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Subscribe to RSSThe New York Times gets the scoop on the troop-level news in President Obama's Afghanistan speech tonight:
President Obama plans to announce Wednesday evening that he will order the withdrawal of 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops, the remainder of the 2009 “surge,” by the end of next summer, according to administration officials and diplomats briefed on the decision.
These troop reductions are both deeper and faster than the recommendations made by Mr. Obama’s military commanders, and they reflect mounting political and economic pressures at home, as the president faces relentless budget pressures and an increasingly restive Congress and American public.
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I would of preferred President Obama would be announcing that they were ALL leaving...
At least it's a start!
You said the draw down would begin in July 2011 and have kept your word!
Thank You Mr. President!
This is what you called "massive" on Monday?
10%? Obama has increased the troops by 50,000 and now he withdrawals a measly 10,000, "this year?"
Wow, he really is a war monger.
Pull them all out now. Stop wasting our cash. He got your man Obama, now man up and get us out. All the way out.
Funny how all the righties in 2008 who said that Obama would be weak on national security and that he would "cut and run" are now ragging on him for not cutting and running.
Oh, my. Step back and let the right-wing neo-doves have at it.
Welcome to the "new" reality for some - fiscal conservatism.
Or did you not participate on the earlier thread about the CBO and that fact we are terminally DOOMED?
I heard someone say on the teevee the bombs we are dropping in the middle east are worth way more than any target we obliterate.
Sad, but true.
When a war becomes non-productive, it's time to leave. We aren't making any more headway so it's time to come home. That's the difference between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives know when it's necessary to undertake military action and the libs are completely confused about it. It has nothing to do with being a dove or a hawk. There's right wars and wrong wars. Iraq was a right war, Afghanistan was a right war... notice I said was. It's time to come home.
Spanky is right... there are no more cookies in the cookie jar to eat. Mom!! Can ya bake some more cookies? Huh? No can do son.... we're broke!
@ Spanky:
LoL Fiscal conservatism -- like taking borrowed federal stimulus money and using it to pay your own state's deficit, thus transferring your debt on to the rest of us?
Yeah, YOUR world and welcome to it.
That's obviously true about the bombs, however, unless real estate in Libya has suddenly appreciated dramatically.
I'm not for that, Spanky, and I'm mightily disappointed, too. But then, I always was opposed to endless wars.
And not just because it will save us money. Say "lives," Spanky. Lives.
Now you try it, too, Brianb ... say "lives." Right war or wrong war, it's not just about -- or even mostly about -- cookies.
t's about lives.
You are right AM, it is about lives.... War doesn't happen to be friendly to them. Unfortunately my assertation remains true. There are right wars and wrong wars. We just happen to be in a war that is wrong right now... fiscally and we are not making any more progress... time to come home now!
Tell me AM... what are your feelings on dropping atomic weapons on Japan at the end of WWII? Did we do the right thing or the wrong thing? Was killing that many Japanese at one time worth the end of the war?
Oh stop it with the flower power crap. Bombs don't kill people, people kill people.
And hello: this here is the bluest of the blue states California. We "earned" all that stimulius money.
Progressive paradise - of course we spent it. Now, can you spare another $120 billion?
Right Anna. The fiscally conservative chickenhawks said nothing about the war in Iraq turing record surpluses into record deficits. It cracks me up to hear Republicans talk about "nation building at home" when you know full well their concept of "nation building" is more tax cuts for the rich, doing away with Medicare, privatizing Social Security, enacting more loopholes and giveaways for large corporations, cutting off unemployment benefits and shredding the safety net all the while their latest hero and paton saint, Paul Ryan's submiited a budget that does not balance for more than two decades.
You know, the next thing you know is that school textbooks will change the last line in Lincoln's Gettyburg Address to read "so that the nation of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations shall not perish from the earth!"
More U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan under Obama than Under Bush. Obama has done nothing he said he would on the campaign trail he said we would be out of Iraq and Afghanistan were not. Still at Gitmo,bills on line to see before vote, shovel ready jobs,unemployment will never reach 8%, Obama has failed us but you all don't want to admit it.
Heck if we wanted to get rid of the crime just send B. Obama
to
Laos, Cambodia, Thiland, or Nam Cong. It ain't nothing theUnited States Amry can't take care of. We won the war to end
all wars. So just get rid of the gullet.
Guys that are not even 40 or on the ballot are not called Mister.
I call guys Mr. when they really deserve it. Would you call an
Air Force General by his name? Yea, if he was bombing the crape
out of those dirty low rent bastards. Boma your behind may have had
boils, butt freak that tank took your head off.
Barakj you had all the free speach needed. Except you got a fat lip
and black eyes cuff. May be you never went to College as you claimed.
But dude even flies scared you to death. Speak up tell us why Mr. Bush
was unable to win the war a few Blockbusters later. I think he did.
Berici oh you boy. Bam, POW. Tell the truth unemplyment is really low
but are you to blame. If every thing is going to be fine, why do u lie about
your impending doom. Doom no more since you are a musty dusty
memory that will sone be forgot because you never even apeared in
a comic book jugg head jones.
Bibi SIni you got power of the chair. But you never was able to plug
in the outlet you sex adict. You got your love through a needel did
a doc give this to you. You look so pastie siten thar with that dead
eye stiff and cold all while jack head is given a dumb @!$%# speach
he could never write. If lies we gold you would have none. Because
you dig bm rather than food roach.
What a moral boost for the Taliban. I'm sure he's got thier vote....
Who cares? Can anybody articulate what the objective is? Time to come home.
Speaking of objectives have you all seen that Italy is now calling for an end to all hostilities in Libya?
Well executed Obama. Excellent use of a billion. Sure didn't need that around here. Hell, Sheriff Joe could have used that to build shiny trains.
Spanky: Since when did you care what Italy thinks?
Libya...don't get me started. Again what is the objective? As an analyst asked, "What happens if/when we kill Kadaffi?"
Any takers? Do we keep fighting (at a level below what can be considered hostilities)?
Will first I happen to be of Italian descent. But to your point: They are a member of the vaunted Nato alliance that is running our little non war in Libya.
This always happens with the soft socialist European countries - once one of them bails, they all start peeling out. Hell, most are out of munitions anyway.
Kadaffi 1; Obama 0, Congress -5.
In total agreement Fiesty but W did tie the hands a bit by taking the presidential eye of the ball there when BUSCHENEY took to IRAQ to get revenge for the threatening Papa Bush's life after gulf war one. If the last administration hadn't crapped in that nest we'd be out by now.
I think Obama will push to go faster if the withdrawal goes well. We have to retreat carefully and skillfully especially in this part of the world. That is why the last US regime left the dirty work for smarter folk to do. As W said: "I don't do detail." and we KNOW he wasn't lying that time.
It is good to see some of the right wing hawks screaming to "bring 'em home!" Never shoulda gone there. Period.
So Bush made him INCREASE the number of troops in 2009? That's as funny as the Republicans made me put an individual mandate in my Healthcare Reform.
It's not only that Alan... The liberals never did understand the importance of taking out Saddam. To this day, they spin the story to their liking. Silly libs are sad that Saddam is gone... he was their hero. He only tortured and murdered about 300,000 of his fellow countrymen. He only threatened the entire middle east. He only invaded another country... Heck.. that's nothing! It was all about Bush's father being threatened... No other reason to the libs... President Bush... You are taking this very personal... very personal indeed!
Just like the Lockerbie Terrorist sitting in Tripoli is a hero to the conservatives and they hate the idea that NATO is bombing him and getting some payback for the hundreds of Americans killed by this butcher.
Saddam, Liberal Hero
Khadaffy, Conservative Hero
It's like a parody of real political debate...and why I tend to agree with both sides on this site when it comes to their assessment of their opponents...
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Spending on the war in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since Mr. Obama took office, to $118.6 billion in 2011. It was $14.7 billion in 2003, when President George W. Bush turned his attention and American resources to the war in Iraq.
The increase is easy to explain. When Mr. Obama took office, he vowed to aggressively pursue what he termed America’s “war of necessity” (Afghanistan) and to withdraw from America’s “war of choice” (Iraq). He has done so; the lines on Iraq and Afghanistan war spending crossed in 2010, when the United States spent $93.8 billion in Afghanistan versus $71.3 billion in Iraq, according to the Congressional Research Service.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/us/politics/22costs.html?ref=todayspaper
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Can anyone tell me how many PRIVATE CONTRACTORS (not the drywall kind...) are in Afghanistan right now?
How are they PAID? Are they paid out of the defense budget or under some other guise? Will there be an increase in private contractors equal to the number of troops withdrawn?
Can anyone tell me how many troops we have stationed in Korea, and for how long? Germany? Japan?
What percentage of the military budget is consumed by the wars now?
What was the percentage in 2008?
And finally
The Obama haters here are just haters, the supporters little more than sycophantic fans.
If it was President McCain addressing the nation tonight on the same topic in the exact same scenario, the two fan bases here would just be on the other side of the insult-fest...
He inserted 33,000 troops as part of the surge. He's bringing 10,000 home by the end of this year, leaving 20,000 troops there for another year.
Spring in Afghanistan is the start of the fighting season, where hostilities get very ugly. Keeping them there till 2012 gives him 2 more fighting seasons to go after the Taliban. His draw down today will be minimal as this seasons fighting season has just begun.
Our goal in Afghanistan was to remove the Taliban from power. We did that and in fact are now negotiating a truce/peace agreement with them.
Our goal was to rid the country of Al-Qaeda. They are threat but not nearly as serious as they were at their peak. They've dispersed across North Africa. We are, for the most part, fighting the Taliban.
Our goal was to get OBL. I can honestly use the phrase, mission accomplished here.
After 10 years, isn't it time for the Afghans to do some or most of the heavy lifting?
Don't you think that a small counter-insurgency force would do more good than almost 100,000 troops? They got OBL that way and much of his leadership.
How can we afford $10 billion a month on this war and expect to effect any recovery at home?
How is being there in any way in our national interest?
The war on terror start, continues, and needs to end quickly in Afganistan. That is fact! The war on terror did not begin in Iraq because this war was for "Bush Oil" only. This is a second fact! Pakistan can not be trusted in any situation, and our leaving Afganistan. Would only fuel the terrorist fire that is polluting the corrupt Government of Pakistan. Instead, the President should pull troops out of Iraq, and send them to Afganistan. No troops should be leaving Afganistan at this time, and the terrorists in Pakistan would love for us to leave. The President can move troops out of Afganistan however, these troops will be sent back in shortly anyway. The Government of Pakistan must not be trusted, and our continued presence in Afganistan is needed. No step back America! The war in Iraq must need to end now however, not in Afganistan. The terrorists in Afganistan, must be hunted down, and all killed quickly. That is fact!
Boy did he getting bad re election advice ...56% of the American people say end all wars today ....not slowly withdraw ...He just lost my vote for re election !...
Hey, Say it isn't so, he probably never had your vote...so bye.....
Please bring them home in a responsible manner.
I think Obama's TV speech PO'd more Obama backers than Obama haters for sure. I'm really disappointed in what he had to say last night. He should have told us he was withdrawing the "surge" forces NOW, and reducing the occupying forces by 50% by mid-next year, and totally OUT by 2014. With all that's going on in the US now, this will not help his re-election.
Unfortunately, NOT supporting Obama means SUPPORTING the Repubs, and that isn't an alternative at all. For Democrats/Independents stating they are now NOT going to vote for Obama, think of the alternative ... really! Putting a Republican in oval office means more WORLD POLICE duty for our soldiers ... not an option.
Our Washington representatives should be concentrating 100% on the USA right now. It's time we ALL contact our state representatives and tell them to put the pressure on Obama to speed up this withdrawal.
I agree. We need to get out now. We need to send a strong message that we need to take care of our country first. Bring them all home as soon as possible. I am an independent and as much as I don't care for Obama, I will never vote for a rep/tper. Unfortunately, all of my Washington representatives are rep/tpers and won't listen to anything that a non rep/tper has to say.