WhileThe Cat's Away!

As the US goes into the final weeks of the Presidential campaign the danger factor has ramped up exponentially. America's attention is turned inwards, and those who are our sworn enemies are well aware of that. They may be more active here, and they will try to manipulate our election!

News of Iraq and Afghanistan has been relegated to the nether pages of most newspapers and is hardly mentioned on air or TV. Things in both those locales are not going well.

In Afghanistan the Taliban has regrouped and are every day more aggressive and dangerous.In Anbar province Iraq, the showplace for the success of the surge, the Central Iraqi government has begun arresting key members of the Awakening, the Sunni force that, with US troops, ended the dominance of Alquaeda. The US has been paying these men, known locally as The Sons of Iraq, to fight and had petitioned the government to fold them into the new Iraqi army. The Central Government, principally Shiia, is making the maintenance of that force difficult if not impossible, equating them with anti-government militias in the South...demonstrably untrue. Very few of this Sunni force have been taken into the Army, and with the reduction of violence in Anbar, the US is effectively paying these young men to stay home and do nothing. Just what we need, hundreds of young men on our payroll, excluded and left with nothing to do!

Note that today General Petraeus recommended slowing the reduction of our forces in Iraq and postponed their transfer to Afghanistan. Note that Iran is speaking up on US forces/Iraqi security treaty provisions. Note that concurrently in Afghanistan, violence and civilian protest against US forces is steadily escalating.And last, but certainly not least, note the timing of Putin's Georgia caper. All accidental? C'mon!

Senator McCain's campaign rests in large degree on the success of the surge. What is happening now looks like a direct attempt to destroy that success. It is logical to assume that all these players would prefer an Obama presidency. Why? Because he is more European in his thinking than McCain; more apt to talk, and in the eyes of many, appease, at worst, to hesitate when action is required. He still appears to trust the UN to handle serious conflicts,when it has been painfully obvious for years that it will not. Forces may be at work to make his judgment appear correct!

So here we are. And what can we do? Very little I fear. But look out, the immediate future looks risky. You can be certain though that the mice will play.

They are at it as I write.