Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
He didn't get all the troops he wanted and he didn't get them as soon as he wanted.
Also, he got a dead line which could only help the enemy and new rules of engagement which makes inteligence gathering more difficult and the soliders work more dangerious.
|
McChrystal asked for ~45K troops which would have depleted all the reserves (see Spencer Ackerman's reporting from late 2009). He certainly knew this as well and basically used a large opening bid to ensure that the final agreed upon level would still be around the numbers he wanted. So he got the numbers he wanted. 2009 started with ~40K soldiers in Afghanistan which Obama bumped to ~70K, and now has steadily been increasing it through a second surge that will eventually land about ~100K soldiers in the country.
As for the deadline helping the enemy, that's a red herring. They've been plenty motivated all these years even prior to deadlines; therefore the deadline itself doesn't provide any additional motivation for these guys to mount their attacks. Having foreign soldiers in your country for nearly a decade launching wide-ranging military / drone attacks that inflict significant collateral civilian casualties is far more motivation than any deadline could ever provide*.
* Apparently we should be on the lookout for another release from Wikileaks about an attack in Garani, Afghanistan in mid 2009 that had a significant civilian toll.