Feb 07 2010

For Your Consideration

Gen. McChrystal says conditions in Afghanistan war are no longer deteriorating

ISTANBUL — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, whose gloomy assessment of the war last summer prompted the White House to boost troop levels, said Thursday that conditions are no longer deteriorating and predicted further improvements this year.

“I am not prepared to say that we have turned the corner,” Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal told a group of U.S. reporters during a NATO conference here. “I’m not prepared to say we are winning. I am prepared to say we are very much engaged, and I’m confident we’re going to see serious progress this year.”

snip

Asked why he thought the situation had improved, McChrystal said he could not point to specific measurements, but rather a general sense that security was better in some areas and that the mood among Afghan leaders was more optimistic.

My favorite quote from the comments

erwinroots wrote:

Isn’t “no longer deteriorating” the same as “can’t get any worse”?

Meanwhile back in the Real World

Afghanistan: 4,000 British troops set for biggest battle with Taliban

Afghan Police Kill 7 Mistaken for Insurgents

NATO allies to shuffle Afghan pledges to add training

NATO foresees more fighting in Afghanistan

And we still cannot afford to give every American access to health care or create jobs for the unemployed. But we can fight two illegal wars and let Wall St give huge bonuses to their executives while American home owners walk away from their “underwater” homes.  

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    • TMC on February 7, 2010 at 22:06
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    • Edger on February 7, 2010 at 22:12
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    Winning what?

    Winning friends and influencing people? Making more terrists to justify continuing the sham GWOT and being in Afghanistan in the first place? Winning what, exactly, General?

    Times of India, 26 minutes ago…

    KANDAHAR: A new and possibly decisive chapter of the Afghan war is unfolding. The US is preparing a major attack on the Taliban, the militants are being squeezed in their Pakistani sanctuaries, and the Afghan government is trying to draw them into peace talks.

    Taliban militants are also massing and preparing for the big fight, villagers fleeing the area said on Sunday.

    Around 2,000 people have fled their homes in a troubled southern district of Afghanistan ahead of the offensive intended to clear Taliban militants, officials said Sunday.

    Thousands of Nato and Afghan troops led by newly-deployed US marines are expected to carry out the operation in the Marjah area of Helmand province, described by military officials as the last bastion of Taliban control.

    If the assault goes ahead – possibly within days – it will be the biggest against the insurgents since the war started in 2001. Fearing for their safety, hundreds of war-weary Afghan families have packed their belongings and left the district, taking refuge in safer areas such as the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

    UN: Civilian Death Toll in Afghanistan Last Year Highest Since 2001

    January 13, 2010

    A U.N. report says the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan last year was higher than in any year since the U.S.-led coalition dislodged the Taliban in 2001 for harboring the al-Qaida terror network. The report says more than 2,400 civilians fell victim to the war-related incidents in 2009.

    Chief human-rights officer at the United Nations mission in Kabul, Norah Niland, released the annual findings to reporters in Kabul.

    She says non-combatant casualties went up 14 percent in 2009, describing it as the most deadly year for Afghan civilians since the conflict began.

  3. comment from there

    notabeliever wrote:

    After 10 years, they see progress? “I call 2010 the year of maximum effort,” Ivo H. Daalder, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, added in a meeting with reporters.

    “It is a year we are going to do everything we can so down the road we have to do less. . . .” What the heck have they been doing all this time, other than funneling our tax dollars to the military/industrial complex?

  4. Holy crap, look how long it takes to get out of a war (or in this case is still taking to get out) after one of the chief bozos in charge declares that “We have turned the Corner” (in Iraq).

    May 9, 2007:  ‘Well, Iraq’s looking good,’ Cheney responded…I think we’ve turned the corner…”

    Three years and still counting.  

  5. He is no more.  He is an ex-bird.  He is no longer deteriorating.  

  6. They haven’t quite “turned the corner” yet, but he knows they’re “very much engaged”. And the “mood was better” among Afghan leaders etc.

    I guess they have all future conspirators identified, and it’s just a matter of time before they’re nearly all killed. At least they assume it will be much harder for the remaining terrorists to get tickets to New York.

    And so many years from now when this thing finally winds down, we will be rest assured that the Saudi Arabian conspirators of 9/11 have been punished. And it will have been good, because the only geopolitical counterweight to Iran was removed, leaving the United States with a whole, brand spanking new problem for the MIC.

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