Wednesday, December 02, 2009
NATO-ISAF Commander Discusses the Surge
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force, addresses members of his staff Wednesday, moments after President Barack Obama announced he would send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in order to help ISAF gain the initiative against violent extremists, deny them safe haven and enhance the coalition's ability to train and mentor Afghan security forces.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Thanks for this membrain.
I've got a lot more reading to do before I'd feel comfortable making any kind of statement about the chances of this working.
But just off the cuff I'd say it sounds like we're going to drag the Afghans kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Do any of the Afghans believe this is not about conquest? Sometimes I feel like we should get out and just let whatever happens there happen.
Sometimes I worry that this military coalition wants to be the force that is finally successful in Afghanistan. See themselves writ large in the history books.
Do soldiers ever see any solution but the military solution?
I guess I'm fairly pessimistic at this point. Didn't help to read recently, on old blue's blog I think, that pieces of exploded rockets fired upon a village in Afghanistan bore Russian and Chinese markings. Is this turnabout-is-fair-play on the part of Russia for what we did to them in Afghanistan? And China? Whatsup with that?
How do you change/affect an ancient culture? Seems like the only real promise is to educate the young to see life's possibilities in a different way.
Lots to learn....
~P~
Post a Comment