Someone tell Dick and Liz Cheney there is a nice villa in Abottabad, Pakistan available.

I am glad to see that we can put this birther issue behind us once and for all.  Yes finally, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal finally released his birth certificate this weekend.  I am sure Donald Trump is really proud of himself for making that happen too.
Watching Dick Cheney on Fox News is still thinking that waterboarding was how we got Bin Laden and that waterboarding is not torture.  He still doesn’t get it.  And another thing, he keeps espousing how the Bush administration kept the country safe.  Bush was sworn in on January 20, 2001 and 9/11 occurred on September 11, 2001.  Do I need to get Cheney a date wheel?
Cheney went on to question Obama’s policy with regards to Libya and he is confused by Obama’s doctrine.  I can see how Cheney could be confused by nuance, strategy, coalition building, and working within the Arab world, not against it.  The Bush-Cheney method of ‘shoot first then plan’ was a disaster and he has no foot to stand on regarding foreign policy in that region.
Counter-terrorism or counter-insurgency?  It appears Obama has heavily invested in the former through the use of Special Forces and predator strikes.  The Bush administration stumbled into counter-insurgency when it realized that it was in the nation building business after destroying the political, economic, civil, and military infrastructure.    Obama has it right about counter-terrorism, that being said our counter-insurgency program in Afghanistan is, sadly, doomed to fail because we do not have a reliable and honest partner in Karzai.  Our involvement in Afghanistan will end when a political settlement takes place that results in a Taliban-Secular-Moderate coalition government most likely brokered by a third party such as Turkey.
I will give the Bush Administration its due for being in power during the creation of our 21st counter-terrorism structure that includes intelligence gathering, analysis, and Special Forces to strike.  This interdepartmental cooperation was critical to the OBL mission.
I really don’t like Fox News Sunday panel regular Bill Krystol.  It’s bad enough that he is more often wrong versus right, but it’s his smug smirk that makes we retch. 
How crazy is the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia?  In the Palestinian Territories there seems to be a reunification between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank.  Hamas has apparently learned the difficult lesson that it is a difficult transition from militants to governing bureaucrats.  They have been cracking down on the Salafist Jihadists living in Gaza who want the complete destruction of Israel and the establishment of a global caliphate.  These Al-Qaeda like terrorists have no interest in a Palestinian state because they do not recognize nations only a global caliphate.  By the way, these same Salafist Jihadists have thrown their support behind the Libyan rebels in their insurrection against Gaddafi.  Now, do we really want to arm these guys?  And finally, why do the Pakistani military and intelligence departments support the Taliban in its attacks against US troops in Afghanistan?  India.  Yes, the decades of mistrust and outright war between Pakistan and India coupled with India’s ties with Afghanistan is why Pakistan doesn’t want the establishment of a Karzai-led government. 
Closing thought: keep an eye on Iran and its President Ahmadinejad.  The mercurial leader has been out of the limelight for 2 weeks and word out of Tehran and the holy city of Qom is that he has fallen out of favor with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  Stay tuned.

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