Another 45,000 US troops needed in Afghanistan, military adviser says

You sir are using your head as well... what will all of this rational thought do to our society? Socialism relying on capitalism, capitalism relying on socialism... and all of the ants running the circus just trying to be happy... oh dear god... I think I just started hearing heads exploding... like a kid with bubble wrap (i like comparisons).

And the voice of reason awakens. I could not agree with you more man. Thank you.

The Afghan people are for the liberation of the Taliban. They actually do despise them. If you want to get a good since of what the villagers of Afghanistan feel and what they are willing to do and sacrifice to be rid of the Taliban you should read the book "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell. You have to get past the overwhelming right wing political bias at the first of the book to get to the story of what happened in Afghanistan, but the story is there... there are quite a few stories similar to it, but SOCOM, and the Pentagon deemed this one safe to share with the public.

Better than Iraq man.

There are quite a few work arounds the military is refusing on this one... petitions are good, but petitions and offering solutions are better. They need the live sonar drill, and they need the ocean terrain to do an adequate drill, but the terrain can be simulated by computer programs and the drill can be run in open oceans with those hacked sonars. Sometimes there are not way around atrocities and a decision based values has to be made... this is not one of those times, I hope they manage to stop this.

you are implying people have an attention span that is more then 30 seconds. and worse you are asking them to have a memory that extends past what they ate 15 minutes ago.

you are talking almost 70 years ago when the first US boots entered south Vietnam (advisors at this point in history). almost 60 years ago when open hostilities over took that nation, lasting for the better part of 15 years.

leaving some 4 to 6 million people dead... the exact number who knows...

it was said people would never forget and never repeat this mistake... and yet 26 years after America had walked away from the blunder of Vietnam, along come bush and chaney and they give us the tragic and horrific messes known as the "war of terror" oh sorry it was on was it not... i just keep making that mistake.

if obama cared he would pull out of afghanistan like he did out of iraq.... oh wait... that's right we're still in iraq, it looks like he doesn't care at all

It's nothing like Vietnam and only a simple mind incapable of grasping any form of fact or subtlety couldn't see that.

You're against war by default, so you just pull the most awful war in recent American history out of your hat to rbing up the same feelings.

But the Afghans have wanted our help since the Russian invasion in '79, it's not like Vietnam where we were trying to prevent a popular nationalist movement over fear of communism.

The Pakistani/Afghan border area is the HOME of Islamic Fundamentalism and Al-Qaeda. You know, the people who actually attacked us?

We have a real chance here to fix what we fucked up in the 80's, we could give these people a real life if we stay there and fight off the Taliban and give them irrigation and infrastructure and jobs.

Or we could leave now and watch history repeat itself as a new generation of Mujahideen tear Afghanistan's pieces into pieces and actually has a reason to blame the U.S. this time.

We might actually develop a reputation of wanting to do the right thing if we do not just pull out as soon as the war is won as well. No, the war in Afghanistan is now being given the resources to win, they are not being hindered by policies, and they are being allowed to fight in a way that limits civilian casualties and protects their civilian interests. Vietnam was never afforded those courtesies.

It is like Vietnam in that it is a quagmire that cannot be won MILITARILY, and only a simple mind with a personal grudge wouldn't be able to comprehend that.

History jan, If there were a time machine I would have you go back in time and have this conversation with Napoleon, he conquered how many countries by destroying the military and converting the people over to his side and rebuilding his armies before he moved on... the only reason he was defeated was because he used what he conquered so he did not have supply lines, the Russians burned everything behind them as they retreated and his forces starved to death because there was nothing left for him to use. There are other military leaders that have done the same thing... Ganges Khan, a few Romans, and Barbers... the Ottomans...

Vietnam and Iraq were fought under stupid rules and without the right resources... they did the right things but they did them all helter skelter (can not believe I actually had an opportunity to use that phrase correctly) and half arsed in Iraq, but there were foolish rules and they were not given enough troops or equipment to do what they needed... the initial evasion of that country had the troop levels cut in half because some nit wit politician aid in the bush camp thought it could be done with half what was suggested by our military commanders. I did not and still do not support the Iraq war, but that is why it went so badly... the same thing happened in Vietnam if you truly wish to compare apples and oranges.

That is a huge change over sending in a few guys with fly swatters to attack the guerrillas that defeated the USSR