Additionally, Obama's commanders have the support of 94,000 troops of the Afghan National Army and perhaps 100,000 U.S. contractors, thousands of whom are armed.
And if the tide of war is "receding," as Mr. Obama claims, why are civilian casualties there at an all-time high? Since Obama took office, UK's Guardian reports, total Afghan civilian deaths have soared. In 2008, under President Bush, in his last year in office they were 2,118; in 2009, they rose to 2,412; and last year they rose again to 2,777. Does this sound to you like the war is winding down?
According to Wikipedia,: counting U.S. and International Security Assistance Force(ISAF) deaths, "2010 was the deadliest year for foreign military troops since the U.S. invasion in 2001, continuing the trend that has occurred every year since 2003." Does this sound to you like the war is winding down?
In its report of June 23, the New York Times says, "Most American forces are expect to leave Afghanistan by 2014." At the rate Afghan civilians are dying, if past is prologue, Obama's decision means some 6,000 more civilians are liable to be killed. Since the President said that the United States had largely achieved its goals in Afghanistan, what is the point of prolonging the war another three years? Obama's plan is not a peace plan. It is a war plan. Ditto for his attacks on Libya, Pakistan, and Yemen. President Obama looks more like Mussolini every day. #
(Sherwood Ross is director of the Anti-War News Service. To comment or contribute to his effort, e-mail him at Email address removed).
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