“The Mess We Have Inherited”: In Munich, Obama National Security Team Sounds Alarm on Afghanistan

Hmmm….if only there had been somebody in the Senate for the past several years who had been tasked with working with NATO regarding Afghanistan.

Poverty and lack of education help to breed terrorism. Geopolitically, the pockets of terrorism in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are found mostly in areas with the greatest poverty. The occupying forces need to compete with the Taliban in social services and particularly with education; otherwise, it will prove to be a loosing battle over the long term.

“The occupying forces need to compete with the Taliban in social services and particularly with education; otherwise, it will prove to be a loosing battle over the long term.”
Yeah … NOT being foreign invaders bent on empire could be a plus. Of COURSE it’s a “losing battle”, is always GOING to be a losing battle, unless the “US” annihilates the entire population by robo-war.

Concerned in OH, thanks for rediscovering your love of the constitution. Where were you the past 6 years?

Human Intelligence (Belle) @5:25—
I misspelled losing and might have injected a little hyperbole into the poverty influence, but it’s still a highly significant factor in preventing and even stopping terrorism. Rest assured, Al Qaeda would be spitting rhetoric of fire from their caves if the US had the audacity to build schools and especially mosques. They’d resemble to a mild degree the GOP and blogging hatefulness towards the Democrats’ success. I don’t know if there’s hope for stability in Afghanistan, but if your next door neighbor’s house was on fire, it would behoove you to get out your garden hose to help. It’s kind of a lousy analogy, but it’s a small world and generally not a wise policy to ignore spreading danger.

“I don’t know if there’s hope for stability in Afghanistan … ”
Is there “hope for stability” in Oakland? Western invaders building mosques is all very well, if you’re trying to replicate the Milwaukee suburbs at great expense, but …”
I don’t know why Belle was disappeared — wish I DID know. Such a BEAUTIFUL name, really.

I think Concerned in Ohio has got some really relevant points to consider. I mean it’s no fair when someone gets away with something someone else did. That’s like there’s something unfair and wrong with the whole universe.
Saracrats 20012!

“The mess we have inherited” is going to replace change we can believe in? Is this the excuse for the next four years? After ALL the campaign promises that have gone down the toilet in the last two weeks, this is all the Obama team can come up with? After he gets elected it’s suddenly discovered that there’s no magic formula-for anything? They had no clue. They blamed McCain for Wall Street and Bush for everything else. I don’t care much for Bush, but these guys are cry babies. I can’t wait to hear what they say when the people that voted for him realize they won’t be getting any money in the mail.

“So, apparently, whatever illegal things 0bama is doing now is somehow ok because of all the illegal things you think Bush did?” Wait a minute. Jones, Petraeus along with a host of people who just four weeks ago were mired down in Bush’s fiasco, are saying Bush created and left a mess. Not just the economy but Afghanistan and other places as well. Obama hasn’t done anything illegal but the people who were behind Bush and still are are complicit in his misdeeds.

Maybe Patraeus can do the same thing in Afghanistan the he accompolished in Iraq. Some call it the “surge”, but it was actually an ethnic cleansing(murdering) of the Sunnis by Shiites as our soldiers stood by and watched.

The people of Afghanistan are getting blindsided from the Taliban at night and the puppet government we installed during the daytime. The people of Afghanistan hate all of them
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But the people of Afghanistan don’t have a choice of the lesser of the two evils, like we do when we vote either Democratic or Republican.

Human Intelligence, I don’t think you have the correct definition of empire.
I see MayBees comment zipped right over everyones head. Probably about 10,000 feet for some of you. Or more realisticlly, everyone here wants to ignore it because it shows that the One was more interested in campaigning instead of doing his job.

Obama has become a joke already, I hope all are happy that voted for him.
How do people figure Afghanistan is an illegal war? Attacking Pakistan is wrong. How do you figure that??? These idiots attacked the United States, and what we are doing is wrong to the point that we did not go in there and clean house like a Bat from Hell, GW had us play games and go door to door or in this case Cave to Cave.
Russia told us you cannot fight them like that.
If the people that always point fingers would put that much effort into this country this would be a better place.

“Human Intelligence, I don’t think you have the correct definition of empire.”
Well, DO enlighten me.
If the US hadn’t funded Bin Laden to fight the Russians there … how MUCH better might the “economy” be?
There for about two seconds, it looked like the US was gonna be the new England of the British Empire. That ship has sunk, however.
They should bring ‘em all home. Anytime the Afghans want to overthrow the Taliban, they WILL.

With Obama as President the bad guys in the world already sense total weakness by the U.S.
Bad news for us all.

END TERROERISM SIMPLE QUIT FEEDING THEM, They Will Be More Worried About Getting Food For Thier Familys, Then Killing An American God Save The Mideast (Why??????) im not joking the mideast GONE woudl make the world a better place ‘Have A Great Day :)

“The Obama Rule: If you can’t find a solution or take responsibility for your failed ideas and actions then blame it on the administration before you.”
Especially when You’ve previously said, while courting Republican votes, that You’d have done just as Bush did …

Preserveing our interests?/The U.S.has trained our soldiers to be somewhat Quiting just,what the h– is the average soldier trained to kill,gona do take up knitting?

Obama is completely lost with no clue in hell what he is doing. It’s sadly obvious and his stupidity is going to get many killed.

I have just read all of the posted comments you have submitted. You are splitting political hairs are are doing exactly what the terroist organizations want us to do; that is, fight amoung ourselves. Divide and nuetralize. Blameing each other at the front door while the terriost sneak in the back is a basic tactic of Sun Tzu that will tear this country down. Terriost can see our weakneses—why can’t we? UNITED WE STAND–DIVIDED WE FALL.

Congress should immediately move to impeach 0bama before he shreds the rest of the constitution.
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I didn’t know the constitution wrote out the job description of the Secretary of Commerce. You can learn so much from hanging out here. I bet there are tons of job descriptions in the constitution. Maybe the prez can make an ammendment to the constitution for this commerce guy rather than shredding it up.

Obama should round up all the right-wing Repub dingbats and put them in re-education camps.
Guantanamo has vacancies now, right?
After that he should nationalize the stock market and the oil companies.
And Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber can inherit the wind that the Repubs have created. You should have read your Bibles.

Afghanistan was not smart to begin with. But Shrub, since he partied through his own generation’s war, had no concept of what war involves, so he figured if his daddy could play war in Kuwait, he could play war, too. However, Shrub got bored with Afghanistan since he didn’t win in two weeks, and decided to invade Iraq instead. After a couple of weeks in Iraq, he declared we’d won there. I guess the last several years were just “mopping up”, huh? He forgot all about the fact that we’d made a mess out of Afghanistan and hadn’t bothered to clean it up.
So he left it all to Obama to deal with.
Thank GOD he’s back in Texas where he can’t hurt anything anymore.

“Maybe the prez can make an ammendment to the constitution for this commerce guy rather than shredding it up.”
Nooo: a president can NOT amend the Constitution. Even The Puppet had better not try amending the Constitution all by Himself, or some cranky old sticklers for detail MIGHT resolve to impeach Him.
Please, oh please, “amber”, look up Article V (5) of the US Constitution in, say, wikipedia:
” … amendments may be proposed by the United States Congress or by a national convention assembled at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the several states. To become valid, amendments must then be ratified by either the legislatures of or ratifying conventions held in three-fourths of the several states, and may not deny any state its equal right to vote in the Senate without its consent.”
(The above is the wikipedia simplification/modernization of the more exact language of the Constitution itself. Once upon a time, every public-school fifth grader had a passing acquaintance with the Constitution. The way things are going, maybe everybody’d do well to carry a copy of the Constitution with ‘em at all times.)

Do not blame another,blame yourself, this is your turn.Do not speak “hate languages”.If you are better than another,show us how it is.small minded people just think about themself and hate another people.

rplat It must be killing you that Bush screwed you and your country so bad. You have to lash out at like that at a man who has been in office 1 month. Must be bad to be you.

amber… we will never impeach our President, and besides what has President Obama done to deserve impeachment?

Obama: wow, being President is hard. I want to be a candidate again … with an adoring media that orgasms on every word I say! When I said, as a candidate, that I’d get tough in the REAL war in Afghanistan and the media collectively reached for their Kleenex boxes, I didn’t think anyone would actually hold me to it. Now I have to do something … I’ve got it => blame Bush. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Haven’t you listened to the rhetroic of the Bush Administration’s victory lap – he fought and won 2 wars? I’m assuming that this is one of them. This pathetic excuse of a leader was over his head in just about every critical situation he faced and he proved it, right down to the last day of his rule. This country got exactly what it deserved when it elected (sort of) him twice. Let it never forget what a horrible mistake it made when it decided to apthetically allow the reins of power to be seized by a narrowly focused group of neo-conservative zealots.

Bring the troops home from Afganastan please.

Human Intelligence
Bush didn’t have to amend the Constitution. He just ignored it.

Inherited a mess? Please. I don’t remember Bush and company whining about the mess President Clinton left for Bush to deal with: the Taliban solidifying power in Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein forcing UN Weapons Inspectors out of Iraq, North Korea building nuclear weapons, and lets not forget the big one – nineteen members of Al Qaeda already within U.S. borders in final preparations for the biggest mass murder in American history. Every administration can play the blame game. So with all due respect to Mr. Holbrooke, shut the hell up and FIX THE PROBLEM!!!

Ted- Perhaps you need to take this information to more receptive site. Google UFO, alien takeover, and Obama to come up with a better placement for your concerns.

If we have “inherited such a mess, we must ask:
Why?
From whom?
Do we need to lay claim to this “mess.”
Can we accept the fact that sometimes we need to not play a “bad hand.” Why must we always continue to play one bad hand after another?
Can we not accept the fact that we, and we alone, cannot save the entire world? Let’s help where we can without getting in so deep way beyond our best interests? Which comes first: Our country survival, and finding solutions to our own deep problems, or acting as the saviour of the world? Who will worry about us, and help us solve our own problems? You think about it? Does the rest of the world care about us to the point where they will send us aid to help us solve our problems? There is a huge negative side to being the world’s only major power. Wake up, America! We give, give, give, and care about the rest of the world’s problems and no one gives a damn about us. As a matter of fact, the rest of the world wants to see us fall because we are so rich and well-off, and our democracy enjoys such wonderful benefits, and way of life.

Hey Galeigh,
First of all when you type with all caps, that is considered to be rude to your readers. I don’t read all caps posts generally, but the south of the border comment jumped out at me, so I immediately figured you are one of those nationalistic, anti-immigrant types that does not truly understand the value that immigration has for the economy. We have had decades of sustained growth due to population increases (tapering off) combined with immigration. Efforts to shut down legal immigration are idiotic at best, and extremely shallow in the least. Let me help you out. 1 immigrant = 1 new customer that purchases products in America. The business of America is business. New customers = business = growth. Sabe! Wake up sleepyhead.

Let’s just rally around the President and provide him the same support the Europeans have given when the call for troops went out. I know, I know. BHO did promise time and again HE would get NATO and other nations to provide substantially more support when all others failed. After all he is Obama!

Goodnight everybody..I’ve had it!! What a mess . This salesman sold us a bill of goods and we can’t exchange it!! We have a song and dance man who should go on on “American Idol” What an amateur.He should go in the sales business.Seems he has the pitch! Speaking of pitch – Are you shovel ready to start rolling asphalt for the intra structure?

I wonder if obama has said anything good since he has taken office, if you listen to him the world is coming to an end.
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Perhaps we should start calling him Barack Obummer :)

Halbrooke should be assigned one task and that is to end the Afghanistan war quickly and honorably through diplomacy by creating a self governing haven carved in the wild west of Pakistan and East Afghanistan and surrounded by the 2 countries. This will save Pakistan and Afghanistan from the cancer of terrorism spreading across the region unabetted.

Sure the new guys can always do it better…but in this case, it is truly the case. The country (except for those with blinders and without an independent thought to their name, and the Limbaughesque money-grubbing charlatans that continue to egg them on) and the world agrees: 8 disasterous Bush-Cheney years. The worst in my lifetime. 2 Obama presidency weeks. C’mon guys – try to be patriots for a change, and give your president a chance. It’s going to take years, and a new way of managing our daily lives to get us back into the comfort zone.

I am so sick of seeing these people burn our flags. Lord knows if we were to burn a Quran that we’d be sent to jail for 100 years. Why is it that Americans have to take this crap. Enough is enough. They are barbarians and nothing more. Evil itself at its finest. And now we’re going to be releasing some of these people? I just don’t get it. We’re at war and it is going to get worse before it ever gets better. It is a war of Christian/Jews against the Muslim world and it will escalate until people who profess their language to be peaceful step out and stop those using their religions name to back burning our flag and wishing death on our countrymen. Do you know what these people would do to you if they got you? Do you remember seeing the video of the beheading? It is sick. Americans have to open their eyes again and remember what happened 9/11. Complacent is what we’ve become again and the rise of this evil has got to be stopped. No more, “I don’t want to do or say this to offend you” crap. It’s time to voice your opinion and get in the fight against what could ultimately be the very end of this world with these terrorists.

My husband is over there fighting and yes, I believe it is ultimately for our freedom. Let me explain: The afghanis know virtually nothing but war and destruction. Now that we’ve “officially” over thrown the Taliban, the villagers have gone back to doing the only thing they know how to do, to earn money and that growing Poppy. If we leave now, the poppy fields will grow and grow…the export of black tar heroin will not only infiltrate OUR country but everywhere. The money used to sell this black tar is bankrolling the Taliban’s efforts to regain power. You think we’re trying to build a new democracy in Afghanistan, you’re nuts. That’s a by product of trying to education these tribes that they CAN and SHOULD farm other crops without creating a bigger drug problem and funding terrorism in the process. If we leave now, 9/11 will be a joke compared to what could and probably will happen on our shores. It’s not about kicking ass and taking names, its about eradicating a problem before it becomes exponentially greater. Believe me, no one wants my husband to come home safe more than me…but I want my children to be safe in the future too.

My hub is headed over there shortly. US military medical. Huge team going, last minute orders (some had 5 dats notice)
He pointed out a interesting fact to me, this region was one of the only ones that even Alexander the Great could not conquer. The issues with Afghanistan have gone on a lot longer than anyone in recent history(last 100 years) have dealt with.
When they can enter recent society themselves(the innovations of the last 100 years), and create glass and metal on their own, they will finally be a self sustaining country that doesn’t need to depend on the agricultural drug trade to subsist.

The Russians drove the Taliban (Mujahideen) out of Afghanistan, destroyed the poppy fields because that was their primary concern, and installed a democratic government. We backed the Taliban and drove the Russians out and helped the Taliban restart the drug trade, aka Ollie North & Co. As the Afghan drug trade hurts Russia more than anybody else, we thought we were being clever acting against our competitors. Pull out an old Rambo III film and watch Sylvester Stallone killing Russians for the Taliban. “God would have mercy, John Rambo won’t!” Everybody cheered. Now the military Industrial complex is killing Taliban for the oil companies and claiming the righteous high ground. Give me a break.

If you can’t fix the mess then blame the former for everything. Pres. Obama wanted it and used every means to get it. Now he wants to control the census for 2010 or maybe he is afraid the american people will wake up and smell the ???????

I would like to encourage Congress to increase funding for fighting global poverty. The Borgen Project has some great facts and ideas to help global poverty.
$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
$540 billion: Annual U.S. Defense Budget.
$170 billion: Annual U.S. War Spending.
There are 800 million people that go to sleep hungry every day, 300 million are children.

“I have never seen anything like the mess we have inherited,”. Richard Holbrooke, if you think you can’t do this job and then give-it-up.

ha ha he fooled so many of you didnt he , i pledge to pull troops out of Iraq , we dont need to be involved in a war , but as soon as i have you all fooled into voting me in ill send more troops elsewhere !!!! hey what ever happened to the lady that was gonna get free gas and not have to pay her mortgage lmao