So what is the word on getting out of Afghanistan...?

[FirstLight]

I am searching around and seeing alot of people in different places (congress, media, etc) saying that since we got OBL we should pack it in and bring our guys home.... but I don't think the White House has adressed the issue yet (if so, please smack me with a link)

This just seems like such a no fuckin brainer... if Obama wants to win re-election...BRING THEM ALL HOME
He swore up & down he would do it in 2008... enough already!

Has anyone in any position of real power even THOUGHT of the option to have our military deployed right HERE, working on our disaster needs, infrastructure, etc...?

I am frustrated as hell that nobody has spoken of the obvious here.
Would it make a difference if I wrote a letter to Rachel or ED or even Keith?
How do we get this movement going?
How does the white house NOT get it?

[leftstreet]

1. "if Obama wants to win re-election"

It's probably too early to get election points for bringing troops home

[elfin]

Not having a base to go into Pakistan

to get some more really bad guys.

That is the ONLY thing I can think of, and it remains important to have something in the region from which to run ops.

[FirstLight]

4. why?

really... do we have to be involved over there? the idea that more terrorist camps can pop up there is just stupid to me. I could care less when our presence there has brought those people no safety or better infrastructure. it's just propaganda bullshit.

there is NO reason to be there except to have some imperialistic presence..
meanwhile our own people are suffering and our military keep getting killed

leave other countries to deal with their people their way
we are not helping, we are harming the general population by being there

[tekisui]

2. We will likely have 30,000+ troops there past 2014.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1081156

Only some 5,000 are going to leave in July. There will still be 90,000 going into 2012.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. The war in Afghanistan will continue for the foreseeable future.

It is what it is. If we pull out of Afghanistan, we'll find some other war to be engaged in. Get used to the idea of a permanent state of war for the rest of your life.

[robdogbucky]

5. Well, there's this

After Bin Laden, U.S. Reassesses Afghan Strategy

"...Two influential senators — John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana — suggested Tuesday that it was time to rethink the Afghanistan war effort, forecasting the beginning of what promises to be a fierce debate about how quickly the United States should begin pulling troops out of the country.

“We should be working toward the smallest footprint necessary, a presence that puts Afghans in charge and presses them to step up to that task,” Mr. Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at a hearing. “Make no mistake, it is fundamentally unsustainable to continue spending $10 billion a month on a massive military operation with no end in sight.”

Both Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lugar, the committee’s senior Republican, said they remained opposed to a precipitous withdrawal.

Still, “the broad scope of our activities suggests that we are trying to remake the economic, political and security culture of Afghanistan — but that ambitious goal is beyond our power,” Mr. Lugar said. “A reassessment of our Afghanistan policy on the basis of whether our overall geostrategic interests are being served by spending roughly $10 billion a month in that country was needed before our troops took out Bin Laden.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/world/middleeast/11military.html?_r=2


But you know how that usually goes.

[FirstLight]

6. thanks for the link

and yea, i know how it goes...


but it is just so STUPID! agh!