I pulled this from www.mzm.com today
US affirms Iraq withdrawal plan on track
December 11, 2009 by Moreover Technologies - Iraq news - 30 of 10274 returned Filed under Iraq Economic News
BAGHDAD: Delayed elections in Iraq and a bloody attack this week will not derail US troop withdrawal plans, US officials said as Defence Secretary Robert Gates flew into Baghdad to meet Iraqi leaders. Gates did not see one of his main Iraqi counterparts.
Please note how Gates does not need to speak with any of the Iraqi counterparts. President Obama is pulling out no matter what the situation on the ground is in Iraq. I expect him to do the same in Afghanistan in 2011. The fact that he pulled the U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan will be politically good for him and the Democratic party during the election cycle of 2012.
I do not believe that politics and warfare mix well. We shall see how well things progress over the next few years.
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Here we go again. President Obama stipulates mid 2011 as the time for withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. It’s ‘etched in stone’. But why? Is that the date by which the Afghan forces will be able to take responsibility for their own defense? Is it the date by which Kharzai’s government will have purged itself of corruption? Is it US politics in preparation of coming elections at home? If so, then this is crystal-balling at its worst—a political decision based on fuzzy logic which leads to obfuscation. If the strategy in Afghanistan is to stabilize the nation then an exit date is impossible to predict. If Obama wants to ‘finish the job’ in Afghanistan, then ask yourself: what is the job? Plainly the job is to destroy al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan. If this is the case then a military operation can be planned—I suggest with 150,000 combat troops—and a finite exit timing established. Leave Kharzai and his fraudulent election and corruption together with the civil conflict between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance to their own devices.
ReplyDeleteThe Civil Conflict that you speak of is that of Islamic issues. These same issues are the basic cause of the attacks on 9/11. We are involved despite the fact that we do not wish to be. The war is coming to us. The only way to reverse this trend is to wage offensive warfare.
ReplyDeleteThis will all be clear in the next few years as our enemies gather strength and capability.