Crash Adds to Growing Doubts About Afghan War

[jefferson_dem]

Crash Adds to Growing Doubts About Afghan War
By Yochi J. Dreazen

The deadly crash of a U.S. helicopter in eastern Afghanistan earlier today will fuel the growing questions about the Obama administration’s handling of the long war—and the public’s nagging sense, evident in recent polls, that the conflict is simply not worth its enormous human and financial cost.

Military officials are continuing to probe why the American Chinook helicopter went down in eastern Afghanistan’s volatile Wardak province early Saturday, killing at least 31 U.S. troops in the largest single-day loss of American forces since the Afghan war began in 2001. More American troops died in the crash than have typically been killed in entire months of the grueling conflict.

The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter, and three military officials in Afghanistan told National Journal that early indications were that the chopper had been taken down by a surface-to-air missile. In a written statement, the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan said there had been “enemy activity” in the areas of the crash but that the exact cause remained under investigation.

The crash comes amid a spate of grim news from Afghanistan, the Obama administration’s primary national-security focus. National Journal reported last week that the number of IED attacks in the country soared to a record high of 1,600 in June, killing dozens of coalition troops, because of the free flow of bomb-making materials from neighboring Pakistan. A recent government watchdog report, meanwhile, found that an inability to properly control the billions of dollars of American aid flowing into Afghanistan every year means some of that money could be inadvertently fueling the Afghan insurgency.

The rapidly rising U.S. death toll in Afghanistan—paired with a lack of discernible military progress there—is raising new questions about President Obama’s war policy. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama accused then-President George W. Bush of shortchanging the Afghan war effort in favor of the Iraq War and promised to significantly boost U.S. troop levels if elected. Since taking office, Obama has more than tripled the number of American forces in Afghanistan, including a surge of 33,000 U.S. reinforcements last year.

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http://nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/crash-adds-to-growing-doubts-about-afghan-war-20110806

[GSLevel9]

1. NEWS FLASH... sky is blue and grass is green. More at 11. nt

[Supersedeas]

2. well, that is news to Defense Contractors who see green all the time