Taliban: Afghan Surge Will Mean More US Fatalities

[Flaneur]

Source: Associated Press

KABUL (AP) -- The Taliban rebuffed President Barack Obama's new war plan for Afghanistan on Wednesday, saying his strategy to send 30,000 new troops will only lead to more American casualties.

If conditions are right, Obama said U.S. forces could begin leaving Afghanistan in 18 months. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in the country, said the Afghan government and its international partners should use the coming year-and-a-half to convince the Taliban they can't win and offer militants a way to quit the insurgency "with dignity."

In a statement, the Taliban said the Obama administration's plan was "no solution for the problems of Afghanistan" and would give insurgents an opportunity "to increase their attacks and shake the American economy, which is already facing crisis." Obama only set a tentative pullout date for July 2011 to lessen the sensitivities of Afghans about the troop buildup and decrease the American public's opposition to the war, the Taliban statement said. "This stratagem will not pay off," it said, adding the surge will result in increased deaths of U.S. troops.

More than 850 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. Of those, the military reports nearly 660 were killed by hostile action.
NATO reported the latest U.S. service member was killed in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday when his patrol was attacked by insurgents.

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Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHANISTAN?SITE=NJMOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-12-02-12-58-43

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I hate to point the damn obvious

but this is exactly news how?

[No Elephants]

2. No shiite, Sherlock.

[Blandocyte]

3. the Taliban spokesman, also known as Mullah Obvious,

said that Taliban forces will use the mountain passes to ambush coalition forces.

[Nihil]

4. Odd ...

> More than 850 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan,
> Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
> in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. Of those, the military
> reports nearly 660 were killed by hostile action.

So more than 190 members of the U.S. military died over there from causes
other than hostile action?

Isn't that a bit high? (> 22% non-combat fatalities)

:shrug: