In breaking news, President Barack Obama has rejected the Afghanistan war options presented to him by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
President Obama is still close to announcing his overhauled war strategy which most likely will be announced shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19.
The questions and scenarios that the President raised at his war council meeting on Wednesday could very well change the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war zone, according to an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
President Obama is considering options that include adding 30,000 or more U.S. forces to the region in order to combat and defeat the Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan, and hopefully to buy some time for the Afghan government's small and ill-equipped fighting forces to take over and take control of their own destiny. The other three options on the table are ranges of troop increases, from a relatively small addition of forces to the roughly 40,000 that the top U.S. General in Afghanistan prefers, according to military and other officials.
As always, the Examiner.Com is interested in what you think. Is President Obama on the right track by rejecting his national security team’s request for more troops without an exit strategy? Can the United States afford to fight a war with no end in sight for another 8 years? Inquiring minds want to know. Sound off.
Until the next time Louisianans, Good Day, God Bless and Good Fishing.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_afghanistan_war/2009/11/11/285096.html
Comments
These Afghan people need to fight their own war. They don't like us. Why are we still over there? We were supposely over there to kill Bin Laden. Now we have other excuses. Obama is correct not to send anymore troops over to die. There are 400 AL Queda that we are fighting against. We have over 60,000 troops and NATO have over 30,000. It is an embarrassing thought that we need those many more troops to take out 400 people. A stragety is needed to teach these people to fight for their own country and we should just get the hell out of dodge. A guerilla war puts us at a disadvantage. Train the people to fight for themselves. We really need to regroup because our troops are spreaded all over the place. We need our troops to protect our own country.
To Carol: I totally agree that the reason to "why" we are still in Afghanistan fighting a war, has been "lost in translation". You are correct in the fact that we initially went there under the premise to kill Bin Laden. Unfortunately, we don't even know if Bin Laden is alive. Even if we were to kill him, he would only die as a martyr and we would then have to deal with killing thousands who have taken his "baton" and continue their fight to rid Westerners from their land.
I wrote an article on Afghanistan that I've linked to this piece which goes into detail about why I believe we are still fighting in Afghanistan. At the time some who read my article thought that I was crazy for my theory. Now...even the media has agreed to the same theory that I proposed several months ago. The inability for our government to trust Pakistan and the security of their nuclear arsenal is a big reason why we are still there. Thanks for your great comment. Oh, we can't stay in Afghanistan forever. GB
This was a very smart move. We now need are own resources, we need to bring those man and women home. And let these countries fight their own wars. This Osama Bin Laden crap is a bunch of BS that has played out. We have amazing technology let us use that to ferret out Bin Laden and be done with that chapter and we also are suppose to be advance enough in fighting war games that we should be able to target the Taliban and stop them. With our children home from an UN-win able war. There are no winner's in these regional and religious wars. Nothing but dead bodies. And our economy plunging American's further into debt and despair. All the money that went into financing the fancy of the Neocons who called for the Iraqi war and the almost collapse of the country defies rational thought about any ones support of that or the senseless U.S's participation in it to the detriments of it's own people.
NO more Troops. Pull out Period
They had Ronald Regan (their God) who started a star wars program and I was under the impression that this was a massive techno way of fighting a war with minimal troop involvement in actual ground participation. We have all these Acronym CIA, FBI and Navy Seals Special Forces. all kinds of covert activities that we are involved in so we should be able to monitor their nuclear arsenals and the Taliban. and along with our Friends in the other Middle Eastern countries.
Let's bring our people home, They have proved beyond a shadow of doubt they are prepared to die for their country. It's time we brought them home. To many have died already.
To Nandi: It is amazing that a country as great as ours have not figured out that Afghanistan is a country that has never been conquered by any country...ever. When you stick a foot in a bear trap, you normally pull back a nub. War Industries and the love of making money from war has crippled our economy and needlessly taken the lives of thousands of our nation's brave fighting men and women. GB
To GB and Nandi, Typically the wars of this nation has been a great stimulus to the economy, more war planes and tanks have to be built to meet our enemy with overwhelming force. Our nations defense contractors have to compete internationally to secure contracts to develop and maintain weapons of war now. Our government is as corrupt as it is bankrupt. We seemingly don't have common sense anymore. We wage war with no regard to fiscal responsibility. The last time this country had two active war fronts it was called WWII. During that period some technologies were shared between allies but equipment was manufactured at home employing our own citizens. Now we have NWO/global economy with all countries linked financially. We have at least Four active wars ( drug,terrorist,iraq,afghanistan) with all this going on you would think our economy would be humming along. I think congress should be dismissed, starting over with all new faces and one focus,The United States of America.
The time has come to bring ALL troops home. Let us as a nation become selfish for once and focus on the betterment of this country. Let's repair our fragile infrastructure,why in the hell are we rebuilding af-stan and iraq when we have not rebuilt our own cities? Tell Louisanans,Mississippians,Texans and citezenry of other states that have recently endured natural disasters why foreign lands deserve our tax dollars and expertise at reconstruction more than Americans! Recall congress!
Yes Craig I agree we should dismiss congress and start fresh.
That is the only way we will get the changes we need!
This war is ridiculous and it is time to bring our troops home were they belong.We have seen young innocent men get killed and for what.I just don't understand.President Obahma BRING THOSE TROOPS HOME.
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