Posted on 09/23/2009 5:47:06 AM PDT by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!
WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who spoke Tuesday in National Harbor, Md., wants to scale back troops in Afghanistan.
The options under review are part of what administration officials described as a wholesale reconsideration of a strategy the president announced with fanfare just six months ago. Two new intelligence reports are being conducted to evaluate Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said.
The sweeping reassessment has been prompted by deteriorating conditions on the ground, the messy and still unsettled outcome of the Afghan elections and a dire report by Mr. Obama’s new commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He is going to shift from neglect to failure just like most of his policies.
Obama is using the Bruce Lee strategy - way is no way, strategy is no strategy!!
Zerø has a strategy?
I just have a simple question - why, in almost ten years time, have we not been able to create an Afghan military capable of protecting the government and defending it against the taliban?
Turn a blind eye to the Taliban, let them run roughshod over Afghanistan, while we try to cherry pick al Q, repeatedly going across the border to Pak.
What a great idea!
And if, for some inconceivable reason, it doesn't work, plan B can be surrender.
“Zerø has a strategy? “
Yep! How to hand America to it’s enemies on a silver platter!!
Too few troops so time to scale down forces? IMO we have enough forces and firepower there now if they were allowed to wage, as nearly as feasible, all-out, no holds barred war, ala WWII. Were there civilian casualties in WWII? Of course, lots of them. Was the enemy allowed refuge among civilians? Of course not. And were there sanctuaries which were off limits? Again, of couse not. So long as the ROE make our (and allied) troops hesitant to attack locations known to harbor the enemy, can fire only when fired upon (restrictions unheard of in WWII), and the enemy is allowed off-limits sanctuaries, the war can’t be won no matter how many troops are sent.
“scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda...”
More fighting with fewer troops-the Doublethink mentality of this administration continues to validate George Orwell’s prediction of a mega-fascist state that openly tells contradictory lies.
Considering the source (0bama/Biden), though, what do we expect?
BO has ordered his white flag from the French. He has not idea how to fight a war but he can dig up voters along with ACORN.
There is no “Afghanistan””- just a bunch of tribes with flags engaging in endless blood feuds and opium is about the region’s only significant export
Anyone “enlightened” by western thought or education emigrated a long time ago
Biden’s plan???????????????????
Send Karzai back to his restaurant in Cambridge. The Aush soup hasn't been the same since he went to Kabul.
Withdraw all US forces in 90 days.
Announce a zero-tolerance policy for expressions of hostility to the US or India. Permanently station a carrier battle group in the Indian Ocean, and make it public that we will use ALL of our weapons systems to repress anti-Western or anti-Hindu thoughts, expressions, manifestations, and certainly actions.
Other than that - let Pashtuns be Pashtuns. Their barbarism, directed inwardly, is no concern of ours.
Correct, defeat is the outcome of strategy, as is victory.
Please define "victory" in Afghanistan.
Then we can talk about ways and means.
It is warped beyond words that 0bama pins his failing strategy on Biden, who could not think his way out of a paper bag; over General McChrystal's dire plea. Or the advice of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates
Gates Tells Al-Jazeera U.S. Cannot Think of Afghan Withdrawal
Commander's Initial Assessment
Obama also ignores this and let's slap happy Biden ( As well as Rahm I am sure) and the left wing call the shots...
This abridged text accompanies the release [Document available here] of a policy paper dealing with the same issue, done jointly by Frederick W. Kagan's Institute for the Study of War [ISW] and the American Enterprise Institute [AEI]
Hasn't the top Military commander in theater stated he needs more troops, not less? obama, Biden and company know jack about running a military operation. If I were them, I'd listen to the people that do know something about it. I realize that goes against their "we're the elite, we know best about everything for everyone" mentality, but people are dying here.
As for the strategy, I think we can see that the obama strategy (if you could call it that) has been an epic failure. ROE more suitable for a Girl Scout sleepover; a defensive, hold just population centers while letting the insurgents safely operate and assemble their strength in outlying areas... Isn't Biden old enough to remember Viet Nam? Or are they really that stupid?
This is another case where there were elections, apparently Obama doesn’t like the outcome, so he wants to punish the country for it.
Exactly! This ‘strategy’ is based on the (false) premise that the Taliban and AQ aren’t working hand in hand. What we’re doing is pretending the situation is different than it is.
“In looking at other options, aides said, Mr. Obama might just be testing assumptions — and assuring liberals in his own party that he was not rushing into a further expansion of the war — before ultimately agreeing to the anticipated troop request from General McChrystal. But the review suggests the president is having second thoughts about how deeply to engage in an intractable eight-year conflict that is not going well.”
Oh dear Lord, the administration has spoon fed this trial balloon to the NYT. Does anybody believe that Obama has a clue on what to do?
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