Re: "going to send only 30,000 troops..."
Not counting the extra 10,000 he *already sent* in early Spring of this year (filling a request for more troops that Bush had given short-shrift to for more then two years....), and the 5,000 or so new NATO forces he's arranged for.
With the new 30,000, (delivered *faster* then previously thought possible), on top of the already delivered 10,000 from Spring, plus the additional 5,000 or so from NATO... and in combination with the newly narrowed tasking for our forces (no longer 'open-ended stay' and 'total defeat for all Taliban' but now 'until Afghan's and Pakistan's governments and armed forces can effectively stand against the threat from radicals') the US military (including McCrystal) are satisfied with the force structure.
Already is around 25% more then Bush ever committed before the latest increase arrives, and the Spring 2010 deployment will come earlier then even McCrystal asked for....
Re: "... obumble will also announce a withdrawal time table, he may as well tell the enemy to wait it out because we're leaving soon enough."
Actually, I believe the exact opposite of that is true.
There is a solid strain of psi-ops in the phrasing of this 'start to drawn-down in 2011' pledge. (Notice: doesn't say how many! <g>)
The very LAST MESSAGE we want the Afghan (and especially the Pastun peoples, backbone of the Taliban movement) to hear is that America has "no plans for leaving" because the Tali will spin that in all of their propaganda as "the US wants to permanently OCCUPY our land". That is what they have been saying all along, and that is probably one of the main reasons they have REGAINED so much STRENGTH in the recent years after our eight plus years in-country already.
It's a propaganda VICTORY for the Taliban and al Qaeda if the people see us as "foreign occupiers".
Promising to leave is just SMART warfare.
(Not to mention the other equally valid point: somewhere along the line we reach and then pass the point of diminishing returns even just from a cost basis. Stay TOO LONG and the net effect is to WEAKEN the United States instead of strengthening her.) |
