How Many Troops Should Be in Afghanistan?

(CBS)  Paying tribute to the victims of Sept. 11, President Obama urged Americans not to lose faith in the mission it sparked.

"Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and plot against us still," Mr. Obama said.

But as Mr. Obama considers sending more troops to Afghanistan, his own party is balking. Friday, the Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin implored him not to order more deployments, but to focus instead on training the Afghan army and police, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

"We need a surge of Afghan security forces," Levin said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a similar message to the president.

"I don't think there is a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the country or in the Congress," Pelosi said.

The misgivings in the President's own party reflect a growing national pessimism amid record casualties there.

A recent found approval for the president's handling of the war has sunk to 48 percent - down 8 points since April.

"We need to have the Afghan security forces demonstrate that they have primacy, that they can control the situation on the ground," said Karin Von Hippel, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Twenty-one thousand additional U.S. troops will deploy there this year - 4,000 of them tasked with training Afghans, driving total troop levels up to a new high: 68,000.

Levin says sending more than that will just provoke the enemy.

"Creating a bigger U.S. military footprint provides propaganda fodder for the Taliban," Levin said.

Republican Sen. John McCain shot back that arbitrarily capping U.S. troop levels would be "catastrophic."

Worried that a Democratic uprising could embarrass the president, the Senate majority leader called for patience.

"I think the thing I am going to do is recommend to my caucus is let's just take it easy," said Harry Reid.

The White House says a decision on troop levels is many weeks away and that the president is mulling over recommendations from the top general in Afghanistan and other military leaders.

[Leebo515]

Excuse me if im being dumb, but im only 16. i say they ASK THE TROOPS if any more troops should be sent to Afghanistan. i mean they are the people that are there everyday risking THEIR LIVES to protect us! and we are gonna ask some government people who are only fighting with WORDS! they arent the ones risking their lives in a god forsaken desert, while losing friends and fellow soldiers. i might just be some dumb teenager but i think the troops have earned some kind of say in the war in Afghanistan

[brucearnold]

On 9/11/01, the all-powerful bankers behind New World Order globalization unleashed their oil and money hungry military-industrial dogs of war to orchestrate the fall of 3 (not 2) WTC towers--the third, not struck by a plane, housing 3 floors of damning SEC records. On that day, we lost 3000 lives (with 1000s more to follow) plus 4 commercial airliners (with all on board) ... and stood by helplessly as something (not wide enough to be a 757) bored a hole in the side of the Pentagon. Yet even today, two elections and a new administration later, our Big Brother government expects us to believe that all of that masterfully-plotted and perfectly-timed destruction was accomplished by 15 Saudis and 4 of their cousins using nothing more than box cutters and big balls. If you believe that, or if you believe we have been told anything close to the Truth about 9/11, then I ask you to Google "911 truth" and "911 peak oil", and objectively evaluate what you find at websites like AE911Truth.org.

[chekitout]

Just one more tid-bit for ya'all,----if you support obama,(I wont capitalize his name because he deserves no respect)think about ALL the campaign speeches,"I'm going to stop these wars", peace, love, happiness, oooh vote for me I'll change everything,..he's sending more troops and breaking promises every week,I wonder how many of you liberals that voted for him because you got sucked into his lies are NOW relizing what a mistake you made...I remember during the campaign all the obama bumper stickers, in my area obama stickers are now a rare thing to see, I'm guessing they were all taken off in embarassment....if I voted for THAT GUY I wouldn't tell anybody either.

[chekitout]

Anybody back here would just be giving an opinion or an un-educated guess, only the Commanders and people serving over there know that answer. It would only take about half as many if they would bar all media and journalists and let the Marines, Soldiers, and Airforce start kicking but from one side to the other and take no prisioners and it would be over by Halloween.

[bubbadubba]

What a dumb question " How many troops should be in Afghanistan?"
First it needs to be specified which troops they are headlining about, Afghan troops? Taliban troops? NATO troops? Pakistani troops?.
So if the sloppy headline meant US or NATO troops, the answer is NONE, ZERO, ZILCH, NADA.
What is this, "are you smarter than a fifth grader" that question is too easy.

[Hosheen]

Easy answer. Zero! Iraq and Afghanistan have accomplished nothing but to serve as a giant recruiting program for the Taliban and other terrorists. All paid for by the USA along with total medical coverage for everyone in both countries while the USA has no health care plan. How stupid is that, "W" and BHO?

[steve54z]

How many Children died in Afghanistan? The Rebels intentionally kill them with vest bombs, land mines, and vehicle explosions. Others were placed under American missiles for propaganda purposes. These heinous Felons are bizarre wretches who deserve life in prison or killed by NATO bullets. Barack Obama should continue with sending technology to Afghanistan. The Criminals resort to ignorant and paranoid tactics like schizophrenic apes.

[Swine_Flu_Virus]

"Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and plot against us still," Mr. Obama said.

I voted for change. That meant bringing a halt to the fear-mongering, trillion dollar waste on fraudulent wars like Iraq ----- a country even Bush admitted had no links to 911 ------ and our relentless pursuit of the statistically overblown threat of the "boogieman" terrorist.

Thus far, there's been little but "pocket" change.

The Afghanistan war is primarily about war profiteering. According to THE INTELLIGENCE DAILY: "As of March 2009, there were 68,197 DOD contractors in Afghanistan, compared to 52,300 uniformed personnel. Contractors made up 57% of DOD's workforce in Afghanistan. This [IS] the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DOD in any conflict in the history of the United States . . .?

It is for them ----- and the 100 or so multinational corporations whose financial interests and profit margins our troops are sacrificing their lives to protect ---- that we are in Afghanistan.

[linggy]

I voted for Obama and peace! First came Gates! Now comes more and more war!
Please republicans (Palin?) give us an anti_war libertarian and we'll finally get some peace and prosperity!

[jodiver]

Does anyone even remember that the Russians tried this before and after years of failure in Afghanistan pulled out. We can learn by the mistakes of others and this type of war is unwinable by the modern military machine. Pull out now - it's going to happen eventually and we wont be in a better situation then than we are now.