Posted on 11/25/2009 8:46:14 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
President Barack Obama’s long-awaited Tuesday speech on Afghanistan offers lots more troops to the military and some promising rhetoric for war skeptics. He will authorize between 30,000 and 36,000 new U.S. troops, depending on prospective NATO contributions, and an additional 10,000 more in a year if necessary, according to administration sources. Obama will stress that these and other moves to strengthen the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda should be seen as a boost to friendly Afghans and not as an open-ended American commitment. The boost will provide the time and the incentives for America’s Afghan allies to prepare themselves to assume primary responsibility for continuing the battle.
I would have preferred no more than about 15,000 troops, mainly trainers, a two- to three-year plan (not a fixed timetable) for Kabul to take the combat lead, and much more toughness toward our two-faced Pakistani “allies.” And the administration sources stress that the precise details and rhetoric of Obama’s plan won’t be set until the president gives his speech Tuesday night at West Point. But based on what they’ve told me, I believe that the Obama approach is reasonable, and about the most that can be expected, given the powerful conflicting pressures. The plan deserves the support of the American people.
The United States already deploys about 68,000 troops, and there are an additional 20,000 or so of various stripes from friendly countries. General Stanley McChrystal, NATO’s commander in Afghanistan, asked for about 44,000 additional American troops on the ground. The 30,000-plus that Mr. Obama will approve is about the maximum that could actually be deployed to Afghanistan in the next 12 months. And if the general can clearly demonstrate he still needs more in a year, the president will signal his willingness to consider an additional 10,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Give the troops the support they need and deserve. As to Nobama: hahahahahahahahaha!
What about the State Dept’s “negotiations” with the Taliban? The deals where we turn over the major provinces to the Taliban in exchange for no direct attacks during our retreat?
I suspect most of the people assigned won’t be military personnel for military actions, but will be civilian support and relief personnel or military “trainers.”
I hope I’m wrong, but I seriously doubt that Obama would give any support to our military against Muslims. He’s waited almost three months, hoping that Americans will begin to clamor for withdrawal, and since that hasn’t happened yet, he’s being forced to pretend to do something.
has Obama thought this thing through?
This includes about 10000 lawyers in the deployment to prosecute our own troops for any possible act.
We need to reduce the number of lawyers in A while increasing the troops.
So, like after trying to pull us out of Iraq and calling THAT defeat...
I fear we are about to learn what defeat really looks like. BHO is on the eve of disaster.
The secret details? Just Lose.
It took him 100 days, and a lot of mealy mouth language, but he eventually cam e around to what President Bush would have done in the first week!
The biggest issue I have is trickling these troops in under the command of Belgian generals.
Bush cowed to the coalition mentality and he made some strong allies along the way, Poles, Romanians..
But now we have ceded control to the Euroweenies who see the world like Obama, who has dissed our best allies in favor of European hand wringing
You are right on the money
It’s complete BS.
I hope this is the plan.
But deep inside I think we will be much less happy with the actual plan that he lays out.
The plan reminds me of McNamara`s chicken scratches on a blackboard as he wrote mathematical equations on how to win.
Exactly.
far more Predators
use FAE’s
every time the Taliban attack , there should be very very few survivors as they retreat , follow them no matter where they go . Contaminate the bodies of their dead .
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