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Afghanistan: Still on the Back Burner?
So far three daily press briefings at the White House for the new Obama administration, and only one question on the war in Afghanistan. That came on Monday when veteran Helen Thomas asked new press secretary Robert Gibbs, "Why does president want to send more troops to Afghanistan to kill people?"
It was not the most subtle way of raising the issue. But at least Thomas gave it a stab.
Afghanistan remains the forgotten war. But on the campaign trail, Barack Obama, noting he would end the war in Iraq and focus more on Afghanistan, promised to change that, The question is, will the change be for the better or not? Gibbs reminded Thomas that Obama has called Afghanistan a "rapidly deteriorating situation" and reported that Defense Secretary Bob Gates and military commanders have started a process "to evaluate our posture." He noted that Obama has said that more troops should be sent to Afghanistan.
To do what, is the issue. Gibbs did not indicate. But on Tuesday morning, Gates, testifying on Capitol Hill, said that he expects to deploy two more brigades to Afghanistan in the spring and another brigade by summer. (A brigade has about 3500 soldiers in it; the United States now has about 34,000 troops in Afghanistan.) Gates noted that they would be involved mostly in training Afghan forces. But will that be sufficient to turn the tide in Afghanistan? He called Afghanistan the Obama administration's "greatest military challenge." And Gates expressed skepticism about adding many more than the 30,000 troops that US Army General David McKiernan, the commander of the NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, has already expressed an interest in. (Gates also said that the Obama administration will continue Predator missile attacks on Taliban and al Qaeda targets.)
As he moves to withdraw troops from Iraq, Obama needs to lay out a detailed plan for Afghanistan soon. In the meantime, Afghanistan deserves to be a hot topic for the press.
Spc. Jason Curtis, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 151st Infantry Regiment, pulls security while leaders of a medical civil action project searched for a suitable site in Parun, Afghanistan June 28, 2007. Photo from army.mil via flickr.
Just need to keep asking those tough questions. But not dumb questions.
Hey David, how did that stint on CNN work out for you the other day....lol
This will be a test of how open the new administration will be. Having asked a hard questions, will Thomas be called on anymore? Will hard questions mean loss of access? Answering those questions "yes" was part of how Bush got the press to go along with selling the Iraq invasion.
Opium production has gone up since American troops have made it safe for these farmers to raise their crops and bring it to market. This has resulted in world-wide misery as the price of opium plunged and much more people could afford it. In Iran it is very cheap and hooks a whole generation. Only the wealthy can afford wine and alcohol, and the poor only opium.
Is this what we want our American taxpayers dollars to fund, the Opium farmers of Afghanistan?
Bring the troops home today. Not another American troop should have to die for the opium farmers.
It seems to me that in trying to sell democracy to Arab countries we have taken on their style of government and way of doing business which has been for years built on bribery and corruption and is second nature to them..
Corporation which have been dealing with Iraq and paying bribes and overlooking corruption in order to do business have brought these methods back to the USA
In other words we have not sold our business methods and form of government to them.. On the contrary they have sold their corrupt business methods and form of government to us.
Obama got elected because of his superior ability to sell war to the American people.
Those who oppose war and supported Obama should start being terrified. From Gates to the Guantanamo hoax, there are too many signs that ObaBush is in charge. We may have a new killer-in-chief but this is still killer-in-chief.
By the way, government fuels up on war and murder. It has always been like that and will always be like that.
The US is broke. Too much debt. Because of the Republicans. Because of the Democrats. Because of the Federal Reserve. Because of the idea that government can be useful.
Will the US ever pay off the debt??? Of course not!!! Come on! The way out is hyperinflation and / or default. In the meantime, the US dollar needs to be propped up and war is the way to do that because military might help support a currency.
Obama gave his full support to the war in Iraq with his $300B contribution and nothing will improve his standards as a war criminal further in the middle east and south east Asia.
Thanks for electing that monster.