On the road near Kandahar City Afghanistan

Scenes from travels along the road near Kandahar City....

Their version of  Lowes

A Billboard promoting the Afghan Local Police Force

An intersection with a small police building

The Taliban are our enemy, regardless what Vice President Biden may think or say

“The Taliban per se is not our enemy,” Vice President Joe Biden

Really Mr. Vice President ?? Really ?? Then let's send you over to Pakistan without a security contingent and let you have a face-to-face discussion with our "non-enemy" Tailban. Let me know how that works out for you.

I would say that anyone who encounters the Taliban in person would have a different point-of-view. Let's ask the British Doctor they kidnapped this week who was working for the International Red Cross or the 59 year old British Nurse they grabbed in December. Bet they hold a different point-of-view.

The Taliban are NARCO TERRORISTS, plain & simple. They like to wrap themselves in a jihadist cover and claim they are fighting for Islam, but in reality, it is all about the drug trade that comes from the Afghanistan/Pakistan region.

The Taliban and their allies the Haquanni, are all about terrorizing the populace, money, weapons and drugs. Their goal is to control all the aforementioned items in the AF/PAK region. The political posturing is folly as they don't care about Western issues like " Afghanistan " or " Pakistan ". Our Western concepts of countries and such are not relevant as they are tribal and don't really care about where the border line is drawn.

One certainty is that our present administration acts foolish when they play politics with the lives of our soldiers and emboldens our enemies when they speak foolishly about who we are fighting.

The Taliban are our enemy. They will wait us out, and when we leave Afghanistan, the bloodshed that they will inflict upon the people there will be horrific.

Mr. Vice President, with all due respect, you haven't got a clue. The enclosed news story is a prima facie example of the Taliban's true message to us and those who would be our allies over there.

A few thousand US Soldiers wounded or killed by the Taliban were unavailable for comment.

15 Kidnapped Pakistani Soldiers Executed by the Taliban in a Retaliatory Gesture
By SALMAN MASOOD and ISMAIL KHAN
NY TIMES: January 5, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban insurgents executed 15 security soldiers who had been recently kidnapped and dumped their bodies on a hilltop in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, in retaliation for the killing of a militant commander by government forces, government and military officials said.

The soldiers were kidnapped Dec. 23 after dozens of Taliban insurgents overran a fort in one of the restive tribal regions straddling the border with Afghanistan. Officials said they had tried but failed to secure the captives’ release.

The executions followed the death of a high-ranking Taliban commander on Sunday and came just days after local news media reported that several factions of the Taliban had vowed not to attack the Pakistani military.

The bullet-ridden bodies of the soldiers, members of the Frontier Constabulary, were spotted by local tribesmen on Thursday morning after they were dumped in Mir Ali, a subdistrict in the North Waziristan tribal region. The Frontier Constabulary, run by the Pakistani police authorities, has about 70,000 paramilitary soldiers who operate checkpoints in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and provide security at foreign embassies and consulates in major cities across Pakistan.

“From the look of it, it seems they had been shot dead early Thursday morning,” said a senior security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We have been trying to get them freed,” the official said, “and we have had contact with their captors. And until last night the indications that we had were very, very positive. God knows what happened afterwards.”

Farther south, armed men in the city of Quetta kidnapped a British doctor who worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday, said Sitara Jabeen, a spokeswoman for the aid group. She said she knew of no motive for the abduction, which took place near his home.

The executions in northwestern Pakistan were claimed by a Taliban spokesman, Ihsanullah Ihsan, who described them as an “act of revenge” for the killing of militants in the Khyber tribal region on Sunday. He said the group would release a video of the killings “soon” and threatened more attacks.

A dozen militants, including Qari Kamran, a local Taliban commander, were killed in the Khyber tribal region on Sunday after security forces attacked a militant hide-out. Mr. Kamran was considered a high-ranking Taliban commander who oversaw terrorist attacks and activities in Khyber and his native Nowshera district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Security officials said they had expected retaliatory attacks because Mr. Kamran’s killing was considered a major success.

Last week, reports emerged that Afghan Taliban and leaders of Al Qaeda had urged Pakistani Taliban militants to put aside their internal differences and focus on attacking the American-led forces inside Afghanistan.

There have also been reports of negotiations on ending violence between Pakistan’s government and some Taliban factions, although military officials deny the existence of such talks.

The executions show that, despite a recent decrease in militant-related violence and suicide attacks, some Taliban militants are unwilling to end their attacks, analysts here said. A report released recently by an Islamabad-based research organization, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, stated that militant-related violence had decreased by 24 percent in the last two years.

“The Taliban are not to be believed because past deals have shown that they end up violating their own peace deals with the government and use them to regroup and regain strength,” said Omar R. Quraishi, an editor of The Express Tribune, a Karachi-based English-language newspaper. He said the executions also highlighted differences among Taliban factions, because some groups seemed to support ending the fighting against Pakistani security forces, while others continued with attacks.

Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan

Avenger Drone takes to Afghanistan Skies and likely peruses IRAN too

Stealth Drones present a serious advantage towards keeping tabs on those who threaten the peace. While there are many inconsistencies in the story of the lost drone over Iran, this newer one will be prepared for whatever the Iranians put out there.

Iran is capable but they are literally shooting in the dark....There is still a sizeable amount of info out there about whether the RQ 170 they say they have is valid, or if it was a BS story sent out in a " Trojan Horse" move....

It is all interesting speculation and one that we will likely be only able to hypothesize about for the forseeable future.

Air Force Deploys Newest Armed Stealth Drone to Afghanistan
December 15, 2011 - FoxNews

As the military scrambles to deal with a U.S. spy drone lost in Iran, it was revealed that the U.S. Air Force has bought a cutting edge, jet-powered stealth drone -- and plans its immediate deployment in Afghanistan.

But the brand new drone -- an armed model from General Atomics designed for strike as well as reconnaissance -- was ordered months ago, well before the crash of the stealthy Lockheed-made RQ-170 Sentinel that remains in Iran, the USAF said in a statement to aviation website FlightGlobal.

Unmanned drones get more sophisticated with each generation -- faster, stronger, smarter.

"This aircraft will be used as a test asset and will provide a significantly increased weapons and sensors payload capacity on an aircraft that will be able to fly to targets much more rapidly than the MQ-9 [Reaper] UAS," the USAF said.

Developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the Avenger -- also known as the Predator C -- is the upgraded successor to the Predator and Reaper drones with significantly greater firepower, speed and sensor capabilities.

It also has an internal weapons bay and is capable of carrying 2,000-pound missiles.

Despite being labeled a test aircraft, the order for the Avenger came in response to an urgent request made by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in early 2011. The Avenger was the only aircraft that met the Defense Department's needs on such short notice, the Air Force Times reported, citing a heavily redacted document posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.

Wired's Danger Room blog speculates that the drone may be used not in Afghanistan but for further missions in Iran, given its stealth capabilities and large weapons payload.

“The Avenger reportedly carries a ground-mapping radar and the same ultra-sophisticated cameras as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, making it a perfect candidate for quietly snooping above, say, suspected nuclear facilities or terrorist camps guarded by air-defense radars and missiles,” wrote Danger Room’s David Axe.

All of which doesn’t seem too far-fetched: Panetta recently told Fox News in an exclusive interview that the stealth drone campaign along the Iran-Afghanistan border will “absolutely” continue despite the loss of a valuable and sophisticated drone in Iran.

The mysterious loss of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone revealed not only that the U.S. was spying on Iran, but also that the program was being run from Shindad Air Base in western Afghanistan.

"Those operations have to be protected in order to do the job and the mission that they're involved with," Panetta told Fox News.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said at a press conference Wednesday morning that he was unaware of the Sentinel drone malfunction until informed by Iran.

"Afghanistan was not aware the drone had gone down or malfunctioned in Iran ... the government of Iran has sent a note to us on that," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has been quietly pushing to sell armed drones to key allies, but it has run into resistance from U.S. lawmakers concerned about the proliferation of technology and know-how.

Administration officials recently began informal consultations with lawmakers about prospective sales of armed drones and weapons systems to NATO members Italy and Turkey, while several U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have been pressing Washington to authorize drone sales, officials said.

This will go on someone's permanent record...

My Daughter likes the movie " Cars " and there are some funny lines in the movie including a line where Sally the Porsche tells off Lightning McQueen after he dumps on the little town of Radiator Springs saying: " Even here in "Hillbilly Hell " we have our standards...."

Well it seems that a reporter from Iowa found out that there are rules even at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan...

Bringing order to a lawless land -one Parking Ticket at a time
Mar 25, 2011 by Tony Leys
Desmoins Register

Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan - This place is just like a real city – in the most annoying of ways.

Our National Guard guide got smacked with a pink ticket for parking his clunker pickup truck inappropriately on “Warrior Loop” today. It looked like an OK spot to us at the time, but I guess not.

The base officer who filled out the ticket did a lovely, efficient job. The boxes are neatly checked, and the spelling is perfect. You have to appreciate a public servant who displays such craftsmanship.

But here’s the question: What’s the punishment?

As soldiers here like to say, “What are they gonna do, send me to Afghanistan?”