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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (325478)	9/22/2009 3:44:45 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793843

General McChrystal said he is prepared to resign if he isn't given sufficient resources Are we FINALLY going to get a Flag with some guts?

To: unclewest who wrote (325478)	9/22/2009 4:49:44 AM
From: unclewest	7 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793843

An SF friend just sent this viewpoint. uw "This may be precisely what Obama wants and has set up ... With a McChrystal resignation (justifiable), Obama will bring into question the loyalty and dependability of his senior military leaders, and that of the Force as a whole. It will provide cover for him to build his Brown Shirts ... his dependable and loyal forces ... more rapidly. He does not, and has not ever, given two shits about A'stan. That was Bush's war. His pro-Muslim / anti-American world view would never let him pursue a true victory in A'stan, and he's said as much"

To: unclewest who wrote (325478)	9/22/2009 5:45:36 PM
From: KLP	4 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793843

This Could Be The End Of The Obama Presidency (And The Democrats) Published by AJStrata under All General Discussions strata-sphere.com The war in Afghanistan was seen by most in this country as the legitimate war. The war in Iraq, which far fewer supported through to its successful end, was considered Bush’s war (it was mine too, and everyone who supported it and voted for it – war’s are not things you change your mind over). The war in Afghanistan struck at the heart of Islamo Fascism. It was from there that 9-11 and numerous other attacks on the West (going back to the first WTC attacks in 1993) were conceived and launched. It was the training ground for al Qaeda, the headquarters of al Qaeda. It was the snake pit which needed to be cleansed. President Bush left the Afghanistan conflict well staged to be won. The Pakistanis have surrounded their federally administered tribal areas and cleansed much of it of radical terrorists. The sanctuary for terrorists has been shrinking for years. Now they hide out in small villages running for their lives from our unmanned drones and their missiles. Their attacks have become less and less successful and bloody. Their recruits are drying up, their money running short. By all accounts they are on the verge of collapsing in the coming year or so. To the North in Afghanistan the US/NATO/Afghan forces are on the verge of winning as well, though they need more personnel to push pass the tipping point. The terrorist Taliban and their al Qaeda allies are cornered and putting up a fight, like the trapped animals they are. The NGO’s are in country and doing great work. One person I talked to told me childhood death due to illness and malnutrition had gone from something like 3,000 a year to 300. Afghans are emerging from the darkness in most parts of the country. Now, after 8 years of war, bloodshed and too many fallen heros from too many countries, our young and inexperienced President is frozen with indecision. After announcing a counter-insurgent plan for Afghanistan in March of this year (the right plan), similar to the one that broke the back of resistance in Iraq and turned al Qaeda from the Future of Islam to the Enemy of Islam, President Obama is hesitating on whether to actually execute his own pronounced policy. His own hand picked general in the region is about to teach this young President a harsh lesson in leadership, honor and responsibility: Within 24 hours of the leak of the Afghanistan assessment to The Washington Post, General Stanley McChrystal’s team fired its second shot across the bow of the Obama administration. According to McClatchy, military officers close to General McChrystal said he is prepared to resign if he isn’t given sufficient resources (read “troops”) to implement a change of direction in Afghanistan … We have a newly promoted Marine Lance Corporal in the family, and we are very proud of him and his achievements. If President Bush was in office right now we would be as comfortable as possible with the idea of him heading to Afghanistan to do the good work of this nation. But no one should take his willingness to risk the ultimate sacrifice for granted. No one should play political dodge ball with all the lives of the Americans in Afghanistan, all those who will be going, and all those who sacrificed there. Not to mention the NATO forces and their sacrifices, and of course our Afghan allies as well. This is not a time for political calculation. It is a time for determination and pushing through the final barriers to success. It is were leaders rise and losers fade to the side. President Obama is hesitating because he has screwed up so badly on so many fronts he is in danger of losing his mindless (and gutless) liberal base. But if Americans can sacrifice their lives for America in Afghanistan, our young President can surely take on the wrath of the rabid far left to honor those sacrifices. Or one would think so. President Obama, if you do not fulfill your promise to finish the war in Afghanistan with success, if you do not get Bin Laden (as you said you would all through the campaign), if you end up losing your hand picked general to your own incompetence and crass political machinations, you sir are a failure. Is it possible you, sir, had no idea what you were saying when you committed to winning the war in March? Or did you think you could just reword things to mean something else later? So far you have been quasi-disaster, trying to get your bearings as all new presidents do. But you cannot leave our fighting forces hanging. You cannot hold back what they need to win and stay safe. You have broken lots of promises, dreams and bonds. This one will be straw that destroys your presidency and your party. And I include the Democrat party because I better hear some loud voices coming from moderate/centrist Dems supporting General McChrystal and his requests. And I mean now. There needs to be an honest chorus from the Dems to do the right thing, to make it clear their party has some small piece of brave America left in it. I don’t expect the liberal loons to chime in, but if the Dems want to be a broad party that can win state and national elections this is your litmus test. Fail this, let your party’s president slink away from this responsibility, and it will be just as much your fault as his. Update: President O-Bumble is at it again. While our brave men and women are in Afghanistan risking their lives he is clowning around on late night TV. It seems he has time to mug to every TV camera in sight, but doesn’t have time to make a damn simple decision. Pathetic. We have a Lame Duck in the White House

To: unclewest who wrote (325478)	11/9/2009 9:53:41 PM
From: KLP	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793843

Did they heed McCrystal?? Looks like yes: Obama's Afghan Plan: About 40K More Troops CBS Exclusive: Sources Say Force Will Grow to 100,000 - Nearly Filling Gen. McChrystal's Request; Long-Term Stay Planned WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2009 cbsnews.com By David Martin After weeks of meetings with top-ranking officials, CBS News has learned that President Obama is expected to send a substantial amount of additional troops to Afghanistan. David Martin reports. • Sources tell CBS News that President Obama plans to completely or almost completely fill Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for 40,000 new combat troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. would have a total force of more than 100,000 there by the end of 2010 and a large force would remain there long-term. (AP / CBS) • (CBS) Tonight, after months of conferences with top advisors, President Obama has settled on a new strategy for Afghanistan. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the president will send a lot more troops and plans to keep a large force there, long term. The president still has more meetings scheduled on Afghanistan, but informed sources tell CBS News he intends to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for. McChrystal wanted 40,000 and the president has tentatively decided to send four combat brigades plus thousands more support troops. A senior officer says "that's close to what [McChrystal] asked for." All the president's military advisers have recommended sending more troops. But they also have warned that troops alone will not win the war unless Afghan President Hamid Karzai cleans up his government. "He's got to take concrete steps to eliminate corruption," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said last week. "That means you have to rid yourself of those who are corrupt. You have to actually arrest and prosecute them." The first combat troops would not arrive until early next year and it would be the end of 2010 before they were all there. That makes this Afghanistan surge very different from the Iraq surge, in which 30,000 troops descended on Baghdad and the surrounding area in just five months. Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute says a slow motion surge will produce slow motion results. "If they're going to be sort of trickled in very slowly over the course of a year than it's unlikely to have a very decisive impact in the course of 2010," he said. The buildup would be expected to last about four years, until McChrystal completes his plan for doubling the size of the Afghan army and police force. With 68,000 Americans already there, the Afghan surge would mean there would be 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan by the end of the president's first term. The president is not expected to announce his decision until after he returns from China the week before Thanksgiving.