From Yahoo News/AP:KABUL, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai pressed America's top military leader Monday on the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and preparations to pour up to 30,000 more forces into the country, reflecting Karzai's concerns over civilian casualties and operations in villages. Karzai asked Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, what kinds of operations the newly deployed troops would carry out and told him that the Afghan government should be consulted about those missions.
The Afghan president, stinging from a series of civilian casualties in U.S. military operations in recent years, said he doubts that sending more American forces into Afghan villages will tamp down the insurgency, and he has questioned a U.S. plan to deploy 3,500 U.S. forces in two provinces on Kabul's doorstep next month.
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My Comment: When I look at the above graph, I feel like I am reliving Vietnam in the early 1960s. The options are so few and unpalatable when it comes to Afghanistan. It has always been a lawless and poor society. The terrain makes it impossible for any sustainable control by anyone, and the culture is hostile to foreigners .... even Afghans from other tribes.
Even if 500,000 U.S. soldiers are put into the country, and trillions of dollars in aid .... the country will still be a mess .... and it will still be uncontrollable. President Karzai may want a heads up on U.S. strategy .... but I think he will quickly find out that the strategy is probably being made on the fly .... with everyone actually hoping that some political settlement may be in the cards from President Karzai himself.
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