Posted on 11/29/2009 7:29:04 AM PST by Saije
Barack Obama's much-vaunted eloquence faces the biggest test of his presidential career this week when he takes to the stage at West Point military academy to explain to a nation that thought it had elected an anti-war president why he is escalating the conflict in Afghanistan.
After almost three months of agonising, nine war councils and endless leaks, the president will finally make his views known on Tuesday when he is expected to announce that he is sending about 30,000 more troops. This will push up American forces to 100,000 and the total number of allied forces to almost 140,000, as many troops as the Soviet Union had in Afghanistan.
The carefully chosen backdrop cannot disguise Obama’s dilemma. Somehow he has to convince his own public that the United States has an exit strategy and will not become bogged down, as it did in Vietnam, while making clear to the Taliban and Pakistan that it has not lost its resolve and will stay as long as it takes.
Obama’s toughest challenge will be to win over his most loyal political supporters. He is facing a growing revolt in the Democratic party over why the US needs to be in Afghanistan at all when the real threat — Al-Qaeda — is in Pakistan, and over the spiralling cost in both lives and dollars.
“I think the operative question is why we’re there,” said Anna Eshoo, a Democratic congresswoman who sits on the House intelligence committee. “That’s what I’ll be wanting to hear from the president.”***
The annual bill for the extra troops is estimated at $30 billion (£18.2 billion), on top of the $10 billion-a-month the war is costing. “We’re still not out of Iraq and we’re getting deeper into Afghanistan, both of which are hugely expensive,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Democrats are such pathetic liars. When Iraq was hot, they would say the real problem was in Afghanistan, which was where our resources should be going. If we WERE to go to Pakistan, they'd belly-ache about that too.
What they really want is for use to disband the military, roll over on our backs, and acquiesce to the enemy.
During the coming annunication from the mount at West Point, note that bama will continue to whine that this regrettable decision is all Bush’s fault because Bush and Cheney screwed up “the past 8 years” ..... even though bamster has now been in office almost a year himself.
Note that he will claim or hint that the reason the war (will he call it that) hasn’t been won yet is because bamster was not in charge ... even though he is now almost 25% through his term
Pour a beer and take a drink every time he mentions or hints at “mistakes of the past 8 years” (ironically one year of which has been HIS, as of January)
Barry defiles the ground at West Point. May his words turn to ashes in his mouth.
Another photo op for the POS.
If you did that you'd be on a rocket sled to the detox center.
The hypocrisy of these people never ceases to amaze me.
There, I fixed it.
Yes, Democrats ARE revolting.
He’s making LBJ look like Patton.
Pray for America and Our Troops
You and I know that the more the war drags on, the more casualties there will be. How many more body bags must you see before you say enough is enough.
Your President is willing to send a further 30000 men into the fight. Is it enough for you to stay on? You will need more than this to be victorious. This is subjective for no victory is permanent. When you finally leave, the mice will again come out to play and will you return to fight again? You see Afghanistan is someone's else country and it is impossible for the USA or any other country to "defend" it against its own people.
Your war on terror should have ended long time ago. Your tax payer's money cannot go on forever to finance a war that cannot be won. Your gallant soldiers are all tired and weary. You can fight to bring them home. Yes, you can."
This is one of the reader responses to the article, and is an almost perfect example of how the left saps our morale and destroys our will to fight. So persuasive. So insinuating. So reasonable. Just give up and go home. It's not our fight. It's their country. We can't win anyway. It's almost hypnotic.
It's Tokyo Rose all over again.
Actually, I’ll believe the “surge” when I see it. What Barry has probably worked out is some way to have the world’s slowest surge, so that the enemy will have plenty of time to dig in and even whittle down our existing forces on the ground. It’s all going to be slieght of hand, probably as many will be taken out as will be sent in.
He has already said he has no intention of doing that distasteful thing called “winning,” so what is the point? He’s doing the charade only because the American people are getting dangerously restless, and his fellow Dems know this and are providing a little bit of theater of their own.
Kudos.
The only MSM truth we can read is from English or Canadian newspapers-—SAD SAD SAD
Anyone bothered to ask the Barry joke of an administration how long it will take to get those additional troops over to Afghanistan? That is the real joke once it is revealed.
Unfortunately, that sounds about right.
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