[Venturer]

Newt is right, and should be our Presidential candidate with Santorum as VP until he learns the job.

[EEGator]

How do you finish there? You can’t nation build with 7th century islamic savages.

[katiedidit1]

Newt has studied the society, war and the muslims. He made his call on this before any other candidate. Why do you think Santorum is afraid to debate him in Portland?

I will NEVER forgive Vesty for calling Staff Sergeant Bales a madman BEFORE he had all the facts!

And Santorum called on Obama to apologize! do they apologize to us for murdering our soldiers? NO!

[MinorityRepublican]

GTFO of Afghanistan!

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

You know, when Barry Goldwater made this same argument about Viet Nam in 1964 LBJ and the media painted him as a crazy war monger. They ran the infamous “daisy” commercial and countered Goldwater’s slogan of “In your heart, you know he’s right” with “In your guts, you know he’s nuts!”

Everything old is new again.

[Riodacat]

What the F**k does "winning" and "finish the job" mean in that 9th century Islamic hell hole????????

[VinL]

CW, funny how these candidates want Newt to withdraw.

If he did, how would they know what to say?

[P-Marlowe]

The only path to “victory” in Afghanistan would be to convert them all to Christianity. As long as they remain a majority Muslim country there is no hope for any kind of victory.

For these people going to Hell will be an improvement in their living condition. And that is where most of them are headed.

[Servant of the Cross]

Worse Than A Powder Keg (the conservative case for getting out of Afghanistan now)

As usual, Rick is late to the game on the critical issues of the day ... and the campaign.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

“ME TOO! ME TOO! Santorum. And somehow, Santo will try to take credit for that too.

[MD Expat in PA]

“I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

Then I’ve been saying that since 9-11.

[Mariner]

The very LAST thing anyone who is putting America first would do is "Finish the Job".

Somebody needs to ask this guy just what he means by that.

Of course he does not know. Nobody knows.

We have no interest or business in Afghanistan unless we intend to invade Iran from there...unlikely as Afghanistan has no opening to the sea.

We should have pulled out of there in late 2002. All the spilt blood of patriots since has been wasted.

Bush and Obama share responsibility for this disaster.

[Right Wing Assault]

He’s voting “present” on that for now.

[Raider Sam]

We won Afghanistan. It took longer than Iraq, but we won it. What we are doing now is not a war. Kill the enemy and either make it a colony, or leave.

[gandalftb]

Conquest always dies of indigestion.

Would winning mean exterminating the world’s source of 90% of its heroin?

[LibFreeUSA]

This so called "war" is no more "winnable" than VIetnam was ever "winnable", since we are now trying to go way beyond the original objectives that Bush laid out in 2001 for the reasons why we went to war in Afghanistan in the first place. All of these objectives were met, but then, as is usually the case with our political leaders who can't seem to draw the line unless the country rises up against their stupid policies, then they tried to sell us a continuation of this mess by saying they needed to "train the Afghan forces to defend themselves". Which has turned out to be a farce and a "mission impossible".

Consider what Bush said on Sep 20, 2001....

Sep 20, 2001- BUSH:...
"tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban:
- Deliver all the leaders of Al Qaida who hide in your land.
- Release all foreign nationals you have unjustly imprisoned.
- Protect foreigners in your country.
- Close every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan
- Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps
- The Taliban must act and act immediately.
- They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.

June 15, 2004 - BUSH:
"Afghanistan is no longer a terrorist factory sending thousands of killers into the world."

At that point, we should have armed them to the teeth and provided them with strategic air support for their ground troops, and given them complete ownership of their ground war so that they could have negotiated their own settlement with Pakistan to contain the Taliban from Pakistan.