US Eyes "Surge" Of Over 20,000 Troops For Afghanistan

Reuters:

The Pentagon is considering a plan to send more than 20,000 troops to Afghanistan over the next 12 to 18 months to help safeguard elections and quell rising Taliban violence, officials said on Friday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he and top commanders had discussed sending five brigades to Afghanistan, including four brigades of combat ground forces as well as an aviation brigade, which a defense official said would consist mainly of support troops. An Army combat brigade has about 3,500 soldiers.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[peggyleg]

My nephew is a US Marine and is going to Afghanistan in January. This is what President-elect BO wants...so this is what we'll get...

[Danny]

This is not a good thing. Not what I had hoped with an Obama administration.

[Ramirez]

Obama campaigned on redeploying troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Why are you surprised over this?

[ID-TenTango]

I second that.

[Malamati]

Next stop: Pakistan.

YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

[tiredandworried]

Is anyone going to speak up for the National Guard troops? What are they doing being posted overseas?

[Ramirez]

They are citizen soldiers serving their nation in a time of war.

And every National Guardsman currently deployed either enlisted or reenlisted with full knowledge of the likelihood he could be sent to Iraq.

[wadenelson1]

Apparently the lessons of Vietnam have been completely forgotten.

I'm all for a surge provided you can tell me:

What is our mission

How will we know when we have "won."

What is our exit strategy

How we will accomplish what the mighty Russian army could not.

[evilzed]

Always the same, maintain US presence in another country to favour the US economically and Geopolitically.
The blood of ME's and US troops are mearly the tools to do it.
As always to favour the bank balances of the few.
War is bull, then and still now.
Will we never learn.

[bigironal25]

Yep , here we go again! Didn't we learn anything from the Russians?All we will do by sending in 20,000 troops is get a bunch of our fighting men and women killed and/or maimed for NOTHING! Like it or not ,the only way to settle the mess in Afghanistan is to talk to these lunatics. If the Soviets got their asses kicked, the same thing will happen to us!Sure we like to think that it's good vs evil but in reality it boils down to this- If you go on somebody's property and try to take the place over, the residents tend to not go along and will do their best to get you out of their country! This is absolute stupidity on our part!

[Ramirez]

Obama supports the escalation in Afghanistan. You do support Obama, don't you?

[wadenelson1]

My only choices are all or none? I have to support ALL of Obama's policies?

No, I have a brain. I support some, and reject others.

Quit trying to bait people. Bush is the one who got us into this mess. The real solution would have been to hunt down OBL and ignore the Taliban.

[FaceYourFears]

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

--Theodore Roosevelt

[boing007]

U.S. troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

[Ramirez]

The Iraq War has been won. It is time to apply some of the same strategies in Iraq.

[vippy]

LOL when exactly did we win the war in Iraq? It just blows my mind. Another Vietnam! The Iraqis
came together and they want us out. Does not seem like a victory to me. No embracing of our
soldiers either.

[JulieSA]

You have not kept up with the news. This isn't 2006. It's a done deal, and all but over, if President Obama doesn't mess it up, and he won't. Iraq is now a democracy and an ally.

[wadenelson1]

Show me you really believe it's won by either visiting there or encouraging your kids to enlist.

[Ramirez]

What would that show you?

[mergina]

IT IS ABOUT F**^^*&(&G TIME.

[ExpatInEurope2008]

US officials flunk test of Amerian history, economics, civics

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

Well, THAT explains a lot!

You can take the test yourself HERE

Average score for this quiz during November: 77.7%

I got 31 out of 33 correctly — 93.94 % :P

Take the test yourself HERE

http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx

[feo]

Cool. I got the same score (and I didn't copy your paper).

[ExpatInEurope2008]

Bush and Rant on Red Sea Piracy

Piracy by Somali pirates in the Red Sea region threatens to reduce world trade through the Suez Canal by about a third, and could raise petroleum prices again if the supertankers all have to go around the Cape of Good Hope to Europe.

Wouldn't it be in part the duty of President Bush and the US Navy to make sure there is security on the high seas?

I haven't seen that Bush ever did anything about the problem.

But he didn't hesitate to send two aircraft carriers at once into the Persian Gulf, just to tweak the Iranians.

Bush was like some yahoo on Dukes of Hazzard-- he was always up for a hotrod street race, but he did not care anything about actually supplying security to anyone. His posturing, threats, and actually invasions have just left the legacy of a lawless world, and Red Sea piracy is only one manifestation of it.

[JulieSA]

Dutch, I'm surprised you know so little about this. The US Navy IS the primary agent keeping the sea lanes open all over the world. China, Europe, and everyone else benefits from this, and you folks in Europe can have your 3-month vacations because we pay this bill for you. I'm not sure why you're complaining about US Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. These ships are doing exactly what you're asking them to do--keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. That is a far more critical choke point than Suez. Some tankers are too big to go through Suez, and they just go around, but if Hormuz closes, a substantial portion of the world's oil supply is stuck there with no outlet.

The US Navy can't be everywhere, but they do have several ships in the Somali area, and other countries are sending more ships to help. The various navies have foiled a lot of pirate attacks, but the attacks are happening almost daily now, and it's a huge area of ocean that needs to be covered. The Saudi tanker that was recently jacked was well outside the usual area of attacks.

As for President Bush, I assume you'll be just as critical of President Obama if he can't instantly solve this problem. You'll have no one else to blame things on after Jan. 20.

[JulieSA]

Correction: I'm surprised *Juan Cole* knows so little about what the Navy is doing in the world. Actually, I'm not, because 90% of his brain function is blocked by BDS plaque.

[Machu]

It was the Indian Navy that is fighting and guarding out there...as we speak.

[Ramirez]

Snuffy.

You are a plagiarist. You copied and posted your comment from here:
http://www.juancole.com/2008/11/bush-and-rant-on-red-sea-piracy.html

I have learned that anytime you post something coherent it is because you have copied another man's words.

[JulieSA]

Heh.

[yorkie]

I hope this is an outlier as I would hope that forces in AFGHN would be made up of NATO AND UN peacekeeping as in Kosovo etc,,,,,I urge we get out of IRAQ and reduce troops abroad everywhere­.....We need to crush the poppy biz to nix AFGHN heroine biz asap however,,,the people there need econ hope to live freely and not under former tyrants,,,,,,

[JulieSA]

Un peacekeeping forces would be worse than useless. They don't do anything but have sex with the local children.
We need peacemaking forces who will fight the enemy. A-stan is a NATO op, but their troops are only marginally helpful. Most of them won't fight, and the ones who will have crappy equipment and no airlift. They have to use the US's stuff to get around.

[JulieSA]

Or, withdraw and use completely different (dirtier) methods.

[RogerRantjet]

How 'bout 20,000 Predators tuned to the AQ and OBL's signature profiles. Then put our best gamers at the controls..­.with unlimited supplies of Red Bull and pizza.

[Ramirez]

There is a job for you in the Obama administration.

[wadenelson1]

There was a sci-fi series of books in which gamers didn't realize they were actually battling for the universe. Ender's Game, maybe?

[Mildmannered]

20,000 won't be enough. we have serious problems there. where is and what is our plan for "success" in Afghanistan?

[Malamati]

Pakistan, here we come.

YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!