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Buchanan: Obama sowing seeds for crisis
Published: 06 December, 2009, 03:52
Edited: 08 December, 2009, 11:34
Afghanistan: An US Army 10th Mountain Division soldier uses his boots for a head rest. (AFP Photo / Joe Raedle)
(50.1Mb) embed videoTAGS: Military, NATO, Obama, Politics, USA
US President Barack Obama will face a tough political crisis in mid-2011 when troops from Afghanistan will begin coming home, political commentator Pat Buchanan told RT.
The US president recently approved sending 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan beginning in the first half of 2010. He announced, however, that in July 2011 he plans to begin withdrawing American military forces from Afghanistan.
“By setting that deadline, he set a real crisis for himself in mid-July 2011 for the fundamental reason that very few people believe that Afghan forces will be able to defend their government, their country against the Taliban if the United States and the other NATO forces leave,” Buchanan said.
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The western powers with forces in Afghanistan are not prepared to do what would be necessary to defeat the Taleban and Al Queada: 1. Dramatic increase in troop numbers and associated hardware (aircraft, helicopters, etc.) - maybe 500,000 or more. They need enough forces to cover the entire country to an extent that does not allow the Taleban to operate anywhere. 2. They have to pursue the Taleban and Al Queada fighters into their hiding places in Pakistan. The Taleban know that they can run over the border when things get too hot in Afghanistan. the taleban can safely recruit and train fighters in Pakistan with little expectation of interference. As neither of the above will happen, this conflict will drag on with no successful conclusion - so they should all pull out now. There is no point fighting a war for which you do not intend to do what is necessary to win.
The Obama'real problem is not how to manage the mess left by the Bush administration, but how to face the simple realities which the President Eisenhower, frankly exposed in January 1961. The only president who wanted to reduce the global tension was quickly sent to Arlington-Cemetary...The US Military-Industrial-Complex, Wall-Street and the mondialisation's oligarks (not all american citizen) run the show. They know than no other reconverted industries can bring as much money as the worldwide (65% US made) military industry and its asociates do. With the help of other sincere World's leaders, something could have been done by surprise. Unfortunatly, it seems that everyone has his own hiden selfish plan to solve mankind's problems. Consequently the same greedy decisions' makers have nothing to fear; it will be business as usual for still a long time. It is possible than Mr Obama had neither the courage and the vision to make the necessaty radical changes. Now, it is too late for him to do anything without risking his life. The system is so corrupted and dangerous than no serious media will dare exposing what Humanity self-destruction's industry has costed in the past 60 years...Sorry Future Generations !!! . Sincerely. Jean-Claude Meslin
I am afraid I agree with Pat Buchanan on this one. And JG, your figure of 500,000 is probably right, only we will never put that many troops in Afghanistan. It is not possible without a draft, and that is politically untenable. The 30,000 number sounds like only a weak compromise between the hawks and doves in the US Congress and will please nobody. It certainly won't be enough to control that country and "change hearts and minds". We will continue to play "whack a mole" with a few more troops, pushing Taliban out of one area only to see them pop up in another area. Or, we may temporarily drive more of the Taliban into Pakistan, where they will further destabilize that country. As Buchanan said, it seems this "surge" is just a cover for the eventual total withdrawal. Obama would be able to say he sent a "surge" but then will pull our troops out. He inherited a bad situation and is not improving it. It's too bad, because I really think he will be condemned no matter what he does.