Obama Claims Osama Death Indicates Success In Afghanistan
May 6th, 2011
President Obama speaks today, May 6th, at Fort Campbell, home of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which participated in Osama raid. He brought Vice President Biden with him. Seeing them together sends a signal, one of how important the military is to this government and secondly to indicate a sense of security, they are not afraid of a terrorist attack, at least not at Fort Campbell. President has all white soldiers behind him, with only one female, while speaking. That must imply something, like white soldiers are behind the president as seen on CSPAN.
This mission is vital to the security of the nation according to Obama. Vets deserve absolute best care in the world, he says. Because of sacrifice we are making advances in Afghanistan have broken the Taliban campaign, Obama claims. He says we have cut off the head of Al Qaeda. Obama states, the strategy is working and evidence is death of Osama. We are moving into a new phase, reducing American forces and transition to Afghan forces, starting this summer, Obama stated.
This is interesting; it fits exactly in the schedule Obama set last year. It seems he had this ace up his sleeve since he established the surge strategy. According to him he had information about Osama from last summer, but not when the surge was agreed too. But Osama was caught before his deadline to begin removing troops from Afghanistan, in the nick of time.
Obama finished up telling a heart wrenching 9/11 story and then went out shaking hands while a band played. It's not exactly a party, but it is celebratory.
The only thing that will be beneficial will be when American troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan and the rest of the troops are pulled out of Iraq, Germany, Korea, and Japan, to mention only the most known places where American troops are still based. That should be the first step in a 50% reduction in the US military budget. Even with that much of a reduction the USA would still be spending more on the military than any other country in the world.
As a student of history, I understand that if the USA pulls back it creates a power vacuum. No single power in the world seems to be in the position to replace the USA as the USA replaced the British in the 1940's and 1950's. China and Russia are certainly not about to build up their militaries to match the USA. The Russians tried that in the last century and lost. The best solution would be for NATO to become part of a United Nations peace keeping force. This would give the UN some military muscle and take the NATO force out of American domination. It should make warfare a more complicated matter to start, and thus hopefully less likely to occur. It's an idea.
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From Reuters
WASHINGTON | Fri Apr 29, 2011 4:13pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A surge of U.S. troops into Afghanistan has dealt a blow to the Taliban insurgency but total violence has risen since last fall and is likely to keep climbing, the Pentagon said on Friday in a new assessment of the war as it approaches its 10-year mark.
The Pentagon's twice-annual report to the U.S. Congress on the war comes as President Barack Obama plans to begin withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan in July. Only a modest drawdown is expected initially.
The rise in violence in Afghanistan, including roadside bombs, direct fire and other acts, was due in part to the troop surge, stepped-up targeting of insurgent safe havens and mild winter weather, the Pentagon said in its report.
The Pentagon acknowledged that the worst may be ahead, saying violence may peak in the next 12 months as Taliban and other militants seek to regain lost territory.
Officials say the Obama administration's decision to deploy an extra 30,000 soldiers helped push the Taliban from strategic areas of the Afghan south, diminishing the overall insurgent threat almost 10 years after the September 11 attacks on the United States that prompted the war.
The Pentagon report also said Afghan security forces have grown and improved in the past six months but not a single unit is yet able to operate effectively without foreign advisers.
The United States and its allies expect Afghan forces to take over security responsibilities as foreign troops withdraw. President Hamid Karzai has announced a plan to gradually put Afghan forces in security control starting in July.
These Afghan forces continue to struggle with problems of desertion, illiteracy and fighting prowess.
`A LOT TO DO'
"The situation on the ground is fundamentally changing. This is something that happens day by day, week by week, month by month over the past two years," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
"There's still a lot to do. There are going to be some tough days ahead," the official said.
NATO is bracing for a series of major attacks expected across Afghanistan over the next week, senior military officials said on Friday.
Bloodshed in the poor, fractured country hit its highest levels of the war in 2010, as foreign powers struggled to create a potent Afghan fighting force and buttress the weak, corrupt government in Kabul.
In its report — which covers October 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011 — the Pentagon warned that the Taliban and other militants had proven a resilient adversaries, adapting techniques and seeking to expand influence into new areas.
Insurgent infiltration from Pakistan remains a major problem, although the Obama administration is trying to temper its criticism of Islamabad to try to salvage an important relationship that has been battered in recent months.
Obama, seeking re-election in 2012, opposed the Iraq war before he took office and is seeking to curtail the costly, unpopular Afghan conflict. The Pentagon does not expect any change to Obama's plan to begin withdrawing troops in July.
The Pentagon assessment, trumpeting strategic defeats of the Taliban and a reversal of insurgent momentum in some areas, may reflect the scaled-back goals Obama embraced as he promised to return the focus to a long-neglected conflict.
"Our objective in this war is not to kill every Taliban," the defense official said. "Our objective is for there to be a political process that is Afghan-led that results in the Afghans coming up with their own way forward."
Officials acknowledge that less progress has been made off the battlefield, where endemic corruption, poor services and deep poverty have alienated many Afghans from their government and fueled support for the Taliban.
The report said that political challenges and slow progress in improving governance could jeopardize gains in security.
Washington hopes that, even as the U.S. Afghanistan commander General David Petraeus prepares to leave Afghanistan in coming months to head the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the arrival of veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker as ambassador in Kabul will give U.S. civilian efforts a boost.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/29/us-afghanistan-usa-idUSTRE73S3NG20110429
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From Sacramento Bee
Obama's troop 'surge' in Afghanistan paid some dividends, report shows
By DAVID S. CLOUD
Tribune Washington Bureau
Published: Friday, Apr. 29, 2011 - 1:00 am
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's "surge" of 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan in the last year has produced "tangible progress," a new Pentagon report concludes, but it warns that a renewed Taliban offensive is expected as weather warms and the traditional fighting season takes hold.
Over the last six months, the U.S.-led multinational force and its Afghan allies have "broadly arrested the momentum of the insurgency in much of the country and have reversed it in a number of important areas," according to the report released Friday. But the gains, it added, are "fragile and reversible."
The capabilities of the Afghan army are steadily improving, and "senior insurgent leadership was increasingly challenged to keep subordinates committed to the fight," the report declares. Even so, it notes, "senior Taliban leaders continue to voice confidence in their ultimate success."
The mixed assessment in the report to Congress, which is required by law twice a year, underscores the Pentagon's concern that the security situation could deteriorate in coming months as the Taliban seeks to regain former strongholds in southern and eastern regions.
Some U.S. commanders concede that the number of insurgent attacks is likely to rise to a record high this year, even though the militants face more U.S., European and Afghan troops than ever before.
"This year and this spring, the Taliban are going to make some significant efforts," said a senior defense official, who answered questions about the report in return for anonymity. "And that's going to be a big challenge for the Afghan forces, for us, as those efforts are made."
The report's cautious findings also point to the Pentagon's worry that claims of too much progress in the decade-old war could strengthen those in the White House who advocate a significant withdrawal of U.S. troops this year.
Although thousands of insurgents have been killed or captured since the start of the war, the Pentagon report said, the "cumulative impact" will be impossible to gauge until later this year.
The 122-page report was released as Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan, prepares his recommendations for troop withdrawals. President Barack Obama has pledged to begin pulling troops out in July but he has not decided how large the initial drawdowns will be, or when the entire surge force can come home, officials say.
The report comes a day after Obama said he will nominate Petraeus as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The four-star general will keep his command in Afghanistan until early fall, however.
In recent weeks, Afghan insurgents have carried out several high-profile assassinations and suicide bombings against local Afghan officials. They also staged a dramatic jailbreak, digging an underground tunnel to help nearly 500 Taliban detainees escape from the Sarposa prison in Kandahar.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/04/29/3590524/obamas-troop-surge-in-afghanistan.html
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