http://www.csmonitor.com/...
The article, with my comments, in pertinent part:
At the NATO summit, President Obama's push to soften troop withdrawal deadlines could bring remaining war costs to $413 billion, according to one independent analyst
He'll just keep backpedaling until he's out. Hey, it's what Petraeus wants.
US war planners have been signaling that troop withdrawals set to begin in 2011 will be mostly symbolic and that the handover to Afghan forces in 2014 is "aspirational."
"Aspirational." Which means: Obama "aspires" to do this (or he's been told to use this word). Which means: It's a lofty goal. Which means: At least it ain't happening while HE's president.
According to one estimate, softening those deadlines could add at least $125 billion in war spending – not including long-term costs like debt servicing and health care for veterans.
"I don’t think anyone is seriously talking about cutting war funding as a way of handling the deficit," says Todd Harrison, a defense funding expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. But higher war costs "could hurt the rest of the discretionary budget."
So unemployment cutoffs and social security reductions will help to pay for this.
In December 2009, the president said the US would "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011."
Back then I knew it was bullshit and I posted it here.
Such was interpreted by many Americans and Afghans to be a significant withdrawal in 2011. In recent months, with the situation in Afghanistan showing few signs of stabilizing, US officials have focused more on 2014 as the date for withdrawal.
Who honestly thought it would show ANY signs of stabilizing? That's right - no person who's being honest with him/herself.
The Pentagon on Thursday said the goal of handing over security duties to the Afghans in 2014 was "aspirational."
This is the second time in this article they print that Obama de facto Commander-in-Chief Petraeus just has "aspirations" that their provincial governments will improve.
"Although the hope is, the goal is, to have Afghan security forces in the lead over the preponderance of the country by then, it does not necessarily mean that ... everywhere in the country they will necessarily be in the lead," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.
The "hope" - the "goal" - which means: "Don't bet on it or it'll break your heart."
"The nice thing about 2014 politically is that by then you’ve either won, in which case the deadline doesn’t really matter anymore ... or if you haven’t succeeded you are out any way," Dr. Cordesman says.
Well, everyone every rational person on the entire fucking planet knows we can't win. Nobody can even DEFINE "win" to begin with in this clusterfuck. Nobody ever has and nobody ever will.
"When Congress says we kind of misestimated this, it’s going to be triple what we said, that’s going to be embarrassing to say," says Charles Knight, co-director Project on Defense Alternatives.
Charles Knight, thinking: "Heh, heh. Of course that's because they had no fucking clue to begin with."