Posted on 10/10/2009 1:57:28 PM PDT by Saije
The Obama administration is considering outbidding the Taliban to persuade Afghan villagers to lay down arms as it struggles to find a new approach to a war that is fast losing public and congressional support.
Despite five war councils in two weeks, President Barack Obama has so far failed to come up with a strategy for the conflict that may define his presidency. Fierce infighting continues between his own generals and advisers...
Afghans are known for changing sides back and forth during their long years of war — there is an old saying that “you can rent an Afghan but never buy one” — and battles have often been decided by defections rather than combat.
Paying Taliban foot-soldiers to switch sides could spare US lives and save money, say its advocates. A recent report by the Senate foreign relations committee estimated the Taliban fighting strength at 15,000, of whom only 5% are committed idealogues while 70% fight for money — the so-called $10-a-day Taliban...
...Some experts disagree. Gilles Dorronsoro from the Carnegie Institute insisted: “You cannot break an insurgency that strong with money. It’s not a mercenary force — it’s a very powerful movement.”
...McChrystal had his knuckles rapped for failing to go through the chain of command when he described advocates of a focused attack on Al-Qaeda as “short-sighted”. He was told to cancel a trip to Washington to brief Obama.
One serving general close to McChrystal told The Sunday Times he has been taken aback by the White House’s attitude. “It surprised a lot of us — we thought the policy decision was made to come down on the counter-insurgency course of action.”
The source described as “crazy” the idea that “we can just cut deals with the Taliban without having to do anything”.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
So what happens when you stop paying the Taliban or do you plan to pay them forever?
So another words, we’re going to fund terrorism?
This child thinks that if you throw enough money around, the terrorists will become fine upstanding citizens.
What’s Obama’s explanation of Osama Bin Laden then?
The guy was educated in the West just like someone else we know. He had a decent lifestyle, some would agree was a lot better than many people on planet earth.
Both of them hate the U.S., and want to humble it.
God, for all the world this sounds like two birds of a feather.
Tell us Barack, why didn’t financial freedom cause you to moderate toward the West? It might be instructional to know.
You just pass another trillion dollar stimulus and then just "spend" 3 percent of it. Nobody ever checks where the rest of it goes.
This is insane. Bambi thinks he can buy the Taliban the way he bought blacks in this country...with promises of government money. Every so often he has to come out and hand them a few thousand dollars (such as in Detroit the other day) and he thinks this will be the same.
The difference is that US blacks, even in Detroit, are not killing women for not covering their hair, killing girls for going to school and teachers for teaching them, converting male children into human bombs after using them for sex, and generally destroying civilization.
But Obambi doesn’t give a flying you know what about the Afghanis, and as for us, he’s hoping we will have a humiliating defeat. Which, thanks to him, we are having right now.
Sounds like an ACORN derived model?
Insane or not, Bush did the exact same thing with the Sunni insurgents.
Sounds like a good idea. We can also outbid them on the Poppy crop. I say do it and put a bounty on Taliban scalps.
Yeah, this will work out great—just like it did when we tried to bribe the thugs in Faluja. They will take our $$, us it to buy weapons to kill our troops, grow even more poppies for heroin, and laugh their a$$es off at our naivete. Even the Russians weren’t this stupid.
He stepped in it, now he's in over his head & he doesn't know what to do. He'd better man up & realize that this isn't Chicago 'thug land' where you bribe your way to get anything you want. It's a real war - our troops are dying & we have a community organizer in charge.
Why don’t we just take over the international heroin trade?
Gee, such original thinking by The Won.
He doesn’t realize the way the USA has convinced other countries to reach agreements with us for the past 50+ years is to PAY THEM MONEY.
OMG, you took the words right out of my mouth!
So what happens when the Detroit blacks run out of their $3k? And when does he do the same in Chicago? This could be non ending.
“This is insane. Bambi thinks he can buy the Taliban the way he bought blacks in this country...with promises of government money. Every so often he has to come out and hand them a few thousand dollars (such as in Detroit the other day) and he thinks this will be the same.”
I wonder what will happen to the vast percentage of those who filled out the forms for free money but didn’t win. They’ll hate the ones who got $3,000 each. They’ll resent Obama.
They’ll find a way of excusing it. Probably the eeevil white man didn’t let Obama do the right thing...
The Taleban, meanwhile, is busy high-fiving each other over our departure. Giving them money for it shows them it works.
I think it will be never ending. He’ll keep up dripping money through here and there. Everybody who doesn’t get it will find some way to excuse Obama and some way to increase their resentment of the people who have actually provided the money.
As for the Taleban, they’ll take it and go on with business as usual, and in fact, AQ will probably be in there taking it away from them in no time. They’ll give them a cut, though, and it will be a mafia family type arrangement.
Obama doesn’t care. All he wants is to see this country destroyed, either by internal pressure or from the outside, and he’s using his control over our tax dollars to carry this out.
Oh, I see acorns even there too.
yep. Most people would agree that a multi millionaire has a "decent lifestyle:
:o)
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