Journalist Andrea Mitchell has noted that General McChrystal's report to President Obama calls for 500,000 troops in Afghanistan. [That's not 500,000 U.S. troops, but 500,000 troops overall.] Mitchell correctly notes that if you don't believe that the goals in McChrystal's report for increasing the size of the Afghan army are realistic, that should lead you to question agreeing to send more U.S. troops, because the premise of the request for more troops is that if you add more U.S. troops there's going to be "success," and that success, apparently, requires 500,000 boots on the ground. If you don't believe there's going to be success even if you add more U.S. troops, then you shouldn't add more U.S. troops - you should do something else.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/mcchrystals-ground-truth_b_299359.html http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/24/212353/607 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/351 -- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] Senator Feingold Calls for Timetable for U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/exit-afghanistan _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
