Speaking today alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Obama sought to tout the “undeniable” progress nearly nine years into the war in Afghanistan, but it certainly didn’t read as particularly upbeat.
Obama admitted that thing were going to continue to get worse in the war before they get better, a common refrain among US officials whenever a new escalation has gotten underway.
Historically these predictions have proven half true, things do indeed get worse as the escalation continues, though the “get better” part never seems to happen, which explains why new strategies are announced so regularly.
And indications are that this time will be no different. Already many of the top Pentagon officials are expressing growing doubt about the McChrystal Plan, warning that it is overly optimistic.
In the meantime President Obama seems determined to convince people that everything is “on track” despite mounting evidence to the contrary, while insisting that the war must absolutely be seen through to its eventual, albeit speculative, conclusion.
smiles, lies and slaughter- terrorist obomber is the worst !
Schocker! Absolutely, positively, eventually, albeit speculatevely — there will be a conclusion. Of course, the conclusion will be same one as in Iraq. Come hell, high water or any election, military has to stay. Extend stay. Refefine stay. If good —- reason to stay. If bad, better yet reason to stay. If news cycle needs to be fed, no problem. There will be "hightened" violence, threat of this or that — and voila, back in the news — reason to stay. Few more civilian "unforunate" events, and thousands of more enemies seeking revenge — what a nirvana. We must stay longer! Very long, Clinton said. Not "abandon" Afghanistan, she said. Now the prayers of millions — please abandon us — are going unheaded by the merciless God.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, Tet is coming
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Won't look like Tet in either place, though analogues are on the way.
Maliki, who is a US puppet, apparently has just decided to wall in the whole of Baghdad, the way the Green Zone and the American Embassy are walled in.
That is, quite simply, only going to help armed opposition to the US Occupation.
Sadr is the key figure now, with an Iranian connection, though as far as one can tell, he is also an Iraqi Nationalist.
The US should get out of Iraq as quickly as possible, paying reparations for destroying the nation and covering it in low-level radioactivity as well. If the Iraqis want it ask neutral UN forces or perhaps Turks in to preserve a modicum of order while a quick withdrawal is made. That last will upset the Kurds, but then the Kurds, after being the leading collaborator with the US forces, are now disillusioned anyway.
Interesting the Israelis are working Kurdistan heavily–it seems in an attempt to get a line to their oil.
This is a fantasy that spells another disaster.
The longer the US stays in Iraq the bloodier the finale will be.
Afghanistan, if anything, is even worse, where logistics and terrain channelize an already undermanned occupation into a situation moving closer and closer to military disaster.
Concentrating US and NATO troops in a large force where there are millions of hostile Afghanis is sheer madness.
The Afghans need no Tet–all they need do is cut supply lines and wait.
McChrystal and the US command think the Afghans are primitive savages. They are not. They are highly cultured and civilized people of a kind the average American will never understand, and they have thousands of years of strategic and tactical experience against invaders.
They are in no rush as long as the money flows like water but as the spigot runs dry of the invaders' gold blood will replace it, as it already beginning to be the case.
In both places apparently the American elite simply has no idea how precarious the situation for US troops really is.
To add Iran and Pakistan to the mix is sheer lunacy.
"Obama admitted that thing were going to continue to get worse in the war before they get better, a common refrain among US officials whenever a new escalation has gotten underway."
Now I know why these people get elected. They have a mastery of stating the fucking obvious, over and over and over.
NO SHIT ASSHOLE!! Now come up with something new and rational, and bring the troops home. All of them, from Gibraltar to Okinawa.
End the Empire!