Posted on 09/01/2009 10:40:06 AM PDT by nickcarraway
President Barack Obama will review a new U.S. military report on Afghanistan this week and any decision on changing the U.S. presence there is weeks away, Obama's spokesman said on Tuesday.
Obama would take some form of the report by U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal with him when he leaves on Wednesday for Camp David, where he will spend the rest of the week on vacation, spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
The confidential report by the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has been described by officials as an assessment of the situation on the ground and does not include specific requests for more U.S. troops. Such a request could come later.
"I'm told we don't expect resource decisions or requests for several weeks," Gibbs said.
There is a debate within the Obama administration over whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan at a time when public support for the eight-year-old war is eroding.
McChrystal submitted his report to the Pentagon on Monday.
A CBS News poll released on Tuesday said four in 10 Americans surveyed said they want U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan decreased, a percentage which has been rising since the beginning of 2009.
The poll found that less than half, 48 percent, of those questioned said they approved of Obama's handling of the situation in Afghanistan, down from 56 percent in April.
McChrystal has about 103,000 troops under his command, including 63,000 Americans, half of whom arrived this year as part of an escalation strategy started by former President George W. Bush and ramped up under Obama.
The force is set to rise to 110,000, including 68,000 Americans, by year's end.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
...and blame Bush.
Couldn’t do it Monday upon return from Martha’s. He went golfing, again. *spit*
is TOTUS going to explain it to him?
When danger reared its ugly head
He bravely turned tail and fled....
HE HAS NO PLAN!
HE HAS NO EXIT STRATEGY!
He is going to do a gradual withdrawal leaving Air Power and Security around large population centers and the Air Base.
It’s a quagmire. Obama’s war. What would victory look like? Is there an exit plan?
I guess I’m just a hard hearted, cold and unfeeling person.
But at what point do we tell these Afghan little girls to ‘man up’? Seriously, we are dealing with a country full of lazy, craven cowards. “Hey, we have come in here, we have sacrificed our best and our bravest so that these ‘frightened little school-girls’, and their wives could live free - time to put away the dolls and grow a pair”. Good grief, you would think that a country with half-an ounce of testostrophone would be decorating the trees and bridges with pieces of the Taliban.
When are we going to turn over the country to the citizens. Same thing could be said for the cowards in Iraq. I’m tired of paying to have our soldiers defending cowards who are too chicken-poop to fight to save their family’s lives.
How many years does a country of cowards take to grow a pair?
Why does anyone think that the clod in the White House will understand anything written by, for or about the military and military matters? Or that he cares about these things beyond their immediate domestic political impact?
We can be reasonably certain of one thing: any decision about war or peace that B.O. makes will be made for purely political reasons. Matters of victory or defeat, life or death, will be totally subservient to possible electoral outcomes here in the U.S. And if he thinks the political effects of defeat and withdrawel will be minimal he will opt for the defeat of our forces. Because that is what he would prefer.
” There is a debate within the Obama administration over whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan at a time when public support for the eight-year-old war is eroding.”
So,the troops that are there now are going to be left hanging ?
Cannon fodder because the polls have turned ?
Yeah-most likely.
I thought the Democrats and Soetero always said that the only important war was Afghanistan .
During the debates, Barry vowed to hunt down Osama “ in the
cave where he was hiding “
and “ kill him .”
Barry has ordered our troops to act like UN Peacekeepers/ Peace Corps volunteers in Afghanistan.
Fighting and destroying Al Queda and the Taliban is no longer the US policy.
Protecting the locals from the Tollybon is the new objective.
Regardless of how many US soldiers must die in the process.
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