DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Taliban is losing its advantage in Afghanistan

**apannamma** · 08-29-2012, 10:32 PM

Mr. Secretary General, thank you for the chance to speak this morning, at what I believe is a critical juncture for our mission in Afghanistan.

In the past year, our men and women on the ground, in partnership with Afghan Forces, have dealt a heavy blow to the Taliban insurgency, securing population centers and pushing the Taliban out of vital areas in the south and east. Thanks to this progress, further detailed by General Petraeus, we have the opportunity this year to begin the first steps in a process that will transition the lead for security responsibility to the Government of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, in accordance with the principles our leaders agreed to at Lisbon. Yet even as we move ahead on transition, we know there will be harder and heavier fighting to come in the months ahead, and that many of the gains we have seen could be reversed if we do not remain fully committed to this effort.

So with that in mind, I want to address three main items today:

First, our mission in Afghanistan and the undeniable progress the ISAF campaign has made in the past year;
Second, my very serious concern that this progress could be threatened by ill-timed, precipitous, or uncoordinated national drawdowns; and,
Finally, how we can instead plan for a transition to Afghan lead that will be deliberate, organized, and coordinated – thus giving us the chance to make irreversible the security gains we have all fought so hard for.
http://www.defense.gov/speeches/spee...?speechid=1547 Gates thinks we're winning too. Imagine if this factual message was repeated as often as the body counts. How would Americans feel about the war then?

08-29-2012, 10:32 PM	#28
apannamma Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 409 Senior Member	Mr. Secretary General, thank you for the chance to speak this morning, at what I believe is a critical juncture for our mission in Afghanistan. In the past year, our men and women on the ground, in partnership with Afghan Forces, have dealt a heavy blow to the Taliban insurgency, securing population centers and pushing the Taliban out of vital areas in the south and east. Thanks to this progress, further detailed by General Petraeus, we have the opportunity this year to begin the first steps in a process that will transition the lead for security responsibility to the Government of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, in accordance with the principles our leaders agreed to at Lisbon. Yet even as we move ahead on transition, we know there will be harder and heavier fighting to come in the months ahead, and that many of the gains we have seen could be reversed if we do not remain fully committed to this effort. So with that in mind, I want to address three main items today: First, our mission in Afghanistan and the undeniable progress the ISAF campaign has made in the past year; Second, my very serious concern that this progress could be threatened by ill-timed, precipitous, or uncoordinated national drawdowns; and, Finally, how we can instead plan for a transition to Afghan lead that will be deliberate, organized, and coordinated – thus giving us the chance to make irreversible the security gains we have all fought so hard for. http://www.defense.gov/speeches/spee...?speechid=1547 Gates thinks we're winning too. Imagine if this factual message was repeated as often as the body counts. How would Americans feel about the war then?
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