WP:Kerry Seeks More U.S. Troops for Afghanistan

[cal04]

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday urged the deployment of more U.S. troops to combat the growing Taliban threat in Afghanistan while accusing the administration of trying to salvage its congressional majorities by playing on public fears of future terrorist attacks rather than fixing what he said was a disastrous policy in Iraq.

As the nation prepares to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Kerry offered a pointed rejoinder to President Bush's recent rhetorical offensive on terrorism. He said Bush's policies have turned Iraq into a terrorist breeding ground, unleashed dangerous forces elsewhere in the Middle East and diverted resources from the battle against terrorism at home and in Afghanistan.

"We have a Katrina foreign policy, a succession of blunders and failures that have betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it," Kerry said in a speech at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall.

(snip)
Speaking a day after a suicide bomber killed 16 people, including two U.S. soldiers, in Afghanistan, Kerry charged the administration of "a policy of cut-and-run" in that country and said the Pentagon should deploy at least 5,000 more troops to help suppress the Taliban insurgency. He said allied forces there need more helicopters, drones, heavy equipment and reconstruction funds to help prop up the government in Kabul.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/09/AR2006090900831.html

[ginnyinWI]

1. He's right (again).

We're losing ground in Afghanistan because * took away the needed resources and troops. They're in Iraq now, playing the part of ducks in a shooting gallery, unfortunately.

Democrats are stronger in fighting the war on terrorism; Republicans can't govern.

[bhikkhu]

2. we're way behind.

it's not the retro-medieval taliban anymore, it's the nuevo-riche opium warlords, who in another year may decide that the Taliban is not their best defense force. The proliferation of mercenaries, led by US defense spending, may lead to some surprises in the near future.

[ConsAreLiars]

3. The idea that the US Imperial Power has the right or the duty to

dominate and control the people of Afghanistan is just what is most wrong with the Democratic Party. Kerry should know better. He has allied himself with the monsters, and he should be ashamed. Buthchering Afghans for the sake of corprorate Amerika is no more justified their than in Vietnam. Shame on him!

[Erika]

5. Opium is big time, women are being hit hard big time again

Where's Laura who touted freedom for Afgahnistan?

[wisteria]

4. He is right, Bush never finished the job in Afghanistan and now things

are getting ugly. I don't see any other choice that makes sense.

[sandnsea]

6. If we blow Afghanistan too

We may as well just pull up stakes from the entire world and hunker down and slide into a third world existence. If we don't even have the integrity to do the right thing by the Afghani people, nobody will trust us with diplomacy, defense, business or anything else. It is long past time we turned our attention to the failure in Afghanistan too.