McChrystal Wanted 50,000 Troops

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

Top Afghanistan Commander Was Convinced to Lower Request to 40,000; Obama Deliberates on Formal Request

(AP) Gen. Stanley McChrystal wanted to ask President Obama for 50,000 more troops for Afghanistan on top of the 68,000 already stationed there, but he was convinced to lower the request to 40,000, reports CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid.

Sources tell Reid that McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, considers the lower number to be a firm bottom line McChrystal believes anything short of 40,000 increases the risk of failure, Reid reports.

The president received McChrystal's former request last Thursday, one day before flying to Copenhagen to support Chicago's bid for the 2016 summer Olympics, Reid reports. Mr. Obama met with McChrystal on board Air Force One during that trip.

But White House officials did not confirm until today that Mr. Obama had received the formal request. The president is reportedly deliberating on the request as the war launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks reached its eight-year mark today with no end in sight.

Obama was not expected to discuss the troop request at a meeting with war advisers Wednesday but was likely to do so on Friday.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/07/world/main5369823.shtml?tag=stack

[MineralMan]

1. Yah, I wanted a pony when I was a kid.

I didn't get one. Lots of people want lots of things.

[saigon68]

14. Gen McCrazy wants your kid to die for Unocal and Halliburton

Lets not forget the Puppet installed by Bush the CHIMP

The Mayor of Kabul Charlie McKarzai

[Craftsman]

2. You should either trust you commanders in the field or replace them

I would ask why and what kinds first but since retreat is not a stated option I most likely would send them.

[Jazzgirl]

5. Except when those commanders were appointed

by the BFEE like McChrystal. Most of *shrubs people are still in place which is one reason we keep seeing these public spectacles about Afghanistan. Obama really needs to replace these guys.

[RantinRavin]

11. When did Obama become part of the BFEE ?

McChrystal picked by Obama in May to lead the Afghanistan mission.

[theoldman]

3. It's better to ask for more than you need because you will always get less.

This applies to everything in life including sex and money.

[EFerrari]

4. And if you make a big stink about it in the press, you get credit

for giving less than you were asked for . . .

[change_notfinetuning]

8. Um, and even health care reform, I'd bet!

[elocs]

9. There is truth in that observation. Obama needs to be able to trust his top military people.

If he cannot do that, then they should be replaced.

There needs to be a clear and specific mission plan for Afghanistan: what we desire to see happen and what we expect from the Afghani people because ultimately this is their fight, it is their country. Unless the Afghani people do not want their own country more than the Taliban wants to take it for them, unless they are willing to fight the Taliban and to put their own lives on the line, then the Taliban will prevail. The Afghani people will be armed, supported, and receive training from the world's #1 superpower and I don't see the Taliban as having any equivalent to that.

We cannot stay in Afghanistan indefinitely if the Afghani people are unwilling to fight and die for their own country. That being said we have to be honest and recognize that any precipitous withdrawal of will have consequences and those consequences will not only be the saving of American troop lives and civilian casualties, but also when the Taliban moves in and takes control it will likely result in the enslavement of Afghani women and well as massive revenge by the Taliban on anyone who helped us in any way and that bloodbath will make any civilian casualties from us look like a walk in the park. So for anyone who wants an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan that needs to be an acceptable consequence and it cannot be said that there was no idea it would happen.

[shotten99]

6. This is political, pure and simple.

Otherwise, he would have remained with in the chain of command.

[mbperrin]

7. Some things never change.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1556

December 16, 1965
Westmoreland asks for more troops

Gen. William Westmoreland, Commander of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam, sends a request for more troops. With nearly 200,000 U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam already, Westmoreland sent Defense Secretary Robert McNamara a message stating that he would need an additional 243,000 men by the end of 1966. Citing a rapidly deteriorating military situation in which the South Vietnamese were losing the equivalent of an infantry battalion (500 soldiers) a week in battle, Westmoreland predicted that he would need a total of 600,000 men by the end of 1967 to defeat the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese.


And that worked out very well.

[change_notfinetuning]

10. If Obama falls for this, he's not an all day sucker, but a 4-year sucker.

I think I'll give Obama suckers for Halloween. It'll save me money the next few years.

What? Kids will never fall for this bullshit?

Kids for president!

[provis99]

12. Obama lowered a troop escalation from 58000 to 40000?

Nobel Peace Prize!:sarcasm:

[marshall]

13. Nobel Peace Prize Winners don't send troops anywhere

It would be oxymoronic.