Obama lays ground work for Oil Pipeline: 30K more to Afghanistan

[HOZ]

30,000 more troops by Summer 2009!

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff says,"Thanks to Obama channeling Bush and Cheney," up to 30,000 extra troops could be sent to Afghanistan in 2009, almost doubling the US presence. "Some 20 to 30,000 is the window of overall increase from where we are right now," Adm Mike Mullen said.
The timeframe of deployment has also been shortened, with reinforcements set to arrive by summer at the latest.
On Friday, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered the deployment of a combat aviation brigade by spring.
There are currently 31,000 US troops in the country, 14,000 of whom are part of the 51,000-strong Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
I may have added something

In other news some of our European allies send a terse letter to the Taliban.

[Five-hole]

Wow, great post.

[Mike F]

Wouldn't "Obama channeling Bush and Cheney" entail ignoring Afghanistan to, say, invade Ireland in search of their leprechaun gold?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Mike F

Wouldn't "Obama channeling Bush and Cheney" entail ignoring Afghanistan to, say, invade Ireland in search of their leprechaun gold?

exactly, Obama is just trying to fix the Bush clusterfffuuuuu by getting out of an unwinnable Iraq and putting those resources where they might actually do some good, Afghanistan

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

exactly, Obama is just trying to fix the Bush clusterfffuuuuu by getting out of an unwinnable Iraq and putting those resources where they might actually do some good, Afghanistan

Ummm...were you visiting another galaxy this past year and a half? You missed Afghanistan and Iraq switching places. Just ask Layton, he wants to negotiate with the Taliban!

[Displaced Flames fan]

unwinnable Iraq? Really?

Pretty sure it's won now.

Not as planned, you can argue way too costly for all involved as well, but it's certainly NOT unwinnable.

[Displaced Flames fan]

For the record, Obama said he would do this several times on the stump, so Hoz' embellishment is a bit extreme IMO.

[Saint Troy]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

unwinnable Iraq? Really?

Pretty sure it's won now.

Not as planned, you can argue way too costly for all involved as well, but it's certainly NOT unwinnable.

The WWE thinks the US won, as it's on NBC with Saturday night's main event from Camp Victory in lovely downtown Baghdad. Channel surfing will teach you things

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

For the record, Obama said he would do this several times on the stump, so Hoz' embellishment is a bit extreme IMO.

Sure shoot down my conspiracy theory! I was about to trot out Obama's sound bite from over a year ago when he said invading Pakistan was on the table.

[Thor]

Terrorism is not defeated with sheer military might, it never will be.

The only way to stabilize the region is a mixture of diplomacy, sanctions and yes military force.

Iraq has hope, IF we focus on our ongoing efforts to turn the shia and sunni population against the extremism.

Like most middle east experts, the fear isn't Iraq with 200,000 troops, its when they have a country governed and run by the population. Which has tendencies to accept and support theocracy.

In Afghanistan you have to stabilize the regions, have control as much as you can over the country while terrorist attacks continue. You have to at grassroots levels turn the ever day Afghany to support you, not be so afraid and allow insurgents to control their lives.

There is a real hotbed of extremism in Pakistan's north, those are the funneling grounds for terrorists into Afghanistan. Pakistan is currently fighting against its own problems of extremism.

So the ideal situation is stabilize Afghanistan, gain the confidence of the people that they cannot be bullied by the terrorists, then work on Pakistan which has a massive tribal and terrorist problem which isn't going away anytime soon.

[FanIn80]

There are some pretty insane people on this planet imo.

[Azure]

Good.

Right now Afghanistan needs a lot of firepower to drive back the Taliban.

The political groundwork will come later on.