U.S. To Boost Combat Force In Afghanistan With 14,000 Troops

Los Angeles Times:

Reporting from Washington - U.S. officials are planning to add as many as 14,000 combat troops to the American force in Afghanistan by sending home support units and replacing them with "trigger-pullers," Defense officials say.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[noneIn2008]

07:27 PM on 09/02/2009

Russia wants the place, give it to them. They can protect the oil pipeline. It is their back yard.

[ReckingBall]

03:51 PM on 09/02/2009

Lets just add a star to old glory, take the country over as our 51st state. We can give them universal health care and a few months pay, that should win them over.

[cimbri]

03:36 PM on 09/02/2009

It's the perfect quagmire, with the classic problems; forbidding topography, brutal guerilla fighters, no centralized govt or military, nonexistent local govt and police.

Pull the troops out and fund the fighters on our side. Let the Afghans solve their Taliban problem with our help. Continue to hunt AQ in the border areas and NW Pakistan. Leave it at that.

[BannedNBoston]

02:01 PM on 09/02/2009

Well Hillary approves all the continued drug wars.
It is a failed opium war
like failed plan Columbia
like failed Mexican drug war
like failed US anti gang war etc etc

[eahce]

02:16 PM on 09/02/2009

Simply put all of these wars amount to only a transfer of wealth. If we actually won any of these wars the gravy train would be over for the beneficaries, it's not going to happen.

[Bushdepression]

01:47 PM on 09/02/2009

what sounds better?

Iraquetnam

Iraquistanam

Iraqistan

Iraqnam

Afghanistnam

Quagmirestan

think the last is appropriate.

"U.S. out of Quagmirestan"

[Aramarcal]

01:33 PM on 09/02/2009

This makes no sense. Let's just get out of the middle east . Why is he doing this?

[Bushdepression]

01:48 PM on 09/02/2009

Anything that threatens Israel is worth sending our boys to die for.

[MarcusT]

02:28 PM on 09/02/2009

Muslim, Arab, Middle East-aren't they all interchangeable?

[foxisms]

01:28 PM on 09/02/2009

I voted for Obama, too.
Since his coming to term, he has back tracked on these issues and others to the point where they are almost indistinquishable to those of the previous administration which in speeches he railed against and promised to reverse.
I'm convinced at this point that the system will only allow us the option to vote for one of the two candidates (one on the left and one on the right) that best represent the the continuation of the status quo and will continue the same course that has been designed by industry and big money in America. Making matters worse the press is part of that push in each presidential election, swaying public opinion and ensuring the success of either heir apparent they are directed to. It's unfortunate. Obama appeared to represent a definitive change for America. All we seem to be getting for all that lip service is more of the same, with a new tact being taken by the administration in informing the public of what is going on and the delivery of rhetoric that makes the same tired national approaches and agendas more palatable to the masses.

[blico]

01:37 PM on 09/02/2009

Hoodwinked again.....:-)

[BradSmith]

12:19 PM on 09/02/2009

Here are the current tactics, send it some kids have them drive around until their hit with an IED. Have some other kids walk around until they are ambushed. Have some interpreters ask a few locals for info. When they give up some guy they have a grudge against kick in his door and capture him.

Change this around every once in a while by holding ground in some areas and walking away from others. Call in less air strikes to win hearts and minds and then change your mind and call in more strikes depending on who in in charge this month.

That's how you win a fourth generation warr.

[blico]

01:22 PM on 09/02/2009

Agree!
If we continue on the path of "civilized" warfare we are doomed to fight this one till the dems pull the funding (VN - anyone). War needs to be totaly horrific and unbeleivably destructive. Destroy the enemy and everything he posses, even if it is just a cave. Eliminate the possibility of safe havens (Laos and Cambodia - anyone). Secure the borders(Iraq -anyone) no one in no one out.
Make it as brutal and as quick as possible, then end it and apologise later if need be. He.ll we are apologising every week anyway.

[wdw505]

01:24 PM on 09/02/2009

wow, i agree with a liberal

[BabblingBrooks]

12:06 PM on 09/02/2009

News Flash!!!!

The war on terror is on again!

[BlueMominaRedState]

12:10 PM on 09/02/2009

News Flash!!

The war on terror was never over.

But this time my son will have body armor that works and not run the risk of being electrocuted while taking a shower.

[Bushdepression]

01:50 PM on 09/02/2009

According to The Center for Public Integrity, Senator Feinstein's husband Richard Blum has racked in millions of dollars from Perini, a civil infrastructure construction company, of which the billionaire investor wields 75 percent of the voting share.
In April 2003 the US Army Corps of Engineers dived out $500 million to Perini to provide services for Iraq's central command. A month earlier in March 2003, Perini was awarded $25 million to design and construct a facility to support the Afghan National Army near Kabul. And in March 2004, Perini was awarded a hefty contract worth up to $500 million for "electrical power distribution and transmission" in the southern Iraq.
Senator Feinstein, who sits on the Appropriations Committee as well as the Select Committee on Intelligence, is reaping the benefits of her husband's investments.
http://www.counterpunch.org/frank02282006.html

[BabblingBrooks]

11:56 AM on 09/02/2009

Ooooh, Robert Scheer. He wouldn't know truth if it bit him.

"The we-inherited-it-from-Bush dodge is tiresome even when there is truth to it. In the case of Afghanistan, however, there is no question that Obama has made things worse, at least on the domestic front. He inherited from Bush a consensus that Afghanistan was the "good war," a war worth fighting and a war we had to win. That consensus can no longer be counted on. It is possible that Obama's own party will stage a revolt against the war he promised to win."
--J. Taranto

Just another Obama mistake from which he has to retreat and pretend it never happened. So Gibb's use of the "war on terror" term may not have been a slip of the tongue after all!

[rextrek]

11:37 AM on 09/02/2009

Meanwhile,everyday...the gov't is FIRING on average 2 gay service members...????? WTF!!!!!! I know Obama has only been in ofc for 7-8months - but disappointment is becoming my friend.

[SchizoidFantasy]

11:36 AM on 09/02/2009

HumeSkeptic I'm a Fan of HumeSkeptic 1258 fans permalink

Obama did say he was going to escalate Afghanistan after the "Generals" briefed him. W@r is profitable to many states in this country
--------------
Making sh*t up again?
How about trying to make an argument based on facts? Try it. It won't hurt you.

============================

What's not true, goat breath?

[lornejl]

11:43 AM on 09/02/2009

Wow, that was a delayed response. Didn't I read that about 2 hours ago ?

[postman66]

11:49 AM on 09/02/2009

Why don't you Google Senator Obama + Afghanistan. I linked a YouTube video earlier, clearly shows he's doing what he said.

[poco767c]

11:33 AM on 09/02/2009

New Main

[Ted Thompson]

11:32 AM on 09/02/2009

Will Rogers on Liberals:

It isn't what they don't know that gives us trouble, it's what they know that ain't so.
Will Rogers

[shotgunblast]

11:34 AM on 09/02/2009

Self loathing closeted bleeding heart.

[Ted Thompson]

11:38 AM on 09/02/2009

Oh, your hate.

You have nothing but your hate.

Tsk,tsk

[poco767c]

11:27 AM on 09/02/2009

OT

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090902/D9AF6JJG1.html
"WASHINGTON (AP) - Worker productivity, the single biggest factor determining living standards, grew at the fastest pace in nearly six years in the spring while labor costs fell by the most in nine years, as companies slashed costs to survive the recession."

[lornejl]

11:32 AM on 09/02/2009

That ain't workin, that's the way you do it.

[Bushdepression]

01:52 PM on 09/02/2009

The "living standards" part only works when there is a commensurate raise in pay or benefits. Otherwise it merely translates into more profits for corporate America.