US General Warns of Afghan Failure

[tekisui]

Source: Al Jazeera

The most senior US and Nato commander in Afghanistan has said the war against the Taliban "will likely result in failure" if more troops are not sent and a new strategy developed.

General Stanley McChrystal said in a leaked report obtained by the Washington Post that, despite some progress, "many indicators suggest the overall effort is deteriorating".

Inability to provide adequate resources "also risks a longer conflict, greater casualties, higher overall costs, and ultimately, a critical loss of political support" he said, according to the Post report published on Monday.

"Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."

more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/09/200992111035319236.html
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He wants more troops for the failing cause.:puke:

[spanone]

1. fuck the general....we have no 'mission' therefore, no failure, general

[tularetom]

2. Deja vu all over again

It's Vietnam with camels and President Lyndon B Obama is about to fall right into the trap of listening to these incompetent asswipes.

[tekisui]

4. The repukes are pressuring him to make a quick decision

on adding more troops, IMO, because everyone knows its a doomed 'mission'. They want him to own it. A few good Dems are trying to save Obama from this mistake.

[elleng]

7. I think you're seriously mistaken in several ways.

This is NOT johnson and westmoreland, and whomever you are calling incompetent in this scene are not.

[elleng]

3. He wants a new strategy, right? Along with more troops?

[tekisui]

6. Yeah, a 'new strategy'. A new strategy that needs more troops for

a unwinnable war.

[Fumesucker]

5. The Powell Doctrine..

The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:

1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?
2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?
3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
4. Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
7. Is the action supported by the American people?
8. Do we have genuine broad international support?<1>

As Powell said in an April 1, 2009 interview on The Rachel Maddow Show, the Doctrine denotes the exhausting of all "political, economic, and diplomatic means," which, only if those means prove to be futile, should a nation should resort to military force. Powell has expanded upon the Doctrine, asserting that when a nation is engaging in war, every resource and tool should be used to achieve decisive force against the enemy, minimizing US casualties and ending the conflict quickly by forcing the weaker force to capitulate. This is well in line with Western military strategy dating at least from Carl von Clausewitz's On War.

I would add that Sun Tzu would have almost certainly agreed with the Powell Doctrine..

"The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to w in or lose."
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

"He who wishes to fight must first count the cost. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be dampened. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor dampened, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue... In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns."
-Sun Tzu, the Art of War

[Fumesucker]

8. Dupe.. self delete