A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter flies overhead as a member of the U.S. 8th Marine Regiment looks on at Hassan Abad patrol camp in Helmand province October 7, 2009. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (AFGHANISTAN MILITARY CONFLICT TRANSPORT)
Posted on 10/07/2009 12:42:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama and his Afghanistan war council turn to Pakistan Wednesday, exactly eight years after the first thunderous US air raids heralded a conflict that still lacks an exit strategy.
Obama will gather top security, military and political advisors in the secure White House Situation Room for a third in-depth meeting on Afghan policy as he mulls whether to pitch thousands more troops into the unpopular war.
On Tuesday, the president told lawmakers he had no intention of reducing the US military footprint in Afghanistan, which will reach 68,000 troops by the end of this year, an administration official said on condition of anonymity.
Now, the choice may lie somewhere between a request by war commander General Stanley McChrystal for 40,000 more troops for a full-scale anti-insurgency strategy or a narrower attempt to target Al-Qaeda and train the Afghan army.
Obama's decision comes amid rising public anxiety over the war, a spike in US troop deaths and a Taliban insurgency which is growing in ferocity, eight years into what is now one of the longest US military operations on record.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the "primary" focus of Obama's deliberations Wednesday would be the situation in Pakistan, where many in Washington believe Al-Qaeda chiefs may be hiding in isolated areas.
"The situation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region is tenuous," said Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday.
"It remains a hotbed for terrorist activity, and it is vital to our national security that we get this right."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter flies overhead as a member of the U.S. 8th Marine Regiment looks on at Hassan Abad patrol camp in Helmand province October 7, 2009. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih (AFGHANISTAN MILITARY CONFLICT TRANSPORT)
A demonstrator jumps over burning tyres during an anti-American rally in Peshawar October 7, 2009. Dozens of supporters of Islamic political party Jamaat-e-Islami gathered in the streets of Peshawar to voice their discontent with the Kerry-Lugar U.S. aid bill. Pakistan's parliament is due to begin on Wednesday a debate on a U.S. aid bill after widespread criticism in Pakistan that some conditions attached to the bill are a humiliating violation of sovereignty. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
So they are no longer focusing on the place where the terrorists are released... Bermuda?
War Council ... ... Bronco Bomber voting “Present” once again
Zero can get into the Situation Room? How’d he get a security clearance without a birth certificate?
Remember when Ozero said we should invade Pakistan during the campaign?
You mean Pockey-stan?
You got to go where the nukes are... before the Taliban and
AQ get ahold of them.
Well, Iraq improved greatly, and we changed our focus to Afghanistan. Now what I hear is:
"That's crazy! That's not where the problem is! Pakistan! That's where we ought to be!"
Wherever we ARE is the wrong place. Every war is the wrong war.
In no way shape or form would I support anything Obozo believes....
However I have considered Pakistan to be the cauldron of Islamists and other terrorists since shortly after 9/11.
Along with Iran and Saudi.
The facts bear this out.
We have been suckered into nation-building in Afghanistan with no obvious (i.e., public) efforts to deal with the nexus of evil that is Pakistan, which is a rogue terrorist narcoeconomy possessing nuclear weapons.
What was the “exit strategy” in WWII? Total victory! When we decide to start letting the troops to fight to win it won’t take long for the exit strategy to take care of itself.
>>> How’d he get a security clearance without a birth certificate? <<<<
The POTUS is literally the highest classification source in the United States government. There is no higher authority.
I know it's a problem area and we definitely have our enemies there but...
...you want to turn the alliance we have there into a rabid enemy real fast? Then invade.
yes, Pockey-staaaahn. You got it.
Spot On! The real game is Pakistan. Iran is up to their eyeballs with the destabilization of Pakistan. Why not? Pakistan has ready made nukes.
Didn’t Soetoro propose, during the campaign, that we bomb Pakistan. He seems to have a hot and heavy anti-Pakistan thing going.
More importantly, he’s got the media focusing on these “war councils,” providing a perfect distraction from the passage of socialized medicine.
Hopefully, the Pakis understand that the Taliban in the mountain agencies present an existential threat to their government in Islamabad as well as to Westerners in Afghanistan and elsewhere and will step up their cooperation with our coalition in eradicating this Islamist menace.
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