Obama approves Afghanistan troop increase

[Beacool]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama has approved a significant troop increase for Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

The new troop deployment is expected to include 8,000 Marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as well as 4,000 additional Army troops from Fort Lewis, Washington.

"This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said in a written statement.

"The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al Qaeda supports the insurgency and threatens America from its safe haven along the Pakistani border."

Another 5,000 troops will be deployed at a later date to support combat troops, bringing the total to 17,000 the Defense Department said. A senior administration official confirmed the total.

The Obama administration has been conducting several reviews of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, including a review by Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in the region. The president and the Pentagon have been considering a request from the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, to send as many as 30,000 additional troops.
Obama said the troop increase in Afghanistan would be made possible in part by the impending troop drawdown in Iraq.

All 17,000 troops announced Tuesday will go to the southern region of the country where Afghanistan borders Pakistan, with the goal mainly being to stop the flow of foreign fighters, according to a U.S. military official with direct knowledge of the deployment and military plans for Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/obama.troops/index.html

[Occam Bandage]

1. I would approve of this ordinarily,

but recent news out of Pakistan (being the Pakistani government's effective surrender to the Taliban in the Pakistani northwest) has significantly dimmed my hopes for peace in Afghanistan. Unless we can either pressure/entice Pakistan to reverse this trend and fully govern its own territory, or we can convince the Pakistani government to allow American forces to effectively hold the border region, we're simply wasting time and money in Afghanistan.

[Beacool]

3. Afghanistan should be tread carefully.

If not, someone should go talk to the Russians. Our best chance for success was right after the Taliban was thrown out of power, now it may be too late. Bush should have focused on Afghanistan and not on Iraq.

;(

[wordpix]

6. Gates: 'the original mission in Afghanistan was "too broad" '

I thought the original mission was to get bin Laden and his gang. Somehow, Commander AWOL "broadened" it to "if you're not with us, you're agin' us." FUCK.

[wordpix]

2. I blame Dimson for this. The ass couldn't go in there & get bin Laden, had to start 2 wars instead

The fuckhead* had to outsource the kill at Tora Bora when US forces had bin Laden pinned down. No, former pResident Shitness had to play general instead with his two war solution instead of getting bin Laden and his guys. Dimwit should be secured in jail and all his billions returned to the Treasury so he won't be a further threat to world security and we won't have to pay for his secret service detail for the rest of his miserable life. I hope the asshat is hounded by lawsuits and courts until he dies. It would be too good for him.

:puke:

[Beacool]

4. I blame Rumsfeld and Cheney.

Two evil characters.

x(

[wordpix]

5. them, too, but the buck stopped with Dimson