TRUMP’S AFGHAN STRATEGY: New essay by Jeff Goodson, this one in The Hill.

President Trump’s deliberative approach to formulating a new Afghanistan strategy has drawn fire from every corner of the political spectrum. That ended Monday night, when he announced a new long-term approach to Afghanistan and South Asia designed to achieve an ‘honorable and enduring outcome.’

In a major break with the past, Trump’s ‘principled realism’ strategy, is conditions-based rather than driven by arbitrary timelines. It will employ military, diplomatic and economic instruments of power, but eschews nation-building and curtails the pursuit of democracy as an end in itself.

It will aggressively ramp up pressure on Pakistan, develop a strategic partnership with India on economic development in Afghanistan and greatly strengthen counterterrorism operations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theatre of the Islamic holy war. The government of Afghanistan will, conditionally, be required to carry its share of the economic, military and governance burden.

Note Goodson’s bio — between 2006 and 2012 he spent a lot of time in Afghanistan. That gives this line extra bite: “Political snipers will re-focus on the substance of the strategy, but for the first time in years, there is a blueprint for moving forward in Afghanistan that makes strategic sense.”

Read the whole thing.

U.S. IMPOSES NEW NORTH KOREA-RELATED SANCTIONS ON CHINESE AND RUSSIAN COMPANIES: And on some individuals as well.

The United States is imposing new North Korea-related sanctions, targeting Chinese and Russian firms and individuals for supporting Pyongyang’s weapons programs, U.S. officials announced on Tuesday, but stopped short of an anticipated focus on Chinese banks.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated six Chinese-owned entities, one Russian, one North Korean and two based in Singapore. They included a Namibia-based subsidiary of a Chinese company and a North Korean entity operating in Namibia.

Six individuals including four Russians, one Chinese and one North Korean were targeted, the Treasury Department said.

It’s coercive diplomacy, with the goal of squeezing the nukes out of North Korea.

AFGHANS ENCOURAGED BY TRUMP SPEECH, PAKISTANIS STUNG BY CRITICISM: Well, providing safe havens for the Taliban rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

RELATED: Mike Pence says Pakistan is on notice.

ANOTHER OBAMA MISTAKE WITH DIRE CONSEQUENCES: Iran says it can produce enriched uranium within days.

Obama’s nuclear arrangement (very bad deal) with the ayatollahs didn’t force them to give up capabilities and it imposed no penalties on the regime for belligerent misbehavior — like playing speedboat bluff with the U.S. Navy. Thank goodness for the USS Thunderbolt and her sharp crew.

AUSTRALIAN ALLY IN ACTION: An Australian Air Force KC-30A Voyager refuels a USAF C-17 Globemaster III. Australia also flies the C-17.

LINDSEY GRAHAM ON FOX NEWS COMMENTING ON TRUMP’S AFGHANISTAN SPEECH: “General Obama was a lousy general.” Heh. More later.

HISTORIC BOMBER FORMATION: A B-17, B-29 and B-52 fly in formation.

WELL WELL WELL: Al Jazeera is reporting that Iran’s mullah dictatorship has decided it must protect the nuclear deal it made with Obama. This is a 180. Last week the ayatollahs and their terrorist cohort were pounding their robed chests and declaring they’d just walk away from the agreement — you know, to trump Trump.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the top foreign policy priority for his new government was to protect the nuclear deal from being torn up by the United States.

“The most important job of our foreign minister is first to stand behind the JCPOA and not to allow the US and other enemies to succeed,” Rouhani told parliament on Sunday, using the technical name for the 2015 agreement that eased sanctions in exchange for curbs to Iran’s nuclear programme.

“Standing up for the JCPOA means standing up to Iran’s enemies,” he said on the last day of debates over his cabinet selections.

Now think about that quote from Rouhani, and assume the translation is fair and accurate. Does that mean Obama was Iran’s friend? Barack Obama and John Kerry are the culprits who made this very very bad deal that puts America and American allies at risk.

AFTER READING GLENN’S LONG POST UPDATING THE DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ INFO-TECH SCANDAL: Indeed. Criminals and nefarious spies! All is proceeding as Sherlock Holmes surmised two weeks ago.

AN A-10 USING A TWO-LANE HIGHWAY AS AN AIRBASE: The photo was snapped during an exercise in Estonia.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Rhino swept from Nepal to India by flood. Life as a reindeer herder in Lappland.

IRISH TIMES: Trump imperils Iran nuclear deal.

Good!

JAPAN WILL ACCELERATE ACQUISITION OF AEGIS ASHORE ABM SYSTEM: The decision was made August 17. Deploying the anti-ballistic missile system in Japan had been under discussion for quite sometime, as this StrategyPage post from early July notes. The StrategyPage report also mentions AEGIS Ashore is deployed in Romania. That’s part of a system to defend Europe from Iran. Iran is a threat.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Squeezing the nukes out of North Korea. My latest Observer essay.

IRAQ SAYS THANKS IRAN NOW GO AWAY:

With ISIL no longer a major threat Iraq has surprised Iran (and many others outside the Arab world) by rebuilding relations with Sunni Arab neighbors and telling Iran to back off with any plans it had to dominate Iraqi politics. Senior Shia Arab religious and political leaders have been leaning this way for a long time and Iran thought the war against ISIL was an opportunity to weaken the traditional Shia Arab distrust of Iran. That did not work.
Since 2005, when accurate opinion polls and generally free elections were once again available it became obvious that both in Sunni Arab areas (where there used to be a lot of support for al Qaeda) and Shia areas (where there used to be a lot of support for the kind of religious dictatorship found in Shia Iran) that Iran was seen as the enemy.

A good read.

PREPARING FOR AMERICAN COLLEGE FOOTBALL IN AUSTRALIA: Rice and Stanford play Down Under on August 26.

GREEN BAY RAIDERS: U.S. Marines depart the well deck of the USS Green Bay — by rubber raft.

MORE EVIDENCE IRAN HAS VIOLATED THE NUKE DEAL IT MADE WITH OBAMA: This Forbes essay claims Tehran has:

…exceeded its heavy water production cap, necessary for a plutonium nuclear bomb,…(is) testing more advanced centrifuges…illicitly procuring highly sensitive nuclear and ballistic missile technology in Germany, according to Berlin’s intelligence services…surpassing its uranium enrichment cap, another key non-compliance factor…

Obama’s Iran deal is a very very bad deal.

WHY ARE MILITARY BASES IN THE SOUTH NAMED FOR CONFEDERATE GENERALS?: An op-ed from the Charlotte Observer by Michael Newcity, a professor at Duke. When you read it remember who was president in 1918: Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was a Democrat, a southerner and a for real racist who segregated the federal work force. Note Newcity doesn’t mention Wilson, his party or his ugly record.

FOUR OPTIONS FOR GETTING OUT OF OBAMA’S IRAN DEAL: From National Review. One option mentioned is actually submitting it to the Senate as a treaty — and the Senate would never pass it. The deal is a very bad deal America and the world.

OLDEST KNOWN PHOTO OF AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT: John Quincy Adams. A daguerreotype from 1843.

RELATED: It is believed that daguerreotype of William Henry Harrison was taken in 1841, but the photo has been lost.

ROYAL NAVY PASSENGER TRANSFER: A RN helicopter and a nuclear sub exchange passengers. A U.S. Navy photographer snapped the photo.

GOOD COP, BAD COP:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in Thursday said he has received assurances from U.S. President Donald Trump that Washington would not launch any attack against North Korea without Seoul’s approval.

Fair bet President Trump loves playing the bad cop.

WELDING SPIDER SILK AND KEVLAR: The process uses lasers. The results are fascinating.

COULD ROBERT E. LEE ROAD IN AUSTIN, TEXAS BECOME ROBERT PLANT ROAD?: I blog, you decide. What hath Led Zeppelin wrought?