Petraeus on Afghanistan troop surge: "It gets harder before it gets easier." USA! USA! USA! USA!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in an interview Monday that a surge in coalition troops has turned the tide on the Taliban's "momentum" there, but warned tough battles still lie ahead.

Petraeus also played down the prospect of a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops next year, repeating his insistence that a target of July 2011 was merely a "date when a process begins -- nothing more, nothing less."

"It is not the date when the American forces begin an exodus and look for the exit and the light to turn off on the way out of the room," he said in a BBC interview recorded in Kabul.

As the death toll of U.S. troops in Afghanistan rose again with the death of four soldiers on Sunday, Petraeus said the road ahead could be bloody but insisted foreign forces were making progress.

"The momentum that the Taliban have established over the course of recent years has been reversed in many areas and will be reversed in the other areas as well. This will entail tough fighting," he told the British broadcaster.

Petraeus warned, however, that further progress to force Taliban fighters out of their remaining safe havens will entail tough fighting. "It gets harder before it gets easier," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/08/23/petraeus-declares-taliban-momentum-reversed/

[lib2DaBone]

1. Patreus .... POTUS 2012

The neocons are gearing up to insert Candidate Patreus. (Charles Krauthammer, Wm Crystal, Faux News)

Last week at a news conference , when asked if he was considering a run for POTUS, Patreus did not deny it... but he did say,

"I am reading a history book about Grant".


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http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ulyssessgrant

Ulysses S. Grant Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868.

When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms."

Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation had already wrought havoc with business.