An Inconvenient Truth Teller

[babsbunny]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/217090

From health-care reform to Afghanistan, Joe Biden has bucked Obama—as only a good Veep can.

Joe Biden had a question. During a long Sunday meeting with President Obama and top national-security advisers on Sept. 13, the VP interjected, "Can I just clarify a factual point? How much will we spend this year on Afghanistan?" Someone provided the figure: $65 billion. "And how much will we spend on Pakistan?" Another figure was supplied: $2.25 billion. "Well, by my calculations that's a 30-to-1 ratio in favor of Afghanistan. So I have a question. Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar we're spending in Pakistan, we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?" The White House Situation Room fell silent. But the questions had their desired effect: those gathered began putting more thought into Pakistan as the key theater in the region.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. "Does that make strategic sense?"

In the sense that Afghanistan is where all our troops are, and the money we've been giving to Pakistan ends up getting embezzled for the Pakistani conflict vs. India rather than the Taliban. Sure.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. This is a really interesting article, thanks for posting it.

K and R

[timeforpeace]

3. The room fell silent because they realized how out of the loop he is.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. So, short of an occupation of Pakistan, what is he advocating?