150,000 Troops to Defeat 300 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan & Pakistan?

[tekisui]

Source:SFGate

In 2002 and 2003, there was no Al Qaeda presence in Iraq. George W. Bush's collaborators in the biggest lie in world history that included all the neo-conservatives and their Republican cohorts are now asking the President to pay attention to Afghanistan.

We have 68,000-strong troops in Afghanistan to clean up the less than 300 Al Qaeda fighters who are holed up in Pakistan. According to the president's national security adviser, Gen. James Jones there are less than 100 Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.

Why do we need another 40,000 - 80,000 troops to fight 300 - 400 Al Qeada fighters?

Republicans who basically said, "Forget Afghanistan because Iraq was the central front for terror" now insist that Afghanistan is the new central front.

Huh?

Why are the Republicans always behind the wrong war against Al Qaeda? Have they forgotten the real war? Have they heard of Somalia and Yemen?

The war is against Al Qaeda and it is not a geographically defined war.

The Taliban are fighting to get us out of Afghanistan like they fought against the British and the Soviets. Their cause is liberating their land from an occupying force. Al Qaeda makes for convenient allies since they were there (the Taliban left for Pakistan's tribal ares already) anyway. This subtlety is not insignificant. It is the crux of the matter. We can win over the Taliban (who by the way were the same mudjahadeen we supported during the Soviet occupation) if we improve the conditions for the Pashtuns and other tribes and quit supporting a hopelessly corrupt government.

We have the capacity to isolate the Taliban from Al Qaeda. We can also isolate the Taliban from the majority Pashtuns. We can build coalition governments with various factions like we did in the Balkans. We can also emasculate the Taliban to a force that only has small weapons with no tanks, large armaments, navy or air force.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybenjamin/detail??blogid=150&entry_id=49357#ixzz0TjpzhCQO

[liberal N proud]

1. Republicans only interest is feeding the war machine.

Dollars for the military contractors.

More GREED!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Sledgehammer vs fleas.

[kenny blankenship]

3. In 8 yrs of occupation we have made thousands of more enemies in Afghanistan

8 yrs ago, 10,000 coalition forces were enough to overthrow the government there and rout the Taliban army. But today 64,000 troops are not enough to hold on and our position is deteriorating. The General in charge is requesting another 40-60,000 (and he'll probably get 20,000) That should tell you the following: we aren't fighting the same people as 8 yrs ago, and some of the people who were "on our side" then, or indifferent, are now trying to kill us and drive us out of their country. We call them "al qaeda and Taliban" because if we called them Afghani tribesmen or our former allies, public opinion in America would put a halt to the war.

In 8 more yrs we will have made thousands MORE enemies in Afghanistan.

[GreenTea]

4. Along with the most technological advanced weapons in the world - One must finally realize

what bullshit this all is and how many billions the corporations are making by keeping the bullshit going...it doesn't take a genius to see where our tax dollars are going....

And the republicans are bitching about health care for ALL Americans....the greedy fucks want those tax dollars for their weapons, jets, supply's, just think how many hundreds of thousands gallons of oil a day used & paid for by our tax dollars- who benefits? They say fuck what it's costing us and how many of our peasant soldiers die(as they view them) along with civilians that are killed, what are we offering them, what, just more bombs & killing, invades for profit destroying their country....the poor always fight for the rich corporations interest & imperialism, which benefits only the rich.

Again, how many Al Qeada fighters?

[ddeclue]

5. Two reasons:

First: The estimate of the number of al Qaeda fighters is not necessarily accurate. It doesn't include people who provide logistical support and safe haven on a part time or as needed basis to al Qaeda or people who fight on an as needed basis.

When we include 68,000 or whatever the number of US troop we are including our logistical support and other non-combat troops. That 300 number excludes those so as to make the enemy appear smaller than they actually are.

We really don't have a good handle on the number that we actually oppose and it may be an order of magnitude larger or more than this report suggests.

Second: It has traditionally taken a 10 to 1 ratio of conventional forces trained to fight conventional symmetric warfare to defeat guerilla forces that use hit and run assymetric tactics that only engage when they have the opportunity to hit and then retreat to fight another day.

The enemy we fight is using hit and run, shoot from the shadows, roadside bomb type tactics because they know it would be futile in most cases to engage in direct battles with U.S. forces.

Technology can be helpful in fighting these battles but we also need to learn the lessons of our fighting in Latin America and the Phillipines from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century and from Vietnam. I think the Army is finally awakening to these lessons however slowly.

Special forces who are trained in counter insurgency warfare and who have language and culture training are really far more effective in this kind of battle. We also need to find ways to isolate the enemy from his supplies, put an end to the poppy trade and block his communications if there is to be a victory.

Politically speaking, we need to convince the citizens of Afghanistan that they'd rather live in a Western style democracy than in a religious theocracy. This will probably be harder to do. Elections have to be seen as legitimate by the people of Afghanistan which they clearly are not at this point given the rampant fraud in the recent election. We need to be willing to accept the vote of the Afghan people if they don't want Karzai and not just nod and wink when an illegitimate ruler stays in power through voter fraud.

We need to end corruption in the Afghan government as well. The government needs to be seen as serving the people, not extorting them. It needs to be making the life of the Afghan better in demonstrable concrete ways like better roads and highways, water treatment, electricity, and education, etc.

[GreenTea]

7. Man, you bought it all, the whole bullshit...

"we need to convince the citizens of Afghanistan that they'd rather live in a Western style democracy than in a religious theocracy".

Be like us or we'll keep bombing the fuck out of you.

"It needs to be making the life of the Afghan better in demonstrable concrete ways like better roads and highways, water treatment, electricity, and education, etc."

If were going to be there why aren't we building these things instead of bombing the fuck out of everything....What do you think would win over the people, helping them build or bombing the fuck out of them and demanding that they have a government like ours?

NINE fucking years and you're reciting the same old imperialist empire US is the world policemen bullshit, while corporations are making huge profits daily from our tax dollars off this bullshit war...

How many more years do you figure about another 20 years should do it and what will their country look like after we're done and the corporations & military have sucked us up all the profits we will finally allow?

[ddeclue]

9. I'm not interested in staying in Afghanistan, just in defeating al Qaeda.

Fixing Afghanistan just seems to be a necessary pre-requisite.

You can jump up and down and complain as much as you want but Iraq was an optional war, Afghanistan was not.

Doug D.

[GreenTea]

11. How do you define "defeating al Qaeda"?

Killing every last one of them?

As long as the US has bases on their lands and in the region, as long as the US continues to use our military to steal their oil for corporations, as long as we ignore an entire population of Palestinians, as long as we continue to bomb their homes, schools & hospitals, as long as we want to dictate the kind of government they should have, there will be an al Qaeda and/or dozens of other groups who believe the same....Which is simply....Get the fuck out of our lands and stop stealing our resources and forcing your democracy on our people.

When we start to build the people schools, hospitals and homes, remove our unwanted imperialistic bases from their lands, help their fellow Palestinians have a homeland, Stop trying to force our way of life & government on their region & religion. Only then, will al Qaeda become insignificant and unnecessary.

But you believe in bombings & killing them to make it happen, as our country goes further bankrupt while the corporations get fat with each war & occupation telling us always that war is the right way to go about it.

As has been proved throughout history these imperialistic wars like in Afghanistan can not be won by a people who will fight to the end if necessary....they have nothing to lose by fighting, it's their land, so get the fuck outta here....You bought into the whole al Qaeda bullshit....it's weapons makers as well selling to both sides making billions of dollars and it will continue as long as we are there...I too would be part of "al Qaeda" if these armies occupied my country....

We should be building not destroying to win the people...but building is not as profitable.

You will not change, you believe the bullshit they've been telling you, with all the stats to make it all seem real and correct, in that only force and only fighting & killing and more troops will do the job....What job, killing every single al Qaeda till there's not a single one left? al Qaeda a mindset, a movement, not just some group you can just wipe out then say well, it's all over now..... because, it's a corporate war for profit as all wars are.

The rich corporate thieves always have good sounding bullshit reasons why we should be using force and killing, as they are making hundreds of billions in profits each year we are there, profits the multi-national corporations wouldn't see unless we are at war, they are war based corporations and love a war based economy....And their attitude is, these are just dumb brown-skinned Muslims "who want to kill us for no reason" so let's go get them....And how many years will this take 20 more years?

The American Empire will collapse militarily in Afghanistan as has so many others using force to what the people do not want forced upon them.

[jacko_be]

12. +1 nt

[onethatcares]

14. those last two paragraphs describe the U.S. of A. to a tee.

we're the country that won't let an outside audit of our elections happen, and we sure as hell need our government to be serving we the people instead of those corporations. I don't think the past election was a fraud, I think we got the other side to roll over and play dead.

War is a racket, there's no denying that.

[Orsino]

6. Well, al-Qaeda had a head start...

...and some of them have guns. Some of 'em, when you ask, "Are you al-Qaeda," reply "No." It's hard work, I hear.

Seriously, though, I'm not in a mood to listen to those urging that we give war an eighteenth second chance.

[gratuitous]

8. Caution: This post contains heresy

Maybe there isn't a military solution to this problem?

Okay, I'll go quietly. Get the stake and kindling.

[leftstreet]

10. Blasphemer!

:)

[plcdude]

13. I think the

BBC (of course not shown in the U.S.) some time ago has debunked the whole al qaeda myth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mztfFdpd1Rk

[rug]

15. The Pentagon must think they're Spartans.