More troops!

Well, the President delivered on what has been speculated for days now and is sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. The left is in a tizzy, "we didn't vote for this". Oh, but you did, go back to the debates and the campaign. The right is upset about timelines. Our own Paul Ryan is quoted that the troops are fine but a timeline sends the wrong message. Only a Republican or someone who didn't listen to the speech would believe that we are leaving in 18 months. What the President said was that in 2011 we would begin withdrawing the additional troops if conditions on the ground have improved. Sounds open ended to me. If the conditions improve we'll take 30,000 out leaving 48,000 in country (that is still a lot of soldiers). How long are the 48,000 staying? No answer for that one. Say that the Taliban lay low for 18 months, that could be enough time to allow changes to made (I hate to use this example) like what happened in Iraq (never mind that we aren't really withdrawing from there either). So there is a chance that it could work. I still believe that a re-occupation is the best solution. We as a nation need to recognize that both of these wars are imperial wars, the liberation talk is to make people feel good, and that we now have acquired 2 new states. A war of liberation works in a country that is educated and has a political tradition. Something that neither Iraq or Afghanistan has had for more than 1000 years.