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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMF who wrote (439096)	12/8/2008 7:30:53 AM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574261

To "seal" the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, massive number of troops would be needed. Take a look at a map. See pics of what the terrain is like. In addition to the massive task of sealing the border, it would have been needed to be sealed in an extremely short period of time. Remember the Taliban had fallen and AQ and Taliban forces were driven out of Afghanistan by December 2001. Does anyone think we could get massive numbers of troops there in a couple months? Remember the first Gulf War? Kuwait was invaded August 2, 1990. We didn't begin the battle to evict Iraq from Kuwait till Jan. 16, 1991. Most of that time was needed to get forces to the region. And it was easier to get forces to the Saudi-Kuwait border than it was to land-locked Afghanistan.

To: RMF who wrote (439096)	12/8/2008 9:39:02 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574261

We wanted to do Afghanistan "on the cheap" and paying off Warlords to do the fighting was cheaper (and much less casualties) than sending our own guys in. It wasn't about doing it on the cheap. Apparently, you haven't followed the subject too closely. It was decided early on that the Northern Alliance was the best way to approach the situation because they were believed to have been committed to the operation and they knew the terrain exceptionally well, amongst other reasons. The Northern Alliance flat balked when it came down to it, but there was no indication up front that might happen. I've never read any credible account that suggested that cost was a factor.