Tuesday, November 24, 2009
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Afghanistan Standoff: Inside the December Issue of Townhall Magazine
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Posted by:
Chris Field at
10:14 AM
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 Two men are in showdown over how the U.S. military should move forward in Afghanistan.
One is a highly decorated Army general who has experienced the war first hand and is directly responsible for leading the men and women on the ground against al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The other is other is a community-organizer-turned-president whose party’s left-wing base actually roots for America’s defeat.
So, who do you trust to win this war—the general who knows what he needs or the liberal politician who knows he needs to placate his peacenik base?
Townhall Magazine digs into where we are in Afghanistan, how we got there and what we need to do next. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has a plan, but no one knows if President Obama will take his advice, shortchange our troops or continue to dither while our bravest are in harm’s way.
If you want to know what it will take to win, the December issue is for you. Not a subscriber? Fix that problem here, and get up-to-speed on our War on Terror.
And it doesn’t stop with the war in Afghanistan. The policies of this administration are leading us down a path of security and fiscal weakness.
With the president’s decision to scrap missile defense in Eastern Europe, he has shown a frightening willingness to sacrifice our national well-being and to betray our allies. We give you the latest in Townhall Magazine.
On the fiscal front, this government’s policies are going to require a decision—sooner rather than later—on our taxes and freedoms. We have it all covered.
And while average Americans are hurting in this economy—which the president himself warned could see a “double-dip recession”—the Obama White House is riding to the rescue of its Wall Street buddies.
Of course, the administration needs a message machine to help make this all possible. Townhall Magazine exposes that machine—Organizing for America—for what it is: a cult-like DNC-based group of Obama sycophants.
Also, just in time for the holidays, the fight over our religious symbols is rearing its ugly head. Yes, the War on Christmas continues.
Plus, in an exclusive interview with Townhall Magazine, Santa Claus lets slip what Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid can be expecting this Christmas.
If you order today, we will give you a FREE COPY of Sarah Palin’s explosive best seller, “Going Rogue.”
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Afghanistan is at a tipping point, but the Obama administration is dithering while American troops wait for backup. How did we get to this point? Where to do we go from here?
With great reporting and analysis from Bill Roggio and powerful photography selected by our team, you’ll get the full story of what’s happening in Afghanistan, what our options are and what the president must to in order to win—if that is, indeed, his goal.
From the opening of Roggio’s “No Time for Weakness”:
Three months after declaring Afghanistan a “war of necessity” and 10 months after launching the then-highly touted “AfPak” strategy, President Obama has come full circle and is now re-evaluating U.S. policy on Afghanistan.
Back on Aug. 17, during a speech given to Veterans of Foreign Wars, Obama laid out the case for a vigorous effort in Afghanistan. He indicated that al Qaeda, and the Taliban who harbor them, are a vital threat to U.S. national security.
“Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again,” Obama said. “If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting; this is fundamental to the defense of our people.”
Today, the administration seems unsure whether the Taliban are even a threat, and some advisors are implausibly arguing that even if the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, the Taliban would not welcome al Qaeda there.
As Obama contemplates the path forward in—or out of—Afghanistan, the harsh reality is that the security and political situation is nearing its nadir. Seven years after being driven from power, Mullah Omar’s Taliban have clearly regained the initiative. But regardless of U.S. and NATO setbacks in Afghanistan, the United States has a vital national security interest there. A reinvigorated Taliban in Afghanistan would threaten neighboring countries in central Asia and lead to the further destabilization of nuclear-armed Pakistan, which is battling its own mounting Taliban insurgency. And the abandonment of the Afghan people to the brutal predations of the Taliban would tarnish the United States’ reputation in the Muslim world and beyond.
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Townhall contributor Peter Brookes, in “Another Foreign-Policy Fumble,” explains that President Obama’s decision to abandon Bush’s Eastern European missile defense plan discourages friends, encourages foes—and leaves our homeland vulnerable.
In another stroke of foreign policy “genius,” in September the Obama administration unceremoniously threw the proposed George W. Bushera, Eastern European-based U.S. missile defense system under the bus.
Not only was it a sop to the Russians and to the Lefties here at home (who are increasingly disenchanted with the White House), but more importantly, it will render us increasingly vulnerable to the growing Iranian nuclear weapon and ballistic-missile threat.
While spinning the decision madly so as to not look weak on national security, in the end, it amounts to another Obama foreign-policy fumble in its Pollyanna-ish effort to make everything right with the world—despite American interests.
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The policies of the Obama administration and America’s liberals are quickly leading to a major fork in the road for this country. As explained in “More Taxes? Fork It Over,” if we take the Left path, we will see hither taxes, bigger government and less freedom. But there is an alternative—and a real hope that we’ll make the Right decision.
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A new book from Washington Examiner columnist Timothy Carney exposes how the Obama White House is riding to Wall Street’s rescue. Townhall Magazine has an exclusive excerpt: “Barack O’Bailout.”
Barack Obama was not the original author of the Great Wall Street Bailout of 2008. But he carried it across the goal line when he—perhaps alone—was in position to block it.
Later, when Obama became president, he brought with him one of the chief authors of the bailouts, Tim Geithner. Obama also reappointed the captain of the bailout ship, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. And one of the bailout innovators of the last 25 years, Larry Summers, sits in the West Wing.
Unsurprisingly, Obama’s team rolled out new bailouts in 2009, and its financial “reforms” would institutionalize them. Obama, undeniably, is a Bailout President. Even aside from the bailouts, Obama is cozy with Wall Street.
He packed his administration with Goldman Sachs alumni, and he received more campaign cash from the finance industry than any politician in history.
In supporting Obama, the industry is acting out of normal self-interest: it knows his plans to heavily regulate Wall Street would actually end up helping the fat cats of Big Finance.
Obama is a president from Wall Street, and Obamanomics is good news for Wall Street. On this score, at least, it’s hard to see how, compared to Bush, Obama represents Change.
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Frequent Townhall contributor Matthew Vadum takes a close look at Organizing for America with his feature report “Organizing for Socialism.”
Housed at the Democratic National Committee, the sycophantic OFA is doing everything it can to milk the cult of personality Barack Obama created during the 2008 campaign. Is it really political activism—or a massive ego trip?
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Also in the December issue:
* New CIA documents show that interrogation of terror detainees yielded half of all al Qaeda intelligence
* GOP beats Democrats in voter trust on top 10 electoral issues
* What will Reid and Pelosi find in their stockings Christmas morning?
* Mary Katharine Ham uncovers the research that shows that it’s not the Right that has “issues,” despite the attempts by the media to portray conservatives as insane, unbalanced and ignorant
* The War on Christmas continues: fighting for our religious symbols
* Ann Coulter blasts the political correctness movement that has made the Fort Hood Muslim extremist murderer the “victim”
* Will the administration now dismantle non-banks?
* The “old” media stand up to the White House for Fox News
* Joy Behar spouts even more nonsense
* Exclusive interview with Ol’ Saint Nick
* The “mommy patriot” movement is working to save the next generation
* Dennis Miller excoriates the move to bring terrorists to New York City
* Glenn Beck takes Seattle by storm
* Shock report: Politicians lie!
* S.E. Cupp offers a gunowner’s ode to Christmas
* The FBI’s Kathryn Turman is helping terrorism victims’ families deal with the hurt and questions that surround attacks on Americans
. . . And much more.
 Remember, if you order a one-year subscription of Townhall magazine today, we’ll give you a FREE COPY of Sarah Palin’s explosive new book, “Going Rogue.”
Just click here to get started
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