Stanley McChrystal’s Long War

[ladiesbballcoach]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/magazine/18Afghanistan-t.html?_r=2&hp

 

In his initial assessment of the country, sent to President Obama early last month, McChrystal described an Afghanistan on the brink of collapse and an America at the edge of defeat. To reverse the course of the war, McChrystal presented President Obama with what could be the most momentous foreign-policy decision of his presidency: escalate or fail. McChrystal has reportedly asked for 40,000 additional American troops — there are 65,000 already here — and an accelerated effort to train Afghan troops and police and build an Afghan state. If President Obama can’t bring himself to step up the fight, McChrystal suggested, then he might as well give up.

 

“Inadequate resources,” McChrystal wrote, “will likely result in failure.”

 

The magnitude of the choice presented by McChrystal, and now facing President Obama, is difficult to overstate. For what McChrystal is proposing is not a temporary, Iraq-style surge — a rapid influx of American troops followed by a withdrawal. McChrystal’s plan is a blueprint for an extensive American commitment to build a modern state in Afghanistan, where one has never existed, and to bring order to a place famous for the empires it has exhausted. Even under the best of circumstances, this effort would most likely last many more years, cost hundreds of billions of dollars and entail the deaths of many more American women and men.

[Run To State]

And Obama sits on his hands...

[westsider]

Or maybe he's taking the time to make a thoughtful, informed decision. Isn't that what we want from a commander-in-chief when it comes to committing American troops to an overseas conflict?

[Hearsay]

Or maybe he's taking the time to make a thoughtful, informed decision. Isn't that what we want from a commander-in-chief when it comes to committing American troops to an overseas conflict?

 

An escalation of activity in Afghanistan was what Obama called for during his campaign. Now a general is telling him the time is now. How much more time does he need? No, this is a case of getting what he asked for, and I think he is fiddling while Rome burns.

[acemona]

An escalation of activity in Afghanistan was what Obama called for during his campaign. Now a general is telling him the time is now. How much more time does he need? No, this is a case of getting what he asked for, and I think he is fiddling while Rome burns.

 

Actually I think Obama said that Afghanistan is where the focus ought to be. Especially in the fight against AQ. However, it appears that AQ has moved to Pakistan and we are now fighting the Taliban. The question is do we 'nation build' or do we do what Biden suggests. The President is deciding on what our goal should be now that he has been given the facts.

[Run To State]

An escalation of activity in Afghanistan was what Obama called for during his campaign. Now a general is telling him the time is now. How much more time does he need? No, this is a case of getting what he asked for, and I think he is fiddling while Rome burns.

Exactly! His general is telling him he needs them yesterday, but Obama wants to "think" about it for a couple weeks. :ohbrother:

[Run To State]

Actually I think Obama said that Afghanistan is where the focus ought to be. Especially in the fight against AQ. However, it appears that AQ has moved to Pakistan and we are now fighting the Taliban. The question is do we 'nation build' or do we do what Biden suggests. The President is deciding on what our goal should be now that he has been given the facts.

But how long is he going to take and how many of our troops are going to die before he acts?

[acemona]

Exactly! His general is telling him he needs them yesterday, but Obama wants to "think" about it for a couple weeks. :ohbrother:

 

What he wants to think about is whether or not we want to nation build or get out. I say get out. AQ has left, we need to find them. The Taliban is not our issue.

[Run To State]

What he wants to think about is whether or not we want to nation build or get out. I say get out. AQ has left, we need to find them. The Taliban is not our issue.

What he NEEDS to do is act, but instead he sits and thinks...

[FC]

What he wants to think about is whether or not we want to nation build or get out. I say get out. AQ has left, we need to find them. The Taliban is not our issue.

 

If AQ has left who keeps shooting at us and blowing up vehicles?

 

If we get out and Afghanistan falls back into the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which is very likely to happen if we left today, then what? Do we re-invade?

 

We don’t need to find AQ, we know where they are, they are in Afghanistan and right across the border in PK. Should we invade PK?

 

The Taliban not the issue? Is this the same Taliban that let AQ stand up shop in Afghanistan, build training camps, plan the 9/11 attacks, and recruit its population? For all intents and purposes the Taliban and AQ are one in the same throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan.

[Hearsay]

If AQ has left who keeps shooting at us and blowing up vehicles?

 

If we get out and Afghanistan falls back into the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which is very likely to happen if we left today, then what? Do we re-invade?

 

We don’t need to find AQ, we know where they are, they are in Afghanistan and right across the border in PK. Should we invade PK?

 

The Taliban not the issue? Is this the same Taliban that let AQ stand up shop in Afghanistan, build training camps, plan the 9/11 attacks, and recruit its population? For all intents and purposes the Taliban and AQ are one in the same throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

Concisely put.

[acemona]

I hate this argument, but i will use it anyway . . .you do know that Bush was asked for more troops and you are correct, he did not think about it, he simply said "NO". I don't remember any threads on that.

[Run To State]

I hate this argument, but i will use it anyway . . .you do know that Bush was asked for more troops and you are correct, he did not think about it, he simply said "NO". I don't remember any threads on that.

Then you should have started one, but he was a fool as well for not sending troops.

 

Obama called this the "necessary war", his words not mine. Well, SEND THE TROOPS!

[FC]

I hate this argument, but i will use it anyway . . .you do know that Bush was asked for more troops and you are correct, he did not think about it, he simply said "NO". I don't remember any threads on that.

 

Not that I agreed with everything Bush did either, but he didn’t ponder a withdraw from Afghanistan and at the time the violence level in Afghanistan was lower because the majority of the effort by AQ was in Iraq where he did send more troops.

[Hearsay]

I hate this argument, but i will use it anyway . . .you do know that Bush was asked for more troops and you are correct, he did not think about it, he simply said "NO". I don't remember any threads on that.

 

True dat, but in all fairness, he responded No shortly after the newly controlled Democratic Congress refused to give him sufficient money for body armor and improvements to vehicles to combat IED's.