Alter the ecosystem, DU, Agent Orange, Phospherous, Napalm, Oil Spills?

More death, more devastation, more poisons with half-lives just short of eternity.

Nothing but good news coming out of this administration. When will it all end? When somebody drops the big one?

Colonel "Slam" has already determined that the operation is a total success.

Will this wave of US and UK militarism finally prod the moribund antiwar movement in the US into action? Or do they still believe that Obama should be given a chance to prove his [alleged] antiwar credentials?

"We are going to gain control of a capital investment they have had control of for some time. We are going to alter the ecosystem here considerably."

"Gain control of a capital investment." See? Pay no attention to the bugsplats, it is OK, just business. Who needs an ecosystem, anyway?

Well at least the headline is correct. It is an OFFENSIVE WAR and offends most people in Afghanistan. The Afghans and the Taliban are fighting a defensive war just like they did against the Soviet Union.

As I remember, US went to war to go after the 9-11 terrorists.
US identified them as a group headed by former CIA asset Osama bin Laden, a Saudi.
The nineteen terrorists were mostly Saudis with no Iraqis or Afghanis.
So why are we in Iraq and Afghanistan?
With several hundred thousand troops and nine years, we still haven't captured our former asset? C'mon!

The photo of the Afghan farmer and the Marine is heartbreaking. The continual assault on the dignity of these people is unconscionable and will do nothing but foment more hatred and violence.

I wonder how many civilians are going to be taken out. Or are they "enemy civilians" to go along with the "enemy combatant" category?

What if we gave a war and nobody came?

I predict that the Taliban will follow Mao Zedong's rules: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue."

The 15,000 US/Brit/Afghan forces will likely walk into a relatively quiet Marjah. At the end of the operation, we will declare "Mission Accomplished", leave, and the Taliban will return to business-as-usual.

" US officers believe between 600 and 1,000 fighters, including 150 foreign volunteers, are in the district."

I like the bit about fighters and "foreign volunteers' aren't the US and UK etc the univited fighters and foreign volunteers, unwanted, uninvited, murdering, aggressive invaders.

The Afghans and who ever comes to their aid are resistance to occupation. Entirely legitimate.

We'll eventually slink off, tail between legs, 'leave them a wasteland and call it peace.' And dead that it is 'unproductive' to count.

Shameful.

Well so much for the secrecy and surprise that stood us in such good stead on D-Day. Who's running the US/UK military now - the Spanish Inquisition?

The Telegraph/UK is a pretty reliable right of center scandal sheet and government propaganda conduit, so the facts of this news story about the kickoff of Obama's big surge in Afghanistan are probably quite authoritative.

Unidentified, unnamed "American commanders gave notice Wednesday that the assault is imminent." The same anonymous sources forecast 15,000 US/UN troops will spend six to eight weeks in "a Taliban enclave in southern Helmland province..... preparing to take the town of Marjah which they describe as a 'festering sore'..... The town has been described as a nexus of militant fighters, bomb makers and opium dealers..... US officials believe 600 to 1,000 fighters, including 150 foreign volunteers, are in the district."

I'm sure this grand show of force will prove to be a watershed turning point in the Afghan theatre of the global war on terror. Clearly, we've got great intelligence. We've got the evildoers outnumbered fifteen to one.

Reminds me a lot of the big assault on the festering sore called Fallujah, timed for right after the 2004 Bush/Kerry election results were announced. That operation certainly turned around the whole dynamic of the insurgency in Iraq, didn't it?

Bill from Saginaw

Excellent idea - tell the 'enemy' when and where the attack is coming. Awesome strategy. Maybe we can supply em with extra ammo in case they run out...

The USA should be announcing that 'No Attack Is Imminent. Go Back To What You Were Doing. We're just, um, looking for our doggie...'

Only one reason to announce we're attacking - to give the enemy time to flee, so we can then spend another year hunting them down again, and again, and again...

G.H.W.Bush spent our tax money to pay the Taliban, and supplied them with weapons for his agenda, and G.W.Bush stirred them up, and used our tax money to kill them. The axis of evil are the US, Britain, and Israel. When all is said and done, all will know who was really behind 9/11, and the reason was for oil.

Alas, some GIs will be coming home early. All for naught.

isn't it great that Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize! Cheney is running the war (still).

killer mcchrystal's up to his old tricks. after ethnicaly cleansing baghdad and deceiving the tillman family about thier son and brother, whose clothes and equipment he ordered burned, he won the close alliance of both cheney and rumsfeld. next, they sent him to a media school so he and patraeus, who had already attended, would convince americans by their good ol' boy aw shucks speech and mannerisms, that they were just trying to help these poor oppressed people in the midddle east gain their freedoms. now, he is sending agents into villages at night to kidnap and torture those who oppose our intervention, even if the afghani is simply opposed as a matter of politics and doesn't fight alongside the taliban. heil mcchrystal! he is the living embodiment of the cool, professional, killer of the last phase of the american empire. why not put "the empire" as the last place that we note on our return addreses? right under your city and state, please.

and so what if the taliban raise a liitle opium? so does karzai's brother, and his money probably makes it into hamid's pockets as well. funny that congress passes a law to let our great plain indians hallucinate on peyote as part of their religious ceremonies. funnier still that congress passed a trade law that requires us to impose a retaliatory against those countries that won't willingly import our deadly tobacco products. hilariously ironical that we can send, with a straight face, sikorski helicopters into the andes to poison the cocoa leaves that the indians there have been chewing for 3,000 years. unbelievable that ashcroft's war on drugs entailed his asking ted turner to use his broadcast technology to change from red to green the poppy fields that dorothy fell asleep in as she loped with tinman, lion, and scarecrow toward emerald city to see the oz. he told turner to make those red poppy fields look like rows of green missouri cornstalks. and, whatever happened to johnny boy ashcroft? did he repent of his many sins? where is he, pray tell, and what is he doing these days?

Hey, General McChrystal, before flattening Marjah, killing thousands of civilians and destroying the ecosystem, if you're interested there's a way to stop the bloodshed, which is (1) your calling for an immediate truce, to be followed by troops out now from Afghanista/Iraq/Pakistan/Yemen/Somalia, with the quid pro quo being that the Taliban and Al Qaeda agree to end the bloodshed, and (2) your pressuring President Obama to demand justice for the Palestinian people. Why you? Because you could talk him into it, that's why. Look how easy it was for you to order (er, persuade) him to deploy another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. True, you asked for 40,000 but 30,000 plus another 7000 NATO troops, that's mighty close to the number you'd requested. And just think, with the taming of the U.S./G.B./Israel axis of evil, there'll be no great cause for which young Arabs/Muslims will be willing to put their lives on the line, such that, Al Qaeda and the Taliban will whither away from lack of new recruits, which means that the terrorist threats will be no more, whereupon, a swords into plowshares conversion will sweep over the world. If you're interested, that is?

American commanders, so kind of you to give advance warning of your attack. That way the Taliban can disappear and you will be left with just civilians to kill -and the latter are so much more accommodating.

I understand your methodology completely -after all, who wants to be shot at by the Taliban if they can be made to voluntarily retreat and you can at the same time trumpet your military prowess at beating them back?

Did you come to an arrangement regarding the time at which hostilities might commence? Excellent; who needs that Sun Tzu manual anyway?
Throw it out; we are trying to stay here permanently, not win.

More whack a mole.

My, my, "alter the ecosystem considerably..." Isn't that what all wars do?
Meanwhile, back in America, the coal companies, oil companies, etc. etc. are doing that to OUR natural resources....and all without firing a shot.....amazing.

Dear military: Please define,"Imminent".... as I recall, the early Christians said that about Christ's return too.....

And historically, Cyrus went where he shouldn't have gone, and that Queen/warrior Tomyris, ended up with his head. Now supposedly, she took his head and put it in a sack full of blood, and told him to drink all the blood that he wanted.

Of course, in those days, the LEADERS were in the fray of battle; kind of makes modern warfare a little whimpy, don't you think? Grown men sitting around in tents playing with soldier widgets on a chessboard. Sorry guys, but you are just altering the HUMAN system considerably!

"Oil and Natural Gas Resources Assessment. A nationwide oil and gas resources assessment was initiated by USGS in Spring 2003 with funding from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA). This 24-month activity should be completed in early 2005, and will dovetail with two projects that are being funded by the World Bank. These World Bank projects are for engineering assessments of the oil and gas reserves in existing fields and for an assessment of the fertilizer, sulfur, and power plants associated with natural gas production in the northern oil and gas basins of Afghanistan. The completion of these projects should be near the end of 2004. The USGS project calls for a Quantitative assessment of the northern basins and a Qualitative assessment of the southern basins (Katawaz and Helmand)."
Helmland is where Marja is, check your USGS site and read more.
"Petroleum Law. The writing and discussion of a modern Afghanistan Petroleum law have been ongoing for more than two years. This law, when enacted, will serve to level the playing field for all interested foreign investors in the oil and gas sector and will provide for transparency in the management of this critical energy sector of the country. Basically, it will lay out the Afghanistan Government's leasing process for foreign investors. The World Bank is funding this activity; government approval of the new law is expected by the end of calendar year 2004. USGS serves a consulting role in this activity." And as with all government projects, it takes much longer than previously outlined, so we are still there doing what we intend to do, use their resources for our corporate/aka WB benefits.
Emeralds!!! Wow.
If you have any interest in finding out more...
C. J. Wandrey
Project Chief, Oil and Gas Resource Assessment of Afghanistan
MS 939, DFC
Denver, CO 80225
Voice: (303) 236-5341
Email: cwandrey@usgs.gov
or
http://afghanistan.cr.usgs.gov/oil.php
and so much more.....