Obama commits 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan

[laststeamtrain]

Source: Guardian

Obama commits 17,000 more US troops to Afghanistan

• US president boosts numbers by nearly 50% to stabilise security
• Afghanistan 'has not received strategic attention it requires'

* Helen Pidd and agencies
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 February 2009 14.31 GMT

Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 extra US troops be sent to Afghanistan, keeping a campaign pledge to bolster security in the country, which he said had not received the "strategic attention" it required.

The deployment, which will boost the 36,000 US troops already there by 50%, is a sign of the president's determination to rethink America's approach to the war.

The move will please military officials in Afghanistan, who have pleaded for more forces to battle an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. Militant attacks have escalated in the last three years and insurgents now control wide sections of countryside.

Obama's decision to deploy the troops was one of his first major acts in a war that began more than seven years ago and is now his responsibility.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/18/obama-afghanistan-troops

[bemildred]

1. Big mistake. nt

[laststeamtrain]

3. Agreed. The slippery slope of escalation looms ahead. Bad, bad news.n/t

[bemildred]

4. I understand that it's hard to resist trying to "fix" it somehow, save face as it were.

But there is simply no reason to think that more of the same, with some tweaking of the "mission", is going to produce different results.

[marshall]

5. He is no doubt privy to more information than the general public knows

I'm glad we can discuss disagreements, but in the long run he knows more than we do.

[WriteDown]

6. Then we should have elected Bushler to a 3rd term...

Obviously he knew "more" than we know :eyes:.

[bemildred]

7. "It ain't the things you don't know that gets you, it's the things you know that ain't so."

I fully support President Obama, but he's just a man, he can be wrong like anybody, and I expect he gets one earful of bullshit after another all day long. It's important that we speak up so that he "knows" our views too.

[laststeamtrain]

2. Juan Cole: Obama Orders 17,000 US Troops to Afghanistan

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Obama Orders 17,000 US Troops to Afghanistan
Juan Cole

President Barack Obama has decided to send 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, on the grounds that "the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention". Civilian deaths from political violence increased about 40% in 2008 over 2007, reaching over 2000. They will be sent to the Pushtun south and east of the country, where guerrilla fighting is expected to pick up with the advent of warm weather. The BBC says, "The deployment will be made up of 8,000 marines, and 4,000 army soldiers, plus another 5,000 support staff." The Marines will begin arriving in May.

What we saw in Iraq was that the sheer number of troops did not matter so much as how they are deployed and for what purpose. I hope that these troops are used well.

McClatchy reports that the new troops will mainly be sent to Helmand Province, a major poppy-producing areas, and will have poppy eradication as a major mission. If this report is true, it is very troubling. There is reason to think that forcible poppy eradication has produced the growing insurgency. Poppies are used to make heroin, and exports of the drug account for over a third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product. But many Afghan farmers are destitute after 30 years of war, and this crop is their one hope of escaping poverty. They grow irate when someone comes in with helicopters and torches to destroy the crop.

There are currently 38,000 US troops in Afghanistan. Last I knew, there were 10,000 under a US command and 18,000 serving under the NATO ISAF command (which has 32,000 non-US NATO troops), which totals 50,000. But given the determination of Canada to pull its troops out within three years, and the flagging commitment of other NATO allies, it could be that the increase of US troops will just offset draw-downs of NATO forces...http://www.juancole.com/2009/02/obama-orders-17000-us-troops-to.html

[laststeamtrain]

8. AFP: 'Tough year' ahead in Afghanistan: US general

'Tough year' ahead in Afghanistan: US general
1 hr 21 mins ago


<snip>

General David McKiernan, who commands US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, spoke a day after President Barack Obama approved the deployment in coming months of 17,000 troops, increasing the current US force by about 50 percent.

"Even with these additional forces, I have to tell you, 2009 is going to be a tough year," McKiernan told reporters at the Pentagon.

"There are the baseline problems of poverty, and literacy, and violence that have occurred over the last three decades in that country, so that's not going to turn around quickly," he said.

"But we do see, with these additional forces, an opportunity to break this stalemate, at least in terms of security conditions in the south," he said.

The general said NATO troops were training Afghan military and police but that it would take up to four years before the international force could hand over to the Afghans and have them take a leading role.

"For the next three to four years, I think we're going to need to stay heavily committed and sustain in a sustained manner in Afghanistan," McKiernan said.

<more>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090218/wl_sthasia_afp/usmilitaryafghanistan

[laststeamtrain]

9. Inevitable: Obama's Surge in Afghanistan Will Bring a Surge in Civilian Deaths

Inevitable: Obama's Surge in Afghanistan Will Bring a Surge in Civilian Deaths
By Ali Gharib, IPS News
Posted on February 18, 2009, Printed on February 18, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/127676/


WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he is sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan, marking the start of what many believe will be an escalation that will ultimately see the U.S. forces there double.

There are some 36,000 U.S. troops already in Afghanistan, and the additional 17,000 alone represent a nearly 50 percent increase.

"he situation in Afghanistan/Pakistan demands urgent attention and swift action," Obama said in a statement. "To meet urgent security needs, I approved a request from Secretary Gates to deploy a Marine Expeditionary Brigade later this spring and an Army Stryker Brigade and the enabling forces necessary to support them later this summer."

But an increased U.S. presence will likely result in more combat confrontations. That, in turn, leads to an increased risk to the civilian population of Afghanistan, human rights groups stress.

And those sorts of deaths, injuries and destruction of property have so far been demonstrably destructive to the U.S.-led international effort to stabilize Afghanistan and defeat the violent insurgency being waged by the Taliban and other militant groups.

Some modicum of harm to civilians is likely inevitable as long as massive numbers of foreign troops make war in Afghanistan, but there are steps that the international community can take to minimize the damage that this civilian toll will take on the war effort.

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Not the "change" I was praying for . . .

.
.
.

(sigh)

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. It is the change which the President promised during the campaign

[Zhade]

11. I don't agree with this move.

NT!

[Divine Discontent]

16. me, either, but he promised this in his stump speeches. eom

[Baclava]

13. No surprise there, it was a major campaign promise

Obama uses crucial foreign tour to promise more troops for Afghanistan

Barack Obama flew out of Afghanistan yesterday at the end of a two-day visit with a warning that the country's position in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaida was "precarious" and "urgent".

Obama has promised that, if elected president in November, he will send 10,000 more US troops to Afghanistan to bolster the 36,000 already there and intends to press European countries to become more engaged in the fighting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/21/barackobama.uselections2008

[Mari333]

14. what i expected from the dlc mindset. nt

[jakeXT]

15. old news but important

Surging Towards Disaster in the "Afpak Theatre"
On February 18, President Barack Obama ordered 17,000 additional U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan. Obama's announcement will result in a major escalation of America's bloody occupation of that war-ravaged country.

Currently, some 36,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, including some 6,000 sent in early January under orders by the outgoing Bush regime. In addition to U.S. forces, 32,000 troops from other NATO countries and a mix of "private military contractors" (armed mercenaries) occupy the Central Asian nation.

When coupled with increasingly bellicose rhetoric from the Pentagon and military strikes inside Pakistan, the prospects for regional war--with incalculable risks for the people of Central- and South Asia--have put paid Obama's electoral hyperbole that his would be a "change" administration.

...

more at
http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2009/02/surging-towards-disaster-in-afpak.html

[ohio2007]

17. Actually, it was a campaign pledge to increase levels in Afghanistan and downsize Iraq presence

What people have forgotten or put out of their minds completely is the plan to have 60,000 troops in Afghanistan.


This will become Obamas war but it isn't a Viet Nam war as Barack said he isn't going to worry about Pakistan sovereignty if the intelligence is reliable enough to strike.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw2XTC1V4fk&feature=related


btw
Thanks to the sovereign state of ,Pakistan and their peace deal,
the Taliban have been given $6 million in victor spoils to spend on wepons upgrades as it currently stands, I suspect Barack will have try to win the hearts and minds of islamic women and children in '09.
jmo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTwUAAmRuNM&feature=related


I doubt the $ will go to rebuild all girl schools
:sarcasm:

[Cali_Democrat]

18. I don't agree, but.....

During the campaign he said over and over again that he would commit more manpower and resources to Afghanistan and that's what he's doing.

At least he's honest :D