Carl Levin doesn't want to send more troops to Afghanistan
Sen. Carl Levin isn't calling for a withdrawal out of Afghanistan, but he is the head of the Armed Services Committee, and what he's saying is that the Afghani people should protect themselves and that there should be a surge in Afghan forces.
Levin, D-Mich., urged the Obama administration to expand Afghan forces to 240,000 troops and Afghan police to 160,000 officers by 2013.
Key Congressional Democratic leaders told the administration this week that they want to see detailed plans for the war before agreeing to bolster U.S. forces in Afghanistan. A request for more troops could come within weeks from the top American commander.
Levin first warned of his reservations about more U.S. troops last week after a visit to the region.
Here's what Levin said in a presser.
Levin: The best way to achieve that goal in my judgment is that we increase and accelerate dramatically our efforts to support the Afghan security forces in their efforts to become self sufficient in delivering security to their own nation before we consider whether to send more US combat forces above the levels already planned for the next few months.
Andrea Mitchell questions Levin on his opinion and he states that since the Afghanistan people already hate the Taliban this should be an easier task and he knows that our "footprint" in the region is only used as a recruiting tool for terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.
It gets old hearing that we have to train their troops, because that's what Bush said his entire presidency. And the training in Iraq never lived up to what Bush and Cheney wanted us to believe, but this isn't that administration and Levin's proposal is better than us sending another 20,000 US troops over there.
Withdraw all of the troops!
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Afghanistan is not a country, it is a patchwork of warlords.
There is no there, there.
Going in there was a ruse to begin with, and now it is even a worse ruse.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Got that right Alice. The number of 400,000 Afghan forces does not sound doable. Even if they did, can Afghanistan pay them all?
He also said the Afghans hate the Taliban. Is it that cut and dry? Don't they hate US troops as well for some of our Faux Paws?
Is listening to the same personal which ran Bush's war...
Obama is not the same person which I voted for with his promises..
The oil company and Israel will never let US pull our military from the middle east.
Besides stealing the oil from Iraq , they need to run the gas pipe lines through Afghanistan.
If Obama was serious about doing for the citizens of this country...
He would have keep his promises...
Renegotiate the free trade bill as he promised now changed his mind.
3.5 million American jobs were just a start for outsourcing them..
Stop the war in the middle east.
Stop the tax cuts Bush administration gave to the top 10 percent.
If Obama would have keep Any one of these promises money would not be a problem for single payer or public option..
This has become the 3rd term of the Bush/Cheney policies...
None
As long as US and NATO forces are there, it will end in disaster. It's already a disaster and nothing is going to change at this point.
It's time for the Obama administration to cut the losses, admit failure, and get the hell out of there.
(This is a segment from the speech he suggested Obama SHOULD give):
"It makes no sense to throw untold billions more into adventures like Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which have but tenuous relationship to our nation’s security.
Yes, critics will criticize me for changing my mind. And in response I would simply cite Emerson’s dictum: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
Some 2,500 years ago, Alexander of Macedonia tried to “prevail” in Afghanistan. He and his army were on their way to China and invaded Afghanistan, only to encounter formidable mountains and even more formidable “militants” — fierce tribes who started whittling away at the flanks of Alexander’s army.
Conferring with his officers, and looking up at those mountains, Alexander decided to change his mind and go back to Asia Minor. That may be why he deserves “the Great” after his name. No foolish consistency there.
The trouble is that in the centuries that followed, the Persians, Indians, Mongols, British, Russians learned nothing from Alexander, preferring foolish consistency before they were driven out of Afghanistan, suffering terrible losses and achieving nothing."
Afghanistan will be Obama's Vietnam. Now there's a SURE FIRE way to not get re-elected.
Add the rotten penalties/fines to Americans who don't cave and buy health insurance they probably cannot afford from for-profit health insurance corporations and I think that will spell a new American revolution with a capital "R".
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
I'd love to hear Obama give that speech, Abby. Sadly, it will never happen.
really sucks. We may as well just put Corporate Logo's up all around the Halls.
Slapped on the front of the U.S. Congress Building.
but let's not kid ourselves - training their security forces while their leaders are clearly corrupt is worse than an exercise in futility.
the PNAC alumni who took over the Bush Administration’s national security apparatus first before any withdrawal is possible.
President Barack Obama's $128 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the budget year beginning in October.
The war profiteers are happy.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
the Appropriations Committee vote (unanimously) for $636 billion to fund next year's Pentagon budget.
That doesn't include the black box 'intelligence' stuff, of which, who knows how much is involved.
Massive welfare for billionaires.
Pennies for peons.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Let's see.....
$128 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan for the next year. If we just got the f*ck out, we could use that money for health care reform and still save some money (1 trillion divided by 10 years = $100 billion per year.)
Nah.....let's continue a "war" on ... whatever it is we're fighting.
now we know why we can't afford U.S. health
Oh no its OK the Afghan government pays for all those troops with their immense reserves of.....
...opium.
Either that or they can give us all their pomegranates.
To have a national army or police force that functions with any level of loyalty, capability, or professionalism, you need a society capable of supporting such a force. Afghanistan is not such a place.
What are we talking about here? This country has no infrastructure or even a functioning government. Outside of Kabul and Kandahar, ethnic tribes control security and government functions and any loyalties lie with one's own tribe. The notion of an Afghan National Army taking on the Taliban is laughable.
I'm sorry America. You've screwed up yet again. This war is not winnable and even worse, victory cannot even be defined. The Europeans know this and are pulling out. It's completely insane to continue trying to nation-build this medieval shithole of a country.
As Americans desperately try to save face for this blunder (more peace with honor bullshit), more soldiers will die, more Afghan civilians will die, and just like Iraq it will be for nothing.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
What the hell is he talking about? The original goal in Afghanistan was to capture Binladen. Now the goal is to protect the villages?
The goal is to keep these goddamned wars going on as long as these dip shits in congress can keep it going.
The Afghan war is going to be Obama's Viet Nam and it will sink his regime just as Viet Nam sank Johnson's regime. There is no reason to even be there. Binladen is long fucking gone and everybody knows it.
GET THE HELL OUT OF AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ!!!!!!!!!
are so important to us?
http://www.peacealliancewinnipeg.ca/wp-conten...
Remember when the Soviets invaded in 80 it was our concern that they were getting too close to a warm water port.
Just run the arrow the other way.
In a 1998 speech to the "Collateral Damage Conference" of the Cato Institute, Cheney said, "the good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the business is."
http://www.cato.org/speeches/sp-dc062398.html
Afghanistan is where empires go to die.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
Give weapons and training to an army in a land divided amongst contending factions? That's always a good idea!
Maybe Russia can invade from the North and we can split it like Poland.
All that time Bush was in charge he helped fund both wars.
has been more progressive than self-describe ones here too. She is on record saying there is no support for increasing the troop presence.
does Andrea Mitchell look like a walking advertisement for too much plastic surgery at far too late an age?
I don't remember her looking like this...
There's a lot more to it than saying, "Show up on time and shoot straight." There's leadership, there's the concept of building trust in instituions, there's anti-corruption efforts; these are the areas that receive failing marks.
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