Article

2009-09-23 Afghanistan

US troops to retreat from Taliban strongholds

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Posted by Fred 2009-09-23 00:00|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top
File under: Taliban

#1 Well, every Afghan in the abandoned areas who ever helped the ISAF forces will now be toast - and no Afghan anywhere will ever again help ISAF - because to do so is to invite a death sentence, once ISAF forces run away.

Other than that, this is probably a good move......

Personally, I think we should pull out of Afghanistan completely - with a warning that we will obliterate any grid squares that we ever suspect are projecting any sort of mischief outside of Afghanistan. On the way out, hang a sign on the exterior door "Welcome to the 7th century - hell on earth."

Posted by Lone Ranger 2009-09-23 00:27|| 2009-09-23 00:27|| Front Page Top

#2 "Personally, I think we should pull out of Afghanistan completely - with a warning that we will obliterate any grid squares that we ever suspect are projecting any sort of mischief outside of Afghanistan."
Nobody will believe us. I wouldn't.
We'd have to prove it by doing it.
And we'd never do it.

Posted by Threresh Bourbon1154 2009-09-23 00:43|| 2009-09-23 00:43|| Front Page Top

#3 URBAN AREAS + nearby, vee IRAQ???

More setting the stage for the Islamist HIDDEN IMAM-MAHDI to make His Appearance and wage [future]"DECISIVE/STRATEGIC BATTLE" agz the Amer Infidel elite units.

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2009-09-23 02:52|| na]">[na] 2009-09-23 02:52|| Front Page Top

#4 SINO-DEFENCE FORUM > US COMMANDER: MORE TROOPS OR AFGHANISTAN WILL BE LOST WITHIN A YEAR.

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2009-09-23 02:54|| na]">[na] 2009-09-23 02:54|| Front Page Top

#5 ION SINODEFENSE FORUM > IS CHINA PLANNING A MILITARY STRIKE BEYOND ITS BORDERS/ WHY EUROPE SHOULD UNDERSTAND THE VIOLENCE IN URUMQI [ Uighurs = Xinjiang]. Instigators of the violence in Xinjiang are allegedly foreigners from outside of China and intentionally brought into Xinjiang???

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2009-09-23 03:22|| na]">[na] 2009-09-23 03:22|| Front Page Top

#6 That is an Iranian news site. I don't believe the article is true.

Posted by crosspatch 2009-09-23 04:38|| 2009-09-23 04:38|| Front Page Top

#7 But they believe it, crosspatch, or believe their readers will. That is an important datum, for which we can once again thank President Obama.

The CBS News/Washington Post report has its own slant. Go read the whole thing, then draw your own conclusions:

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top military officer in Afghanistan, has told his commanders to pull forces out of sparsely populated areas where U.S. troops have fought bloody battles with the Taliban for several years and focus them on protecting major Afghan population centers.

But the changes, which amount to a retreat from some areas, have already begun to draw resistance from senior Afghan officials who worry that any pullback from Taliban-held territory will make the weak Afghan government appear even more powerless in the eyes of its people.

Senior U.S. officials said the moves were driven by the realization that some remote regions of Afghanistan, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountains that range through the northeast, were not going to be brought under government control anytime soon. "Personally, I think I am being realistic about this," said Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan. "I have more combat power than my predecessors did, but I won't be as spread out. . . . This is all about freeing up some forces so I can get them out more among the people."

The changes are in line with McChrystal's confidential assessment of the war, which urges U.S. and NATO forces to "initially focus on critical high-population areas that are contested or controlled by insurgents."

Posted by trailing wife 2009-09-23 06:40|| 2009-09-23 06:40|| Front Page Top

#8 We are in retreat. Defeat has begun.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2009-09-23 11:00|| 2009-09-23 11:00|| Front Page Top

#9 The military is crystal clear on one thing: if they are not given the support from Washington, they are not going to stick their necks out.

The Democrats have made it clear that they think of the military as ignorant and expendable, that they know nothing of foreign or military policy, and that their indecisiveness and waffling will get military personnel killed.

I heartily agree with McChrystal on this. Pull back to the cities and go into defensive mode. The Taliban cannot break our defenses, nor even mount a substantial offense in which they don't get slaughtered. Let the Pak army drive most of them into Afghanistan, and they are basically neutered.

If the Pushtun love them so much, let them live with them.

Posted by Anonymoose 2009-09-23 11:52|| 2009-09-23 11:52|| Front Page Top

#10 Make the abandoned areas Free Fire Zones.

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2009-09-23 12:01|| 2009-09-23 12:01|| Front Page Top

#11 Mccrystal isnt even saying pull back into the cities. Its still a plan to aggressively go after SELECT rural areas. dead tree Wapo included a map, mirabili dictu. ISAF will concentrate on Jalalabad area, with high population density, rural areas accessible to the city, and, what the report does not say, key location on route from Kabul to Khyber. They will push up Konar River valley from there in to south Nurestan. They will NOT bother trying to protect N nurestan,

Will this leave some folks to the tender mercies of the taliban - yes BUT A. Not many folks in those villages anyways B. They werent really being protected anyways

When we did the surge, we focused on one area at a time, actually working based on geography.

That seems to be what McCrystal wants to do.

Posted by liberalhawk 2009-09-23 13:14|| 2009-09-23 13:14|| Front Page Top

#12 WAFF > WSJ:OBAMA AND THE POLITICS OF CONCESSION/IRAN AND RUSSIA PUT OBAMA TO THE TEST IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS, AND HE BLINKED TWICE.

ION SAME > AHMADINEJAD PERSONALLY RECRUITED SANCTIONS BUSTER DURING NEW YORK TRIP, COURT DOCUMENTS SHOW [Pro-Iran, anti-US/UNSC].

* HINDUSTAN TIMES > INDIA: US NEEDS TO CHANGE ITS LIFESTYLE ["quality of life"] TO SAVE THE PLANET. USA = OBAMA Admin has now begun to enter the INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTIST ARENA???

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2009-09-23 22:12|| na]">[na] 2009-09-23 22:12|| Front Page Top

#13 WAFF > US: PAKISTAN GOING AFTER THE WRONG TERRORISTS.

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2009-09-23 22:13|| na]">[na] 2009-09-23 22:13|| Front Page Top

#14 I just got done reading GEN McChrystals' assessment, as posted on the Washington Post website.

It is well-written.

But - it has one big flaw. It assumes that there is some possibility of achieving that one out of his four key "pillars" of a successful outcome that refers to creating a competent and influential GIRoA (Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan), that exerts control over the full national territory.

This is pipe dream. There is zero possibility of extending any sort of national identity into the 17th mountain valley back from the nearest road, in some forsaken quarter of Afghanistan. I would be surprised if the inhabitants of that valley even had a vocabulary word for "country" or "nation". It is an alien concept. Every mountain valley is its own little island of humanity - largely oblivious to what is going on in Kabul - much less in other parts of the world.

Thus - this crucial "pillar" is unattainable - and we need to get out of that country - period. 'No more American blood and treasure thrown down that rat hole

Posted by Lone Ranger 2009-09-23 23:25|| 2009-09-23 23:25|| Front Page Top

23:57 KBK
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