U.S. Will Be Out Of Afghanistan By 2017

[avaistheone1]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will not be in Afghanistan eight years from now, the White House said on Wednesday, as President Barack Obama prepared to explain to Americans next week why he is expanding the war effort.

After months of deliberation and fending off Republican charges that he was dithering on Afghanistan while violence there surged, Obama will address the nation on Tuesday on the way forward in the costly and unpopular eight-year war.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/26/news/news-us-afghanistan-usa.html


Okay, here is confirmation from the New York Times that the US will be in Afghanistan at least seven years.

(rasputin, is there a thread somewhere that indicates what websites we can not quote from? I was surprised that thread was locked. It appears the information was good after all.)

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Not if the White House is occupied by a republican after 2012.

[avaistheone1]

4. Probably not if the White House is occupied by a democrat after 2012 either.

We now have war mongers leading both parties in the U.S.

Afghanistan is a war and escalation of choice. Chosen by a Democrat by name of Obama.

[Bragi]

6. Obama's war may end earlier under the GOP

Since the antiwar vote will be up for grabs, and the country will be even closer to bankruptcy, there will be little to stop the GOP from becoming an isolationist, antiwar party by 2012.

[vaberella]

12. Oh fabulous----now we have a push for Republicans in office. Brilliant--I'm no longer at DU. n/t

[Bragi]

14. No "push", just a forecast re: political consequences /nt

[Better Believe It]

2. Sorry. Just posted link to same article. Saw your post after I posted my link

[ClarkUSA]

3. The OP headline is misleading as it's a total guess on the reporter's part. Surprise, surprise.

:eyes:

[avaistheone1]

7. Yup the military have been leaking like a sieve their plans for the

escalation/war for days directly all over the media.

But you can be surprised if that makes you feel better.

[ClarkUSA]

9. Okay then. Where in the article does the reporter quote "the military"?

:shrug:

[hughee99]

5. Unless something unexpected happens before then...

It's the old, "give me credit for promising something, even though you won't get it until after I leave office, if at all" technique used by countless presidents.

[Better Believe It]

8. So whoever is elected President in 2016 might bring our troops home. Yipeee!

[Vinnie From Indy]

10. That's should be about right!

You can bet that the last bit of natural gas will have been extracted and passed through the Afghan pipeline immediately before we pull out. America, it seems, has become nothing more than the muscle for global corporations to have their way.

[vaberella]

11. What is wrong with you MediaWhore Lovers? How does the title relate to what Gibbs said?!

This is why drama erupts on this thread. The title completely undermines and misrepresents Gibbs. Ugh.

[Better Believe It]

13. Do the simple math vaberella. 2009 + 8 = 2017

Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

"We are in year nine of our efforts in Afghanistan. We are not going to be there another eight or nine years," Gibbs told reporters. "Our time there will be limited and that is important for people to understand," he said.

[vaberella]

18. I already answered your crappy post. No where in his statement does he say BY or IN 8 or 9 years.

You are deciding on doing math based on two numbers in the post that aren't even stated as part of the withdrawal time period.

[Better Believe It]

15. Senator Feingold on President Obama's Afghanistan war escalation

But members of the party's most liberal wing, such as Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), have expressed serious doubts about the overall direction of the president's strategy.

"Devoting billions more dollars and tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan is not likely to significantly improve conditions in that country, and it will not help -- and could even hurt -- our efforts to dismantle al-Qaeda's global network with safe havens in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, North Africa and elsewhere," Feingold said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34160596/ns/politics-washington_post

[IndianaGreen]

16. Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?

Here we go again down the path of war crimes!

[Skittles]

17. LOL, will that be the bone toss???

:rofl: