Senator McCain: US must reassess Afghan troop withdrawal

[DonViejo]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Senator John McCain says the ongoing Taliban offensive in Afghanistan demands a reassessment of the Obama administration’s current plan to drawdown U.S. forces.

McCain told reporters on Saturday that the Afghan national forces are fighting bravely, but suffering heavy losses in the field.

American and international troops have already stopped playing a combat role, remaining as trainers for local forces. The international numbers will be reduced further at the end of 2016. But McCain says any reduction should be based on conditions on the ground, not an arbitrary calendar date.

Meanwhile Afghan lawmakers rejected President Ashraf Ghani’s nominee for defense minister, a position that has remained empty for more than nine month now. Masoom Stanekzai received just 84 out of the needed 107 votes for parliamentary approval.

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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2015/07/04/senator_mccain_us_must_reassess_afghan_troop_withdrawal/

[HoosierCowboy]

1. Someone tell the Senator

..that he's not in charge

[bemildred]

2. Shut up, John. Just shutup. nt

[A Simple Game]

3. I know, let's stay another 5 years then reassess.

Then stay another 5 years then reassess.

Then stay another 5 years then reassess.

Then stay another 5 years then reassess.

I could do this all day and it still wouldn't be enough.

[Liberalagogo]

4. John, just go back to yelling at clouds or chairs

[Sunlei]

5. Let Saudi Arabia, India, others deal with Air Strikes and troops vs their neighboring country.

They can afford to pay the 'war profiteer businesses' directly to do the killing for them.

No more American troops or trillions of Americans Federal money for wars.

when is McCain going to retire?

[Reter]

6. He's the only Repuke I can't call a chickenhawk

Him and his whole family just love war.

[totodeinhere]

7. It would not surprise me is the Taliban retakes the country once all NATO forces leave.

Or I should say once all Americans leave since any more it's a NATO force in name only.

But if we reverse the troop withdrawal as McCain wants we are only postponing the inevitable. At some point we must leave and it may as well be now. All we will accomplish if we stay is snuffing out more lives on all sides of this conflict plus we will be flushing billions more down the toilet that could be much better spent elsewhere. We must leave on schedule.

[DallasNE]

8. There Must Be An End Game McCain. What Is It?

We.re into our 14th year of war in Afghanistan so one wonders just how long it takes to train a fighting force -- or to train the trainers for that matter. This all goes back to Vietnam and the failed nation building attempt in that country. Whether Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan we have seen that the will to fight cannot be instilled or transferred. Yet people like McCain think that it can, apparently. Let him explain how his plan will instill the will to fight when all of the evidence to date points in the opposite direction. The ball is in your court McCain.

[jomin41]

11. Well said DallasNE,

In the last 50+ years, we've had VN, Kosovo, Afghanistan, DrugWar(tm), and our crowning glory, Iraq. So, 5 wars in half a century, 3 of them ongoing. And yet we are spending more and more on "defense". A trillion dollars a year and, according to Mccain, we should be more afraid than ever!

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Charlie Wilson's War All Over Again

40 years to determine whose oil it will be.

Or is it about defense profiteering.

Any stats on which countries have absorbed the most defense expenditure
since WWII?

Iraq and Afghanistan must be near the top.

[timdog44]

13. And now

we don't even need the oil any more. We export oil. And if we used our brains we could make energy for almost free. So now they can keep their sand and their oil. And McCain can go crash another plane in the middle of it all.

[jomin41]

10. It seems to me that

if we had negotiated with the Taliban for Osama and others, thereby leaving the hardliners a home, instead of chasing them out and occupying the whole damn country, THEY would now be having to deal with the ISIS types.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

14. We did try that. Apparently didn't work out.

Or they were lying and they didn't try. You never know.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

12. Zip it, McShame!