Top Marine says Obama giving sustenance to TalibanFollow

Tulip,


So you're saying the general didn't say that? Is that it?

Tulip,

For arguments sake say the general did say that, would that change any of your opinions on the publicly outspoken withdrawal date?

For arguments sake say the general did say that, would that change any of your opinions on the publicly outspoken withdrawal date?

But the general, who is retiring this fall, said he thought the deadline might not ultimately comfort the insurgents, who could find that only a small number of United States forces leave Afghanistan next July, a scenario that is increasingly set forth by Pentagon officials and senior military commanders. General Conway predicted that Taliban foot soldiers, who he said have been told repeatedly by their commanders that the Americans would leave en masse, would be demoralized when they realize that the United States is staying.

“What’s he going to say to his foot troops,” General Conway observed about Taliban commanders, when, “come the fall, we’re still there hammering them like we have been? I think it could be very good for us in that context, in terms of the enemy’s psyche and what he has been, you know, posturing now for, really, the better part of a year.”

Tulip,

For arguments sake say the general did say that, would that change any of your opinions on the publicly outspoken withdrawal date?

The general’s blunt appraisal – that Afghan security forces are not likely to be ready to take the lead in a year’s time – is not a surprise. But timing of the troop drawdown is a contentious political issue. When Obama announced a surge of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in December, he said the transfer of forces in mid-2011 would depend on conditions on the ground, including the ability of Afghan security forces to take over responsibility for security.

Conway said, “I honestly think it will be a few years before conditions on the ground are such that turnover will be possible for us.”

I'd say the hullabaloo over the Ground Zero Mosque has done far more to incite the wrath of the Taliban and give them encouragement that the US is at war with Islam than the US leaving Iraq did.

They do inasmuch as they can use the whole shouting match over it for recruiting purposes.

That said, the Taliban uses pretty much everything that goes wrong anywhere for recruiting purposes and blames it on the US.

They do inasmuch as they can use the whole shouting match over it for recruiting purposes.

That said, the Taliban uses pretty much everything that goes wrong anywhere for recruiting purposes and blames it on the US.

most Americans havn't got a clue as to why their in Afghanistan either.

And I think AQ and every other radical muslim group will use it as a visible rallying point for the pro-sharia law bunch.

Have you bothered to research the Imam you so readily defend?