War, More War or Morer War - Debate Freezes Out the Majority View: Get Out Now

[unhappycamper]

War, More War or Morer War - Debate Freezes Out the Majority View: Get Out Now
by Ted Rall | December 6, 2009 - 1:35pm

The headline ran in The New York Times a month ago, on November 7th: "All Afghan War Options by Obama Aides Said to Call for More Troops." According to White House insiders, Obama considered three choices for digging our way deeper into the "graveyard of empires": General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the occupation forces, asked for 40,000 additional soldiers. Defense Secretary Robert Gates wanted 30,000 more. Other generals wanted to send 20,000 more.

Obama, reports U.S. state-controlled media, has chosen the "middle option"--30,000 more troops, bringing the total American occupation force to 98,000.

Obama is many things: cool, calm and collected. What he is not is unpredictable. Give the man a middle course, a happy median and a compromise to choose from, and he'll split the difference every time. "Hope"? "Change"? Awesome campaign slogans. The posters will make handsome collectibles.

The weirdest aspect of this Afghan spin game is that everyone is buying into it. Most American voters, after all, are against the war in Afghanistan entirely. (52 percent say the war isn't worth fighting, according to the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll. 44 percent say it is.) Objectively, therefore, the "middle ground" is immediate withdrawal.

(I don't know what's to the left of that. Retroactive withdrawal? We'd need Superman to do his flying around the world superfast thing for that, though, and I hear he got laid off last year.)


Rest of article at: http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/25345

[AllentownJake]

1. I hope the posters do

I have a closet full of Rally signs in my closet. I could make a nice profit on Ebay for them in a few years

:rofl:

[KharmaTrain]

2. Reasoned Rather Than Emotional Is Different For Sure...

I've said it previously, I am NOT in favor of sending more troops into what is a tribal civil war that has zero to do with our national security and more troops won't "pacify" things. However, President Obama came into a real confusing mess...thanks to the previous regime...where there was zero plan for our forces in that country that has led to him having to make the best out of a lot of bad options. Withdraw and face the right wing hate machine and even our allies who will start the "cut and run" bullshit and demoralize the military more than it is. However, this "surge" may get the ball moving on negotiations and create conditions where we can withdraw according to the President's timeline. At least that's his thought, I don't quite square with it.

Part of what's going on is more show that anything else. While many like to compare this with Vietnam, and I've caught myself doing the same...there's a big difference...the location. FOr the most part, the cold winters shut down much military activity and thus the escalation comes at a time when fighting generally ramps down...but will be in place for the spring which could twart a possible Taliban offensive.

Prior to all this talk about escalation, there were reports that there were quiet, back-channel negotiations with the Taliban taking place...I hope that this has been continuing and that this "surge" is more a doubling down on that table than on the battlefield.

[Robb]

3. Oh, Ted.

Actually, there was no reason whatsoever for the U.S. to invade Afghanistan after 9/11:

* On 9/11 Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan. He has been there ever since.

* There were only two Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan on 9/11. Both had been closed. There were, and remain, hundreds of camps in Pakistan.

* There were very few Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan on 9/11--by some estimates, fewer than two dozen. All were low-level. The big fish and the big numbers were and remain in--you guessed it--Pakistan.

Assuming facts not in evidence aside -- this argument always falls flat to me, because it implies support for invading Pakistan. "We just have troops in the wrong place!!11!1!" :eyes: