Terrorist Watch

The killing of Osama bin Laden and the clues which led US forces to his doorstep provided a welcome and interesting contrast to the methods the Bush administration touted as being essential to investigating would-be terrorists.  Specifically, the fact that the clues leading to bin Laden weren't gathered via "enhanced interrogation" methods (AKA torture), but through normal interrogation and good old fashioned detective work.

Yet, one item from the Bush era and the Guantanamo Bay detainees illustrated just how petty and unfocused his team's approaches were:

If al-Qaida could learn anything from the latest classified documents released by WikiLeaks, it would be this: Lose the Casio watch. More specifically, lose the Casio F-91W — either the black plastic or silver bracelet version.

That particular watch came up nearly 150 times in the cache of Guantanamo prisoner assessments from the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo, which made up the bulk of the latest WikiLeaks release. It is clear from a review of those documents that if you have a Casio F-91 (selling for as little as $9.99 on Amazon.com), you're suspect.

Yes, merely having an inexpensive, durable, and basic watch like the Casio F-91W was enough to make you a suspect.  Which is precisely why I ordered mine the day I heard about this stupid story.

 

[caption id="attachment_1158" align="aligncenter" width="717" caption="Terror Watch! (hehe, get it? GET IT?!)"][/caption]

 

Whereas Bush's people were running around checking your clothing accessories, Obama's people followed a much more disciplined and methodical approach to tracking down bad guys, which paid off for Obama's administration far more than it did for Bush.  Maybe I will get added to this list of detainees making the fashion faux pas of wearing the same model watch?

 

 

What you didn't know about the war

Nothing I can write here makes sense of this or in any way better explains it than you just watching it to completion.

Surges and timetables

President Obama gave a speech before a graduating class of West Point students last night in which he outlined his plan to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in an effort to bolster our forces there and turn around months of losses.

One key aspect of his plan is a drawdown from the area by 2011, with the goal of having provided sufficient time for the Afghan government to step up to its own defense.  The usual shrill cries about timetables is already being heard from the right, with the usual people claiming that having a timetable just gives the “enemy” time to wait us out before resurging after we leave.

I find this to be a rather simplistic analysis of what’s happening there or in any war.  First of all, what does “waiting it out” entail?  They lay in provisions and just take an 18 month break?  They hole up in caves, stockpile some books and magazines, and just take it easy for the next year or so?

The alternatives would be to try and stockpile weapons and increase training and recruitment, but then they are trying to do that all the time anyway.  Trying to increase that effort over the next year will just result in increased attention from all the additional US troops humming around the country.

Laying low means they are handing control of the country over to the US and Afghan governments, providing valuable time for the far superior US forces to bolster the country’s internal defenses and political structure.

Thus, in all actuality, the Taliban will try to continue doing what they have been doing.  There won’t be any “laying low”.  There won’t be any regrouping.  There will just be a hell of a lot more US soldiers with guns, tanks, and helicopters crawling the caves and deserts of that place.  The Taliban’s recruiting might get them a few hundred reinforcements here and there.  The US can drop 30K on them in a few weeks.

The timetable isn’t providing the Taliban with anything at all except notice that we have clear cut goals in mind, aren’t going to dick around any longer like we did under “The Decider” and are there to get a job done and get out.  Further still, it sends the same message to the Afghan natives who are wondering how long this occupation will last.  They know they have a limited time to get their act together and decide what they want for their country as we won’t always be there to protect them.