June 22nd, 2011
02:24 PM ET
12 years ago
BLITZER’S BLOG: Despite drawdown, Afghanistan still costly
(CNN) - The President tonight will announce an initial troop withdrawal from Afghanistan but will also make his case for keeping tens of thousands of U.S. troops there through the end of 2014.
Just to recap: There were 32,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when Obama took office on January 20, 2009. He quickly doubled down on the Bush counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency strategy and increased that number to the current 100,000.
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I don't get what people don't understand, this is a Country, where unless you do a dramatic infusion of education to the people that are living in those tribes outside of Kabul nothing is going to change!!! We need to really pull out every one on the ground and monitor that place via drones!!! I mean seriously, most of these people mentality centers around war!! Heck the Russians couldn't do it, mind you in part that was also due to the US giving weapons to tribesmen. But why would anyone think we can do it now?
I say draw down the troop levels to where Bush had them when you took office. We still need a threatening presence in the region, even if it is only to serve as a deterrent to Iran. (Why did we knock Saddam out of Iraq? He was the counter-force to Iranian ambitions. He kept Iran weak militarily. Iran would not have a nuclear program if Saddam were still in office.)
It was costly during Bush, when he added $6 trillion to the debt, but no one said a thing then.
I understand our president has intelligence reports WE CANNOT SEE but I really wish our troops could come home. We need that money.
It absolutely costs a lot. And if we leave a mess behind for future generations of Americans to deal with it will cost a lot more. In money and lives. The most cost effective thing to do right now has to be to define a set of objectives that provides security and stability, do what is necessary to meet those objectives in as short a time as possible and then get out. Anything less in any direction could be a disaster.
Get out Afghanistan. Ten years is too long. What is the mission? Osama is dead Karzi said, we were occupiers. It is already better than we found it. Terrorist can be trained anywhere.
He quickly doubled down on the Bush counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency strategy and increased that number to the current 100,000.
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Yeah, Obama pretty much stole all of George Bush's ideas and policies! You know, all the ones he voted against and criticized when he ran for the presidency. You simply cannot believe ANYTHING this guy says.