As a candidate opposing the Iraq War, Barack Obama improved his hawkish credentials by promising to track down Osama bin Laden, expand drone attacks, and escalate the American troop numbers in Afghanistan. Three years later, bin Laden is dead, the drones inflame Pakistan opinion and complicate a peace settlement, and 33,000 American troops are scheduled to pull out by the end of 2012 with "steady withdrawals" to continue after. Sixty-eight thousand U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan by this year's end, with the deadline for withdrawing most of them by December 2014.
By the numbers, Afghanistan has already directly cost taxpayers $528.8 billion, and the Obama request for Afghanistan this fiscal year is $107 billion. That does not include the hidden, indirect costs -- accrual such as long-term Social Security, disability, and medical care for veterans, etc. -- partly spurred by an order last year from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, which will add hundreds of billions, if not trillions to the ultimate financial impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The president's internal political calculation in 2008 was that he could never pull out of Afghanistan without killing Al Qaeda's top leadership and building a firewall against a Taliban return to power. While perhaps correct politically, this has led to an Afghan quagmire shaken by severe contradictions.
Earlier this year, the Taliban indicated through intermediaries a willingness to hold dialogue with the West, in Qatar, but demanded the release of several detainees now in Guantanamo, possibly in exchange for an American POW, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Those discussions are in trouble, partly because of Republican opposition to releasing U.S.-held Taliban combatants. As a result, the Obama administration's hope for progress in negotiations has hit the skids.
Despite these insuperable obstacles, Obama will try mightily at the Chicago NATO summit to indicate that the Afghanistan war is winding down, aware that an implosion is possible as Karzai trembles, millionaire Afghans flee the country, and the Afghan forces flounder. The Republicans will blame Obama for "losing" Afghanistan while trying to avoid any recommendations of their own.
Obama's latest Afghanistan speech indicates where he is headed in a situation clearly out of control:
If this seems much too muddled a process, it is because it is being rushed for the Chicago summit and is beyond US control in any event.
But if Obama campaigns on ending the Iraq War and "winding down" Afghanistan, it will only accelerate the march to the exits. No one wants to be the last American soldier to die, or the last Western country to suffer casualties, in an unwinnable, unaffordable war that Americans do not much care about.
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Plus, we are going now with hat in hand to beg other countries to continue funding for Afghanistan. How does anyone think that will play, with Europe facing austerity cuts and other countries just plain fed up with pay, pay, pay? If they do not pony up funds, then we will be on the hook for more billions.
We will be supporting one of the most corrupt countries on the face of the earth - with the blood of our troops and our tax dollars, neither of which we can afford.
It was Reagan who approved issuing money and weapons to Bin Laden and al-Qaeda to fight of the Soviets in Afghanistan, we perpetuated this problem and we have to clean it up. All great leaders even the ones you mentioned have had their failed policies and blemishes on their records.
As for Gitmo, I agree it should be closed, however congress maintains it as a base for indefinite counter-terrorist detention. Referring to Iraq, as we discussed before it is my belief that we will always have a presents anywhere we send troop, if for anything else to maintain order (that the US approves of).
Last, but certainly not least let shift focus to the $4T, without getting into semantic over the cost of the wars, and Bush-era tax cuts (which is spending according to Keynesian economics), let’s focus on the stimulus, during recessions governments (not just ours) spend money to stimulate the market this is a common practice.
It's not my fault, it's everyone else s fault.
How many of our American Troops have died since Obama 'added' troops to Afghanistan, thaw we are now trying to withdraw?
In fact, the US has backed BOTH of them.
After the Soviet War, Bush Sr. closed our embassy in Afghanistan and Clinton effectively zeroed out all foreign aid.
TO suggest that america backed the Taliban suggest that you don't know the difference between Al Qaeda, the Taliban (all 3 sects) and the Afghan Mujihadeen of the Soviet War.