A small group of protesters gathered outside the White House gates Monday to mark the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, which occurs on Wednesday. The group held up signs calling for the United States to stop torture, bring the troops home and get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The demonstration came as President Barack Obama grapples with a decision to approve sending as many as 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. His own advisers are divided on the issue, with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in the country, warning that the U.S. and NATO mission there could fail without additional forces.
Other senior U.S. officials, including Vice President Joe Biden and many members of Congress, have questioned the wisdom of surging forces in Afghanistan, with some suggesting that reducing the number of troops and narrowing their focus on capturing or killing Osama bin Laden and training Afghan soldiers and police are more appropriate.
White House officials say that a decision on a troop buildup is just weeks away. On Tuesday, Obama is scheduled to meet at the White House with the Republican and Democratic House and Senate leadership, as well as relevant committee chairpersons and other ranking members, to discuss Afghanistan.
At Monday’s demonstration, timed to coincide with a health care reform event the president was hosting, speakers shouted through a bullhorn, and their chants could be heard as Obama spoke in the Rose Garden. At least 40 of the protesters were arrested, and others blocked the northwest gate of the White House, shutting it down for hours.
Since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, 1,444 coalition troops have been killed, including 869 U.S. soldiers, 219 British troops and 131 Canadian troops, according to iCasualties.org. The period from July through September of this year was by far the deadliest three months since the conflict began, with 223 coalition fatalities, iCasualties reported.
Wow...I can't believe it's been 8 years.
11 comments:
My turn to ask questions?
Apparently so.
What exactly have we accomplished in the Middle East in the past eight years? We are responsible for the execution of an evil man, but was he really all that much of a danger to us? Meh. I'm skeptical of this war.
Agree with Scott here. What have we accomplished in the past eight years? We have our own share of domestic issues here at home. Shouldn't we take care of our own problems first? We have people who don't even have three meals a day and we're helping them? Not that I'm for Al-Queda or nothing, but we need to help ourselves out first before we help others. I mean a flippin' gallon of milk costs $2.49 now, whereas it used to cost $0.99. The longer we stay there the higher the taxes and prices of goods get. Unless we're actually making progress and doing something, then I say we take care of our own problems here first.
While I fully appreciate people being able to express their opinions in public and people who think the war is pointless by now, I don't think they have any right to whine AT ALL. These amazing men and women are dying so that we don't have to! I'm all for world peace and happiness and such, but personally, I would really like to do to college and live a happy life without having to worry about Osama bin Laden and his crazy cronies trying to kill every American that they can get their hands on. But hey maybe that's just me...
I like the point Jiaqi makes in saying that we must take care of our issues at home first. Heck yeah we do, but sadly we exist in a society that a lot of our time and effort and money that we have spent putting into OUR American dreams is going towards people in Africa with AIDS. The people in our country, leadership and citizens alike, are to scared to confront the issues that are prevalent in our immediate society. It is so much easier to ignore them and help other people in other places that "need our help".
To all those out there that think there will be peace in this world, well theres not much to say to you. This world will never see peace chances are that America will be in some sort of war until the end of the world. you may dissagree with war and not condone violence or the killing of otheres but the thing is in order for acoutntry to survive there must be war. if we didnt defend our self in WWII we would all be speaking German right now. war is a nessacary evil we cant live without it.
Why are these wars still going on and why is Obama considering to send MORE troops to Afghanistan? I thought that Obama was going to put an end to all this, not add to it! I mean, for eight years, US troops have been located in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting while being killed in the process, and they haven't really accomplished anything from all that. Except for maybe capturing Saddam Hussein, but Scott has an excellent point: was he really much of a threat to us?
I think that Jiaqi is absolutely right. We need to take care of our own issues first, because this whole warfare is going nowhere. We should take a break from issues going on in foreign countries, and try to focus on things more important to we, the people. The protesters gathering outside the White House have a very good idea on the whole matter, because with this whole war, we've been stuck in a rut.
I think I support Biden's plan. We don't need more troops, because that means more coalition fatalies. I firmly think that we need to narrow down our focus on bin Laden's capture. If we do that, maybe we can make good process and move on. But either way, our final decision on this issue and its possible outcomes are, for the time being, very dubious.
I agree that 8 years is a very long time, and that it seems like sometimes that we've been over seas for all this time and received nothing in return. But, you can read all the headliners and watch the news 24/7 and still not know everything. There are things going on over there and we could never even dream about. This is the kind of article that makes the news all the time, that gets people stirring. What doesn't make the news is all the good that our troops are doing.
Yes, $2.49 for a gallon of milk is rather ridiculous, but how would bringing home our troops solve that? Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy they're over there, I simply think that the two are often associated when it's a stretch to put them side by side.
I want our troops home as much as the next person, but maybe there's a reason that no one has pulled them out.
well, it is true to say that we have done a little accomplishment during the eight years war, and we need to make a clear decision weither to stay in the MidEast or to leave,I dont think am quilified to make an suggestion in this type of debate because this is all about politics and there are much more things need to be considered that we,as a high school student, can not judge on it, but i want to say that if we make the decision to stay, we need to solve the problem as quick as possilbe therefore to save fundings. If the decision is to leave, we need to make sure that we do not leave the people in conflicts,in another word, we need to settle down the conflicts and leave.
For the protestor, i shall say that it is ok for everyone to have a different opion but we need to protest the government in peace therefore to maintain the order of the society.
I think theres good things and bad things about the war in the Middle East. The good thing is that at least we're doing something about someone coming over here and blowing up buildings. I think it shows that the U.S. is not to be messed with. Another good thing is that at least the war is not in the U.S., i think we should at least appreciate that because things could be worse.
Some bad things though is that its taking a long time to finish this war and i think that has alot to do with the U.S. not wanting to kill innocent people. That would make us no better than them.
And as for what the protestors have to say i think they should just support what the U.S. is trying to do to protect our nation, unfortunately we have to lose some of our own people to do so.
YAY! Obama is going to take the soliers out of this eight year war...maybe? I think, when we first decided to send troops over, we had this fairy tale image of "YEAH! Lets make them all nice and happy like us," but they're not the same people. There has to be a different approach here. I mean, after the first SEVEN years i thought we would've gotten a hint that we're not being very effective.
PS--uno rose, dos, tres, cuatro...i forgot how to say eleven. Hilarious.
I would have to say I'm a bit skeptical as well.
I suppose if we keep sending more of our military over there, we eventually have enough to "win."
I do think we should finish this if anything.
"If we don't fight them over there, we'll have to fight them over here."
Ok first of all lets look at the group that held Afghanistan, if you can remember they were called the Talilban. The Talilban was a group that came to power durring the Afghan civil war of 1996. they gained controll of Afghanistan under the rule of Mullah Muhammad Omar, who issued a very strict interpetation of sharia or islamic law over Afghanistan.
The events that occured under the strict interpetation of Sharia included, public executions in at the Afghan soccer stadiums. Activeties such as kite-flying were outlawed. Also to try and root out "non-islamic" influences, t.v,music and internet were banned. men were required to have beards and were subject to beatings if they didn't.
The most shocking i think the Taliban did was the treatment of women. women were banned from working outside the home. Women were also prohibited from leaving their home without a male relative—those that did risked being beaten, even shot, by officers. A woman caught wearing fingernail polish may have had her fingertips chopped off.
Let me not forget that Al-Qaeda has very close ties to the Taliban and terroist used the Afghan areas as traing bases for terroist thugs.
So if we pull out of Afghanastan now, the Talabian would take controll and the country would then become another safe haven for terroist thungs to recruit, train and polt against inocent Americans and allies.
Here are some statics There has been a 26 per cent fall in infant mortality over the past five years and 80 per cent of the population now has access to health care, compared with 8 per cent under the Talaban. (news.scotsman.com)
If you look at some historical events- WWII and allied occupation of Western Germany, we got ride of a dictator. Helped secure West Germany and eventualy left. Now Germany is free country and is run by the German people, NOT BY THE UNITED STATES.
Just a quick response on the comment about being in Afghanastan raises the taxes on food is not true. The price of energy has gone up. (fuel) domestic oil production. What drives tractors and trains um.... diesel not wind mills.
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