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US to keep nearly 10k troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

I'm an American and an afghan vet, and I am furious, but as soot pointed out, there's absolutely dick we can do about it.

Obama and his politicians want us there until at least 2024, and if we've learned anything it's that politicians do whatever the **** they want and we just have to find a way to live with it.

Thank you so much for your service. I had three family members serve in Iraq but none in Afghanistan which Obama called the "good" war. His actions there and his speech today at the West Point showed a President who inspires no one, who lacks even basic leadership skills, and is totally incompetent in the job even now 6 years later. He didn't have the resume in 2008 and still doesn't get it. This is about leadership, this is about inspiration to our military, about promoting American exceptionalism in the world and the best he can do is make wild claims and accusations of false successes around the world, none of which are accurate and only appeal to the low information voter and ardent supporters who also lack a basic understanding of leadership and the role of the President as Commander in Chiefl.

I am extremely sorry to our military personnel for having probably the worst leader ever to hold the office. I cannot wait until he is gone.

I have always been a supporter of our military but not this President and certainly not his policies. Keeping any military personnel in Afghanistan under this President is a waste of manpower, waste of money, and simply puts a target on their backs for years to come or however long they are kept there. I am sorry to all our military personnel that have to serve under this incompetent President.
 
Oh puh-lease.....can you come up with some new talking points at least. You can hardly say "Cut and Run" when Obama has had troops there for six years of his terms. The reality is with you Neo-Cons, you are not happy without endless war. When is it ever ok with withdraw troops in your mind NP? I thought your hero announced "Mission Accomplished" years and years ago.

I really feel bad for you, disney as you have hitched your wagon to one of the most incompetent Presidents ever to hold the office. He is making Jimmy Carter look great. What a shame, so much promise, so much positive rhetoric, so many promises made and such disastrous results. One of these days my bet is even you will eventually get it and ask why you were so duped by our teleprompter President whose Community agitator resume had zero leadership skills and still lacks those skills after 6 years on the job. No private sector employee would have survived 1 year let alone 6 with his record. Even Walt Disney would have fired you.
 
I really feel bad for you, disney as you have hitched your wagon to one of the most incompetent Presidents ever to hold the office. He is making Jimmy Carter look great. What a shame, so much promise, so much positive rhetoric, so many promises made and such disastrous results. One of these days my bet is even you will eventually get it and ask why you were so duped by our teleprompter President whose Community agitator resume had zero leadership skills and still lacks those skills after 6 years on the job. No private sector employee would have survived 1 year let alone 6 with his record. Even Walt Disney would have fired you.

LOL....I was waiting for you to rear your head....and tell everyone how you only voted for GWB because he was the least bad of the choices.........Why don't you share with everyone here how you believe that 9/11 occurred on Clinton's watch, GWB successfully hunted down, captured and killed Bin Laden and then lead this great country to economic Utopia. Spare us Con....your rhetoric is just plain old.
 
WHy doesn't Obama just get it over with and put 1,000 troops in EVERY country like the Neocons who whisper in his (and other POTUS's) ear are dying to do.

:lamo

It does appear they want something like that!
 
LOL....I was waiting for you to rear your head....and tell everyone how you only voted for GWB because he was the least bad of the choices.........Why don't you share with everyone here how you believe that 9/11 occurred on Clinton's watch, GWB successfully hunted down, captured and killed Bin Laden and then lead this great country to economic Utopia. Spare us Con....your rhetoric is just plain old.

Not much of a surprise here, more diversion. What does any of that have to do with the thread topic and the Obama foreign policy failures. Wonder if he will win the Muslim Brotherhood support? Are things better in that "good" war?
 
Not much of a surprise here, more diversion. What does any of that have to do with the thread topic and the Obama foreign policy failures. Wonder if he will win the Muslim Brotherhood support? Are things better in that "good" war?

What foreign policy failures are you referring to. Sounds to me like Obama is finally ending the biggest foreign policy blunders of the previous administration. One of my criticisms of Obama is that he didn't do it sooner.
 
What foreign policy failures are you referring to. Sounds to me like Obama is finally ending the biggest foreign policy blunders of the previous administration. One of my criticisms of Obama is that he didn't do it sooner.

A foreign policy blunder? You mean in the "good" war? Where were you on 9/11? You claiming that things are better in Afghanistan now after Obama's surge and so called leadership? I am sure you will be happy having our troops as climate change enforcers. What a joke Obama is as are his supporters.
 
A foreign policy blunder? You mean in the "good" war? Where were you on 9/11? You claiming that things are better in Afghanistan now after Obama's surge and so called leadership? I am sure you will be happy having our troops as climate change enforcers. What a joke Obama is as are his supporters.

No war is the "good" war, but if you want to talk about proper response, then yes, Afghanistan was where the focus should have been and remained. Problem is....the past clown took his eye off the prize and used 911 as a justification to attack a country not involved in 911....but played on the fears of the American people to justify it. He left the job to the next guy to get it done. 20 years later, I don't think we are much better off. I think we MIGHT have been if GWB hadn't lost sight of the job to be done....but he did....and as a result 20 years later we are still there and nothing has really been accomplished. A more focused and better planned strategy from the start might have produced a more stable situation. Obama should have pulled our troops years ago after Bin Laden was killed and there really was no hope in accomplishing much more. I'm glad to see that he is finally coming to that reality.
 
Where were you on 9/11?

BTW.....I sure as hell wasn't sitting in a classroom reading "My Pet Goat" to a bunch of school kids while the country was under attack.....sitting completely dumbfounded because he realized he didn't have a clue what the hell he was doing.

Actually....I was home at the time getting ready for work...and actually worked that day, despite the trauma that this country was experiencing.
 
No war is the "good" war, but if you want to talk about proper response, then yes, Afghanistan was where the focus should have been and remained. Problem is....the past clown took his eye off the prize and used 911 as a justification to attack a country not involved in 911....but played on the fears of the American people to justify it. He left the job to the next guy to get it done. 20 years later, I don't think we are much better off. I think we MIGHT have been if GWB hadn't lost sight of the job to be done....but he did....and as a result 20 years later we are still there and nothing has really been accomplished. A more focused and better planned strategy from the start might have produced a more stable situation. Obama should have pulled our troops years ago after Bin Laden was killed and there really was no hope in accomplishing much more. I'm glad to see that he is finally coming to that reality.

That is your opinion but obviously you are a low information voter. Obama called Afghanistan the right war and then went about losing it. You have such a short sighted view of the world that you cannot see the forest because of the trees.
 
No war is the "good" war, but if you want to talk about proper response, then yes, Afghanistan was where the focus should have been and remained. Problem is....the past clown took his eye off the prize and used 911 as a justification to attack a country not involved in 911....but played on the fears of the American people to justify it. He left the job to the next guy to get it done. 20 years later, I don't think we are much better off. I think we MIGHT have been if GWB hadn't lost sight of the job to be done....but he did....and as a result 20 years later we are still there and nothing has really been accomplished. A more focused and better planned strategy from the start might have produced a more stable situation. Obama should have pulled our troops years ago after Bin Laden was killed and there really was no hope in accomplishing much more. I'm glad to see that he is finally coming to that reality.

if anything needs to be done to stop these endless wars, the AUMF which was passed in 2001 needs to be allowed to sunset. the AUMF has given both administrations the ability to engage in military operations in pakistan, yemen, and Somalia without needing a declaration of war.
 
BTW.....I sure as hell wasn't sitting in a classroom reading "My Pet Goat" to a bunch of school kids while the country was under attack.....sitting completely dumbfounded because he realized he didn't have a clue what the hell he was doing.

Actually....I was home at the time getting ready for work...and actually worked that day, despite the trauma that this country was experiencing.

You have a bad case of Bush Derangement syndrome that led you to the most incompetent ever to hold the office. Nothing is going to change your mind but I assure you that you will grow out of your ignorance.
 
The US should've never had a strong troop presence in Afghanistan in the first place. It was stupid to invade it and try to nation build it, and frankly only emotional, stupid people thought it was a good idea. That said, 10k isn't a bad number, but 3-5k would be the perfect number.
 
That is your opinion but obviously you are a low information voter. Obama called Afghanistan the right war and then went about losing it. You have such a short sighted view of the world that you cannot see the forest because of the trees.

Afghanistan WAS the right war. The problem was, the previous administration got distracted. Obama campaigned on the idea that he would put the focus BACK on Afghanistan, draw down in Iraq and get Bin Laden.....which was all accomplished because the focus was where it should have been in the first place.

The whole Afghanistan war should have been over before GWB ever left office. I don't fault Obama for having to clean up the mess that Bush created. I do fault him for continuing it longer than necessary.
 
OK. But let's suppose that troops from Pakistan where stationed here in the US, and whites, some of whom were simply minding their own business, were being killed with Pakistani drones. I know that's not realistic, but it puts the situation somewhat in perspective.

We're not killing people in Afghanistan, "for nothing"
 
I really feel bad for you, disney as you have hitched your wagon to one of the most incompetent Presidents ever to hold the office.

It's been a long road. Bush and the Bush II. Maybe one day...one day...we can get some competency into the Presidency. But that hasn't been the case for decades now.
 
We're not killing people in Afghanistan, "for nothing"

That's true. It's for the corporate, fascist infinity war. 13 years and going! Woot. Good to see that American military might cannot win a conflict in less than a decade and counting. Oh....wait. The opposite of good.
 
Because that is where the strongest base of Al Qaeda and the Taliban were and all indications where Bin Laden was during the planning and post events of 9/11

All that was needed was to help the Northern Alliance win and have a persistent, small presence at Bagram. That was it. Trying to nation build there was always retarded and based in a silly idea of revenge. If there was one war to actually prosecute, it was Iraq. Afghanistan should've been treated more or less like the Philippines.
 
Much U.S. surveillance and bombing is done by unmanned planes, also called drones. Close study of news reports suggests that the drones' accuracy has been highly exaggerated. But the Hellfire missiles they send into civilian homes are well-named; they do make each house they strike a hell on earth. Some family members are blown to pieces; others receive severe wounds that may lead to lifetime suffering. Some adult survivors, after recovery, still cannot work. In this way, one of the poorest countries in the world becomes even poorer.

In December 2001, a Washington Post reporter described children who were severely wounded by early and mistaken U.S. bombing of just one area near Tora Bora. Casualties included Noor Mohammed, 10 years old, who "lost both eyes and both arms." An 8-year-old boy with head injuries was in a coma and had a poor prognosis. Twin toddlers, both injured, did not yet know that their father had been killed. The hospital where the children were treated had taken in 71 bombing victims of various ages. About half apparently were brought in dead or dying. (There have been many similar casualties from U.S. bombings in Iraq and Pakistan.)

Nearly 10 years later, little had changed. In February 2010, relying on highly inaccurate reporting from drone operators in the U.S., a helicopter crew fired missiles and rockets at a pickup truck and two SUVs in southern Afghanistan. The strike killed 23 civilians — men, women, and children — and wounded 12 others. According to The New York Times, a U.S. report found that drone operators, working from an Air Force base in Nevada, had "tracked the convoy for 31/2 hours, but failed to notice any of the women who were riding along." U.S. intelligence analysts, watching a video feed from the drone, had sent two warnings "that children were visible." Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, then-U.S. commander in Afghanistan, reprimanded four officers over the incident and asked Air Force leaders to investigate the drone operators. They had "reported seeing only military-age men in the truck." This raises another question, one the Times didn't address: Are all Afghan men of military age considered fair game for U.S. attacks?

U.S. attack planes, drones and gunships have killed Afghans in homes and wedding parties. They have killed civilians trying to flee dangerous areas, men collecting scrap metal for sale, and boys gathering firewood for their families. In Nangarhar province in 2008, a U.S. plane bombed a bridal procession three times, killing the bride and 46 other people. Hajj Khan, an elderly man who survived, had been holding his grandson's hand as they walked toward the groom's village. According to a British paper, the Guardian, a bomb strike threw Mr. Khan to the ground. When he opened his eyes, he said, "I was still holding my grandson's hand but the rest of him was gone. I looked around and saw pieces of bodies everywhere."

Drone attacks: Afghanistan's innocent victims - Baltimore Sun
 
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