Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 4, 2009

The Olympics bid in Copenhagen is over, Michelle and Barack and their Olympics entourage have finally returned from overseas, so one can only hope that Pres. Obama’s priorities are turned back again to our gallant troops fighting and dying in the Afghan theater, the plummeting economy, the continued rise in American unemployment.

The Obamas, having returned from Copenhagen, go out on a DC dinner date

With focused, concerned presidential administrations, that priority would be evident. Then again, if your priority is going out with your wife on your 17th anniversary, maybe not… I don’t begrudge them being husband and wife, celebrating their marriage, spending a pleasant evening together. But I find it puzzling and rather infuriating why the grand, all-expenses-paid trip to Denmark didn’t count as “going out,” nor the staggeringly expensive family vacation to Martha’s Vineyard a few weeks back: Obamas’ night out: First WH anniversary.

If you’re interested, he wore a dark suit on the anniversary date. She wore a knee-length, halter-style black dress. At least the Obamas saved the taxpayers thousands of dollars by not flying to New York for this date… small miracles DO happen.

And what about our troops?

From Times Online UK:

Ten US soldiers killed in Afghanistan:
October 4, 2009

Ten American troops were killed at the weekend in two surprise attacks that caused alarm in Nato’s US-led coalition.

In one, hundreds of insurgents attacked a pair of isolated outposts in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight US soldiers and several Afghan policemen in the deadliest battle in 15 months. Scores more Afghan policemen were reportedly captured by the Taleban.

In the other an Afghan policeman opened fire on the American soldiers with whom he was working in central Wardak province, killing two and injuring three.

It was unclear whether the policeman was working for the Taleban or simply ran amok but the attack fuelled the distrust that many Nato soldiers already feel for the Afghan security forces that they are supposed to be working with and training as part of the coalition’s eventual exit strategy.

The attacks also came at a crucial juncture in the eight-year-old war, with President Obama soon to decide whether to accept a request by General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the 100,000-strong US and Nato force in Afghanistan, for 40,000 extra troops, or to scale back the counter-insurgency operation and focus narrowly on crushing al-Qaeda.

Domestic opposition to the first option is increasing as the death toll rises steadily. Around 400 coalition troops have now been killed in Afghanistan this year, well over half of them American.

The two outposts on a hill in the remote and mountainous province of Nuristan, a Taleban and al-Qaeda stronghold on the lawless Pakistan border, were attacked before dawn on Saturday by around 300 insurgents from a mosque and a nearby village.

They stormed the Afghan police post at the foot of the hill then swept on to the Nato post further up. The attack was repelled with the help of US airpower but the ferocious battle lasted many hours.

Aside from the American and Afghan dead, Mohammad Farooq, Nuristan’s deputy police chief, said that the fate of the rest of the 90-strong police force in Kamdesh district was unknown.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taleban spokesman, said that the insurgents included several suicide bombers and that they had captured 35 policemen whose fate would be decided by the movement’s provincial council.

From Michelle Malkin, The deadly siege at Kamdeysh:

Firing rockets and rifles, Taliban militiamen attacked American and Afghan military outposts in a daylong siege on Saturday that killed eight U.S. soldiers and two Afghan security forces in one of the deadliest battles in months, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

The fighting began early Saturday morning and raged throughout the day in a remote region of eastern Afghanistan in Nurestan province, which borders Pakistan. Staging their attack from steep mountainsides that overlook the outposts in the valley below, on a morning when weather made visibility poor, the Taliban fighters attacked the small American and Afghan bases using rifles, machine guns, grenades and rockets, according to U.S. military officials.

By Sunday morning, when the U.S. military made the attack public in a statement, the area was “largely secure but I do think there is still some activity,” said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

In addition to the eight soldiers killed, several others were injured, Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, but he did not specify the number. The American soldiers called in ground reinforcements, along with attack helicopter, airplanes and surveillance drones during the fighting. U.S. forces eventually repelled the attack while inflicting “a significant amount of casualties” on insurgents, Smith said.

Due to the “very challenging terrain,” the insurgents had “pretty effective firing positions,” Smith said. “It was obviously a very, very difficult day.”

…The U.S. military said it was not immediately clear how many insurgents were involved in the fighting. The attack involved Taliban fighters and appeared to be led by a local commander of the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin insurgent group, which is run by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former mujaheddin leader during the Soviet war in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

Related reading:
Michelle Malkin: Obama’s Afghanistan waffle
The Snooper Report: Afghanistan: Do We Win Or Do We Lose
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Jonathan S. Landay: ‘We’re Pinned Down:’ 4 U.S. Marines Die in Afghan Ambush
Flopping Aces: 8 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Fiercest Battle Since Wanat
Publius, Big Government: Coburn: Senate Votes to Prioritize Pork Over National Defense
Mommy: Sarah Palin:”We Must Do What It Takes to Prevail” in Afghanistan
Are You Freaking Stupid?: General McChrystal given a stern talking to for daring to point out the truth and not Obama’s version. and Afghanistan has become a war run by Obama’s political needs, not the military. Places politics above soldiers lives. and Obama before: Afghanistan the “war that must be won”, Obama now: Meh, not so much
Washington Post: McChrystal Says Insurgents Are Winning Communications Battle
VotingFemale Friends Speak!: Troops Die as Obama Weighs Afghanistan Options: Withdraw or “…LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR”
Neoavatara: Obama V. McChrystal
Radio Taliban: If Tokyo Rose’s Bearded Brother Had a Radio – Beyond Belief for October 6, 2006
FOX News: Gen. McChrystal Surprised by Enemy Strength in Afghanistan

Categories: Bless Our Troops, Government, International Relations, Media & Communication
Tags: Afghanistan, al Qaeda, anniversary dinner, Barack Obama, Chicago Olympics, Copenhagen, Denmark, IOC, Kamdeysh, Michelle Obama, military, Olympics bid, soldier deaths, Taleban, troops, unemployment