What do you know?

Something I can actually support Obama on.

The real war on terror is in Afghanistan, where it's been all along, and it's about time it gets some more attention.

Now if we can get some boots on the ground in Pakistan....

The war on terror is the new war on drugs.

The enemy is only ever vaguely defined.
The enemy is sometimes our friend.
The enemy has no clear concise course of action, and either do we.
The enemy is illusive because we create it to be that way.

This is geopolitics. Business as usual.

Hmmmm.... the war on terror (Afghanistan)

I see this troop surge as BS. I don't think Obama or anybody in his administration have the gonads to truly go after the enemy. I think many more troops will die because of Washington's decision to win the heart's and minds of the Afghan people.

IMO, either they allow our troops to go after the enemy with every inch of force we have or they pack up the troops and send them back home. This back and forth stuff and throwing a few drone missiles at a shack believed to be holed up by militants just isn't going to work.

Originally posted by jam321
Hmmmm.... the war on terror (Afghanistan)

I see this troop surge as BS. I don't think Obama or anybody in his administration have the gonads to truly go after the enemy. I think many more troops will die because of Washington's decision to win the heart's and minds of the Afghan people.

It's not that he doesn't have the gonads, did Bush not have the gonads? It won't be done right, they want us in a endless war on terror for a reason, It's not like we don't have the ability to win.

Look at Vietnam, if you really studied that war you'd see that firstly we were more then able to win but all the no fly zones and rules of engagement seriously hampered our ability to fight a non conventional battle. Secondly when we first went into the country our primary approach was the right one in my opinion. We were fighting fire with fire with special forces but that policy soon changed and we started to loose the war.

Regardless if I agree with the reasons for going in lets do it right the first time. Lets not loose more lives and spend more money, what's the point? That question begs an answer and if you follow conflicts we've been involved in since WWII we haven't gone in to win in a lot of cases. Is that due to incompetence or is it because there are many who benefit from continuous war? I think if you honestly ask your self that question you'll find the answer.


[edit on 17-2-2009 by oconnection]

What a joke. What exactly is 16,000 troops going to do in a country of the size of Afghanistan?! The U.S army has said itself that it will take 600,000 troops to bring real stabilty to the country. More deaths on both sides is all that it will bring. And this at a time when the American economy is literally at death's door. Yet Obama and his team think a further expenidtue on 'dead rubber' goods for the military is a good idea. Why does Obama continue to follow the course of the failures of Bush and Clinton before him?!

I think he is clever enough to realize that there is no end game in Afghanistan, the country cannot be placated. It isn't a country as we know it, it is extremly tribal and nomadic, we have to leave.

[edit on 17-2-2009 by Peruvianmonk]

Meanwhile, Pakistan just entered into an agreement with the Taliban to allow them to govern isolated parts of Pakistan and implement Sharia law.

I thought the aim of the Afghanistan war was to get rid of the Taliban, and now they're setting up shop right in Pakistan.

Very disturbing, considering the economic situation here in the US is not exactly on a stable table, and Obama wants to send troops into Afghanistan.

What is this..a 1+1=5, "Change We Can Believe In" answer????

Welp...here we go!!


"And its 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for.....you see I don't give a damn, the next stop is Afghanistan.."



See my ATS media for the original Woodstock 69 video "Vietnam", replace the word "Vietnam" with "Afghanistan".

Cheers!!!!

[edit on 17-2-2009 by RFBurns]

Lots and lots of Very Important and Influential People are making buttloads of money off of these wars. "Terrorism" is just a buzzword, it has no real meaning...they are just trying to play on our fears and make a crapload of money for themselves and all of their buddies. It's called propaganda, and has been used throughout history to tug on the heartstrings of We The People, and meanwhile these fools are undermining not just the United States, but the rest of the world in the process.

at the most basic level i agree with this 'idea'.

however, i think it is a few years too late.

afganistan WAS the war against elements of those believed to have attacked us on 911 and the extremists regime of the taliban.

this war should have been properly exicuted from the beging to install what ever sense of order we could and to eradicate the taliban.

sadly bush did not do this and instead went after sadam.

8 years ago i would have been on-board, now i am not.

the time has come to end the farce we now call the war on terrorism and bring our troops home.

as has already been said this war is lost, the taliban rebuilt, osama gone and god knows what else.

i hope obama does the right thing.

The original intent in going into Afghanistan was to attack and destroy the strongholds of Al Quaeda and the Taliban and take out Bin Laden. This was in retaliation for 9/11 and other terrorist attacks.

Trouble is Al Quaeda and the Taliban and probably Bin Laden are in Pakistan now. And Pakistan has now given them the Swat Valley, near Islamabad, in addition to the tribal regions where they've been forever. We can't attack Pakistan because they are supposedly our allies and mostly because they have nuclear weapons to retaliate with.

I am for accomplishing our original goal but I don't see how we can do that, with or without an extra battalion or two.

Both Great Britain and Russia have tried to establish empires in Afghanistan and both were completely defeated. Maybe we should take a clue from that.

Secretary of State Clinton is going to Pakistan next and maybe she can accomplish a miracle for the Obama administration. But I'm not holding my breath.

Both Great Britain and Russia have tried to establish empires in Afghanistan and both were completely defeated. Maybe we should take a clue from that.

In all fairness, the Soviet Union would have crushed Afghanistan, had we not been fighting them there in a proxy war.