Europe.

"The fact that Ukraine is no longer a party to the 1992 agreement allows it to launch active cooperation with European countries to integrate its information," a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

Now the question is will they be offered the chance to join NATO. That would be the final step in assuring that they will remain free nations but also will come with economic cost if Russia decides to cut off the natural gas and oil taps.

I would suspect that both Poland and the Ukraine looked at the pros and cons and saw that even if they were now in the targeting plans of Russia, the shield would protect them and a move that drastic by the Soviets Russians would be met with stiff reprisals from NATO regardless.

The next Cold War has started and the US seems ready to tweak Russia at every opportunity. This week has shown the US that Russian forces are suspect at best and would not be able to attain anything close to their previous Cold War status without years of training and major technical upgrades to equipment. Conversely, US forces have been trained to a level not see in decades through battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our air power is unmatched and the US military man (and woman) has learned things in the field that could never be taught in a classroom.

Here's to hoping that the bad old days of the 1970's are not revisited with an inept Obama administration that seems more Carteresque than Trumanesque. Obama would gut our military, just as Jimmah did and seem shocked they couldn't produce when called upon.

Update: Prof Glenn has the goods on NATO and the detrimental effect of Vlad Putin's actions.

Brit Military Sends a Strong Message to Taliban Thug

A Taliban leader learned just how serious the Brits are in Afghanistan:

The fanatical Taliban mastermind behind recent attacks in which six British soldiers died in Afghanistan has been killed in a missile attack by an Army Apache helicopter.

In what military chiefs described as a 'deliberate and surgical strike', the 35-year-old rebel leader - known as Sadiqullah - died alongside nine fellow Taliban fighters after the Apache fired two laser-guided Hellfire missiles at their red pick-up truck and destroyed it.

The rebel leader had been tracked down after weeks of secret intelligence work.

...The secret operation was carried out on Thursday by two Army Air Corps pilots who were ordered to fly to a dusty road ten miles northwest of the town of Kajaki, where intelligence reports had confirmed that Sadiqullah was a passenger in the pick-up truck.

It is believed that his whereabouts were leaked to British forces - quite possibly by Afghans who want the violence destroying their country to end.

As has happened in Iraq, Afghani's are sick of the violence and the tactics used by the Taliban. The Brits received actionable intel and acted on it by slamming a Hellfire right up the guys ass.

Message from Britain to the Taliban: Attack us and we will get even. I'd say the message will be received Lima Charlie.

More Proof That the UN is Irrelevant

Kosovo yesterday declared their independence amid threats from Russia and ethnic Serbs. I don't know enough about the Kosovars to say whether this is good or bad but in general, freedom is good for anyone.

The real story I saw in all this is that the Kosovars bypassed the UN and went right to the US and European leaders:

ill protected by 16,000 NATO-led peacekeepers, and the alliance boosted its patrols over the weekend in hopes of discouraging violence. International police, meanwhile, deployed to back up local forces in the tense north.

By sidestepping the U.N. and appealing directly to the U.S. and other nations for recognition, Kosovo's independence set up a showdown with Serbia — outraged at the imminent loss of its territory — and Russia, which warned that it would set a dangerous precedent for separatist groups worldwide.

The Russians are worked up because they know that if other areas see success, they to will eschew the UN and declare themselves free as well. This includes many Russia client states such as Georgia. I guess the Russians have never really stopped being Soviets, it's just in their collective DNA

I commend President Bush in recognizing the nascent state as it shows that he believes a predominantly Muslim population can be a free democracy. Let's hope they have the same idea. Still, the US military is at the forefront of helping another nation gain freedom from oppressors and that isn't a bad thing at all.

We'll wait and see how things progress but it is quite interesting that Kosovo saw the UN as an impediment and decided that UN approval just wasn't that important in the end. Another nail in the UN coffin perhaps.

Bush and European Leaders Reunite

In the run up to the war in Iraq, Democrats and liberals screamed about unilateralism despite the fact that we had numerous allies with us. You see, Germany and France were not a part of the "Coalition of the Willing" and therefore it was unilaterialism. The left moaned and whined that our standing was degraded by the thoughtful and nuanced Europeans seeing the folly of our actions and the "cowboy" George W. Bush has made us a laughingstock in the eyes of our "allies" across the Atlantic. The fact that France had, shall we say, a financial reason for not joining us was lost on the anti-warriors. Also lost was the way the left short-changed our newest allies such as Poland and Bulgaria.

Fast-forward to present and the current state of our relationship with European leaders. Angela Merkel is a close ally with the President as is Gordon Brown of Britain (update: he's been cold due to his political situation but that will change). But the most avid response we've seen from a European leader has to be from Nicolas Sarkozy, the new leader of France.

Sarkozy is currently in Washington D.C. and he seems to have a firm grasp on the seriousness of the Iran question as well as the greater War on Terror:

"Let me say it here before all of you: The prospect of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons is unacceptable for France," Sarkozy declared to applause.

"Iran must be convinced to choose cooperation, dialogue and openness," he said. "No one must doubt our determination."

Sarkozy said the Americans did not need to worry about France backing out of Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban challenges NATO troops. France has about 1,100 troops in the country.

"France will remain engaged in Afghanistan for as long as it takes, because what's at stake in that country is the future of our values and that of the Atlantic alliance," he said to more applause.

France did not live up to their NATO obligations under Chirac but with the advent of a new Europe and the undetermined future of Russia, Sarkozy is well-aware of the need for alliances like NATO.

This is all well and good for now as it is still the honeymoon portion of Sarkozy's rule, yet time will tell how he'll react if the only course remaining against Iran is the military one.