Did You Feel Reassured By President Barack Obama's Plan For The Future Of The Afghanistan War ???

[WillyT]

Yes.

No.


No other, sorry.

[WillyT]

1. Votes, Yes !!!

Comments... Not So Much...

:shrug:

[robinlynne]

25. We're saddened by it all. getting quiet.

[Beam Me Up]

27. beyond fed up, more like.

[robinlynne]

30. okay.

[glen123098]

2. No we are still there.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Exactly

[amborin]

4. no, we'll still have 65,000 troops there, way more than when he started:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1343988

[Dappleganger]

5. No, we aren't even going back to square one.

[Poll_Blind]

7. +1

I was kind of hoping that despite the leaks prior to the speech the numbers would be higher. Really depressing. Oh, and it's a totally pointless exercise. It's not like the Afghan army is going to be able to take over anything in 2014. Hell, the entire Afghan army couldn't defend a 7-11 in New Orleans on a Friday night.

PB

[femmocrat]

6. "Reassured" is not the word I would use.

Disappointed, dismayed, disillusioned, disgusted.... that's more like it.

[Monique1]

9. What we need to do is....

keep slamming Obama and get Michelle Backman elected. That is the thing we must do. Go Michelle!

[Marie Marie]

29. Wrong Michelle - how about Michelle Obama? I have a feeling that

she would be on the right side of the issues and a hell of a lot tougher than her husband.

[csziggy]

8. No, We need to be out of Afghanistan NOW

If after ten years, the Afghanis are not ready to run their own country, three or four more years will not make it more likely.

[gimama]

10. not 'no', but HELL, NO!

I am very disappointed..saddened & disgusted.

Bring ALL our Troops HOME, NOW.. & take care of 'em when they get HOME!

damn.

I've used up a week's worth o' cussin' already tonite. :(

[nevergiveup]

11. You won't find me criticizing the president much on DU

but on Afghanistan I think he is wrong. The killing of Osama Bin Laden left the president a great opportunity to pivot on this war and he missed it and I am saddened.

[gkhouston]

13. +1. His response is tone deaf. I doubt very much that most Americans

give a shit about whether we "win" or "lose" in Afghanistan; all they want is to stop throwing money and lives we can ill afford down a bottomless rathole. I'm not seeing any concrete goal that we can realistically believe will be met in the next few years, if ever. It's a waste, pure and simple, on many levels.

[Jackpine Radical]

16. WTF does "win" mean in a case like Afghanistan?

I cannot imagine an endstate there that might in any way resemble a "win." At least not a military win.

If we took 1/10 of the money we're pouring in to that stupid war & built schools & hospitals with it & then left, maybe we could "win" something. Maybe not, though. Maybe the Taliban would blow up the hospitals & schools. Well, then they do.Noboby, NOBODY has "won" a war in Afghanistan. The Russians & British used to take turns losing their asses there. The Indians got their comeuppance there long before that.

The whole thing is about competing with China over minerals & pipelines. I say we just bribe the Afghans to be our friends & all go home.

[gkhouston]

18. If we'd taken the money we've spent on that war and invested it

in alternative energy development ten years ago, we might not need to bribe the Afghans.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. Agreed.

And we've known for 50 years that we'd have to find alternatives. I still grit my teeth when I think of Reagan taking down Carter's PV panels from the WH roof.

[Golden Raisin]

12. No.

[lonestarnot]

14. 33,000 by next summer, nope not enough on draw down of the occupation

[Blue-Jay]

15. Not particularly, no.

[BeFree]

17. We can't afford to stay

Even the republicans are talking that way.
For once they are right.

[unkachuck]

20. No, I did not feel reassured....

....I felt deja vu; like I was once again being 'chimped'....

[Aerows]

21. No

Because we are still over there, wasting money and lives.

What the hell are we even fighting for, anyway? It certainly isn't to catch bin Laden anymore.

[cherokeeprogressive]

22. He didn't mention civilian contractors at all. Mercenaries.

My main objective is to get our loved ones out of harm's way, but no small part of the overall picture for me is money spent THERE, that could be spent HERE.

How many civilian contractors are coming home, and how much are we paying for the ones that will stay?

[sad sally]

23. The "tide of war is receding?" The slowest tide in the world, Mr. President, while the tide at home

are about to suck this country into an abyss, wars that are draining this country dry. We can no longer afford the forever war in Afghanistan, nor can we afford to fund the new war in Libya, and the illegal war in Iraq.

Obama's plan will leave about 70,000 troops in Afghanistan as of next summer, more than twice the number serving there when he took office in 2009, with more withdrawals through 2014. "The tide of war is receding," he said Wednesday.

But Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, said it is not receding fast enough, or with the proper focus.
"The president is in a very, very difficult situation and I have great respect for him but I find this very disappointing," Garamendi said minutes after the speech, noting Obama is sticking to "a strategy of nation building, a strategy of supporting the central government -- there is no recognition that we are caught in the middle of a five-way civil war."

Afghanistan's total gross national product is about $16 billion, while it would take about $12 billion to support the military and police forces needed to preserve national security -- an untenable situation, Garamendi said. Although glad some troops are coming home, he said more should be withdrawn and those that remain should be radically refocused. "We really must have a different strategy, we have to focus on terrorists, wherever they are in this world, like a laser."

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, said the withdrawal is "not significant nor is it sizeable," and so she will offer defense appropriations amendments to cut all funding for combat operations as well as to redirect a $5 billion Pentagon "slush fund." It is time to concentrate on diplomatic and political efforts because "history shows there is no military solution in Afghanistan," she said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_18333480?nclick_check=1?du

[taught_me_patience]

24. No way.

33,000 a year from now still leaves us with more than we started. 10,000 this year is a pitiful amount.

[KG]

26. gee, thanks, president milquetoast.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. No but I did not expect to

I hoped to be surprised... but let's be honest... it won't happen until we have no choice... empire and all that.

[Octafish]

31. Keeping Afghanistan Safe for UNOCAL and China.

Now that bin Laden's gone.

[Blue_In_AK]

32. I couldn't listen past the first few sentences.

Reading it wasn't any better.

[Solly Mack]

33. No

[blindpig]

34. Remove 30K and there's still more there than in 01/09

big fucking deal