Seems to be crickets around here as our sons and daughters are murdered in Afghanistan. And Odumba sits by and does nothing. He doesn't care about our military...or he simply doesn't have any answers. And still, I bet Odumba hands out no bid contracts for Afghanistan to his cronies.
Players meeting my ASS!
If it were up to the Repubs we'd be occupying this place for another decade... Obama inherited this war and wants out but they won't let him.
^ Mxy?
Players meeting my ASS!
Tahoe, how did you know that I was hangin' with a bunch of vets in Vegas? I actually got to hear a lot about Afghanistan, as it turns out. Obama announced a substantial withdrawal by 2014 back in May. It's not so much the Reps that won't let him leave Afghanistan. Basically, we need to come to terms with the Taliban. There've been efforts in this direction, but there's been a couple big problems:
1) Al-Qaeda: Most of the Taliban would just as soon ditch Al-Qaeda at this point, because we've beaten the shit out of them over it. But Al-Qaeda will just start attacking the Taliban if the Taliban doesn't play ball. The way I heard it, you have "the assholes" and "the even-bigger assholes".
2) Karzai: The idea is that by now, we'd have a built-up regime to hand a mostly-deloused Afghanistan *to*. We're not getting that with Karzai. A decent chunk of recent casualties come from double-sided "friends" (including a guy I was with who was shot in the leg and arguing with the VA about 20% vs. 30% disability). Karzai's fucked up negotiations with the Taliban. Some of this is understandable because the Taliban keep on trying to assassinate him and his family, but still... it's not clear Karzai knows how to deal with his own fucking country.
Of course, there's other elements -- Iran and Russia, our money propping up their economy, tribal unity, etc. But that's not what I heard about when I happened to be with a bunch of troops for a few days in Vegas.
^ Good for you. I always like spending time with our troops.
Players meeting my ASS!
Merc...Obama said Afghanistan is the good war. The war that should be fought. He was against Irag, but increased troop levels in Afgh.
Players meeting my ASS!
He's also said several times that he wants the troops home... as Mxy says it's a delicate balance... he did get the troops out of Bush's war.
Merc go back and search what Gore had to say when Bush 41 (Bush 41 refers to the first President Bush, so you know) when Bush didn't go into Iraq after the Kuwait war. You seem to have this false notion that Obama didn't want to fight in Afgh. Go read a lil bit. I thought Mxy would step in and help you out a lil bit on your post about Afgh, but apparently not.Originally Posted by mercury
Players meeting my ASS!
From republican-candidates.org...
Romney on Afghanistan
The Objectives
"Gov. Romney indicated in an interview with ABC on July 29, 2012, that while he is supportive of President Barack Obama’s Sept 2014 troops withdrawal deadline, he disagrees with the plan to order 23,000 troops out of Afghanistan by Sept. 30. However, he admits that his position could change depending on the counsel of military commanders, while leaving open the possibility of keeping combat troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 should conditions change.
Afghanistan's most strategic asset is that it's a mass of hillbillies in the middle of fucking nowhere relative to a lot of bigger powers.
Turning that into something useful has proven to be difficult for the Afghanis themselves, let alone the U.S.., the Russians, the Brits, etc.
The terrorists have figured out that it's a good place to hide and recruit. The drug dealers have figured out it's where to make opium and weed.
How do you turn a bunch of reactionary people who mostly can't read or write into a self-sustaining economic power?
Supposedly, they have mineral riches to be exploited, but they need stability and infrastructure to do that.
What else do they have going for them?
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