Thumbs Up Harry. Thumbs Down Drudge Exposing Soldiers

Thumbs UP for Prince Harry having the guts to serve in
Afghanistan--for 10 weeks until Drudge leaked that information,
endangering both Prince Harry and his fellow soldiers by making the
Taliban aware of his presence. Thumbs down for Drudge. Taliban can
read and Drudge made Harry's base a bigger target than it was. It cut
Harry off from serving his full tour of duty.

Compare Harry's actions with President Bush's. Were Bush's daughters
serving on the front line? No, although many American women,
including mothers with children, are serving today. Prince Harry was
within 500 yards of the Taliban and wasn't getting special treatment
even though our allies control only 30% of the country, according to
our own intelligence.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is demanding that the same U.S. soldiers and their
families repeat tours of duty in Iraq, as many as three or four,
because too few people-- especially the sons and daughters of the
privileged--are willing to do so. It's not Jenna and Barbara doing
without body armor or waiting on an MRAP to avoid being killed by an
IED. Afghanistan is now supplying 93% of the world's heroin which
finances the Taliban. The Taliban are now importing insurgent
techniques learned in Iraq, such as IED’s and suicide bombings. They
are a growing menace.

We still have too few NATO troops in Afghanistan and no strategy to
win. Recent TV reports showed four passes from Afghanistan to Pakistan
that have no NATO patrols to keep out the Taliban for lack of
sufficient troops. That makes it an “open door” for Taliban to cross
over from training on the Pakistan side. If Sen. McCain wants us in
Iraq for the next “100 years” he will have to draft kids into service
to fight. If Prince Harry can serve on the front lines, U.S. kids of
the privileged will have to do the same if we are an American system
is based on equality.

But the problem won’t diminish until we get involved in providing real
education to Pakistani children to replace the 30,000 Madrassas
teaching them hate instead of reading and math. Without that, there
will be another 100 years of a steady stream extremist recruits
growing up and crossing that border--shooting at our troops. We are
fighting fires that will keep burning until we cut off the fuel by
replacing the Pakistani hate "schools' with secular schools that have
more than one book as well as Internet access, connected to the world
like ours.

Meanwhile, the case of Ricin in Las Vegas is very strange for
something authorities say is "not" terrorism. If not terrorism, what
was it? It is a felony to make Ricin. It is used legitimately only in
cancer research--but that research is not conducted in motel rooms. If
the ricin was to be a murder weapon, who was its target? Who made it?
Some reports have indicated that ricin may have been used in the
Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s and that quantities of ricin were found
in Al Qaeda caves in Afghanistan. It’s more of an assassination
weapon. It’s not suitable for mass murder.

Which reminds me: Remember the Anthrax killer after 9/11? He is still
on the loose, along with Osama bin Laden, hiding in those Pakistan
hills beyond the unguarded Afghanistan mountain passes. "Heck of a
Job" on counter-terrorism by our government so far.

The next President will need an actual strategy to win Afghanistan
from the Taliban and keep Iraq stable, something that has been
missing. The next President will need to find solutions to the root
issues, instead of spending our blood and treasure over the next 100
years without addressing the extremist hate factories.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, head of the Senate Foreign Intelligence
Committee, said today that he believes that Mr. Obama is best suited
to do that. A huge mess has been left that will take a miracle to fix.