America has been here before

America has been here before By Eric Margolis

"The director of U.S. national intelligence just revealed Washington spent $75 billion US last year on intelligence, employing 200,000 people. Embarrassingly, the U.S. still can't find Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar after hunting them for eight years."

"America's attempts to build an Afghan sepoy army of 250,000 failed miserably. The 80,000 men raised to date are 95% illiterate and only on the job for money to feed their families. They have no loyalty to the corrupt western-installed government in Kabul. CIA's 74,000 "contractors" (read mercenaries) in Afghanistan are more reliable. "

The question of the day: does it take a genius to figure out that the invasion of the Middle East, for the purpose of establishing military authority in the region, is a complete and undeniable failure?

Oh, you're for the war and not ready to admit defeat? Maybe it's time to re-think what you thought the invasion was all about? Not moved? How about all the killing and destruction? Doesn't any of it bother you even a little? Still want to kill 'em all over there before they attack us here?

Classified McChrystal Report: 500,000 Troops Will Be Required Over Five Years in Afghanistan by Tom Andrews

"Embedded in General Stanley McChrystal's classified assessment of the war in Afghanistan is his conclusion that a successful counterinsurgency strategy will require 500,000 troops over five years."

"This bombshell was dropped by NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday: "

" "The numbers are really pretty horrifying. What they say, embedded in this report by McChrystal, is they would need 500,000 troops - boots on the ground - and five years to do the job. No one expects that the Afghan Army could step up to that. Are we gonna put even half that of U.S. troops there, and NATO forces? No way." [Morning Joe, September 23, 2000]
Mitchell got the figure from an independent source. It was not revealed in the redacted version of the once classified report released by the Pentagon earlier this week. McChrystal has warned the administration that without an infusion of more troops the eight-year war in Afghanistan "will likely result in failure". "


Bill