Obama's Afghanistan Surge: Too Much Too Late?

Bloomberg:

Sending more U.S. forces to Afghanistan is an idea whose time has come. The question is whether the time when it could work has already gone.

President-elect Barack Obama, departing President George W. Bush and holdover Defense Secretary Robert Gates have backed a plan to send 20,000 or more troops next year. Those forces must confront an increasingly entrenched Taliban enemy and a population grown hostile to foreign troops after seven years of U.S.-led warfare.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg

Comments

[Calledtoserve]

In Secretary Gates’ planned surge 30,000 troops are but a drop in the bucket. Karzai’s gaffe: ‘If I say I want protection for Mullah Omar, the international community has two choices: remove me or leave,’ puts any long term commitment on shaky ground. Since 2002 Karzai has allowed Afghanistan to be carved up by warlords and criminals who openly operate on the highway between Kabul and Herat. He has also failed to quell the resurgence of Taliban, Hisb-i-Islami, and Haqqanis fighters. Gates is in the process of propping up a failed Afghani leader who knows that if the US/coalition forces pull out he wouldn’t last a week. So what gives him the confidence to issue ultimatums? As a past consultant for the Union Oil Company of California, Karzai knows that the oil corporations need the pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to the Arabian Sea for the huge Asian markets and he’s gambling on the fact that the Americans will stay to protect this source. If Obama wants to end the war in Afghanistan and not become mired in another oil war, his military should deploy sufficient troops (at least 150,000) into Afghanistan to secure all borders—vital to this would be the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan—and conduct search and destroy operations over a specified period to achieve the mission, after which all troops should be pulled out. I wrote a book http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/AClaytonsDefense.html which in part deals with these oil wars.

[Kartoffel]

We're not getting out of Afghanistan anytime soon because during his campaign Barack Obama made neglect of Afghanistan his primary rationale for opposing the surge in Iraq. Stupid pride and ego now demand that he conduct his own surge in Afghanistan. Doing differently would be an open admission that his rationale for opposing the Iraq surge was just a lie designed to get him through an election. American soldiers will have to die on Afghan battlefields to save Barack from political embarassment. It's reminiscent of JFK and LBJ and Vietnam.

[From the Raft]

"The question is whether the time when it could work has already gone."

After 48 years of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan:

The answer is YES.

Running out of Iraq and picking a bigger fight in Afghanistan is like a little puppy dog running around on a Neocon's leash.

Someone planted this SURGE crap to scare Obama into supporting it.

Don't fall for it Barry!

[Kartoffel]

And when these 20,000 additional troops fail to turn things around, then what? Will Obama be humble enough to admit defeat and order a withdrawal, or will he double down and send another 20,000? Given the colossal ego of the guy, and his history of not owning up to mistakes, I'm awfully sure he'd double down.

[BarackstarObama]

No, Bush is the one who never admits mistakes... Obama hasn't even taken office yet.

[From the Raft]

Let's hope he says the Neocon Afghanistan SURGE is a "bone headed idea" before we do rather than after we do it.

[polaris12]

As long as Pakistan and its secret service (ISI) continues to transship arms and ammunition to the Taliban supplied by us, we'll be engaged in a futile endeavor. This has been going on for years and is well documented, but we do nothing about it and continue to pump more money and munitions into Pakistan.

[jukesgrrl]

Blessings to all of our troops, especially those spending the holiday at a warfront. If any one of you is reading this, please know you're in the thoughts and prayers of millions of Americans.

[JohnFromCensornati]

We need to get the he// out of Afghanistan and he should put an end to the "war on" drugs before Mexico becomes another Solmalia.

[devanate]

Amen to that!

[chronic]

Obamas surge?


Obama isn't commader in chief yet!!!!!!!!

[From the Raft]

No he isn't President yet. Neocons are trying to set his agenda and so far it looks like they may suceeed.

We need a surge. A surge of Americans against the Cowboy Way!

[PSM42]

Surge our way home. And nowhere else.

Let the Afghan's b l o w up their own wedding parties.

Google video kandahar main hospital.

[senorlou]

This war is lost. Afghanistan is known as the graveyard of empires for good reason. Hopefully, he'll come to his senses and get us out of both wars before we completely collapse. Bin Laden 2, superpowers 0, unfortunately.

[christopherflynn]

Reality if the war ends...
superpowers 1
bin laden 0

[wendynyc]

Finally we focus on Afghanistan and BIN LADIN (remember him)!

It is absolutely essential that we have a strong presence in Afghanistan. The women and children have been suffering brutally in this region.

Unfortunately our troops will probably be stationed in that part of the World for many years to come!

[From the Raft]

Many people do not know that the US has been operating at least since 1960 in Afghanistan. That was even before Barack Obama was born. Maybe it was secret at the time, but my neighbors in suburban Washington D.C. worked for either the AID program or the U.S. Agriculture Department and I rode to work with them each day. They were involved a huge U. S. investment in agricultural development in Afghanistan.

They had visions that one day Afghanistan would feed not just themselves but export agricultural products throughout the "free world (that did not include the Soviet Union and China)."

Well, today, 48 years later and untold wasted U. S. aid, they are: Opium

It is time we leave, permanently, forever, now, immediately: never to return!

Hopefully, Obama will receive realistic advice on this, if not, he will rue the day ....

[Mildmannered]

The republicans cannot even wage a war right.

[holeybuybull]

Mildmannered, your statement is only correct if you assume that the purpose of warfare is to win something. The purpose of modern (corporate) warfare is as a device to redistribute money (tax dollars) from the populace into the hands of elected officials and the military industrial complex, including big pharma (viagra in afghanistan). On those merits, the republicans, aided and abetted by their democratic colleagues, have been extremely effective in accomplishing their goals.

[Samalabear]

I'm in a really bad place today and so I'll just say this: I'm damn tired of these wars, conflicts, war on terror -- whatever you want to call them -- Bush's follies. I'm sick of it! Bring all the troops home and let's figure out how we can fix our own damn country. Let the Middle East their problems out. They want to hate each other, no problem. Let's stop giving them reasons to attack us and our allies.

I know, I know, it's simplistic and it's all so complicated. But I got a chance to vent.

[From the Raft]

Vent, vent, vent.

It's the truth, it's necessary, it's time.

Our survival depends on it!

[PSM42]

Let us end the W a r on Wedding Parties.

Bush/CheneyCo's effort to make sure that no A f g h a n wedding goes un-b o m b e d doesn't seem to be working.

Let's give it up in 2009 and not b o m b women, children and all the other civilians b l o w n to smithereens to keep the Military-Industrial-Congressional w a r machine going.

Google video kandahar main hospital.

[curiousasheck]

Afghanistan may be possessing up to 36 trillion cubic feet (1,000 km3) of natural gas, 3.6 billion barrels (570,000,000 m3) of petroleum and up to 1,325 million barrels (2.107E+8 m3) of natural gas liquids.
Other reports show that the country has huge amounts of gold, copper, coal, iron ore and other minerals.

Let the "Surge" begin!

[arspar183]

wake up the afghans. they could become the Saudis of hard precious rocks

[KillTheMessenger]

None of these numbers for oil, natural gas and NG gas liquids is particularly impressive. The world uses 30 billion barrels of oil a year, so the recoverable 1-2 billion barrels attributed to Afghanistan would last, at best, a couple of weeks.

Your own qualifiers of "may be" and "other reports show" make it even less likely that any of these resources will lead to an economic recovery anytime soon. Iron ore is abundant all over the planet. Why would anyone want to mine it in Afghanistan which has none of the required infrastructure to process or even ship it? Copper is on its way out. We have plenty of it in the ground in form of telephone lines that can be dug up and reused (an ounce of optical fiber replacing tons of copper cables). Gold mines are minor local economic entities which add almost nothing to a country's GDP.