Why oh Why are we still allowing our good men and women to die for this country, we will never win against them, the Russians could not win against them but they left to fight another day, this is a Arab nation let the remainder of the Arab nations sort it out, they have the money to do it so let them get on with it, bring our troops back and defend our home from home or even just into Europe

General McChrystal should learn a lesson from General MacArthur in Korea: Don't give press conferences, just follow orders from the CIC. Bush began this war and Obama is left to clean up the mess. We (the U.S.) are a deomocracy, and we need to ask all the kin who have had sons and daughters die in Afghanistan if they want ot continue the fight. I do not have the answer, but I know how the answer should be taken: by our elected representaives. In any case, God Bless all those who have fallen doing what has been asked of them.

I wish the US would be willing to spend more on its own citizens. The recipient of our efforts don't want us there. Why should the US pay to build schools- only to have them burned down by the Afganis (Taliban).
Our own people are suffering. It is time we direct resources to help our own people.
The Al Queda must be hunted and destroyed, and that should be the extent of our mission. The taliban can be contained. "Safe havens", as we see, exist in areas under Pakistani controll. Shall we invade the Nothern Territories and try to impose democracy there as well?!?
Please... hunt down Al Queda, kill their leaders, make it quick so that our young soldiers can come home, and we the people can spend our resources on American people!

The troops aren't available, the partner's not legitimate, the public doesn't support it. Yes, Mr. President, it's time to rethink Afghanistan and bring our troops home.

Only and only solution is to speak to Taliban,separate them with Al-Qaeda and set time table to leave Afghanistan.

Our current involvement in the Afghan civil war - several decades old now - is the result of a major illusion, easy to fall prey to: that an insurgent enemy, operating within the borders of a given State, can be fought on the ground within that State. Armies have been developed to fight other armies, representing States, which fight either over gaining territory, or carving out spheres of influence within a certain geographical region. Our current enemy is mobile; does not wish territory, but is waging a war of ideas; a war of ideology; a war of influence - which truly makes the current crisis a war within the mind, and for "hearts", that is, for intense emotional loyalties. This is a war of the mind, rooted in cultural and ethnic identities, which is endlessly fluid - in Afghanistan one day, in Chechnya tomorrow, in Indonesia another day, and in Pakistan, or India, or London, or Turkey tomorrow. Are we going to deploy armies in each one of those countries? Are we going to send massive military aid to each one of those trouble spots? The British are correct: it is time to leave Afghanistan, and Iraq, and develop our intelligence and police capabilities of discerning threats as they emerge, wherever they emerge - because it can be predicted that whatever the West builds up in Central Asia will be soon destroyed. Better yet: if we severely limit our need for the energy resources of Central Asia, we limit the wealth available for the oligarchs in those countries to fund aggressive insurgency, e.g. Tajikistan, Saudia Arabia, Azerbaijan, etc.

What's really needed is a large scale, low technology, long term deployment of troops. Similar to how we embed reporters into military units, we should also embed soldiers into villages. Imagine 20-25 US personnel living and taking part in local village life. Really, that's what's needed to create enough confidence in NATO in order for the mission to succeed.

This isn't even covering the impressive financial networks that will be created. Troops embedded into villages will contribute towards the village economy. And when this financial network is created, local peoples will associate the American occupation with economic prosperity. And naturally they'd be very resistant to giving that up (sort of like why it's impossible in the US to close military bases).

But the US, much less its partners, have neither the heart nor military to pull off such an operation. The answer?

Get China to do it.

The Chinese military, while modernized, still is the largest military on the planet. And a winning-through-occupation strategy doesn't require advanced UCAVs, F-22s, or any of the technology that America can boast. Instead, all it needs is warm bodies on the ground, living and eating and interacting with the local population. And China has plenty of those.

China also has a well-respected (pretty much everywhere except in the US) reputation of being able to build economies (but not democracies). After all, the Chinese have billions of US dollars in reserve. Why not have them spend some of it on Afghanistan?

The downside of course is that China will be able to expand its sphere of influence, at the cost of our own. But given that our success is pretty much impossible, it's better to wish for an Afghani region under China than an Afghani region under the Taliban.

It's worth mentioning that it's also quite unlikely that we can convince anyone, China least of all, to take this mess off our hands.

I believe Bush administration and U.K.'s establishment were aware with 3500 years old Afghanistan 's history and nature.
In that area no one can win.they will fight with 'foreigner's till last Afghan survive.
only and only solution is to separate them from Al-Qaeda and they are willing to do that.Then there no threat from them to U.S and E.U.
Pakistan can play a role in this regard.

Yes, we must get them out immediately. The longer we stay there, the more we loose in every aspect. All US wars except for WWII are disasters.

No matter how articulate our objections to these insane wars are, it seems like no one is listening. The inflated egos of those that can stop these madness over takes their common sense. How can it not be obvious to the last and current U.S. presidents that our interests lie within our own borders and people. All the Billions of Dollars lost in those conficts could have made life for every American a lot easyer and more productive. How do they not see that keeping our wealth at home we could have a decent Medical System for everyone, Better Schools, more universties, better roads, alternative sources of energy rather than sending our Billions to those that disrespect us and orchestrate our destruction. Yes we can have the best of everything and still be able to pay down our national dept and most of all not lose so many of our young men and women for no benefit at all. I urge all Americans to become vocifferous to our politicians and demand that they deliver on their promisses made before their election to office

the stronger the central gov will eventually be the less power and influence the local warlords will have – they do traditionally rule the people in their area and do not want to loose this power – it is obvious that they are not interested in a strong central gov. and without their support the central gov will never be in a position to really rule the country. These warlords tend to join whoever grants them more power in their areas
my opinion : get out as fast as possible. 40000 more troops will not resolve the problems

the earlier the better , there no any militery success in afghanistan soil US and allys are just waisting billions of dollers for nothing.Look the withdrowal is obrigation, unquesinable but not only that it will be one of the horrible defeat so far over the so-called superpowers. And i want to see who are going to intimidate again IRAN OR N KOREA unthinkable

You can dance around it all you want but you cannot give the country back to a group that openly supported an organization whose sole purpose was to bring down western society. While the Taliban were not a direct threat to the west they are by proxy because of Al Queda which is unacceptable. They must be replaced with a group that isn't radically motivated toward us whatever that entails.

You cannot achieve that by withdrawing troops. We cannot wish away what has happened, we are involved in mess but a necessary mess.

everyone believes war against terrorism will be decade long.the current strategy in Afghanistan is not pro winning Al-Queda or Taliban.i don't think Obama Administration will pull back troops home.i see disadvantage in early pulling until the grass root of terrorism is washed out.if terrorists are left out in Afghanistan and Pakistan US and its allies should be ready for facing another attack like 9/11.but its the time to build the strategy how we can over come them in time and garner international support for the operation.

Portland State University.

Afghanistan is clean, We don't need to govern Aghanistan, we just need to protect it from terrorists entering back again from the Pakistani border.

We must invade Pakistan to finish terror completely.

Being in Afghanistan is useless, Pakistan is where the problem is...

It's almost like a patient has a lever problem and the doctor does an operation in his lungs...

This is a real catch 22, We jumped face first in some real sh*t, It doesn't seem that we have a real agenda other than allowing people
to die over undecisive actions. let me specify, the longer we're over there triing to democrosive, the longer we allow inncocent people to
die,(casualties of war) thats the name of the game. Well the real question still stands as, Do we let go of what we started or jumped in
the middle of ? I say look @ the pros & cons. We targeted, now we will
be targeted. karma will jump out back @ us, the outcome of more troops is more war which means more death, not a hard choice to make. But we owe these people something we cant give back, there for we wrote checks our hyde cant cash, these people will hold a grudge on America regardless of leaving or not. I just hope the U.S is willing to except the consequences of our actions. I dont think the word peace is apart of this resolution, but I pray it is.

Withdraw from Iraq ? Best correction on Bush's grave mistake!
Withdraw from Afghanistan ? That will make Osama bin Laden the foremost Moslem World Leader. You will have to erect FORTRESS AMERICA to defend yourself from every puny organization who will try to emulate 9/11. That will mean the end of your democracy!
Hamas, Hizbollah, Al-Shabab, but not only these. ETA, IRA, Red Brigades, all the groups dead or dying will get resurrection. Don't forget the Narco Cartels in S.America !
What you do is a surge of some one hundred thousand troops. THey will have to fight Taliban, Al Qaeda, and most significantly , eradicate the poppy fields.
What you need is some backbone or YOU are doomed!

It is time to pull out of Afghanistan. They don't want U.S troop there and We have so much problem at home in U. S. British and Russia have spend so much time and never win and finally give up and leave. So, it is time to get out both War,Iraq and Afghanjkstan!

Typical American flag waver BS. As long as things seem to be going good for the military everyone supports the mission but wait....casualties mounting, let's turn tail and run. Basically we had no business going in there or Iraq period. Why the US always have to stick their nose in other country's business is remarkable. The Russians didn't do very well in Afganistan either so what makes the US think they can do any better. Maybe we should be cleaning up our own mess in our country before we worry about cleaning up some other countries problems.

While I think politicians are capable of anything, I have a hard time believing that military strategists think there is ANY way of "winning" this war. I mean, what would "winning" look like? does any one know? The Russians could not take it anymore. Those were the good old days, when the Taliban and the Mujaehedin were our friends, chiefly amongst them our pal Bin Laden... If only we had a well educated populace in this country... so, pack up and leave, enough is enough. This is not the sort of combat which our military and technical might will win. THis will go on and on and on until we come home. Better sooner than later.

If US and Europe want to end terrorism the first step to be done is to settle the Palestinian Problem, secondly muslim all over the world were radicalized by american indifference to Islam. America and the allies were engage in a war of no end. Islamic fighters and volunters for Jihad goes to Iraq, Afganistan , Palestine and other war zone to engage the enemy of Islam and to dies.

America and the allies will definitely withdraw from this areas for face saving. You cannot defeat an enemy with modern weapons who is detemined to die. Remember the vietnam war.

In this war the determination is not modern weapon but the will to fight and die for salvation.

the questions here are the following:

1. Was it Just in the first place?

- NATO did have just cause. Debatably, yes.

- but is it preventing further attacks? This is debatable and some, many feel that it is encouraging more hate towards the Americans and other NATO troops. Is haing troops there in their current numbers and mission deteriorating that very objective.

2. Will attacks be staged from Afghanistan when we leave?
- Having troops there is making it easier, rather than continents away, Americans are there fighting the taliban?
- its possible, but then again it could also be staged from literally anywhere, including the US itself. Terrorism is global, and its best to act strategically, pinpointing them with good intelligence.

3. Can we afford it?

- Absolutely, absolutely not. This war is made with foreign loans that we cannot afford to pay back. It will cripple our economy, making high taxes, not a possibility but a necessity. Those that are benefiting are our economic competitors (and bond holders), specifically China.

Lets not get distracted with war while the American way of life is being slowly strangled.

Seriously, the time to act militarilly is quite past now; just listen to Mushaff's comments recently about isolating and alienating the Pashtune majority.

The Afgan societies are tribal and quite simplistic, they operate on clan, religious, and terrain identity. They are people of the land living much the same way as their ancestors were when Alexander III of Macedon arrived sometime in 225-227 BC.

Really, do we in the West think at all like the Afganis, they are not corporate, nationalistic, modern.?

I am reminded by the addage: To defeat your enemy, you must become him? Is that even remotely possible? Can we shed our Western modernity enough to appreciate the reality that exists there now, has for millenia, and will likely continue to last long after this (western) empire has decayed?

Now we need to pull back to managable limits, realize there is only so much land we can cover, and the rest is their's. Gradual pull back now for the next 4-10 years. Take a much less obvious presence militarilly, and begin to aide them on a few basic human levels. Help them set up simple businesses, hospitals, better roads. But what ever infrastructure is created, the local economy will ultimately need to support it. And the local culture will have to sustain the economy, not us!

BRING THE TROOPS HOME AND PUT THEM IN EVERY POLICE STATION INCLUDING THE ONES THEY HAVE CLOSED AND LETS GET SOME LAW AND ORDER IN BRITTANNIA.

The only way to make peace is to listen to each other and stop fighting. For those who lost their lives for the benefit of peace, they should be honored. For those who still insist to fight, let them stay in the war zone to learn the bitterness. Listen and understand each other is the only way out of this crisis.

Fully agree with gcjones. How many people who comments from the comforts of home have travelled to any middle-eastern country/indonesia/asia(not the cities but to the outskirts) to really appreciate what the other half of the countrymen/women who are still living in such hush conditions/ethnic lifestyle/deep rooted believes and ways of life to know that any foreigner's view of a better life may not be acceptable to these people who have lived lives as they have hundreds of years before. It would be naive to think with some money, you can change other people's country. It would be better to protect yourselves at home then to go to other's country on the pretext of "deterrent" How do you expect these people to agree with you when the war that kills their country men is to "protect outsiders". You need to meet these people to understand that they definitely do not want any of the western idiologies/your standards. Most of them don't even have a sofa set /things you take for granted in the house!!! Its a changing world-its not a shame to give the country back to their own countrymen and be looked up to by all the Arab world that a right decision to not impose your standards on others.

It will be a grave mistake to leave Afghanistan on its own and to let Taliban/Al Qaida to rule. They will regroup and will provide save heaven to the terrorists of the world and can plan attack any country from there. This is the only time they could be defeated and wiped out of the unruly Afghanistan and do not dare to terrorise the world. Its now or never.

gcjones is right... the enemy isn't a state, yet it demands to be treated with the "courtesy" of a state. Their "preachers" will invoke free right of speech to spread their message of hatred and totalitarism, and we... well, we softly say "we will die to protect your right to say barbaric things, even if we do disagree with them" (very pretty, but a bit silly)... Their "armies" have a total disregrad for human life other than those of their creed that we find impossible to understand... they find honor and not unspeakable cowardice in pressing a button which will explode themselves into oblivion (easy, it's done in a second or two) while causing carnage, not always a clean fast death, into people in a market, or bus stop, or school.

The ethnic and cultural pits are deep, yes, but that said, there are some pits that have been smoothed out somewhat. Afghans too are dying in droves: for a different dream of a more prosperous country, more safe, more free. A dream brought there by America and its allies, even if the original intention might not have been that at all.

Is America going to abandon them after daring them to dream and die?

Securing the borders in the US or Britain is a dangerous illusion. Not possible, these days even if a country was willing to hunker down and not stick its neck out. And extreme measures of ensuring safety will turn those countries into places we would have no wish to live in. So, this war in one form or another will have to be fought and will have its victims (look at Iran).

If it's not safe to train the Afghan army in Afghanistan why not bring them in small, scrutinized groups and train them in some desert base in the US and flying them back once the training is complete?

And besides "severely limiting our need for the energy resources of Central Asia" (I also agree with that) what about also severely limiting our need for the drug resources of Central Asia?

In many ways (but not all ways) we (Americans) are responsible for what is happening in Afghanistan today. We went in several years ago, promised support...and walked away on a personal (George Bush) vendetta into Irag...leaving Afghanistan without the economic, social and educational support we had promised.
My son is in Afghanistan and I still say , in justice and honor, we cannot abandon these people again.

Jim Russins did not win because there aim was evil. to deafeat talibans stop giving arms to them. Some big party is definitley backing them, please don't say arabs now because Americans and British are fighting from arab soil. From where these talibans are getting this sophisticated weapons, if this mystery is solved than 90% of the problem is solved.

I think it is very likely that we will see a withdrawal of troops over the next year due to further mass casualties and an increasing insurgency from the Taliban. This is likely to leave Afghanistan on the edge of civil war just like Iraq. There is a risk that this unrest could spill over into neighbouring Pakistan inflaming the whole region and leading to vast civilian loss of life.

I feel the best way to have dealt with Al-qaida in Afghanistan would have been through targeted air strikes and special operations on the back of sound intelligence, not mass infantry invasion.

The best way to protect our nations from Islamic terrorism is strong but targeted response to overseas threats, effective border control, good relationships and understanding of one owns countries ethic minorities and razor sharp intelligence organisations.

nothing to gain, all to lose. Get out while you still can.

It was just eight years ago that the Taliban allowed al Qaeda free reign to train up tens of thousands of militants on Afghan soil. If US troops pull out it will take less than a year for them to set up operations again, and little more time to launch another devastating attack. It's amazing how short sighted and naive people are.

The US has not won a war since WW11 when they had tremendous help from the Russians. Korea is still divided, Vietnam was a catastropher, they pulled out of Lebanon and Somalia and are pulling out of Iraq and will do the same in Afganhistan. But the US has fantastic hightech weaponry which it can deliver anywhere in the world. My suggestion is to serve notice on these rogue nations that if any of their nationals attack plan to attack or attempt to attack the US or its allies or interests, then the US will bomb the daylights out of that country and then leave it up to the government/dictator/warlord to keep the citizens in line. That way it only costs the lives of those who for whatever reason are belligerently hostile to the US and its allies.

Isolationism is good... until it fails. In this global approach there are no more 'secluded areas'. We can't just 'wait and see' – because there is a great risk that when we'll 'see', it will be much too late and the 'cost' will be high. It's naive to think you can ignore a problem and it will just go away.
Yes, the 'muscle' approach is not enough in Afghanistan, but the 'let's all leave' approach will be as detrimental (if not worse). The point would be to find a new approach that could, besides fight the existing insurgents, also diminish the flow of resources (people and weapons) to their side, all this while developing the country itself.
This will be hard and requires much more thought than 'let's all leave'...

bring them home today!

why shoulld the international comunity has to abandon its effort to help Afghan people? now and more than ever, we should not let the coward acts of the Taliban recently (from killing the unarmed staff during their sleep and killing the british soldiers giving training to their afghan fellows) shadow our effort to liberate afghan wome from covering themselves in public, and the girls from going to school.
Troops are needded to root out the Taliban and to maintain the security for the Afghan for the time being.

Britain, remember the famous words of your illustrous son and leader, Wilson Churchill. Commending Brit forces during WW 2 said, "they died to save our country but saved the world" That should still be the mental state of the current Britania including her leaders. You chickened out of Iraq and now you're considering doing the same in Afghanistan. Don't let your enemies have a fortified base by your running away. They will come back at you later. So finish what you've started.

Everyone has tried to beat theses people, all have failed – so will we.

Pull out and let them kill each other instead of us.

History has shown that most successful regime changes have come from within and sometimes very costly in human lives.
Foreign invation of others nations or properties in pretext of your own security is NEVER an excuse, and can only serve short/medium term gains.
The right question to ask about any of these conflict is "Would you willingly give your life or the lives of your loved ones for the reasons given by our politicians?" This question should also be asked of our politicians, are they willing to sacrifice the lives of their own sons for the very reasons they postulate?
I do not think we should totally abandon the Afghan people, but we should find a better way of helping them.
Mankind has made tremendious strides in most spheres of "life" and yet we seem to have failed miserably in understanding and getting along with each other.
If mankind has not learnt anything from history them we are all doomed.

We will not win the War in Afghanistan because we as a nation do not see a reason to be in Afghanistan. The 40,000 additional troops will not do the job! The people in Afghanistan; not including the Taleban, do not appreciate what the West has tried to do for them..nor do they understand it. They live in another world (their culture) where the rules we live by do not apply to them. We in the West fight our civilized wars while the Taleban warriors do whatever they want while laughing at our rules of engagements which tie the hands of our soldiers ! The only way to win in Afghanistan is to destroy all people in Afghanistan, start over and repopulate....no western government is willing to do that!

We need to learn lesson from History, (e.g Alexander the Great, British, Russians ). Every one tried their luck in Afghanistan and failed. How can we think our FATE will be different.

Truth is war’s first casualty. The Afghan War’s biggest untruth is, `we’ve got to fight terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them at home.’ Politicians and generals keep using this canard to justify a war they can’t otherwise explain or justify our people.

I wish President Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan, and hand over security to a multi-national stabilization force from Muslim nations. Good presidents, like good generals, know when to retreat.