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White House Split on Second Afghan Troop Surge
President Obama is confronting a split among his closest advisers on Afghanistan, with military commanders solidly behind the request for additional troops but other key figures in the administration divided.
In this photo released by the White House, President Barack Obama holds a review on Afghanistan in the Situation Room of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/The White House, Pete Souza)
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, and Richard Holbrooke, the special
Afghan and Pakistan envoy, appear to be leaning toward supporting a troop
increase, a White House official revealed after a strategy meeting
yesterday.
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, and General James Jones, Mr Obama's national security adviser, appeared to be less supportive, the official said.
Joe Biden, the US Vice President who attended the meeting, has been reluctant to support a troop increase, preferring to step up the US's controversial airborne campaign to fire missiles at al-Qaeda fighters sheltering in Pakistan. Unmanned drone attacks save US troops from harm's way but have taken a heavy toll in civilian lives.
The fault lines within the administration emerged last night as Mr Obama pressed key members of his national security team for their views during an intense, three-hour session in a packed White House Situation Room.
The splits reflect wider divisions in the Democratic party and an American people grown weary of the 8-year-old conflict.
Mr Obama is under pressure to make a quick decision on whether to approve the change of strategy recommended by top general Stanley McChrystal, switching from attacking the Taleban to protecting the Afghan civilian population and efforts to build up Afghan security forces.
In a secret report to the Pentagon, leaked last week, Gen McChrystal warns that US troops are losing ground against the Taleban and that within a year the war may be unwinnable.
But the strategy would involve sending in up to 40,000 more US troops and army trainers, in addition to the current US force of 68,000 - a policy Mr Obama fears he may fail to get through Congress. Military figures fret that he is seeking to delay a decision.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General David Petraeus, the top commander for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both support Gen McChrystal's strategy, said Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon press secretary.
Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, is on the fence, the spokesman said. Mr Gates has had General McChrystal's exact request for more troop numbers on his desk since late last week, but has yet to pass it on to the White House.
Last night's meeting - the second of at least five Mr Obama has planned as he reviews his Afghanistan strategy - didn't include specific discussions of troop levels.
At its conclusion, Mr Obama reminded the crowd that he hadn't reached a decision and that his war council should return twice next week with more details and ideas, the official said.
White House officials say it may take weeks more before the president decides whether to overhaul US strategy in Afghanistan or send more troops.
Afterwards, General Jones told senators in a classified briefing that the administration's evolving Afghanistan strategy depends in large part on the outcome of the disputed Afghan election. No result is expected for weeks, as the country's electoral complaints commission sifts through a mountain of allegations of vote fraud by President Karzai.
"It's not just the election but the reaction to the election that we'll be watching for," said Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island.
Key Democrats in Congress have begun voicing concern about the US-led effort in Afghanistan, questioning whether a further commitment of blood and treasure is wise or necessary. The most vocal support for continuing or even expanding the conflict comes from Republicans.
Support for the war has fallen off sharply among Americans, with just more than half now saying the conflict is not worth the fight.
- Posted in
40 Comments so far
Show AllHow about neither. Is neither an option?
Joe
Absolutely!
That is the one option that is off the table.
Why are they waiting for the election results? Sounds like a bogus reason to me.
Out of Afghanistan now!
It is a sad day in America when this group elected or appointed by our elected officials are so sick as to sit around a table to determine how they will continue to profit personally from the death and destruction of others. It is a sad day because we the people of this country have put these people around that table. It is at our desire that they debate death and destruction.
Are these people around this table the sick MOFOs or are we. Both?
The only spark of intelligence is that these people are not considering nuclear weapons that would end the war, the Afghan country and make it hard to profit from a radioactive hole in the ground.
I agree, friends; this country must leave, because otherwise, we have nothing to look forward to as a country but defeat and ruin, just like the Soviets ...
Given Obama's advisers, it is impossible to imagine the United States getting out of Afghanistan. The one saving grace: This country is going broke. We will leave that godforsaken place only when we have to, when all the gold has been spent.
ah, but afghanistan is the source of 'gold'...
I hear they work cheap too!
Remember way back in 2001 when the Taliban offered to give up Bin Laden provided only that he be tried under Sharia law?
Back before the Afgan war had weakened Pakistan?
Back bfore the unnessecary invasion and occupation of Iraq that cost the US thousands of soliers lives, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians lives?
Then that A-hole moron Bush decided he needed to invade a few 3rd world backwater countries to prove he had cojones and provide new business opportunities to his oil and gas buddies?
Then Obama got elected and it all got better...
Well, I remember everything but that last bit.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
mujeriego: "Remember way back in 2001 when the Taliban offered to give up Bin Laden provided only that he be tried under Sharia law"?
The Taliban offered publicly ... on the tv cameras ... to give up Bin Laden if the Bush Administration could offer evidence that he had truly been involved in 9-11. Yeah, right. There was a little huffing and puffing about getting a written statement out by the Bushies, but that never happened, of course, and the Taliban leaders were left hanging out to dry.
You may be right, however, that they might also have said if there was evidence about Bin Laden and 9-11 that they would prefer he be tried in Afghanistan under Sharia law. I never came across that. Maybe you have a source on that.
peace, cm
It is time to get out and stop wasting our kids on a fantasy of politicians....there is no win/no solution/no good in Afganistan.
Simply more body bags for nothing. And the Afgans don't even get that.
Joe suggested neither below....why not?
You can not defeat an insurgency from the air. Drones will accomplish nothing when their kill rate is 90 percent civilians therein alienating even mre people.
So why is this seen as even an option? I can see two reasons.
1>It keeps the profits rolling in for the arms merchants.
2>The USA can claim it "Nver lost" in Afghanistan just as long as it keeps those drones slaughtering women and children.
Pride and profits.
We lost the day Bush sent our kids into Afganistan GW. The only win we'll get is when someone smart enough to see the truth gets us out.
Yes GW and Henry. Why is this not absolutely clear to all of us?
Joe
Darned if I know. But I do believe its becoming clear to our citizens. 58% not in favor as Teddy said and rising.
exactly, and wisely put, Henry8.
it really applies anywhere. countries , after an initial or preceding period of expansion and "success" and power, that try to PROJECT that power outwards, eventually overextend themselves and suffer the consequences - in blowbacks : to their economies, domestic conditions, and eventually that very same "power" and position they tried to expand beyond their borders outside of trade.
even the biggest, most powerful BULLY will eventually trip and fall flat on his face - and in that moment - will be subjected to the forces bearing down on him that he once "bullied". he will count himself lucky if he is allowed to go home unmolested further by those whose neighborhoods he terrorized. he will be even luckier if he finds, upon going home that his home ISN"T razed to the ground or OWNED by others that took over while he was busy having his adventures elsewhere.
JUST GET OUT. it's that simple. JUST GET OUT. ADMIT that the USA has NO business going anywhere trying to dominate the planet and make countries "obey". the world ISN'T the USA's playground. PERIOD.
"we didn't like it when the USSR was in our neighborhood in Cuba....so what are WE doing in Russia's backyard?...
"we should get out of this Empire Business ...and get out of those lands before they all kick us out".
Patrick Buchanan.
I find it most interesting that a people who won't risk any real confrontation with the total domination of its own governance by USA Incorporated domestically will take up arms and risk mortal danger in pursuit of those same "U.S. interests" abroad.
Anyhow, the tactical "split" really doesn't matter much. What Americans really should be asking themselves is why both Russia and China are so willing to see US-NATO forces enmeshed in this ongoing Afghanistan debacle. They not only refrained from using their Security Council vetos against the UN's original resolution authorizing that involvement, they've since supported several "mission creep" extensions. And that's without even considering the willingness, especially in China's case, to provide major financial support.
Either Russia, China and their SCO allies are very stupid, or the U.S. is, and I know which alternative I'm betting on.
Fools' names and fools' faces.
As though a year from now BOTH will not be dramatically increased. There was a "flurry," of drone attacks in Waziristan in the last few days. antiwar.com
Incremental 15k troop increases until next summer when the US Navy is attacked by Iran and forced to defend itself.
Then the Evil Arc of Islam feels true Christian US Armed Forces wrath.
Headline sez: "War council divided ... more troops or more drones?"
***
But the council is utterly unanimous on "more death".
Just think of all those lost profits if the U.S. should pull out.
Yeah, anything but "More Sanity."
Kill more civilians or kill even more civilians.
The only benefit of drones is their use easier to shut down.
"On the contrary, the legitimacy of the US military action has been under increasing doubt."
Clearly, therefore, the urgent necessity arises to promote reconciliation among the warring Afghan groups and this effort needs to commence with the US forthwith ending its military operations.
Second, the dramatic shift in US public opinion - with 58% of people opposing the war, according to the latest estimates - and growing skepticism about the war on Capitol Hill - especially the groundswell of opposition within the Democratic Party - casts shadows on the trajectory of the Obama administration's Afghan strategy. Certainly, Obama "cannot afford to bet his political fate on an unpopular war".
"the young US president [has] the best chance to extricate himself from the Pentagon's pressures" if he chooses to tap into the rapidly growing anti-war sentiments in the country.
Obama should factor in that, if he decides to stop the war, "that would not only meet the US public expectations and save more American lives, but also help recover the US's peaceful image and enhance the president's personal political prospects".
==========
Above excerpt is the suggestion to OBAMA ...
not from someone in the USA.
but from China's National Newspaper......
or something like:
a Piece of Advice to the 300 year old "america" from a 3,000 year old China...
oops.
Good advice is good advice no matter where or who it comes from.....anytime!
From my youth, the place, Germany; the time, the 1930's and 40's; The government, the Third Reich; The principals, der fuhrer und his general staff.
Today, the place has changed, the time is later, the government has a different name and the names of the principals have changed. All else remains the same.
Yes, to have lived personally through the horrors of WWII, as I did also as a young American bride made war widow, is to view what is happening to the USA--as the aggressor this time--as the final disintegration of a once great nation. We may not come out of this period of madness as well as did Germany after WW11.
Imagine the life or death fate of hundreds of thousands of human beings decided around a large table of powerful political and military figures who are more concerned with the problems of troop increase, war funding, military strategy and all the nuts and bolts of warfare than the lives of the hundreds of thousands of human beings who simply want us to pack up and go home. And this is not counting the numbers of our own young men and women--those who survive--who will come home, too often broken in body and spirit. War has forever been so glorified that the y young and inexperienced have no idea what they are getting into.
So Obama is hesitant about committing more troops to what is already a disastrous and bankrupting fiasco. Joe Biden, the consummate war hawk, from his seat of authority wrestles with the decision of whether to support a troop increase or step up the controversial firing of airborne missiles into the country of Pakistan while Clinton and the "diplomat," Holbrooke muse over supporting that troop increase (must not look weak, Hillary). The military brass can be counted on to opt for additional cannon fodder for without wars, the generals and other professional warriors are made irrelevant. War is, after all, state sanctioned mass murder. Human slaughter made legal.
I don't know how others view the direction the new administration is taking. but I am having a hard time seeing how it differs in any important way from the last.
Meanwhile, the USA's #1 creditor China has spoken through an article in the government owned China Daily and posted online at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/28/content_12119321.htm The article is also parsed by atimes.com, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KJ02Df01.html
"The United States should first put an end to the war. The anti-terror war, which the former US administration of George W Bush launched in 2001, has turned out to be the source of ceaseless turbulence and violence in the past years.
"To promote much-needed reconciliation among the parties concerned, the US should end its military action. The war has neither brought the Islamic nation peace and security as the Bush administration originally promised, nor brought any tangible benefits to the US itself. On the contrary, the legitimacy of the US military action has been under increasing doubt."
The country holding the USA's purse strings is saying Get Out Now. Gee, that might just carry some weight. Oh, and note the rhetorical opening for Obama provided by the two paragraphs I've provided: It's all GWB's mess, not yours, so end it now before it DOES become your mess.
I agree. China is saying the credit drys up and the dollar crashes if the US doesn't stop spending borrowed money on wars. I'm also sure that China is willing to help the US if it borrows money to repair and rebuild infrastructure here in the US. China is no saint but they are far more prudent and common people orientated than we are. We need to become like Australia. They realize they can't go around fighting with everyone who didn't come from jolly old England and are actively and peacefully trading with Asian, African and south american countries.
And we really, really need to shut the CIA down. They are destroying this country.
Well, you know my feelings on the subject: The US National Security State must be terminated to save the country morally and financially.
I just spent some time reflecting on the current conditions of the PRC and USA given the PRC's 60th aniversary: The PRC has progressed to the point where it holds the purse strings of the one nation that tried to strangle it during its infancy. Mao would be very impressed. Imagine what the relationship will be in another 60 years. China's rise isn't what surprises me; it's the degree of the US fall, authored by those described by Mills.
It needs to be repeated among americans, AMONG americans..tell your own fellow americans:
PRESIDENT DWIGHT EISENHOWER:
"my fellow americans...beware of the undue influence of the Corporate/Military/Industrial/Congressional Complex...for we shall surely loss our liberties and our republic...we shall bankrupt ourselves in the quest for Absolute Security"...
some history commentators have said (which I agree with) that China's having turned to Communism - which itself was what became ascendant in an INTERNAL struggle between 2 factions of "nationalists" (what became the communist party under Mao and Chou En Lai - and the other the Kuomintang which ended up in Taiwan) - as the only response LEFT to China because it was being ripped apart by the western powers (at that time it inclulded russia, england, Belgium, France, USA etc. and also Japan that sided with them) ..and that the brutal ganging up by these foreign imperialists was designed to divvy up china as the "biggest market" for cheap labor and the overproduction of the westeran capitalists whose goods could not be sustainedly "consumed" at home due to their own capitalism that insisted on low wages for their own "consumers".
so china was the next "big market" that they wanted to divide among themselves into regions of "influence"...
they forced upon what was THEN a very weakened china, due to the corruption and complacency of its ruling dynasty and its last generations (the MING dynasty) , a kind of "treaty" - that china had to sign - which specifically FORBADE china from putting up any "protectionist" measures or laws.
and it also forced on china the agreement that ANY "open market" agreement by china with ANY of the western powers in any area of "influence" by that western power - was EQUALLY applicable to the others.
the consequence of this was of course the NATIONALISTS...and they were brutally put down by the combined strength of the western powers..in what was known famously as "THE BOXER REBELLION"
but china of course, from centuries of being an :"isolationist" as one of the lessons IT learned from the previous centuries of keeping itself intact from the experience of defending itself against the Mongols Kublai and Genghis Khan (who reached europe otherwise) (and thus the reason for the Great Wall, among other things) - was by this time too far behind in technologies of warfare...and so , succumbed to the westerners - who , among other tactics, introduced the Opium Trade - known in Asian History as the "OPIUM WARS" - in order to spread addiction and therefore "submissiveness" to the Chinese population.
what the chinese leaders recent years had remarked was:
"our country fell to Japan ..and other western powers and invaders...we became so weak and what was once a great navy was no more....it is something we will never forget and will NEVER again allow ourselves to be so easily defeated..but whatever we do...one thing is certain...we shall NEVER become a western nation..we shall remain China".
however china achieved its current status ..by using its "weak" position as an isolated nation, and then prevented from acquiring modern technologies , and had to "steal" or "adapt" - or "copy" - and from its weakness (such as having to do with cheap labor by Western standards) , begin to SAVE, and "rebuild"....
whatever it becomes -- China - as a rising great power or already one -whatever else its other faults and many more things that need to be improved - is
- people should NOT forget -
REALLY JUST PICKING UP from where it left off a few centuries ago when foreign invaders caught China the giant "asleep" due to its own internal corruptions or complacencies..
what IS clear - whatever the period of Mao's phases , which in its own way served as China's WAY to , as what one writer says : "be the only great nation on earth to SUCCESSFULLY REPEL western imperialism from inside china" - is that China -
the DRAGON - (which is one of its great symbols..i think representing the vitality of life) - has woken up.
Nice rehash of the Unequal Treaties and the Open Door policy put forth by T Roosevelt to get the USA a piece of the action; what I call Gangster Capitalism. Have you ever read any of Edgar Snow's works on China? His writings provided an insight into China during the US elite's hysteria over having "Lost" it.
Charles Beard wrote an interesting book entitled The Open Door at Home that is still useful reading. As I was finishing my much delayed college education at the end of last century, my China studies made it clear to me that the 21st century would belong to Asia, with China in the lead. Longtime US policy of creating a wedge between Japan and China now seems to be failing as noted by the new Japanese government's strong yen policy. The era of US Gunboat Capitalism is about to be eclipsed. The great irony is that one of the world's poorest countries (if one can even call Afghanistan a country) can lay claim to having destroyed the two Cold War Superpowers--the USSR and USA.
Uhh... About those educated, intelligent people discussing what to do about Afghanistan, here's a nice book that will reveal exactly how they think about war and about you:
From Wikipeda
The Power Elite (1956) describes the relationship between the political, military, and economic elite (people at the pinnacles of these three institutions), noting that these people share a common world view:
the military metaphysic: a military definition of reality;possess class identity: recognizing themselves separate and superior to the rest of society;
have interchangeability (horizontal mobility): they move within and between the three institutional structures and hold interlocking directorates;
cooptation / socialization: socialization of prospective new members is done based on how well they "clone" themselves socially after such elites.
These elites in the "big three" institutional orders have an "uneasy" alliance based upon their "community of interests" driven by the "military metaphysic," which has transformed the economy into a 'permanent war economy'.
By C. Wright Mills
A man who knew the score. He died young of a heart attack. The CIA didn't like him at all but I'm sure he died of natural causes...
Games! Political and geopolitical GAMES!
Obama needs to order a Peace Program.
For the Freakin Planet!
Call it the Peace Program for the Freakin Planet... and He can say he was inspired by reading Ike's farewell address.
Isn't just amazing inside the Washington Beltway, how common sense just goes right out the window in highest corridors of power Hey, they're power elites. Yeah, that's it when people are such pampered, hot air blowing, pieces of dog do do, so overpaid for sitting on their damn booties and have too many perks, all that power and privilege gets to their heads and apparently gives them constipation of the brain-- anybody got a huge supply of Castor Oil for this gang of weirdo white men and one worthless slime ball, swine of a blond haired blue eyed Ayrian race hooker for all the worst of the special damn US interests multi national company clique.
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Preview/preview/give 'em the news/I got a bad case of loving you.
Isn't just amazing inside the Washington Beltway, how common sense just goes right out the window in highest corridors of power Hey, they're power elites. Yeah, that's it when people are such pampered, hot air blowing, pieces of dog do do, so overpaid for sitting on their damn booties and have too many perks, all that power and privilege gets to their heads and apparently gives them constipation of the brain-- anybody got a huge supply of Castor Oil for this gang of weirdo white men and one worthless slime ball, swine of a blond haired blue eyed Ayrian race hooker for all the worst of the special damn US interests multi national company clique.
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Preview, preview, preview. Doesn't anybody want to review anymore? That "is the question." Whether 'tis nobler in the mind. . .?
OK, I give up. What did I get caught doing this time-- chewing gum in class?
Isn't just amazing inside the Washington Beltway, how common sense just goes right out the window in highest corridors of power Hey, they're power elites. Yeah, that's it when people are such pampered, hot air blowing, pieces of dog do do, so overpaid for sitting on their damn booties and have too many perks, all that power and privilege gets to their heads and apparently gives them constipation of the brain-- anybody got a huge supply of Castor Oil for this gang of weirdo white men and one worthless slime ball, swine of a blond haired blue eyed Ayrian race hooker for all the worst of the special damn US interests multi national company clique.
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