OT: “Obama administration warns public to expect rise in US casualties”

[afx114]

[quote=partypup]I wonder how many more troops and innocent civilians will have to die in this new front on “terror” before the Left Wing finally comes to its senses and realizes that they have been snowed? What do you think?[/quote]

I think you’ll find that most lefties believe that we should have been in Afghanistan and Pakistan all along. Not Iraq. You know, going after the guys who actually attacked us. To most lefties, shifting troops from Iraq to Afghanistan is a good thing. If we had surged into there rather than Iraq, things would be a lot different today.

Criticizing Obama for ramping up in Afghanistan is like criticizing the plumber who has to fix the toilet after you’ve stopped it up with a massive load of nasty, smelly shit.

Lefties aren’t against war. We’re against un-necessary, un-planned, un-managed wars.

[Arraya]

From the article:

Despite the positive harbingers from Obama of a new, civilian-friendly foreign policy that will devote substantial resources to human development, the very first practical step he took in Pakistan was to bomb its territory.

Human development? That must be the half billion they are spending on propaganda. Winning hearts and minds…

[Arraya]

From the article:

Despite the positive harbingers from Obama of a new, civilian-friendly foreign policy that will devote substantial resources to human development, the very first practical step he took in Pakistan was to bomb its territory.

Human development? That must be the half billion they are spending on propaganda. Winning hearts and minds…

[Arraya]

From the article:

Despite the positive harbingers from Obama of a new, civilian-friendly foreign policy that will devote substantial resources to human development, the very first practical step he took in Pakistan was to bomb its territory.

Human development? That must be the half billion they are spending on propaganda. Winning hearts and minds…

[Arraya]

From the article:

Despite the positive harbingers from Obama of a new, civilian-friendly foreign policy that will devote substantial resources to human development, the very first practical step he took in Pakistan was to bomb its territory.

Human development? That must be the half billion they are spending on propaganda. Winning hearts and minds…

[Arraya]

From the article:

Despite the positive harbingers from Obama of a new, civilian-friendly foreign policy that will devote substantial resources to human development, the very first practical step he took in Pakistan was to bomb its territory.

Human development? That must be the half billion they are spending on propaganda. Winning hearts and minds…

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: While I generally despise Juan Cole, I agree that the article was a good one. And, while I generally feel that the various references to Iraq and Afghanistan being analogous to Vietnam are overdone, I do think that there are some parallels worth discussing and I think Cole did a good job of parsing them in his article.

Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience is a major hindrance here and it potentially could come back to haunt him. Many people forget that Rumsfeld was involved with the Vietnam War as a younger man in a different Administration, and yet made many of the same mistakes during the first phases of the war in Iraq.

There are quite a few ways Obama can come to grief here, from freeing potential future leaders of al-Qaeda through the closure of Gitmo, through various “mission creep” scenarios in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to a ruinous confrontation with Iran, Russia, China or North Korea (take your pick).

I have to believe that Putin or Jong-il or I-Am-A-Dinner-Jacket in Iran is going to test his mettle and Obama, eager to prove that is up to the challenge, will respond and disproportionately so.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: While I generally despise Juan Cole, I agree that the article was a good one. And, while I generally feel that the various references to Iraq and Afghanistan being analogous to Vietnam are overdone, I do think that there are some parallels worth discussing and I think Cole did a good job of parsing them in his article.

Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience is a major hindrance here and it potentially could come back to haunt him. Many people forget that Rumsfeld was involved with the Vietnam War as a younger man in a different Administration, and yet made many of the same mistakes during the first phases of the war in Iraq.

There are quite a few ways Obama can come to grief here, from freeing potential future leaders of al-Qaeda through the closure of Gitmo, through various “mission creep” scenarios in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to a ruinous confrontation with Iran, Russia, China or North Korea (take your pick).

I have to believe that Putin or Jong-il or I-Am-A-Dinner-Jacket in Iran is going to test his mettle and Obama, eager to prove that is up to the challenge, will respond and disproportionately so.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: While I generally despise Juan Cole, I agree that the article was a good one. And, while I generally feel that the various references to Iraq and Afghanistan being analogous to Vietnam are overdone, I do think that there are some parallels worth discussing and I think Cole did a good job of parsing them in his article.

Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience is a major hindrance here and it potentially could come back to haunt him. Many people forget that Rumsfeld was involved with the Vietnam War as a younger man in a different Administration, and yet made many of the same mistakes during the first phases of the war in Iraq.

There are quite a few ways Obama can come to grief here, from freeing potential future leaders of al-Qaeda through the closure of Gitmo, through various “mission creep” scenarios in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to a ruinous confrontation with Iran, Russia, China or North Korea (take your pick).

I have to believe that Putin or Jong-il or I-Am-A-Dinner-Jacket in Iran is going to test his mettle and Obama, eager to prove that is up to the challenge, will respond and disproportionately so.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: While I generally despise Juan Cole, I agree that the article was a good one. And, while I generally feel that the various references to Iraq and Afghanistan being analogous to Vietnam are overdone, I do think that there are some parallels worth discussing and I think Cole did a good job of parsing them in his article.

Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience is a major hindrance here and it potentially could come back to haunt him. Many people forget that Rumsfeld was involved with the Vietnam War as a younger man in a different Administration, and yet made many of the same mistakes during the first phases of the war in Iraq.

There are quite a few ways Obama can come to grief here, from freeing potential future leaders of al-Qaeda through the closure of Gitmo, through various “mission creep” scenarios in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to a ruinous confrontation with Iran, Russia, China or North Korea (take your pick).

I have to believe that Putin or Jong-il or I-Am-A-Dinner-Jacket in Iran is going to test his mettle and Obama, eager to prove that is up to the challenge, will respond and disproportionately so.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: While I generally despise Juan Cole, I agree that the article was a good one. And, while I generally feel that the various references to Iraq and Afghanistan being analogous to Vietnam are overdone, I do think that there are some parallels worth discussing and I think Cole did a good job of parsing them in his article.

Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience is a major hindrance here and it potentially could come back to haunt him. Many people forget that Rumsfeld was involved with the Vietnam War as a younger man in a different Administration, and yet made many of the same mistakes during the first phases of the war in Iraq.

There are quite a few ways Obama can come to grief here, from freeing potential future leaders of al-Qaeda through the closure of Gitmo, through various “mission creep” scenarios in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to a ruinous confrontation with Iran, Russia, China or North Korea (take your pick).

I have to believe that Putin or Jong-il or I-Am-A-Dinner-Jacket in Iran is going to test his mettle and Obama, eager to prove that is up to the challenge, will respond and disproportionately so.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

afx: The US pursued and prosecuted a successful strategy in Afghanistan prior to the handover to NATO forces. The problem was that the NATO forces, by and large, did not want to fight (the exception being the Canadians).

Most of the NATO forces confine themselves to their own areas of operation and do not actively patrol and do not seek out the Taliban or al-Qaeda forces in battle.

Granted, there are other problems there, the largest being the Karzai government, but the Obama “surge” you reference has been in the planning stages for a while now.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

afx: The US pursued and prosecuted a successful strategy in Afghanistan prior to the handover to NATO forces. The problem was that the NATO forces, by and large, did not want to fight (the exception being the Canadians).

Most of the NATO forces confine themselves to their own areas of operation and do not actively patrol and do not seek out the Taliban or al-Qaeda forces in battle.

Granted, there are other problems there, the largest being the Karzai government, but the Obama “surge” you reference has been in the planning stages for a while now.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

afx: The US pursued and prosecuted a successful strategy in Afghanistan prior to the handover to NATO forces. The problem was that the NATO forces, by and large, did not want to fight (the exception being the Canadians).

Most of the NATO forces confine themselves to their own areas of operation and do not actively patrol and do not seek out the Taliban or al-Qaeda forces in battle.

Granted, there are other problems there, the largest being the Karzai government, but the Obama “surge” you reference has been in the planning stages for a while now.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

afx: The US pursued and prosecuted a successful strategy in Afghanistan prior to the handover to NATO forces. The problem was that the NATO forces, by and large, did not want to fight (the exception being the Canadians).

Most of the NATO forces confine themselves to their own areas of operation and do not actively patrol and do not seek out the Taliban or al-Qaeda forces in battle.

Granted, there are other problems there, the largest being the Karzai government, but the Obama “surge” you reference has been in the planning stages for a while now.

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