[Rick_Michael]

How hard is it to send more troops? I mean he’s already removed many from Iraq and this was suppose to be the place of focus....now he’s seemly giving up on it.....I don’t get it...

[Captain Kirk]

I mean he’s already removed many from Iraq

Simply untrue but this has to be the best kept secret of the year. 130,000 troops remain in Iraq, about as many as when he took office.

As to you broader point, I can't understand why do conservatives want to give Obama more blood and treasure to help a bunch of corrupt warlords in Afghanistan. What's the deal with that?

[Joan Kerrey]

.now he’s seemly giving up on it.....I don’t get it... -------------------------- I think his inexperience and his reluctance to make a decision is at play here. It's hard for a politician who has voted "present" all of his career to suddenly have to make a hard decision, one that he'll have to live with, one that he'll be responsible for, one that he'll be severely criticized for and one that he owns completely.

[oneolcop]

Sir: Our troops are exhausted by the wars. We have them in a cycle where they spend a year in Afghanistan (6 months for marines) a year resting and refitting This entails psychological rehabilitation, if needed, repair of equipment, family time, replacements miscellaneous training, etc. The third year is getting ready for the next deployment. Training, integration of new troops, weapons qualifications, receiving new equipment from depots, packing up their equipment, shipping it via ship to theater and deployment.

With the size of the Army there are not enough troops to rest them any longer. Families are shortchanged, the men and women's morale is suffering and the equipment, tanks, armored fighting vehicles, trucks, HMMV's, helicopters, radios, etc. are wearing out at something like three times the non wartime rate. Currently, the Army has about 44 combat brigades in total. Divide that number by the number of missions they have to cover: Iraq, Afghanistan, North Africa, Korea, etc. and you see that there just aren't enough to go around.

Unfortunately, even with the USMC's 201,000 troops and the National Guard and Reserves the ground forces of the United States are stretched to the max. Ad to that the fact that BHOzo's ideology and his minions are utterly incompetent and we have the mess we're in.

Of course there are those who argue that this whole thing is Boosh's fault...like he attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon.