Qaddifi family’s death still unconfirmed

Call me heartless but you know, I can’t care too much that Qaddifi’s son and grandchildren might be dead following NATO air strikes. He puts his family in dangerous situations and in buildings that are targets and then denounces the allies for their deaths? Gimme a break.

I don’t know why we are in Libya, to begin with. No one has proven that their civil war has put us in immanent danger.

Has everyone forgotten the dancing in the streets in the Muslim world when innocent civilian Americans are killed?  I haven’t forgotten it and I’m not celebrating their deaths (if it’s confirmed) but I’m sure not sorry about it.

So now our soldiers are mercenaries.

It is tempting and certainly very easy to point out that Obama’s war (or Obama’s “kinetic military action,” or “time-limited, scope-limited military action,” or whatever the latest ever more preposterous evasion is) is at odds with everything candidate Obama said about U.S. military action before his election. And certainly every attempt the president makes to explain his Libyan adventure is either cringe-makingly stupid (“I’m accustomed to this contradiction of being both a commander-in-chief but also somebody who aspires to peace”) or alarmingly revealing of a very peculiar worldview:

“That’s why building this international coalition has been so important,” he said the other day. “It is our military that is being volunteered by others to carry out missions that are important not only to us, but are important internationally.” [emphasis mine] Mark Steyn

You read that right, boys and girls. Our military is “being volunteered by others to carry out missions.” What does the mean exactly? Our soldiers are conscripted by other governments, NATO and/or the UN for service – on their whim? And our soldiers serve under foreign commanders?

This is really mind boggling. I’m not sure too many have picked up on this statement. But the ramifications are staggering.

He’s wiling to sacrifice our soldiers for use by foreign powers. They call soldiers who do that, mercenaries.

Does anyone, NOW, have any question about this man’s world view?

Taliban Stimulus Plan Offers Cash for Kills

From the TimesOnline:

“It’s a lot of money for us. We don’t care if we kill foreigners: their blood allows us to feed our families and the more we kill, the more we weaken them. Of course we are going to celebrate this,” said a [Taliban] commander from Ghazni province.

TALIBAN rebels are earning a bounty of up to 200,000 Pakistani rupees (£1,660 [or $2400 USD]) for each Nato soldier they kill, according to insurgent commanders.

The money is said to come from protection rackets, taxes imposed on opium farmers, donors in the Gulf states who channel money through Dubai and from the senior Taliban leadership in Pakistan.

So far this year 213 Nato soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, including 41 British troops, bringing the potential rewards for the Taliban to £350,000.

from thepublicinterest.freedomblogging.com

Taliban commanders said the bounty had more than doubled since the beginning of last year.

The insurgents, who employ “hit and run” tactics against foot patrols and convoys, use paid informants, media reports and the local population to confirm the deaths of Nato soldiers.

“We can’t lie to our commanders: they can check to see if there was a fight in that area. We get money if we capture equipment too. A gun can fetch $1,000 [£690],” said a commander from Khost province who controls about 60 fighters.

The money usually reaches commanders via the traditional hawala transfer system found in many Muslim countries. They then share it among their men and sometimes celebrate with a feast.

Most Taliban commanders deny any financial motive. In a dozen interviews over the past four months, low and midlevel Taliban commanders from provinces where the insurgency is fierce have set out their conditions for ending the violence.

“We are not fighting for money or power. We are fighting to end government corruption, to rid this country of foreign troops, and we want a return to sharia law,” said a Kandahar commander.