Germany (catch all, incl. terrorism)

[Ken White]

Wes Clark...

Yet another Commission with yet another report -- saying the same things are needed that we've known since the 50s. Better Intel, less bureaucracy, centralized planning (not totally beneficial), decentralized execution -- old wine in new bottles as the saying goes...

Here's the big problem with their recommendations:

"We must build a better executive-legislative branch partnership."

Until Congress gets on board and gets considerably less venal and concerned with reelection there will be no reform; we will continue to blunder about -- fortunately, doing more right than wrong.

[Surferbeetle]

From today's WSJ By JAY SOLOMON: NATO Pledges More Afghan Troops

BRUSSELS -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's top official said twenty-five countries have committed to send an additional 7,000 troops to Afghanistan next year, providing the Obama administration with an important infusion of additional firepower to prosecute its war in Central Asia.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other American officials who visited Friday, however, voiced optimism that NATO allies and other nonmember partners would agree to send even more soldiers to Afghanistan in a bid to salvage a mission viewed as critical to the organization's future.