Comments on: Afghanistan: 21,000 Plus 13,000 – or Plus 115,000?

By: MarkH

MarkH — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:41:47 +0000

There may be many reasons some people have for us to be in Afghanistan. Pres. Obama was a bit vague when he sent us in. We have since used troops to fight the Taliban/alQaeda while Pakistani military fought them on their side of the border (with some help from our drones). Have we destroyed al Qaeda?

In that fight we have set up raids, drone attacks, intelligence spies, satellite spying, hammer and anvil strategy, outpost with air support tactics and simply walking into their territory and trying to hold it. All of that has been in order to execute the main plan of destroying al Qaeda.

Have we succeeded?

If so, then we have no sound reason to stay except to ensure no resurgence of the Taliban/AQ terrorist training camps.

By: BargainCountertenor

BargainCountertenor — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:07:30 +0000

Wait just a cotton pickin’ minute.

My son is an officer in an engineer battalion. They are very definitely combat troops: they carry M4s and M9s and they are expected to be “trigger pullers.” They aren’t sent out to seize an objective very often, but they are right there while the PBI (poor, bloody infantry) are seizing the objective.

They’re out there clearing the routes between those seized objectives, so the PBI can get the things they need from the transport people.

By: sporkovat

sporkovat — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:04:04 +0000

yeah. Bush debased the word ‘freedom’ – he really tried to wreck that word.

now Obama is wrecking ‘change’ and ‘peace’.

as Orwell wrote, once DoubleSpeak is in place, it becomes very difficult to even think forbidden thoughts.

By: macaquerman

macaquerman — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:03:57 +0000

Spencer puts the number of US troops in Afghanistan at 64,000 IIRC.

By: eCAHNomics

eCAHNomics — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:45:47 +0000

You forgot “democrats are republicans.”

By: marcos

marcos — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:44:38 +0000

What the hell does winning look like in Afghanistan?

Depends.

If you like the US empire, then winning means escaping with the empire intact.

If you don’t like the US empire, winning means the empire finds its graveyard where so many others have–Afghanistan.

By: NCGal

NCGal — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:40:55 +0000

I love re-reading Orwell’s 1984 because it feels so fresh, relevant, & insightful. And it still does, regardless of whether there is a Democrat in the White House & regardless which of the 2 parties controls the Congress. “War is peace.” “Ignorance is strength.”

By: ThingsComeUndone

ThingsComeUndone — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:34:08 +0000

No maybe Spencer or the vets know but that is something the front pagers should look into

By: robspierre

robspierre — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:31:26 +0000

You’ve asked the question that nobody has really asked since Pearl Harbor and our last Constitutionally declared war.

When we talk about winning anything else–a sweepstakes, a football, game, a beauty pageant–we always ask, “WHAT do we win?” Before we get started, we want to know what makes the effort and/or risk worthwhile?

Declarations of war used to force the question by forcing us to face our objectives and their likely costs before starting. I suspect that that is why the undeclared war has been so popular. Introspection gets in the way of decidering and is always politically awkward.

By: billybugs

billybugs — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:31:10 +0000

A win in Afghanistan ?
It’s not possible to define a win .
We are supporting a corrupt government.
Is that how you define a win ?

Bring our troops home ,there is no winning in this war