U.S. Military Says Its Force in Afghanistan Is Insufficient

[undeterred]

Source: The New York Times

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama’s chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders.

The commanders emphasized problems in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents continue to bombard towns and villages with rockets despite a new influx of American troops, and in eastern Afghanistan, where the father-and-son-led Haqqani network of militants has become the main source of attacks against American troops and their Afghan allies.

The possibility that more troops will be needed in Afghanistan presents the Obama administration with another problem in dealing with a nearly eight-year war that has lost popularity at home, compounded by new questions over the credibility of the Afghan government, which has just held an as-yet inconclusive presidential election beset by complaints of fraud.

The assessments come as the top American commander in the country, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has been working to complete a major war strategy review, and as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, described a worsening situation in Afghanistan despite the recent addition of 17,000 American troops ordered by the Obama administration and the extra security efforts surrounding the presidential election.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/asia/24military...

[kickysnana]

1. Who would have thought? n/t

[saigon68]

11. The"Present Occupant" following the plans of disgraced LBJ

Been there done that.

I wonder if he has a sand table model of Khe Sanh yet?

[Kolesar]

12. The Communists did not knock down any buildings in NYC, though

President Obama has a bad situation in Afghanistan after 7 years of incompetence and bad intent by the bush* government. Obama did not say he was going to leave Afghanistan when he ran for president.

[ohio2007]

17. But the French dumped their problem into the US lap and excused themselves

Deja Vu for the dems ?

...a bad situation .... after 7 years of incompetence .... Obama did not say he was going to leave Afghanistan when he ran for president.

JFK didn't want to escalate but the Texas president used the draft for 500,000 occupiers to hold a chunk of real estate that only produced rice.

[lib2DaBone]

2. So get out.. spend the money on Healthcare... you Dumbfuck Politicians...

[Kolesar]

13. The US could raid the "aircraft carrier and supersonic jets budget" to fund healthcar

$100 Billion/year--what a bargain to buy social stability back home.

[rrneck]

3. Get. The. Fuck. Out. nt

[Cobalt-60]

10. Absolutely right

We certainly don't want to dragged any deeper.
It sure sounds like Westmoreland lying for more troops during the 1960s.

[bemildred]

4. Took them 8 years to notice, no shit Sherlock. nt

[Prometheus Bound]

5. So the man Congressman Charlie Wilson called "goodness personified" is the main source of attacks.

I'm wondering what the Russians think when they read this.

[JohnnyLib2]

6. Quagmire. History repeated.

[Umbral]

7. And so it begins. nt

[bertman]

8. "Not enough". For sure.

And there won't be enough until there's one American for every Afghani man, woman, and child.

The Military-Industrial-Corporate Complex has its hands around our President's throat again.

[jody]

9. It's Obama's war, bring our troops home NOW. n/t

[bowens43]

14. Obama needs to get us the hell out of there now!!!!!!

More of the same crap. This is no different or more justified then bushes war in Iraq.

[ohio2007]

15. On "Fact finding mission": Afghan journalist shot dead near Khyber Pass

A spy caught, being paid as a stringer for the western MSM groups ?

JAMRUD: "Gunmen" shot dead an Afghan journalist known as an outspoken critic of the Taliban as he travelled by bus through Pakistan’s Khyber Pass on Monday, a Pakistani government official said.

Janullah Hashimzada was bureau chief in Pakistan for Afghanistan’s Shamshad television channel and was travelling from Afghanistan when he was attacked.
‘The attackers in a Toyota Corolla car intercepted the bus and made it stop and then they went inside and shot him dead,’ Rehan Khattak, a government official in Jamrud, the main town in the Khyber region, told Reuters. One passenger was wounded, he said.

Khattak declined to say who might have been behind the attack.

snip

Violence has increased in Khyber over the past year with Pakistani Taliban launching attacks in an attempt to cut off supplies bound for Western forces in Afghanistan.
Kidnap and smuggling gangs also operate in the region, some of whose members also pose as militants.


http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-librar...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/world/asia/23marines....
90 % of the worlds poppy crop comes from five southern provinces of Afghanistan. 50 % of that comes from the southern Hemland province.
Yet nobody knows whats really going on with BHO's war effort other then an increased body count in an area NATO commanders refused to set foot in and 'occupy' the past eight years.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1077037/Three-NATO-t...

[redqueen]

16. No amount of troops will ever be enough.

The MIC will never change... and our troops can't solve Afghanistan's problems.