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Thread: Bombshell: 500,000 Troops Will Be Required Over Five Years in Afghanistan

  1. #1

    Exclamation Bombshell: 500,000 Troops Will Be Required Over Five Years in Afghanistan

    This bombshell was dropped by NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday:

    The numbers are really pretty horrifying. What they say, embedded in this report by McChrystal, is they would need 500,000 troops - boots on the ground - and five years to do the job. No one expects that the Afghan Army could step up to that. Are we gonna put even half that of U.S. troops there, and NATO forces? No way. [Morning Joe, September 23, 2009]
    Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-an..._b_298528.html

    Update/Correction: Andrea Mitchell, the reporter may have misinterpreted the document:

    If Mitchell is implying that McChrystal will ask President Obama to reach those totals ahead of Afghan abilities to reach 500,000, she’s mistaken. The resource request amounts to a debate over whether the U.S. and NATO will need somewhat more than the approximately 103,000 troops already committed to get the Afghan forces up to 400,000.
    Last edited by Chieftain1776; 09-24-2009 at 03:44 PM.
    "We took it in the shorts with Bush-Cheney, the Iraq War, and by sacrificing fiscal responsibility to hold power.”
    ~John Boehner, GOP Minority Leader

    "Take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement.... Look, I know this probably sounds arrogant to say but I redefined the Republican Party." ~President George W. Bush to speechwriter



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  3. #2
    500,000! The Soviet Union had 112,000 at their peak so I would say that the half million number is accurate, but necessary or possible - no way! Hopefully Obama swallows his words - "war of necessity"
    "You ain't fooling nobody.........with the lights out!"

  4. #3
    Bill Kristol probably had a big slobbering grin on his face when he heard that.
    "Your mother's dead, before long I'll be dead, and you...and your brother and your sister and all of her children, all of us dead, all of us..rotting in the ground. It's the family name that lives on. It's all that lives on. Not your personal glory, not your honor, but family." - Tywin Lannister


  5. #4
    Here comes the draft.
    Why can't everybody else leave everybody else alone?

  6. #5
    Give me 150 000 marines, some tanks and I will wipe the whole country out. Are you joking? 500 000 troops for that crap? Someone needs to fire some generals. :P

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Cowlesy View Post
    Bill Kristol probably had a big slobbering grin on his face when he heard that.
    Excuse my frankness, but I strongly feel that the neo-conservative foreign policy is deeply rooted in an indifference, if not a desire to exterminate brown peoples.
    "You ain't fooling nobody.........with the lights out!"

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Cowlesy View Post
    Bill Kristol probably had a big slobbering grin on his face when he heard that.
    I don't know if this is good for the neocons. Americans won't sacrifice that much on vague threats abroad. Remember how Wolfowitz got pissed when Shinseki estimated less for Iraq?

    In February 2003, just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Army Gen. Eric Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. would need “several hundred thousand soldiers” to secure Iraq. Two days later, then-deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz dismissed Shinseki’s prediction saying it was “wildly off the mark."
    If this is correct then the neocon project is dead. Americans might put up with a small part of the population doing the fighting and dying on a credit card but this is immediate pain for what even the neocons can only sell as little gain.
    "We took it in the shorts with Bush-Cheney, the Iraq War, and by sacrificing fiscal responsibility to hold power.”
    ~John Boehner, GOP Minority Leader

    "Take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement.... Look, I know this probably sounds arrogant to say but I redefined the Republican Party." ~President George W. Bush to speechwriter

  9. #8

    Go for a surrender flag, no troops needed

    Bomb the crap out of them until they surrender or get out. No undeclared pussyfoot war is winnable.



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Johnnybags View Post
    Bomb the crap out of them until they surrender or get out. No undeclared pussyfoot war is winnable.
    They will NEVER surrender.
    "You ain't fooling nobody.........with the lights out!"

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by TGGRV View Post
    Give me 150 000 marines, some tanks and I will wipe the whole country out. Are you joking? 500 000 troops for that crap? Someone needs to fire some generals. :P
    It is one of the places on the Earth that can not be conquered.

    Either a dozen nuke strikes or, more realistic, use the CIA to keep warlords at each other to the extent that the Taliban can't dominate the area.
    Out of every one hundred men they send us, ten should not even be here. Eighty will do nothing but serve as targets for the enemy. Nine are real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, upon them depends our success in battle. But one, ah the one, he is a real warrior, and he will bring the others back from battle alive.

    Duty is the most sublime word in the English language. Do your duty in all things. You can not do more than your duty. You should never wish to do less than your duty.

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Pericles View Post
    It is one of the places on the Earth that can not be conquered.

    Either a dozen nuke strikes or, more realistic, use the CIA to keep warlords at each other to the extent that the Taliban can't dominate the area.
    Yes it can. Execute everyone. Obviously, I wouldn't do this, but it is possible to conquer it.

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by TGGRV View Post
    Yes it can. Execute everyone. Obviously, I wouldn't do this, but it is possible to conquer it.
    At the time, we thought the Soviets were trying that, as their army is not followed around by CBS News.

    In 1980, I was in a room where Ted Heath (former Prime Minister of the UK) said "We British have fought 3 wars in Afghanistan and lost each of them. I would be terribly disappointed to think that the Russians will win on their first attempt."

    And now it is our turn.
    Out of every one hundred men they send us, ten should not even be here. Eighty will do nothing but serve as targets for the enemy. Nine are real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, upon them depends our success in battle. But one, ah the one, he is a real warrior, and he will bring the others back from battle alive.

    Duty is the most sublime word in the English language. Do your duty in all things. You can not do more than your duty. You should never wish to do less than your duty.

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Pericles View Post
    At the time, we thought the Soviets were trying that, as their army is not followed around by CBS News.

    In 1980, I was in a room where Ted Heath (former Prime Minister of the UK) said "We British have fought 3 wars in Afghanistan and lost each of them. I would be terribly disappointed to think that the Russians will win on their first attempt."

    And now it is our turn.
    If the Russians were doing that, why were any villages left standing? They weren't doing that.

  16. #14
    Andrea Mitchell most likely misinterpreted the document. See OP. Still that amount of trained, unified, and patriotic Afghan security forces is a pipe dream.
    "We took it in the shorts with Bush-Cheney, the Iraq War, and by sacrificing fiscal responsibility to hold power.”
    ~John Boehner, GOP Minority Leader

    "Take out all this movement stuff. There is no movement.... Look, I know this probably sounds arrogant to say but I redefined the Republican Party." ~President George W. Bush to speechwriter

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by TGGRV View Post
    Yes it can. Execute everyone. Obviously, I wouldn't do this, but it is possible to conquer it.
    Hah! I'll start a chip-in to send you, Objectivist and the Ayn Rand Institute scholars over there with Bushmasters, some MREs and helmets. Go nuts!
    "Your mother's dead, before long I'll be dead, and you...and your brother and your sister and all of her children, all of us dead, all of us..rotting in the ground. It's the family name that lives on. It's all that lives on. Not your personal glory, not your honor, but family." - Tywin Lannister


  18. #16
    some dumbass called into a radio show yesterday saying "we just need to send in 5,000 marines. Thats it. Send in 5,000 marines and they will get the job done"

    There seems to be a lot of dumbasses out there who completely overestimate military personnel.



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  20. #17
    Sounds like everything is going according to plan. By 2012, the Afghan war will be such an onerous topic that a lot of Republicans will be back to 1999/2000 GWB style campaigning of no nation building and no policing the world. Hmm, what might trigger that? Oh....I bet a draft initiated by Obama would do it. Rinse and repeat cycle starting all over again.

    Is it really that predictable?
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book

  21. #18
    the military has completely done a 180 on the policies that encouraged a larger force. We are now not accepting the same lower standards as easily as the Bush years, there is no longer a "stop loss" policy in place, and people are being discharged for medical reasons that were not a bother 4 years ago. I doubt this number could be sustained even with those things in place.
    The wisdom of Swordy:

    On bringing the troops home
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    They are coming home, all the naysayers said they would never leave Syria and then they said they were going to stay in Iraq forever.

    It won't take very long to get them home but it won't be overnight either but Iraq says they can't stay and they are coming home just like Trump said.

    On fighting corruption:
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    Trump had to donate the "right way" and hang out with the "right people" in order to do business in NYC and Hollyweird and in order to investigate and expose them.
    Fascism Defined

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Todd Morris View Post
    the military has completely done a 180 on the policies that encouraged a larger force. We are now not accepting the same lower standards as easily as the Bush years, there is no longer a "stop loss" policy in place, and people are being discharged for medical reasons that were not a bother 4 years ago. I doubt this number could be sustained even with those things in place.
    With unemployment at 10%, recruiting becomes much easier.
    Out of every one hundred men they send us, ten should not even be here. Eighty will do nothing but serve as targets for the enemy. Nine are real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, upon them depends our success in battle. But one, ah the one, he is a real warrior, and he will bring the others back from battle alive.

    Duty is the most sublime word in the English language. Do your duty in all things. You can not do more than your duty. You should never wish to do less than your duty.

  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Chieftain1776 View Post
    I don't know if this is good for the neocons. Americans won't sacrifice that much on vague threats abroad. Remember how Wolfowitz got pissed when Shinseki estimated less for Iraq?



    If this is correct then the neocon project is dead. Americans might put up with a small part of the population doing the fighting and dying on a credit card but this is immediate pain for what even the neocons can only sell as little gain.
    Americans won't sacrifice that much on vague threats abroad.
    That is a bit worrisome. Having a "vague threat" turning into something a little closer to home. I believe Afghanistan and 500,000/five years can be sold to the public, it just has to have the right sales pitch.

    Heck, maybe it doesn't even have to be sold -government will just do it.

    Bunkloco

  24. #21
    all the institutions in this country support and promote the idea of interventionism. we must be the resistance and the voice of the founders and the republic and the constitution!

  25. #22
    Considering the serious amount of history that demonstrates what happens when a "super power empire" goes into Afghanistan, would it be safe to say that invading that country is an intentional move to destroy the super power from within?

    I just can't believe that so many empires have been beaten down and broken in that part of the world, even from the times of Alexander The Great, to Britian, Russia, and now the US, and STILL no body has learned anything. Is Afghanistan where empires go to die?
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book



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