Posted on 06/22/2011 9:19:24 AM PDT by americanophile
President Obama's "surge" of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan announced in late 2009 was meant to be temporary, and Wednesday night the president is expected to announce that they will return home by around the time voters head to the polls to determine whether he gets another term.
In prime-time speech to the nation, Obama is expected to say about 5,000 troops will begin coming home this summer with an additional 5,000 troops by the end of this year, sources told CBS News. And about 20,000 more troops are expected to return to the United States by the end of 2012, the sources said. That would still leave about 70,000 troops in Afghanistan -- about twice as many troops as when Obama took office in January 2009.
That timetable is more aggressive than some military advisers had urged. Obama made the final decision Tuesday after weighing options presented to him by General David Petraeus, his top commander in Afghanistan.
Some military advisers feared a rapid withdrawal could put at risk some of the gains made against the Taliban.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Not going to happen. Judging from cynicism about military matters (particularly because Zero went into Libya unprovoked) they will have a wait-and-see attitude.
And I suspect violence will increase there, too, as the date comes closer. This will be a negative for Obama's re-election efforts.
This is INSANE!!!
They’re just talking about the group that’s there’s now!
THERE IS ANOTHER BRIGADE REPLACING THEM!!!
They say this every friggin’ time a brigade comes home from Iraq or Afghanistan.
There is no actual draw-down.
The current status of the TAPI pipeline in Afganistan, to be completed by 2016 if the Taliban permits, or the Taliban is defeated, has been one of the unreported central issues regarding US involvement in Afganistan. US is currently in talks with Taliban which are probably going nowhere. Kissinger was apparently involved in the conceptualizing of the pipeline in the early nineties.
Conceived of by Kissinger in the early nineties, the pipeline (Tadjikistan, Afganistan, Pakistan and India) has been central to Afgan US interests from the beginning along with other infrequently mentioned issues and goals by US media. Current status of pipeline, to conceivably be completed by 2016 if Taliban cooperates, has other current issues among the partners to be resolved. Designed to bypass Russian interests, GAZPROM is attempting to be involved.
Somehow, the Obama administration and the media fail to report on what the rest of the world knows about Afganistan and the US involvement there:
http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/news/p/0/news/11397/
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/711066.aspx
http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/news/p/0/news/11707/
http://www.turkmenistangascongress.com/
http://www.rferl.org/content/feature/2248838.html
More on the TAPI pipeline and other issues not well covered by US media from Pepe Escobar’s blog (he writes on the Asia Times)
http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2011/06/do-china-pakistan-pipeline-shuffle.html
excerpt:
“Sleepy (for now) Gwadar has been building up for years as the key node of the IP (Iran-Pakistan) pipeline, which used to be the IPI (Iran-Pakistan-India) or “peace” pipeline, before New Delhi got cold feet. For Washington, the prospect of a steel umbilical cord linking Iran and Pakistan has always been anathema.
What Washington wants - and has wanted badly since the Bill Clinton years - is the TAP (Trans-Afghan) pipeline, which then became TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India). Even millennial rocks in the Hindu Kush know TAP or TAPI will only be built when the war is over in Afghanistan, with the Taliban an inevitable part of the government.
In this ongoing, epic IP (or IPI) versus TAP (or TAPI) battle, what is never mentioned is that the winner after all may be... China.
New Delhi knows a pipeline crossing Afghanistan is, well, a pipe dream. But still it has not committed itself to IPI - in part because of relentless Washington pressure, in part because it does not trust Pakistan.
China, on the other hand, has already proposed itself for an IP expansion. This means that starting at Gwadar, another pipeline would be built, by the Chinese of course, crossing Balochistan and then following the Karakoram highway northwards all the way to Xinjiang, China’s Far West.”
THe whole article is worth reading, illuminating the difficulties and LARGER PURPOSES of our involvement there.
I did a search for TAPI in the Free Republic. There have been NO postings on this central gasline project so central to our involvement in Afganistan since the Clinton administration via Kissinger! As our troops move in and out of Afganistan for mysterious reasons, the central issues of the US, Russia, China all competing for influence and control of Central and SW Central Asia are almost never emphasized.
In 2008, no Rep could have beaten Obama or Hillary. The country had soured on Bush and no one wanted a third term for the GOP. McCain was a terrible candidate and that just cemented the result.
The 2006 midterms returned power to the Dems who regained control over Congress after an absence of 12 years. The 2006 results were the harbinger of what would happen in 2008. The Dems were motivated, angry, and well-funded. Obama was the hope and change candidate as the US economy was in free fall. In 2012, the candidate with the blank slate will not be Obama. He has a record and it ain't good. The results of the 2010 midterms are an indication of what will probably happen in 2012. The Left, MSM, and some GOP cassandras try to minimize the 2010 results and paint them as essentially meaningless. They will be saying in 2012 how "unexpected" the results were.
My hubby just got there as well. I understand why so many people are excited about a draw down. However, It makes me fear that Afghanistan is going to be even more dangerous than it is now. Prayers for your family!
Earthquake coming to US interests in SW Asia, Afganistan, TAPI pipeline. Is Obama out of his league? Escobar reports interesting and significant info on challenges to the West, NATO, US by the new Chinese relationships:
http://jetigenweekly.blogspot.com/2011/06/eurasian-geopolitics-face-astana.html
People don't vote on troop strength or war.
People vote the economy and with 10% unemployment, 4-5 dollar gas prices, a worthless dollar and on and on, Obama's new slogan is going to end up being:
"We Hope for Change - cause what we're doin' right now, truly sucks!"
Godspeed
HoA
He could remove all the troops for all I care. I’m tired of even one dime of taxpayer dollars being used to support those Afghan barbarians.
Chances are he won’t mention the thousands of high priced mercenaries he is sending in their place.
Put 30,000 more in, take 30,000 out. The longest war continues unchanged. Just a little shuck and jive.
I enlisted to fight terrorism, not reTweet from it.
US soldiers stand guard on a watch tower overlooking villages at Combat Outpost (COP) Sabari in Khost province in the east of Afghanistan on June 21. President Barack Obama will order his promised US troop drawdown from Afghanistan in a prime time address Wednesday (AFP/File/Ted Aljibe)
Graphic showing Afghan and NATO troop numbers in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama promised Americans when he unveiled the surge that he would begin to bring soldiers home in July 2011 -- a vow critics panned as offering succor to US enemies. (AFP/Graphic)
Yes, the contractors heavily outnumber the troops in place, and their casualties are poorly reported, if at all.
FLASH: Obama to withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year, 23,000 more by end of next summer -Congressional aide
.....oh lookey, what amazing timing, just in time for the election.
Of course he did. Otherwise, this country might have won the war. He simply cannot allow that. Treasonous jerk.
Obama's re-election fate will largely rise and fall with these graphs:
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