"Gates said he will not have to cut troop levels further in Iraq to free up at least two of those three brigades for Afghan duty.... adding, "I do believe there will be a requirement for sustained commitment here for some protracted period of time.... General David McKiernan, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, added that it will be at least three or four years"
Translation: There will be NO DRAW DOWN of U.S. troops in Iraq and we are NEVER LEAVING Afghanistan!!
Is that the ANTIWAR CHANGE you thought you were getting, Amurka?
Need a reminder?
Here that bugle call, kids?
"Gates: More US brigades to Afghanistan by the summer" by Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press | December 12, 2008
MANAMA, Bahrain - The US military will pour thousands of troops into Afghanistan by next summer, and can expect to commit a sustained force for several more years, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his top military commander there said yesterday....
Gates said he will not have to cut troop levels further in Iraq to free up at least two of those three brigades for Afghan duty....
And guess what you are getting, Afghanistan (or so the U.S. thinks)?
PERMANENT BASES!!
We are NEVER LEAVING, AmeriKa, and your sons and daughters are going to have to kill and be killed by innocent people who never did anything to us. They just want us out of their country, as you would!
Standing outside the military's headquarters for southern Afghanistan, Gates was surrounded by evidence of the coming buildup. Everywhere he turned, swaths of land within the compound were crowded with construction equipment, and skeletons of partially erected buildings stood nearby.
"This is a long fight, and I think we're in it until we are successful along with the Afghan people," Gates said, adding, "I do believe there will be a requirement for sustained commitment here for some protracted period of time. How many years that is and how many troops that is I think nobody knows at this point."
WTF?!! We ALREADY BEEN THERE SEVEN YEARS, and the last one was the WORST EVER!!!!!!!
Look, I am TIRED, so LET'S BRING THEM HOME INSTEAD, huh?
General David McKiernan, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, added that it will be at least three or four years before the Afghan troops can begin to build up the Afghan Army and police enough so that they can operate more independently. The general would not detail where the additional US troops will go, but said some would go to the south, which has long been a Taliban stronghold and has seen recent spikes in violence .
Yup, right into the meat grinder!!!!
--more--"