Bouhammer.com would like to wish all the readers of this site a very Happy New Year. Even though my site is still not back to 100%, Godaddy.com has been great in working with me on getting everything migrated and restored.
Hopefully things will all be back to running full speed in the next day or two, so I can start posting meaningful entries again.
I wish all of you a very Happy New Year 2010.
I am sorry for the problems here, but I am working with my hosting provider (GoDaddy.com) to resolve some issues that are currently impacting this site. Please keep checking back or follow me on twitter at twitter.com/bouhammer to get updates on the progress
Bouhammer Note- This is another great example of how you can rent an Afghan’s loyalty, but you can never buy it.
WASHINGTON (Agencies): As President Obama prepares a massive military buildup in Afghanistan, a House subcommittee has launched an investigation into whether Defense Department contractors are paying off the Taliban to protect American supply lines. The investigation was triggered by a Nation cover story. Representative John Tierney, chair of the national security and foreign affairs subcommittee, said a “preliminary inquiry,” including testimony from “a couple of whistleblowers,” produced enough evidence to merit a full-fledged investigation. “If the allegations are taken to their conclusion,” he said, “it would indicate that US taxpayer money is going to insurgents.” In interviews with The Nation magazine, Afghan government officials, security contractors and trucking company executives outlined a giant protection racket, funded by US taxpayers, which raises millions for the Taliban. With no US military forces protecting their supply lines, contractors had to protect routes by other means: payoffs. As one trucking company official told The Nation, “If you tell me not to pay these insurgents in this area, the chances of my trucks getting attacked increase exponentially.” At the heart of the scandal is the Defense Department’s $2.2 billion Host Nation Trucking contract, a military logistics operation launched with six major contractors, a number that has since risen to eight. One of the contractors under investigation is NCL Holdings, a US firm headed by Hamed Wardak, the Afghan-American son of Afghanistan’s defense minister, Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak. (NCL denies ever having made payments, directly or indirectly, to the Taliban.) But it seems Hamed Wardak was more than just a defense contractor with a budding business. Parallel to his business ventures, he’s been running an aggressive foreign policy campaign in Washington to keep the US heavily vested in Afghanistan. A confidential lobbying memo obtained by The Nation shows that Wardak commissioned a blue-chip lobbying firm to push for an extended US presence in Afghanistan–a potentially lucrative outcome for NCL. NCL is still trucking for the logistics contract in Afghanistan, a job that is sure to grow with the influx of 30,000 fresh troops in need of supplies. So far, the firm’s spokesperson said, NCL has done $45 million in business on the contract, which started in earnest in May. Hamed Wardak said in his statement that he welcomes Representative Tierney’s investigation. He insisted that NCL made “no direct payments to any security firm in Afghanistan.” Perhaps that is so, since almost all of NCL’s trucking for the US contract is handled by subcontractors–and it’s the subcontractors who are alleged to have arranged payments to the warlords and insurgents. As for the Congressional investigation, it may take months.
So PFC Bowe Bergdahl is back in the news now that another video has been released. Of course the idiot terrorist from Nigeria who tried to blow up the NWA flight in Detroit took over the headlines by late in the day on Christmas. But the bottom line is now that Bowe’s captors released a video of him, his name is back in the news. I know I have asked a few times on this blog an on twitter what has been happening with him, but he has been absent in the news.
Of course back in late November when word was passed to some respected American soldier doctors about Bergdahl, there were some small blips in the news about him, but nothing really nationally. The new video is out, but it is not a proof of life as they offer no proof of when the footage was filmed.
We have an American citizen and soldier missing in Afghanistan, so why doesn’t that stay at the top of the news. Is it becuase the American people don’t care? Is it because the story gets boring for the MSM after a day? Is it because the family is very private and not in front of the cameras with pictures and tears? Or is it becuase the Army is sitting on all information about this matter becuase of the way he disappeared by walking off his base?
Regardless of why, because all that matters is that he is missing. Between the National POW/MIA organization, Warrior Ethos, etc. “leaving no man behind” should be more than a cool slogan. It should be the main mission of our country and military. Even if this young man performed acts that warrant a trial by court-martial and imprisonment after he is rescued, he still deserves to have every resource we can muster to rescue him.
Our Government, along with groups like the ACLU bend over backwards to appease every American who complains about the smallest of things (especially at Christmas time) in order to protect each American’s “rights”, and most of those Americans have never done anything to serve this country or earn their keep. The least our Government and our President should do is make rescuing Bergdahl and any other missing or captured American the #1 priority right now.
H/T to W.C. for making me aware of this video. This is one talented songwriter, singer and musician. Please take a few moments to enjoy this video.
The following story came out this morning in VOA News. I am glad to see that the Rules of Engagement still allows us to fire on mosques when the enemy uses them as a warfighting building and it is no longer a religous building.
NATO officials in Afghanistan say a heavily armed Taliban commander sought refuge in a mosque before starting a shootout that led to his death. NATO says international and Afghan forces tracked down the militant commander to a compound, just outside the town of Pirdad, in Wardak Saturday. When the joint NATO-Afghan forces approached, the commander fled to a nearby mosque, refused to surrender and eventually opened fire. The officials say he was armed with grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He was wanted for buying weapons, components for explosive devices and for helping plan various attacks. NATO officials also said a U.S. soldier died Friday from a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
Bouhammer Note- This version of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’ was sent to me yesterday by its author, SSG Scott Nelson, who is currently deployed in Afghanistan. He said he re-worked the famous poem in order to put some Christmas spirit in the soldiers fighting on the front lines in the Global War on Terror. Personally I think he did a pretty good job. Â I want to thank SSG Nelson and all of those that are forward deployed who take the time to read this blog and for their feedback. I am flattered that those whom I tend to write about, read Bouhammer’s Afghan & Military blog and that they like what they read. Merry Christmas to all, but especially to those that are deployed away from family trying to make it though just “one more day”.
Twas the night before Christmas, and all through Afghanistan, not a creature was stirring, not even the Taliban. Combat boots were aligned under the cots with care, but nobody expected that St Nicholas would be there. The soldiers were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of home danced in their heads. When out by the wire there arose such a clatter, all the soldiers sprang from their beds to see what was the matter. Away to the fighting positions they flew with a flash, threw on their gear and made a mad dash. The moon shining down on the desert below gave the Afghan qalats a menacing glow. When up in the sky something strange did appear, but all the brave soldiers suppressed their fear. Calmly they prepared for the battle ahead, though their hearts were filled with a visceral dread. But soon they discovered a cause for the racket, a laughing fat man in a brilliant red jacket. He was driving a sleigh loaded with gear, pulled behind a team of eight reindeer! The soldiers gazed with awe at the sight, of the familiar man flying his sleigh through the night. Down came the sleigh with a dizzying drop, and soon Santa landed in the midst of the COP! As he stepped down into the gathering crowd, he patted his belly and exclaimed aloud: "Combat landings are always a fright, maybe I shouldn't have had that egg nog tonight!" He pulled out a bag which bulged at the seams, filled with the things of the soldiers dreams. Ipods and video games and paperback tomes, cookies and candies and letters from home. To each soldier he gave with a hug and a smile, chuckling and jiggling with joy all the while. When his bag was empty and all his treats gone, he led the soldiers in a few Christmas songs. Soon they knew it was time that St. Nick must go, but a private stepped forward, said "Santa, I want to know.. Why did you come to this forsaken hole in the sand, where war and cruelty ravage the land?" Santa looked up with a gleam in his eye, and for a second it seemed as if he might cry. With a quivering voice he said to the women and men "I look forward with joy to that day when all mankind will be happy and live together in peace, from the North to the South to the West to the East. But for now I know some must fight, to ensure that the weak and oppressed have the right to live their lives as they want, as they please, without tyranny bringing them to their knees. I know these men and women are lonely and scared, far from their life, far from friend and neighbor and child, husband or wife These heroes deserve the joy of the season, and to this land I come for that reason" He saluted the soldiers with pride in his eyes, then climbed into his sleigh with a sigh. With a whistle and a flick of the reigns in his hand, the sleigh and the reindeer rose above the land He bellowed as he rose ever higher and flew out of sight "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"
