Obama quietly deploying 13,000 more US troops to Afghanistan
Guardian.co.uk
Move is separate from Nato commander General Stanley McChrystal’s request to increase troop levels
Barack Obama is quietly deploying an extra 13,000 troops to Afghanistan, an unannounced move that is separate from a request by the US commander in the country for even more reinforcements.
The extra 13,000 is part of a gradual shift in priority since Obama became president away from Iraq to Afghanistan.
The White House and the Pentagon both announced earlier this year that the number of US troops in Afghanistan was to be raised by 21,000, bringing the total at present to 62,000, with the aim of 68,000 by the end of the year.
But the Washington Post, based on conversations with Pentagon officials, said that on top of those an extra 13,000 “enablers” are also being deployed. They are mainly engineers, medical staff, intelligence officers and military police. About 3,000 of them are specialists in explosives, being sent to try to combat the growing fatality rate from roadside bombs.
The deployment of such non-combat troops is in line with the professed aim of the new US commander, General Stanley McChrystal, to try to win the hearts and minds of the Afghanistan population.
In addition to the deployments under way, McChrystal has also requested an extra 40,000 troops he says are necessary to prevent the country falling into the hands of the Taliban. That request has provoked an intense debate within Washington, with some political advisers in the White House opposed to any further escalation of a war that is already proving unpopular at home.
The Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, today expressed support for McChrystal’s request. “I’m fully behind him for what he’s seeking in this report,” Karzai told ABC’s Good Morning America.
As part of the internal debate, the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, who is cautiously supporting McChrystal, is due to meet later today the vice-president Joe Biden, who is opposed to the troop increase and favours a shift in priority to tracking down al-Qaida in Pakistan.
A decision on McChrystal’s troop request appears to have been postponed for a few weeks. Any extra troops will come as a result of a parallel reduction in the number of US troops in Iraq.
A US military planner told the Army Times: “We’ve increased forces in Afghanistan before we’ve reduced forces in Iraq in a meaningful way. If they want forces sooner than 2010, there are no additional forces available. You’ll have to pull them from Iraq and put them in Afghanistan.”
The US spokesman in Iraq, Brigadier General Stephen Lanza, said yesterday that the number of US troops in Iraq will be down to 120,000 by the end of the month, down 23,000 since January. But any further large-scale reductions will have to wait until after Iraqi elections next January.
He said the aim was to get all combat troops out of Iraq by August, leaving 50,000 troops to advise and support the Iraqis.
Obama Blames Bush for 13,000 New Troops in Afghanistan
AP
Later, spokesman Robert Gibbs rejected a published report that the president had authorized 13,000 additional troops that were now arriving in Afghanistan. He said those troops were part of a deployment ordered by the former Bush administration, but had not made their way to the Afghan theater by the time Obama became president. The Washington Post had reported those forces were authorized by Obama.
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Wild Thing’s comment……..
Obama has established a pattern of blaming his predecessor for nearly any difficulty he has faced in office. His failure to accept a modicum of responsibility ten months in to office for a troop movement that his administration had to approve and support, no matter that it was initiated by President Bush, is pathetic. Especially because Obama retained Bush’s Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who carried out the orders of both presidents in deploying the 13,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Obama doesn’t want to get his base made at him. What a total jerk. What a wee-weed up wimp. He will never fill the shoes of a Commander-in-Chief. NEVER!
Clinton’s legacy=Never met her
Obama’s legacy = Bush’s fault
And Bush wrote “Dreams of My Father”
“What a wee-weed up wimp”
(snicker)
Everyday they wake up and look feverishly for something, ANYTHING, he can take credit for. NPP says he earned his prize because the world is less tense….riiiiiiiiiiight. Never mind those rockets and proliferation from No. Ko./Iran, etc…nothing to see there…look–Rush Limbaugh is a racist and Sarah Palin can see Russia from her house and she’s dumb!
obama is living in his own utopian world. When he bumps into reality he doesn’t know how to handle it. His utopian world is a Marxist world full of lies. Sadly all Americans are going to pay for obama’s dreams(of his father?)with a loss of freedoms. If obama gets his way all of America will be like the Southside of Chicago.
Watch, he’ll send those kids who are suppose to come home from Iraq this month to Afghanistan instead of letting them come home. Hey, they’re already over there anyway. I’m worried he’ll do this to my nephew, who still is NOT home yet.
This is bullshit, since when does Bush have anything to do with the War, now ? Obama is the leader. As Prez. he can change any previous order with the stroke of a pen. The buck stops where obama ‘s fat head is. Obama had no problem changing, the order on Abortion around the world, which Bush didn’t allow, Obama changed the Stem Cell research order. Again obama is lying and looking for a convient excuse why he can or can not do something. This man is an impediment to this country.
One thing is the ROE’s in Afghanistan must be change as they’re costing lives of American GI’s. Here’s an article about a retired Marine 1st Sgt who just lost his son in Afghanistan and how he had been campaigning against McCrystal’s ROE’s before his son was killed.
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/nation/fallen-marines-father-wants-change-in-afghanistan-895476.html
Wild Thing posted about the new ROE for the A-10’s to buzz the Taliban instead of opening fire upon them. In the story above, Marines call for artillery support but are denied it because of civilians in the area. The reporter states that the women and children civilians are actually bringing ammo and supplies to the Taliban fighters during the battle.
Like they say in South Carolina Mr. Gibbs, “YOU LIE!” Nine months after taking office these socialist clowns are already at WAR with FOX NEWS and LYING to the max. TEA PARTY UP patriots!!
“What a wee-weed up wimp.” LMAO Chrissie, patent that one!!!
Two things stand out, Bush handed off the presidency to Obama well before he left the office, that puts the muzzie in charge for almost a full 10 months now. He knew those troops were to be deployed. As Commander in Chief his staff knew it also, he didn’t put a halt order on them, this entire charade is another lie to blame Bush for his decision or lack thereof. Unlike all the past Democrat presidents Bush is wisely keeping his nose out of the current affairs.
Yours truly was in the chute for another theater when LBJ slipped the fig to us and we deployed to the land of enchantment, held in a murky limbo from the end of the ’67 six day war to Tet of ’68, (it was the USS Pueblo seized January 23, 1968, says he), confusing the North of Korea with the North of Vietnam, Oh, and nothing was done by the “Silver Star president” about the first US Naval vessel in 150 years that had been taken by a foreign force. 1967 was a limbo of indecisiveness for we troops held ready, the mission and the motive changed and it was LBJ who made that decision. He didn’t want another damned Điện Biên Phủ.
LBJ micromanaged his war surrounded with his pusillanimous advisors, most of whom had covertly sanctioned the CIA coup, the arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem and his adviser, younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu months earlier under JFK’s presidency. LBJ hamstrung an otherwise excellent general officer, Westmoreland, with his ROE’s, using conventional tactics in a guerrilla war. the lack of temerity harbored from the Korean war stifled decisive engagements and led to the war of attrition. World opinion never won a war, it’s that poor bastard on the ground who does that.
LBJ’s direct white house interference in battlefield decisions were failing to win the war, then LBJ tried to buy off the enemy before he openly bailed out on our ally signaling to the North Vietnamese, Russia and China that he intended to withdraw.
So what is different today? It’s the same party and presidency empowered with a lesser understanding or grasp of the consequences, intended or otherwise, calling the shots. Attempting to buy off the enemy, shortchanging the battlefield leaders(Westmoreland had asked for 22,000 got 13,000), making backdoor deals with our enemies and playing political games with human lives. When is the pentagon going to send out the unfit as McNamara did, to further hamper the effort? Slip a uniform on a warm body, it becomes just another soldier. It’s your war Obama, listen to the generals, not the czars from those cesspools of higher Communist indoctrination. Remember the chants, “Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?” You are the responsible person as being that Commander in Chief you loudly tout.
Thank you for your site: it works like the best tax-free (before Obama) refreshment. -:)
It’s pretty telling that doing the right thing is something he has to hide from and blame on someone else.
Lynn, I certainly hope none of them get extended in Afghanistan. Rotation is very important for the mental well being of our troops. I always see new recruits when i pass through the airport in St. Louis. I’m hoping that the numbers of our standing army aren’t diminishing due to BHO. And the new ones definitely need the direction of the Iraq/Afghanistan vets in staying alive in theatre.
Obama sees a world where he envisions himself as Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians.
Thank you everyone.
Lynn, I agree, I hope they are not
extended too. Obama has to send more so
maybe they will keep on track with what
was planned already for your nephew to
be able to come home as planned.
BobF., thank you and thank you for the link.
Zero and the congress criminals seem to forget that they were majority since 2006. It always amazes me when he talks about the past few years being such bad decisions when he voted for most of it.
We are not fighting a war – this is WAR lite. If we are not prepared to accept civilian casualities in war then we will be defeated. We critise the Indian & Pakistani governments for being heavy handed in Mumbai and in the Swat Valley. But that is the only way you are going to get to these bastards. Our enemies have learnt the art of using civilians as human shields. The Palestinians & Hezbollah do EXACTLY the same thing with Israel. As soon as their civilian casualties start mounting up they go screaming to the Human Rights crowd, Amnesty International, use their friends in the UN and manipulate the leftwingers in the West, with full support from the liberal leftwing Press. The Indian & Pakistani governments KNOW that the only way to defeat these animals is to adopt a ZERO tolerance stratedgy and accept that civilians will lose their lives in such operations. We are playing PATTYCAKE with killers and YOUR boys are paying the price for it!!! Obviously somebody in your country needs to send Obama & his minions a copy of Patton’s war strategies. Better still the UN should be forced to make it a war crime for fighting forces to embed themselves amongst civilian!!! We’re going to lose………..bring the boys home!
I guess what I am trying to say is that America is fighting a politically correct war. Our enemies don’t share the same handicap. The Israeli’s know it too. THAT is why we are going to lose, and lose badly…tell your Obama that!
Patton knew Political correctness had no place in a war. If Patton were fighting the war in Afghanistan it would be over, the civilian casualties would be high and the collateral damage would be higher, there is no such thing as a compassionate war, which is what we are trying to get our militaries to fight, We should honor the wishes of the terrorist and make them all martyrs and any country that stood in our way, they too should also be considered the enemy and suffer the same consequences. We did not attack the middle east, or raise our children to hate Muslims,they cheered in the streets when the twin towers fell, they celebrated our suffering. But like Patton I also believe we can change their way of thinking only through total destruction. I know this sounds extreme, but we are dealing with brainwashed hardcore terrorists soaked in Islamist ideology, hell bent on US destruction.