President orders air strikes on villages in tribal area

[babsbunny]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/24/pakistan-ba...

President orders air strikes on villages in tribal area



Barack Obama gave the go-ahead for his first military action yesterday, missile strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan which killed at least 18 people.

Four days after assuming the presidency, he was consulted by US commanders before they launched the two attacks. Although Obama has abandoned many of the "war on terror" policies of George Bush while he was president, he is not retreating from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.

[Ian David]

1. Has he checked all of McCain's 11 houses yet? n/t

[pretzel4gore]

2. whattaya expect?

jeezus h kerist. This is the "United States of slam'bamthankyouMa'America" (after getting screwed for generations, the name was finally changed to protect the innocent)

[tan guera]

3. This is idiocy

opening another Pandora's Box. And people fell for that "we gotta catch OBL" hook, line and sinker. There are probably hundreds of OBL's by now. Same failed bush foreign policy.

[lamp_shade]

6. Chin up.

[DCKit]

8. It's not about OBL.

AQ is, and always was, based in Afghanistan - until we invaded Iraq and toppled their worst enemy.

"Teh War on Terra" should have begun and ended in Afghanistan.

[pretzel4gore]

11. who created the 'all cia does'?

remember back in the 70's when Afghanistan was a hippie hangout? The foreign community was estimated at 30k- John d Mcdonald's Travis Magee went to kabul in one story, to find a missing heriess (i think it was)...so liberal was the country. But who was the neighborhood cop back then? You guessed it. The USSR was, that's who...women drove cars and muslim extremers were hunted down like dogs, but then the CIA (see 'chuckie wilson's war') decided to destroy USSR by creating a Vietnam....ergo the multi-billion funding of muslim extremism that went bigtime in Carter years.

btw 911 WAS a staged terror op...just like the KAL 007 shootdown/JFK murder was

[DCKit]

12. "Those who fail to learn from history...."

And the beat goes on.

Thanks for the history lesson. I was a mere child then.

[pretzel4gore]

13. maybe that's why mr pig won't allow history to be taught...

at least not the real history. But it's a fraud what the system is doing, and costing trillions in your money!

[elocs]

4. I think that those who actually paid attention to what Obama said during the campaign

are not surprised at all. We evidently do need to fault Obama for not perfectly jumping through all of our hoops exactly as we believe he should. I think he should create a cabinet level DU Advisory Board so his presidency will be perfect. Plus, it would save him a lot of thinking and decision making.

[watrwefitinfor]

5. I am not surprised. I did believe him.

Still, I must admit to disappointment. And wonder how he feels now he has drawn his first blood.

I am reminded of Bill Clinton's first bombing run against Saddam, early in his presidency. It was a statement, just as this is, I would suppose. Still, what price might there be to pay for it? For us as a nation, and for him, personally.

Wat

[madmom]

7. If this is the same one I heard about (I think on Olberman) Obama

did not give the order to strike. He was informed of the strike but they did not need him to ok it.He didn't order it, but he didn't stop it either.

[tan guera]

9. So how are we to interpret this?

He couldn't stop it (due to some bush thing) or he wouldn't stop it? I'm not surprised either, but I'm disappointed. Messing with Pakistan is not wise.

[4 t 4]

10. I saw that on Olberman

I think your right he didn't order it. I want links back please when serious topics are put forth. I don't think I will believe anything I read anymore unless a link can be provided. MHO

[tan guera]

15. Here's a link. I'm not sure how to make it clickable

http://www.truthout.org/012409A

"It remained unclear yesterday whether Obama personally authorized the strike or was involved in its final planning, but military officials have previously said the White House is routinely briefed about such attacks in advance.

At his daily White House briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to answer questions about the strikes, saying, "I'm not going to get into these matters." Obama convened his first National Security Council meeting on Pakistan and Afghanistan yesterday afternoon, after the strike."

[retread]

14. When was he briefed? Was he told we are going to bomb villages or we bombed villages? n/t

[tan guera]

16. see above link