“Our forces are not leaving.’’
"Petraeus calls strategy in Afghanistan sound; General warns difficult work still lies ahead" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post | August 16, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — In his first six weeks as the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus has seen insurgent attacks on coalition forces spike to record levels, violence metastasize to previously stable areas, and the country’s president undercut anticorruption units backed by Washington.
But after burrowing into operations here and traveling to the far reaches of this country, Petraeus has concluded that the US strategy to win the nearly nine-year-old war is “fundamentally sound.’’
In a wide-ranging, hourlong interview, he said he sees incipient signs of progress....
The general either needs a mental evaluation or a court martial.
The interview is part of his campaign to convince an increasingly skeptical public that the American-led coalition can succeed, saying he had not come to Afghanistan to preside over a “graceful exit.’’
We are SICK of YOU, YOUR LYING, and the DAMN WARS!!
Don't you guys GET IT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He also had interviews with The New York Times and “Meet the Press.’’
Yup, a PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN from Puketrayus and the Pentagon!
With public support for the war slipping and a White House review of the war looming in December, Petraeus said he is pushing the forces to proceed with alacrity.
It is NOT SLIPPING it is GONE, MSM!!
He remains supportive of President Obama’s decision to begin withdrawing troops next July, but he said it is far too early to determine the size of the drawdown.
Yeah, drawdown, right.
Going to need the troops elsewhere?
“We are doing everything we can to achieve progress as rapidly as we can without rushing to failure,’’ Petraeus said at NATO headquarters in Kabul. “We’re keenly aware that this has been ongoing for approaching nine years. We fully appreciate the impatience in some quarters.’’
Thus the Puketrayus pipe smoke up your ass, America!
But he warned against expecting quick results in a campaign that involves building Afghan government and security institutions from scratch and persuading people to cast their lot with coalition forces after years of broken promises — all in the face of Taliban intimidation and attacks.
Yeah, let's SLOWLY WIND OUR WAY to FAILURE!
Actually, we have ALREADY FAILED!
“It’s just hard work.’’
Okay, George, I mean, Dave!
He said it is too early to determine when Afghan security forces can assume responsibility for various parts of the country. Officials from some NATO nations, where public support for the war is lower than in the United States, want to announce at a November meeting of alliance foreign ministers a list of provinces to be handed over.
So they can leave.
See: Dutch Retreat in Afghanistan
Yeah, they actually CARE what THEIR PEOPLE THINK, America!
Some Obama administration officials also are pushing for a transition plan before the White House review. But some of the once-quiet provinces in the north and west are now wracked by spiking insurgent violence....
Yeah, the AmeriKans and "coalition" are just TWIDDLING their THUMBS over there (as well as guarding pipelines and poppy fields).
Petraeus’s return to the battlefield has provided the United States and NATO with what almost certainly is the last, best chance to reverse a foundering war.
Then WE HAVE LOST!
Time to DECLARE VICTORY and COME HOME!!!!
Petraeus literally wrote the military’s book on counterinsurgency strategy, and he engineered a dramatic turnaround in Iraq that many had assumed impossible.
Related:
What Works for AmeriKa in AfghanistanAssassinations, that's about it.
But Afghanistan is in many ways a more daunting environment, and there is no guarantee that the counterinsurgency tactics applied in Baghdad will work in Kandahar.
Asked whether he is certain that the counterinsurgency strategy, which emphasizes protecting the civilian population, can be effective in a country where many people regard the insurgents more as miscreant relatives than an existential threat, Petraeus refrained from an unequivocal endorsement.
“The enemy has shown himself to be resilient,’’ he said. “The enemy does fight back. He is trying, in his assessment, to outlast us.’’
Although he is not tackling Afghanistan as he did Iraq, where he began overhauling the war plan upon arrival, he is seeking to duplicate some of the methods that served him well in Baghdad, foremost among them engagement with the country’s political leader.
And even if it doesn't work the lying, agenda-pushing, war-promoting newspapers will tell us it did -- just like in Iraq.
He meets with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan about once a day — far more often than the US ambassador does — in an effort to transform him and his government from weak links to partners in the counterinsurgency mission.
Perhaps his most significant accomplishment since arriving in Kabul has been to get Karzai to endorse the creation of armed neighborhood-watch groups.
And here in AmeriKa the government frowns upon such things.
The president initially expressed concern that the program could result in the creation of militias similar to those that ravaged the country in the 1990s and led to the Taliban’s rise....
Related:
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
Petraeus contends the counterinsurgency strategy is showing momentum in Helmand province, where about 20,000 US Marines and 10,000 British troops have sought to create inkblots of security in six key districts. Some areas, such as Marja, a former Taliban stronghold, have proved to be tougher to pacify — insurgents are continuing an aggressive harassment campaign — but other places, such as Nawa and Garmsir, are becoming more stable.
Related: Marines Lose Marjah
Hey, what is one more MSM lie, right?
He also said he is encouraged by developments in Arghandab district on Kandahar’s northern fringe, where two Army battalions have been engaged in an arduous mission to clear insurgents from pomegranate orchards and vineyards seeded with mines. “We got intelligence we gathered from the Taliban that said, ‘Don’t worry, fellows. The time has come now. Stop fighting, lay down your weapons and fade away, and just wait until they leave,’ ’’ he said. “Of course, in this case, our forces are not leaving.’’
Hey, what is one more Obama and MSM lie, right?
--more--"
