This sets Obama up perfectly for bringing the war in Afghanistan to an end as planned

He will have ended both of Bush's Wars and brought Bin Laden to justice before his first term is complete.

He is unbeatable in 2012.

But who's counting, right?

NGU.

NGU.

Iraq has its own Army now.

and when you add in the mercenaries then you have about as many as our peak force.

We could turn on Iraq's weak ass army and decimate them. Air, sea, and technological superiority is quite a force multiplier.

We have nearly as many troops there.

Are we occupying those countries?

Of course we are occupying them. What else would we be doing and if we are doing anything else then why aren't our hosts footing the bill?

They can still give the people of Iraq the impression that we are never leaving. In conjunction with the world's largest embassy that has been expanded by Obama, 50,000 troops can still foment anger and resentment towards us and can still create blowback.

"April deadliest month for US in Iraq since 2009"

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gaUK9WhqluzrGmG1mnpoNhUBMSaA?docId=CNG.279588144c0fd58d312ca2e921687d3b.681

Just the facts.

It was a CIA-led operation team that killed Bin Laden and not the conventional US military in Afghanistan.

Spending trillions of dollars to maintain conventional military forces in the Middle East and South Asia may have been unnecessary. What was actually needed was intelligence from the CIA and other agencies. That's where the majority of our blood and treasure should have been devoted.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were unnecessary all along just as many of us suspected. We should have focused on intelligence operations through the CIA and other agencies to capture terrorists leaders.

Using the conventional military to fight the war on terror is fruitless. Thousands of lives and trillions of dollars later, we might finally realize this.

He's adding his own wars with Libya, which no threat to anyone outside of Libya.

I think the war in Afghanistan will continue.

Always an excuse to continue the warmongering, isn't there?

:eyes:

NGU.

Can there be a political solution? It does not seem that there can be a purely military on - no matter how many troops for how long we could commit them.

One interesting thing to watch will be the hearings that Kerry has scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday. The one tomorrow is on the end game in Afghanistan and the Thursday one on Pakistan. Obviously, this weekend's events mean that many of the Senators and even the witnesses may be reassessing their positions.

He will not have ended the war in Afghanistan. We are still in Iraq as well, with lots of hints that we may stay past the 2011 deadline.

We'll see if we continue to carry out operations in Pakistan. I presume we will.