Playing with soldiers' lives [View All]

[IndianaGreen]

Playing with soldiers' lives

Wednesday 02 December 2009

US President Barack Obama has finally made his mind up about Afghanistan and his decision leaves no-one any happier than they were before he made it.

The US is going to flood the country with up to 30,000 more troops, NATO is going to chip in with around another 5,000 and the various so-called "allies" will add to that as they see fit, with Britain already committed to an extra 500 sacrificial lambs.

But, in a display of all things to all people, Mr Obama says that this "surge" will last for just another 18 months until the drawdown of foreign troops starts.

At which time, the functions filled by foreign troops will start being handed over to Afghan army forces trained by the Western forces.

This means that Afghanistan will be awash with over 100,000 US troops, British forces will number around 10,000 and the Afghan army is due to be boosted from 90,000 to around 134,000, all newly trained and ready to go.

And where will all this leave us?

The answer is probably nowhere that we haven't been already.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/84007