Army wants 40-50K more troops in Afghanistan

[headhuntersix]

I'm sure there is a link somewhere to this but Stan's gonna ask for a shitload more guys and it doens't look like the Dems will support it. Where does this leave ol Barry. He's gonna have to deal with this head on, at some point. He's only basically continued Bush policies with cosmetic changes. He either goes all in or pulls out.

[Hugo Chavez]

he's gonna need some help absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor. Domestic politics and industrial policy will shape the pace and content of transformation as much as the requirements of current missions--but I plagiarize ....

[Skip8282]

I think if he asks, he'll get it.  No, Democrat, or Republican for that matter, wants the repercussions of having to face accusations that they denied the military what it needed to be successful.

My worry here is with the military.  Have we really learned from Russia's experience?  I think we may be really pushing our confidence levels...

[headhuntersix]

Skip..i sorta disagree...lets see where I go with this and maybe we don't. I think Barry wants to give em the troops...Barry does, but thats about it. The moderate Dems and the Repblicans will support him obviously. But his base wants to get out, they're against this crap as a plank and then as a distraction from the Obama domestic agenda. It remains to be seen who wins. I feel, all things being equal, Barry can't get reelected and stay in Astan. I find it hard to belive he would say no....but his advisors don't want it. Gen Jones told McCrystal that if and when he asks for more troops, Barry would be like "what the fuck" I guess thats a quote from Gen Jones...I don't know if thats ..."what the fuck do u need more for" or what the fuck am I going to do now. I think its the latter. I don't think we need more guys..as u point out with the Russians. Its a different sorta war. Read " The Bear went over the Mountain". But as we go..with larger amounts of troops, fighting the "big war"....Afghans will see us like that. We'll be all over the place. These people generally don't care, but they get pissed easily, stay pissed...easily bribed, but don't stay bought. They suck. If Barry gives em..he's gonna want benchmarks (forced by Pelosi/Reid) U don't grow an Afgan army and u don't replace poppi crops overnight. I guess we're trying safron because it grows there easily, and is economically comparable to poppi, for the Afghan farmers. That takes 10 years to really work.

[Skip8282]

It certainly will take a long time.  CENTCOM's touting the introduction of honey bees to help farmers now.  Small but important steps for a stable future.

In the meantime though, I believe getting Afghanistan's government to stand on it's own is the real issue.  According to Petraeus, "Indeed, insurgent successes correlate directly to the Afghan people’s growing disenchantment with their government due to its incapacity to serve the population and due to their doubts regarding the competence and honesty of public officials.".  That type of disenchantment doesn't help when dealing with the tribes flipping sides from one day to the next. 

The new AAB's deploying this fall may help with these problems, but that remains to be seen.

I agree Barry's base will be pissed as all hell.  And I'm sure the Dems will make a huge issue of it in the media, but, in the end, if Barry wants the surge, I think he'll get it.  He's still pretty early in his presidency and reelection is still a few years away. 

I think more troops bothers me, not just from Russia's historical experience, but also the fact that one bad apple can really cause a public relations nightmare.  Even if it's just one or two soldiers that cause a problem, it can easily be magnified, especially in the Muslim press.  That just causes additional set backs.

I'll check out "The Bear went over the Mountain" next time I'm at B&N.