Sounds as if Obama is near a decision, tonights meeting with military advisers by all accounts is the last he will have before finalizing a strategy. I'd be expecting an address next week to announce it.

Why is this important? Afghanistan is still the war we needed to fight from the beginning if we are to combat those who perpetuate things like 9/11. I won't mention Iraq beyond saying it was a distraction from what we really should have been doing. We would likely be into an exit from Afghanistan by now had that war had the support that Iraq bled off.

The Right accuses Obama of dithering but honestly it was their guy that put Afghanistan on the back burner and let the Taliban re-group. Obama is just trying to fix it and I'd far rather he took his time and had an overall plan before he commits more troops, unlike Iraq where we had no plan beyond smashing Saddam.

Oh and the Taliban? Most Americans think that the Taliban is some all inclusive evil organization devoted to Al Queda's goals and death to the evil Americans. The "Taliban" is in fact comprised of at least 5 or 6 major groups, of those....the truly radical ones, that I would consider enemies, there are only really 2. The majority of the "Taliban" are tribal/ethnic groups that have always resisted a central government. All one really has to do is look at the history of Afghanistan......it's never been united and I think the only reason it's now a "country" is because everyone who's ever tried to do anything there has failed :) Afghanistan is truly more of a culture  based upon topography than a country.

 The buzz I hear is that Obama will probably go with around the 40k troops his general requested but tasked a little differently. Combined with increased support for the Pakistani efforts in the Tribal Areas, it could work. Sounds like we will be continuing if not increasing the use of drones, you have to admit they are very effective cost wise. And in the Afghan/Pakistanian border area, the more surveillance you have, the better off you will be. Also I have seen from several sources now that we are in low profile negotiations with a number of the factions that comprise the Taliban. It is very possible we will work deals with some of these groups.  Meanwhile, due to both pressure and the Pakistanis finally realizing that the tribal areas were a serious threat to them, Pakistan is slowly eliminating that safe haven.

To me it is very apparent that this conflict is necessary on a global level. Remember that Pakistan is a nuclear power, I'd hate to see the hard core Islamic Pakistani Taliban get a hold of nukes. People who think suicide bombing of civilians is ok do not need access to that. My worst nightmare is a terrorist with a backpack nuke, boom.....city gone. And the Afghan/Pakistanian border is where the people who think like this hide.

We can never "make" Afghanistan into a country  as we've tried to do with Iraq and I know that Obama knows this. If we can eliminate the safe areas between us and Pakistan on their side of the border, mission accomplished. With Pakistan pushing on one side and a surge from NATO on the other, we are doing terrorist infrastructure a lot of damage. As more remote areas come under control and with increased drone surveillance, we can probably "win" this war. Remember the war is not really about Afghanistan at all, it's about eliminating terrorist safe havens.

I'm glad to see that a decision is coming soon, but glad that hopefully it's been looked at carefully :)  I hope that Obama will take the best that his professional military has given him as options, and once the decision is made stick by it and keep listening to the people at the pointy end as to what is needed :)


My 2cp