<div>In the past Carl Levin has impressed me as being a little more intelligent or principled than this.</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 8:49 PM, C. G. Estabrook <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:galliher@illinois.edu">galliher@illinois.edu</a>></span> wrote:</div>
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<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex" class="gmail_quote">[It wouldn't take much effort to find USG statements from 45 years ago about how "the South Vietnamese government has 'accepted, off the record' the need for air strikes [that kill civilians] and that they are actually 'helping' South Vietnam in its assorted wars in the region, each of which of course has been demanded by the US." Also statements about how the ARVN ("Army of the Republic of Vietnam") was "respected"... --CGE]<br>
<br> Sen. Levin Calls for More Attacks Against Pakistan Tribal Areas<br> Says Pakistani Groups 'Directly Threaten the Afghan Mission'<br> by Jason Ditz, July 13, 2010<br><br>Speaking to reporters at a breakfast this morning, Sen. Carl Levin (D – MI) called for escalating the Obama Administration’s policies of airstrikes against Pakistan’s tribal areas, and singled out a major tribal group for inclusion on the US terrorism list.<br>
<br>“We know where they are, we know where their headquarters is,” Levin declared, adding that he believes the various militant groups “directly threaten the Afghan mission” and that they should be targeted.<br><br>Addressing previous complaints about the large number of civilian deaths in the attacks, Levin insisted that he believes the Pakistani government has “accepted, off the record” the need for the air strikes and that they are actually “helping” Pakistan in its assorted wars in the region, each of which of course has been demanded by the US.<br>
<br>Levin, who was recently in Pakistan and Afghanistan, also praised the ongoing war, declaring that Afghanistan’s army is “respected” by people now and that they will more than meet administration targets for the size of the military.</blockquote>