Obama on Afghanistan: Disappointing

[NHSparky]

Obama on Afghanistan: Disappointing

LINK

27 March 2009

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President Obama has just spoken on AfPak.  I closed my eyes and listened closely to his words, coming via the BBC from the other side of the world.

The President's words were disappointing.  He talked about our goal to reach a force level of 134,000 Afghan soldiers and 82,000 police by 2011.  This is not even in the neighborhood of being enough.  Further, the increase of 21,000 U.S. troops is likely just a bucket of water on the growing bonfire.  One can only expect that sometime in 2010, the President will again be forced to announce another increase in U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

If there were not people like Gates and Petraeus up there, my gut would say to pull out.  It is only my faith in the military, and what I saw them accomplish against heavy odds in Iraq, that gives me hope.
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Love him or hate him, I've found him to be the most striking balance out there, and one of the fairest.  His observations of what the ISI are doing in Pakistan and in collusion with the Taliban are eye-opening, to say the least.

[asdf2231]

He's gonna need more than 3 or 4 Brigades to accomplish much though.

Yon has been saying we have been steadily losing ground over there for almost three years now.

[NHSparky]

Love him or hate him, he has been calling it dead on in Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly four years now.

Probably one of the biggest reasons we've been losing ground is because we're the ones doing all the heavy work--our NATO allies, for the most part, have been hugging their bases and not patrolling out.  Couple that with the haven the Taliban has just over the border in Pakistan and the complete and total inability/unwillingness of officials in Islamabad and Washington to deal with that fact, and you have the stalemate or slow resurgence you see now.

[Bluesuiter-Retired]

Since "the messiah" is following clinton's lead on terrorism and considering it to be a "law enforcement matter", here's an idea for him.

The police departments throughout the U.S. should marshall a force of 100,000 POLICE OFFICERS, get them up to speed so they can function as a team, then ship them to Afghanistan and bring all of our troops home.

Fact of the matter, the same should be done around the globe as well.  Replace U.S. military personnel stationed around the globe with POLICE OFFICERS and bring the troops home.