Afghan War Strategy

[intheknow]

I just thought of a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan. What if Obama were to tell his generals to fight it to WIN?

[LandJ]

Works for me.....it would be over by next week.

[intheknow]

Now he says he will only commit enough troops to keep Al Queda at bay. that's it? that is his strategy for Afghanistan? A perpetual police force subject to road-side bombs and terrorist attacks?

What kind of afreakin' moron do we have as president?

Here's the link. I seriously would like to see how his liberal supporters defend this nonsense. Who is he really? Neville Chamberlain reincarnated?

[Maddy00]

And now we all (for those who refused to see or couldn't see why) know why much of the military quaked in it's shoes on Jan 20, 2009.

Yes he's their CinC, but trusting his leadership and abiding by his decisions when they are political, illogical, and mean certain failure (over the long term), well...would YOU want to be in Afghanistan right now knowing that he refuses to do what is necessary?

I find it interesting that he was SOOOO rushed to push through TARP, started the summer by saying he was going to get health care passed by August, rushed to take over the auto industry, etc... everything is a crisis to him and he insists on pushing it all through. Until of course we get to Afghanistan and then when we have military experts (who he is too busy to meet with...ya know, he had the Olympic Committee to impress and all) telling him what we need...he suddenly wants to slow down, evaluate it all, take his time, etc... What an @ss.

[Lesley]

you seems to be getting pretty bent out of shape over a decision that hasn't even been made yet....at lease I haven't been able to find anything as of 10-10-09 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/wo...a/10prexy.html

[intheknow]

Originally Posted by Lesley

you seems to be getting pretty bent out of shape over a decision that hasn't even been made yet....at lease I haven't been able to find anything as of 10-10-09 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/wo...a/10prexy.html

So do you see a policy of WIN coming from this administration?

I certainly do not. I see appeasement and bewilderment.

[BC-tinatinva]

IMO - he has made a decision. His decision is to wait. At what cost?

[Lesley]

From all the talking head discussions I've been listening to (and some even on a RW talk radio), it seems there is no winning solution. Many of the talkers seems to think there should either be a 40,000+ personnel surge or simply pull out and nothing inbetween.

If those were truly the only two options available, I'd say the US should pull out. Taliban does not equal AlQuaeda, and AlQuaeda has moved on.

The US has gone into the democratic gov't conversion business, and city rebuilding business. Frankly I don't think the US is in any position personnel and money and energy wise to do something like that, that seems to be such a bottomless pit of need. There will not be a point at which we can say "the job is done and war is won." Of course, because of all the various factors, I can see where the decisions have not yet been made.

Since the war in Afghanistan has already gone on for 8 years. Since Russia was there even prior to the US with negligable results, what is the rush to making a snap decision? The thread starts out fussing over a possible decision that we now find hasn't even been made, and now you find a reason to fuss that it's taking too long to make a decision. The bitter, all inclusive, turn everything into a detriment, opposition to everything, Obama is becoming so laughably predictable.

ETA...http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/wo...l.html?_r=1&em

WASHINGTON — Even as President Obama leads an intense debate over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, administration officials say the United States is falling far short of his goals to fight the country’s endemic corruption, create a functioning government and legal system and train a police force currently riddled with incompetence.

Afghanistan is now so dangerous, administration officials said, that many aid workers cannot travel outside the capital, Kabul, to advise farmers on crops, a key part of Mr. Obama’s announcement in March that he was deploying hundreds of additional civilians to work in the country. The judiciary is so weak that Afghans increasingly turn to a shadow Taliban court system because, a senior military official said, “a lot of the rural people see the Taliban justice as at least something.”

Administration officials describe Mr. Obama as impatient with the civilian progress so far. “The president is not satisfied on any of this,” said a senior administration official, who asked for anonymity so that he could more freely discuss internal deliberations at the White House.

The disputed Aug. 20 Afghan election has laid bare the ineffectiveness of the government of President Hamid Karzai, administration officials said, and frozen steps toward reform.

The vote was so tainted by evidence of fraud and irregularities that no clear winner emerged.

Even before the election, a January Defense Department report assessing progress in Afghanistan concluded that “building a fully competent and independent Afghan government will be a lengthy process that will last, at a minimum, decades.”

Administration officials blamed the election for many of the setbacks and said a resolution to the vote — which some fear will not happen until next spring — would put them in a better position to move forward on civilian reforms.

And this, still after 8 years?

[Lesley]

Originally Posted by BC-tinatinva

IMO - he has made a decision. His decision is to wait. At what cost?

We know the cost of (in terms of lives lost) waiting for HCR...yet I don't see a cry and hue for a quick decision on that from the opposition?

[BC-tinatinva]

No - we don't. We know the cost of implementing a phantom HCR - you know the one noone has read because it isn't written yet.

RIGHT NOW.. right this very minute, we have troops in harms way because we have a CIC who is too busy on Letterman, too busy flying off to lands to get the Olympics in Chicago..

Lives are not LOST because of our current system. Fortunes sure.. but not lives. We all make choices on where to spend our resources and what's important. We already have health care for the needy.