Posted on 10/12/2009 9:55:39 AM PDT by La Lydia
At the heart of Gen. McChrystal's request for a surge in troops is the assumption that we are failing in Afghanistan. But are we really? The United States has had one central objective: to deny al-Qaeda the means to reconstitute, to train and to plan major terrorist attacks. This mission has been largely successful...Al-Qaeda is dispersed, on the run and unable to direct attacks of the kind it executed routinely in the 1990s...
It's true that the security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated considerably...Is it worth the effort to gain control of all 35,000 Afghan villages scattered throughout the country?...
Why has security gotten worse? Largely because Hamid Karzai's government is ineffective and corrupt and has alienated large numbers of Pashtuns, who have migrated to the Taliban. It is not clear that this problem can be solved by force, even using a smart counterinsurgency strategy. In fact, more troops injected into the current climate could provoke an anti-government or nationalist backlash....There's little evidence that Pakistan's generals have truly accepted that they must defeat all the jihadis in their country...But they have been more cooperative and active in the past year than ever before...
The United States and the Afghan government need to make much greater efforts to wean Pashtun tribes away from the most radical Taliban factions. It is unclear how many Taliban fighters believe in a global jihadist ideology, but most U.S. commanders with whom I've spoken feel that the number is less than 30 percent...
And when we think through our strategy in Afghanistan, let's please remember that there is virtually no al-Qaeda presence there...
What about the argument that Osama bin Laden and his minions will simply shift back across the border if the Taliban is allowed free rein? Well, they haven't done so yet..
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
What failure?
Well, Obama is still working on it. But we’re on the way!
People should be paying attention to the TALIBAN call to arms in Pakistan. They are asking for Tali minions from all over the world to come to Pakistan for a planned offensive . The objective is to take over the Pak Gov. AND their NUKES.
Since Zero can’t even decide to send troops and you KNOW he will NOT commit the American Military to protect the Pak Government.
OMG....
BRING OUR GOLD HOME NOW!
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