Obama will send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan

[IndianaGreen]

Obama will send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan

By Patrick Martin
9 November 2009

According to US press reports Sunday, President Barack Obama has decided to send tens of thousands of additional US troops to Afghanistan in an attempt to suppress growing popular resistance to foreign occupation.

The New York Times reported Sunday on its web site that the White House had narrowed its options in Afghanistan to three—all involving troop increases of 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000 respectively. The plans for escalating the war have come in response to the urgent request by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan.

Citing “administration and military officials,” McClatchy Newspapers reported Saturday night that Obama has already settled on 34,000 troops, but was waiting to announce it until after briefing the other governments participating in the NATO occupation and completing a trip to Asia, now set for November 11-19.

McClatchy identified the new military units to be deployed in Afghanistan as including three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and the 10th Mountain Division, at Fort Drum, New York, and a Marine brigade. These forces, comprising 23,000 soldiers, would serve in combat and support roles. Another 7,000 troops would establish a new division headquarters in Kandahar, where the US is to take command of all NATO and allied forces in a Regional Command (South). Another 4,000 military trainers would likely be sent as well. The details could still change, officials told McClatchy, and would not be finalized until a NATO meeting November 23.

Two top military officers indirectly confirmed the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Washington audience Wednesday that the administration would request a supplemental funding bill to meet the cost of the additional troops, with Pentagon officials giving a ballpark estimate of $50 billion. The regular Pentagon appropriations bill, signed by Obama at the end of last month, already allots $130 billion to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

General George Casey, the Army chief of staff, called for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the course of a series of interviews on Sunday morning television talk shows. He was brought on to the programs to respond to questions about the killing of 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas by an Army major apparently upset over an impending deployment to the Afghanistan war.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/aftr-n09.shtml

[tekisui]

1. Big mistake.

This will be a blight on his Presidency, and possibly remove a shot at re-election.

[tridim]

2. For continuity in your crosspost.. Gibbs and the WH have denied this report.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Do you know what Obama's decision is all about, whenever he makes it public?

Obama is not going to come out and announce a US disengagement from Afghanistan. He already nixed the peace option months ago. The decision that Obama is considering is a multiple choice question, and all the answers have WAR as part of the answer. The only thing we are awaiting for, is how many troops, how many bombs, how much violence we will unleash on the people of Afghanistan.

Or to put it another way: how big a war criminal I am willing to become.

[tridim]

4. Obama is a war criminal now? What a disgusting thing to say.

Go to hell.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Predator strikes are a war crime, according to human rights groups

US drone strikes may break international law: UN

US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, the UN's top investigator of such crimes said.

"The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators (which are) particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan," UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston told a press conference.

"My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law," he said.

US strikes with remote-controlled aircraft against Al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan have often resulted in civilian deaths and drawn bitter criticism from local populations.

"The onus is really on the United States government to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary extrajudicial executions aren't in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons," he added.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_drone_strikes_may_break_internat_10272009.html

[PurityOfEssence]

8. He'll be a moderate, like he is in everything else

He's the ultramoderate's ultramoderate. He walks the straight and narrow void between the double lines in the middle of the road.

It'll be a kinder, gentler, compassionate war of occupation and subjugation.

Why aren't people livid about this? Why aren't they anguished at the folly and ruination ahead of us? Why don't the cries for a description of what "victory" would look like ring from the rooftops?

Dee-pressing.

[wisteria]

7. Thanks, we need to keep things in perspective. n/t

[wisteria]

6. I always thought he would send in more troops, but my number was around 20,000-all speculation now.

If this story does turn out to be true and he just sends in more troops and really doesn't change the mission or our goals, than this is extremely disapointing.

[NikolaC]

9. Honestly

I think that we should wait to hear the actual speech before we jump the gun. I would like for us to get out, not escalate, but we should wait to hear what the President has to say.

[ShortnFiery]

10. Obama is now in "a bubble" and will be a ONE Term President.

If he sends tens of thousands more troops, he just lost my (and many others) vote in 2012.

Come 2010 the rhetoric will heat up and the right wing of our party will BLAME us liberals, but they need to look in the mirror. By giving EVERYTHING to the Corporations - from Wall Street to those bloated mega-corporations comprising the Military-Industrial Complex, the corporate wing of our party has not only hijacked us, but they've abandoned their democratic principles.

Damn the corporate blue dogs - we will lose and LOSE BIG in both 2010 and 2012. Why? Because the corporatists think that their constituents are STUPID. Think again? :grr: