"Obama plans to reveal Afghan war strategy Tuesday
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-- Your friends at Boston.com --"So WHAT DID THEY NOT WANT you to SEE?
"Taliban leader says U.S. faces defeat in Afghanistan
As President Obama prepares to unveil his long-deliberated war strategy, the Taliban's supreme commander declared Wednesday that U.S.-led forces would find only defeat, dishonor and "a bed of thorns" in Afghanistan.
Related: Pashtun History Lesson
The Mystery Man of the Taliban
And here he is again, huh?
The statement came as the White House announced that Obama will deliver a televised speech about the war Tuesday from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is expected to announce higher troop levels for Afghanistan and detail a plan for ultimately withdrawing U.S. forces.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, announcing the speech will air at 5 p.m.:
"We're in the ninth year of our efforts in Afghanistan. The president will want to walk through his decision-making process and give people a sense of the importance of our efforts, but reiterate for them that the president does not see this as an open-ended engagement. Our time there will be limited, and I think that's important for people to understand."
Yeah, we are only there for another "five-year, 10-year period"
Sorry, TOO LONG!
Although military and administration officials cautioned that Obama has not settled on a final figure, the military is planning for an increase of up to 35,000 troops beginning next year that would represent the largest expansion since the war began eight years ago.
Yup, at the COST of $35 BILLION DOLLARS, America!
Nothing better to do with that money, huh?
This from the Nobel PEACE Prize winner.
Obama will be trying to convince a war-weary public, and congressional Democrats may be an even tougher sell....
Oh, WHAT a STINKING INSULT to the AmeriKan people!!!!!
WE WANT this thing ENDED!!!!
U.S. officials have been seeking additional troops from NATO allies as well. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the alliance's leader on Wednesday that he was confident that more NATO and British troops would be deployed. Britain, which has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, had promised 500 more if other NATO allies also contributed additional military personnel. He had been seeking 5,000 more troops from 10 alliance members....
The Taliban warning, contained in a statement by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the movement's reclusive leader, was issued on the eve of one of the year's most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice. It marks the end of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is made by millions of observant Muslims.
In his missive, which was punctuated by the flowery phrases and high-flown rhetoric typically employed in such messages, Omar urged Afghans to disavow the "puppet" government of President Hamid Karzai, who was sworn in last week to a second term after an election clouded by massive vote-rigging.
Sounds like Mullah Omar would make one hell of an AmeriKan reporter!
"Break off all relations with the stooge administration in Kabul!" Omar urged, saying that the Karzai government was a partner to "the evil process of colonization and occupation."
The Taliban leader also denounced Karzai's calls for Taliban fighters and commanders to lay down their arms and join in the political process, an appeal that has the broad backing of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Western governments.
Omar, a one-eyed village cleric who rose to the leadership of the Taliban movement more than a dozen years ago, has a $25-million bounty on his head. He disappeared soon after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and is thought to have his headquarters in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan.
Another guy "hiding out" in Pakistan, huh?
--more--"
This is what the Globe gave me in place of the scrubbed piece:
"Obama seeks 10,000 more troops from NATO allies; Set to reveal Afghanistan plan Tuesday" by Eric Schmitt and Steven Erlanger, New York Times | November 26, 2009
WASHINGTON - The United States is scrambling to coax NATO allies to send 10,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as part of President Obama’s strategy for the region. Those countries appear willing to provide fewer than half that number, US and allied officials said yesterday.
NATO and other foreign allies have expressed reluctance to send more soldiers because of the Afghan war’s growing unpopularity in their countries....
Yeah, THEY ACTUALLY LISTEN to what their people say!!!!
The Obama administration views a substantial contribution from its allies as a way to keep the US troop increase lower and blunt domestic political criticism of the Afghan war. It would also allow the administration to come close to the military’s request for 40,000 additional troops without relying totally on the already stretched US armed forces....
Then it is TIME to END the MASS-MURDERING SLAUGHTER and COME HOME, Mr. President!!
The British government is facing opinion polls showing that around 70 percent of the public favor an early withdrawal. That figure has just about doubled in the past six months, as the country has sustained its worst casualties - 97 killed so far this year - since it first deployed troops to Afghanistan after the Taliban were toppled in November 2001.
Germany and France have balked at committing any more forces to a war that has so little public support they can barely maintain current troop levels. The Netherlands and Canada have begun discussing plans to pull out....
You're kidding?
