Obama Is Facing Doubts From Dems On Afghanistan

New York Times:

The leading Senate Democrat on military matters said Thursday that he was against sending more American combat troops to Afghanistan until the United States speeded up the training and equipping of more Afghan security forces.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[mirza]

01:16 PM on 09/11/2009

see

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/opinion/11krakauer.html

[fijisailor]

01:07 PM on 09/11/2009

HP is assisting in the coverup of 9ii. Every single article on 9ii is "fully moderated" and a posting I placed under the lead story had about 10 responses. My posting and all 10 responses were deleted. I said there are still too many unanswered questions about 9ii.

[viper234]

01:04 PM on 09/11/2009

On the 8th anniversary of 9/11: two wars rage in Iraq and Afganistan; no accountability for Bush for authorizing the use of the torture, a war crime under international law; over 100,000 Iraqis dead in a war waged based on false intelligence, and no accountability for Bush. Now the US is bogged down in Afghanistan when it's been reported, documented that al-Qaeda is not based in Afghanistan and if the US is killing innocent Afghan civilians in some twisted cause to bring "democracy" to the Afghan people, then the US should be reminded that the US military should not be risking their lives nor be involved in the deaths of innocent civilians to "create governments" in foreign sovereign nations nor to secure "natural resources" for US interests. Between the brutal, unnecessary invasion of Iraq, torture, the detention and abuse of hundreds of innocent Iraqi and Aghan nationals, the on-going deaths of innocent Iraqis and Afghan nationals, this country should be screaming for the removal of all US troops from the region; instead only silence. The only thing the American people are screaming about is health care reform. Not even the growing number of Americans falling into poverty, the soaring rate of unemployment and those who have lost their homes as a result of losing their jobs have made the American people demand accountability from the government who forked over hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars to banks and investment companies. What a disgrace.

[freshnotbitter]

11:33 AM on 09/11/2009

We continue the task that has failed and will fail: To impose a central government (we call it "democracy") on a country that has a clan society.

Obama really, really needs to get ahealth care reform bill done that goes into effect as e xpeditiously as possible. That will make everything else much easier to accomplish, including the resolution of the Bush problem in Southwest Asia.

If people are left thinking that O is just another "can't do" president because health care reform gets bogged down, watered down, postponed, then he will face problems from both left and right on the War and he will essentially end up as Johnson without medicare, a weak ineffective president who wanted to be a nice guy and couldn't act decisively.

There is a way out of Afghanistan. How it will be perceived depends much on how O carries off health reform. The way out isn't to copy the soviet model. The soviets bet everything on a central government in Kabul and Kabul's army, and that bet lost. They had their reasons. They wanted a satellite in their own fashion on their border. We don't need that.

[Okieborn]

10:57 AM on 09/11/2009

Mr. President !!
Bring Our Troops Home !!
Save Lives and The Economy !!!

[perk]

10:54 AM on 09/11/2009

If we are not sending more troops to Afghanistan, please bring the ones there home pronto! They are in increasing danger every day. To leave them in battle with inadequate numbers and equipment, while we take our time debating the politics of the war, is a death sentence for many of them. I am the parent of a deployed Marine, i know what is going on there.

[take10]

10:50 AM on 09/11/2009

Russia is a shinning example of what fighting in Afghanistan can do to a powerful country's economy. Then too, we have our own 8 years of failed policy there to give us an inward view of where this is taking us. If we continue to merely break even there in terms of success, which remains undefined, we will be no closer to resolving the reasons we went there in the first place, for a total of 16 years. What's in it for us? With no end in sight, we will continue to see the escalation of casualties and the useless waste of resources which we need at home. Our brave young troops deserve to be used in theaters worthy of their sacrifice. We are using trillion dollar technology on people who use homemade devices to maim and kill our troops and we still have not found Osama Ben Laden. This is an insane policy that could and should have been better handled by specially trained covert operatives. Between the two conflicts, America has endured the tragedy of over 5 thousand deaths, 40k seriously wounded and nearly two trillion from our treasure we know of, plus billions unaccounted for. President Obama needs to give some serious thought to getting out of there before it sucks the life out of our ability to move forward as a great nation. In the end, we will have a sum gain of zero, and for what?

[totaldisbelief]

10:29 AM on 09/11/2009

Once again we are held hostage to foreign energy resources.
Our whole foreighn policy revolves around getting someone else's energy resources.

[Imabachi]

12:52 PM on 09/12/2009

Totaldisbelief is right. Obama's strategists are telling him that a stable Aghanistan is needed so as to build an oil pipeline across Afghanistan from Central Asia and down through Pakistan to Karachi, a seaport. What a colossal waste of our time, energy, treasure, blood and materiel. Rather we'd ought to be preparing for the End of Oil--surely all know, or should know, that oil is a finite resource and Peak Oil was reached about 1970. Already oil is getting more difficult to find and way more expensive to acquire and there is more demand from countries like China
and India. Prices will inevitably rise, no question.
etc
Then there's Global Warming/Climate Change brought on by extensive burning of fossil fuels, etc. The effect of this phenomenon will be catastrophic for the civilization. And we need to act
now to do do what we can to mitigate the effects of this phenomenon. But as far as I can tell little is being done or can be done, to effect the necessary changes. In fact, it's rarely spoken of in MSM and by our leaders.
All troops should be brought home immediately thereby saving the nation any more grief, treasure and materiel. There's employment enough, with imaginative leadership, in our own Sacred and Beloved Motherland for the armed forces.

Say goodnight, Gracie

[totaldisbelief]

10:26 AM on 09/11/2009

If Afghanistan is going to be Pipeline Central for the region will someone explain to me just how a vulnerable pipeline is going to stay intact with so many "saboteurs" in the area?

[PaiaGirl]

09:57 AM on 09/11/2009

Read the article that Chazmania posted:

http://prorev.com/2009/08/why-is-afghanistan-so-important.html

Does anyone else come away from reading this article thinking that the CHINESE are pulling the strings on this war in Afghanistan? They are the ultimate beneficiaries of the pipeline.

[PaiaGirl]

10:15 AM on 09/11/2009

Someone else comment on this article. Does my China theory hold water or should I put my tinfoil hat back on?

[gregboz]

10:46 AM on 09/11/2009

I don't see why you inferred that the Chinese are pulling the strings. I think the article primarily focuses on our competition with Russia and their junior partner, Iran, in efforts at dominating the pipelines of Central Asia and the Middle East. China's certainly at play to I guess.

We're clearly in AfPak so that the transportation of oil, and therefore the world's energy resources are dependent on the US. Therefore all the countries of the world will have to buy and sell oil on the US dollar, which props up the value of the dollar and the US deficit. This is not a war about terrorism. This is a war in order to create the TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) pipeline, which is dependent on US military power, and also by-cuts Russia, China and Iran. I thought this was a conspiracy theory, but the pipeline is now a go ahead.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=14300

[Vicks123]

09:54 AM on 09/11/2009

Obama Is Facing Doubts From Dems On Afghanistan

No kidding?! Let's get those responsible for nineoneone and then get the troops home already!

[PaiaGirl]

09:58 AM on 09/11/2009

So we destroy TWO countries and go to war for almost 8 years and yet we have not gotten those responsible for 9-11?

Something is wrong with this picture.

[FalstaffsMind]

10:01 AM on 09/11/2009

Many of them are dead or scuttled into Pakistan. The problem with staying in Afghanistan at this point is we may be pushing the remnants of al Qaeda deeper into nuclear armed Pakistan. We are no longer fighting al Qaeda, but instead a resurgent Taliban that feeds off our presence. We may be best served in actually talking to the Taliban, and finding a way to withdraw without violence or retribution and concentrate instead on stabilizing Pakistan.

[rabiddog6708]

09:52 AM on 09/11/2009

America loves its wars and even our leaders who do not will not abandon them for fear of being labeled weak, It actually takes strength to go against conventional thinking and the status quo. Too bad for America, Obama has fallen into the same old trap that d00med LBJ's Presidency.

[dillydawg]

10:08 AM on 09/11/2009

...................yeah but then again, there is that PipeLine thing, that never seems to be discussed.

[freshnotbitter]

11:48 AM on 09/11/2009

That would be an expensive pipeline. A one trillion dollar war as a down payment. There are always magazines, shadowy people, tv shows, web sites with a pipeline story. Remember the one about Kosovo? The Viet Nam war was supposed to be about trillions of barrel of oil off shore Haiphong. Where is it?

If only the MIC could get people talking about a false issue..........

[nirek]

09:49 AM on 09/11/2009

We should declare victory and bring our troops home and rebuild America, now.

America should NOT be the world police force. We have enough problems to deal with here at home . Think how much good could be done with the money saved from not funding the wars.

[PaiaGirl]

09:59 AM on 09/11/2009

Take a look at Chazmania's article. This is not about being a police force.

[martiniandabotoxchaser]

09:47 AM on 09/11/2009

Afghanistan is a no win situation. Many countries have tried to conquer it but none have prevailed. It was the former Soviet Union's Vietnam. The sad part is that when we pull out the Taliban will rise again and resume their repression of the people. Those who have tried to build, promote a more open society and women will be so punished that it will generations before they dare to attempt to build again.

[PaiaGirl]

10:01 AM on 09/11/2009

For years we allowed the Taliban to run free - destroying priceless archeological marvels, oppressing, killing and subjugating women and we DID NOTHING - not until we wanted a natural gas pipeline for the Chinese.

[apduncan1]

09:36 AM on 09/11/2009

Republicans investing in the poppy crop of this year will rejoice.