Gates: 'A few years' of combat in Afghanistan

[laststeamtrain]

Source: AP

Gates: 'A few years' of combat in Afghanistan

By LARA JAKES and ANNE GEARAN (AP) – 54 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon presented a grim portrait of the Afghanistan war Thursday, offering no assurances about how long Americans will be fighting there or how many U.S. combat troops it will take to win.

Defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida will take "a few years," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, with success on a larger scale in the desperately poor country a much longer proposition. He acknowledged that the Taliban has a firm hold on parts of the country President Barack Obama has called vital to U.S. security.

Congress wants answers to what lawmakers described as basic questions to soothe a war-weary American public.

<snip>

Capitol Hill has grown wary of approving annual war chests after years of ever-increasing costs for Iraq. Obama has asked Congress for $68 billion next year to fund defense spending in Afghanistan. The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, recently asked for another $2.5 billion in nonmilitary spending, The Washington Post reported this week.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jzA0Whh_1id_XIqXstD76TAO4qbwD9A28HJ00

[Purveyor]

1. Fuck that! We CAN NOT win Afghanistan. Bring our troops home now!!! eom

[CountAllVotes]

2. god damn right!

U.S. OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST! U.S. OUT OF ALL FOREIGN COUNTRIES!

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!

JUST SAY NO TO MORE $$$ FOR WAR WITHOUT END!!!

:dem: :kick:

[IndianaGreen]

3. Afghanistan is in West Asia, but I share your sentiments precisely

Bring all the troops home from everywhere!

[earcandle]

4. NO NO NO.. take care of US first! Fuck the war mongers! We want peace and the end to genocide!

[timeforpeace]

5. President Obama is a war monger?

[earcandle]

6. Is Obama authorizing this war? Does that make him someone who uses our tax dollars to

genocide the people of another country and to steal its
resources?

If you answer yes, then I guess if the shoe fits, he has to
wear it.  

He may not have a choice in the political world he lives in
and
it isn't a great label for a democratic president, but look
what
happened to two Kennedy politicians when they refused to go
along
with war. 

If we hold the leader accountable, and then hold the keepers
of the purse accountable, logic would have it that the actual
perpetrators, the military,
will be forced out of business.  Or at least be bridled in
their lust for
genocide to cause the theft of another country's natural
wealth? 


I have a hard time with Obama not being accountable for his
actions.
And this Afghanistan war is not a real war.  We are just
killing people
and raping their resources.  What have these people done to
us?  Why
is Obama allowing troops on the ground there, and the attack
on the
owners of the poppy farms (is this to appease the
pharmaceutical industry
should we take a public option?) No one knows anything, so we
are left
to generalize.  It has been said the the "ability to
generalize is a crucial
learning experience".  If the press doesn't find the
facts and do it for us,
we are left to our own assessments.  

In my assessment, telling the war mongers to fuck off is good
for my 
biology and physics. I blow off the steam, the pressure of
having to live with the horrors 
committed in my country's name.  It neither hurts nor helps
the reality of this situation
at all because I am nobody in anyone's circle of influence. 
But if Obama doesn't like
being called a War Monger, and changes his behavior, then Wow.
 I would have made a 
difference... but I am not at all thinking he will or I do.  

Hey, but thanks for asking. 

Would you call someone leading this offensive in Afghanistan a
war monger?  Or what do you
call a president that allows our precious and much needed tax
dollars to pay for jobs, health care,
training, etc, to be used for genocide in the world?  What do
you call him?  A prop?