Fox: Obama set to abandon Afghanistan

Fox News Channel (live, no link) | 11/3/11

[pabianice]

Reportedly considering removing combat troops and replacing with "advisors." Just in time for Nov, 2012?

All troops out of Iraq soon.

[OKSooner]

Making room for the caliphate.

[icwhatudo]

So Rumsfeld was right. Never should have sent in the additional troops. A small force was all that ever should have gone there and let the Northern alliance do the dirty work. Pay one mullah to kill the other and use predators. Never get involved in a ground war in Asia.

[sam_paine]

Iraq and Afghanistan have been an invaluable training ground for our military in pacifying a well armed populace, and to develop new monitoring technologies such as enhanced UAVs for listening and delivering pinpoint lethal strikes to enemies of the state without trial.

Is it any wonder Obama wants those forces back here now?

[MustKnowHistory]

What is going to happen to the unemployment rate when all these troops come home??

[SMARTY]

Buying votes... by appearing to deliver on a campaign promise.

[livius]

Picture some high-fiving among the Taliban after last week’s attack.

[Red Badger]

Then Iran, Taliban and Al-Queda move back in, take over, and we are right back where we started from, only worse.......

[Red Badger]

Buying votes with the shed blood of our finest.............

[skeeter]

Afghanistan has become nothing but a meat grinder under Obama.

A good case could be made to leave a large presence in Iraq until that country can fully defend itself against Iran, but there's no reason to continue a presence in Afghanistan.

[traditional1]

To Hell with America, and to Hell with troops who gave their lives.....there's an Election, and The Messiah is scrambling everywhere he can to placate his voterbases, whether the illegals, minorities, sex deviates, Unions, Greenies, or Peaceniks.

It doesn't make a difference to him WHAT he has done to the Country, so long as he doesn't piss off his voterbase.

[justlurking]

Then Iran, Taliban and Al-Queda move back in, take over, and we are right back where we started from, only worse.......

Yeah, I know. But, we shouldn't have stayed anyway.

Once we cleaned out the Taliban and Al Queda, or at least had them on the run, we should have just left....

... with a warning: If you cause us any more trouble, we are coming back just long enough to turn this place into scorched earth.

[Thane_Banquo]

Here's the problem with our entire foreign policy aim under Bush: You cannot pacify Islamist countries. The fact is Afgani's want to kill each other, to behave with savagery and brutality. You cannot stop them from doing it. All we can do is respond to direct threats to us. That's what we did after 9/11, and now we should stop the nation building and leave them to be perfectly happy killing each other. If they try anything again, then we will have a casus belli to go in their and kill them all again.

[rhombus]

Once we cleaned out the Taliban and Al Queda, or at least had them on the run, we should have just left.... ... with a warning: If you cause us any more trouble, we are coming back just long enough to turn this place into scorched earth.

But do you think that really would have happened? I'm betting Iran would have laughed and moved right in. We scorched that earth for almost 10 years after Gulf War I and it didn't solve the problem that was Saddam. Where we are now is back to Paper Tiger status.

[Jim Noble]

It's been clear since 2003 at the latest that all the sacrifices in Afghanistan were for nothing.

The troops should never have been sent there (beyond the special forces in 2001).

The mismangement of this "war" has been going on for years and years, and the worst of it was not on Obama's watch.

[TSgt]

we shouldn't have stayed anyway. Once we cleaned out the Taliban and Al Queda, or at least had them on the run, we should have just left....

Spot-on correct! A soldier's life is worth more than 20 insurgent lives especially if they can be taken out via drones.

[Thane_Banquo]

A lot of this has to do with our limp-wristed fear of stating who the real enemy is: Pakistan. We should recognize that Pakistan has made a de facto declaration of war against us, and we ought to reply in kind. However, America has become so politically correct and wussy that we can not fight a real war against a real, and strong, enemy any more.

Heaven forbid, if Hitler were doing his dirty work today, we would never have the balls to land on Normandy beach. We've become a nation of Chamberlains.

[sam_paine]

A good case could be made to leave a large presence in Iraq until that country can fully defend itself against Iran,

I don't really see a point there, either.

If there was enough capability to maintain a no-fly cap over Iraq when both Iran and Iraq were outright hostile, then there should be little problem of regaining air superiority over Iraq when Iran is hostile to us and Iraq is desperate for help.

[sam_paine]

Here's the problem with our entire foreign policy aim under Bush: You cannot pacify Islamist countries. The fact is Afgani's want to kill each other, to behave with savagery and brutality. You cannot stop them from doing it

Well. Now we know! We won't have to revisit that issue again after the next 9/11.

[Jim Noble]

Then Iran, Taliban and Al-Queda move back in, take over, and we are right back where we started from, only worse....

Yes, but that has been inevitable since April 2004 at the latest.

No war plan to defeat the enemy was ever approved. It is pretty clear from Feith, Bush's and Rumsfeld's memoirs that none was ever even discussed.

The retarded "freedom" plan for Iraq and Afghanistan was like the ideas of a nine-year old. All that it could ever accomplish was to postpone the inevitable endgame which you describe correctly, at the cost of thousands of American lives and trillions of Chinese money.

The whole sorry farce is disgusting.