Obama's Afghanistan Surge

December 6, 2009 4:06 PM

Will Obama's Afghan surge work? Will it end? Does it make sense? Is it grounded in reality? Will it backfire? Is it about Pakistan? Are expectations too high? Who profits? What about the contractors? Are there other options? Is it too late?
posted by HP LaserJet P10006 (9 comments total)

No, no, no, no, yes.
posted by kenko at 4:07 PM on December 6, 2009

no. yes. not really. yeah, no. almost certainly. well, duh! expectations? the same old names. most happy, thank you. always. it's always too late.
posted by jammy at 4:11 PM on December 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

We had a thread on his speech, just a few days ago. Do we really need another?
posted by delmoi at 4:11 PM on December 6, 2009

open thread fodder
posted by edgeways at 4:13 PM on December 6, 2009

"Will Obama's Afghan surge work?"

Did it work for England? Or the Soviets?
posted by bardic at 4:13 PM on December 6, 2009

Did it work for England? Or the Soviets?

Third time's the charm?
posted by GameDesignerBen at 4:19 PM on December 6, 2009

2 more Q: will there be enough SERIOUS body armour?
Fifth war since The Second World War?
On Armistice Day, at a full-scale meeting of his national-security team, Obama was presented with four options. According to what little has leaked out from under the closed doors, all four options called for more American troops, from ten thousand at the lower end to forty thousand at the upper. Though some in the Administration favor a smaller military footprint instead of a larger one, that was not among the choices offered to the President. For this fifth war, there was no fifth option.

like the top of the line armour, taking in all the research they've been doing, including protecting better for shocks to brains, because it seems like keeping people alive longer makes more economic/moral/logical/human sense than having to keep teaching new kids. That is, if we must impose things by force (but only in a seeming randomly distributed manner)
posted by infinite intimation at 4:27 PM on December 6, 2009

bardic; Did it work for England? Or the Soviets?

GameDesignerBen: Third time's the charm?

Tell it to Genghis Kahn.
posted by The Bellman at 4:44 PM on December 6, 2009

Good set of links, thanks. Found the letter in The Nation underscored some of my fears and the piece in the similarly-titled The National did a good job of expressing something like the analysis I was trying to articulate in the recent thread. Though must admit to an unfair chuckle at this wording in the former: 'But it is not an easy job, especially in a town where sound bites often usurp sound analysis. This week, as I drafted talking points...'
posted by Abiezer at 4:58 PM on December 6, 2009