President Obama on Afghan: We can't be there in perpetuity

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100415/ap_on_re_as/as_obama_asia_1

President Barack Obama has reaffirmed his plans to start withdrawing U.S troops from Afghanistan in 2011.

Speaking in an interview with Australian television broadcast Thursday, Obama said of Afghanistan that United States and its allies "can't be there in perpetuity."

Obama told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he did not agree that the situation in Afghanistan was getting worse, saying the Taliban's momentum had been "blunted" since he came to office.

But winning the nearly nine-year-old war remained a difficult task, he said.


Obama reaffirms 2011 Afghanistan withdrawal
U.S. and allies “can’t be there in perpetuity,” president says in interview
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36545654/ns/politics/


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/15/2873814.htm

Face to face with Obama
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2872726.htm
Hail to the chief
WATCH: In an exclusive interview with the ABC, Barack Obama has spoken in glowing terms of his relationship with Kevin Rudd, whom he says is "smart but humble".

I saw the Richard Engel's report and we removed all our soldiers from Korengal...

http://nightly.newsvine.com/_video/2010/04/14/4159738-return-to-korengal

I'm beginning to see signs that the WH has given up on Afghanistan. Too little too late for me but at least it's starting. We've seen several stories over the last month, all speaking to the futility of what we are doing, that seems to be laying the ground work for getting out, sooner than later. You've got a commander complaining that we're killing to many folks for no apparent reason, a former diplomat suggesting that Karzia is worthless and counter productive, an effective "retreat" from Krengal, and this latest tid bit from Obama himself suggesting there are some hard limits to the commitment coming. It may have as much to do with the up coming elections. They don't want to have to campaign on an extended commitment to this war. I just hope that we don't see a token reduction in August, and a reversal in November. (Sorry, but I lived through 'Nam and watched LBJ do basically just that).

I'd like to think that if he could go back 9 months or so he'd decide to NOT double down there and just start a staged draw down.

re: "the futility of what we are doing"

Source: NYT

April 3, 2010

MARJA, Afghanistan — Since their offensive here in February, the Marines have flooded Marja with hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. The tactic aims to win over wary residents by paying them compensation for property damage or putting to work men who would otherwise look to the Taliban for support.

The approach helped turn the tide of insurgency in Iraq. But in Marja, where the Taliban seem to know everything — and most of the time it is impossible to even tell who they are — they have already found ways to thwart the strategy in many places, including killing or beating some who take the Marines’ money, or pocketing it themselves.

Just a few weeks since the start of the operation here, the Taliban have “reseized control and the momentum in a lot of ways” in northern Marja, Maj. James Coffman, civil affairs leader for the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, said in an interview in late March. “We have to change tactics to get the locals back on our side.”

Col. Ghulam Sakhi, an Afghan National Police commander here, says his informants have told him that at least 30 Taliban have come to one Marine outpost here to take money from the Marines as compensation for property damage or family members killed during the operation in February.

“You shake hands with them, but you don’t know they are Taliban,” Colonel Sakhi said. “They have the same clothes, and the same style. And they are using the money against the Marines. They are buying I.E.D.’s and buying ammunition, everything.”

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/world/asia/04marja.html

This is from February. It has only been in the last few weeks that I've noticed that there are indications that the US is starting to move away from this war.

;)

Recent comments from various sources are suggesting to me they just want out, quickly. They've got no one on the inside they can use, it is unpopular in congress, and they have an election coming up.

Mar 8, 2010: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50581

Thursday 18 March 2010: Taliban controlling Marjah by night

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/88145

April 3, 2010: Violence Helps Taliban Undo Afghan Gains, have “reseized control and the momentum in a lot of ways”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/world/asia/04marja.html

If you saw the news clip on Korengal I sent you, you'll hear what was said. they said that the Taliban will move up the hill in 20 minutes. There's a whole 1 hour program as to why they wanted to protect Korengal----if the Taliban takes it over they have a chance of coming into the more urban populated cities in Afghanistan, killing civilians---which we're trying to avoid. So the whole plan to double down was in line of thinking that this might help to curb the people---but it hasn't, unfortunately and Obama is getting the negative news and rightly scaling down. My only concern is...how far do we scale down where Afghanistan becomes once again a very nice little hotbed of unrest and US hatred. We saw we managed to move a great deal into Pakistan a nation with nuclear material. They build up enough resistance when we go and we're screwed. This is not something that will stop when we go since it was brewing when we weren't there. And contrary to most think, we've made things worse since initially going in there and waging a war---now we've caused unlimited damage. And that was the other reason I wanted him to send in troops---we have to do something for these people. We're the cause of a lot of the civilian problems. It's unmeasurable what we've done and people just want to just leave---since we can't do anything more. It doesn't work like that---you must try and Obama sent many developmental teams along with the military and made up a good chuck of it. We can't do to Afghanistan what we did to Pakistan.

"Peace through greater acts of war"

He campaigned on more NGO activity and controlling the border. Instead we got the LBJ approach. It was foolish. If you want peace, you don't bring war. You don't bring peace at the tip of a gun. You send in troops with gun and the first thing they'll set up is "force protection". A bunch of 20 year olds pointing guns at people they don't know and can't sort out.

But I'm like you, I think he's beginning to get a clue. Between Karzi and some other sources, I think he is seeing the whirl pool form and is starting to think that getting out is the priority.

(quoted from the article)

I think some of us missed the whole point of the conflict didn't we?

conditions on the ground? How can Obama know what those conditions will be in 2011? What happens if conditions are worse than they are now?

If withdrawal is not dependent on conditions on the ground, why not withdraw them now? Why the artificial date in 2011? Are they all going to be withdrawn? If not, how many? He should be able to tell us since he has already established the timetable.

I don't trust Obama om this issue. I think he's prolonging this war for political reasons. Start with 30,000 soldiers, escalate them to 100,000, then start withdrawing them a year before the election. That's Nixon's strategy all over again.