From The Cable/Foreign Policy:
There are increasing signs the administration is wrapping up its Afghanistan strategy review and planning a rollout toward the end of the week beginning November 16, immediately after President Obama and other top officials return from Asia.
Reliable sources tell The Cable that the review has entered its final stages, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Advisor Jim Jones now taking the lead and putting on the final touches.
Today, Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke cancelled a planned speaking event scheduled for Wednesday, November 18, at the Women's Foreign Policy Group, "due to unforeseen changes in the speaker's schedule," a group representative said.
And the rest of the President's team is back in town on Thursday, November 19.
Read more ....
My Comment: The leaks on what will be the Afghan strategy are already coming out of Administration officials. In short .... a surge of 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers, and a focus on protecting major urban centers. The countryside will be left to the Taliban, but it is hoped that through the gathering of intelligence and using special forces against Taliban targets that the Afghan government and allied forces will be able to thwart and disrupt Taliban attacks and cells.
From my point of view .... if these leaks are true .... we are going down a road in which we are repeating what the Soviets tried to do in the 1980s. They also focused on the urban centers, limited their presence in the countryside, and used intelligence and special forces to disrupt the enemy. But in the end .... they failed.
Sighhh ..... it appears that we are repeating history.
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