Opposition Grows to Sending More Troops to Afghanistan

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Senator Carl Levin is absolutely on point. It does not help to send more troops, more killing of our own people, when more Afghans should be trained and encouraged to stand on their own two feet. We are threatening our own security on home soil. We will not have the literal "manpower" to cover our soil.
On the brink of an American Soldier killing needlessly civilians has suspended talks and Americans are in the line of fire for the anger that has engulfed Afghans. DO NOT send more troops to the blood bath. My son will be one, first time deployment is to the angry people of Afghanistan in the next few weeks. Save our loved ones.

Valerie of WA 12:35PM March 15, 2012

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acai berry for losing weight of 11:15AM May 13, 2010

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Aimloss of 1:18AM December 30, 2009

yes send more troops to go over there but don't send 32,000 they have families, wifes, children, and husbands. if you're going to send some only end a few thousand

sarah of FL 11:30AM December 07, 2009

I am sure that more troops to my country will never help. I am sure that my Afghan brothers will send you more bodies. maybe you are happy for your son to be killed in my country. we love our brothers and sons, we will never send them to other countries to be killed.
I don't know why you are fighting Afghans in both Afghanistan and Pakistan? what is your problem with us?
we don't have oil and never send our people to your country to kill you.
If you are looking for Osama,find him and kill him. He is Arab from Saudi Arabia. His family live in Saudi Arabia.
Why you don't send your troops to Saudi Arabia? why you killing my people? Go and kill Osama's family in Saudi Arabia.
I think you American don't know the Geography. Ask some European to show you Saudi Arabia.
if you American really want peace, than try to remove Pakistan and Saudi Arabia from world Map. the bad people get their education only from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

wardak of TX 8:00PM December 02, 2009

I really don't see the point of staying in Afghanistan years after al-Qaeda has left for Pakistan, but if we're going to stay, I want a coherent explanation of our purpose in doing so. Two questions to start off:
(1) Why the ridiculously long time-line to get the Afghan army up to speed? They’re chasing down a bunch of guys with small arms and IEDs, not mounting an amphibious invasion of Europe.
(2) If US forces are in Afghanistan “to prevent re-establishment of al-Qaeda bases” (evidently there are none there now?), must there also be nation-building invasions of Somalia, Yemen and other Muslim sovereignty vacuums? If this is our rationale, it sounds an awful lot like an endless game of Whack-a-Mole.
If the Taliban want Afghanistan back, let them have it; they’re no worse than the corrupt and incompetent Karzai regime. There has never been a functional central government in Afghanistan and there never will be.
Leave now, spend the money on nation building in the US, and if al-Qaeda re-emerges, use Special Ops forces to deal with them.

Retired GI of TX 4:55PM September 23, 2009

Although I'm all for ending U.S. interventionalism, we're so far into it as a main feature of our foreign policy that there can be no abrupt end to it without ugly consequences. Get Afghanistan up and running as a self reliant country not in apparent need of foreign presence (us) and let the Afghanis take it from there. We're doing it in Iraq. We should do it in Afghanistan.
There are so many in Iran through the western end of the Middle East who do not want our presence in perpetuity that they will never rest until we're out. The question, of course, is CAN we leave given our ongoing commitment to Israel's security? Can Israel survive without U.S. presence? We'll never know until we do leave, for staying on will surely mean continued conflict with endless U.S. dollars poured into what has so far been a bottomless pit.

Ron W. Smith of UT 4:46PM September 23, 2009

Hindsight is 20-20. Had President Bush not put Paul Bremerm in charge over the military in Iraq and listened to neocons like Wolfewitz, we wouldn't be having this debate over Afghanistan.Without Bremer we would not have had an insurgency in Iraq, and we would have been out of there in early 2004 shortly after Saddam was captured. We would have transferred most of those troops to Afganistan,and by now we would be victorious and out of Afghanistan. Going into Iraq was not a mistake; it's listening to the neocons. I realize the public is war weary, but if we go into war, we go in to win, not half-ass like we did in Korea or Vietnam.

Jack Golding of KS 4:20PM September 23, 2009

Here are some of them in my view (and I'm a lefty)
1) The Taliban makes chaos the whole of Afghanistan, corrupts the government there even moreso, and eventually de-stabilizes Pakistan too, complete with its nukes.
2) American armed services are left frustrated and wondering what the last eight years were about
3) Obama's left-leaning leadership is weakened everywhere in the world on every issue due to appearance of lack of resolve
4) Conservatives retake the American government in part on the theme of growing dangers in the world of Islamic terror
Obama did not start these wars, but he must responsibly manage them better than Republicans did---even with criticism from the far left. Radical Islam will not merely go away any more than the far-right teabaggers will merely go away.
Now, that said, IF there is a credible strategy for CONTINUING to pound Al Qaeda and the Taliban more effectively with more drones and less ground troops---that is another matter. I doubt there is one, but I hope and suspect that's what Obama is "evaluating"---rather than whether to give up due to opinion polls as alleged in a comment below.

Muser of NM 1:05PM September 23, 2009

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
Rudyard Kipling

mel palmer of CA 12:20PM September 23, 2009