Report: U.S. plans 'substantial increase' in Afghanistan troops

[TacticalPeek]

Source: USAToday


Report: U.S. plans 'substantial increase' in Afghanistan troops


The BBC is reporting that the Obama administration has told British officials that it will announce a "substantial increase" in U.S. forces for Afghanistan.

The report, attributed to British sources, follows today's announcement that 500 additional British troops would be sent to Afghanistan if certain conditions are met.

According to the BBC's Newsnight program, "the US could next week announce plans to send up to 45,000 extra servicemen and women."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed the report, saying President Obama has made no final decision on troop numbers.



Read more: http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/10/report-us-plans-substantial-increase-in-afghanistan-troops.html

[NavyDavy]

1. and? if they feel that is what needed to finish the mission then its

ok with me, as long as it isnt to Iraq...

[TacticalPeek]

3. Sounds good to me.

My son returned from Helmand province last month, via Landstuhl. As he put it, others had it worse.

Still work to be done there imo.

[Oregone]

4. Yeah, who cares there is no real mission with tangible goals

[TacticalPeek]

5. There are some tangible goals, and an emerging strategy.

                                                                Mullah Omar Doesn't Live Here Anymore

[Arctic Dave]

8. Prop up a corrupt govt and invigorate poppy production?

[forum slut]

9. finish educating the millions of girls who have finally managed to attend a school.

[Arctic Dave]

11. Ah yes, the go to reason for bombing, killing and occupying their country.

So much for going after OBL.

[forum slut]

21. I personally would rather see Sharia law erased from the world than OBL.

And I think educating these women will undermine the intentions of the Taliban and Al Queda far more than killing OBL.

[Arctic Dave]

22. I'd rather see the people responsible for killing several thousand people

in prison or the morgue. Not someones vision of nation building. As for girls going to school being a preventor of mass killings we only need to look at our policies to see this is just wishful thinking.

[forum slut]

23. our "druthers" aren't mutually exclusive then.

on edit: btw, we're in Afghanistan because of people who felt that nation building was unnecessary. had we moved in after the Soviet withdrawl, we wouldn't have to be there now.

[Arctic Dave]

24. The problem isn't that we didn't "nation build" after the soviets left, it wasn't really our

requirement. The problem is when we left we left behind billions in military hardware and didn't ask for it back or even try to buy it back.

[forum slut]

25. No, it wasn't a requirement but it would have prevented future problems.

A power vacuum was created and then, unsurprisingly, exploited by the strongest bullies on the playground. There are some in power today who would be wise to remember that.

[Arctic Dave]

26. The power vacum? These factions were killing each other before Russia invaded.

The same factions that we all had a marriage of convience with against the Russians. As for saying if we only stuck around and injected ourselves into their internal rivalies all this would not be a problem is a bit of a rosey scenario.

[Bragi]

13. Hey, you want to educate girls?

I can show you a place with literally hundreds of millions of young women needing education, and you don't even need tanks, planes and bombs to make it happen. All you need is schools and books and teachers.

The place is called Africa. If you want to educate girls, its the place to be.

Afghanistan, not so much.

[WriteDown]

14. They've got Oprah's school.

:)

[Bragi]

16. True. No planes, bombs, invasions needed /nt

[WriteDown]

19. I hear its getting harder to get a job in....

Oprahnomics these days though. The smart students minor in Oprahmatics though.

[forum slut]

20. Oh really

do they do this kind of shit to women in Africa? As I said, educating these oppressed women will yield the kind of long term results we are looking for far better than blowing up people's houses.

[Bragi]

28. Yes, in some parts of Africa

But in most of Africa, you can educate girls without the expense of militarily invading and occupying an entire country. And when you leave, things may be better. In Afghanistan, you can maybe run a girls show school or two, but unless you intend to occupy and run the country permanently, you won't replace the people who have run the place for the last few hundred years, nor will you make a dent in their dreadful, extreme mysogynyist culture.

So I say, get over the notion that we are an all-powerful society able to reshape any people we want to so they live according to our values. If you really want to educate girls, which is a noble mission, then go to Africa.

Or take the money being wasted in Afghanistan, and use it in inner cities and poor rural areas of America, where millions of poor girls who will likely never get educated, but who could be, await you. This would be very efficient compared to Afghanistan, because you won't have to spend money on tanks, planes, bombs, drones, corrupt officials, bribes to crooked tribal leaders, payoffs to war lords, etc.

[timeforpeace]

2. It might happen, but the administration won't announce it. Nothing to see here.

[placton]

6. ahh - the Nobel for Peace goes to

a man who escalates war

[RedSock]

12. it's amazing what people here will defend if the person has a D next to his name

if bush was going to do this, everyone here would howl with rage. and rightly so.

obama does it and some people suddenly think it is reasonable.

judge the policy -- not whether the guy has a D or an R after his name.

[Arctic Dave]

7. We can't project our empire if we don't kill more brown people.

Whatever happened to killing OBL and coming home? I guess it was a nice fairy tale for the rubes. Am I supposed to still get misty eyed when these guys die for my freedoms?

[SergeStorms]

10. Now we know........

where the troops being "withdrawn" from Iraq will be heading. Musical chairs with people's lives. Ain't it great to be an American? All war, all the time. :sarcasm: That Nobel Peace Prize must be getting awfully heavy around President Obama's neck.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. It costs One million dollars per soldier

At $3.6 billion a month, however, the annual total does exceed the firm's planned $23 billion in bonuses for the year.

That's the taxpayer toll of the US war in Afghanistan according to the Congressional Research Service, which released their findings on Wednesday.

More telling, perhaps, is the per-soldier calculation the group revealed -- the amount spent for each US soldier now costs American taxpayers $1,000,000 a year. The average was calculated based on the current US troop load in Afghanistan of 51,000 soldiers.



http://rawstory.com/2009/10/us-spends-1-million-per-soldier-in-afghanistan-government-report-says/


that's a lot of healthcare.

[Romulox]

17. Sweet lord! NO! nt

[Mari333]

18. Vietnam/Afghanistan. BIG fcking mistake if they do.

more bodies thrown into a deep hole of death.

in the meantime, more MERCENARIES getting paid mucho tax dollars are over there than soldiers who get paid squat.

and yes, follow the money. its about an oil pipeline. our soldiers end up having their guts blown out to protect big business.
Thats what its always about.

[saigon68]

29. And propping up this Piece of Shit

[unhappycamper]

27. Obama's already ordered 34,000 more troops to that quagmire.

This is insane.