The essence of your post is the reason for my statement. I'm a relatively big and strong guy at 6'2" 260ish but know that a 5'7" 145 pound weakling could wipe the floor with me depending on his motivation to fight versus mine. If I break into his house with bad intentions, I'm fighting for something that's not all that important to me, things. If he's fighting to save his and his family's lives, he's got more motivation than me. The political will is just as important (if not sometimes more so) than the military hardware and number of troops alone. We're fighting for our ideals, they're fighting for their survival. For an example of how that works out, look to Israel vs everyone else in that part of the world around them. And in this instance, we aren't fighting a traditional conventional war. And we don't have the home field advantage.
dont buy it. howz that working out for palestine? backers are very important. israel has us, palestine has iran. vietnam had china, who does the taliban have? the us could pretty easily tcob in afghanistan just like they couldve in vietnam, but the us doesnt want to. too much $$$, just pussy-footing around. not that fullblown invasion should be done. i dont see why al queda could be dealt with by missiles, cia and special ops for 1/100 th the cost.
I agree, for every one you kill two more pop up. No number of troops or number of years will win this type of war against these crazies. The only way to win is to bomb them into extinction and that isn't going to happen. The messiah used Afghanistan as an argument against the war in Iraq during the election now it's hard for him to back out. He's about to find out what it feels like when the shoe is on the other foot. The war in Afghanistan will continue to drain the economy while accomplishing nothing.
I thought he only asked for 40k, where are you getting your figures? Also, there has never been any political will in this war in Afghanistan from the beginning.
30K is 75% of 40K...so a reduction of 25%. Your second line is probably true, but the current administration and it's leftist backers have been screaming that Afghanistan is the "right war" for years. Now that we're mopping up the "wrong war" and his base is calling for surrender in Afghanistan, we don't hear so much about it being the "right war". Mostly, we're hearing how Rumsfeld "let OBL escape"...
ok my bad I read your post wrong. Well thats true as well. Despite the timeline, he isnt caving to the base. This is the third time he as approved more troops in that region. Took him to long to decide and thats going to hurt him politically with both groups.
NATO sending 7000. Nato chief unveils extra 7,000 troops for Afghanistan surge - Times Online perhaps more to come from Germany and France.
Where is this Political Will coming from? I haven't seen one person in this thread define win or success either. I guess your will is about the same as the politicians trying to figure out what to do..
Well, we never went to Afghanistan to "protect" it. We made war upon them for allowing Al Qaida to operate there and refusing to give them up to us. We toppled the Taliban government and Al Qaida has fled to the haven of Pakistan. As far as why we went to Afghanistan, the mission is finished. Bin Ladin has escaped already. Staying there 20 years won't change that. There is no need to stay there forever and try to build a Jeffersonian democracy that the people don't understand and never had. When we leave some strongman will take over just as it has always been. We just need to leave him with the very strong fear that if he allows Al Qaida to use the place as a base again, we will bring back the bombers and the troops. Even the old Taliban would not likely have harbored Al Qaida if they had known what idisastert would bring them. Now they know.
Tell me, what constitutes "victory"? Be specific. A waste of huge amounts of money for no gain to us whatsoever. Afghanistan has nothing we need. They do not constitute a threat to us. If they ever do so again, they can be dealt with again. Al Qaida is in Pakistan, which we need to get ready for. Things are going to get really ugly in Pakistan before its over and they are nuclear armed and full of crazies that hate us for which we pay them 7.5 $Billion a year. This president and congress are far less willing to kiss Pakistan's ass just to keep supply lines open to Afghanistan. When we're largely out of Afghanistan, then Pakistan has no more leverage on us and can be dealt with more effectively. Which is exactly what is being done. ASAP will take a couple of years to do it properly. You would be the first to scream bloody murder if we withdrew any sooner.
