printObama continues to conjure up “new monsters and new missions in Afghanistan,” just as he had promised during his election campaign. And just as the handful of anti-war activists on the left knew he would—everybody was well aware that Obama had staked out Afghanistan as his preferred theater of war, and had pledged an uptick in operations against the “Taliban.”
BO had already authorized 22,000 troops early this year. Now comes the no-news of his intention to send an additional 34,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, breaking “no-news” he will announce tomorrow.
Despite the fact that the deployment details are already known, the WaPo has described White House officials as “tight-lipped” about the strategy. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been plenty lippy about the nation building Brother Barack has planned:
The military objective, Brown said, is “to create the space for an effective political strategy to work, weakening the Taliban by strengthening Afghanistan itself.” Over the next year, he said, the Afghan army will be expanded from 90,000 to 134,000, with 10,000 of them going to Helmand province, where U.S. Marines and British troops have concentrated their fight against the Taliban. Further increases are envisioned for later.
Update (Dec. 1): Debkafile:
“Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar tried to get the jump on [BO] by warning that the US and its allies faced defeat. From his new hideout, Omar Mullah warned the White House:
“‘Considering the present facts in Afghanistan, you and your allies are facing inevitable defeat which will remain whether by sending more troops or taking a series of illogical strategies.’ The Afghan Taliban leader went on to say: ‘And may you know that the logic of using force today has lost its effect, and you cannot control the Afghani people through monetary force or your satanic trickery.'”
“According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the last sentence referred to US plans to pay out large monthly stipends to tribal and commanders in order to lure thousands of Taliban fighters into switching sides, a gambit which worked in Iraq for drawing Sunni Arab tribal chieftains into declaring war on al Qaeda.”
If anyone doubted Barack’s historical ignorance or lack of humility, this stupendously stupid escalation half a world away should serve as a wake up call. Only the seriously stupid hope-and-change Kool-aid drinkers will remain wedded to Obama’s misguided attempts to refashion the world in his image.
For sanity’s sake, we can only hope that the inevitable economic collapse occurs before this preposterous interventionist foreign policy kills us all. Can Americans really be this blind to what is being done in their name?
‘”…the last sentence referred to US plans to pay out large monthly stipends to tribal and commanders in order to lure thousands of Taliban fighters into switching sides, a gambit which worked in Iraq for drawing Sunni Arab tribal chieftains into declaring war on al Qaeda.”’
And how many millions does Osama bin Laden have? If I were those commanders, I would take the foreign invader’s money, bide my time and eventually buy sophisticated weapons with it. True believers are not motivated by money. When will Western leaders realize that even the trivial promises of Islam beat the meaningless materialism of secularism?
15 Saudis and 4 other Arabs, training in America in Germany, attacked America on 9/11/01. They were inspired by an Egyptian (Zawahari) and Saudi (Bin Laden) who temporarily resided in Afghanistan, hosted by the Taliban. Now, with under 100 Al Queda terrorists remaining in Afghanistan, America/NATO will send more troops to fight poppy-growing Pushtuns who dislike to Tajik/Uzbek/Hazera dominated Karzai “government” BECAUSE these Pushtuns befriend the Taliban who once hosted some Al Queda guys who had 19 members attack us. To this end, our Supreme Messiah Obama decided to send more troops (which should be decided by Congress under Article 1 Section 8) to Afghanistan although: (1) there are more Al Queda in Yemen and Somalia, (2) the US and Europe are mostly attacked by Western-based Al Queda and freelancing Jihadist wannabees like Richard Reid and Nidal Hasan who do not require “training infrastructure”.
Although the growth of our own annual debt exceeds $ 5,000 / taxpayer in 2010, we’ll spend 5 – 10 times the entire Gross Domestic Product of Afghanistan and waste 100,000 soldiers pursuing 100 Jihadists.
And Obama’s leading opponents: Narcissist Sarah, Pardoner Huck, Health-care Romney,and Amnesty McCain want to do even more stupid surging!
Central governments see more central government as the solution to all problems. What Obie and his minions fail to understand was put best by an immigrant Tajik many years ago. He was speaking to why many people wanted the Talibs gone:
“Local communities are more then willing and capable of stoning their own women to death and don’t need the Talibs for this purpose.”
We misunderstand the nature of these people by a lot. They don’t like central authority and control. Local warlords and elders will take our money but (successfully) resist all attempts to impose control from above, even if that means working with the Talibs.
So much for the peace candidate. I suspect that he’ll accept the Nobel Peace Prize anyway.
The shift of focus to Afghanistan puzzles me. There’s oil in Iraq, and U.S. companies are about to start producing it. (Please, Lord, take my Baker Hughes shares back to a hundred bucks just one more time!) There’s nothing in Afghanistan but rocks, sand, and dope. When the Iraqis grow restive again, as they surely will, we’ll need to shift troops back to Iraq, to protect the American investment in the Iraqi oilfields, won’t we?
For quite some time, the aerospace industry, largely funded by the defense budget, has suffered due to the preference for bullets, bombs, and bullet-proof vests that accompany large-scale troop deployment in our wars of choice. Now, it seems as though a once-great American industry’s death knell has sounded. Funds will continue to be diverted to the troops, to the front, and to a mission in Afghanistan that will fail. I’m sure that the Americans working at Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup-Grumman, etc., will take some comfort in Obama’s grand vision as they receive their layoff notices, are asked to clean out their desks, and are marched out the doors of their companies by security personnel.
I would like to read a credible plan for dealing with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda that is connected with some reality out there and not some libertarian view that we should do nothing until we are attacked (again). I have read all the comments here and elsewhere related to this issue and I have not read a plan.
What is the plan? Bring the troops home? Then what do we do about the Taliban and al-Qaeda? What do we do when they go after the Pakistani nukes? What do we do to stop Iran from getting nukes? How do we prevent an electromagnetic pulse attack on the US? (Look up EMP if you need to.)
I don’t see any inkling of a plan. All I read are attacks on what we have done and what Obama is proposing to do now.
So this is what Ron Paul says:
http://www.ronpaul.com/2009-09-14/ron-paul-on-afghanistan/
In summary, stay home do nothing. There is nothing out there that is a danger to us. We are the cause of the danger because we are out there. So stay home, be happy.
I wonder what Paul would have said in 1935. Maybe he would have been marching in the streets with the pacifists.
If it walks like a duck …
So someone out there please tell me: Where is the Plan? other than staying home and burying our heads to the real danger.
Haym:
One has to hope that Pakistan will secure its own nukes. A fallback is, of course, the Hinduist Entity which may take action if it deems it necessary.
Iran – make it difficult for them to get the materials and possibly assure them that we will not overthrow their idiotic government.
Al Queda – Use the CIA and foreign intel. agencies and law enforcement to get them when you can – track their movements.
Taliban – Make it clear to them that if they don’t mess with us, we won’t mess with them.
That’s my plan! – Myron
“…we’ll need to shift troops back to Iraq, to protect the American investment in the Iraqi oilfields, won’t we?”
It looks like that investment will be Chinese not American. Maybe that’s why they financed the war in the first place!
Afghanistan is an absolute disaster. The longer we are there the more the chaos we cause spills into Pakistan which could turn into a REAL disaster. Obama expects our allies (NATO) to put forward 10,000 troops when most of them are getting ready to pull out of what is the most unpopular war in Europe since our Iraq adventure. Maybe Obama will convince them otherwise with an ipod full of his speeches? More likely, NATO will cease to be relevant and Russia will take advantage of our weakness.
And unlike during the Bush regime, domestic opposition to war has vanished. The “anti-war” left has fallen silent and some, like code pink, have even started to cheer lead for Obama’s war lest the evil Taliban return and oppress women. Karzai and his drug-lord allies are enlightened progressives you see!
Unfortunately, no one in power listens to the principled Libertarians.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1006/p06s10-wosc.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703740004574513192925257848.html
HAYM asks “Where is the Plan” I can’t speak for anyone else but myself. Over the last ten-fifteen years I have seen NATO bomb the — out of Serbia because we assumed they were ethnically cleansing their country. After we bombed their country for approximately a year and killed over a hundred thousand Serb men women and children, we had a trial and found the Serbs were not guilty, meanwhile the Muslims are still killing Serbs and burning Christian Churches in order to force them out of their area. Meanwhile, we ignored Black Africa and the massive destruction against tribes and religions going on there. South Africa has lost 300, 000 citizens because we insisted that they become a democracy without a means of checks and balances. We have spent 8 years mucking about in Afghanistan and Iraq and truth be told, Pakistan with our smart bombs. How has the US done better in the countries that it had a plan for, Serbia-Iraq-Afghanistan; than it has in the countries it didn’t plan the destruction of? Russia, China, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Australia don’t have a plan either, who appointed us God?
“It looks like that investment will be Chinese not American. Maybe that’s why they financed the war in the first place!”
According to the more recent NYT article linked in my post above, Exxon, Occidental, and Royal Dutch Shell have made deals to develops other Iraqi fields.
“So someone out there please tell me: Where is the Plan? other than staying home and burying our heads to the real danger.” Haym
1. Trust in the Lord.
2. Maintain a strong DEFENSE and deterrent.
3. Allow true liberty, INCLUDING AND ESPECIALLY MONEY CREATION.
4. Serve as an example to the rest of the world.
Haym, why do you conflate non-aggression with pacifism? The Swiss are completely non-aggressive but even Hitler feared to invade them.
M.B.: You are right, I should distinguish between pacifism and isolationism. I’ll be more precise next time.
Sometimes a strong defense is not enough. In the same vein, why not nip it in the bud. Why lose millions when by acting earlier you lose many fewer – e.g., WWII.
I always agree with true liberty and the rights of the individual as being paramount.
The Lord – with all due respect, many go and have gone to their deaths with trust in the Lord. Again, e.g., WWII, and all wars before and after.
I have little regard for the Swiss. Hitler used the Swiss – he needed them.
“Why lose millions when by acting earlier you lose many fewer – e.g., WWII.” Haym
US entry into WWI was a major cause of WWII since it allowed an unjust peace to be imposed on the Germans.
Like one who takes a dog by the ears is he who passes by and meddles with strife not belonging to him. Proverbs 26:17