Obama sends more troops to Afghanistan

[JW Frogen]

As to the Talaban, they are an increasing problem in the East of the country with random violence in Kabul, but I do not see how running and surrendering the country to these medieval goons would solve the problem.

Such a betrayal to the women of Afghanistan is hard to contemplate coming from the voice of a woman.

They are hardly the worst foe the democratic West has ever faced, they inflict lower casualty rates than in even Iraq, rates that any army worth it’s salt could endure for decades, they can not control any territory where US forces go in force and remain, all they can do is pretty much randomly kill and try to wreck chaos knowing the Left in the West is weak and may chant leave so they can then try to take control of the country.

If we do not have the will to keep fighting these stone-throwing barbarians we might as well pack up the entire idea of women’s rights, along with all of Western Civilization.

Fortunately even Obama is not willing to do that.

Gratefully, there are many Australian and American soldiers willing to risk their lives so that will not happen.

[mantra.]

Yes, Iraq was a paradise before we removed Saddam, half Saddam's time at war with his neighbors killing over a million people in the region, brutalizing Kuwait (I know I was there), genocide that killed hundreds of thousands of his own people and would have continued thus, environmental damage on a colossal scale, from draining the largest wetland in the Middle East to setting Kuwaiti oil wells on fire, disobeying his generous 1991 cease fire which meant the UN imposed sanctions making his people even more poor.

What is interesting is that Saddam was hung for the slaughter of 147 people only. Why wasn't he tried for these million plus Kuwaitians? Didn't the US supply him with the weapons for this slaughter. To many it looked as though Saddam was hung too quickly to shut him up. He should have been tried at the World Court for War Crimes, but no - they wanted him out of the way quickly before the gullible public found out too much.

No WMD's were found and no mincing machine - and we weren't told we were invading Iraq to bring democracy to the people - so that's a lie for a start.

[JW Frogen]

Actually most of Saddam's weapons came from the former Soviet Union and France, two nations that opposed his removal.

But let us consider the US support for him against Iran in the 80s, the lesser of two evils policy?

Is it nor preferable to make amends for that? Russia and France say no, keep him in.

The US said goodbye to all that and gave Iraqis the say in how their country is run.

As to Saddam's trail, no informed person claims just because Shia Iraqis (the majority of Iraqis) hated him so much they rushed to execute him that this means he did not kill en-mass Kurds too, his genocide is well documented even by groups who do not support US policy, like Human Rights Watch.

The US opposed the rush to exicute him but had established a real democratic government so let the victims of his mass murder run their own judicial system.

There is no honorable or decent anti war argument to be made by attempting to make Saddam a saint.

[JW Frogen]

Oh, I forgot Germany.

They provided a huge amount of his chemical-biological capacity.

I remember just before we shipped out to the First Gulf War the list of German produced chemical-biological agents Iraq might have.

Hi Roger!

[AiA in Atlanta]

Have you seen the film "W." yet Frogen? It is out on DVD in the States. Powell comes out looking like a hero. All in all it is a fair account of Bush.

[JW Frogen]

Have you seen the film "W." yet Frogen? It is out on DVD in the States. Powell comes out looking like a hero. All in all it is a fair account of Bush.

I did, but I went to Le Premier where they serve booze and after Bush crashed that plane I yelled "W for President" and then passed out in my nachos.

My wife has banned me from acohol serving movie theaters now.

Tough love.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Have you seen the film "W." yet Frogen? It is out on DVD in the States. Powell comes out looking like a hero. All in all it is a fair account of Bush.

I did, but I went to Le Premier where they serve booze and after Bush crashed that plane I yelled "W for President" and then passed out in my nacho.

And woke up with a jalapeno dangling from the inside of your overly large nostril.

[JW Frogen]

And woke up with a jalapeno dangling from the inside of your overly large nostril.

That was not my nostril.

Nachos turn me on in a druken comatic-dramatic.

[AiA in Atlanta]

And woke up with a jalapeno dangling from the inside of your overly large nostril.

That was not my nostril.

Nachos turn me on in a druken comatic-dramatic.

So you're talking about a white cream cheese sauce instead of the standard orange cheddar?

[mantra.]

Now Rudd is sending more troops to Afghanistan. This is not surprising as Rudd is one of the biggest puppet PM's next to Howard that we've had in the last few decades. He hasn't been asked by Obama, but it is protocol apparently.

We'll be stuck there for the unforeseeable future sacrificing more of our troops lives for a lost cause.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd will travel to Washington this month armed with detailed plans for an Australian troop "surge" in Afghanistan.

According to sources on both sides of the Pacific, military planners have been working for months on several options.

These range from a small boost to training and mentoring soldiers, through to a battalion-sized group of 1000 Diggers plus armoured vehicles, Black Hawk helicopters and possibly even Abrams battle tanks.

The plans involve troops from Darwin, Townsville and Brisbane and support personnel from around the nation.

They include:

A DARWIN-BASED mechanised company and M-113 armoured vehicles.

CAVALRY troops from Darwin and Townsville equipped with ASLAV light armoured vehicles.

A BRISBANE-BASED motorised company and Bushmaster armoured transport vehicles.

LIGHT infantry troops from Townsville.

LOGISTICS staff and engineers from around Australia.

Some Black Hawk helicopters will have been fitted with electronic counter-measures by next month, enabling them to deploy for medical evacuation and transport duty.

It is understood that a squadron of Abrams tanks from the Darwin-based 1st Armoured Regiment is also on notice to move.

The Federal Government insists that no hint of a request for extra troops has come from Washington.

However, insiders confirmed there have been detailed planning discussions between Australian officers and their counterparts at U.S. Central Command – and that a formal request will come before the leaders meet to announce it on March 24.

The U.S. will deploy an extra 17,000 soldiers and dozens of helicopters to southern Afghanistan in the middle of the year and there are plans to boost the force by another 13,000 within 12 months.

Retired Australian general and counter-insurgency specialist Jim Molan, a fierce critic of the current strategy, said Australia must be ready to replace Dutch forces in Oruzgan province.

General Molan, who was the most senior Australian officer attached to the U.S. headquarters in Baghdad during the U.S. surge there, said the force should grow by 1000 now with plans to jump to 6000 within two years.

"The war will get serious for us in 2011 if the Dutch and the Canadians leave," he said.

"We need 2000 there now, with plans for 6000 within two years to win in Oruzgan."

Seasoned strategists fear an outcome in Afghanistan similar to Vietnam where Australia secured its province of Phuoc Tuy but the war was lost.

Australian military guidance has for years demanded the army – 25,000 troops – should be capable of deploying and sustaining overseas a Brigade-sized force of 3500.

General Molan said a bigger Australian force running Oruzgan should set its own rules and that would include using our Black Hawks for Australian medical evacuation tasks.

Visiting American expert on Pakistan and Afghanistan Bob Hathaway said he believed that U.S. President Barack Obama would definitely ask Mr Rudd for more troops.

"Obama believes that Afghanistan is the central front against terrorism," Mr Hathaway said.

"He (Obama) believes it is not unreasonable for our friends around the world, who also feel threatened by Islamic extremism, to also play a somewhat larger role than they have to date."

However, the director of the influential Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars and former Democrat adviser warned that Afghanistan would not be won until insurgents were denied safe haven in Pakistan.

"The purpose of this surge is to buy time," Mr Hathaway said.