Word: trooped
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...that is the high drama that has been unfolding this autumn: the struggles of a highly intelligent, dispassionate man to find a rationale for a mission that is crucial but slightly crazy, a decision that will define his presidency. (See a graphic of the troop count and war funding in Afghanistan...
President Barack Obama has tied his decision to order 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to a pledge that they'll start returning home in 2011. But the President's West Point speech Dec. 1 was mute on his plans for the growing Afghan army, which remains the best - some would say only - way to bring home American personnel. His vagueness on the question of increasing the Afghan forces was understandable: the U.S. and its allies have already boosted target troop levels for the Afghan army four times, and the U.S. commander there, General Stanley McChrystal, wants the target...
...Obama strategy for victory has several parts, few of them novel. He will up the troop strength to nearly 100,000, from just 32,000 when he came into office. He will redouble efforts to support the corrupt Afghan government, build up the so-far scattershot Afghan security apparatus, and refocus efforts on establishing a sustainable, non-narcotic agricultural base for the economy. He promised to begin removing troops in July of 2011, but offered no guidance about the pace of withdrawal or an end point for the war. "As President, I refuse to set goals that go beyond...
...Obama's advisers have taken to calling the latest effort a "troop surge," an ironic term for an Administration that came to power by rejecting President Bush's "surge" of troops into Iraq. But nothing about Afghanistan has gone as expected. In March, his advisers spoke of the new strategy as a break from the past. Obama had then spoken of a "way forward." His speech Tuesday night was titled "The Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan...
...there had been widespread investment in literacy and education eight years ago. There would be not only fewer complaints about Afghan capacity, but also fewer problems with corruption, which flourishes when people lack education about their rights and venues of redress. "I'm sorry, Obama Administration, but your troop surge isn't going to work," says a senior U.N. official. "Unless you face up to the mistakes made in the early days, it's like polishing an apple that's rotten at the core...