Don't Ask Me, I Don't Give a Damn, Next Stop is Afghanistan…
Come on all of you, big strong men, Uncle Sam needs your help again. Yeah, he's got himself in a terrible jam, way down yonder in Afghanistan. So put down your books and pick up a gun, gonna have a whole lotta fun.
James Pethokoukis of Reuters reports that President Barack Obama is planning on sending 34,000 troops to Afghanistan over the next year. That represents a 50 percent increase over the 68,000 already there. But 6,000 fewer than our commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, requested.
The 34,000 troops follows an earlier 50 percent jack in manpower this year. Remember when Afghanistan was the "good war" in the fight on terror? And when Obama said, "Until I'm satisfied that we've got the right strategy I'm not gonna be sending some young man or woman over there—beyond what we already have"?
Yeah, I don't either, really.
Some Dems, including Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, are calling for a "war surtax" (on rich people, of course) to pay for any troop expansion. That's great fellas, because that'll really show 'em. Why not, I don't know, actively push for Congress to either actually declare war or get the hell out already? At the very least, can somebody tell us what the U.S. goals are in the graveyard of empires and give us some probability about reaching them before my kids are draft age?