Obama Rejects All Afghanistan War Options - With Video
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.
In strongly worded classified cables to Washington, Eikenberry said he had misgivings about sending in new troops while there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Obama is still close to announcing his revamped war strategy — most likely shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends on Nov. 19.
But the president raised questions at a war council meeting Wednesday that could alter the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war zone, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Obama’s thinking.
Military officials said Obama has asked for a rewrite before and resisted what one official called a one-way highway toward war commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendations for more troops. The sense that he was being rushed and railroaded has stiffened Obama’s resolve to seek information and options beyond military planning, officials said, though a substantial troop increase is still likely.
The president was considering options that include adding 30,000 or more U.S. forces to take on the Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan and to buy time for the Afghan government’s small and ill-equipped fighting forces to take over. The other three options on the table Wednesday were ranges of troop increases, from a relatively small addition of forces to the roughly 40,000 that the top U.S. general in Afghanistan prefers, according to military and other officials.
The key sticking points appear to be timelines and mounting questions about the credibility of the Afghan government.
Administration officials said Wednesday that Obama wants to make it clear that the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended. The war is now in its ninth year and is claiming U.S. lives at a record pace as military leaders say the Taliban has the upper hand in many parts of the country.
Eikenberry, the top U.S. envoy to Kabul, is a prominent voice among those advising Obama, and his sharp dissent is sure to affect the equation. He retired from the Army this year to become one of the few generals in American history to switch directly from soldier to diplomat, and he himself is a recent, former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Eikenberry’s cables raise deep concern about the viability of the Karzai government, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with them who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the classified documents. Other administration officials raised the same misgivings in describing Obama’s hesitancy to accept any of the options before him in their current form.
The options presented to Obama by his war council will now be amended.
Military officials say one approach is a compromise battle plan that would add 30,000 or more U.S. forces atop a record 68,000 in the country now. They described it as “half and half,” meaning half fighting and half training and holding ground so the Afghans can regroup.
The White House says Obama has not made a final choice, though military and other officials have said he appears near to approving a slightly smaller increase than McChrystal wants at the outset.
Among the options for Obama would be ways to phase in additional troops, perhaps eventually equaling McChrystal’s full request, based on security or other conditions in Afghanistan and in response to pending decisions on troops levels by some U.S. allies fighting in Afghanistan.
The White House has chafed under criticism from Republicans and some outside critics that Obama is dragging his feet to make a decision.
Obama’s top military advisers have said they are comfortable with the pace of the process, and senior military officials have pointed out that the president still has time since no additional forces could begin flowing into Afghanistan until early next year.
Under the scenario featuring about 30,000 more troops, that number most likely would be assembled from three Army brigades and a Marine Corps contingent, plus a new headquarters operation that would be staffed by 7,000 or more troops, a senior military official said. There would be a heavy emphasis on the training of Afghan forces, and the reinforcements Obama sends could include thousands of U.S. military trainers.
Another official stressed that Obama is considering a range of possibilities for the military expansion and that his eventual decision will cover changes in U.S. approach beyond the addition of troops. The stepped-up training and partnership operation with Afghan forces would be part of that effort, the official said, although expansion of a better-trained Afghan force long has been part of the U.S objective and the key to an eventual U.S. and allied exit from the country.
With the Taliban-led insurgency expanding in size and ability, U.S. military strategy already has shifted to focus on heading off the fighters and protecting Afghan civilians. The evolving U.S. policy, already remapped early in Obama’s tenure, increasingly acknowledges that the insurgency can be blunted but not defeated outright by force.
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I’ve always known Barry would do *nothing* until health care is passed.
Anybody still unsure whether the asshole is a Marxist needs to listen to His ‘rationale’ for criminalizing non-participation in His health scare scam in His interview with Jake Tapper.
Sickening.
An empty suit of clothes looking for an Emperor.
The dead have a message for him. And it’s not the one in “Feed Your Head”.
I’m sure they do Pat.
I pray it gets delivered forcefully.
it will be delivered by the brethren of the fallen…he shall reap what he sows.
-aTb
I knew he would do this–he makes me ill. I would like to call him a moron but he’s like a snake. Never honest–just deals done in the middle of the night and behind one’s back. I would enlist in a second, but I know I would be rejected. What happened to the pride of serving and protecting our country. Freedom is not free; so many of our ancestors have died for us. What happened?
He’s trying to find a way to lose while not taking the blame.
Just half the story, Pat. You really can’t form opinions without knowing what’s actually going on.
“The US ambassador in Kabul has written to the White House to oppose sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan.
In a leaked cable, Karl Eikenberry said President Karzai’s government should first prove it would tackle corruption.”
So who’s for propping up a government of heroine dealers? Some people just don’t want to understand the mess Dubya got the USA in.
Hey Mertin,
How about this country start fighting wars like we want to win them?? Screw the hearts and minds strategey. Kill as many of the enemy as possible is the shortest time possible. No mercy. If civilians are killed, so be it. We didn’t care about civilian deaths in WWII and we won that war in 3 1/2 yrs.
So who’s for propping up a government of heroine dealers? Some people just don’t want to understand the mess Dubya got the USA in. uncle merty
Hey numbnuts,where were you on 9-11. Hanging out with code pink? What happens when these rugheads take over pakistan and get their hands on the nukes? You quisling peckerwoods never learn.
Mertin you are a stupid FUCK!
Mertin: the Ambassador is a former General who is advocating what can be described as a “light footprint” strategy that was pursued in Iraq by General Casey before General Petraeus instituted, with an increase of troops, a clear and hold counter-insurgency strategy — the “surge.” The “light footprint” strategy of Casey failed in Iraq. The “surge” of Petraeus worked.
General McChrystal’s request for an increase in troops reflects the need for more troops to implement a proper counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. Why repeat a “light footprint” strategy in Afghanistan that failed in Iraq? Why not do a proper counter-insurgency “surge” that worked in Iraq? That is what General McChrystal is proposing to do. There is no good military reason to defer decision and to defer a “surge” in Afghanistan.
By appointing General McChrystal, the decision supposedly had been made to take the steps necessary to win in Afghanistan. But Obama is looking to avoid commitment and seems not to care about winning. The Ambassador has obliged the White House with what is really a sorry ass excuse to defer decision.
If the Afgan government is as corrupt as
I suspect it is then the US needs to
pull out the troops to prevent another
Vietnam type situation.
AMEN Steady Eddie. heres the ugly truth that asshats like Mertain and his ilk fail to grasp. We won WW2 after dropping TWO ATOMIC BOMBS on the most aggressive resistant to surrender enemy at that time - the Japanese. ONE BOMB wasn’ enough. The 2nd one sent the message - we will KILL ALL OF YOU if we have to in order to END THIS WAR.
It worked. The Japanese Leadership surrendered and Japan has remained a pacifist country since then.
WE CUT THEM OFF AT THE BALLS, AT THE HEAD, AT THE HEART. yes MILLIONS of citizens were killed, but MILLIONS would have been killed had the war continued.
But today’s leaders are too feckless becuz the liberal candy asses like Mertin and his ilk are cowards who would sell their families to killers before engaging in a real battle to save them.
I say withdraw all our troops, and Nato troops NOW. and the BOMB AFGHANISTAN to HELL. with the message being - DO NOT FUCK WITH US ANY MORE. ANY COUNTRY harboring terrorist members from Al Queda, who attack us or our allies will suffer the same fate.
If our enemies KNOW we are crazier than they are… they will RUN scared.
But thx to Mertin and his lying, feckless, cowardice ilk.. that will never happen. Our enemies have already won.
Can we hand Mertin over to them??
Fission products as the new salt. That would have made Scipio Aemilianus’s job easier.
[...] Update: Pat Dollard has more here. [...]
You can’t win a war if you’re a coward. Obama is a coward. He can’t answer the hard questions and do the hard actions. That is why he counts on all the marxists czars that he surrounds himself with.
To win this war or any war, you must bring your enemy to their collective knees. You have to put fear in their hearts that if they act up, rain hell on their tiny little heads. Have your enemy fear you is much better than respect you. Respect will follow after you close the gates of hell. 
NOTE TO BARRY: Presidents don’t get to vote present.
The Eikenberry ‘leak’ was another political move to give Barry cover and shitheels like Mertin something to point at.
Barry has no moral compass. Made me ill to see Him posing at Arlington.
And His political compass does not even have American on it.
Apparently we have learned NOTHING.
And with the TOTUS voting “present” its only going to get uglier.
Uncle Jimbo @ Blackfive sums it up pretty well here:
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/11/more-signs-that-the-strategery-going-on-around-the-afghan-war-is-a-soup-sandwich-being-eaten-in-a-chicken-wire-canoe-while-is.html
Sorry, but America was truly had when they elected HopenChange™
Time to GTFO.
You answer your own question, Phil, with the word “surge”.
“…pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.”
“…there are still so many questions about the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.”
This sumbitch PO(tus)S is about to run.
Mertin….
Wait until after December 10th, the day he goes to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize. It is always all about him and he will not appear to be a war monger and get his prize rescinded before December 10th.
barry can’t make a decision.
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
-A. Einstein
He doesn’t know what he’s doing…period. He was a lousy professor = how does that prepare him to the Commander and Chief of the world’s more powerful military. First he has to be a man - strike one.