Officials: Obama Advisors Are Downplaying Afghanistan Dangers

[FVZA_Colonel]

Source: McClatchy

Officials: Obama advisers are downplaying Afghan dangers
By Jonathan S. Landay, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef

WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration reconsiders its Afghanistan policy, White House officials are minimizing warnings from the intelligence community, the military and the State Department about the risks of adopting a limited strategy focused on al Qaida , U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and military officials told McClatchy .

Recent U.S. intelligence assessments have found that the Taliban and other Pakistan -based groups that are fighting U.S.-led forces have much closer ties to al Qaida now than they did before 9/11, would allow the terrorist network to re-establish bases in Afghanistan and would help Osama bin Laden export his radical brand of Islam to Afghanistan's neighbors and beyond, the officials said.

McClatchy interviewed more than 15 senior and mid-level U.S. intelligence, military and diplomatic officials, all of whom said they concurred with the assessments. All of them requested anonymity because the assessments are classified and the officials weren't authorized to speak publicly.

The officials said the White House is searching for an alternative to the broader counterinsurgency strategy favored by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal , the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan , and Gen. David Petraeus , the head of the U.S. Central Command.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3330066

---

Looks like people are getting ready to wage war on him for not just giving in to the MIC's demands.

[ixion]

1. continuing to hostilely-occupy Afghanistan is a bad plan, any way you cut it

get out now.

[Pirate Smile]

2. more

White House officials, they said, have concluded that McChrystal's approach could be doomed by election fraud, corruption and other problems in Afghanistan; by continued Pakistani covert support for the insurgency; by the strains on the Army, Marine Corps and the federal budget; and by a lack of political and public support at home, which they fear could also undermine the president's domestic priorities.

-snip-
McChrystal and Petraeus are ignoring the problems their (counterinsurgency) approach would face in Afghanistan and here at home," said one intelligence official with extensive experience in South Asia and counterterrorism. "We don't have a reliable partner in Afghanistan or Pakistan; doubling the size of the Afghan army is a pipedream, given the corruption and literacy problems; and neither Congress or the American people are likely to give it the money, the troops or the decade or so it would need to work, if it would work.

"Now the White House is downplaying the dangers of doing the only thing that they think Congress and the public will support -- a limited war against the guys who hit us on 9/11. The truth is, both approaches have huge problems, and neither one's likely to work."

Wow, big f@#king surprise! All options suck. The White House has to pick one of the various sh#$ty options left over by the mess Bush let Afganistan turn into by diverting attention to Iraq. Big damn surprise.

Lets all run to the media and complain.

[EFerrari]

8. This is the crap they pulled on JFK and to an extent, on Clinton.

I guess the CIA doesn't want Obama to fuck up their business model!

[thunder rising]

3. "assessments are classified": can we trust our military? If we don't do as they ask will they

allow soldiers to be killed?
Will our intelligence people allow a terrorist attack?

This does not look good.

[madrchsod]

4. how about this from 1998....pdf file-muhammad omar

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB134/Doc%202.pdf

this from the new york times

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/muhammad_omar/index.html?inline=nyt-per


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/world/asia/11mullah.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

but wait...the really bad guy who`s running the show...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/208637

[babylonsister]

5. What has this admin downplayed? Hooey. They haven't made

any determinations yet. Seems premature to me.

[Lost-in-FL]

7. was thinking the same thing myself. nt

[bertman]

6. Pull the troops out NOW. If al Qaeda does begin setting up training camps, THEN send

in the drones or use frickin' B-52's if you have to. The Taliban are indigenous and they're trying to drive out the invaders--US.

This is just more of the same from the fucking warmongers who want to escalate in Vietghanistan.

Sometimes I think these generals just don't want to be put on the same list as all of the other military geniuses who have lost their asses to these warrior tribes. No matter the price in lives or treasure.

[InfiniteThoughts]

9. sorry to tell you ... US is doomed in Afghanistan for at least one more decade ...

I have no other way of breaking this news. I see a parallel between what is happening in Afghanistan today to the events of the late 1980s in the Kashmir valley. Jammu & Kashmir went to elections in 1989 and it was massively rigged by the national leadership leading to a outbreak of terrorism & voices calling for liberation from India. It took India 15 years for the voice to die down and at least 2 free & transparent election before the noise died down.

By allowing Karzai to retain power by rigging elections, the Obama administration has made their first major mistake. Elections & democracy are the most underrated weapon in humanity. Would Americans accept McCain as President if Bush & his coterie rigged the 2008 US elections? Why does US leadership think Afghans will accept US imposing an unelected leader in Afghanistan who is believed to have lost massively in the elections?

The war in Afghanistan cannot be won through military means (Exhibit A: Soviet Invasion of USSR). It can only be won by investing in the country and showing the merits of democracy. Once these folks taste democracy, they will walk the extra yard to retain it. That's one reason for Afghans to learn more about Turkey, Malaysia or Indonesia and not get too exposed to Pakistan.

[Babyserendip]

10. It is time the US back the BREAKING UP OF PAKISTAN...litterally before its too late.

There is only one way to thread the needle here........and it is to help Afghanistan and Pashtunistan unite...as they have been wanting since 1947.

All other policies of any other sort.....any.......will result in blowback to the US, failure on the ground of any good intentions....and the ever grinding demise of Pakistan.

30% of the Pakistan army is Afghan...make them a deal to be the new Afghan army....can you say instant Afghan security.....our boys come home.

The US needs to back the ANP party to make a deal with the Taliban and Kabul.........and find the Sahabzada Yaqub Khan of this moment (the Pakistan Lt. General who let Bangladesh go free in direct opposition to the Punjabi generals who wanted him to butcher Bangladeshis).

Any other American policy is guaranteed failure as we are going against the national aspirations of the natives.

The tragedy of America as it relates to Afghanistan is we are an empire....refusing to act like one.....it is time to stop with the naivete.

In so doing the prescribed...we will turn a cauldron of public hatred into a wealth of public admiration. We will lose the Punjabi Army and the ISI.............not something I except most Americans will be crying over.