White House Mulls Grim Picture of 'Deteriorating Stalemate' in Afghanistan

[unhappycamper]

White House Mulls Grim Picture of 'Deteriorating Stalemate' in Afghanistan
Analysis by
David Wood
Chief Military Correspondent

The assessments now pouring into the White House from Afghanistan run the gamut from discouraging to awful, as the Obama administration finishes up its long-awaited December review of the war strategy the president announced a year ago.

In many ways, the cold facts charting the grim course of the war belie the upbeat views that the perpetually confident Gen. David Petraeus, the war's top commander, has expressed in public.

President Obama didn't get much of a first-hand look at the war during his brief stopover at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan Friday. He briefly conferred with his top commanders and held a video teleconference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In a rousing pep talk to about 4,000 U.S. troops gathered at Bagram, Obama did acknowledge that they are in "a tough fight.''

The White House has set high expectations. In his West Point speech a year ago, Obama said his new strategy "will break the Taliban's momentum.'' And, he promised, "After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.''

But with six months to go, the outlook is bleak. Neither battlefield victory nor negotiations are even dimly visible on the horizon, and another troop "surge'' is politically and militarily unlikely. The White House, it seems, has no choice but to push on and hope for the best in a bad situation.

[newfie11]

1. Well when you occupy a country, kill innocent families, destroy homes

it give the population something to fight against. We will never win and the cost to our soldiers and our economy is unacceptable.

[rug]

2. As if this was unknown a year ago.

[sendero]

3. A moron with half his brain removed..

... would know that we are not going to have anything that can even be spun into "success" in Afghanistan. But we'll keep sacrificing lives and treasure rather than admit that our leaders, military and civilian, are idiots.

[northernlights]

4. Gee, how could we have known?

:sarcasm:

He flew all the way to Afghanistan for a video conference? Um, couldn't he have done that from DC and saved taxpayers the money? And yes, I know he went then to support the troops. But having gone that far, why not fly a few more miles and meet your comrade and BFF in person?

What a complete and total fuck up. Complete and fucking total waste of lives, ours and theirs shit down the toilet.

[Autumn]

5. So how many more have to die? n/t

[KharmaTrain]

6. The Ugly Truth About War...

You can launch them...get involved or whatever but it's another thing to get out. This is especially the case in a country we knew so little about their history or culture before the boooosh regime decided to play "savior" with no other plans other than to support a corrupt druglord and hope he would somehow turn this country into some western success story. Now, with virtually no exit strategy it's all about ass-saving. It's not if we are forced from that country but when...the Soviets learned it the hard way and we are as well.

The bottom line is the Taliban live there...they can wait us out 6 months or 6 years...the only difference is how many more American dead this country can afford.

Cheers...

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. Well, duh! What part of 'this war destroyed the USSR' is not understandable?

The wars we are in are vehicles to transfer wealth and power away from the electorate.

[bemildred]

8. Bullshit will only take you so far.

We really cannot afford bullshit anymore.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Mull? We lost. Get out. Get over it.

[somone]

10. Gen. Petraeus, keep bombing for peace

There is light at the end of the tunnel