Wednesday, September 10, 2008

To Surge, with love,

McCain loves to tell us how the "surge" was his idea and how it worked and how it makes him a great leader. Of course, he ignores all of the other things that happened at the same time, the Anbar Awakening, Sadr standing his troops down, building trust and relationships with local leaders, $$$ for not fighting, etc.

Now we have an Admiral telling us that sending in more troops won't work in Afghanistan. He says we can't 'Kill our way to victory".

Admiral: Troops alone will not yield victory in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. is "running out of time" to win the war in Afghanistan, and sending in more troops will not guarantee victory, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, warned Congress on Wednesday.

......"We can't kill our way to victory, and no armed force anywhere -- no matter how good -- can deliver these keys alone. It requires teamwork and cooperation," Mullen said.

......Until Afghan security forces gain the backing of local leaders to improve security, "we will only be as much as a crutch, and a temporary one at that," the admiral said.

"We can hunt down and kill extremists as they cross over the border from Pakistan, as I watched us do during a daylong trip to the Korengal Valley in July. But until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, the enemy will only keep coming," he said.

Mullen also said roads, schools and courts can be built and repaired, but that work is not enough, either. Afghanistan needs more experts in commerce, agriculture, jurisprudence and education. The nation also needs "foreign investment, alternative crops, sound governance and the rule of law."

Until then, Mullen said, these institutions "will remain but empty shells."
Hmmm, why didn't we think of doing all of that in Iraq.... oh, we DID.... someone just forgot to tell John McCain.

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