Charging into 2015

That is an AUSTRIAN tank!  The Habsburgs are back!

The year 2014 is just about in the books.  Now 2015 awaits with whatever is out there.

Have fun, keep it safe, and run into the New Year at full speed!

All over in Afghanistan?

After thirteen years, US forces are leaving Afghanistan.

Well, most are at any rate.

ISAR wrapped up its flag, held a ceremony, declared success and left.  About 13,000 soldiers (mostly American) remain in the country to Operation Resolute Success but this looks a lot like the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

I guess we should be happy that it did not look like Saigon in 1975....

Declare victory and go home is usually an admission of failure.

Afghanistan is a place that simply does not work for anyone--Afghans included.  US and Soviet military forces proved impossible to defeat but if the people are not with you, then the opposition simply has to wait you out.  Afghanistan has nothing but time.

Will the Taliban sweep back into power?  If so, does the US go back in? If so, what is the objective?

The original plan back in 2001was to toss out the Taliban, set up a friendly government, and leave.  The only US forces there would be Special Forces running around at night hitting the Taliban, making sure it does not recollect.  It was kind of like stirring up pond water so mosquitoes don't lay eggs.

Somewhere along the line, "mission creep", as usual, showed up with 140,000 NATO troops (mostly American, as usual) determined to create Jeffersonian democracy in a place that was barely out of the seventh century.

Maybe it works.  It probably won't.  Hopefully, Afghanistan keeps its insanity to itself.

Good buy and good riddance to it.

If someone wants to order US forces back into that nuthouse, make sure they are on the leading edge.

I bet they will think twice.

US and Cuba establish relations

For the first time since JFK, the United States and Cuba will establish direct diplomatic relations.  If this is a good idea, time will tell but this moment was inevitable. The two countries are too close to continue ignoring each other.

Fidel Castro is no longer in office and the economic blockade we have had on the island nation basically had no effect.  Cuba does not export anything to the US and we have more than enough sugar.

This also will help improve relations with the rest of Latin America.  The Obama administration does not have a good track record there (or anywhere else it seems...) and this might help.  It might be too late for this administration but it might help the next.

George HW Bush once boasted that he wanted to be the first US president to set foot in a post-Communist Cuba.  He wasn't and I don't think Obama will have that honor.  \\

But somebody will and that day is getting closer.

Pearl Harbor

Yes,  it is the 73rd anniversary of Pearl Harbor but since in happened in 1941 on a Sunday morning, it is only appropriate to mention it on a Sunday morning in 2014. 

After the bloodiest war in history, America and Japan are now friends, so this means anything can be possible. 

Keep that in mind when someone tells you something cannot be done!