Friday, April 09, 2004

Posted here Friday, April 09, 2004 at 4:48:15 PM     Seymore Hersh In the New Yorker on Afganistan http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?040412fa_fact excerpt Clarke’s view of what went wrong was buttressed by an internal military analysis of the Afghanistan war that was completed last winter. In late 2002, the Defense Department’s office of Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (solic) asked retired Army Colonel Hy Rothstein, a leading military expert in unconventional warfare, to examine the planning and execution of the war in Afghanistan, with an understanding that he would focus on Special Forces. As part of his research, Rothstein travelled to Afghanistan and interviewed many senior military officers, in both Special Forces and regular units. He also talked to dozens of junior Special Forces officers and enlisted men who fought there. His report was a devastating critique of the Administration’s strategy. He wrote that the bombing campaign was not the best way to hunt down Osama bin Laden and the rest of the Al Qaeda leadership, and that there was a failure to translate early tactical successes into strategic victory. In fact, he wrote, the victory in Afghanistan was not, in the long run, a victory at all. ********

Posted here Friday, April 09, 2004 at 4:21:58 PM     overheard - And here's another twist: last week's miraculous and widely applauded jobs report shows a preliminary, seasonally-unadjusted increase in government payrolls of more than half the 308,000 reported. We can see the wonks at work all around the beltway: "Heck, if we can't make the jobs appear, well... we can just hire the workers ourselves!" The U.S. Government already employs nearly 22 million people. What's another 159,000? ********

Posted here Friday, April 09, 2004 at 11:51:37 AM     Clinton testified in private to the commission yesterday afternoon, for four hours. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/09/politics/09CLIN.html   ********

Posted here Friday, April 09, 2004 at 11:18:55 AM     Worry about fascism as Iraq deteriorates and the election draws nigh.. http://billmon.org/archives/001359.html#comments ********