Quotes of the Day: ‘There will be an increase in casualties. Every life is precious.’
Email"[The unemployment rate] might tick upward." – White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, anticipating tomorrow’s Labor Department report
“President Barack Obama is in a quandary over how to combat the country's crippling joblessness, but he won't lack for new ideas at Thursday's White House jobs summit. The forum's 130 guests plan to shower him and his staff with proposals — a few of which the administration may actually like. But for all the theater of the event, Mr. Obama has limited leverage to try to spur job growth, with interest rates already at rock bottom and federal deficits soaring.” — Neil King Jr., The Wall Street Journal
"I'm still not convinced. I do not see an achievable goal." – Congressman John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), on President Obama’s Afghanistan “surge” of forces
“There will be an increase in casualties. Every life is precious. We've lost 15 soldiers and Marines in November. We lost 44 in October. So I think the casualties will vary, particularly as we go into the winter. But I think it is virtually certain that come spring and the resumption of the full fighting, that those casualties will grow.” – Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, to ABC’s Charlie Gibson
“An Australian survey shows more than 825,000 gifts will go straight into the garbage bin this Christmas because their recipients just hate them.” – from our morning news summary
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‘There will be an increase in casualties. Every life is precious.’
Yo Gates, what about Afghan lives? Are they humans too? This war is a waste of resources and lives. Should be strictly an intelligence operation.
Posted by: Huh | December 3, 2009, 12:27 pm 12:27 pm
With WW III looming in the near future, this is not a major concern. It will appear to have been a minor war, by comparison.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | December 3, 2009, 1:59 pm 1:59 pm
There are a lot more domestic issues to solve than deploying 30.000 extra troops to Afghanistan.
What a waste! Billions of dollars per month are running down the drain to get rid of Talibans who want to grow their poppies in order to erect a totalitarian suppressive regime and promote terrorism.
It’s a war that cannot be won, only more U.S. casualties.
The American people are longing for affordable quality health care. They also want to have unemployment reduced.
Today the German parliament extended the mandate for German troops with a cap of 4.500 troops with estimated costs of €32,6m ($48,9m) for the next 6 months.
Compare the figures:
U.S. billions – Germany millions
WHY is the U.S. taxpayer taking 99,9% of the burden?
Posted by: Kiel Jack | December 3, 2009, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
We should all be thinking about kicking Bush in the pants. Our poor military in Afgan. was put in a terrible position when that idiot pulled our troops out to start the war in Iraq. The idiot should have waited for that war to be finished before starting another. My son is a marine and I am sick of the thought of what might happen to him if he goes to Afgan.
Posted by: Roscoe | December 3, 2009, 4:12 pm 4:12 pm
This is a disaster for our troops and for the nation. Taliban cannot project power accross the pond Afgans cannot ganistan get from here. The the taliban are fighting for way of life and they will bleed our troops in enourmous numbers.Let the taliban alone and no one will die on our watch.
Posted by: Charles A. Derrow, MD, FACP | December 3, 2009, 5:19 pm 5:19 pm
A prophetic Robert Gibbs says unemployment might tick upwards. I guess he must have suddenly awakened to reality!
Why didn’t he tell us that before all that stimulus package baloney was passed?
Meanwhile, Obama adds his two cents to the Jobs conference, double pane windows?
Posted by: Ed Taylor | December 3, 2009, 6:56 pm 6:56 pm