Obama/Clinton And Iraq

Just some of my thyoughts on their policy concering the troops in Iraq.

Obama/Clinton Iraq Troop Withdrawal

I have spent a bunch of time in the Ink Well(a name given to my cubby hole where I write by my daughter) checking all statements by candidates on various policies that they would impliment if elected president. Most of my thinking is about foreign policy and what implications their choices may have.

You have probably hear all about Obama's goof with the Pakistan statement and the ensuing replies from Clinton, from Pakistan and from Joe the flippin' butcher from the corner market. But I want to talk about one of their other foreign policy proposals.

Senators Obama and Clinton have a similar proposals for the war in Iraq. They would draw down the troops and send them to Afghanistan to assist in the hunt for Osama and the fight against the Taleban. This is a logical direction to take, since Afghanistan is the only war that could be justified. But I question the logic of such a move; while it would bolster the forces in the country and would add to the numbers searching out Islamic terrorist, I still do not think it would be an adviseable move. Why, you may ask?

IMO, if the troops were removed from Iraq and sent to Afghanistan a new problem would emerge. I believe that both of them are saying to take 20,000 of the Iraq troops and send them to Afghanistan along the border area with Pakistan. This area is where the Talebam are most active and everytime, at present, when there is an attack, NATO sends in more troops to help and the locals take it in the butt. When that happens support for the Taleban grows and strenghtens, so to say the 20,000 new troops in the area would be a good thing is ignoring past circumstances. I think that their plan is ill-conceived from ignorance of the situation or just politics on the road to the election. Either case it is not a good idea. The best tactic, IMO, would be to use air support and covert ops to fight the Taleban and let the Afghan army do what it is doing. Yes, it will take a long time to achieve the objective, but Afghans would have done it, with limited interference from NATO and the US.


CHUQ

01 August 2007