In a speech at West Point on December 1, President Obama announced his second escalation of the war in Afghanistan. His speech can be boiled down to three key numbers: 30,000, 2011 and 30 billion. Here's what he was talking about, with a few numbers he didn't mention.
30,000--That's how many new US troops he is rushing into harm's way by next August, for a total of 101,000 (up from 34,000 when he was sworn in). Troops from other NATO governments and private contractors (75,000 at last count) double that total.
The Pentagon estimates that there are a total of 100 al-Qaeda
members in Afghanistan, with no base area under their control. Who US troops are fighting is Afghans who don't like foreign occupiers and who defeated a Soviet military occupation 500,000 strong, less than 25 years ago.
2011--That's when Obama says he will start withdrawing troops, in July. Note the word "start." Consider another number, 2017. In a briefing held the day before Thanksgiving when news gets little attention, the White House said plans are that all US troops will be out of Afghanistan by 2017. That's the soonest Pentagon planners figure a professional Afghan military can be trained to replace occupying forces.
30 billion--"Our new approach in Afghanistan is likely to cost us roughly 30 billion dollars for the military this year." This is verbal tap-dancing. That's 30 billion on top of a 2010 Pentagon budget of $645 billion which already includes $130 billion in "supplemental spending" for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It costs the taxpayers of this country, by White House figures, $1,000,000, a cool million, to transport, clothe, feed, house and equip one soldier or marine sent to Afghanistan for one year.
Each one adds to a national budget deficit now at $1.4 trillion annually and spiraling higher by the day, as the economic meltdown drags on.
It's got to stop. We've got to stop it.
