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If Obama saw folks rising up to protest this war like we did for GWBush he would listen to the will of the people, but that's not happening. I think after he's been in office 1 year people will raise their voices more. He's got alot on his plate that's for sure. We sure love him as OUR President and who would want to step into the shoes of GWB< after all the caos

Catalinamoon, I read your post earlier this afternoon and the question you raise ,"why won't Obama end the wars?", has been on my mind all afternoon because I wanted to have an answer for you. The truth is, I don't. However, I don't think it is as much a question of "why won't he" as "how can he".
If you remember the original strategy laid out by the Bushwackers in the weeks following the disaster of what was 9/11, it was to go in to Afghanistan and kill Osama Bin Laden because "I promise you we will get the people responsible for knockin down these buildings". Now I believe that it was the intent of the Bushwackers to use Afghanistan as a prop in "the war on terrorism" to invade Iraq, kill Suddam Hussein (because he tried to kill my Daddy were Jr's words) and take control of Iraq's oil. You surely would not be able to sell that to the American people. Hence the ensuing lies about WMD and the rest of that crock of doo-doo. We have suffered 4671 American casualties and 1495 International Occupation Troops have been killed. We have killed 1,339,771 Iraqies and desimated their country and completley underestimated their abilities to fight back. That war is lost and everybody knows it. Thats why it's being swept under the rug and nobody talks about much anymore. So I guess my question is how do we leave? Do we just get everybody on a plane, fly them home and that's it?

As far as Afghanistan goes, the Bushwackers didn't even bother to have a strategy much less an exit strategy. The Soviet Union was not successful in Afghanistan after ten long years and it almost brought the country to complete collapse. It is my fervent prayer that this does not happen to us but in reality we are not far from that end. We have been wandering in the desert there for over 8 years now with no clear cut mission. Another failure? In my humble opinion, yes. But again, my question is HOW do we leave? The answers to these questions elude me. I would really appreciate everyone's input on this subject. Sorry this got so long.

Linda

I agree with you that it's more a question of "how can he" rather than "why won't he"; talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place! It seems there is no good answer, just "worse and worser" options (and which is which?) No matter what he does, the right wingnuts will use it against not only him, but all Democrats. I think he truly wants to do the right thing but will be damned either way.
No other country has been "successful" in Afghanistan; what made us think we would be without any real plan other than to "get BinLaden"?! I think Obama really did not realize the depth and extent of the mess that he was walking into and I feel badly for him, to be honest. I think he is an honorable man, trying to fix everything that he inherited.
I personally would like to see our troops come home; they are stretched way beyond thin and have been deployed way too many times. If and when we leave, the Taliban will take over again and I worry about the fate of women in that environment. But, that is going to be the case no matter when we leave so what are we accomplishing by staying, other than losing more of our servicemen and women? What should be the point where we say "enough is enough"?
Sorry about rambling here. I really would like to see a good discussion here on this topic too.

Sorry... lol... I know I have just about exhausted my time on the floor but I just want to say one more thing to catalinamoon. Our President needs us behind him now more than ever. Our commitment to him and our country didn't end when he became President. Keep posting your concerns on whitehouse.gov. I do..almost daily. The President and his administration do care and somebody is reading them and passing the emails on to the President every day. Don't lose hope... as UpnorthWoman said.. our President has had to hit the ground running..he has to overcome many,many obstacles.. the least of which is the dopes of nope that are the GOP and the stupid ass blue dog Dems that are more interested in protecting their wives wallets than protecting their country.

I agree with you, President Obama has had a lot to deal with, and I too believe he is a very honorable man. But I feel like he can end the wars, he is in charge. He can do it, say thats it, we are all leaving, and send planes for them. Thats what had to happen in vietnam, they just finally came home. I just don't see the point in continuing. Oh and I also worry about the Talibans treating of women, but have you heard about our good friends the Saudis, and how they were going to kill a woman for being raped? So..we are not invading Saudi Arabia, are we. Cause that wouldn't be good for the oil, etc.. I also just heard that the US is planning to pay some taliban to change sides. This may be a ridiculous rumor(I hope), but it was on CNN's crawl. If it is true, I have to throw my hands up and just cry. I do support our president, he is the best one we have had in a long time, and I appreciate every minute we have him. I just don't understand why keep up with these wars. The cost is too high. Even aside from the deaths, the terrible injuries, both physical and mental are about decimating a generation of mostly poor kids who had nothing else for them such as a college education, and those who were brainwashed into thinking it is partiotic to die for nothing. I was on the streets protesting vietnam, and I don't see the interest in enough people caring about these wars. Perhaps its because there is no draft, so many people see these kids as "willing" victims. I don't see it that way. If only we could make our voices heard louder and louder.
Peace to you all

I agree we need to get out of both Iraq and Afghanistan. We had no business in Iraq in the first place. The reason we went to Afghanistan, in my thinking, can't possibly be there anymore. We were supposed to be going after Bin Laden. We've never found him, but why are we still looking?....he was on dialysis clear back when we went there in the first place. You know nobody can live on dialysis for this many years!

Second, our military is doing exactly what Iraq was accused of. If weapons of mass destruction are such a no-no, then why are our troops using spent uranium in the anti-tank ammunition over there? Why are we contaminating the whole area with this stuff? Why are our young people coming home, and almost all the children they're having after they come home have birth defects? The same people's kids that were born before they went over there, were perfectly healthy. Is this another example of "collateral damage"? It seems our military doesn't have much respect for life, of not only civilians in war zones, but of our own people.

I think it's time we not only demand that our people all come home, but that our military quits using something so devastating to civilians, and our own military personnel! They claim we're against WMD's! Our spent uranium weapons are nothing but dirty bombs!

I'm totally ashamed of my country's actions! There's no excuse for all of this.

I think that these things are much more simplistic from the outside looking in. I refer back to the movie "Charlie Wilson's War" - we just don't have an end game. The Afghani people beat the Russian army.....the Soviets had.a far more committed effort than ours has been. (Certainly the Afghanis had the help of our covert ops, but there is no reason to believe that the reverse is not going on - in either Iraq or Afghanistan or both. Having built a world economy based on the military-industrial complex, all major players like to dabble in the arms trade. The US is the largest arms dealer in the world.

That said, I would love to get our troops home and held real fears that at the rate the Bush administration was escalating, the draft would be reinstated, sooner than later. I think the question is not why or when but how without leaving a power vacuum?

catalina moon asks.." General will get more young kids"

The average age of the soldier in these latest wars Iraq and Afghanistan is 30. Compare to average age in Vietnam - 19.

I think that may be one answer as to why there isn't more pressure to end these wars...the soldiers are not dying by the 10's of thousands and their age is 30.

We could achieve any kind of victory in Vietnam, never the goal and the same holds true for these latest two...victory was never the goal.

I am disappointed in Obama seemingly waffling on this and I had hoped for more conviction.

...my thoughts only

Obama campaigned on the platform of "We must succeed in Afghanistan." Now he's been asked to add 40,000 troops to the war. The problem is that our current strategy requires more like an additional 300,000 for a decade or so; we simply don't have the military resources to win a counter insurgency war in Afghanistan. He has decided to conduct a review and figure out what to do based on what needs to be done and what has a chance of succeeding.

I'm willing to give him the time and political space to work this puzzle out, not for his sake, but for mine.

A few random thoughts on the wars..........

Bush Family Oil interests and Cheney's Halliburton and Construction and reconstruction profits got us into and kept us in the middle east wars

Unreasonable fear of the Taliban and Al Quaida, kept us thinking the local population needed saving from them.

We were told it was our responsibility to rebuild the country,all its infrastructure, its economy, and its political system, even if it meant disregarding their centuries old culture, customs, and beliefs and internal hatreds of each other....

Somehow our friends, supposed allies there can't do anything right, like rebuilding anything, training soldiers or police, maintaining pipelines and wells, knowing where any bad guys are, conducting elections, distributing relief supplies, or getting along with each other...

On the other hand the spooky bad guys are incredibly smart, clever and nefarious. They know just how to deliver, when and where to place bombs, how to set up ambushes, how to disappear, how to disquise themselves in military and police uniforms. infilterate our bases, operate Poppy farms, live off arid land without livestock crops or wells etc etc

So, our politicians and large corporations may have lots of reasons to keep it going but Joe the Plumber hasn't any, and neither have I. We have overstayed our welcome there by at least six years so its time to pack up and say farewell