In a hint that the several month long administration debate on just how large the Afghan escalation should be isn’t quite over, officials are now saying that President Obama has rejected all four options he was given and has called for “revised” options.
The move seems in part to have stemmed from Ambassador Karl Eikenberry’s criticism of the existing policies and the uncomfortable number of questions he has asked about how any of the plans would eventually enable the US to leave Afghanistan.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the new options will “combine some of the best features of several of the options” and that an important aspect was to signal that the war “isn’t an open-ended commitment.”
But it certainly seems to be, as the only options given any consideration by the administration were all escalations of assorted sizes, and at no time did it ever appear that leaving Afghanistan, over eight years after the initial invasion, was even talked about.
President Obama already committed a 21,000 troop escalation in the war in March, and Gen. Stanley McChrystal has sought up to 80,000 additional troops on top of that. With the military’s capacity for escalation seen as quite limited at the moment, an escalation of somewhere between 30,000 and 45,000 additional troops seems to be the most popular choice among administration officials.
A super secret source within the administration gave me the scoop on these options. They are:
1. Get lots of people killed in a futile, face-saving gesture that lasts for the rest of Obama's term (and if we're lucky, his ONLY term).
2. Carpet-bomb those pesky Afghans back to the Stone Age. Who do they think they are resisting our occupation, er, liberation?
3. Start a war with Iran in order to distract Americans from the utter failure in the other three wars being waged.
4. Obama resigns and is replaced by Benjamin Netanyahu. Since Israel is running America's foreign policy, it's more efficient to cut out the middle man.
"Obama resigns and is replaced by Benjamin Netanyahu. "
HA! probably would get higher poll ratings to…..
"The only lesson we learn from History is that we do NOT learn from History." More troops to Afghanistan – to "the graveyard of soldiers" and "the graveyard of empires." – as with the Vietnam War – the generals are WRONG to send more troops to Afghanistan. Sun Tsu – the author of 'The Art of War' – observed: "There is no instance of a country having benefitted from prolonged warfare." An ignorance of History with an arrogance of power will lead to the destruction of the US. It seems that Mao was correct when he said: "An arrogant enemy is easy to defeat." As to Netanyahu – isn't he Hitler reincarnated?
Al queda is a police action. Bring the troops home and start working at home. One bomb can build a bridge or school.
This might be a good time to call and write the White House and send letters to the editor calling for bringing the troops home now.
You can do a 'Googler' search for 'email of the President' and it will provide an email address for Obama – I have already sent my email 'advising' the president to bring the troops home – sent several days ago.