Rethinking Strategy in Afghanistan

(CBS)  Four thousand U.S. Marines pounded into Afghanistan's hostile Helmand province this month to take back territory from the Taliban.

But they only had 600 Afghan troops fighting alongside them, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

The Marine commander there said he cannot hold this territory unless he gets more Afghan forces to help win the people's trust.

The top U.S. General in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, agrees, according to defense officials in Washington. He's told the Pentagon he needs to create even more local forces than now planned to provide Afghans security.

"We must protect them from violence, whatever its nature," McChrystal said.

U.S. officials tell CBS News that General McChrystal hasn't decided how many extra troops he's going to need, U.S. or Afghan. They say this is simply a snapshot of his ongoing review, which he's due to report to the White House by early August.

There is currently a surge of 21,000 U.S. troops, which will bring the total to 68,000 in country by the fall. That includes 4,000 U.S. forces devoted to training more Afghan security forces. That training brigade is supposed to boost Afghanistan's army from 85,000 to 134,000, by 2011, at a cost of $7.5 billion a year.

Some of those now advising McChrystal say that's not enough.

"General McChrystal's going to have a tough time figuring out how he's going to protect as much of the population as possible," said Andrew Exum, with the Center for New American Security. "We simply don't have enough troops to surge into all areas."

In an interview with Britain's SKY TV from Africa, the President Barack Obama said depending on how Afghan elections go next month, he hopes to focus on a different type of surge.

"It may not be on the military side, it may be on the development side," Mr. Obama said.

Another group of experts advising McChrystal says you have to have both.

"The problem is you can't have economic development and you can't have good governance if you don't have security," said Arturo Munoz with the Rand Corporation. "They are all interrelated."

[babooph]

This mess started as a Bush idea-that means it is idiotic from every angle-lets go home & cut our losses,anything that horses ..... touched must be undone.

[YuSoWrong]

Where do you call home, exactly?

[GovernmentControl]

Why doesnt obama provide american troops the support they need to prevail in the war on terror?

Obama is the enemy.

[HGOODGUY]

AMERICAN POLITICS AND PARANOIA QUESTIONS

WHY WERE IN THE KOREAN WAR??--40,000 DEAD
WHY WERE IN THE VIET NAM WAR??--50,000 DEAD
WHY ARE WE IN THE IRAQ WAR??--4500 DEAD
WHY ARE WE IN AFGHANISTAN??--DEAD YET TO BE TOTALED!!

IN ANY OF THESE WARS--WAS THERE EVER ANY REAL AN DIRECT DANGER TO THE USA??

AS 9/11 SHOWED US--IT CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

THESE PAST TRAGEDYS HAVE BEEN A RESULT OF AMBITIOUS POLITIONS AND MISGUIDED GENERALS.

WHEN ARE OUR LEADERS GOING TO LEARN THAT WE JUST CANNOT "PARACHUTE" INTO ALL THE WORLDS HOTSPOTS. IT IS LIKE TRYING TO NAVIGATE THROUGH SWISS CHEESE!!!

[CB_Brooklyn]

For those interested in knowing what actually happened on 9/11, see Dr Judy Wood's forensic examination of the evidence. Dr Wood is a former professor of mechanical engineering from Clemson University who received her PhD in materials engineering science from Virginia Tech.

Dr Wood's examination was submitted to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in the form of a Request For Correction and is also the basis of her Qui Tam case in NYC Federal Court. Dr Wood, represented by mainstream attorney Jerry Leaphart, is suing the sub-contractors hired by the government for the NIST investigation of the WTC claiming, at minimum, "willful blindness" in their contributions to the NIST Report. Dr Wood was already successful in getting NIST to confirm that they did not analyze the "collapses", even though they were mandated to do so by Congress.

Dr Wood's analysis shows, very clearly, that directed energy weapons (DEW) were a causal factor in the destruction of the World Trade Center. In Dr Wood's legal documents, she also notes that some of the defendants in her court case, such as Applied Research Associates (ARA) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), are founding sponsors of the Directed Energy Professional Society.

Dr Wood has been in contact with the US military's Directed Energy Directorate, located at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, and they do not deny that DEWs destroyed the WTC. Instead they claim "phenomena that we cannot explain here". Their representative also finds ?Dr Wood's investigation interesting and worthy of further consideration?.

See Dr Wood's website for full information, including that of exotic weaponry, the Hutchison Effect, and Hurricane Erin which was mysteriously parked outside NYC on the morning of 9/11 and headed back out to sea afterwords:
http://www.drjudywood.com


Also, one must be aware of the propaganda that has spread through the "truth movement". See the following article and remember to keep an open mind:
9/11: Distinguishing The Propaganda From The Smoking Guns
http://www.checktheevidence.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=199&Itemid=60


Those interested in knowing the truth of things are encouraged to check the evidence for themselves instead of believing what they are told to believe.

[YuSoWrong]

Come in from the stoop, the sun's getting to ya.

[Benton09]

These wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will go on forever unless to end it you are willing to do what was done to defeat the Japanese in WWII.
The use of Nuclear Weapons to inialate the enemy, breaking their will.
In this age, that will never be done unless humanity is ready for it's entire destruction. Besides, war makes money, that's what the bottom line is. Sad but true. Bush always talked about spreading Democracy throughout the world, which meant more money for corporations.... the rich get richer.

[curiously1]

The Iranian regime obviously has a hand in this rash of insurgency in Afghanistan. At some point, we must swing the shovel at the head of this snake, which again, is the Iranian regime.

[hagar39]

The Agfhan war is just like the Iraq war, the Vietnam war, Korean war, etc. You fight for 5 to 10 years and then you come home. The object of wars is to make money for the people and companies that sell weapons, supplies etc. to the military. Simple as that.
These days all of our troops are volunteers. Don't like war and the militay? Don't join. Simple as that.
The bad thing about? The places where these wars take place. Civilians are killed, buildings are destroyed, some time historic buildings. Old saying from the Vietnam days. The Vietnamese would say, Why should we fight, we have the American to fight for us. You good guys.

[kerry4ever]

Before the first world war Churchill said that "the whole of the Balkans is not worth the life of a single British bombadier (soldier)". Ditto Afghanistan.

[despido]

U.S. Officials Want More Afghan Forces to Fight Alongside Marines...
------------------------------
Why are ANY Marines there? Why do we constantly sacrafice our sons and daughters to save Islam from itself? WE have always moved to protect muslims; in Somalia, Bosnia, Croatia, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc, etc. Yet muslims hate the West. Let them kill each other, just bring the kids home. Obama's just another murderer.

[sean58z]

Hey CarlR609, save your perverse paranoid schizophrenia. Insipid remarks are not needed on the CBSNews board.