Posted on 11/23/2009 8:13:54 PM PST by kristinn
President Barack Obama met Monday evening with his national security team to finalize a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year to what he's called "a war of necessity" in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told McClatchy.
Obama is expected to announce his long-awaited decision on Dec. 1, followed by meetings on Capitol Hill aimed at winning congressional support amid opposition by some Democrats who are worried about the strain on the U.S. Treasury and whether Afghanistan has become a quagmire, the officials said.
The U.S. officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the issue publicly and because, one official said, the White House is incensed by leaks on its Afghanistan policy that didn't originate in the White House.
They said the commander of the U.S.-led international force in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, could arrive in Washington as early as Sunday to participate in the rollout of the new plan, including testifying before Congress toward the end of next week. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry also are expected to appear before congressional committees.
As it now stands, the plan calls for the deployment over a nine-month period beginning in March of three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., and a Marine brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., for as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.
In addition, a 7,000-strong division headquarters would be sent to take command of U.S.-led NATO forces in southern Afghanistan — to which the U.S. has long been committed — and 4,000 U.S. military trainers would be dispatched to help accelerate...
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Rush has been pointing this out for months...in just one quick scan of Rush archives, I found this from a more than a month ago...I'm sure there are many more on his site even more dated than this.
"The runoff election in Afghanistan is November the 7th. It will probably take several weeks to count the ballots in Afghanistan -- we're dealing with a Seventh Century country over there -- and then after that for Karzai to form a government. The point is all of this had given Obama time to have pushed through his health care reform which is scheduled to be before Thanksgiving. So it looks more and more like he's afraid-of-ticking off his lunatic base on the left, who he needs to push it through. Anyway, McChrystal first asked for troops when, the end of August if not sooner? And he's not going to get an answer on this until it's too late. " Rush Limbaugh, October 20, 2009
This is comical. zero only worries about strains on the budget when it comes to national security, unless of course the cost in question is associated with a trial aimed at exposing the U.S. to more attacks and trouble within our own shores. Then the sky is the limit, even though it would have cost about 1/100th as much to try KSM and his buddies in military tribunals.
When it comes to something he believes in, zero will spend us into oblivion, but let the subject matter be something that protects or advances the U.S., then he wants to pinch pennies if he even begrudgingly agrees to do it in the first place.
Obama Bin Hussein is beginning to make Bubba Clinton look like a patriot by comparison.
Sounds more like he he made a decision to maybe make an announcement next week, leaving him plenty of wriggle room. As we all know, all snakes need plenty of wriggle room.
IMO, what he really wanted was to wait until this Asian trip was over, so as not to seem too “arrogent” to the Chinese. Now that that’s over and he headed home empty and with his tail between his legs, he may feel freer to make a decision.
It's not like they are new hires. The "additional" troops are still on the payroll no matter where they are garrisoned.
He thinks he deserves praise for not voting "present".
Since the left will be hypocrites about it then I guess I'll just go ahead and do to Obama what they did to President Bush.
First the Friends reported that Barry would address the nation tonight in prime time to make this grand announcement. And that the RICH will pay for the war. Now it will come next Tuesday. I guess tonight is the big State Dinner so Barry has other plans...Jennifer Hudson is singing.
Am I correct that the brains in DC have now told the bad guys how long it will take to screw us?
Obviously he was waiting for the Senate to vote on the initial round for healthcare. This way his base can be distracted................
Correct you are
” Obama is expected to announce his long-awaited decision on Dec. 1 “
everything after making that point is nothing but political theater
..... also a slight distraction from healthcare vote
I am sure the leak last month with the 30-40k troop increase was by someone who was trying to influence him on this with public opinion.
Remember how Hillary got her job as SOS? She went out and announced he had asked and she accepted on a Friday, by the following Monday it was now a fact, and Obama would look like an idiot if he didn’t give it to her.
This had the same feel to it right from the start. The numbers were released, the MSM ran with it, and now there was a baseline to judge his decision on. I would just love to know who put that fake former announcement out, whoever did it was brilliant in manipulating Obama’s team.
The way I read it, most of these new troops are going to be staffing a headquarters, training and support roles. They’ll be lucky to have 5,000 new rifles actually in the field.
Send the tax bill to Obey. He can afford it.
Got that right. Smoke and mirrors - the only thing obummer and gang are good at.
Besides, he's more concerned about protecting the Taliban than our troops. That's where his heart - assuming he has one - is.
I wonder if he is the CIC of the SOA in America. Seriously.
Ahm, yes, we've seen them wring their hands about spending our money -
One big ol’ leaker! /grin
Now I am pretty sure that Obama was waiting for his health care plan bill to pass, so that such plan for more troops would not make Democrats unhappy and boycott his Obamacare. It makes sense for me.
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