stoneric

Obama Slams ‘Obsession’ With Ending War in Afghanistan
Insists His Focus Is on Winning the War

by Jason Ditz, June 27, 2010

Speaking today in the wake of the G20 Summit, President Barack Obama criticized what he called “a lot of obsession” about ending the war in Afghanistan and withdrawing some 100,000 American troops from the nation.

Obama insisted that instead of considering if and how the war will ever come to some sort of end, his “focus right now is how do we make sure that what we’re doing there is successful, given the incredible sacrifices.”

The US initially invaded Afghanistan in late 2001. The number of troops in the nation has rising precipitously since President Obama took office in 2009, inheriting a war with 30,000 troops and turning it into a war with 100,000 troops.

Obama’s comments reflect those he made earlier this week, disavowing his pledge to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July of 2011. Now President Obama says that date is just the “beginning of a transition phase” and there is no particular timeline for leaving Afghanistan.

With the war increasingly unpopular, the president presented the 2011 drawdown date as a way to make his most recent escalation more palatable. With the surge troops now deployed, the date appears to have been discarded, and those still clamoring for some sort of end to the nearly decade-long war condemned for losing sight of some ill-defined victory.
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obombs away.

Grieves

with no war we have no way to exploit their fields of poppies and vast natural resources...

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Waves

yeah im pretty disillusioned with obama at this point

im pretty disillusioned with our entire country at this point actually

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On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow

farmergiles

So what are the rules then?
How do you win a war with no real objectives?

Mind you, at least he hasn't started any new wars yet.

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Waves

the objective is oil

and america is still winning, for a little while

i think what happened was obama got in office and the oil companies told him to bend over or else

so he bent over like any good little president would

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On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow

stoneric

No rules. Just keep changing generals and game plans and we'll reevaluate in 6 months ad infinitum.

The Rev

Human practices don't go away because there are found to be wrong. They go away because they become uneconomical. So it was with slavery. So it will be with war. When wars cost more to wage than the loot that can be plundered is worth, then there will be no more war.

Until then, we're stuck with change we can believe in.



The Rev

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stoneric

I wish I had an argument against that but I'll keep bitching anyway.

farmergiles

Well he's obviously already picked up the soap for Mr Big otherwise he wouldn't have raised the campaign funds to get elected.

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farmergiles

Wars have always had a greater total cost than the plunder gained, just certain small segments of society gain at the expense of the majority.

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The Rev

I agree completely. I should have qualified my statement. Wars will cease when those who wage them find them to be more trouble, economically speaking, than they are worth. Same is true for slavery. You can't put a dollar figure on the price paid by the slaves, but for those for whom it's all about the money, it's all about the money.



The Rev

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stoneric

I don't think you had to qualify. That has always been a given.

FourtySecondRip

afghanistan has no oil.

Afghanistan Crude Oil Production by Year (Thousand Barrels per Day)

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farmergiles

Yep always gathered that the real reasons for abolition were economic rather than ethical.

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Being

nice link

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R.I.P. Gov

kamikazi89

no oil,but plenty of hardware & lots of other stuff..a sub-contrators dream come true

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katie west is the best

Flamingnun

Mhm, minerals baby. Same thing the Russians went for in the 80's...

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Waves

afghanistan doesnt but iraq does

i consider them the same conflict personally. i think bush/the people in power knew the country wouldnt have just gone into iraq after a bunch of terrorists from saudi arabia attacked us. he had to bullshit the nation into taking saddam down and taking the largest oil reserves in the world

at this point afghanistan is an afterthought in terms of resources we send to fight the war vs. iraq

as long as america controls a large supply of oil we will be winning the objective

__________________
On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow

stoneric

We aren't there to help the Afghans. Whether it's the pipeline, the lithium, the opium or just the quest to expand the empire, it doesn't matter.

farmergiles

They should have been left to grow weed. They were really good at that.

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