4000 extra troops fight war without end
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| Fri, 03-27-2009 - 8:21pm |
No exit strategy, a war we are losing, a war we can't win. Is this Iraq? No, President Bush won that war.
This is Afghanistan, and President Obama is determined to send troops in to fight this good war. You know, the war we can't win, the war with no exit strategy, the war Americans will die in, the war which will not install Democracy, and which will not stop drug trafficking. The good war!
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2009/03/abc-news-luis-m.html
Additional 4,000 Troops to Be Ordered to Afghanistan
ABC News' Luis Martinez reports: As part of the Obama administration's Afghan strategy review to be unveiled on Friday, an additional 4,000 troops will be ordered to Afghanistan to help train the Afghan army and police, defense officials tell ABC News.
While the troop announcement may be it for this year, it's possible that even more troops will be headed to Afghanistan in 2010.
Last week, a senior administration official told ABC News' Martha Raddatz that by the end of August the total U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan will stand at 64,000. This official added that it was unlikely any more troops would be sent to Afghanistan this year beyond the additional trainers to be announced Friday. There are currently 38,000 US troops in Afghanistan.
However, it's possible that the troop strength in Afghanistan could rise even higher next year, possibly to as many as 70,000 U.S. troops, as the Pentagon meets additional troop requests from military commanders in Afghanistan, another defense official said today.
That includes an additional combat brigade that top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, would like to employ in southern Afghanistan and possibly more trainers needed to train a planned doubling of the Afghan army's size. Both the combat troops and trainers would require additional support troops known as "enablers."
The 4,000 trainers are in addition to the 17,000 troops that President Obama announced in February he was sending to Afghanistan this spring and summer. They will come from a combat brigade the Pentagon had slated in the original request for extra troops made by McKiernan. However, they were not included in February's announcement for additional troops. At the time, the White House said any further troop deployments would depend on the results of the Afghanistan strategy review.
The deployment of the training brigade meets a long-standing request for 4,000 trainers to help the Afghan army and police, that Pentagon officials had hoped would be met by NATO countries.
However, the need for more trainers may grow next year with the planned doubling of the Afghan army's size, so it's possible that more trainers might be needed beyond those to be announced Friday.
If that's the case, there will be a need for more enabler troops to support those extra trainers.

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We can leave any time President Obama wants. President Bush set a timetable for all our troops to be out of Iraq by 2011, before he departed office.
I've never seen a complaint on this forum about the leftist cites used. Why is that not a surprise. :)
Now liberals seem to think Afghanistan is the great war we should be in.
It was the war that the Bush Admin NEVER FINISHED.
"When we first invaded Afghanistan, the goals seemed clear: Topple the Taliban, destroy al Qaeda, and kill Osama bin Laden.
The Taliban ceded power almost overnight. Al Qaeda loyalists still mount attacks on U.S. supply lines and troops, but their training camps are gone. As for bin Laden, he could be anywhere. Meanwhile, security has deteriorated, and the people of Afghanistan don't seem thrilled to have us around."
We Head to Afghanistan to Find Out What's Been Gained by Eight Years of War
By P.J. Tobia
published: March 26, 2009
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/content/printVersion/750573
The road leading to Bagram Air Base is a mess. Car-sized craters dot the lane, interspersed with ruts deep enough to get lost in. For stretches, it's hard even to know where the road is as it peters out into expanses of dusty scrubland stretching for miles. Every few hundred yards, a half-built structure rises from uneven ground. It's impossible to tell whether these buildings are in the middle of construction or demolition.
Filthy children play in shadows. They throw rocks at crippled dogs and kick makeshift soccer balls of wadded trash wrapped in string.
It's about half past 9 in the morning as I ride down this road with a man named Farooz, a driver and translator. I'd hired Farooz in the Afghan capital of Kabul, about 45 minutes behind us.
Through the swirling grit that fills the air, I see large, low shapes before us. A roadblock.
"It's not always like this," Farooz says. "There must be something going on today."
There is. Somebody called in the threat of a car bomb.
A traffic jam includes ancient minivans, half-broken pickups, and what's called jingle trucks — transport vehicles adorned with flags, bells, and banners. U.S. soldiers walk about in the dusty sun shouting testily.
"Stay the f*
You are misinformed. Below are a few random links with references to the 1959 law that was in force in Iraq prior to the invasion. Saddam was a dictator, but he was also a Baath dictator. The Baath Party is decidedly secular and espouses Arab nationalism. There was nothing in Saddam's ideology that singled out women for bad treatment.
""We reject the changes prepared on the 1959 law because some Islamic parties want to kidnap the rights of women in Iraq," said Yanar Mohammed, a women's rights activist and head of Women's Freedom in Iraq Movement. "We reject such attempts because women should be full citizens with full rights, not semi-human beings."" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/new-iraqi-constitution-must-follow-islam-on-womens-rights-say-shia-499580.html
"As it now stands, the new constitution (written by a committee of 46 men and nine women) overturns Iraq's secular 1959 civil status law and instates a system under which "personal status" (family law relating to marriage, divorce, custody, widowhood and inheritance) would be determined according to the different versions of shariah, according to which sect the citizen adheres to."
http://www.ww4report.com/node/947
>"I honestly wonder if being delusional here is true or pretense. Either way, it's mind boggling."<
It's the parallel universe that some reside. Day is night & black is white.
Very interesting piece.
The US can't continue to sustain their presence in Afghanistan for too long. It's breaking the bank.
Clinton Calls Years of Afghan Aid 'Heartbreaking' in Their Futility
The billions of dollars spent in U.S. aid to Afghanistan over the past seven years have been largely wasted, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday.
"For those of you who have been on the ground in Afghanistan, you have seen with your own eyes that a lot of these aid programs don't work," she said. "There are so many problems with them. There are problems of design, there are problems of staffing, there are problems of implementation, there are problems of accountability. You just go down the line."
Clinton called the amount of money spent without results "heartbreaking." More.......
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033002479.html?nav=hcmodule
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