[denwerdinoss]

Afghanistan was under control for most of the previous administration...

*sails back onto this awful thread fer a rebuttal*

*clears his throat*

ahoy CYDharta!

matey, as Afghanistan again recedes from public view (because americans don't care 'bout it), i found a report that seems to contradict yer statement. when ye made this remark, i wondered how true it was, but didn't address it at the time.

i will now, though.

the previous administration seemingly didn't have Afghanistan "under control", as ye put it, and i've a pretty good source;
the US ARMY. aye!!!!!

In the fall of 2003, the new commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, decided on a new strategy. Known as counterinsurgency, the approach required coalition forces to work closely with Afghan leaders to stabilize entire regions, rather than simply attacking insurgent cells.
But there was a major drawback, a new unpublished Army history of the war concludes. Because the Pentagon insisted on maintaining a “small footprint” in Afghanistan and because Iraq was drawing away resources, General Barno commanded fewer than 20,000 troops.

As a result, battalions with 800 soldiers were trying to secure provinces the size of Vermont. “Coalition forces remained thinly spread across Afghanistan,” the historians write. “Much of the country remained vulnerable to enemy forces increasingly willing to reassert their power.”

That early and undermanned effort to use counterinsurgency is one of several examples of how American forces, hamstrung by inadequate resources, missed opportunities to stabilize Afghanistan during the early years of the war, according to the history, “A Different Kind of War.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/wo...0report&st=cse

readin' this report made me more sympathetic to the current administration's deliberations in chartin' the proper course this past year.

the report be quite critical 'o how president Bush and his officers handled things, 'tis no wonder it took several months fer our new president how to handle this mismanaged conflict.

*salute*

- MeadHallPirate