Kerry against Afghan troop build-up

Aljazeera ^ | Sunday, October 18, 2009 | Agencies

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

John Kerry, the US senate's foreign relations committee chairman, has said it would be "irresponsible" to send more US troops to Afghanistan.

Kerry's comments on Saturday came as a deepening election crisis that has placed the Kabul government's legitimacy at stake continues.

"It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country, when we don't even have an election finished and know who the president is and what kind of government we're working in, with," said Kerry.

"When our own commanding general tells us that a critical component of achieving our mission here is, in fact, good governance, and we're living with a government that we know has to change and provide it, how could the president responsibly say, 'Oh, they asked for more, sure - here they are'?"

The senator had travelled to Afghanistan to meet General Stanley McChrystal, the chief US and Nato commander who has recommended a radical change in US strategy there.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Seems to be a familiar position for Kerry.

[DGHoodini]

They should ask themselves, who, outside of the Boston morons that kept electing one corrupt Kennedy after another, has any respect for John Kerry?

[BooBoo1000]

Who gives a Rat’s A** what John Carey thinks about anything.

[dalebert]

sure he is....he is a liberal whore

[When do we get liberated?]

OK, so our foreign policy depends on who wins rigged third world elections? Liberals have no balls. Pick a side and go all in. Run away or fight to win, but it sickens me to see America sticking its toes in the water trying to figure out if we should be in the lake.

[berdie]

The thing I don't understand about Kerry is..he spent a relatively small amount of time in Nam. He used it to his political advantage.

He places our soldiers at risk by his words and deeds.

Political whore (and there are many).

I figure that the Dems found that Kerry couldn’t sell their message..but they found someone who could.

[TigersEye]

sKerry ought to go to Waziristan and conduct personal negotiations with the Taliban and AlQuaeda. 0bowdown should send him and cite his experience negotiating with the N. Vietnamese.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

CSPAN: House Armed Services Cmte. Hearing on Afghanistan Strategy ( Video Link)

[Marine_Uncle]

I can't stand Hanoi John. For years here I have voiced my feelings toward this clown. But to a given extent one cannot totally divorce what he said from the reality of things.
We are not at war with Afghanistan. We are spilling our nations blood in order to somehow get them on a solid footing government wise as well as help them modernize etc..
Luger and Kerry make some good points regarding both the situations in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan.
I am not going to blow them kisses but neither in this particular case am I for one going to just go after their political preferences/ideologies.
We are whether one wants to admit it or not, in nation building mode in both these countries, therefore everything must be put on the table. Wars are easy if one has a powerful military like we have. Go in and crush them, then sort out the pieces afterward.
It is not the case regarding the two countries in mind. Kerry should keep his big mouth out of the military issues but he does have a right to consider the over all nation building strategy for this country. American tax dollars are involved for one thing as well as geopolitical stability in the region.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just posted this:

David Rohde: Taliban no longer 'Al Qaeda lite'

[Marine_Uncle]

Per the David Rohde analysis. He essentially echoed what retired General Jack Keane and Doctor Stephen Biddle of the CFR Foreign Defence Policy group had to say during the first two hours of the House Armed Service Cmte. Afghanistan Strategy session (which I was able to watched last night per your post). Even Doctor Paul Miller of Georgetown University Security Studies Professor did not really challenge the accuracy of this conclusion regarding the Taliban.
I had to get to sleep so did not watch the last hour or so of the HR session. But for those that watched this, surely they can see the divisions taking form. Different camps of view forming. Each perhaps left to a part of the total solution could be viewed as having valid concerns.
But one overriding thing that was indicated by the General was the fact that regardless of how the Afghanistan central government performs, there is no excuse not to follow General Stanley McChrystal's recommendations.
Hopefully now that Gates has come out in support of the General's analysis, the Luger/Kerry's will not be able to screw the whole process up to badly. It will be interesting to see how Emanuel, Axlerod and the like can twists Obi's mind about. They may in the end side with the Generals for if they screw the pouch on this one, surely Obi is a one term president, and they go down the chute with him.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think I pinged you to this thread,...but just in case...:

U.S. decision can't wait for Afghan legitimacy: Gates....(Sec of Def to Zero)

[Marine_Uncle]

Why am I continuing to get this bad feeling, Obi and his masters are setting things up to have Gates, Mullins, and half the JCS as well as key general's on the ground resign, so that they can put in a bunch of pansy asses, that will follow every whim zero and his crowd demand of them.
And the communist world and muslims watch with glaring eyes.