Posted on 12/01/2009 9:27:46 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
Washington (CNN) -- President Obama intends to conclude the Afghanistan war and withdraw most U.S. troops within three years, according to senior administration officials.
Obama is sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and ordering military officials to get the reinforcements there within six months, White House officials told CNN Tuesday.
Obama will travel to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, later Tuesday to officially announce his plans. It would to be his second escalation of U.S. forces in the war-torn Islamic country since he came to power in January.
The president also is seeking further troop commitments from NATO allies as part of a counterinsurgency strategy aimed at wiping out al Qaeda elements and stabilizing the country while training Afghan forces.
The expected new troop deployment would increase the total U.S. commitment to roughly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, bolstered by about 45,000 NATO forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
maybe we’d have it won in less than three years if this pathetic, disgusting POS would have sent the General what he asked for when he asked for it.
maybe we’d have it won in less than three years if this pathetic, disgusting POS would have sent the General what he asked for when he asked for it.
The list, ping
So his plan is to promise to end the war right after the next election. So the libs have to vote for him one more time. But this time he really really promises to end the war, but they have to vote for him again. Promise.
Yeah, good one.
Well, speaking as a Vietnam Vet, at least the troops know that up front (not that I agree with it). Many of us signed up for the Vietnam War in the belief that our country was committed to victory when JFK stated our county would "...bear any burden, pay any price, in the defense of liberty". I'm not complaining, I came back in relativey good condition. My anger and grief relates to those who lost their lives and those who continue to suffer.
>>>did it take 6 months to trickle in troops for the Iraq surge?
It took about 4-5 months.
The Iraq surge was announced by President Bush on January 10
The five U.S. Army brigades committed to Iraq as part of the surge were:
2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division: Deployed to Baghdad, January 2007
4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division: Deployed to Baghdad, February 2007
3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division: Deployed to southern Baghdad Belts, March 2007
4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division: Deployed to Diyala province, April 2007
2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division: Deployed to the southeast of Baghdad, May 2007
I would say that we should not have gotten involved in it in the first place, but now that we are, we dont cut and run. Bomb them if we must, but enough of this do unto others then run BS.
Really smart to telegraph your intentions to the enemy.
>>>maybe wed have it won in less than three years if this pathetic, disgusting POS would have sent the General what he asked for when he asked for it.
Yes, and we would probaly be out of Iraq by now if W had listened to his generals instead of the politicians.
I would say that whats been mobilized to this point something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. Were talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography thats fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground-force presence. - General Shinseki, February 25, 2003
There has been a good deal of comment some of it quite outlandish about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddams security forces and his army hard to imagine. - Paul Wolfowitz, February 27, 2003
Obama is finally saving us money. No need for a telegram to al-Queda.
From a December 2003 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR):
"I have said before -- and I repeat today -- that the Bush administration should swallow its pride and reverse course. But the evidence is obviously strong that it lacks the wisdom or will to do so.
In fact, I fear that in the run-up to the 2004 election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure. The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election.
I have called for the administration to transfer sovereignty, and they must transfer it to the Iraqi people as quickly as circumstances permit. But it would be a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle to speed up the process simply to lay the groundwork for a politically expedient withdrawal of American troops. That could risk the hijacking of Iraq by terrorist groups and former Ba'athists. Security and political stability cannot be divorced. Security must come first, and that is why it is so imperative to succeed in building a genuine coalition on the ground in Iraq."
...more
http://www.cfr.org/publication/6576/making_america_secure_again.html
This is just Obama trying to pacify his leftist base.
Once Obama announces a definite pull-out date, all the Taliban need to do is lay low and wait for us to leave.
He will guarantee that it never happens on his watch.
“there's no reason to give the president's troop surge more time.”
“Here's what we know. The surge has not worked. And they said today, ‘Well, even in September, we're going to need more time.’ So we're going to kick this can all the way down to the next president, under the president's plan.”
His observation of his surroundings, the task at hand, and his personal analysis of the Taliban, is a real eye opener.
From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan
This is good...
From the Sand Pit. It’s freezing here. I’m sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains , along the Dar ‘yoi Pomir River , watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.
I also glance at the area around my ass every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I’ve actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. Hurts like a bastard. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid, but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.
The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that’s where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances & storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, and shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware. We bash some heads for a while, and then I track and record the new movement.
It’s all about intelligence. We haven’t even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they’re in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin.
I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit into his face. But you know me, I’m a romantic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This country blows, man. It’s not even a country. There are no roads, there’s no infrastructure, there’s no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs.
Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army. That’s it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste, and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu, if that’s your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those ‘tent cities of the walking dead’ is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day.
I’ve been living with these Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmen, and even a couple of Pushtuns, for over a month-and-a-half now, and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of ‘em, are Huns... actual, living Huns... They LIVE to fight. It’s what they do. It’s ALL they do! They have no respect for anything, not for their families, nor for each other, nor for themselves. They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on each other’s barbarism. Cavemen with AK-47’s. Then again, maybe I’m just cranky.
I’m freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice, and I can’t recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours. Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, Bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban ‘smart...’ They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is ‘cunning.’ The Taliban are cunning, like jackals, hyenas, and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless, but when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart... Pfft. Yeah, they’re real smart.
They’ve spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They’re still trying to figure out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it.
OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon, so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice, but I’m good at it.
Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullshit and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We’ve got this one under control. The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we’re doing over here, because you have no idea what we’re doing, and really, you don’t want to know. We are your military, and we are doing what you sent us here to do.
You wanna help? Buy Bonds America .
Saucy Jack
Recon Marine in Afghanistan
Semper Fi
“Freedom is not free...but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share!
If he can end it in three years, why not one year? or six months? Setting an end date for a war is pointless.
He doesn’t want to have this albatross scaring off the Liberal Base when the Democrats run a candidate (Humphrey II) for the White House in 2012.
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