Islam at War: NATO Headquarters Bombed in Afghanistan, 7 Dead, 91 wounded

The enemy loves weakness. The enemy loves western ambiguities. They suffer no crisis in resolve. Obama has said that 'victory' is not the goal in Afghanistan. What then? What are our finest American men and women doing there? Talk about a target rich environment for jihad.....

If victory is not the goal, then what? Why risk American lives? Why put our boys and girls in harm's way of the brutal jihad with no clear stated goal? Why is Obama adding thousands of our military personnel to the Afghan theater of operations, poorly equipping them and strangling the rules of engagement? They will be captured or killed to what end? Without a clear goal, Obama will prove we can't win. Demoralizing the military, yet again.

Just this month brought U.S. deaths to at least 18. That's the number of American military personnel who have died in Afghanistan in August, and this pushed fatalities among foreign troops for the month to 27. July was the worst month to date in the nearly 8-year-old conflict in terms of military deaths; 76 coalition soldiers were killed, including 45 Americans. Where are the daily death roll call the media gleefully reported during the Iraq war? Where are the leftists' anti-war rallies? Afghanistan is the good war, according to the asshats running the country into the ground (vs. Iraq, the bad war). Who decides these things, and why do the American people go along with such stupidity?
7 die, 91 wounded in blast near NATO HQ in Kabul Yahoo

KABUL – A suicide car bomb exploded Saturday outside the main gate of NATO's headquarters five days before Afghanistan's presidential election, killing seven and wounding 91 in the biggest attack in the Afghan capital in six months.

The bomber evaded several rings of Afghan police and detonated his explosives on the doorstep of the international military headquarters, an assault possibly aimed at sending the message that the Taliban can attack anywhere as Afghans gear up for their second-ever direct presidential election. Militants have warned Afghans not to vote and have threatened to attack voting sites.

The NATO headquarters — where top commander U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal is based — sits beside the U.S. Embassy and shares the same street as the presidential palace. The explosion was the first major attack in Kabul since February, when eight Taliban militants struck three government buildings simultaneously in the heart of the city, an assault that killed 20 people and the eight assailants.

Afghanistan has braced for attacks ahead of the election. International workers in the country were planning on working from home over the next week or had been encouraged to leave the country. U.S., NATO and Afghan troops were working to protect voting sites, particularly in regions where militants hold sway.

Webb Meets with Suu Kyi, Wins Release of American Prisoner in Myanmar (Burma)

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) “has won the release of an American prisoner in Myanmar, his office said Saturday,” the AP reports.

The prisoner, John Yettaw, will be officially deported Sunday afternoon when he will travel with Webb to Bangkok.

Yettaw was convicted Tuesday of helping democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to violate the terms of her house arrest.

Webb was able to get a rare visit with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Webb, on a two-day trip to Myanmar, was also allowed a rare visit with Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to 18 months of house arrest for allowing Yettaw to stay at her residence for two days.

On Saturday, the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate was driven from her residence to a nearby government guest house for a 40-minute meeting with Webb, then reporters saw her taken home by car.

As was expected before he left for the trip, he also met with a top military leader in the country.

Webb also met with junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, his first meeting with a senior U.S. official. The meeting was confirmed by official Myanmar sources, who demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press.

Hamas vs Jund Ansar Allah or mad vs madder.

Unless you like the headline Hamas gunmen clash with radicals (by Haaretz) better.

Speaking before weekly prayers, Abdel-Latif Moussa - known to followers by the al-Qaida-style nom de guerre Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi - announced the start of theocratic rule in the Palestinian territories, starting at Rafah, and vowed to implement Islamic laws.

OK, it certainly makes sense. But no, Hamas folks are not happy with it:

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called Maqdessi's speech "wrong thinking" and in a clear reference to al-Qaida added that his group "has no affiliation with foreign groups". Hamas's Interior Ministry was blunter, calling Maqdessi "mad".

Curiosier and curiosier...