US Army Battalion in Halfaghanistan Being Sent to Iraqnam as part of the 20,000!!

[Dems Will Win]

Now this really takes the cake. We are about to lose southern and eastern Halfaghanistan and we are sending them to Iraqnam as part of the escalation there. Bush has so few troops left, he's pulling out of eastern Halfaghanistan and sending those folks to Baghdad!!

I have a new name for Iraqnam: "Thisisanotherfinemessyou'vegottenmeinto-Stan"

What say you DU, about Bush's brilliant new strategery?

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban forces, shattered and ejected from Afghanistan by the US military five years ago, are poised for a major offensive against US troops and undermanned NATO forces. This has prompted US commanders here to issue an urgent appeal for a new US Marine Corps battalion to reinforce the American positions.

NATO's 30,000 troops in Afghanistan are supposed to have taken responsibility for security operations. But Taliban attacks have risen sharply, and senior US officers here describe the NATO operation as weak, hobbled by a shortage of manpower and equipment, and by restrictions put on the troops by their capitals.

The accelerating war here and the critical need for troops complicate the crumbling security picture across the region -- from Afghanistan, where the United States chose to strike back after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, to Iraq, where US troops, in almost four years of fighting, have been unable to establish basic security and quell a bloody sectarian war.

President Bush is expected to announce this week the dispatch of thousands of additional troops to Iraq as a stopgap measure. Such an order, Pentagon officials say, would strain the Army and Marine Corps as they man both wars.

A US Army battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks to deploy to Iraq.

Army Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata and other US commanders say that will happen as the Taliban is expected to unleash a campaign to cut the vital road between Kabul and Kandahar.

...

"It is bleak," said Colonel Chris Haas, commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan.

More: http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/01/08/commanders_seek_more_forces_in_afghanistan/

Please remember to RECOMMEND to get this important fact out BEFORE the Surge Speech tomorrow!!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. makes sense...

the CO's on the ground in Afghanistan are screaming for more boots. It's makes absolute sense to the shrub to reduce the numbers. :mad:

[LynnTheDem]

2. Afghansitan, The Forgotten War; "It is bleak"

Yes. So is our future, thanks to George W. bUsh.

[saigon68]

3. This whole exercise will not "end well"

[Robbien]

4. This is so wrong

there just are no words sufficient to express how wrong this is

[tiptoe]

5. deliberate spreading of neocon chaos...perpetuate the treasury drain.

Congress/Committee Chairs/Pelosi had better get a clue.

Expedite investigations. Expose truth. Educate American people, & Supreme court.

...
On the fifth anniversary of , President Bush said he is often asked why America invaded Iraq if ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was not responsible for them.

"The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat," he said. "My administration, the Congress, and the United Nations saw the threat - and after 9/11, Saddam's regime posed a risk that the world could not afford to take. The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power."

President Bush acknowledges Saddam had no connection to the September 11th terror attacks. But a Zogby public opinion poll taken five years later shows 46 percent of surveyed American voters continue to believe that he did. More than a third believe the Iraq war was justified retribution for Saddam's purported involvement.
...
Iraqi casualties in the war are estimated between 50,000-650,000 dead. President Bush disputes the higher figure as unbelievable. It was reached by statistical sampling conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
...
Number of US Deaths in Iraq Surpass 9/11 Fatalities

Pollster John Zogby: "Five years after 9/11, the dramatic results from this survey are found in the different partisan perceptions of national security, and what people believe should be done to keep our country safe. Democrats and independents line up against the policies of the Bush administration, while Republicans line up supporting them.

“Most Republicans said it was right for the U.S. to expand the war on terrorism by attacking Iraq, that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 terror attacks, and that they believe the government should have the right to conduct searches of personal property and telephone conversations to find terrorists. Most Democrats disagree on every point.

“If I were advising Democrats, I would tell them to energize their base on this issue. If I were advising Republicans, I would tell them to energize their base on this issue. The difference is, the President is doing this right now. The Democrats are not.”

The survey of 1,014 likely voters nationwide, which also places President Bush’s job approval rating at 37%, was conducted Sept. 1 through 5, 2006, and has a margin of effort of +/-3.1 percentage points.

Zogby Poll: 9/11 + 5 Reveals Dramatic Partisan Split

[CJCRANE]

6. They're just pawns on Chimpy's chess-board.

What does he care?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. I'm surprised he hasn't drained troops from Korea ..

... or Bosnia (are we still occupying Bosnia, I can't remember - senior moment)

[atreides1]

8. He's already sent troops

From both the 2nd ID which has its Division HQ in Korea, and the 25th ID which is the backup unit for the 2nd should the NK decide to come across the 38th Parallel.

The man is slowly bleeding the US military to death, and Congress either can't or won't stop him.

[originalpckelly]

9. Afghanistan was the most honorable war America's been involved in...

in it's history. We helped the local population gain control of it's country. There's nothing better than that. Afghanistan is a nation which made the decision to throw off it's tyrannical leaders by itself, the Northern Alliance was in existence well before we arrived, and they were fighting the Taliban.

We really shouldn't have left Afghanistan, and it really did have a wonderful chance of actually succeeding. But of course, we are such fucking brain dead idiots, we started up another war without focusing on the place where we should be.

[NewJeffCT]

10. Since things are going so swimmingly in Afghanistan...

I guess we can afford to draw down our presence there.

:sarcasm:

[CoffeeCat]

11. Okkaaaaay....so let me get this straight...

We were attacked on 9/11--by Al Queda/Taliban radicals led by Osama bin Laden.

We put a few troops into Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban, but we put tens of
thousand of troops into Iraq---where there was no Al Queda and no Taliban.

Osama got away, and the Taliban is growing like spores in a petri dish--because
we're fighting a civil war in Iraq--a country that had nothing to do with 9/11?

And now...the Taliban--the principal evildoers from the 'war on terror'--is stronger than ever?

Do I have it right?

[mopinko]

12. i have taken to claiming that my country is dumbfuckistan

when filling out internet forms.
this does not surprise me.



we know now that the trillions that have been spent since the reign of st ronnie has been spent on poker parties with hookers(make and female, old and very young), drinks and drugs, and whatever else the randy cunninghams and jack abramoffs of the world have spent it on.
we are left with an army that cannot overtake a country that was already bombed back to the stone age when we got there. hollow, the military is hollow.

[Dems Will Win]

13. kick

[Dems Will Win]

14. kick

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Well well, choppers will soon leave for

points towaards the US, this will nto end well on any front

[Spazito]

16. Seeing as Kandahar is the Canadian sector, it's no surprise

that it doesn't matter to the bush cabal. Friendly fire or enemy fire, it's only Canadians and Afghanis, no big deal.

I don't have the words to express my total revulsion for the bush cabal and it's supporters, be they American, British or Canadian.

[Dems Will Win]

17. Blood for Oil

[Imagevision]

18. Bush's obsession with being seen as a failure in Iraq while countless others

are slaughtered is deeply suspicious. it's been stated that Bush is sticking to his guns to secure Iraq's OIL acquisitions for US. Oil companies and it seems that this is exactly what is taking place!