U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Esslinger scans a ridgeline from an observation post near Combat Outpost Munoz, Paktika province, Afghanistan, Nov. 15, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Andrew SmithFrom The Daily Beast:
Obama will give the military most of the troops it wanted, add more in a year if needed, push the Afghans to step up—and change the mission against al Qaeda. Leslie H. Gelb has the exclusive details.
President Barack Obama’s long-awaited Tuesday speech on Afghanistan offers lots more troops to the military and some promising rhetoric for war skeptics. He will authorize between 30,000 and 36,000 new U.S. troops, depending on prospective NATO contributions, and an additional 10,000 more in a year if necessary, according to administration sources. Obama will stress that these and other moves to strengthen the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda should be seen as a boost to friendly Afghans and not as an open-ended American commitment. The boost will provide the time and the incentives for America’s Afghan allies to prepare themselves to assume primary responsibility for continuing the battle.
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My Comment: Leslie Gelb was on the current affairs program Charlie Rose last night. Of the five that were on the panel, he was the one who made the most sense. Having said that, it is clear that Mr. Gelb has been one of the "chosen" in receiving a heads up on what the President will say on Tuesday .... and what he has outlined in this post compares to what are others have been saying for the past few weeks.
If what Leslie Gelb is saying is true .... the U.S. is now entering a long and bloody war in Afghanistan. The Taliban have been effective in promoting this conflict as a war of liberation against the infidel. And while the majority of the Afghan people are probably not in favor of the Taliban, the problem is that there are many who are supportive of the goals and ideology of the Taliban .... enough to realize that this will now be a long a bloody civil war of which we will be in the middle of it.
The White House has leaked out information that by 2017 the U.S. will be out of Afghanistan. My prediction .... a way out will be proposed in the spring of 2012.