From US To 'Allies' Re Afghanistan: Uncle Sam Wants You!!

The United States and its allies must launch their own offensive this spring against the Taliban in Afghanistan, a senior defense official said Thursday, calling this a pivotal time in the nearly five-year-old war there.

Huh? Nearly? It started in October of 2001. How long ago was that? How hard is it to check such a fact? Apparently it's way beyond Lolita C. Baldor, who writes for the AP. Her report, which reached me via Yahoo, goes on to say:

Previewing the message Defense Secretary Robert Gates will deliver to
NATO allies at a meeting here later Thursday and Friday, the official said now is the time to finally defeat the Taliban, who harbored planners of the September 11, 2001, attacks that prompted the U.S. global war on terror.

Presumably, Ms Balidor wishes us to believe that the Taliban harbored the people who planned the wargames that stripped the air defense from the Northeastern US on Septetmber 11, 2001.

No doubt it was Afghani cave-dwellers who planted -- and detonated -- the explosives that turned three WTC buildings to powder.

They probably also harbored the man who broke into an Army weapons lab and picked up some anthrax, so it could be sent to any politicians and media figures who didn't hop aboard the so-called "global war on terror" immediately.

But considering that nobody has ever been tried -- let alone convicted -- of planning the September 11 attacks, it would seem prudent to insert the word "alleged" somewhere in the paragraph I've quoted. But then again -- who knows? -- this may be even more difficult than 2007 minus 2001.

"We think the upcoming spring in Afghanistan is a pivotal moment in the conflict, and we're encouraging the allies to do as much as they can as soon as they can," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the planned discussions had not yet been presented to allies. "The offensive should be our offensive. That's the offensive we've been communicating to the allies."

The defense official said there currently are no plans to further increase the U.S. troop commitment to Afghanistan.

So here it is, plain as day: the US is anonymously leaking a message it will soon present to its so-called allies. How thrilled they will be to learn all this from the press rather than behind diplomatically closed doors!

What's the message? Even more thrilling:

Now is the time to intensify the struggle, with your troops, not ours.

Diplomacy has never been this administration's strong suit, since it requires both deception and tact.

And if you listen closely, you can hear the soud of their so-called coalition, getting smaller and smaller and smaller ...