So much for freedom

Precisley the reason no timeline has been set... .untill now.

Indeed. We have our freedom from them, and they have their freedom from us. Fair deal.

Supposedly so they can go on the offensive for the last 18 months, and also train the afghan military and police to defend themselves. (hmmmm)

Same was done in Vietnam by Nixon in 1973, he anounced that the South Vietnamese army was strong enough to defend Saigon, and with drew the US military - but the south govenment collpased in 75. (two years was pretty good going though)

But in the case of Vietnam the majority of the population where behind Ho Chi Mihns communist govenment anyway, so there was never any hope for the South & the U.S. That is ultimatly why the U.S failed in Vietnam.
(And I am not going to argue about this fact either, that is what i have read, so if you dont belive it - I dont care)

I dont know how it will work in Afgahnistan. I guess it partly depends on how far the the Taliban have been pushed back, and partly how well the 'hearts & minds' thing has paid off on this occasion.....

Time will tell anyway. i just hope the loss of human life is minimal.

I dident really make this connection untill now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Der Spiegel Just in Time for the Campaign For each troop movement, Obama had a number to match. US strength in Afghanistan will be tripled relative to the Bush years, a fact that is sure to impress hawks in America. But just 18 months later, just in time for Obama's re-election campaign, the horror of war is to end and the draw down will begin. The doves of peace will be let free

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...664753,00.html

Yep, doesn't surprise me at all. Thats most politicians for ya, always looking out for Number 1 in the long term. :dead:

I wonder what the leftwing anti-war protesters are going to do...now that Obama has gone "neocon". :DL

Didn't obama campaign on invading Pakistan to chase the taliban?

I guess this sounds like Prez Johnson part II:shifty:. Well, you get what you vote for:shifty:.

the bottom line is we need to beat the taliban and make it crystal clear to all the other islamic nutjobs that are violent not to mess with the West. And if you do, we're gunna kick yer a$$, bomb your weapon caches, oops I mean mosques, kill you leadership, etc, etc.
We have got to stop coddeling (sp?) these guys and really beat the crap out of them, so they hopefully they'll stop causing trouble for the rest of the world.

Like I said before, PCness is going to be the death of us all.:shifty:

I was thinking similarly around the Taliban laying low.

Not being an American....Is this not also a political ploy by the White House to make it easier for Obama to gain a second term in office? :hmmm:

Yeah, it could be.

Me personally, I cannot see how the West can ignore this situation like Iran. This is nothing to play politics about. Oh well, as long as it ends up with Obama out of office in 2012, I'm good.

Jim makes a good point. A sitting president is not normally voted out of office when a war is being conducted. So yes, could be a clever ploy and a bad one at that. However, we are dealing with a Chicago politician. :shifty:

But playing politics is all he knows. It's what he grew up with, its what he does for a living, its 'in his blood'.

Change... pfffft.

Another potential political voting angle/stunt could be "Look at me I've brought all our fine young boys and girls home safely"

There is something just not right about this POTUS....I can't put my finger on it but I can definitely feel the disturbance in my bladder :hmmm:

He is all about himself Jim. He did not get the title "Rock Star President" for his looks.

Indeed. The address left a bitter taste of "it is all about Me". After the obligatory and thinly veiled "blame Bush" came the announcement of 30,000 more troops and the following bug-out, followed by a big kthxbye. :shifty:

At least, the cadets didn't seem to be that impressed by it.

On a side note: Anyone willing to take a bet that some of the cadets are going to clean toilets with toothbrushes today for falling asleep during the speech? :D