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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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 Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:14 pm Post subject: Nancy Pelosi Decides to Declare War in Afghanistan 'Over' |
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http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050623-121633-8873r.htm
Republicans slam Pelosi's comments as 'demoralizing'
By Stephen Dinan and Joseph Curl
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 23, 2005
| Quote: | Seven Republican members of Congress said yesterday House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was "demoralizing" U.S. troops by saying twice Tuesday that the war in Afghanistan is over during a press conference she held to call for an investigation of detainee abuses.
"Would you prefer that they gave up the fight, stopped hunting for Osama bin Laden and allowed the terrorists to run free?" the Republicans, all members of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote in a letter to the California Democrat.
On Tuesday, Mrs. Pelosi and three other top Democrats called for a commission to investigate reported abuses of detainees from the war on terror. Mrs. Pelosi said it is past time that the administration established a policy on determining the fates of the detainees at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arguing that most are from Afghanistan and that the conflict there has ended.
"I assume that the war in Afghanistan is over, or is the contention that you have that it continues?" she said to a reporter.
A few moments later, she said: "This isn't about the duration of the war. The war in Afghanistan is over."
House Democrats tried but failed this week to force a floor vote on creating the commission to study reported abuses. Some Democrats and a few Republicans have gone further, calling for the Guantanamo facility to be closed.
But most Republicans rejected that idea, and a new poll shows that a strong majority of Americans think the detainees at Guantanamo are being treated fairly.
A Rasmussen Reports survey conducted this week found that 36 percent of Americans say the detainees are being treated better than they deserve, and another 34 percent say they are being treated about right. Just one in five say the detainees are being treated unfairly, with 10 percent saying they do not know.
The poll asked: "Most of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are members of al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist groups. Generally speaking, is the United States treating these prisoners unfairly, treating them better than they deserve, or treating them about right?"
The telephone poll of 1,000 Americans, conducted Monday and Tuesday, also found that only 14 percent agree with Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, who charged that prisoner treatment at Guantanamo is similar to the tactics used by the Nazi or Soviet regimes.
But Mrs. Pelosi and the top Democrats on the Armed Services, Government Reform and intelligence committees, at their Tuesday press conference, said a commission must look at the training and supervision of troops at detention facilities, at the "atmosphere created that permitted detainee abuse," and how high up the chain of command responsibility for the abuses should go.
They also said the commission should look at conditions determining when a detainee should be released.
"Many of the detainees have been in U.S. custody since October 2001. Why have they been in custody for nearly four years without being charged? Why has so little been done to resolve the status of the detainees?" Mrs. Pelosi said.
A spokeswoman for Mrs. Pelosi said the president himself has indicated that the war to remove Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime was over.
"The war to remove the Taliban government from power was over in 2001 and the president has said the mission was a success," said Jennifer Crider, Mrs. Pelosi's press secretary.
She said President Bush's failure to prosecute the war there, and his effort to go to war in Iraq, have complicated the conflict in Afghanistan.
"One of the main reasons that our troops continue to be attacked by al Qaeda and Taliban fighters today is because President Bush decided to invade Iraq, diverting critical resources needed to secure Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the demands of the war in Iraq have made the job of our brave troops in Afghanistan much more difficult," the spokeswoman said.
The Republicans who signed yesterday's letter said Mrs. Pelosi is wrong about the war being over. They pointed to a battle that left 40 insurgents and a police officer dead in southern Afghanistan this week, as well as eight U.S. troops wounded in Afghanistan last week.
The letter was signed by Reps. John Kline of Minnesota, Joe Wilson of South Carolina, Kay Granger of Texas, Geoff Davis of Kentucky, Candice S. Miller of Michigan, H. James Saxton of New Jersey and Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania |
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GM Strong
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 18 Sep 2004
Posts: 1579
Location: Penna
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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I guess San Fran Nan thinks she is now the CIC as well as Miss America.  She's been in DC and SF too long. She has lost touch with all reality. 
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Uisguex Jack
Rear Admiral
Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 613
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:53 pm Post subject: |
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Nanci Pelosi says: | Quote: | "I assume that the war in Afghanistan is over, or is the contention that you have that it continues?"
"This isn't about the duration of the war. The war in Afghanistan is over." |
Nanci says at one moment she is making a assumption. She then declares conclusively her assumption is correct.
Yet when it comes to Iraq the declaration is that we are loosing.
We are winning the war on Terror which has battle fronts in the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, Chechnya, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Manhattan New York, Bali, Sudan..... on and on and on.
Ms Pellosi makes it clear another battlefront is the floor of the U.S. Capitol and she, Pellosi is interested only in weakening the position of the President of the United States.
Does this make Ms. Pellosi a representative of the terrorists, or of The United States? |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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I am sure these dead Taliban wouldn't agree that it's over. 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160436,00.html
| Quote: | Afghans: 102 Taliban Killed in Battle
Thursday, June 23, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces surrounded a rebel hide-out in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, and the number of insurgents killed from three days of fighting rose to 102, the defense ministry said.
The battle was one of the deadliest since the Taliban's ouster more than three years ago and was sure to add to growing anxiety that an Iraq-style conflict is developing here.
Two Taliban commanders, Mullah Dadullah (search) and Mullah Brader (search), are believed to be fighting alongside hundreds of rebel holdouts, said Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Marad. Both are well known names in the Taliban rebellion, accused of orchestrating attacks across much of Afghanistan's violence-ridden south.
"A total of 102 Taliban have been killed since the fighting started on Tuesday," Marad said, 26 more than were reported on Wednesday evening. "These deaths will have a huge impact on the rebels. Many are trying to flee. But we have them surrounded."
The U.S. military Wednesday put the rebel death toll at 49. Lt. Cindy Moore, a spokeswoman for the force, said there had been no update since then and referred questions to the Afghan government.
Gen. Salim Khan, commander of 400 Afghan policemen who took part in the fighting, said the insurgents had been hit hard.
"Their camps were decimated. Bodies lay everywhere. Heavy machine guns and AK-47s were scattered alongside blankets, kettles and food," he told The Associated Press. "Some of the Taliban were also killed in caves where they were hiding and U.S. helicopters came and pounded them."
American AC-130 gunships, AH-64 Apache helicopters, A-10 attack planes and Harrier jump jets bombarded the rebels and had a "devastating effect on their forces," said another U.S. spokesman, Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara.
Gen. Ayub Salangi, the police chief for Kandahar province (search) where much of the fighting has occurred, said the massive assault on the rebels was in response to a Taliban ambush of a government convoy last week that left a local police commander and six of his men dead.
The local government chief was believed kidnapped in that assault, but Salangi said investigators have determined that he was actually a member of the Taliban and may have orchestrated the ambush.
About 390 suspected insurgents have been reported killed since rebel attacks began increasing in March, after snows melted on mountain tracks used by the rebels. In the same time, 29 U.S. troops, 38 Afghan police and soldiers and 125 civilians have been killed.
The bloodshed has raised concerns that the war is widening, rather than winding down. U.S. and Afghan officials have warned that violence could get even worse before parliamentary elections scheduled for September.
Afghan officials blame the rise in violence on insurgents sneaking in from Pakistan and are urging the government in Islamabad to crack down on militants there. On Sunday, Afghan intelligence agents foiled a plot by three Pakistanis to assassinate Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing U.S. ambassador.
Meanwhile, Spain announced it will send 500 more soldiers to Afghanistan to help provide security for parliamentary elections in September, increasing its troop presence there to nearly 800. The new troops will start deploying in July for a 90-day mission.
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Some Democrats and a few Republicans have gone further, calling for the Guantanamo facility to be closed. |
Where are the names? Perhaps these elected leaders should hear from their constituents.
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"Peace is our Profession"
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