Posted on 01/09/2013 3:03:42 PM PST by Seizethecarp
At the White House on Friday, President Obama will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Although Mr. Karzai will presumably take up his continuous complaints that America has "imposed" corruption on his country, the more vital subject for both parties will be the size of the U.S. military footprint beyond 2014.
Administration officials are already leaking that the U.S. presence will be smaller than that requested by Gen. John Allen. The U.S. commander in the region has said that a force of 6,000 to 20,000 troops is needed. The White House has floated that 3,000 to 4,000 may be sufficient.
If a much-reduced U.S. force level is announced, Afghans will say that the Americans have abandoned their country. They will be right. With a drastically reduced U.S. presence, the Afghan government and army will fracture, warlords will begin fighting each other and the insurgents and terrorists in ungoverned spaces. The conditions will be ideal for al Qaeda's return.
That's failure. And it will matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Link to Kagan story posted on FR:
“Civilian analysts gained Petraeus’s ear while he was commander in Afghanistan”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2970211/posts
Kagan authored the “real Iraq Study Group” report as the AEI’s rival to the ISG report of James Baker and Lee H. Hamilton in December 2006.
The AEI report, titled Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq, was released on January 5, 2007, and Kagan was said to have won-over the ear of President George W. Bush,[3] strongly influencing his subsequent “surge” plan for changing the course of the Iraq War. Along with retired Gen. Jack Keane, retired Col. Joel Armstrong, and retired Maj. Daniel Dwyer, Kagan is credited as one of the “intellectual architects” of the surge plan.[4]
Iraq and Afghanistan were both a waste. What was wrong with Mecca and Medina as primary targets?
I’d add Qom.
Remember, LBJ did it too in Vietnam. Megalomaniac presidents seem to want to meddle in military affairs.
Lincoln did it right. He put one general after another in charge, and let them do it their way, until he found one that could win. It's rough on unsuccessful generals, but it works.
I admit to going back only about 3000 years but really can’t find anyone who successfully occupied or pacified Afghanistan. It is a *hit hole first rate and fit only for growing drugs and abusing females of all species. As lawless and ungovernable as the tribal regions of its neighbor Pakistan.
Megalomaniac Chancellors of the Third Reich did too.
Mr. niteowl77
So. It was a civilian who came up with the brilliant, never before tried strategy of sending in more troops. It figures. Petreaus probably asked for more salad bowls.
How to Waste a Decade in Afghanistan
At the bottom you'll find AEI Critical Threats Project.
My son spent 8 months there in 2006. When he was sent back there again this fall, his message to me was that we should not waste one more penny or life in that hole. As for Karzai blaming us for corruption, it is true that our money and that of other allies has truly been the golden goose, and they have stolen all the eggs. Now it looks like they are about to kill the goose too.
Can we please get the hell out of that turd world nation yesterday??
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