(Note: Cross-posted on my website.)

In the hours leading up to President Obama’s formal announcement of his plan for how to deal with Afghanistan, I have decided that it is possible that he could convince me that his escalation of American involvement in that civil war is a good idea. Possible – but highly unlikely.

I understand the need to stop Al Qaeda from attacking us again, and the desire to establish stable, American-friendly governments in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The problem is that the area known as Afghanistan has never had a stable, American-friendly government; even though we helped put the Taliban in power in 1995 they didn’t like us very much. And while Pakistan is a nuclear power, so the need for at least a responsible government is even more urgent, it need not be American-friendly, so long as they have no desire to use their nuclear weapons against us.  read more »

(Note: This is cross-posted on my website, at http://www.danjacoby.com/politics/columns.)

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants to send an additional 4,500 American troops to Afghanistan to supplement the 30,000 already there. The problem is that 30,000 isn't enough to get the job done, especially since our NATO "allies" aren't sending as many as they said they would. Meanwhile, Secretary Gates is being told that we don't have 4,500 additional troops to send, so Americans are dying in Afghanistan, the American-backed "government" is corrupt and ineffective, and the Taliban is getting stronger.

The truth, however, is that we have plenty of troops. We could easily deploy far more than 4,500 to Afghanistan, and we could deploy them without reducing our forces in Iraq.

The Pentagon's "Base Structure Report" [1] for FY2007 recognizes over 800 American military bases overseas. Some of these bases have well over 10,000 U.S. troops. Global Research in Canada puts the total number of American troops overseas at over 250,000. [2]  read more »