Obama's decision on the troop numbers?

[BigMat]

I am mostly playing the devils advocate, but I noticed one thing here. All of you are fully pissed at President Obama. All well and good, and I agree for the most part, I think he should listen to the boots on the ground and the generals to make military calls, as they know what the hell they are doing and he doesn’t. I think we should be in it and win, hard and fast. I think we should prosecute this war with extreme levels of prejudice as that is the only way to deal with the scum that act like they do to Americans and to their own people. I have no mercy for them, period.
That said, the boots and the ground and the generals called for more troops and they are getting more troops, that is just basic, not going into details of numbers and which troops, but he sent 30,000 of them. There were people who said he shouldn’t send more troops, the Democrats, his party and his support in office, who he went against!

Fundamentally he went with people who we agree with and against people we disagree with. That’s a big win. Honestly, what could he do politically, economically, militarily that would make you happy?

Next up the exit date, it’s not just the Taliban that heard that. Every military recruiter and 17 year old not sure of what to do with himself did to, and like it or not, most of them aren’t wild about jetting off to Afghanistan, and neither are their parents. Next up, the stock market, our deficit and our economy heard it too, and they need some help and an end date WILL help. Finally, it was heard by every young mom and dad in afganistan away from their families. I cannot see how this can hurt moral overall. It was also footnoted with an “it depends” which makes me think, it’s not for the Taliban at all, but for mom at home and the enlistment rates and the US working people and the troops out there for their 4th round who want to see their kids.
Stratigicaly, I do see the problem for sure.


In terms of negotiated settlements, this one is not making the democrats too happy, why so pissed? Just something to think about.

[theGinsue]

I'm in fulll agreement with the first several posts to this thread.

Publically announcing a timeline and exit strategy is just poor military strategy. It's sad that he had to take so damned long to make his (politically motivated, I assure you) decision to send more troops as the Commanders in the field requested - with American lives at increased risk the entire time because there just aren't enough folks to meet the mission AND to cover their backs.

[Tora]

I think he did the worst thing he could do, and in the wost way. We should NOT be sending this many troops or setting time lines. What we should be doing is sending the right troops, with NO rules, and we would not need a time line.

[Elhuero]

obama is the Neville Chamberlain of our time