The compromise has been made. The President is going to send 30 000 more troops to Afghanistan. The Generals have not voiced their dissent, but the right wing and the left wing nits have. To their credit though, they have not been as vocal as before.

This is more than the General Stanley McChrystal‘ initial minimum plan which required an additional 15 000 troops. This is also less than the safe plan that General McChrystal requested which was an additional 40 000 troops. The plan to add another 80 000 troops was not even discussed. It was flat out rejected.

Being in the Army before, I know that if Generals are not happy about it, they would voice things out. They have all the power to do so. The only other scenario is that there could be an order to maintain silence to the press but I think that this is highly unlikely.

I think the outburst by General McChrystal that happened before was something that was justified. I was also very against the idea of leaving the troop levels as it is when the Generals on the ground are asking for more troops.

I think 30 000 is a fair number for all parties. I think that Vice President Biden’s idea would also take into effect. While I do not think that cutting it down from 40 000 is necessary to save people’s lives, I also think there are financial implications if we increased it by 40 000 when we only required an additional 30 000.

As usual, there are wingnuts that see this differently. The far right claimed that the President’s unwillingness to increase the count to 40 000 is a signal that he is not willing to take on the base of his party and as a result, the troops pay with their lives. I think that this is absurd as he is taking on his base when he increase it by 30 000 and if the Generals are happy, so be it.

It is however, the far left that I am particularly pissed off with. They, as usual, are going all out with their no-war is good war stand. Have these people forgotten that it is not us that started the war, it was the terrorists when they attacked us on 9/11? Do these Liberals understand that if we do not get them today, they may kill us tomorrow? How many people should be dead before they understand that giving the other cheek is not the answer. We have got to smoke them out and finish the job.

However, I would be gracious enough, even to the wingnuts, to say that they have not made a big deal about this as they did before the decision was passed. It could be due to the Fort Hood tragedy or the health-care debate. They could be going for the issues that Americans are already aware of.

Either way, thank you guys. God bless America, God bless our troops!

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Al Qaeda went all to mock us in the economic downturn; and now they are feeling the pinch themselves! Their own sponsors who are essentially paying for the blood of Westerners are also badly affected by the Global economic downturn like the rest of the world.

Al Qaeda is now going around begging for funds. Essentially, it is just political pitch the same way we do it. E.g. Crazy Democrats years or so ago; “Give us money to stop Bush.” or crazy Republicans today, “ Help us stop socialism / Obamacare”; Al Qaeda would go around saying things like, “ Let us stop the ”rot of Islam.” and stop the infidels in their tracks. ”

Credit would have to be given to the National Security Agency in who clamped down on Al Qaeda’s financial crisis. They have done a tremendous job in trying to cut the financial supply to Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda now has made cuts to its recruitment efforts and also cut their budget for training terrorists.

The Taliban, though is making progress in that area, due to sale of its narcotics. This tells us that either the price of drugs has surged tremendously, or that US efforts in converting poppy fields to potato fields are in vain.

It is also noted that most terror organizations are now dabbling in all sorts of criminal activities to raise funds. These include selling of pirated music, software and movies, illegal cigarettes, liquor and gambling.

Though most of the illegal trade happens in the Middle East, we should still think twice before where our dollars are going whenever we get all those counterfeit stuff. Buying that fake Gucci handbag could mean that you are financing Al Qaeda to kill more innocent people in the future. Especially in the field of music, I think that it is unforgivable. Because unlike bags or other stuff, we do have sites like You Tube where you can listen to music for free.

I know that this is getting old but this again goes back to our point of finishing our job in Afghanistan. Lets finish Al Qaeda when they are weaker and lets take the Taliban out before they become stronger than what they are right now. How many more evidences do we need to know that we have got to finish the job? Do we need another catastrophe like 9/11 to happen so that we can come back to our senses and know who our enemies really are?

I really hope that our President and the politicians come to their senses and give the Generals what they want!

Yet another terror plot has been uncovered in America. This time there was a Jordanian and a local American Muslim convert wanted to blow up buildings in Illinois and Texas respectively. They seem to be separate incidents and that America was saved yet again by the brilliance of the FBI.

A 19 year old teenager named Hosam Maher Husein Smadi wanted to bomb the Fountain Place in Texas on September the 20th. He was also an illegal immigrant. Though, there were no official words from news stations, I wonder if there was intention of it being carried out on Eid, Islam’s holiest day. He was caught when he told an undercover agent his plans over chat lines.

There are several things I have to say about this capture. Firstly, how dim is this novice? Boasting about what he intended to do to someone he had never met! For that reason, I really doubt that this guy is really linked to Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda members would not have made these kinds of simple mistakes.

Secondly, there is also the issue of immigration being a national security concern. He could have come from the Canadian or Mexican border illegally and overstayed his stay here. Even though he resides in Texas, I believe that he could have crossed from the Canadian border which is much more porous than the Mexican one. I have always believed that we need to have fences on BOTH sides of our borders. However, I do not support closing either border.

The Illinois case though is the one that sends a chill down my spine. Majority of the cases that we have reviewed, we note that Al Qaeda usually targets American minority youth that are poor, have experienced racism and are hard core criminals. In this case, an upper-middle class, White person that is nearly 30 is the terror suspect. This breaks the profile. Michael Flinton is born, educated and seemed normal in America.

This guy is not just another low life. He is a person that had planned for premeditated mass murder. Unlike Smadi’s case, details of this is not told to the public yet. All we know that this was a vehicular bomb plot that targeted the Illinois Federal building. He even had a back-up plan to kill Republican Representative Aaron Schock, in case his primary objective was not met. The person that does this is not an amateur. Knowledge of bombs enough to blow up a building of that scale is not self taught.

Like many other right wing nuts, he hates the American government. I hope that this guy does not inspire other anti-government nuts to react, especially with the “anti-Fed” murder of the Census employee recently. Flinton himself took J.W. Lindh as an icon of inspiration. I think that we should take the National Security threat of domestic right-wing terrorism more seriously, especially those with hate stemming from racial or religious grounds.

The very fact that the details of this guy is not being released is of some concern. The FBI only does this when they think that his plan could cause panic or that it could inspire other terrorists to copy his methods. That is not very good, America.

Also, ST really appreciates the work of the FBI. We applaud their brilliance in keeping our country safe. We salute them for sticking to American principles and showing the world that you do not need to use “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” a.k.a torture to keep America safe. Thank you, FBI.

Lastly, we should execute these terrorists. This is because, keeping them in prisons for life would mean adding the risk of hostage to release these terrorists. This has happened before around the world and America should learn the lesson from them, before it happens on our soil…

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What a stunner! Wasn’t it days ago that we mentioned the ridiculousness of having a gun on board trains? Just hours ago, an Afghan national is being suspected of plotting to bomb trains in Colorado and New York. But it was what we said about fighting terror that the Feds have repeated the alarm for.

Najibullah Zazi is being accused of plotting to bomb train stations in New York. According to the Feds, he had diagrams that show how to make bombs were found on the computer and he visited New York recently. They claim that this is the real deal.

I really do not think that the FBI would be so stupid to arrest Zazi based on this alone. E.g. if we go to the NRA website and visited New York, does that mean we are planning to commit mass murder? There must be something that they have yet to tell the media, or else they would be looking very stupid before the cameras. And I still trust the FBI.

Zazi’s lawyer too made a very good point. If Mr Zazi was the gentleman that is really being under investigation, wouldn’t he be locked up and not released? Why is he out free instead of being arrested? This just reiterates the point I made before that there is something that the FBI knows that we do not or else this would make them look really stupid.

But what is important was what we mentioned in our articles a days ago. The way to stop terror on trains is the following 3 steps :

1)Good intelligence: Should the FBI be right here, this entire plot would have been averted with good intelligence work. Should they be right, and I believe that they are, the FBIs would be the real heroes here.

2)Screening: Weapons, ammunitions and ordinance should not be tolerated in trains. I really doubt that there would be any way of stopping Zazi today should he have not been caught by the FBI and had the desire to bomb Amtrak. We need screening in train stations. We need them fast, or lives can be lost.

3)Training. I have said before that President Obama’s administration was right in trying to dumping what I called the “train squad.” This is because, I really doubt Close Quarters Battle or Urban Ops is the way to prevent someone from bombing trains. What is needed is that every rail employee be trained to be vigilant to detect give away signs of terrorism.

Should this be the real deal, I hope Americans do not start to fear again. I hope that they have faith in the Feds instead. Because if we let ourselves be scared because of this kind of threats the terrorists would have already won. Remember they are terror-ists, they want you to be scared.

That being said, I do not think that we as Americans should be complacent either. We should know that the moment we let our guard down, the terrorists would be coming for us. We should not complain either when there is checking of our bags and backpacks. I would not mind longer lines rather than people dying.

Lastly, we here at ST would like to thank the FBI, regardless of this threat being real, for helping keep out country safe. They are the real unsung heroes in America. Thank you guys, we appreciate it!

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President Obama’s administration has caved in to the Republicans on guns yet again without giving a fight. This time, it is the administration caving in on gun’s owners right to carry firearms on Amtrak.

Carrying firearms was one of the measures the Bush administration took to prevent future terrorist attacks in America or as they would put it “keep America safe.” You have to wonder what made it okay today when it was a not 8 years ago.

Granted, this is as not bad as the law that allows guns on domestic flights. Passengers carrying guns on flights is absolutely no go for me. The reason is that to kill every one on the plane, a terrorist or a deranged person would only one shot that can cause an explosive decompression. Therefore, I think that it is a no-brainer not to have guns on planes.

Forget about a “Counter Strike” like fight with terrorists on a plane. That is the mentality that I find very dangerous. These people think that the only way to prevent terrorists from killing people is that if they themselves have guns so that they can fight back with them.

That is really laughable! What “la-la” land are they living in? Look at the last 8 years, with tighter gun controls on plane, not even a single terrorist high-jack took place. Let guns through, and you got a clown high-jacking a plane to tell the President of Mexico that an earthquake is coming! Prevention is always better than the cure. No guns means terrorists are prevented from taking the plane hostage.

The casualty would not be as large on trains as it would be on planes. But isn’t the solution to look into better measures of preventing guns on trains? Not according to the administration of President Obama. They rather allow guns to come on trains and let people die; so that they don’t have to face the monster haunting them, the Right wing.

Already there is the ridiculous inclusion of “guns in parks” amendment in the Credit Card bill of rights that was passed earlier this year. Now this? President Obama made the promise that he would deal with the guns issue in his political campaign. He said that there would not be M16s and AK47s in the street. What have you done so far on those fronts Mr President? Nothing!You just made the streets less safer.

I know there would be some people thinking that I am a liberal. I am not.. I am still an Independent. On some issues like abortion and especially guns, I am with the Left. On issues like the death penalty and tort reform, I am with the Right. Above all, I want things to be done smartly and ensures that bills get the job done.

This is not a smart bill at all. It was passed in the Senate with there being absolutely no chance of it getting vetoed by President Obama. Bad bills are bad bills. With the public option all but out, HR3200 is next to gun down on my agenda. I never supported it, but without the public option it is going to burn a huge hole in our pockets.

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