Obama faces a TOUGH decision on Afghanistan.

[bvar22]

He is between a rock and a hard place,
though it IS a situation of his own making.


He has already committed himself and the Democratic Party to "winning" in Afghanistan.
He has already escalated Military Forces by 21,000 (and nobody knows how many additional "Private Consultants").
He is already committed to building the BIGGEST "Embassy" the WORLD has EVER seen in Islamabad.
(Yes...even bigger and more expensive than the Green Zone).

Problem is, the latest best military estimates is that it will take over 600,000 troops to "win".
(400,000 trained Afghanis + 200,000 "Coalition" forces).
McChrystal is going to ask for 40,000 more because that is all he thinks he can get.
(Bill Moyers, 2 weeks ago)

Afghanistan was supposed to be the war that made sense, if any war can be said to make sense. That's where the masterminds behind 9/11 were hiding. End of story.

Eight years later, and we're still there, at a cost exceeding 220 billion dollars. More than 1400 have been killed among American troops and our NATO allies. This week, a classified report from by the American commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal was leaked to the press, a report that called for as many as 40,000 additional U.S. troops, without which, the General wrote, our effort, "...will likely result in failure." If approved by President Obama, our military force there would escalate to more than 100,000.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09252009/transcript4.html

NOW:
Does Obama follow the advice of the Generals which he has pledged to do, and send sufficient forces to "win" a war that is already increasingly unpopular and expensive, AND say "goodbye" to The Left Wing (and many moderates too)?

OR

Does he say NO, and keep fighting what can only be a lingering failed war with insufficient troops, AND reap the wrath of the Right Wing for going against The Generals?

Damned if he does....Damned if he doesn't.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. And it is not going to get any easier by postponing the decision.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6720459&mesg_id=6720459

[Tansy_Gold]

2. He wanted the job.

He knew the problems going in. It's not like this was some big ass surprise.




TG