{"id":56701,"date":"2014-11-26T10:29:26","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T15:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=56701"},"modified":"2014-11-26T11:40:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-26T16:40:50","slug":"about-those-9800-us-troops-staying-in-afghanistan-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=56701","title":{"rendered":"About Those \u201c9,800\u201d US Troops Staying in Afghanistan Next Year . . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonn wrote earlier today<\/a> about US troops remaining in Afghanistan after the end of this year. Specifically, the word was we\u2019re leaving \u201cnearly 10,000\u201d troops (9,800, specifically) there after the end of this year \u2013 8,000 to support the NATO mission, with the rest dedicated to antiterrorism and\/or other actions. <\/p>\n

But it turns out that figure the POTUS and Pentagon keep throwing out there is a bit . . . . misleading. So I thought I’d help clarify. <\/p>\n

The figure of 9,800 remaining in Afghanistan is consistent with what the POTUS claimed in May<\/a>. Then, the claim was that we\u2019d draw down below 10,000 troops by the end of this year; by another 50% (to less than 5,000) by the end of 2015; and to just those troops necessary for embassy security by the end of 2016.<\/p>\n

And that would be all well and good. Except . . . I checked some recent news stories about the subject.<\/p>\n

Guess what? My trouser leg is wet – yet again. And once again, it ain\u2019t rain.<\/p>\n

Seems as if some of our NATO allies have recently indicated there will be a delay in fulfilling their commitments to the Afghan mission. That delay will leave a gap in the short-term \u2013 in early 2015, to be precise. <\/p>\n

Wanna guess who\u2019s going to step in and fill that gap \u2013 to the tune of up to another 1,000 troops beyond those 9,800 originally planned<\/em>? Naw, don\u2019t bother to guess. Just read this link from Reuters<\/em><\/a> carefully. <\/p>\n

The Pentagon is calling this \u201ca \u2018bridging solution\u2019 until other nations fulfil their pledges later in the year or the troops are no longer needed\u201d. But don\u2019t worry. While the Pentagon acknowledged holding discussions with NATO partners, spokesman RADM John Kirby stated, “As we stand here today, there is no change in the 9,800 force level.” <\/p>\n

Look, we who’ve been in the military understand reacting to changes. And we understand that “the enemy has a vote”, and their actions can change our plans. The same is true of our allies.<\/p>\n

But GMAFB, Admiral. We weren\u2019t supposed to send combat troops to Vietnam either, \u2013 just a few \u201cadvisers\u201d. You\u2019d think the Pentagon would have learned from Vietnam that misleading the US public about how many troops we’re sending to a foreign war is a “seriously bad idea”. So how about you just tell us the truth about what\u2019s going on here, OK?<\/p>\n

Sheesh. This clueless DC clown krewe<\/a><\/del> current Administration doesn\u2019t appear to know its butt from a hole in the ground when it comes to national security and international relations. January 2017 can\u2019t get here fast enough. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonn wrote earlier today about US troops remaining in Afghanistan after the end of this year. … About Those \u201c9,800\u201d US Troops Staying in Afghanistan Next Year . . . .<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,238,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foreign-policy","category-government-incompetence","category-military-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}