petreaus thinks we can win in afghanistan....

[spanone]

KABUL, Afghanistan — Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of American and NATO forces here, began his campaign Sunday to convince an increasingly skeptical public that the American-led coalition can still succeed, saying he had not come to Afghanistan to preside over a “graceful exit.”

In interviews with The New York Times, The Washington Post and “Meet the Press,” General Petraeus said American and NATO troops were making progress on a number of Afghan fronts, including routing Taliban insurgents from their sanctuaries, reforming the Afghan government and preparing Afghan soldiers to fight on their own.

General Petraeus, who took over last month after Gen. Stanley McChrystal was fired by President Obama, said he believed he would be given the time and material necessary to prevail here. He expressed that confidence despite the fact that nearly every phase of the war is going badly — and despite the fact that the American public has turned against it.

“The president didn’t send me over here to seek a graceful exit,” the general said from his office at NATO headquarters in downtown Kabul. “My marching orders are to do all that is humanly possible to help us achieve our objectives.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/world/asia/16petraeus.html?_r=1&ref=global-home&pagewanted=print

[Parche]

1. ASK HIM........what do we 'win'???

:grr::grr::hi:

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Exactly what will a win in Afghanistan look like? Of course

he says it is winnable. First, he is a good soldier and that means doing all that he can to fulfill his mission. And secondly, this is his shining moment, the one that generals wait a lifetime for.

[Lasher]

3. No shit, he thinks we 'won' in Iraq.

Mission accomplished, whatever that is.

[kratos12]

4. To a carpenter

everything looks like a nail.

We need to stop asking the military wether we should go to war or not....they will always say yes.

[Blue Owl]

5. The $800 billion dollar hunch

Hey, it might or might not work -- let's throw a few more billion at it.

[sad sally]

6. and kill some more innocent people and wound some more

overworked-war-is-all-I-know troops, and leave all the bomb shit that kills the Country's citizens for decades to come.
Yeah, Petraeus wants this "long war" to last forever or at least until he retires and becomes a regular military analyst on the tv.

[spanone]

8. nine years later......

[qazplm]

7. its his job

like it or not his job is to advise the president and the joint chiefs and then effectuate their orders.

“My marching orders are to do all that is humanly possible to help us achieve our objectives.”

He doesn't do that by saying, yeah, we're screwed but whatever I'll give it a try. Not his role. The folks who call the shots are the ones who get the blame or praise for whatever happens.

[obxhead]

9. We lost this war the minute the first bomb hit the ground.

While we have committed atrocities over there since day one of the war it is nothing the the Afghan people have not been through before. There is no level of control or length of time at war that will deliver a "win" in the region. One day we will leave and things will return to a new version of the same thing it has been there for centuries.

A "win" should no longer even be on the table for discussion. The only thing left to decide with Afghanistan is how much more blood we will spill, how many more of our soldiers must die, and how much money we want to spend doing these things.

Wake up Obama. This is a clear failure of your administration. Repeating a thing over and over again and expecting different results is quite simply put... Fucking stupid!

[AlabamaLibrul]

10. Just an old newspaper ad from a professional left front group....

[lib2DaBone]

11. 40 Million unemployed , hungry..homeless in the U.S.

While the U.S. Military is deployed to over 135 bases around the globe.

Sooner or later.. someone will look at this picture and ask why?

[Skidmore]

12. Thursday or Friday on MSNBC the CW was that it is Petraus' job to sell

the war to the people. At least that was the media's consensus.

[sad sally]

14. was dubbed as a "media blitz" - Afghanistan - the Right War

[TheKentuckian]

13. What is the prize and how much does it cost in lives, injuries, and treasure?

While less than nothing for an open infinite credit card is logically an exaggeration I've yet to hear anything to clear up that impression.