US EMBASSY ATTACKED IN AFGHANISTAN – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:   A bold enemy attack occurs as the president provides timetables for our withdrawal.  From the Washington Post:

KABUL — Suicide bombers and gunmen launched a coordinated attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul on Tuesday afternoon, witnesses and security officials said, a rare and sophisticated strike in the heart of the fortified capital.

The Taliban sent a text message to reporters claiming responsibility.

Why not?  They know we're leaving.  And we now learn that the administration wants drastically to slash funds for the training of the Afghan military and police, the only forces that can even partly make up for our withdrawal.  We're also told, although Washington won't confirm or deny it, that Obama has okayed the opening of a Taliban mission in a Gulf Arab country, giving the savagery of the Taliban an aura of respectability. 

An Afghan security official said at least eight people have been confirmed killed and 10 wounded. The figure was expected to rise.

No one at the U.S. Embassy was injured, U.S. officials said.

The attack appeared to be the most audacious in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. It comes as U.S. troops are starting to pull out of the country, amid concern that the Afghan government is far from ready to take on more responsibility for security.

The assailants launched the attack from a tall building that is under construction, located in a traffic circle near the bunkered area that includes the sprawling U.S. Embassy compound and the headquarters of the U.S.-led military mission.

COMMENT:  This comes as we learn of plans to reduce the American presence in Iraq to 3,000 troops, which every military authority has said is not enough even to provide for their own self-protection.

There are things that Obama has done right on national security, like maintaining many Bush-Cheney policies.  But I'm getting an uneasy feeling that he's returning to his left-wing roots in foreign policy, to rally the base of the Democratic Party to his cause for 2012.  We are showing weakness, and that always leads to the same catastrophe.

September 13, 2011