Afghanistan Speech Open Thread
President Obama plans to announce Wednesday evening that he will order the withdrawal of 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops, the remainder of the 2009 “surge,” by the end of next summer, according to administration officials and diplomats briefed on the decision. These troop reductions are both deeper and faster than the recommendations made by Mr. Obama’s military commanders, and they reflect mounting political and economic pressures at home, as the president faces relentless budget pressures and an increasingly restive Congress and American public.
The president is scheduled to speak about the Afghanistan war from the White House at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
Open thread on the speech, the war, and the reaction, below.
More or less. Nobody's watching it? Our RPM on the Internet service is running too slowly to see it streaming, and we don't have TV, so here I am.
Waiting patiently.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
Per the NYT:
Greenwald has more.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
End the wars immediately and completely.
But alas, this will be another deception. Troops are replaced with private 'security' contractors and the crimes and tragedy continue.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
how many mercs? at what cost?
.
Or, equally likely, more covert ops and predator drone strikes which reduce groups of children playing or wedding parties to red mist. He just loves him some remote controlled death; that's why I call him Obomber. In fact, since he was given a bullshit Nobel Peace Prize, I'd go so far as to say this scumbag is nothing more than a black Henry Kissinger
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
I walked away 5 minutes in.
Obama would have it that a "great American narrative" exists. That our/my nation always acts with the noblest of motives. In doing so, he perpetuates a lie. And he either believes it, or assumes he is addressing a nation of 5 year olds, in such terms as they can only hope to understand.
It looks like Obama has realized that a nice game of chess, is preferable to global thermonuclear war.
"It looks like Obama has realized that a nice game of chess, is preferable to global thermonuclear war".
Well, then let him say as much.
Curiously, it seems the 30,000 he's going to withdraw is precisely the number he surged in.
Let's all be overjoyed we'll be back to where we were in '08 at the end of next year. Maybe.
That's all this is , bringing the so called surge troops back home in a little over a year from now , just before the election ! A minimum of three and a half more years of this farce and then ... behold ! LIke clock work , a reason why we have to stay longer ! What a joke . Gotta keep that money laundering operation going don't we Barack ?
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
it's a drawdown. See how that works. We're all taken for a bunch of chumps. But America's security is at stake. Ooohh Nnooo's!!
Always thinking about the defense/offense industry first. All that patriotic gibberish was nauseating. Who writes this stuff for him. Being a normal country, like most with no military around the world, escape the minds of morons crying 'isolationism', like Loser John McWars.
Obama assumes the current Afghan government and security forces will eventually "secure" Afghanistan.
That's never going to happen.
Obama's either hopelessly naive or lying through his teeth.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
I sure hate listening to him. It will be a tough election cycle for me.
behind the troops leaving Iraq or will there be a second plane?
Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
I'm pretty much all out of disappointment at this point... sigh
The alternative was infinitely worse but never the less , what a let down .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
Cut off the fucking money. Bombard the fucking House with e-mails demanding a defundijng of the fucking wars.
but how much? and the proper response? not so easy.
we used both pakistan and afghanistan in a proxy war against the soviets, "charlie wilson's war".
there were socialists in charge at one time. how the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Democ...
came to power wasn't pretty, but hey, it's their country.
"Once in power, the party implemented a new socialist agenda. government promoted state atheism.[14] Men were obliged to cut of their beards, women were not allowed to wear the burqa any longer, and most of the mosques were placed off limits at the start of the regime"
"When the PDPA rose to power in Afghanistan they moved to prohibit traditional practices which were deemed feudal by the party. They banned bride price and forced marriage among others and the minimum age for marriage was raised. They also stressed the importance of education in Afghanistan. The government stressed education for both women and men, they also set up literacy programmes in the country"
it is a matter of record that the reds conducted purges, on the flip side, they tried to stand up for human rights for women.
to learn more, check out the following film
Bhutto
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/bhutto/
the film is about pakistan, but gives great insight into the ISI and cold war politics. Ms. Bhutto is an inspiration, a knowing martyr to the cause.
right now, we should withdraw, ten years ago? if we had declared war and gone in big? maybe, just maybe, could have done something for the people. i support gun rights for every person on the face of this planet, but in an occupation you do not allow AK's in the street. it is too late now, we didn't follow our own rules, we didn't take care of business, we need out by the end of the year. let the afghans live how they want. i give up. maybe the citizens of afpak can find a solution and move out of this tribal, brutal, paternalistic state.
for us? out in six months, either that, declare war against both countries and clean house. either get serious, or get out. on second thought, our morality is no better than theirs, we screwed them in the 80's and the 90's, too late now.
Roughly a quarter million mercenaries and defense contractors Iraq and Afghanistan ( Alternet .org ) , Obama drastically raised the number of these profiteers from the days of the Bush / Cheney regime . Up 25 % just in 2009 . And you wonder wonder why I call these invasions and occupations the mother of all money laundering operations ?
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
This sounded like Cheeeeeney dictating more killing,, mayhem, strafing, pillaging, and plunder in search of more profit for Halliburton..
WHAT COMPLETE HORSES**T !
"And you wonder wonder why I call these invasions and occupations the mother of all money laundering operations"?
Smile while you say that, Kreskin.
The disappeared BILLIONS of U.S. taxpayer dollars slated for Iraq are none of your goddamn business.
Fuckin' hippy........
...TRILLIONS.
Fuck war, fuck all the media deflection of serious things happening in this world and this country.
I am so fed up with all this.
"He wrote this book here and the book says ; He made us all to be just like him So, if we're dumb, then god is dumb and maybe even a little ugly on the side".
Frank Zappa
This was such non news that I didn't even bother to watch Obomber lie his way through it. End the wars, NOW.
No more excuses.
The Afghani's want us out.
Osama is dead.
Al Quaida is down to 50 - 100 fighters in Afghanistan.
Let the Afghani's determine their own future. Sooner or later they will anyway.
The only thing the power brokers learned from Viet Nam is don't have a draft.
Obama - I supported you but all the deaths in Afghanistan from here on out are on you.
* as long as it's tied to a tax cut for the top 1%, cuts in Medicare, elimination of food stamps, and the returning troop have to promise not to piss & moan that there aren't any jobs for them. Oh, yeah, and deport all the brownskins, too.
"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder." - Well-Manicured Man
Boehner and Co. are threatening to cut funding for Libya...maybe we can lobby them to cut funding to Afghanistan and Iraq Wars too? 2 party system my A$$.
1 Million Dollars per soldier per year - and in 18 months we'll be back down to the number we were at 18 months ago...
This sucks. This isn't an end to the war, this is a continuation of endless war.
He reads much better than the previous guy, that's for sure.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
The previous guy? Was that you? As you can't read and are a clueless twerp. Oh yeah!
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
Wow! How much safer can that country get! It'll be a veritable shangri-fucking-la.
Fuck war.
revert (or progress) to whatever the hell it's going to.
Hate him now enthusiastically.
WooHoo! Gee whiz, Barry you're gonna pull 10,000 or so troops out of Afghanistan, huh? Remind me later to be impressed, fucking scumbag. He could have pulled troops out of Afghanistan a year ago. Hell, he could have gotten ALL our troops out of Afghanistan (and Iraq) back in '08 when he was elected and had both a Democratically controlled House and Senate. He didn't. Instead, he gave us Bush's third term. How many people have died, just in the last two years? This bullshit token gesture is supposed to make everything hunky dory again? This is just another bone that Obomber is throwing to his Liberal Progressive base (the first being the repeal of DADT). He must really think we're fucking stupid (or desperate). Sorry, Obomber, fancy speeches and token gestures just don't cut it anymore. If this fucking sociopath gets elected, it's simply because the GOP will be running a candidate so grotesque, even the GOP rank and file will be too repulsed to cast their vote.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
You know, it really gets old reading hateful comments about politicians from those who supported that said politician or, for that matter, supported any politician.
Anyone who votes has been around long enough to have seen that the only, bottom line, thing a politician promises is to rob someone. As you know, robbing someone is anti-social behaviour. Anti-social behaviour is performed by psycho/sociopaths. When you vote you support/sanction pathological behaviour. Pretending to hate politicians after you have voted is not fooling those who know better and it's getting to the point where more and more people know better. Sooner or later, "voters" are going to be seen for what they are and held responsible, and I doubt that it's going to be a pretty sight.
Have a nice day.
So people who vote are responsible for the treasonous behaviour of those who are elected. Even though there is a two party system no voter had any hand in forming. Why not just pull a Khmer Rouge or Mao's China or Soviet style purge?
Your statement is one of pure lunacy. And yet you own it.
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