World-News

Jason Leopold, Truthout: "President Barack Obama intends to announce next week that he will deploy tens of thousands of additional US troops to Afghanistan, according to numerous published reports citing unnamed administration officials, to fight an eight-year-old war that a majority of Americans do not support and numerous Democratic lawmakers say is no longer worth waging."

http://www.truthout.org/1124099

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Senator questions US troop buildup

Charleston Daily Mail

11/29/09

The leading Senate Democrat on military matters said Sunday that President Barack Obama’s anticipated plan for significantly expanding U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan must show how those reinforcements will help increase the size of the Afghan security forces. Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that more Afghan army and police are central to succeeding in the 8-year-old war and more U.S. trainers and equipment can help meet that goal...

http://tinyurl.com/ydorbks



Object lessons from the Afghan quagmire

Boston Globe
by James Carroll

11/30/09

So tomorrow night, we hear from the president at last. Reports have it that he will lay out his plan for Afghanistan — how to ‘finish the job,’ as he put it last week. The judiciousness with which he has gathered information is impressive, and the slow pace of his decision-making suggests a welcome level of prudence. … Some of us wish to hear tomorrow that American forces in Afghanistan will join those in Iraq in a phased, but steady journey home; that soon our nation’s servicemen and women will be out of harm’s way; and that the United States will protect its interests in the Middle East and South Asia more through diplomacy and development than through military power. Reports also have it, however, that President Obama will more likely lay out a different plan, arguing that the best way out of the war is through it...

http://tinyurl.com/ykft22n



Protest against troop surge in Afghanistan
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=7142511



Throwing more troops at Afghanistan won’t work

Fox News Forum
by KT McFarland

11/30/09

So far, President Obama has failed to answer some basic questions on Afghanistan. Until he does, weighing how many troops to add is like putting the cart before the horse. President Obama must first clarify the mission: what does he want to accomplish in Afghanistan …? Is Our Goal to Destroy Al Qaeda? Well, Al Qaeda isn’t in Afghanistan anymore; we drove its ragtag remnant out in December 2001 when it decamped across the Tora Bora Mountains into the tribal regions of Pakistan. Is Our Goal to Prevent Al Qaeda from returning to Afghanistan? Yes, but can that be accomplished short of remaking Afghanistan? Do we really need 100,000 American troops and over $100 billion a year to keep a few thousand Al Qaeda from walking across the border?

http://tinyurl.com/yzbh6w7


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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The Hollow Politics of Escalation
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/30-2

Thoughts on the Eve of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner's Second Escalation Address
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/30-1



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